Tag Archives: placebo effect

Chuck’s Place: The Inexhaustible Wealth Of The Subconscious Mind

We reap what we sow, so watch the words you put into your head…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

I have been a serious student of the psyche for the past 50 years. By my early 20’s I had amassed a substantial portion of Jung’s Collected Works, some of which I’ve yet to fully read!

I’ve spent an equivalent amount of time immersed in the shamanic world of Carlos Castaneda, which provided me the tools and knowhow to explore the energy body, what religious traditions have called the Soul.

Both Freud and Jung explored the therapeutic utility of hypnosis, which accesses the power of the subconscious mind. Ultimately, they both abandoned hypnosis in favor of more reliable outcomes obtainable through their new discipline of psychotherapy.

Ancient knowledge of the power of trance and suggestion can be found in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Hindu literature is filled with warnings about the power of suggestion to control and manipulate human behavior. One is coached to choose one’s guru wisely.

Beyond these concerns about the potential limitations or abuses raised about hypnosis, the more fundamental truth that hypnosis reveals is that the human mind operates largely through the power of suggestion. What we tell ourselves and truly believe is what we become. Our lives are run by autosuggestions that we deliver, or take in from others, to our subconscious minds

Joe Dispenza’s book, You Are The Placebo, is a testament to the power of belief and autosuggestion to heal. The placebo effect is what truly heals. If you truly believe something can happen, it will. Mainstream scientific experiment emphasizes placebo as evidence that something didn’t work, rather than absolutely marveling at, and delving into, the power of the mind to make something happen.

Healers and philosophers of  the 19th and 20th century New Thought Movement in America believed that Christ was a teacher who emphasized the divine in all individuals versus a divinity unique to himself. They culled the secret to his healing power in biblical stories: an individual must believe within themselves that they can be healed, and only then shall it come to pass. The secret: the placebo effect.

As surmised by New Thought practitioners, the power of this simple truth so threatened religious institutions that they withdrew the notion of divine power from humans and instituted the reigning power of dogma, with dependence upon institutions outside the self being the only way to be guided in wisdom and healing.

We are currently living through a time of unraveling, where core beliefs that have sustained the human race for centuries are being replaced with new beliefs, suggesting a whole new world. The role of the thought police, in controlling what can be stated, written and talked about, is increasingly evident. Suspending all judgment, it is truly a remarkable example of how suggestion and belief create a world.

The subconscious mind has the absolute power to manifest a physical reality, for better or for worse. Although it is largely suggested to by the accumulated wisdom of the instincts and the archetypes, the subconscious is powerfully impressed upon by the beliefs and desires of the conscious mind. Thus, the inexhaustible wealth of the subconscious mind is best accessed through a mature conscious mind.

The ultimate check on how we exercise our power of suggestion is karma. The divine power of the subconscious mind will acquiesce to any belief impressed upon it, but it does not control the outcomes of these effects. We reap what we sow, for better or for worse.

The subconscious mind records and stores every bit of experience we have had in this life, as well as in past lives, and, at the deepest levels, the entire history of the universe and beyond. Edgar Cayce provided diagnoses and healing prescriptions for thousands of  unknown patients while in trance. Everything is accessible if one believes it to be possible.

In shamanic recapitulation one can access all the details of a forgotten life, as one intends a healing journey and trusts the guidance and promptings of the subconscious mind.

The subconscious mind is our greatest means of invisible support. If we approach it with faith and gratitude for all that it does for our physical and mental bodies, we are surely to be supported in the changes we seek.

Never to be underestimated is the power of the conscious mind, which is solely responsible for the life it suggests and manifests through its suggestions to the subconscious mind.

Please note that my affirming always the suggestion of the greater good is hardly the shallowness levied at positive affirmations somewhat in vogue now as expressed in the phrase toxic positivity. What I have outlined here is a paradigm shift in the understanding of the structure and dynamics of the psyche which highlights the power of divine action taken by the subconscious mind in response to human desire and true belief. That action is undeniably real and with it comes the divine responsibility to be in alignment with the truth.

Intend always the greater good, for self and other,
Chuck

Chuck’s Place: I Shall Please

The subconscious is magical…
-Artwork © 2024 Jan Ketchel

The word placebo is Latin for, I shall please. We have within us a power that literally fills our suggestions. This power is situated in what has been called the subconscious mind. In subtle anatomy, the subconscious mind is part of the soul, or astral body, that exists independently of its host, the physical body.

Specifically, the subconscious mind houses the desire body, the home base for Yin, the receptive feminine center of our being. If a suggestion is accepted by the desire body, it is true conception, and the miracle of creation begins. The desire body has the magnetic force to draw to it and assemble physical reality to please, or make substantial, that which we suggest to it.

Ironically, science has designated placebo as that which has no real effect upon physical reality, seeing its impact as a kind of mental aberration. Science uses placebo in experimentation as a control to determine whether a real agent has therapeutic value, or is merely a product of the mind, i.e., is a placebo effect.

So, if the mind alone is capable of eliminating symptoms and keeping one alive, it doesn’t count as real cure. The miracle of mental healing is simply placebo, not genuine healing. I find it rather stunning that the rational mind has completely forsaken and denigrated the subconscious mind’s power of creation and healing, even when directly confronted with irrefutable evidence of its benefits.

The shamans of ancient Mexico understood this loss of magic, and consequent polarization within our astral energy body, as the product of a predatory, inorganic entity that feasts upon the emotional dysregulation that this struggle generates. We are constantly in an inner battle between embracing our magical potential versus the limits of our dominating mental fixation of rationality.

This battle of bipolarity is everywhere apparent in our world, as the irrational has grown to outlandish proportions in its quest to unseat the controlling rationality of civilization. We are actually  on the cusp of seeing the irrationality of lies become the accepted ruling order of the world.

Reason is an extremely valuable tool for navigation, but when it strips us of our divine creative healing potential it can only generate sterility. This inner struggle for redemptive balance is the crossroads every human now faces, both within the psyche and without, in the outer world.

Author Sue Watkins published a memoir in 2001 that reviews her relationship with the psychic Jane Roberts (Speaking of Jane Roberts). In it, she reveals for the first time a miraculous physical healing she experienced in a self-hypnosis exercise undertaken with Jane and a few other people.

Back in late 1969, Sue had been suffering from an extremely irritating STD called Trichomoniasis. Putting herself in a calm alpha brainwave state, she gave herself the suggestion that the body would heal itself. Immediately the discomfort disappeared and, as she immediately discovered, upon self-examination in the bathroom, the physical evidence of infection had completely cleared from her body as well.

Sue’s battle with her own inner rationality, and fear of the rational critical police, had her actually cut this vignette, at the last minute, from her book, Conversations with Seth, published in 1980. It would take another 20 years for her to accrue the confidence to document this physical healing that had occurred solely through self-hypnosis.

The key to success with self-hypnosis is to just do it. Despite the limiting judgment of the rational mind, one is always free to get relaxed and present a suggestion to the subconscious mind. Say it many times and see what happens. At the same time, don’t attach to the outcome. Allow that center that says, I Shall Please, to do its job, as it sees fit, without pressure.

Obviously, with respect to medical issues, one should fully avail oneself of medical support. Also, realize that suggestions can be manifested that are not best for one’s personal evolution, nor for that of the world. Greed, for instance, can manifest just as well as altruism.

Always intend the greater good with all suggestions. Restore the magic to both the creative and rational minds of the soul.

I shall please,
Chuck

Chuck’s Place: The Thoughtform Of Being

Keep what comes and goes on the positive side…
– Illustration © 2022 Jan Ketchel

Placebo is the physical creation of a belief. Based on the thoughtform of belief, a sugar pill can cure anything. Thought is the true creator of physical reality.

The most brilliant psychologists of the early 20th century created the advertising industry to control the behavior of consumers through suggestion. Suggestion is a thoughtform that mobilizes the creative potential of the subconscious mind to manifest its instructions: Drink Coke: “Things go better with Coke.”  “It’s the real thing!”

Marketing psychologists discovered the power of hypnotism, the intentional use of the thoughtform of suggestion to change people’s behavior. Radio hosts like Alex Jones have demonstrated, definitively, the power of suggested conspiracy theories to impact people’s behavior.

Our current world is saturated with an unending flood of targeted messages competing for the critical mass of subscribers needed to generate a consensus reality. This translates to the current political rivalries that amass ‘war chests’, the money needed to reach the subconscious minds of the electorate, through advertising thoughtforms designed to control voting behaviors.

Every aspect of our mental and physical body is created and driven by thoughtforms. Thoughtforms are encoded in our DNA, the programs of our species and our ancestral memory. Thoughtforms are encoded in the archetypes that convert sensory input into form and meaning. These thoughtforms, as well as the internalized beliefs from our outer world socialization, are stored in the vast warehouse and factory of the subconscious mind. The conscious mind actually has the power to override even our DNA and our personal physical conditions.

Everyone has access to their subconscious minds. Our human potential can be maximized through gaining control of the thoughtforms that determine our being. One of the main blocks to accessing our greater potential is inertia. The current operating system of our being, however unpleasant or dysfunctional, runs automatically and allows us to coast through life with a minimum of effort.

Change requires energy and persistence. Programs like EST and The Forum seek to break through the ego’s inertia through group pressure, avoidance of shame, and heavily loaded homework assignments that preclude sleep. Once removed from these pressured environments, most people slip back to the default setting of inertia and business as usual.

The shamans of ancient Mexico introduced the power of Unbending Intent to assume full control of the state of their being. This is accomplished with an unwavering perseverance of presenting thoughtforms to the subconscious mind. Most important is the absolute certainty that what is sought will happen.

Besides the limiting impact of instinctive inertia upon change, the rational mind casts a powerfully constrictive web of doubt and blocking beliefs over the potential effectiveness of intent. My suggestion is to suspend judgment and perseveringly remind the self that your intent will be realized. Be patient, see what happens.

Start small. When someone tells me they never remember their dreams, I point out the impactful nature of that suggestion to the subconscious mind, to “Never remember dreams.” Reframe it before sleep: “Tonight I remember my dreams.” Everyone who perseveres with this statement of intent will at some point start to remember their dreams.

Once one discovers the power of unbending intent in small ways, they will begin to gain confidence in its true power to manifest. Wishing and hoping are replaced with knowing the true power of intent. Perseverance and patience is all it takes. As true as this is, the journey toward realizing intent activates complexes that must first be neutralized to clear the path to realization of the desired intent.

Complexes are most often traumatic experiences that are buried in the personal unconscious layer of the psyche and the physical body. Though they exist out of consciousness, they often exert a powerfully constrictive influence on one’s basic sense of security and worthiness.

They are the powerful programs in the subconscious that resist change, insisting on maintaining powerful defenses to avoid the emotions, sensations, and thoughts inherent in trauma. A thorough recapitulation that neutralizes these activated complexes clears the path to the new life of one’s coveted intent.

Another concern is the fact that intent can be exercised in hurtful and destructive ways, such as has been demonstrated in the thoughtforms expressed by Alex Jones, as regards the Sandy Hook massacre, for instance. We must have deep respect for the power of intent and exercise it responsibly, for the greater good of all.

Even at the level of our own thoughts (which are telepathically transmitted to a world of potentially receptive minds), we are broadcasting out intentions that impact the world, and ourselves. If our thoughts are constantly negative we draw only negativity to us. We suffer and the world suffers as well.

Let genuine compassion be the guiding thoughtform of our being, for our personal intents, in our thoughts of others, and for the world at large.

“Compassion Now.”

With loving compassion,

Chuck

Chuck’s Place: The Path to Heart

Wherever your path to heart may lead…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Often, what is experienced as traumatic in the moment becomes the seed of great growth and liberation when viewed from a deeper perspective at a future time.

Maya, a central concept in Hindu cosmology, is considered illusion at the level of everyday life, as events in the moment veil the fuller picture beyond the container of space and time. Yet, at the fully transparent level of the highest spiritual plane, Maya radiates as ultimate truth. The key to accessing ultimate truth is to revisit experience from the fullest and deepest perspective.

Thus, everything that challenges us, no matter how terrifying or painful, ultimately has the potential to lead us into deeper truth as we trod upon our path to heart. However, to benefit from this gift we must allow ourselves to review what we have already lived, by viewing it with a ruthlessly open and conscious mind and heart.

In viewing from a different perspective, we can release the emotions that have protectively shielded us and view the deeper truth that lies beyond our limiting beliefs. With this, the protective chaff falls away, as we now have direct access to the seed of our fuller knowing and future possibility.

One great antagonist in 2020 is Covid-19. At the level of everyday human life, its impact upon the world has been devastating. As a world, we hope to neutralize its impact upon us, even as I write. Many lives have been lost at the physical level, and many livelihoods and life plans have been radically changed through the lethal invasion of this virus.

Beyond personal impact, however, is the interruption it is causing to the energetic flow of the planet. Travel is severely limited. Gatherings of humanity, even the smallest of nuclear families, are suspended in physical space and consigned to connection only at the vibrational level of virtual reality.

The next higher vibrational dimension of humanity, the soul level, operates via thought and feeling, in its energy body, independent of the physical body. Though the virtual reality experience during the pandemic has largely been dependent upon human technology, it has also challenged the physical human being to find mental and emotional connection in non-physical contact. This has been a tremendous crash course on spiritual contact beyond the human body.

Of course, we all crave physical contact, as we also exist in human form. However, we are being ushered, via virtual reality, into another dimension of our human potential. When this potential is more inwardly developed, via the discovery and practice of innate psychic powers—such as intuition, conscious dreaming, and telepathy—the door is opened to unlimited possibility for travel and connection beyond physical reality.

Within the physical dimension, the quality of connection is spiritually enhanced to include greater movement to the heart, in a deeper experience of abstract love; that is, love beyond strictly physical attachment. The legacy of Covid-19 has launched us forever into a greater world of energetic possibility to satisfy our deeper mental, emotional, and spiritual needs.

Donald Trump has certainly presented as both central protagonist or antagonist, depending upon your perspective, in 2020. In fact, as I write this blog, it remains unclear what is actually going to happen at the completion of his current term.

Regardless of one’s perspective, Donald Trump has championed the fact that reality is truly relative. He has shown us that it is consensus of agreement that actually generates a reality. What we believe is true is more powerful than objective reality.

This is most powerfully demonstrated via the placebo effect in scientific medical trials. Many a person has actually been cured of a disease because they wholeheartedly believed they were being administered the curing agent, even if it was actually a placebo sugar pill. Though medicine may dismiss the change as mere placebo, cure is cure! The power of belief can concretely transfigure physical reality.

The power of the subconscious to change our mental and physical conditions is the essence of hypnosis. What we tell ourselves, often via forgotten or unknown subconscious programs, is what we manifest.

Donald Trump, as master hypnotist, has demonstrated the power of repetitive speech to determine one’s belief system. The use of affirmations, mantra, prayer, and suggestion to shift belief and behavior is extremely powerful. The collective massing of such efforts, when attuned to the common good, can spiritually advance the planet.

Donald Trump has also embodied the ego at its me-first zenith, which is a reflection of the collective planetary ego of our time. Every individual human must face that the dominance of the ego within their own personality is their greatest resistance to desired spiritual growth.

On a planetary level, it is the collective human ego that puts the wants and desires of itself above the true needs of the whole planet, presenting the greatest blockade to needed planetary change. Donald Trump has impeccably embodied this attitude of resistance, reflecting humanity’s struggle with its own massive ego entrenchment.

For the planet to arrive at the heart center, the needed perspective for planetary survival, the ego must acquiesce to the needs of the greater planetary whole. It is inevitable that we will get there, but we don’t know how far planetary disruption will go before we arrive at the heart center consensus.

To arrive at the position of unconditional love for all that is, is where we are headed. Begin to practice it now in full unconditional love for self. To love every aspect of self, from lowest to highest, will end the need for projection of one’s personal evil upon other.

To love other as self is indeed the path to heart. May we all take giant steps upon it this coming year.

Love to all,

Chuck