This time, I want to raise a topic that concerns everyone, without exception. Something very close to us, yet not everyone seriously thinks about it. I want to write about the impact of psychological processes on our health. We can hardly imagine the extent of this influence. You’d think scientists would have tackled this issue and clarified everything long ago. But after searching for information on this topic, I realized that science still knows very little.
We’ve all heard of the well-documented scientific phenomenon of placebo. This term was first used by Henry Beecher. In 1944, while serving as a military doctor on the front lines, Beecher administered a saline solution to wounded soldiers as a painkiller due to a shortage of morphine. The soldiers subsequently reported significant pain relief. Later, Henry Beecher introduced the term «placebo» into medical terminology and advocated for the necessity of placebo control in drug trials.
What do we usually know about placebo?
It’s an effect that works when a person is given a dummy pill under the guise of medicine, and they feel better and sometimes even recover because they believe the medicine will help them. But that’s not all. For example, there are cases where people underwent fake heart surgeries, where tissues were simply cut and then sutured. In several such cases, people, believing the heart surgery was real, felt much better. It must be said, these surgeries are much cheaper!
The same placebo phenomenon is exploited by famous Filipino healers. Using sleight of hand, they imitate surgeries on a person’s abdomen. This works almost flawlessly on the less educated locals. But even in other countries, there are plenty of gullible people who travel to them in search of healing. My acquaintances who visited them not too long ago later tested the results in Moscow clinics. Apparently, their faith wasn’t strong enough! The phenomenon didn’t work. But while there, they not only failed to spot the trick but were also under hypnosis and the charm of the healer. I’ve personally exposed several such charlatans in Peru and Mexico who allegedly sucked various objects and substances out of a person’s body. Interestingly, my public exposure of these specific frauds changed nothing. Their clientele didn’t decrease. I realized that some people want to be deceived, one way or another.
Back when I lived in Russia, I spent many years searching for people with extraordinary abilities. During this search, I encountered a huge number of charlatans and cunning fraudsters of all sorts: fake clairvoyants, healers, magicians, and other creative personalities. Each of these pseudo-healers will tell you countless stories about how they cured people in the last stage of cancer, healed or dramatically rejuvenated some celebrities (for example, those who had successful plastic surgery and lost weight). Many will claim that during Soviet times, they worked for the KGB or treated some high-ranking party officials. This is the most typical lie. But what’s surprising is something else. Almost all of these people have actually had cases where some naive and trusting individuals recovered after their sessions. And this, once again, is the result of the amazing placebo phenomenon.
It should be noted that this phenomenon has been used in folk medicine since ancient times. In my childhood in Siberia, I witnessed times when elderly women could still cure fear, remove warts overnight, treat erysipelas, and more. My great-grandmother, who lived to be 101, was capable of much more. After moving from a remote village to a large city in the 1970s, she quickly became highly sought after. Renowned doctors would come to her for treatment—Soviet educated people, atheists who weren’t supposed to believe in such things. Yet she healed them with prayers and the mere touch of her hands. When my older brother was born, my mother had mastitis. One visit to my great-grandmother was enough for the mastitis to disappear and never return. In this case, something more than just the placebo phenomenon was at play. But I’ll return to that later.
When discussing the placebo phenomenon, we have no idea how often it manifests in our lives. To what extent do you think it operates in fully recognized, modern medicine? No one knows. But it works, and significantly so.
Studies have shown that taking large, brightly colored pills is much more effective than taking small, colorless ones. The same substance, but presented in different packaging, works much better. That’s why you now see many large, colorful pills in pharmacies. Additionally, the effect is enhanced if the pharmaceutical company is well-known, if the medication is prescribed by a reputable doctor, if the treatment is administered in a prestigious clinic, if the staff is polite, and so on…
This has been statistically proven. But none of the leading scientists can explain how this phenomenon works. We don’t know which specific brain areas need to be activated or how. It’s often said that a person must believe. But the word «belief» explains very little. You can suggest to a person that they believe in healing, and almost 100% of the time, they won’t be able to do it themselves. But sometimes, through cunning and manipulation, the placebo effect can be triggered. Sometimes, the person must perform a complex ritual or a challenging sequence of actions. For example, sometimes people recover after adopting a specific (sometimes radical) diet, not because their diet becomes healthier, but because they perform a ritual action that triggers the placebo mechanism. The same thing can happen with learning new exercise routines. It’s not always the exercises themselves that work; often, it’s the belief in their miraculous properties, reinforced by ritual actions, especially if it’s difficult for the person to do. Such a method may not work for a professional athlete!
There’s a notion that the placebo effect only works on suggestible people. But all people are suggestible! Just in different ways. Some are more impressed by what someone else does to them (like the aforementioned Filipino healers). Others are more affected by what they do themselves (diets, exercises). In my study of hypnosis and self-hypnosis phenomena, I became convinced that there are no people who can’t be hypnotized. Each person simply requires a unique approach that considers their specific psychological properties. Suggestion and hypnosis, both consciously and unconsciously, are used everywhere. We encounter them every day, whether watching television, interacting with others, reading, or even just thinking. Hypnosis has many forms and manifestations. Once I encountered this, I realized how crucial it was for me to learn to see and consciously control this state.
Why is this so important? The dark side of placebo: nocebo.
Few people know that placebo has a dark side. Even fewer have heard of the nocebo phenomenon. If placebo is about healing, nocebo is about creating illness. It’s also scientifically documented. And similarly, scientists don’t understand its mechanism. Various scientific experiments have been conducted to capture it. For example, participants were told they were in a room exposed to Wi-Fi radiation, although no such radiation was present. We’re all exposed to it in cities now! Those who believed such radiation was harmful reported a sharp decline in their well-being. This is the most harmless example that clearly explains how the nocebo phenomenon works. But we truly cannot assess the extent of its negative impact.
There have been documented cases where a person, intending to commit suicide, took many placebo pills. Physiologically, their action was almost negligible. But the person began to feel very unwell, and their blood pressure dropped drastically because they expected to die. Their brain received a command to commit suicide. We can’t even imagine how often people unconsciously give themselves commands to become ill or commit suicide, for example, under the influence of guilt, shame, or fear. This phenomenon is most evident in tribal communities. In Africa, small tribes have been observed where shamans hold enormous power. All tribe members feared them greatly because it was repeatedly proven that someone cursed by the shaman would die fairly quickly. The person’s brain received a command to kill itself. Being part of a small group of people with a shared worldview, the person couldn’t override this command.
How does the «evil eye» phenomenon work?
This brings us to the interesting anthropological phenomenon of the «evil eye.» Everyone has heard of it, but few understand how it works. After many years of close interaction with representatives of several Amazonian tribes and other small groups, I tried to understand this phenomenon. In their world, the evil eye is an absolute reality, just as phones and televisions are in ours. There are sorcerers who know how to cast the evil eye. There are real shamans who know how to remove it. An ordinary indigenous person cannot remove it. The nocebo mechanism is activated. They cannot stop it. You’d think such a mechanism would only be triggered when someone tells the person that the evil eye has been cast on them. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes, being in a certain mental environment, a person tends to attribute their ailments and failures to someone casting the evil eye on them. And upon reaching this conviction, they trigger the nocebo effect in themselves. Unfortunately, this phenomenon isn’t limited to indigenous peoples and small communities.
Traveling through the Amazon, I’ve met many foreigners trying to master shamanism and participating in ceremonies with various shamans. I was around when there were far more real shamans in Peru. Today, the overwhelming majority of such foreigners hop from one charlatan to another. But even in the past, when people more often encountered genuine masters, many still experienced the nocebo phenomenon. Reaching a certain point in their training and exploration of their inner world, they’d encounter deep fears and decide that someone had cursed them. They’d become terrified and seek out new masters who could help them. Someone would help, and they’d stay with the new master. But then the same story would repeat. Watching these people, I realized that not everyone is ready to learn shamanism. I could have helped these people and advised them on what needed to change if they were willing to listen to me. After several futile attempts to help, I learned that assistance in such matters should be given only to those who ask for it.
Speaking of the phenomenon commonly known as the evil eye, I’ve so far only considered situations where a person starts the process themselves, sometimes with someone’s suggestion. But I must note that in a small percentage of cases, a different mechanism is at play. The real evil eye exists. There are people who, even from a distance and with some emotional connection to the person, can trigger the nocebo process in them. In tribes, such people are called sorcerers. They do this deliberately. In everyday life in cities, these people also exist, but they usually do it unconsciously. These are people with strong negative energy. In other words, those prone to intense and prolonged negative emotions and who possess good concentration on the subject of their influence.
From my observation, such people are more common in criminal circles, in the shadow business, and among corrupt law enforcement and politicians. These environments, first of all, attract such people and, secondly, hone such abilities in those who end up there and survive. Such individuals are always abundant in any zone of military conflict. Usually, people don’t pay attention to the proximity of these spheres of influence. But I’ve noticed many times that indigenous people inclined towards sorcery, upon entering the urban environment, always end up in the criminal world. And those considered powerful sorcerers in their tribe often become mafia bosses. In countries like Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Mexico, this is very evident. I think it’s even more obvious in some African countries. I know a bit about this from stories my friends who lived in Africa have shared. But even my observations in Latin American countries are enough to note this fact.
Just as there are people who can activate the nocebo effect in others, there are also those who can activate the placebo effect not through tricks and manipulations but through direct influence. All the real shamans I’ve met and worked with over the years can do this. It manifests most effectively during shamanic ceremonies, where a person is led into a trance state. Sometimes prolonged dances to rhythmic music (like the Sun Dancers) are used, sometimes indigenous steam baths (Temazcal), and sometimes special plants (Ayahuasca, Peyote, and others). What many people don’t understand, and what I’ve been explaining for the past fifteen years, is that the trance state alone is not enough. It’s merely a basic condition for the shaman’s work to begin. For example, a powerful plant like Ayahuasca can send a person into a very deep trance. But at the same time, there must be highly professional shamanic work done to bring about significant positive transformation and healing. If a sorcerer performs their influence during the trance, the result will be the opposite. If the ceremony is led by a charlatan or an untrained individual, then in a strong trance, the person may alternately experience both placebo and nocebo effects. It’s like a plane without a pilot. What’s the likelihood it will fly correctly? Almost none.
Nevertheless, many people are extremely careless in this area. Once again, I want to highlight the situation in a field I know well. Right now, more than 99 percent of those conducting Ayahuasca ceremonies in Peru are untrained. Furthermore, some of the most well-known «shamans» in the world and owners of several «shamanic centers» are sorcerers (brujos). Many shamans have lost their power.
This, unfortunately, also happens under the influence of a new environment and wrong decisions and actions. Special mushrooms, Peyote, Ayahuasca, Iboga, and other plants can create situations where our brains become significantly more powerful. This is not a metaphor. It’s literally true. But then that power must be correctly directed towards creation, healing oneself and others, and self-discovery. This power, under the influence of negative people or by inertia, can be directed in a completely different direction. I know exactly what I’m writing about. My close friends who have also studied shamanism in the Amazon and Mexico and I have repeatedly observed these processes. I have undergone more than a thousand shamanic ceremonies. I have observed thousands of people undergoing ceremonies with me.
When a shaman, through their song and other forms of influence, activates the healing process in a person’s brain, chronic diseases often disappear in one ceremony, long-standing health problems are resolved, relationship issues are addressed, the person gains a wealth of valuable information, and they become joyful and happy. And this effect lasts long after the ceremony ends. It triggers transformational processes that last for years. I stay in touch with many people who have undergone shamanic ceremonies with me. They inform me about the lasting impact. Most return to continue their work on themselves.
What sets true shamanism apart is that it’s not just some inexplicable influence that leads to a positive outcome. My great-grandmother could heal, but her patients didn’t understand how she did it. They were simply happy to be healthy again. They weren’t interested in how it was done. Science cannot explain how she and others like her triggered the brain’s rapid self-healing process. But during a genuine shamanic ceremony, we become conscious participants in this process. We have the opportunity to examine this mechanism in detail. Not everyone experiences this right away. But if a person continues on this path, they reach a conscious understanding of psychological processes. The value of this is immense. In this state during a ceremony, we can not only heal ourselves but also positively influence those close to us. I’ve also seen plenty of confirmations of such influence. I regularly observe these phenomena and processes. They have become an integral part of my life, and I’m glad I can introduce others to this.
I especially want to emphasize that I am not a fanatical supporter of alternative medicine. I deeply appreciate and respect modern medicine and admire its achievements. I always say that there are situations where immediate surgery or other effective therapies are necessary.
The primary merit of modern medicine is the increased life expectancy in developed countries. Denying this is foolish. It’s wise to learn to combine the best of modern and authentic traditional medicine. By traditional medicine, I mean not only Amazonian and Mexican practices but also quality Eastern medicine, which I also hold in high regard. However, I respect doctors who are professionals, who have devoted their entire lives to studying and perfecting the art of healing. And I have no respect for untrained charlatans who, without mastering their profession, take on treating severe diseases, often causing immense harm to people due to their overconfidence and greed.
In conclusion, I want to say that in our world, there aren’t just unconscious sorcerers you can easily find in the criminal world or simply by turning on the news! There are people who are unconscious healers. They come from various backgrounds and fields. You can encounter them anywhere: among teachers, doctors, psychologists, artists, writers, and rescuers. These are people who can experience intense and prolonged positive emotions and give love and joy to others. We’ve all met them. Some are lucky enough to be friends or work with them, others know about them from a distance, and some lived with them in the same family. It’s crucial to understand this. We ourselves can become such people for someone if we learn to radiate light and joy.
