Why do we keep ignoring the fact that self-healing is not only possible but is actually happening every day?

Our mental states and perception have the ability to affect our health to a significant degree. We already know that the results of this can be highly beneficial, but the phenomenon nevertheless remains severely under-researched. This begs the question — why and in whose interest could this be?

Spontaneous remission and the placebo effect, for instance, are two common examples of this under-researched curiosity. In spontaneous remission, healing takes place without any medical treatment. This is not all that rare, but the researchers can find it hard to get their work published, and if they succeed, they are often faced with attacks and opposition.

That happened to a team of Norwegian researchers who tried to publish the report on high breast cancer remission rates detected by mammogram screening. According to their study, more than one in five detected cancers disappeared with no medical intervention. Upon publication, this created so much controversy and opposition that one of the researchers concluded that the topic of cancer remission is a taboo.

The placebo effect is another interesting phenomenon the importance of which keeps being ignored or downplayed even though it’s so common that it must be taken into consideration and accounted for in the testing of any new treatment as a matter of routine.

The placebo effect has also been routinely used by general health practitioners. In the UK, for example, 77% of doctors prescribe placebos at least once a week, while in other countries the percentage ranges from 17% to 80% (PLOS ONE, 2013). This practice is, again, seen as controversial, even though many doctors clearly find it useful.

Harvard Health Letter (2012) defended the use of the placebo effect and reported that even an open-label placebo was significantly (20%) more effective than no treatment. The only thing more amazing than this is that the phenomenon never made it among the hottest research topics in science.

Instead, it remained a neglected and controversial issue that keeps being pushed aside even though such results aren’t just something that could and should be ignored. Yet, we are still living in the generally prevalent ‘just a placebo’ mindset. How could this be?

Harvard Health Letter on the placebo effect:

The business of science

Like nothing else in this world, healing doesn’t just happen without a reason. So how come that science still all too easily accepts the idea of ‘inexplicable’ healing and apparently shows so little interest in these mind-boggling phenomena? This makes no sense whatsoever.

Or, at least, it doesn’t make sense for as long as we, rather naively, believe that science is only devoted to progress and betterment of the human condition. If we, however, know that research in science to a large degree depends on funding tied to politics and special (e.g. business related) interests, then it all becomes a lot clearer.

Science has been turned into a business long ago. Medical care in the States, for example, is run like a business with Big Pharma as a major and all-pervading part of it. A lot of money can be made by selling drugs, while the placebo effect and spontaneous remission work through the power of mind — all you need is a ‘sugar pill,’ and often not even that.

Would something that might lower their profits be in the interest of institutions that are being run like a business? Of course not. Could it then be that this type of research has been hampered by those who are making big money off of health problems by, let’s say, selling drugs?

Given the latest news, it seems that this could indeed be the case.

When drug lords rule

In the light of the latest Big Pharma scandal, it’s becoming more and more clear that medical and scientific communities have been taken over by drug lords whose main concern is profit instead of a sincere concern for people’s health, scientific progress, and saving lives.

In October 2017, the CBS’ 60 Minutes and The Washington Post brought to light a massive scale of prescription drug abuse fueled by the pharma industry in the States. The report uncovered a wide net of rogue doctors, pharmacies, pain clinics, drug distributors, politicians, lawyers, and Big Pharma — all engaged in and profiting from it.

By 2016, 200,000 people had already lost their lives due to the abuse that turned into a full-blown opioid addiction crisis. What’s worse, overdose deaths continue to rise with no end in sight” (The Washington Post).

Watch the 60 Minutes report to grasp the full scope of it all:

In response to this horrendous death toll, and instead of putting a stop to it, Big Pharma successfully pushed a bill through Congress that protects its interests and let it continue doing what it’s doing.

As hard as it is to believe, thanks to this bill, the law enforcement and DEA cannot do anything about the sales of prescription drugs any longer — regardless of how suspicious these transactions might be, and how much damage and deaths they cause.

Clearly, the only thing this industry cares about is profit. Illness, suffering, and addiction are in its interest, for that’s what brings in the big money.

The budget invested to make sure this piece of legislation would pass speaks volumes: “…the drug industry spent $102 million lobbying Congress on the bill and other legislation between 2014 and 2016…” (The Washington Post).

A major conflict of interest

While the idea of using drugs in medicine is certainly not corrupt in itself and countless lives have been saved thanks to it, pharma can nevertheless become real bad when there is a conflict of interest.

By letting pharma turn into a business that makes huge profits off of drug dependency, the system and politics created a monster. What this industry now wants is more illness and addiction, and what it doesn’t want are new, alternative approaches, such as the research on self-healing that could reduce the use of drugs.

The problem is that by now the industry became so strong that it has the power to write custom-made legislation and successfully push it through Congress. When one reaches that level of influence, that also makes it quite easy to prevent a certain line of research from being funded and published.

The dire consequences

Institutions with that kind of power and lack of moral fiber stop at nothing to protect their interests. That includes getting rid of anything that could present a threat to the profitability of their business, regardless of how beneficial it might be. In this way, they also prevented any meaningful scientific progress.

Prof. Donald Wright, specialized in institutional corruption in the development of prescription drugs, exposed the industry’s hidden business model and its consequences in his article New Prescription Drugs: A Major Health Risk With Few Offsetting Advantages (2014) and book The Risks of Prescription Drugs (2010).

Among other chilling facts, Prof. Wright revealed that only 2 breakthrough and 13 drugs of real advance have been developed between 2002 to 2011. During the same period, 918 drugs of little or no improvement have been launched.

To make matters worse, there have been numerous health problems and tens of thousands of deaths caused by prescription drugs. The use of new drugs on the market can result in serious side-effects in as many as 1 in 5 cases. Things have gotten so bad that prescription drugs became one of the leading causes of death, while the profits soared.

Read Prof. Wright’s article to learn more:

Now what?

To start with, we need to become aware that, yes, it’s that bad. This means accepting the fact that there’s no safety net in place any longer, and that there is nothing left that could keep this monster at bay.

The general public remained unaware of how bad things are because no one has or was allowed to make a big deal out of it — at least so far. But this is a big deal and we need to start looking at it as such. Understand the risks, be informed, share the information, warn others, and avoid using new drugs that have been on the market for less than 5 years.

Also, keep an open to mind and look at alternative approaches. Just because they haven’t been well researched and accepted by the mainstream medical community yet, that doesn’t mean they are not beneficial. Likewise, just because something was approved by FDA and prescribed by your doctor, that doesn’t mean it’s safe to use.