How Your Expectations Can Change Your Life

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

During World War II, Henry Beecher, an anesthesiologist serving in the U.S. Army, noticed that 32% of the soldiers he treated for horrific battle wounds felt no pain. A further 44% experienced only slight or mild discomfort, despite the fact they had shrapnel embedded in their bodies. Beecher hypothesized that the euphoria of surviving battle resulted in the release of a natural painkiller. When morphine was running low in Europe, Beecher thought he could harness the mind’s seeming ability to produce natural painkillers in a different way by injecting soldiers who were about to undergo surgery with a simple saline solution, while telling the soldiers they were receiving morphine. About 90% of these patients underwent the surgery with little or no pain.

Transcript

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0:00.0	4.
0:01.0	Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast.
0:10.9	During World War II, Henry Beecher, an anesthesiologist serving in the US Army, noticed that 32% of
0:16.2	the soldiers he treated for horrific battle wounds felt no pain.
0:19.4	A further 44% experienced only slight or mild discomfort despite the fact they had strapped
0:24.1	on the bed and in their bodies.
0:25.6	Beecher hypothesized that the euphoria is surviving battle, resulted in the release of a natural
0:29.8	pain killer.
0:30.8	When morphine was running low in Europe, Beecher thought he could harness the mind's
0:33.8	semen ability to produce natural pain killers in a different way by injecting soldiers
0:37.8	who were about to undergo surgery with a simple sailing solution.
0:40.8	While telling the soldiers they were receiving morphine, about 90% of these patients underwent
0:44.9	the surgery with little or no pain.
0:47.0	Beecher's field expedient placebo treatments would go on to open up decades of research
0:50.4	into the power of our expectations.
0:52.3	On today's show, my guests will walk us through that fascinating research and how the
0:55.5	connects between the body and the mind is a lot stronger and wilder than we know.
0:59.4	His name is David Robson and he's an award-winning science writer and the author of the Expectation
1:03.5	Effect, how your mindset can change your world.
1:05.8	David and I begin our conversation with how and why the brain operates as a prediction
1:09.7	machine and how the expectations it generates can shape the reality we experience.
1:13.5	We then discuss how even when someone's pain recognition is very real, the placebo
	...

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