talkmagic.co.uk

I'm sure that there is something in the placebo effect. When I was at uni a friend of mine was doing a sports science investigation into the effects of caffine on running endurance, I was one of the Guinea Pigs. We were tested with nothing, a placebo and a caffine supplement, not knowing if we were given the caffine or the placebo. I think just about everyone performed better on the placebo than they did without anything so there must be something psychological in it somewhere.

As for the placebo effect I once spoke to a nurse at one of those clinics that conduct studies of various drugs. To conduct the trials they often give the patients placebo pills or injections in order to evaluate and compare results.

She said she has seen amazing cures when the patients haven't been given any drugs at all. She told me that she believed that the human mind is the best drug of all. She may well have been right.

mark lewis wrote:So I am afraid Ted is wrong when he states that if the psychic believes in what he or she does they are somehow on better ethical ground than the outright fake.

Fair point. And I agree with you. I revised my opinion a few posts ago after Tomo's point about cancer and so on.

mark lewis wrote:Another point Ted is astray on is the payment side of things. It is ESSENTIAL that the client pays. It is part of the therapy. If you pay nothing you put a nothing value on it. So take the money. Don't overcharge but don't undercharge.

That's interesting. If the client doesn't pay will the service fail to work? I think you are suggesting that the client needs to pay to feel the value. This feeling in turn reinforces their belief. This belief is required to make the therapy work.

Cheers,
T.

Lady of Mystery wrote:I'm sure that there is something in the placebo effect. When I was at uni a friend of mine was doing a sports science investigation into the effects of caffine on running endurance, I was one of the Guinea Pigs.

Do you remember how many people were involved in the experiment? I'm guessing it was at least a blind test (i.e. the guinea pigs didn't know which pill was which), otherwise there would not be much point But was it a straight blind test or a double blind test (where those handing out the pills do not know which is which either)?

A double blind test involving at least one hundred people might produce results that could be used to show that caffeine placebos have a similar effect on sports performance.

If the client doesn't pay or make some kind of sacrifice the reading will not be as effective. This point is borne out in my favourite book on the Tarot entitled "Tarotmania" by Jan Woudhuysen.

Ted wrote: If the client doesn't pay will the service fail to work? I think you are suggesting that the client needs to pay to feel the value. This feeling in turn reinforces their belief. This belief is required to make the therapy work.

And this is exactly the same theory that allows hypnotherapists to charge hundreds of quid for their "stop smoking" sessions etc. The high fee is part of the therapy. As in: "I've paid £300 to be hypnotised not to smoke. After paying £300 I'm going to make sure I bloody well stop!"

mark lewis wrote:If the client doesn't pay or make some kind of sacrifice the reading will not be as effective. This point is borne out in my favourite book on the Tarot entitled "Tarotmania" by Jan Woudhuysen.

Thanks. I'll look that up.

themagicwand wrote:And this is exactly the same theory that allows hypnotherapists to charge hundreds of quid for their "stop smoking" sessions etc. The high fee is part of the therapy. As in: "I've paid £300 to be hypnotised not to smoke. After paying £300 I'm going to make sure I bloody well stop!"

Mr nail, meet Mr hammer...

taffy wrote:Did you see his Ex? Apparently broke up with her to concentrate on his work!

Now I know he's living in dream land

I've been in that pub and seen the entertainment.

Ted wrote:Do you remember how many people were involved in the experiment? I'm guessing it was at least a blind test

The test was double blind and if I remember rightly there were 50 subjects (25 male and 25 female)

mark lewis wrote:I bet I could even convince that Randi crowd of my argument if they weren't all mentally deranged zealots and acne ridden teenagers. Regrettably what I have to say requires intelligence which is sorely lacking among the JREF soccer hooligans. I rather think that they should all blow their brains out but of course they would have nothing to lose if they did that.

I presume this is all part of your gentle nature that you say is so important when doing readings? Judging from some of your posts both here and on other forums in terms of tone and content used, the thought of you having anything to do with people where your role requires you to be emotionally receptive and responsible comes across as very worrying.

Tarotmania is out of print and hard to obtain. However I do believe it is available for free somewhere on the internet. There is actually a small chapter about payment in the book. There is at the top of the chapter a quote saying "All the leading psychiatrists in America agree that charging the patient a high fee has a strong therapeutic effect"

mark lewis wrote:Tarotmania is out of print and hard to obtain.

I've actually found quite a few copies for less than a fiver (second-hand, perhaps obviously). But if I can find it for free legitimately then I'll give that a try first . Thanks.

EDIT: Found it. The author has made it available online.

It ill behooves this Orderydoo chap to comment on my gentle nature when it is perfectly obvious from his picture that he is probably employed as a bouncer at a Leicester night club full of rowdy drunken soccer hooligans and members of the Randi forum. I do hope he is "emotionally receptive" in this work when the patrons spew beer over him as only the British working classes can.

However if he wishes to find out for sure how kind and compassionate I am when doing readings I would be delighted to conduct a session for him. Naturally he would have to pay up front.

You know if the book is that cheap I think I would prefer to have a hard copy. Reading online is a bit of a pain. However if you just want to refer to the chapter about payment I suppose the free book would be fine.

Interestingly enough the author is (or was anyway) an architect by profession. He also wrote a book about typing of all things.