Calibanbutcher said:
Actually, this could be a variaton of the "Kluger Hans" phenomenon.
You give the cat/dog something you expect to make your pet better. You communicate this via body language and probably also by telling your pet. Your pet "believes" you and responds to the medicine positively.
Please note, that this is simply an assumption on how this could work, I do not claim, that this is ZE ONLY KORREKT WAY.
Also: entertaining, if you understand german: http://www.cdkev.de/aufsaetze_vortraege/sonstiges/marburger_ek/marburger_ek.htm
Aye, I'm pretty much on board that train of thought of yours.
Good article you linked to, thanks. Thing is, I do not believe in anything supernatural above and beyond the extremely unlikely size and processing power of the human brain. That's right. The most alien and out-of-place, the most odd-one-out in the amorphous, mostly smelly mass of life and death on earth is the human brain with all its silly ideas, tremendous power for good and utter determination when it comes to hate and destruction.
Then again, I find it funny that some of my fellow Christians dislike faith-based healing to that extent. Logic would make me expect that enlightened socialists that are eager to oppose the opiate of organized religion would, in consequence, take a stand against the upper-downer-fixer Quaalude of humbug hoodoo voodoo alternative medicine - they don't. Instead, from personal experience, I would say they make up a significant part of the billion dollar industry that encompasses everything from vibrating bowls to barefoot doctors needles and ritual burning of powdered animal carcasses. I myself have been doing Tarot card readings/sessions whatchamacallem, preferrably for annoying people, with the good guy aim of helping them become a bit less annoying. That's not an official part of the ad campaign, though.
I'm not exactly up to date on the subject, but I'm pretty certain homeopathy has its roots in or is at least linked in more than one ways to Rudy the red-nosed vegetarian Steiner, a man I cannot but admire, but most of his cultist followers these days make me cringe. Some of the movements in the "New Age" folder decided to go back to obscure old ways, get inspired by exotic, fancy stuff or come up with entirely new, more thrilling ways of handling things. They're all valid expressions of human cravings for a better tomorrow. But the majority of even those folks don't exactly strike me as being great minds, super inventors or daring explorers, they mostly also just end up taking comfort in fuzzy warm ignorance and convenient fast food concepts of how to make sense of it all, and how to handle being stuck in a lump of meat for a somewhat brief period of time before stopping any and all metabolic activity.
I believe in the power of the placebo.
I don't believe in people that are not on drugs or heavily medicated being able to talk to spirits and ghosts. But as long as they bring something to the table that helps the gullible move on and get on with life, and they don't rip them off in the process, hey, who am I to judge them?
Do I personally believe in homeopathy? Hell no. Does it work? Yes/maybe/definitely/not at all. It's all about context. Would I seek homeopathic help to treat some nasty cancer? Hell no. Do I go back to medieval texts of 'witchcraft' to make sense and possibly use of the weeds and shrubs and plant material all around? Certainly. We've got science now, and if we don't let ourselves get tempted and corrupted we can achieve great things.
Cooking is all about physics and chemistry (plus yummy omnomnom taste). Why do you think garlic, ginger, turmeric and, say, onions are such staples all around the world? It's usually not because we believe in them or think much about them, they just do whatever it is they do.
