Tag Archives: nocebo effect

The Big Picture

Posted on August 15, 2023 by Abigail

This morning at brunch, Jerry asked me what I thought were the big philosophic problems of our time. What are the great questions and concerns? I had to take a few moments to squint at the sky and describe whatever … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Medieval, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romantic Love, science, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, seventeeth century, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Advaita Vedanta, ancients v moderns, Antonio Gramsci, Aristotle and teleology, Asian religious systems, Biblical Israel and history, brute power v functional power in Plato’s Republic, class of intellectuals, Confucianism, Copernican Revolution, cultural heritage, current philosophic problems, Dante’s physics, Dante’s worldview, Darwin’s survival of the fittest, deciphering history, decoding the unconscious, deconstructionism, discovering nature’s laws, discovering nature’s ways, Eastern religious systems, Eric Voegelin, erotic patterns, escape from history, fact/value split, facts and values, Freud's unconscious, Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two World Systems, globalization and cross-cultural awareness, globalization of cultural influence, God and mathematics, good faith and the unconscious, Greek philosophy, groupthink, health and the mind, holistic medicine, how to be healthy, human rights, hypocrisy and the unconscious, iatrogenic illness, intellectual class, interesting times, Israel and the duty to remember, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, Jean Francois Leotard, judgmentalism, Kepler’s God and mathematics, living in history, living one’s philosophy, living rightly in nature, maintaining health, marital conversations, meaning of history, Michel Foucault, mind and matter, mind and mechanism, Modernity, modernity and human values, moral rank-pulling, natural healing, natural science and philosophy, nature and history, nature and human beings, nature and purposes, Newton and the Enlightenment, Nietzsche’s will to power, nocebo effect, one’s place in history, Paris, Parisian philosophers and thinkers, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, philosophic distinctions, philosophic questions, philosophical conversation, philosophy and the sciences, placebo effect, post-modern fashions, postmodern opinion shapers, postmodernism, preserving nature, pretend revolutionaries, quantum mechanics, quarrel between ancients and moderns, recording the story, regions of experience, remembering the story, respecting one’s body, respecting the other, revolutionary pretense, rights of individuals, ruining nature, saying what you believe, seekers for truth, self-knowledge, seventeenth century, society and nature, speaking truth to power, spoiling nature, spontaneous remissions, the Bible and divine commands, the Bible and memory, the big picture, the idea of history, the observer and elementary particles, the post-modern unconscious, the Ten Commandments, the unconscious and hidden agendas, transcendence and immanence, truth-seeking, unconscious motivations, understanding the other, Western philosophy, wheel of karma | Leave a comment

The Paranormal and Me

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Abigail

The Paranormal and Me If by “the paranormal” is meant the field of reality that comprises effects not linked to causes by any known physical laws — and if the missing links are likely found in consciousness – then the … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, books, bureaucracy, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Films, Freedom, Friendship, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, Medieval, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, Mysticism, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged academic nonreappointment, academic philosophers, academic politics, academic protocol, academic tenure, ambiguous evidence, anecdotal evidence, bad professional news, cause and effect, collegial ridicule, collegial shunning, conscious beings, consciousness, consciousness research, culture and the paranormal, dangers of psi, digging a well, dowser, dowser’s stick, emotional absence, emotional letdown, everyday experience, finding water, funding for research, funding for unpopular research, house in Maine, intellectual foundations, invisible force, known physical laws, medical candor, mediums who cheat, missing explanatory links, news bearer, nocebo effect, nonphysical causation, one of the boys, paradigm change, paranormal and fraud, physical laws, placebo effect, precognitive bad news, precognitive dreams, premonitions, present day physics, private life and paranormal, professional risk, psychic, psychic power, refuting instance, researching the paranormal, secrets of consciousness, significant coincidence, social death, Stephen E. Braude’s The Gold Leaf Lady: And Other Parapsychological Investigations, study of consciousness, the paranormal, the search for truth, unpopular hypothesis, unsupportive men, what everybody knows | 2 Comments

“Believe You Me”

Posted on May 9, 2017 by Abigail

“Believe You Me” In “Treachery and Transcendence,” last week’s column, I wrote about the disappointing “new treatment” for my walking handicap. Despite all, I decided to continue it for another week or two, just to see if it could be … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Christianity, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, scientism, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a patient's trust, action, Ambiguity, antecedent conditions, Arc of the Covenant, Ark of the Covenant, bad check, belief, broken promise, bystanders, chosen people, commitment, credance, credibility, demoralization, demoralizing experience, desert wandering, determinism, Divine mission, Egyptian bondage, Emmanuel Levinas, enabling, experimental treatment, fate of Korah, freedom, holiness, human worth, iatrogenic, interpersonal relationships, Israelites, Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness, Korah's rebellion, land of milk and honey, Levite rebellion, Levites, lying, manna, midrash, misplaced help, moral dispute, Moral evaluation, moral responsibility, Moses, Moses' humility, Moses' leadership, Mount Sinai, nocebo effect, nullified promise, Numbers 16, parting of Red Sea, passover night, philosophers, placebo effect, plausibility, playing devil's advocate, prayer guidance, promise, promissory note, psychology, rebel faction, repairing the breach, repairing the world, Sartre's "the serious man", spiritual competition, spiritual envy, spiritual mediator, spiritual rank, spiritual track record, temptation, the Other, the ten plagues, Torah Study, transcendence, treachery, trust, truth, univocality, walking handicap, words | 2 Comments

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