How Do Beliefs Transform Your Brain?

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Beliefs are directly related to changes in the chemistry and electricity of your brain. And so therefore those patterns of chemistry and electricity that have been associated with these other things in your life can be tapped into over time. How can someone find you on the internet? Well, I'm actually pretty easy to find because I have somewhat of a unique name with a unique spelling. So, um, the Christie is KRI STI.

How powerful is the placebo effect? After a good night’s sleep could a scientist convince you that you had tossed and turned, and if so, how would that affect your perceptions and behavior? What if a doctor told you that you had slept like a baby when in reality you had barely slept at all? Would hearing those words improve your performance on a difficult test?

In this episode we learn the answers to these questions and more as we explore how research continues to unravel the mysteries behind the placebo effect and how it can drastically alter our bodies and minds.

Our guest is Kristi Erdal, a psychologist at Colorado College who discovered placebo sleep along with one of her students, Christina Draganich. Draganich wondered if such a thing might exist after reading all the literature on placebos, and Erdal helped her create the research methods she used to test her hypothesis.

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