I am not worthy

[Moonlight Shadow]

I am not worthy

Spangles should give a try really...

For apuncture, read chiropractice. My chiro, upon hearing a complaint about a RSI on my left arm (pain from chest to end of two fingers) decided to probe my ribs with a kind of small hammer. I asked him what he was doing and started waffling on about "re-organising my molecular structure". He must have hit the right nerve ending as my RSI went away after a few years of giving me some discomfort but I doubt it has anything to do with my molecules being re-jigged...

[WOM]

I am not worthy

You should have offered him $100 for the small hammer.

[Reed John]

I am not worthy

Even without looking at the data, hypnotherapy seems much more plausible, on the surface than any of that other mumbo jumbo.

As far as I can tell, I don't think scientists have fully explained how our consciousness works or exactly how "paying attention" works, but we know that the mind can be trained or molded to ignore certain inputs or, at least, focus on some more than others. We do this in our daily lives, so it's not much of a stretch to suppose there is some way that we could train our minds to ignore a certain pain input completely. And if our mind can block the pain, then it seems reasonable that there could be a kind of feedback where we can let certain muscles loosen and so forth such that birthing or other usually painful experiences could be much less painful.

We don't have to make up any new entities like meridians or chi to know that that's at least possible.

[Reed John]

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I misplaced a comma there. Oh well.

[WOM]

I am not worthy

I like this new era of admitting error without editing. It's like...nudism, but without the self-consciousness and perverts.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I am not worthy

We don't have to make up any new entities like meridians or chi

Whatever Ch'i is — or isn't — it hardly qualifies as "new."

[Reed John]

I am not worthy

Good point. I meant "not observable" or extraneous. Which doesn't mean "new" at all, does it? I'm not sure what my thought process was there.

[Taylor]

I am not worthy

You were using "new" as a synonym for "invented".

[Reed John]

I am not worthy

Yes. Let's go with that explanation.

[Stumpy Pepys]

I am not worthy

Even without looking at the data, hypnotherapy seems much more plausible, on the surface than any of that other mumbo jumbo.
As far as I can tell, I don't think scientists have fully explained how our consciousness works or exactly how "paying attention" works ...

Yes, but I think we have to be careful here. Some proponents of hypnosis claim it's an altered state of consciousness, which is something I'm highly sceptical about -- I can't think of anything a hynotised person could do that a non-hypnotised person couldn't.

That's not to say hypnotism is quackery, but it may be just that the subject is more compliant and suggestible. However, you might arguably get similar results with something like cognitive behavioural therapy. The other problem with testing hyphotherapy is that it's nigh impossible to construct a control to test it against.

[Reed John]

I am not worthy

"Altered state of consciousness" is a pretty wooly term to begin with, isn't it?

[Stumpy Pepys]

I am not worthy

Well, I meant something akin to the difference between sleep and wakefulness for example.