PLACEBO AND PRAYERS

      I  was reading about the effects of the placebo and how it might work .There were several ;facts; that tried to explain on the mechanism of the effects of the placebo. We know for long time as to the effects of placebo. So the question arises as to how does the placebo works . There were several studies that showed that when patients were given a pill under the suggestion of it being antidepressant or sleeping pill , it seems to work. But what intrigued me more was that the capsules work better than the tablet and the color of the placebo capsule mattered too. The effect of red color capsule was different with the men and women. So how does this work . We know that certain chemicals are secreted by the brain , when we treat say for example depression . So how does these sugar pill cause effects to secret the same chemicals or is it that our 'mind ' stimulates that brain to secret these chemicals even though there is no real chemical in the pill to cause the secretion of say for example serotonin.
       The other interesting part was that if someone knows that the pill is not real medicine , then it would not work. The other fact was that the placebo did not work in all the patients, even when the patients did not know that that it was not real medicine .There was a story in which a patient got cured with the Hypnotism , which is nothing more that the suggestions given under certain state of the mind. But once the patient came to know that the disease was incurable with the usual medicines , the same Hypnotism did not work . The interesting pat about that story was that the doctor had suggested that the rash would be cured on only one arm and the rash was gone only on that arm , The rash did not get better anywhere on the body got better . The rash did not get better when the doctor knew that the rash was noncurable.So it seems that the one who gave the suggestions must also believe in the suggestion or the 'power' of the suggestions .
      So now comes the question about the power of the prayers . When we pray are we using the power of the suggestion and the mind or is it that the prayers work some different way? And when they work , what about the destiny or is it that the things were going to happen anyway . I have no clear answer. I think that there are mixed possibilities . I think that in some cases we can change the destiny by shear power of suggestions and the power of the mind. In some cases we can 'perform 'better with the confidence is better with our mind working with us . In some cases the destiny is there , as to what we want it to be . So we may think that the prayers work , but it was to happen anyway . Lastly the PRAYERS DON WORK. I think that when we pray, it is not power of suggestion or mind or the destiny is there , but it works in some mysterious way and if the prayers are sincere.