The Placebo Effect - Experiences?

An interesting personal experience has made me re-evaluate the power of the placebo effect and I was wondering if anyone else has had any experiences?

My experience surprised me as I didn't actually take anything - yep, you read right, nothing at all ingested - I just dreamt I did! I had a very vivid, very realistic dream last night that I was dropping with a good mate whom I consider would be quite fun to drop with. The pills I dreamt we dropped were known to be very good and very fast hitting. So in my dream I ate my pill and sat back, pretty quickly noting the signs of good MDMA (nausea, followed by slight rushing sensations, increased pulse etc), still dreaming. Then I gradually woke up from this dream to discover my pulse was absolutely thumping and my heart-rate was slightly elevated, I felt slightly nauseous, I was experiencing skin temperature fluctuations and slight tingling associations - all things I normally associate with coming up on a pill, but purely the result of dreaming I'd eaten one.

Of course, once I was properly awake and realised what was going on my body slowly returned to normal - I never experienced any of the effects of rolling (no serotonin realease), just the sensations of starting to "come up", but still, for a dream I thought that was pretty impressive!

So does anyone else have any placebo experiences or stories? I'd love to hear more about such a powerful phenomenon.

Cheers!

Smiley

haha. your on drugs

smilyfish: what you describe is more a dream rather than the placebo effect. ive had a similar dream before also, one where the dream feelings feel so real that when you wake up you are in awe of the body’s ability to replicate such circumstances!

I once got high on Jesus, then I stopped leaving the TV on when I fall asleep.
Benny Hinn is trying to brainwash me goddamnit!

^^^Benny Hinn HAS brainwashed me! praise the lord.8(

The mind is an amazing thing. I mean, it's possible to orgasm in your sleep without even touching yourself - so I think it's certainly possible for the body to replicate the physical sensations of dropping a pill when only dreaming it.

Other examples of this mind-body connection abound: people who "will" themselves to die after a loved one leaves them; 'Phantom' pregnancies
(where a woman wants to be pregnant so much that her body starts to imitate the state of pregnancy - right down to a swollen belly and breastmilk production); people who've cured themselves of terminal illnesses through positive thinking, affirmations and meditation.

And dreams in themselves, are a fascinating and still largely mysterious phenomenon... but I digress

The 'placebo effect' is part of all this but it probably refers to a much more specific thing - generally taking a pill or medication which you believe is going to have a certain effect, so your body reacts as if it's done that, even when the pill has no such powers. It's really been coined by the medical profession to explain why in certain studies, the group given the 'bunk' medication improve as well as those given the 'active' medication. It's also used in a derrogatory sort of way by some to explain the benefits of complementary therapies. 8)

Whatever it is, the placebo effect - or the power of the mind over the body - is not to be underestimated. Sorry for rambling but I just find this an incredible and fascinating subject!

I had these wicked pills last night, they had "Panadol" stamped on them, but my dealer told me they were called "Placebo's".
Man they were so rushy, i stayed up all night....

Sorry, I just had too.

I've actually dreampt on more than one occasion that I was tripping. Tho I have never actually woken up tripping, I find it extremely facinating that my brain can mimic the experience while I am asleep. Tho in reality if it is prettymuch all brain chemistry, I cant see why not.

stace.

I hate waking up after a weird dream, it does my head in for half the day where i feel all weird

It's a coincidence that this thread came up actually, my dream last night had nothing to do with placebo effect, but it was still a vivid enough dream that when I awoke, it made such perfect sense..

I dreamt about a drug synergy called MDXM (MDxx crossed with DXM), it made perfect sense at the time, where me and my friends all dropped some and got the happy euphoric side of MDMA crossed with the Tripped out half of DXM, kind of like Candy flippin I guess... Except this wasn't two drugs.. This was the one.

Come to think of it.. It seems stupid now, but it made perfect sense this morning..

so instead of going out, you can just go to bed early and have as much fun

Saw a guy on a late-night UK TV show (sorta like David letterman, but acctually funny) hypnotise people from the Audiance - and acting like they were on pills. He then said that the people who had actually done it would be noticbly different, and they were - close ups of the faces showed dilated pupils on a few of them (normal before).

Very weird, very amusing.

I've dreamt I've been on my drug of choice, K, before and also rolling. Its not like I take either drug regularly tho but like if I've been listening to some good tunes and feel like goin out but instead go to bed I dream like I'm out... Tis kinda weird.

Strawberry_lovemuffin said:

The mind is an amazing thing. I mean, it's possible to orgasm in your sleep without even touching yourself

Click to expand...

I think you'll find that you are actually touching yourself through these orgasms.

^ I think not

Who knows, maybe we only dream that we're NOT touching ourselves, and orgasm, or maybe we dream that we ARE touching ourselves and orgasm that way as well? ah... the mystery of the mind - well, not that mysterious once you've got a few years of pyschology study under your belt

Who knows, maybe we only dream that we're NOT touching ourselves, and orgasm, or maybe we dream that we ARE touching ourselves and orgasm that way as well? ah... the mystery of the mind - well, not that mysterious once you've got a few years of pyschology study under your belt

Well I'm certain I haven't touched anything :D .... many of these ladies also seem similarly convinced:

http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=98916&highlight=sleep


But we digress....

definately smileyfish, i had the exact same dream, only that when i woke up, i was already peaking pretty hard..
i walked around my bedroom wide-eyed for about five minutes till it 'wore off'