The Magic Feather Effect: Placebos and the Power of Belief in Alternative Medicine

"A new book, The Magic Feather Effect: The Science of Alternative Medicine and the Surprising Power of Belief, by the journalist Melanie Warner, sees Dumbo’s feather as an analogy for alternative medicine. The analogy is imperfect, but the idea is that alternative medicine providers persuade patients to accept a non-reality-based belief, and believing has a powerful placebo effect that allows the mind to heal the body. Unlike Dumbo’s feather, a patient who improves with alternative medicine is never told the treatment was imaginary. There is no “science of alternative medicine”. If it were based on science, it would not be “alternative”, but would simply be part of medicine. Alternative medicine is placebo medicine. Science has not shown it to be “powerful” in the accepted sense. She portrays it as powerful based largely on anecdotal evidence of seemingly miraculous healings."

Overview of the book here by Dr. Harriet A. Hall....

https://www.skepdoc.info/the-magic-...-the-power-of-belief-in-alternative-medicine/

 

I wish I could have some of this placebo effect when trying alternative therapies. All they've done in the past is make me sicker.