I saw the program of the four doctors who meet annually (?) to discuss the placebo affect - they are great proponents of it. And they mentioned this placebo surgery case in particular. They had to even fake the conversation while he was under aenesthetic for it to work (and make an incision). It was a wonderful program to watch.

One case they mentioned was about some poor guy who had an incurable and dreadful disease. What was odd and interesting about this case was that it was the doctor who thought he had discovered the cure... and cured the patient. Then - other doctors undermined the first doctors faith in his discovery which resulted in a total reversal and the patient relapsed and eventually died.

Cosmic conscious at work? Amazing stuff. Can we stretch belief? Not sure about that.. one either believes or not, you can't force yourself to believe something or not ??

I have seen the studies about knee surgeries. I don't know if that is a comment on how well placebos work, or how poorly knee surgery works.

There's no question that your mental state has a profound effect on your overall health. Reducing bad stress and having a positive mental attitude are critical. There is also no question that the body has seemingly miraculous recuperative capabilities.

But it is difficult to quantify the placebo effect. There's no question that it is real; all medical studies must take it into account. What is not always so clear is what is causing the placebo effect. Is it due to the person believing that they are receiving a highly-effective treatment, or is it because of other unknown factors?

What is increasingly clear is that the medical profession is not your best friend. You must always be an informed participant in your medical decisions, and your own best advocate.

I,too,have heard of these placebo experiments and I firmly believe that our bodies are limited by our minds. Oftentimes people are diagnosed with a life -threatening illness and when every man-made ( or we could say physical) avenue of treatment is exhausted, with no luck, we usually hear "it's all in God's hands now" and sometimes a "miracle" occurs because the persons belief in God or a higher power to cure them is stronger than their belief in the drugs or other treatments. In my opinion we have it the wrong way around - we should be turning to God or Source first and if we feel or believe along the way that other treatments will aid in our recovery, then by all means use them.The mind is a powerful tool when used properly and if we truly believe that something will work - it will work.So in some ways it doesn't matter which form of treatment we use - our belief in it working is more important.