Suggestible You summary

No one likes pain, and quite sensibly, most of us try to avoid it. Yet, pain plays a crucial role in our survival. It’s our body’s way of telling us when something is wrong and action must be taken – whether it’s a toothache or a snakebite. In short, pain tells you what to do and what to avoid.

But sometimes pain can hang around long after the thing that caused it has disappeared. It’s called chronic pain, and it afflicts almost three in ten people in the US.

During a 2011 trial for a new therapy to treat Parkinson’s disease – an incurable condition that robs sufferers of control of their body – there was one patient for whom the treatment seemed to be an outstanding success. Almost all his symptoms went away. He stopped slurring his words, his handwriting got better and he could even go back to work. Finally, after years of searching for relief, he felt like himself again.

Imagine the researchers’ disappointment when the results came in. It turned out that the patient had received a placebo. His brain had made the improvements all by itself, without the drug.

In 1886 a woman suffering from severe hay fever and asthma walked into a doctor’s office. The doctor, who knew the woman, was aware of her ailments, but he suspected her reactions might have more to do with her “nervous temperament” – which ran in her family – than her physiology. He decided to test her. So before her visit, he put a rose in his office. Predictably, as soon as she came through the door, she suffered a powerful allergic reaction followed by an asthma attack.

Here’s the thing. The rose was fake.

If you’ve seen a lot of classic Hollywood movies, you can probably conjure up an image of an evil hypnotist with crazy eyes and swirly spirals, shining a pocket watch in front of some innocent victim’s face, programing everyone he meets to do his bidding - rob banks, kill the president, or become his personal slave.

Well, the truth is, it’s not exactly like in the movies. But hypnosis does have real effects.

If you’ve ever seen an optical illusion – even something as common as a straight stick looking bent when it’s in water – or noticed a blind spot in your vision, you’ll know that your brain is not infallible when it comes to sight. But what about your memories?

The key message here is: The phenomenon of false memories shows just how susceptible memory is to suggestion.

When you’re choosing a bottle of wine to go with dinner, what do you look at? If you’re not a sommelier, you probably pick the one with the nicest label near the upper range of your price limit.

Because it’ll taste better, right?

It should be clear by now that expectation is built into who we are and that it can do some astonishing things. And for all of humanity’s history, this power has been used in everything from shamanic rituals to faith healings.

Some of those claims may well be dubious, but there are ways you can integrate this power into your daily life.