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Monday, July 30, 2012, 9:25PM

I was going to talk about the placebo effect, wasn't I? The placebo effect is the bane to all psychological theories, but it can also be manipulated. You know what I mean, right? We know that if a result is expected, then we can basically create that result. It's fake progress, but it's progress.

Trick Placebo
Let's assume that 90% of all people believe that Scar-Be-Gone, my made-up (as far as I know) and self-explanatory skin cream, notice an improvement in their skin quality. Why? The active ingredients include the the hope that you take good care of your skin in the applied areas, the time it takes for your natural processes to heal a scar, and the product name. Mostly the product name. You will look in the mirror and smile because your eyes see what you want them to see (and we aren't even branding a belief into our subconscious on purpose, like we do with tulpae). You are sure the product is working, so you walk out the door with a smile on your face, lower stress, and it is contagious. Everyone is smiling because you are smiling. You get a complement on how good you look and you are sure they aren't focusing on your scar.

What does this have to do with tulpae? I touched on it a little in the example, but I'll delve deeper into it here. Sometimes we want a placebo effect and sometimes we don't. Here's something interesting, the miracle placebo.

Miracle Placebo
Scar-Be-Gone. You use it. You believe in it. It works... because it is increasing the elastin and protein quality of your skin. Your microcirculation is also becoming that of a healthy child. What just happened? Scar-Be-Gone happened without any physical active ingredients. For some unexplainable reason, your body made the repairs. Yes, psychology is mysterious. Faith is mysterious. There may be an official name for it somewhere, but I'll call it the miracle placebo.

This is not what I want to happen when I create a tulpa. When I create a tulpa, I want there to be belief, yes. I want to fool my brain, yes. I don't want to, along the way, believe that my parroting is actually my tulpa. I am also wary enough of the placebo effect that I am worried that I will disregard signs of progress. Let's manipulate the placebo law to our advantage, shall we? Let's make a miracle placebo. When we see monks or spiritual masters, we don't see them as having comfortable lives. They put themselves through mind-wracking situations in order to strengthen their minds. Kill bad brain cells? Make better neuron connections? Drive out other thoughts? I don't know. One theory I have is that they wear themselves down so that they can be subjected to influence (placebos). Of course they will have visions if they starve themselves in pitch-black caves. They take from their visions enlightenment and achieve progress.

Where was I going with this?

 Nowhere, really. It's not like me to do anything but think. I was thinking that I might also be able to apply this concept to remembering things, but then I would create for myself a fake past, which won't go well. Faking photographic memory will cause me to hallucinate (see Don Quijote). I've already tried faking the time in between daymares before (somewhat*) by telling myself how great is was that those days were over. We both know how that turned out (for those who think I am talking to myself, I am talking to the future me who will read this later).

*I actually thought it had been a while because I have a skewed concept of time due to forgetting. I was extremely social at the time, so I wore myself out enough for the 'long time' since my last daymare to be partially true at least. I was congratulating myself, in a way, by being relieved that things were finally settling down. I guess I warped the saying, "It gets worse before it gets better."

Progress: No speech. Narrating. Listening.