meet the team
simonThese days I see myself as wholly practical in my outlook, having cultured a reasonable amount of cynicism regarding most areas of so called ‘medicine’ whether it be mainstream or alternative.
This wasn’t always the case though. I arrived in Glastonbury in the summer of 1995 with a very open mind, a healthy belief that just about anything was possible and eager to explore everything that was available from the town’s alternative community. My areas of research and exploration included but were by no means limited to: crystals, astrology (Mayan, western, Native American etc), Aliens, Crop Circles, ESP, Auras, Channelling, Meditation, Tai Chi, Astral Projection, Lucid dreaming, Shamanism, Gurus, Tarot, Pendulum divination, Sacred Places, earth energies, conspiracy theories, homeopathy, hypnotism, past lives… etc. I was pretty much an open vessel as far as alternative thoughts and practises were concerned, and I have to say although my scepticism is now complete regarding most if not all of these beliefs, I would certainly not mock anyone who held them now. Perhaps I’d raise an eyebrow, but really ‘whatever gets you through the night’ is alright by me. I suppose I eventually arrived at the idea that whatever you believed would pretty much hold out as true. So almost 20 years on, a Family a business and working with computers - I no longer find a need to immerse myself in alternative thinking. I have arrived at contented pragmatism, I can still see the magic that life holds, but Ii no longer feel the need to chase it and try and explain it. I no longer have much patience when it comes the mysterious and unexplained, or indeed anything that isn’t approaching hard fact. With this in mind, I suppose it was only something like an episode of BBC TV’s Horizon sitting in my Sky planner that might connect all the dots that make up my belief system and appeal to my current practical outlook. The programme explored the research and recent discoveries regarding the use of Placebo to treat illness. It made so much sense in fact, I decided to share my thoughts with two work colleagues, Gareth and Alison. Not one to run away with such fanciful notions as a pill with no active ingredients actually working - I was a little surprised by their reaction. The evidence is there, and there’s only one way to prove one way or the other - gather more evidence. Current research suggests that 2 out of three times placebos actually work. Simple probability would suggest this is proof that it ‘works’. What I find most exciting about this experiment is the suggestion that it works no matter what you know or believe. Indeed what if it works despite what we might think of it. If that’s the case, then who cares how it works, we should all be taking advantage of the power of placebo. |
alisonI have been down various avenues of alternative belief systems over the years but it was when I began training in Hypnosis that everything started changing for me.
I learnt how to help my clients create huge change and shifts for the better in their lives just through the power of their own mind; they needed nothing outside of themselves just the extraordinary potential of focused day-dreaming in a relaxed state. In this dream like trance state, guided by me, I found they could imagine travelling through time, both into the past and the future to both re-frame something that may once have been traumatic at an earlier time of their life or to move forward on the power of the suggestion of a more compelling future. Stress and anxiety was alleviated, more self confidence was found, life was changed - and all just with the power of their mind. I qualified as a Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and am currently studying The Three Principles and this changed everything. I learnt that we create our experience of reality and live in the feelings created by the thoughts that we think, the words that we speak, both to others and to ourselves internally and the actions that we take. In a nutshell, what we believe to be true and pay attention too becomes what shows up in our life and as we notice more of something we create strong neurological connections to support beliefs, that are either useful to us and how we want to be, or not. The work of Dr Ted Kaptchuck, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Harvard-wide Program in Placebo Studies started to come to my attention as well as experiments using Placebo by illusionist Derren Brown. When I watched the Horizon documentary on the Placebo Effect my curiosity into Placebo and the healing power of the mind to overcome not just illness but as an anchor to a new, more resourceful mental state, was fired up. And so it was, over our monthly fish and chip lunch, that Proven Placebo was born out of a conversation between Simon, Gareth and myself, that went something along the lines of- “If you are not going to do it I am!” and a collaboration of three excited and open minds was formed. What I love the most about the social experiment we have created is the honesty of it. It fits with my values of integrity and authenticity - we are not pretending we have anything that can “make you better” we are saying “you can make you better” whatever that means to you. We are taking the research and data collection on to the next level to find out if Placebo and the power of your own mind is really as limitless as we believe it to be. www.alisonheathersutton.co.uk |
garethTwo things my parents told me have stayed with me and in large part have informed my view of the world.
Shortly after my ninth birthday I was playing with the Lego I'd received as a present and asked my mum if I'd be able to play with Lego in heaven. I continued playing, confident of the affirming response, when my mum replied, 'No.' What she said next did nothing, at the time, to ease my concerns. She went on to add 'but you will have the feeling of playing with Lego.' To a nine year old boy this was of no consolation. But now, many years later, the concept that our feelings are not unalterably attached to objects or events in our lives serves me well. We get to choose how we feel at any given moment, although it does take practice. A few years later I was struggling with some physics homework and my dad offered to help me out. I don't recall what I was finding difficult but the conversation moved into the realm of quantum physics. At some point later on the concept of multiverses, that a new timeline is formed whenever we make a decision, and the theories that everything is happening all at the same time and that merely observing an object alters it, merged, forming the idea that it might be possible, through the power of the mind, to slip from timeline to timeline at any moment, meaning all possible futures are available at all times. I do appreciate this is pretty far out but it has helped with my fiction writing! Now, decades later, these two conversations still influence how I think and sustain the idea that our mind is key to everything. I choose how I feel. I decide how I see the world. Training as a Life Coach further expanded this by emphasising the degree to which we have responsibility for our experience of life. The myriad of studies into the effect of placebos further supports the notion that we are what we think, even to the extent that people have experienced physical healing after taking a placebo. During the initial conversation between Alison, Simon and I, we began to wonder if you could take the study into placebos beyond the clinical and into other aspects of our lives. If the mind is the ultimate influencer then anything that influences the mind can alter who we are. It would appear the simple act of taking a tablet or capsule, of putting something into the body, prepares the mind for something to change. From there the Aspirational and Spiritual categories were added to the Clinical and then came the Experimental. Why not let people design their own placebo? Suddenly it seemed possible to expand the field of placebo research into whole new realms. By gathering feedback and reporting the results we could increase the effectiveness of placebos. If placebos have been proven to work even when the subject doesn't believe they can work, what might happen if we can gather data on the placebo effect working in all areas of our lives? What if people could take a capsule and decide what it was going to do to them? |
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