Nocebo--Deadly in So Many Ways! How to Turn It Around Immediately

The marvelous Word of God, the Holy Bible, is simply absolutely glorious, simply absolutely perfect, and simply absolutely supernatural.  These Words, authored by God and penned by His holy men, minister to every need of man.  It is the owner’s manual of life with complete instructions necessary to reach the other side. 

It is often repeated on GodSaidManSaid that all of the commandments and directives of God are “true and righteous altogether” and have inherent within them a blessing or a curse.  Obey, and enjoy the blessing of doing the right thing.  Disobey, and suffer the curse of doing the wrong thing.  It really is just that simple. 

Jesus declares to the world that there is only one way to enter the Kingdom of God.  John 3:3-7:

3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother''s womb, and be born?

5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

Born again—born a second time, but this time of the Spirit of God—is the open door to eternal life in Christ.  Have you entered through that door?  Today can be your day of salvation.  Today can be the day all your sin and shame is erased. Today can be your day of unspeakable joy and full of glory.  Make your move.  Click onto “Further With Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Proverbs 18:21:

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

GOD SAID, Psalm 112:7:

He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.

GOD SAID, Proverbs 17:22:

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

GOD SAID, Philippians 4:8:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

MAN SAID: According to Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin, “The problem is to get [people] to reject irrational and supernatural explanations of the world, the demons that exist only in their imaginations, and to accept a social and intellectual apparatus—science—as the only begetter of truth.” 

Now THE RECORD.  Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 709 that will once again confirm the full inerrancy of the Holy Bible.  All of these features are archived here in text and streaming audio for your consideration and edification and as bait for the fishers of men.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one.  Thank you for visiting.  May God’s face shine upon you with Light and Truth. 

Last week in the GodSaidManSaid feature “Far Better than Placebo Power,” we revisited the subject of the placebo effect.  In the pharmaceutical-medical world, the placebo is a sugar pill, for example, that has no medical benefit and that is utilized in introductory drug trials to measure the effectiveness of a new pharmaceutical.  In blind trials, the placebo is given to part of the group being tested while the others receive the real thing.  The measurement called the placebo effect is the percent of the people—typically 33%—who are positively affected by the fake placebo.  If the new medication does not out-perform the placebo, it does not come to market.  When the placebo is promoted to the patient as a highly-effective remedy, the placebo effect soars. 

The placebo effect is the result of one’s hope that is placed in a fraud.  God’s hope, on the other hand, which works in tandem with faith, is the opposite.  The Bible says we are saved by hope.  A definition of Biblical hope is believing in something God has promised that you are certain will come to pass.  Psalm 119:49-50:

49 Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.

50 This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.

God causes His children to hope in His Word of promise, which is the inerrant truth that never fails.  It is not a fake placebo. 

The opposite of the placebo effect is the nocebo effect.  While the placebo effect is the result of hope—even if it is in a fraud—the nocebo effect results from hopelessness, and it is surely deadly. 

Paramount to this discussion is that we are made out of words—literally.  The placebo and nocebo effects are entirely rooted in perceptions generated by words—verbal and silent.  A host of features on the subject of words can be found on this site, and it is certainly true as Proverbs 18:21 declares:

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

Everything is made out of words.   Now imagine the results of being bathed in bad words.  This is more than the thoughts you think (silent words) or the words you speak; this would include the words you read and the words you hear.  When you consider the following information and some of the new measurements on the nocebo effect, the reality of words will become more apparent.  The following excerpt is from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Nocebo, Placebo, and You:”

E.J. Langer, Ph.D., writes in Psychology Today, concerning the nocebo effect of some with a medical mindset, such as the use of the word remission.  She reports how two people being examined for cancer are diagnosed if one of the individuals has previously had cancer.  If both patients’ batteries of tests show identical readings in that both parties are free of cancer, the one who has had cancer in the past will be diagnosed as “in remission,” while the other patient who has never had cancer before will be given a clean bill of health.  The word remission certainly fits into the classic nocebo paradigm—a kind of waiting for cancer to return.  Dr. Langer said:

Language has the interesting property of being able to increase and decrease our perceptions of control.  Different word choices can direct our thoughts about a single situation in many different ways. 

Doubters, incessant moaners, and other types of pessimists, according to Doctors Brennan and Charnetski in their book, Feeling Good is Good for You, should be avoided like any kind of contagious problem because pessimism is a psychologically contagious disease.  In God’s system of mind control, these mindsets are commanded against—and yes, they are of nocebo kin.  [End of quotes]

Words are everything.  Molecular biologists were shocked to discover that the cells of the body come equipped with lasers onboard.  These cells are not only made out of words, but they respond to words—positive (light) or negative (dark).  Think of the nocebo as negative words.  The following paragraphs are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Harnessing Words, Light, and Health:”

How do thoughts (silent words) and spoken words turn into light (or the lack of) in the body and produce physical results such as health or disease?  The following excerpts are from Dr. Don Colbert’s book, Deadly Emotions:

We can sum up in one word the basic communication link between what we think in the brain and what we experience in the cells of the body: neuropeptides. 

Dr. Candace Pert, a noted stress researcher, demonstrated that a certain class of our immune cells—the monocytes—have tiny molecules on their surface called neuroreceptors that are a perfect fit for neuropeptides.  All of the monocytes have these receptor sites. 

The brain produces the neuropeptides—which are chains of amino acids—and conducts them along the nervous cells throughout the body.  They are like the keys that fit into the molecular locks of every cell of the body.  Dr. Pert has called them “bits of brain floating through the body.”  The brain “talks” to the immune cells all over the body, and in turn, the immune system cells communicate back to the brain, using these messengers called neuropeptides.  If your brain interprets physical perceptions as anger, fear, or depression, every immune cell of your body knows that interpretation very quickly! [End of quote]

God gives His children the amazing ability to harness the power of His creation words and to convert them into light in every cell of the body—in every one of nearly 100 trillion cells. 

New medical analytics are presently being perfected to measure light emissions from the human body via body scans.  Very sophisticated scanning cameras have been developed that scan the body for light emissions which are given off by all living creatures.  When the scanning camera detects abnormally low light levels, it suggests sickness or disease.  When the cells no longer emit light, they are dead. 

God speaks of an internal light: one that can fill the body; a light that generates health and life.  Skeptics mock such concepts, and lift them up as examples of the “ineptness” of the Bible.  Could Jesus be speaking accurately in Luke 11:34-36?

34 The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.

35 Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.

36 If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.

The principle of a single eye is an eye fixed upon Jesus Christ and Him alone.  When this is accomplished, the Bible says the whole body will be filled with light.  Science now has its own understanding of this truth.  [End of quotes]

Joseph Hallinan, an author, a Pulitzer Prize winner, former writer for the Wall Street Journal, and also former Neiman Fellow at Harvard University, weighs in on the nocebo effect in his book, Kidding Ourselves, with the subhead, “The Hidden Power of Self-Deception.”  He discusses some of the terrible side effects when one is diagnosed with cancer.  He writes:

Maybe one day we walk into our doctor’s office feeling more or less fine, and walk out with the news we all dread.  Under such circumstances, people have been known to simply drop dead of a heart attack.  These reports are not mere folklore, but fact. 

In 2012, researchers from the United States, Iceland, and Sweden examined the health records of more than 6 million Swedes.  Swedes not only enjoy some of the world’s best health care, they also benefit from having some of the world’s most thorough health care records.  The recording of cancers by clinicians and pathologists has been required by Swedish law since 1958, and the country maintains a nationwide registry of cancer and causes of death that is unrivaled; the completeness of the Swedish Cancer Registry approaches 100 percent. 

The researchers found that the risk of death from heart attack and stroke soared immediately after a cancer diagnosis, and was more than five times higher than in people without cancer.  The risk was greatest the week following a cancer diagnosis, and decreased over time.  But even a year after diagnosis, it remained three times higher compared to those without cancer.  Moreover, the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke increased with the severity of the cancer diagnosis: the darker their future looked, the greater the risk of cardiac death. 

The increased risk of death, they found, wasn’t the same for everyone.  Younger people, for instance, were at a greater risk than older patients.  For those under the age of fifty-five, the risk of cardiovascular death jumped by a factor of 11.9 during the first four weeks after being diagnosed.  For those between the ages of sixty-five and seventy-four, by comparison, the risk of cardiovascular death increased only by a factor of 5.2. 

In a sense, the results of the Swedish study are not surprising.  For decades, researchers have documented a strong connection between heart attacks and hopelessness.  Once people come to believe, for whatever reason, that life is no longer worth living, that belief tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  One major study in the United States found that having a severe sense of hopelessness doubled the risk of a fatal heart attack.  Moreover, the study found, hopelessness and heart attacks weren’t merely correlated; one actually appeared to cause the other.  A study of Dutch men reached a similar conclusion: those who felt overwhelmed by their problems and wanted to “give up” faced an increased risk of heart attack. [End of quotes]

The darkness of the nocebo effect and the hopelessness it brings needs to be replaced with the light and hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

James 5:14-16, God’s prescription for sickness:

14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Mark 11:22-24:

22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Mark 9:23-24:

23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

Hebrews 11:1:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Romans 4:20-21:

20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

The hopelessness of the nocebo must be replaced with God’s hope in His sure words of prophecy. 

GOD SAID, Proverbs 18:21:

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

GOD SAID, Psalm 112:7:

He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.

GOD SAID, Proverbs 17:22:

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

GOD SAID, Philippians 4:8:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

MAN SAID: According to Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin, “The problem is to get [people] to reject irrational and supernatural explanations of the world, the demons that exist only in their imaginations, and to accept a social and intellectual apparatus—science—as the only begetter of truth.” 

Now you have THE RECORD. 

 

 

 

References

Authorized King James Version

GodSaidManSaid, “Harnessing Words, Light, and Health”

GodSaidManSaid, “Nocebo, Placebo, and You”

GodSaidManSaid, “Pergamos--Where Satan Dwelleth”

Hallinan, J., Kidding Ourselves, Crown Publishers, 2014

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