ABSTRACT

This chapter looks at healing rituals from a variety of sources and uses that data to compare it with our dynamic interdisciplinary applications. A large number of studies show that the beliefs and expectations a patient has going into treatment can actually affect the outcome of the treatment. Placebo researchers have determined that the beliefs of the patient and physician, the setting, the images of the ritual, and the objects used in the ritual are all factors. The effects of placebo caffeine on motor performance differed based on the recipient's beliefs about the treatment. Neuroimaging studies have shown that placebo treatment is associated with changes in brain physiology in patients with Parkinson's disease, depression, and pain and the response depended on the illness. Cross-culturally, anthropologists classify healing rituals as rites of affliction. Rites of affliction "seek to mitigate the influence of spirits thought to be afflicting human beings with misfortune".