skepticism
Apr. 18th, 2005 12:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
guslI am a Randian, in the sense of James Randi. I wish he would open a placebo healing school.
I would like to see a community of skeptics who are into all kinds of mind&body work: meditation, NLP, visualizations, and even outright placebo pills (possibly involving intentional self-deception). What I want is a reliable way of judging what an "alternative therapy" is good for.
I think that people who give "alternative healings" / "spiritual work" provide real value in some cases, but that they would benefit a lot from some healthy self-skepticism. For one thing, they wouldn't alienate scientifically-minded people as much, and open the doors to collaboration.
Btw, it's hard to call my position "scientific" or "skeptic", because all these words have unintended connotations. So "JamesRandian" seems like a better choice.
Here's a reference:
Here's a link for me to check later: http://mypage.uniserve.com/~jcmooney/more.htm
I would like to see a community of skeptics who are into all kinds of mind&body work: meditation, NLP, visualizations, and even outright placebo pills (possibly involving intentional self-deception). What I want is a reliable way of judging what an "alternative therapy" is good for.
I think that people who give "alternative healings" / "spiritual work" provide real value in some cases, but that they would benefit a lot from some healthy self-skepticism. For one thing, they wouldn't alienate scientifically-minded people as much, and open the doors to collaboration.
Btw, it's hard to call my position "scientific" or "skeptic", because all these words have unintended connotations. So "JamesRandian" seems like a better choice.
Here's a reference:
* Adv Mind Body Med. 2000 Winter;16(1):33-46.
Placebo and health--II. How to produce not only powerful but, more importantly, reliable placebo healing and analgesia.
Here's a link for me to check later: http://mypage.uniserve.com/~jcmooney/more.htm
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-04-18 01:21 pm (UTC)(b) Assessing the placebo effect even if you the recipient of it know it's just a sugar pill would be interesting.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-04-18 06:43 pm (UTC)(b)
Will it work?
It will work only if I think it works.
Do I think it will work?
Only if I think it works.
Can I muster enough self-deception to get out of the circularity?
I once read an interesting theory about the placebo effect on Edge.org, but it was not this page: Martin Seligman on Edge.org (which is also very link-worthy)
I think it was Nicholas Humphrey.