Blue Jay:
Hello
I've been reading the section of the Visuddhimagga on supernormal powers. If all that is true, I think it's theoretically possible that a person who is extremely proficient with jhanas can understand how the placebo effect works in their minds and take advantage of it. Wouldn't that be the ultimate medicinal psychic power? I mean, aside from infectious diseases, all other diseases could be controled, or even cured, by the person with that psychic power!
If this makes any sense and if someone is willing to try it, tell us how it went.
Best wishes!
This reminds me of the Girimananda Sutta, basically Girimananda is diseased and is instructed to train in the Ten Perceptions, and he abandons his disease. Simple , Huh?
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an10/an10.060.than.html
Also, and related, due to synchronicity, this topic came up at work , and my co-worker spoke about
psychoneuroimmunology and meditating monks who were being studied that had the power to not become sick. There is a ton of information out there about psychoneuroimmunolgy, not sure how much is conclusive as it is still relatively new to the scientific method, but seems to have been around for thousands of years in Tao, Tai Chi, Buddhism, etc. etc.
Personally, one can notice the though interplay cycle of "sickness" coming on when it tries to start up that makes the mind/body sick, it is mostly the Ego's excuse to be slothful and lazy, generally because the mind/body system is over worked, underslept , and/or undernourished, or relating to stress in the outside environment as if it was stress on the inside environment, (delusion).
Also, in my view, this is all thrown out the window, when either an important organ in the body is impaired or breaks down, or there is an invasion of a viral, bacterial, or parasitic nature. Then, time is needed, for the mind/body to overcome the illness, or die tryin'.
Oh yeah, don't forget, go to the Doctor!
Peace , Psi Phi