#placebo magic

[criticalthinkingwitches]

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[ineedlelittlespace]

So, I finally talked to my doctor and started an anxiety medication for the first time a couple of days ago and...you know that Murderbot quote about how nice it would be if you could code a patch for anxiety? It feels like that's what took place in my brain, and I can't decide whether to be euphoric that it feels like it's working or infuriated that this was an option the whole time and I was just too chronically uninsured to access it.

[booksandwitchery]

My library is growing at an alarming rate, and I cannot control myself. It doesn’t help that cover designs are getting so good

[0minimity]

man i love practicing spirituality & shit from a very disbelieving mindset. learnt about Chaos Magic recently & its pretty much what ive been doing for years. sounds very heavily dependant on the placebo effect, from what i gather. that is my favourite effect

[secretexperiment]

*

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Hey everyone, I'm a board-certified wellness influencer and today we'll be practicing our mental gymnastics. First, a warm-up: Chemicals. Toxins. Allopathic. Cleanse. Detox. Here's my discount code. Alright, we're ready to rock. First, we're going to be practicing a few rounds of "your body is divinely intelligent and has the ability to heal itself," BUT ALSO, "you need to buy my supplements to heal." Second, we're practicing the "processed foods are terrible for you and you should avoid them at all costs," BUT ALSO, "buy these highly processed powders that I have a discount code for." And lastly, we're going to get in a few reps of "Big Pharma wants to keep you sick to make money," BUT ALSO, "I'm not going to mention that I'm part of the multi-trillion dollar wellness industry." Happy mental gymnastics-ing!

They never want to talk about Big Placebo. Mostly because they always want to sell you something.

[tchaikovskym]

I have to admit I never even imagined witches to be evil until I came here on tumblr and read some of y'alls analysis of literature and other media. The whole evil laugh and brewing potions did not connect to being evil in my mind ever. I was just raised with everyone around me thinking witches were cool as hell.

[era-of-ages]

Was having a breakdown and talking down from it and came upon the realization that things really are magical. Science is just what we call magical things that we know about. Cooking is alchemy, music is vibrations in the air that make you feel things, the placebo effect actually fucking works. I don't personally believe in any gods or spirits or forces in the universe, but I do believe in the raw human power of belief and how everything really is magical if we choose to see it that way. Absolutely fantastic.

[blujayonthewing]

I FOUND MY LONG LOST TAROT DECK??

along with a baggie of what appear to be runes I??? made out of hardtack????

[wern]

sometimes you need a couple days off your meds to make you go holy shit that serotonin reuptake really was being selectively inhibited huh

[deus-ex-mona]

help nooooo i just realised that they butchered akechi’s character too

[welcometogrouchland]

I already used this meme for spiderverse last week but watched Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio tonight and

[ID: the Jonathan Van Ness "okay, it's totally fine. Why am I crying?" Meme. End ID]

[twiggybeing]

I think my skin is softer

I hope it is actually softer

Like where I shave isn't really, but other parts of my face feel a bit softer

[booksandwitchery]

Wish me luck because I’m desperately going to need it

[delphinidin4]

I've been at an impasse with my magical practice, because I'm a very skeptical person, and I was stuck between "I want to believe that this will work" and "I don't believe that this will work." So it was like I had to ignore the fact that I didn't believe it just to enjoy it.

But I've said for months that the practice of magic is just the practical application of psychology, and for some reason, watching this video really solidified that for me. I've had a big problem with "manifesting" language because some manifesting communities become victim-blamey and toxic, but I've realized that the manifesting approach gets some things right: the placebo effect is very strong, and if studies have shown that just thinking about exercising can make your muscles grow by 13%, then the point of doing magic, for me, isn't to ignore my scientific brain: it's to recognize that mental power DOES have real effects on the world and that cultivating my ability to harness the placebo effect really will make my spells more powerful.

So instead of being at war with myself, fighting against my natural bent toward scientific thought, I need to just recognize that science backs up the power of placebo and do my best to give myself and others I may help the best placebo effect I can. That means lots of woo-woo set dressing and ceremony and intention and manifesting and visualizing and music and chanting and mindfulness. It means putting on a goddamned SHOW. (And being very honest about it to others, because honest placebos are still effective.)

[mars-ipan]

i think the reason people get so crazy about magic/spiritual stuff like crystals and essential oils to the point where it becomes a pseudoscience is that they don’t understand that it’s more symbolism and power of suggestion than fact (and that saying that doesn’t mean that it’s completely ineffective)