Not just smoke and feathers!
www.essentiafoundation.org
Dr. Currie argues that framing the effectiveness of shamanic medicine in terms of placebo effects alone does not do justice to the sophistication of shamanic practice. The latter, she maintains, is based on a complex, multi-tiered metaphysics whereby cause and effect relations beyond the visible material world are deliberately exploited by the shaman.
  • Anuttara@leminal.spaceOPEnglish
    42·
    22 days ago

    kinda yeah. i know plenty of people who got help from this type of stuff. they do ayuascha retreat and sort through their shit and go on to do their thing. but nobody wants to hear about that, they wanna hear about the guy who got a dramatic psychosis.

    • Solumbran@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      21 days ago

      A lot of scams “work”, and a lot of fake medicine too.

      Being into it just means that you’re going to be biased , and for those things often too biased to have a proper opinion on the matter

      • Anuttara@leminal.spaceOPEnglish
        2·
        21 days ago

        how’s ur opinion not biased if u don’t know anything about it? aren’t u biased in favor of objectivity?

        • Solumbran@lemmy.worldEnglish
          21·
          20 days ago

          I know enough about various bullshit medicines to recognise the pattern. If they want to break out of it, they’ll have to manage to prove themselves quite strongly before I go trust blindly some magic belief.

          Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

            • Solumbran@lemmy.worldEnglish
              21·
              20 days ago

              I’m talking scientific protocol.

              Furthermore, people saying they feel better isn’t enough.

              Most sect members will say that being a member is amazing, should we all join sects then? What is this absurdity to think that the subjective interpretation of people is what makes a medicine work?

                • Solumbran@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  22·
                  19 days ago

                  I did not deny that they feel better. On the contrary, my point was exactly that they do feel better. And that it doesn’t matter.

                  If you have a cancer, and shaman healing makes you feel better, you’ll still die.

                  The scientific protocol allows to determine what is the source of the feeling, for example by comparing with placebo.

                  Does shaman healing work better than someone doing fake shaman healing rituals? I doubt it, but bring up studies that prove me wrong and I’ll be fine with it, at least to some extent.