Is hypnosis just a placebo ?

Marie-Anne Oswald - Maho Hypnose

I have been asked this question a lot. 

In fact I myself am particularly fascinated by the ability of the body to self heal. 

Every day I witness incredible things happening in terms of healing bad behaviors, phobias sometimes in just one session. 

You walk in the office having bitten your nails since you are 4, you’re walking out the office two hours later not wanting to bite your nails anymore. How is it even possible ? 

During my first year at medical school, I actually learned about the basic principle ruling every living being : homeostasis, the principle of self-regulation. 

It took millions of years to develop our human bodies the way we experiment them today. We are the product of evolution and have inherited both microorganisms that existed since the creation and the ability to adapt to survive in almost any environment.  

The only criteria for those mechanisms to keep on being transmitted ? the ability to self-regulate and/ or to self-heal. 

I want to share here two other very interesting facts that I learned at the University of Zurich in the very first months of the Bachelor in Medicine :

  1. Stress is either originating or aggravating a illness because stress perturbs this very ability of the body to self-heal
  2. The most well-known effect is the Placebo effect. 

Both concern all illnesses of the human body. 

What about people who need an operation ? Some American doctors pushed the vice to the maximum simulating operations. 

They anesthetized all the patients, operated on half of them and told them all that they’ve been operated on. More than 75% of the patients reported to feel well and were all healthy even years after their “fake surgery”.

“Placebo” is just another word to translate your ability to self-heal. 

Don’t underestimate the power of your mind alone to heal you.