There have also been scientific studies involving something called that "nocebo" effect, in which expectations of harm are self-fulfilling. I apologize that I can't at the moment find references to the following two examples.
People who felt themselves sensitive or insensitive to cell phone radiation were put in a functional MRI machine with a cell phone near the head that could be turned on or off. The insensitives when told the phone was turned on showed no change in brain function, but the sensitives showed activity in the brain locations associated with real pain. Although in fact the cell phone was never turned on, the sensitives apparently experienced real pain. The pain is real, but not caused by cell phone radiation -- "nocebo". An experiment was performed on the efficacy of prayer for those in need. People were recruited to pray for hospital patients, with various conditions of the study. The only effect that was found was that if patients were told that they were being prayed for, those patients did worse, presumably because they thought that if people were going to the trouble of praying for them, they must be in worse shape than they had thought. Again, "nocebo". Bruce
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