Running Head: TRANSPERSONAL PERSPECTIVE OF PLACEBO EFFECT
Explanation of the Placebo Effect from a
Transpersonal Psychology Perspective
Leah B. Mitchell
Western New Mexico University
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TRANSPERSONAL PERSPECTIVE OF PLACEBO EFFECT
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Abstract
This paper briefly explores the field of transpersonal psychology, its history, and provides a
summary of several peer reviewed studies results that explain the placebo effect from a
transpersonal psychology perspective. It also illustrates the importance of the placebo effect’s
future use in human health and wellness. Transpersonal psychology is a branch of psychology
that strives to incorporate the scientific side of psychology with the metaphysical – such as
transcendent experiences and altered states of consciousness – to make possible the exploration
and research of unexplainable phenomena, and fully understand the human mind and
experiences. Research has shown that not only can the placebo effect be reproduced, but that it is
often attributed to personal beliefs and intention, and has a positive impact on the health and
wellness of those experiencing it. Even though the placebo effect’s underlying mechanisms in
action cannot completely be explained, and it cannot be touched or easily quantified, it is a very
real phenomenon that should be thoroughly studied and explored. The following studies illustrate
that the best mechanisms for its exploration lie within the boundaries of transpersonal
psychology and its holistic perspective on health and well-being. The implications suggested by
these studies are of no little significance to humanity and should therefore undergo further indepth research for the benefit of all.
Keywords: transpersonal psychology, placebo effect, holistic, biofield
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Explanation of the Placebo Effect from a
Transpersonal Psychology Perspective
Transpersonal psychology is a sub-field of psychology that attempts to integrate the
science of psychology with the insights of various spiritual disciplines –including the role of
altered states, mystical experiences, contemplative practices, and ritual for self-healing and
transcendence. It is a holistic approach to an individual’s health addressing the needs not only of
their body and mind, but of their spirit as well, that combines knowledge and observation of
“exceptional human experiences of healing into the everyday practice of medicine, and to make
extraordinary healings ordinary” (Fauver, 2014). Practiced with a transpersonal perspective
approach, mind and body healing takes on a whole new level of possibilities and applications.
For example, the placebo effect is when a placebo – a substance with no known medical effects –
is given to a person who then experiences a health or medical improvement, as if they had taken
actual medicine. The amount of statistical evidence supporting the existence of the placebo effect
phenomenon and the implications for its beneficial use in healing is staggering.
According to Price, Finniss, and Benedetti (2008), the research community’s perception
and approach to understanding this effect has altered its focus from a placebo simply being an
inactive medicinal treatment, to a comprehensive reproduction of curative treatment. It has been
found that many placebo responses are caused by various means that are dependent upon
context. For example, analgesic placebo responses have been known to be triggered and
sustained simply by a patient’s expectation of lessened symptoms, as well as emotional or
motivational shifts. It has been known for many years that the placebo effect has shown to
produce physiological changes in patients; it is not just response bias. According to the
researcher (as sited in de Craen et al., 1999) who conducted what is now believed to be the first
controlled trial of the placebo effect in 1799, “[A]n important lesson in physic is here to be
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learnt, the wonderful and powerful influence of the passions of the mind upon the state and
disorder of the body” (Price, et al., 2008). A few hundred years later with more in-depth
research and better technology, we are finally beginning to explore in earnest the holistic aspect
of human beings by acknowledging the possibility of a mind-body-spirit system, and becoming
more able to identify both psychological and neurobiological components that make the placebo
effect possible. In this review of placebo effect statistics, one way that is used to study placebo
effect is the open-hidden paradigm, which refers to the ways in which a patient can receive
treatment; open treatment is performed by a clinician in full view of the individual, and hidden
treatment is received in an impersonal manner, where the individual is not necessarily aware they
are receiving treatment or not, such as via an IV drip (Price, et al., 2008).
During several studies conducted (as cited in Amanzio et al. 2001, Benedetti et al. 2003,
Colloca et al. 2004, Levine & Gordon 1984) it was revealed that open treatment is notably more
effective than hidden treatment. One study was conducted in which the treatment was given
openly by a physician who also offered verbal support and suggestions for relief of the patient’s
pain. These patients experienced greater pain reduction than the group of patients whose
medicine was administered impersonally via concealed mechanism. Following the same openhidden model, another study revealed that patients receiving the open style treatment required
less pain medication post-surgery than did those who received hidden treatment. It has been
known for many years now that during the use of analgesic placebo treatment, the individual
patient responses vary from profound to inconsequential, though what is not known is why.
Perhaps the inconsistency is due to an undiscovered and currently immeasurable influence. After
all, different patients will be affected differently by various environmental, emotional, and
cognitive factors including memory, expectancy, and desire. Those factors, in turn, will affect the
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many components of placebo response, such as its quality, extent, and overall significance
(Price, et al., 2008).
According to this review, the emotional and cognitive effects on the placebo effect
involve expectancy, memory of previous experience, and desire. The study defines expectancy as
the likelihood a patient will experience an expected outcome, and memory of prior experiences
can also play a role in the outcome of a treatment. Also of significance is the desire of the patient
to reduce their physical pain and or discomfort, or their desire to increase the occurrence of
positive feelings or abilities. In analgesic placebo studies, it is thought that desire and expectancy
combined can have profound effects on treatment results (Price et al., 2008).
There is much research that illustrates that when studied from a transpersonal
perspective, the placebo effect has an enormous potential to be used to benefit clinical research
as well as to promote and encourage healing. More recent laboratory and applied research has
already attempted to explain the placebo effect from a transpersonal psychology perspective,
with promising results. It is becoming clear that even as science and technology advance,
humanity is experiencing a somewhat spiritual paradigm shift, and the fields of transpersonal
psychology and transpersonal healing/medicine are becoming increasingly more relevant and
necessary by the day.
Literature Review
The two schools of psychology in America that monopolized the field in the mid 1900’s
were Freudian psychology and behaviorism. Out of frustration of the inadequacy of these two
schools of thought to completely explain the human psyche, humanistic psychology was
developed and pioneered by psychologists such as Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, and Anthony
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Sutich, who disagreed with the heavy reliance on abnormal pathology and Freudian
psychoanalysis to explain away all of humanity’s psychological processes. In contrast,
humanistic psychology focused more on “human growth and potential, and on higher functions
of the psyche” and “emphasized that psychology has to be sensitive to practical human needs and
serve important interests and objectives of human society” (Grof, 2008).
To Maslow and Sutich, however, humanistic psychology’s broad range of approaches
concerning interpersonal, psychosocial, psychosomatic, and emotional problems was still
missing a vital aspect – the human psyche’s spiritual element. The social culture of the time, with
its new interest in Eastern metaphysical practices as well as its increasingly popular
experimentation with psychedelic drugs and altered states of consciousness, suggested to them
that a more comprehensive psychological school was needed that would include aspects of
consciousness, psychedelic and trance states, creativity, science, and religion. It was then that a
truly holistic approach, emphasizing the importance of the whole and the interdependence of its
parts, to the human psyche was developed: transpersonal psychology.
Prior to the development of the transpersonal approach, modern Western psychology had
been described by Michael Harner, an American anthropologist, as ethnocentric because it had
been “formulated and promoted by Western materialistic scientists, who consider their own
perspective to be superior to that of any other human groups at any time of history” (Grof, 2008).
These scientists believed that matter was the whole of it, intelligence and consciousness were
unimportant byproducts, and that spirituality of any kind suggested ignorance, superstition, and
primitive thinking. It is not a surprise that transpersonal psychology was conceptualized; it was
done out of necessity to meet deeper physical and psychological needs that were not previously
being met.
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Transpersonal psychology picked up where humanistic psychology fell short, much in the
way that complementary and alternative medicine is bridging gaps left by standard Western
medical practices. Its holistic approach to health and wellness of the mind, body, and spirit, and
its perspectives on relatively unexplained phenomena such as the placebo effect, can potentially
benefit humanity in ways that would have been unthinkable a mere fifty years ago. The placebo
effect, while proven to be a real phenomenon, is commonly overlooked as a viable means to
healing and/or recovery. However, by looking at it from the perspective of transpersonal
psychology we can begin to understand its possible mechanisms and begin to utilize it fully.
Further, since it has been demonstrated time and again that our thoughts and intentions can
positively or negatively affect our physical health, by not approaching our health in a holistic
manner we are not taking full advantage of our self-healing capabilities.
A study by Brook and Fauver (2014) suggests that the placebo effect is the same as what
they refer to as “therapeutic ritual healing”, which is defined as the healing from an injury or
illness because of some type of therapeutic ritual between the patient and physician. They
hypothesize that it is the human biofield, which uses electromagnetic frequencies to relay
messages to other parts of our bodies internally, to and from each other and our environments,
that makes the placebo effect possible. The term “biofield” refers to an electromagnetic field that
surrounds and penetrates all living organisms. It occupies the space around our bodies externally,
and our organs, and even cells, internally. This study states that the biofield’s “informationladen, wave-oriented, transference of energy appears to be capable of carrying messages of
healing, and its capacity to give instructions to damaged organs and cells appears to be
instantaneous”, as well as that the biofield seems to be finely receptive to both cognitive and
emotional states, and able to be influenced “by others through the therapeutic relationship”
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(Brook & Fauver, 2014). This study concludes that because the biofield is responsive to thoughts
and suggestions, therapeutic ritual healing can indeed have a positive impact on the human
biofield and aid in healing.
According to a study review by James Giordano (2016), there has been ample research
done that shows there is a physiological mechanism for the placebo effect, and that is can have a
positive benefit on the treatment and health of the individual patient. He suggests that using the
placebo effect as a treatment should be permitted if the patient has asked for treatment, there is
an established and trusting doctor/patient relationship, traditional treatment has not been
effective and/or it does not interfere with traditional treatment, and the cost is no more than the
doctor’s basic office visit fees. Of course, to green-light the use of placebo effect for patient
treatment, ongoing research will be necessary in determining when placebo treatment works or
does not work, which patients it will work on and when, and under what conditions, as well as
the ethical complications or restraints that accompany this type of treatment (Giordano, 2016).
Studies on the neurobiological aspect of the placebo effect by Meissner, Bingel, Colloca,
Wager, Watson, & Flaten (2011) focused on whether placebo treatments exert any influence on
the “pain processing network”, which is the region of the brain that is associated with the
experience of pain. The research studies concluded that “placebo analgesia involves the
activation of cingulo-frontal brain regions together with subcortical structures such as the
midbrain periaqueductal gray (PAG), hypothalamus, and amygdala. Connectivity analyses
further revealed that the behavioral placebo analgesic effect depends on an enhanced functional
coupling of the rACC with brainstem areas such as the PAG” (Meissner, et al, 2011). What that
translates to is that the authors of the study determined that the placebo effect is an authentic and
measurable neurobiological experience that has substantial possible benefits to both health care,
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and clinical research, and suggest further investigation should be carried out because of its
importance to future health care treatment.
Another study done by Kelly A. Turner at the University of California, Berkeley (2014),
focused on surveying twenty patients who experienced spontaneous or radical remission of
cancer – which the study defined as “a remission that occurs without medical treatment, or with
medical treatment considered inadequate to produce the remission” – and fifty “nonconventional healers” from eleven different countries. The physicians answered questions related
to what they thought caused cancer, and the RR patients were questioned on why they thought
they were cured. The results of the survey showed that among all seventy of the subjects
interviewed, there were three prominent beliefs that occurred. The first underlying belief was
that a mind-body-spirit interaction exists. The second, that cancer cells only thrive under adverse
conditions in the mind-body-spirit system and that to kill the cancer a patient must change the
adverse conditions into positive conditions. Finally, the third was that illnesses represent a
blockage in our mind-body-spirit system, and health represents flowing movement. The study
also showed that the belief that we have a mind-body-spirit system has three sub-beliefs: that
thoughts and energy affect our physical selves; that the spirit is our primary aspect of being, not
mind-body; and that energy is in everything (Turner, 2014). The study strongly suggests that the
results of placebo research, psychoneuroimmunology, and epigenetics provide substantial
evidence for the sub-belief that thoughts can affect the physical body.
In a final study Haimerl & Valentine (2001) questioned whether practicing Buddhist
meditation would lead to positive development on all three levels, self-directedness,
cooperativeness, and self-transcendence, which represent the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and
transpersonal levels of self-concept. They predicted it would, and distributed a questionnaire
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consisting of 102 questions sampled from three sub-scales of the Temperament and Character
Inventory (TCI): 38 intrapersonal, 38 interpersonal, and 26 transpersonal. Upon conclusion of
the study, their prediction proved accurate and they discovered that “the greatest changes as a
function of meditation experience were on the transpersonal scale” (Haimerl & Valentine, 2001).
Discussion
Limitations
As with any alternative healing method, the use of the placebo effect in health care does
have some limitations and complications. In an assessment of laboratory and clinical trials
regarding transpersonal healing, a common and popular form called distant healing intention
(DHI), was discussed. Marilyn Schlitz determined that despite the popularity of DHI, its
efficiency rate was sporadic and the mechanism for the healing that did occur was not clear. In
her conclusion, however, Schlitz suggested that even with the results not being indisputable,
there was enough evidence to show both ontological and epistemological significance of its
possible use, and ways in which science and spirituality can be combined (Schlitz, 2014).
Similarly, Brook and Fauver’s study, while promising, is limited due to an inability to physically
measure and ascertain the existence of a “biofield” that can explain the emotional, mental,
physical, and spiritual treatments on an individual (Brook & Fauver, 2014).
One could make a convincing argument that it is possible the findings of Marilyn Schlitz
lend support to Brook and Fauver’s theory of a physical biofield – with the implication that the
closer physical biofields are to each other, the greater the possibility of electron exchange. The
findings could also suggest a transpersonal/placebo relation to Lev Vygotsky’s social theory, the
“zone of proximal development (ZPD). If human beings can learn more efficiently when in close
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proximity to others, perhaps we can also heal ourselves more effectively in close proximity to
others who support our therapeutic efforts. The idea makes even more sense when considering
that Vygotsky himself went through somewhat of a “holistic period”. In 1925, he wrote a paper
titled Consciousness as a Problem in the Psychology of Behavior, in which he discusses the lack
of integration of consciousness and psychology and suggests that because of that, the field of
psychology is limiting itself from seeing the whole picture (Vygotsky, 1979). Unfortunately,
much of his work during that period was fragmented and unpublished until many years later.
Giordano (2016) suggests, citing a more complex issue, that the major limitations of the
placebo effect involve ethics. While a patient can benefit somewhat from a placebo that they are
aware of, it has been shown that to receive the full benefits the patient should not be aware that
they are being given a placebo treatment. Whether it is ethical to essentially lie to a patient –
even if for the patient’s own benefit – or not, is something that is, and will continue to be,
difficult to determine. Another limitation, pointed out by Gabriel S. Crane of the California
Institute of Integral Studies, suggested that an “obvious and critical” limitation concerns with
“retaining a respect and appreciation for both the placebo effects and the evidence-based
treatments that good, reputable science demonstrates”, and believes that there is not just one
placebo effect, but many, which will all benefit or effect individuals differently (Crane, 2016).
Finally, a limitation with some importance regarding the discussion and implementation
of placebo healing is the significant divide between new-age metaphysics and religion and the
strictly mechanical application of science, in which anything that cannot be easily explained by
hard science is simply dismissed as insignificant (Ferrer, 2016). Because of this divide, perhaps
the biggest limitation of all are those who refuse to acknowledge the potential benefits of placebo
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use, and who dismiss the findings of legitimate studies as being insignificant only because they
cannot be easily explained by our current scientific standards.
Conclusion and Future Study
Glenn Hartelius from the California Institute of Integral Studies (2016) reviewed the
history of two approaches to transpersonal psychology: the perennialist and the participatory.
The perennnialist approach suggests that different ideas about the nature of reality are simply
flawed impressions of a primary, nondual source. This source exists in and of itself without
relying on, referring or relating to, anything else –a smile is always a smile, no matter who it
belongs to or why it appears. However, in the participatory approach, existence is relational to all
else. With this approach, a smile is something that occurs in relation to something else, such as
an emotion or an occurrence. Therefore, an individual may be smiling at something someone
said, but is simultaneously living in a world where other people also smile, for a vast amount of
reasons. Hartelius suggests that if transpersonal experiences are viewed as a product of
relationships, our extraordinary experiences become real events that can be scientifically studied,
rather than mystical phenomena. Consequently, the field can research topics such as supernormal
abilities, intuition, distance healing, etc. while still being taken seriously by the scientific
community and academia (Hartelius, 2016).
It is true, as Fauver suggests (2016), that “changing to a new medical paradigm will not
be easy”; he believes that there are three stages that must be experienced before a paradigm shift
in thinking can occur. First, our society must recognize that there is an anomaly. The placebo
effect, among many others, is one such anomaly, in that it does not fit in with the modern model
of medicine. Second, most of society must gradually realize that there are inconsistencies. I
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believe we are beginning to realize that now. Finally, society will shift over to the new paradigm,
even though there will still be resistance for a while (Fauver, 2014).
The placebo effect, when viewed in a transpersonal context, is a phenomenon that can
potentially benefit the health of the entire human species. It is widely recognized that the placebo
effect, as well as transpersonal psychology and alternative healing, are subjects on which more
thorough and intensive scientific research is necessary. Of course, while scientific methods and
studies should be utilized, the focus of transpersonal studies should not be limited to science, nor
turned into a strictly scientific field; that may not even be possible. If that happened, its growth
and potential would be hindered by trapping it in a single, closed worldview. Both transpersonal
psychology and the placebo effect, need to be allowed to be researched and practiced holistically
and with open-mindedness (Ferrer, 2014). A paradigm shift is indeed taking place in both
psychology and medicine; we must simply continue the groundbreaking work and research until
the balance tips in favor of the health and well-being of the many aspects of humanity.
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