Article March 15, 1999 Issue

Going beyond placebos

What is it that really heals?

By Richard Bergenheim

Last October, on page one of its Science Times section, The New York Times offered a well–researched article entitled "Placebos Prove So Powerful Even Experts Are Surprised." The writer reported numerous instances when patients were healed after they had been given placebos—unmedicated or "sham" treatments. One of the doctors interviewed referred to placebos as "lies that heal."

In her day, Mary Baker Eddy intelligently explored the best of medical knowledge—including homeopathy and placebos, both of which are having a resurgence today. As she moved beyond these methods, her prayer and Bible study, as well as her Christian healing practice, confirmed her conviction that the real nature of man is wholly spiritual. This led her to significant, definitive conclusions about health and healing, as this author brings out.

There have been a number of reports recently on the surprising effect that placebos have in treating sickness. Tests prove that in certain instances unmedicated pills can have as much effect on patients as medicated ones do. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures Mrs. Eddy reminds readers of an experience the famous chemist Sir Humphry Davy had. He unexpectedly "cured a case of paralysis simply by introducing a thermometer into the patient's mouth. This he did merely to ascertain the temperature of the patient's body; but the sick mansupposed this ceremony was intended to heal him, and he recovered accordingly" (p. 152). Think about this for a moment. The patient was paralyzed. His belief that the doctor was treating him caused him to be cured. It had to be his belief that changed him, because the thermometer didn't do anything.