Imagine this, two groups of people are given identical cigarettes. One group is told the cigarettes are nicotine free. The brain processes accordingly and the group who believe the cigarette is nicotine free show entirely different brain activity. Indeed, the reward pathways that lead to addiction fail to exhibit activity in the group who believe the cigarette is nicotine free.
Can you imagine this? This is much more than a placebo. What is being suggested in our two groups goes far beyond placebo—it would suggest that our beliefs are as powerful as a physical influence!
Beyond The Placebo Effect
If you read my book, I Believe: When What You Believe Matters, then you shouldn’t be surprised when I tell you that these supposed hypothetical groups are in fact very real! Quoting Science News, “‘Our research group has begun to show that beliefs are as powerful a physical influence on the brain as neuroactive drugs,’ said Read Montague, director of the Computational Psychiatry Unit at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute.” The article went on, “Montague and his team found that the people who believed they had smoked nicotine cigarettes made different choices and had different neural signals than the other participants, despite the fact that both groups had consumed the same substance.
The scientists also found people who believed they had smoked nicotine had significantly higher activity in their reward-learning pathways. Those who did not believe they had smoked nicotine did not exhibit those same signals. ‘It was the belief alone that modulated activity in the learning pathway,’ Montague said. ‘This goes beyond the placebo effect.'”
Now here’s the real punch line, “‘Nothing is more convincing than how a drug can make you feel differently,’ Montague said. ‘A drug can induce a belief state, which itself causes the change.’ Scientists might be able to harness this belief system, capable of inducing physiological changes . . . ‘” 1
Harnessing the Power of Belief
Think about that, your belief is powerful enough to change your physical reality! Is there a limit though?
My own research has led me to ask this question many times over the past thirty years. I have witnessed people use our healing and immune programs and reverse conditions others had given up on. I have letters from folks who suffered from headache pain for years and who found our InnerTalk headache program provided relief. I have before and after pictures from a pilot study we conducted a few years ago showing how much participants were able to reverse the appearance of age using our younging programs. Not only that, I have seen everything from weight loss and smoking cessation to accelerated learning and depression conquered by our programs–and all of this because of a change in belief. That’s exactly what InnerTalk is patented to do–change belief! Turn those limiting self-doubt notions into powerful positive fundamentals holding up life beliefs that are fully supportive–that’s what InnerTalk does.
I close every one of my radio shows with this statement, “Remember, believing in yourself always matters!” There is no more important message that I can leave with you, so do believe in yourself today!
Thanks for the read!
Eldon