Hi Matthew,
Yes, you are very correct that belief is and can be very powerful stuff. What you said about shamanism, etc. reminds me also of the placebo effect.
All i can say is that i know in my case, this is not primarily about beliefs and placebo effect. I know this through methodical observation, and recalling past events before i had any such beliefs but still had psoriasis. By noting patterns. I've become very tuned in and sensitive to my body and it's reactions.
I will give you an example. After i started to clean up my diet a lot, one of few semi-sweet things i indulged in more regularly was a home made hot chocolate made with non alkalized cocoa, small amounts much less refined sugars mixed with a little stevia, a pinch of "Real Salt", some and some goat milk and/or coconut cream. The main ingredient by far, water.
I
believed (and strongly so for awhile) that this was healthy and good for me, because i read so much glowing recommendations about the health benefits of less processed cocoa as long as one wasn't consuming much sugar or fat with same as in like chocolate bars and the like.
Yet i wryly note, clearly my body did not share this belief, and it certainly had no positive placebo effect. Eventually i learned through observation that large amounts of chocolate in any form really exacerbated psoriasis symptoms of my body. When i almost completely eliminated it from my diet, it really helped clear up symptoms.
Some of my path as been akin to the above trial and error, despite whatever beliefs or preconceptions i've held and much help as come from following the Cayce's suggestions for these. But, one constant in both cases is the huge effect that diet in particular has on psoriasis. Looking back even before i got involved with Cayce's work and info, i noticed some of these patterns as well, before i had any "beliefs" in the validity of Cayce's work.
Now, could i project my particular diet onto everyone and say it will universally help all people whose body's have psoriasis? No, but i know that in many cases that diet is a key factor, and my diet probably could help many, for there are certain universals involved.
Quote: The problem with the idea of a global conspiracy to suppress simple treatments, now that the world is connected via the internet, is that if something really works, the truth behind it will out, via the internet and other various groups. In such new scenarios, the big pharma. companies, will often rush to patent their own devices rather than trying to hush things up.
I understand what you are saying in the above, and i get the relative logic which is applied. Yet, you don't seem to be understanding a fundamental point that i'm trying to make.
Which is, many in the medical world who make obscene profits off of the business of disease and illness, the real PTB who because of their wealth and connections have a lot of material influence in the world, would not invest in a therapy that is extremely effective even if they could make a lot of money off it in the short term.
They are smart and aware enough to realize that if they want to continue to make obscene profits, they have to invest in treatments which have some helpfulness, but don't completely cure because they don't want to lose their customers and thus their profits. We are just numbers and $ to them. They have very little empathy let alone any attunement to PUL.
Sounds pretty diabolical doesn't it, sounds pretty inhuman doesn't it?
Yet, pick someone like a Murdoch or Cheney and really tune into them. There are more of these folks in this world than most would like to consider, and many of them are in positions of great material influence, power, and wealth, for like attracts, begets, and likes like. They love and are addicted Mammon as crack addicts are addicted to crack and heed the attractive call of same.
This is why i referred to you as naive earlier, because you don't seem to see how many people like this there are involved in the world and who have a lot of material influence and say. You, me, and the people here are the commoners.
I'm not saying there is a grand, superbly connected conspiracy as found in some novels or movies, but there is enough greed and selfishness and secrecy as to spend plenty of time, effort, and money in keeping truly effective therapies under wraps as much as possible.
And by under wraps, i mean non mainstream. They know they cannot completely squash all truly effective and helpful therapies, but they can influence
media, education, politics/laws/regulations, and economics enough to keep these non mainstream.
One such tactic is to scare people about these alternative methods, and many people, the majority by far, are more followers than truly independent thinkers or intuitives. Many will listen to the mainstream news, magazines, etc.
And btw, i don't ask that the conventional medical world be open to unproven homespun healers, i ask that alternative therapies simply be really considered, publicized, and tested out in a timely fashion.
There is a big difference. Yet, in reality there is very little funding, mainstream educations about, or testing of many, many alternative health therapies--especially here in the U.S. Only in recent years have some even started to do studies involving herbal medicine despite that some popular drugs originally come from plants, trees, etc. and that humanity universally has been using these for thousands of years to treat illness.
In the U.S. in particular, the sheer degree of closedmindedness and lack of attention to herbal medicine and in some cases stonewalling, is and has been ridiculous.
No, the PTB much prefer patentable chemical or molecular compounds made or isolated in labs. There is much more money to made off these.
Yet, even in Europe which has had a more open minded approach to these, the PTB--the real money makers and decision shakers, are cracking down on these alternative therapies because they have garnered so much popularity there and people know these tend to work better than the pharmaceutical drugs and quite often with MUCH less side effects.
We probably could go back and forth with this for quite awhile, but there is no real point as we are coming from rather different perspectives on this and i've made most of the salient points. This has been more for the eyes of others on the fence.