Placebo effect

This morning, I was reading a post revolving around the Placebo Effect on Seth Godin's blog. In simplest terms, placebo effect is something which happens purely on the power of suggestion (thanks Wiki). Though the post I read did not really dwell on the Placebo effect as such, it set me thinking. I have had my share of experiences when I totally believed something which was not true just because my brain insisted it was true.

Experience #1
A couple of weeks ago I had a horrifying dream where I was being chased by a big dog. In my dream I was doing a sprint of Olympic standards. But the dog was doing even better and was fast gaining on me. Finally, with a huge pounce it jumped on me.

At that exact moment, I woke up, found myself pinned to the bed and I simply couldn't move. My eyes were still closed and I totally believed there was a huge dog sitting on my chest, not allowing any movement.

Then it struck me, wait a minute - I had been running away from the dog. So I should be lying down on my stomach now with the dog on my back. But I was actually lying down on my back. So maybe this wasn't true...

Cautiously I opened my eyes and peeped at the world. All I could see were the flourescent stars on my bedroom ceiling - phew! My brain had done a good job at convincing me even if it was only for a short bit.

Experience #2
This other incident took place years and years ago when I was in the fourth grade. My family had just figured out that I needed to wear spectacles for myopia (ya, it was established quite early in life that I was destined to be one of those wise bespectacled people). My parents took me to the spectacles store to try on various frames. After a lot of tries, I finally decided on a pair I liked. My parents asked the proprietor to get us a non-display version of the same frame. The proprietor brought out the new frame, complete with lenses and all.

I was super thrilled. I wore them and grinned at my mom - "I can see so well now". And I could actually read some stuff on the far wall. My mom looked at me surprised and said, "Well, you do know that these lenses are just normal glass. Your prescribed lenses will take some time to arrive". I had been able to see well with ordinary glass for a brief bit because I had thought the glass was designed to help me see better...

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I do believe the mind-body connection concept has something going for it. Which is why it is all the more important to try really hard at maintaining positive thoughts I guess!

Do you have times when your brain has convinced you of some impossible thing?