Placebo effect increasing as time goes on?

Wired has a feature talking about the placebo effect, and specifically the finding that its potency is increasing. This is apparently driving some pharmaceutical companies insane. The full article can be found here.

I'm especially curious about what the "magickal" implications of this might be. Can this be taken as a good sign or a bad one? On the one hand, it may indicate increased suggestibility (increased robotism -- undesirable). On the other hand, it may mean that people are more naturally able to affect their physical bodies by mental processes (decreased difficulty in self-alteration -- desirable).

I'm less convinced the potency of the effect is increasing than I am in the mind's ability to impact the effects. As they explore the mind's ability to do that, more and more pharmaceuticals might come to be seen as trash.

Another prominent and similarly contentious trend affecting society is the Flynn effect, which, I hear, might be breaking down...

peter carroll has suggested (in my experience accurately) that the effects of magic have been gradually (and now rapidly) losing potency on the gross physical plane and gaining power on the psychic plane, thus making it much easier to convince yourself (or others) of virtually any effect. this isn't a good or bad thing, it's just the way of it, and i think the best response is to explore more aspects of inwardly directed psychic potential.

ezavan wrote:peter carroll has suggested (in my experience accurately) that the effects of magic have been gradually (and now rapidly) losing potency on the gross physical plane and gaining power on the psychic plane, thus making it much easier to convince yourself (or others) of virtually any effect.

That sounds like an intriguing model! Might you happen to know where he discusses it?

in peter carroll's psychonaut (which, by the way, was published in print as a companion to liber null, and failed to appear (as far as i know) in the e-book version of liber null in the archives) there is a list of several "prophecies" regarding trends in the forming contemporary paradigm. you can find the paragraph-long, seductively worded theory in the section of psychonaut called "new aeon magic".

ezavan wrote:peter carroll has suggested (in my experience accurately) that the effects of magic have been gradually (and now rapidly) losing potency on the gross physical plane and gaining power on the psychic plane, thus making it much easier to convince yourself (or others) of virtually any effect. this isn't a good or bad thing, it's just the way of it, and i think the best response is to explore more aspects of inwardly directed psychic potential.

I haven't read the relevant material and I probably don't have the experience to confirm or deny this theory. Nevertheless, I was wondering: Do you think this could be related to the rise of the "rational materialist" worldview? That is, could it be that the change in collective perception of the material world has actually changed how we can interact with it?

i would absolutely affirm that our change in perception has fundamentally changed our capacity for interaction with the material world. although "rational materialism" satisfies other evolutionary and social needs, the basis for its development is an evolved capacity to deal with a more arbitrarily codified material reality. i would also affirm that this trend in general has allowed for the growth of "medicine" as we know it now. pill-culture in medicine is dangerous, invasive, and largely only works because of a psychic agreement made by the patient to invest belief in its ability to work and a more complete idea of neuroscience or brain chemistry - a noteworthy exception to this general conjecture is antibiotics. if modern surgical methods didn't have such a high success-rate doctors would still be considered mostly charlatans, but pharmaceutical devices latching onto the tradition which has produced effective surgeries have this process of patient-faith to thank. of course medicine is only one relevant example which i bring up because "the placebo effect" is a term requisitioned by the medical community, the effects of psychic power expanding and magical control over material causes diminishing are far-reaching. the causes and impacts of this trend are almost impossible to gauge at this point in human development. personally i theorize that magical influences wane as matter becomes more solidified due to cosmic expansion. the generation of matter slows down, expanding ever further from the point of singularity or "big bang"; magical manifestations also slow down analogously - however, a magical balance is impossible to disrupt, and the power of raw or aetheric energy is smoothly transitioning into the immaterial realm of psychic capacities. consider the "plague of wizards" we are experiencing at this point - the interest generated by magical texts and the formation of groups such as this forum being prime examples - psychic gifts of clairvoyance, astral travel, energy manipulation, effective psychodrama, magical insight - gifts which once required years of dedication only available to the very talented few are now easily attained by anyone with a reasonable capacity for concentration and an hour or so to kill four days a week. i'm basically regurgitating the work of peter carroll at this point, so let me just reccommend that anyone who followed me this far pick up a print copy of liber null and psychonaut, or go searching for other material generated by the pact of the IOT. great peace and greater love.