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Kevin Archer's avatar

You do write some interesting articles!

I agreed that in adversity we come to know our true selves. But it has to be true adversity, not the kind brought on by the washing machine springing a leak, or your favourite deli being out of lemon hummus. Modern inhabitants of the Western world are carefully insulated from exposure to existential challenges, maybe out of fear that real adversity will wake up too many people and bring a halt to the prescribed pathway of school, job, family, mortgage, retirement, death.

The placebo effect is, as you say, poorly understood. As poorly as consciousness itself. And (perhaps) there in lies the solution: we appear ‘physical’ only in consciousness, so it’s not surprising a ‘psychological’ drug can affect the (seemingly) material body… as it isn’t material in the first place!

Did you know it’s getting harder and harder for Biotechs to get drugs approved, as they need to show positive results that are a certain percentage above the placebo affect… but, annoyingly for them, the placebo effect is getting noticeably stronger? (After Kastrup, Harvard study by Robert Schmerling, 2020.)

I think I need to read Kabir… and what else would you recommend, for your desert island spirituality book collection?

Thanks!

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