Your brain is a powerful part of your body that can have a large impact on your mental state and is known as a strong indicator of intelligence. By reading this sentence, your brain works overtime to help you identify and understand each letter and how it can form words and ideas. But did you know that your brain can significantly impact your physical state? The power of the placebo effect, otherwise known as a beneficial outcome resulting from a person’s anticipation, can affect a person’s tastebuds, muscles, and blood pressure and can even make your brain think you’re dying.

In this list, we’ll marvel over the fascinating ways that your brain can be affected by the placebo effect. The power of this mind-blowing effect has been recorded since the 1600s, and its mystifying impact has occurred in different settings. The mystery of the placebo effect is one that scientists still scratch their heads at, but these 10 instances of the placebo effect’s power will make your brain itch. We hope your brain is ready to do some mental exercise!

Related: 10 Medical Miracles Doctors Still Can’t Explain

10 Elegant Water or Tap Water

There is a trendy restaurant in California with a unique menu. Instead of a wine list, they offer gourmet water brands ranging from four to eight dollars. For instance, their L’eau Du Robinet. This French water’s natural minerals and nutrients are still at their most potent. Its aggressive flavor and brash attitude make it a perfect complement to meat and poultry. This water is delicious, revitalizing, refreshing, and completely fake. In fact, L’eau Du Robinet means tap water in French!

This premium water, among others, was featured on Penn and Teller’s show BS, and customers drank them up. Little did they know each luxury water brand came from the same pristine location: the restaurant’s garden hose. Yet this didn’t stop the customers from buying the waters and giving stellar reviews, saying it was more flavorful and clean than tap water. If our brains can trick us into thinking water from a garden hose is delicious, maybe rethink splurging on that top-shelf bottled water!^[1]

9 Exercising without Exercise

If the gym doesn’t sound appealing to you, you may be in luck! Scientists from the Harvard Department of Psychology divided a group of hotel maids into two groups; one group was told that their daily tasks at work qualified as exercise, while the other group was told nothing. Little did the first group of maids know the “exercise” they were doing was nonexistent.

Despite their jobs not actually providing them a workout, in just one month after being told this information, the doctors observed a decrease in their systolic blood pressure, a decline in their weight, a reduction in their body mass index, and a decrease in their waist-to-hip ratio. Not to mention, the maids’ blood pressure alone dropped 10% on average.

However, this isn’t to say that you can lay down on the couch eating pizza all day, believe that the pizza will lead to weight loss, and end up skinnier (no matter how amazing that might sound). This study shows that the power of our brains may be able to extend to our physical fitness!^[2]

8 Surgery Pain, but without an Operation

This example may make your jaw drop if you’ve ever struggled with muscle or joint pain! A study published by the New England Journal of Medicine in 2002 conducted a randomized trial on 180 patients diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis. They were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: surgery, cleaning, or the placebo procedure.

In the placebo procedure, no actual surgery or cleaning was performed; the surgeon performed three one-centimeter incisions into the patient’s skin and splashed saline to simulate the cleaning sounds. Regardless of their group, the patients were unaware of the treatment they would receive, and the results were astounding. The placebo group had significantly lower levels of pain than the operation group. Even more astonishing, this group still had better or the same effects as them after TWO YEARS!

This astounding study was one of many that still boggle scientists and motivate them to pursue further research into the placebo phenomenon. Placebos are miraculous and come at a low price. In the osteoarthritis study, the non-placebo procedures cost up to $5,000 for an operation versus the much cheaper placebo procedure, producing the same, if not better, effect.

If our brains can relieve physical pain long-term without the need for expensive surgery procedures, imagine what other benefits we can discover in the future!^[3]

7 Placebos: Better Than the Real Treatment

If our brains are capable of relieving pain, there may be a chance they could do a better job than actual painkillers! NPR reports a study done by Ted Kaptchuk experimenting on people suffering from lower back pain. Half of the group were assigned to a placebo, the others to a real treatment.

Unlike the studies mentioned above, the placebo-treated group was told they were given an inactive placebo treatment. Even though these people knew they were taking placebos, the placebo-treated group reported that their pain levels decreased by 30%, compared to the non-placebo group’s 9%. The placebo-treated group reported a 29% reduction in difficulty in performing daily activities, while the control group saw no change.

If we’re able to capitalize on this power with further research from scientists, people may be able to save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on pain relief! ^[4]

6 Placebos: Thomas Jefferson Approved

It’s hard to know exactly when the placebo effect was first utilized, but there is a document that gives a slight clue. Even better, it came from one of America’s Founding Fathers: Thomas Jefferson! In 1807, the infamous Jefferson wrote a letter to a doctor named Caspar Wistar about a successful physician he knew, stating, “One of the most successful physicians I have ever known has assured me that he used more bread pills, drops of colored water, and powders of hickory ashes than of all other medicines put together.”

It’s crazy to hear of the older ways of using placebos in treatments, and it’s good to know that the power of the placebo has lived on throughout history.^[5]

5 Overdosed on Placebo

An unintended result of the placebo effect is a risk that some experiments have had unfortunate run-ins with. Our brains are capable of tricking us into thinking that we will experience the negative side effects of the drug we believe we are taking. They even have the power to convince our brain that we’re dying! In 2012, Smithsonian Magazine reported that a man involved in a study for a new brand of antidepressants swallowed an entire bottle of his prescribed medication, all 26 pills, in a suicide attempt.

He couldn’t breathe, his blood pressure was dangerously low, and he was near death. The doctors couldn’t figure out how the alleged drug was poisoning him until a few inquiries revealed the man had overdosed on placebos. The sugar pills had actually worked, improving his mood and convincing him that he’d been given the real medication. This placebo effect led to an inverse effect as he began to approach death; however, when informed that he had only taken sugar pills, he immediately recovered. It’s mind-melting to think how our brain is powerful enough to either help you recover or bring you near death.^[6]

4 Got Back Pain?

Our brains, while powerful, are unpredictable and counterintuitive at times. The way information is presented when given to a patient, even down to the wording of instructions, can affect how vulnerable they are to harmful placebo effects. In a Georg August University study, they assigned participants suffering from back pain to a leg flexion test. They told half that they could experience an increase in pain levels, even though this was not true.

However, the group that was told the false information reported doubled pain levels after the leg flexion test and performed fewer leg flexions than the group that was told neutral information. It’s important to be wary of instigating a negative response to a placebo, but this doesn’t diminish the positive impacts that we’ve seen placebos generate!^[7]

3 Honesty Is Effective!

Although placebos are commonly utilized while not telling patients they’re receiving a placebo, some instances have shown that openness and honesty can bring about the same effects. In a 2018 study documented by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a group of cancer survivors suffering from cancer-related fatigue were randomly grouped to receive a placebo and were explicitly told that it was a placebo. There was also a control group that did not receive anything.

Eric Zhou, Ph.D., of Dana-Farber, stated that the group receiving the placebo “reported significantly improved cancer-related fatigue, while the control group’s fatigue remained constant.” This study demonstrates the human brain’s power to change how we perceive and approach physical pain and ailments and the potential benefits our brains can bring.^[8]

2 Drunk on Placebo

There are a lot of sensations that your brain can trick you into feeling, and the sensation of being drunk is not excluded from this list. In a 2003 study by Seema L. Assefi and Maryanne Gary, subjects were given plain tonic water to drink. Half of the subjects in the study were told it was a vodka tonic, and the other half knew they were drinking tonic water.

After drinking the tonic water, the participants were directed to take a memory test. Those who thought they were drinking a vodka tonic showed an increased confidence level yet were much more easily misled by incorrect information, and these are correlated with the same sensations that being drunk brings about. This experiment’s results demonstrate that even thinking that alcohol is being consumed can cause the brain to emulate the feelings of being drunk and further demonstrate the placebo effect’s power.^[9]

1 The Placebo Effect in Nature

Poison ivy leaves are a well-known and well-avoided natural phenomenon, and its irritating and itchy effects are dreaded among most Americans. Interestingly, there is a Japanese lacquer tree that contains the same irritants and is equally avoided. A Japanese medical study from 1962 conducted an experiment on 13 students sensitive to the Japanese lacquer tree leaves.

The students were each exposed to the irritating Japanese lacquer tree leaf on one arm and a harmless leaf on the other arm. However, the students were told that the Japanese lacquer tree leaf was harmless and that the harmless leaf was poisonous.

Interestingly enough, all 13 students broke out in a rash from the harmless leaf that they believed was poisonous, and only two of the students broke out in a rash from the Japanese lacquer tree leaf despite all students being hypersensitive to its irritants. This shows that even allergies and sensitivities can be negated by our brains, which is a mind-blowing concept! When visualizing the power of the placebo, it makes us think of the phrase from Mean Girls: “The limit does not exist”!^[10]

Film industries around the world, especially Hollywood, make it seem as if movies are of the utmost importance to society and possess the ability to change the world. Just take a look at the Oscars, where celebrities rave about how integral their films are to societal progress. Of course, this is delusional as films essentially serve two purposes: They enhance the studios’ bank accounts, and they provide self-satisfaction to individual audience members. Unfortunately, All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) will not prevent wars, Schindler’s List (1993) will not stop genocides, and 12 Years a Slave (2013) will not curb racism.

However, there are a select few films in history that have managed to make a tangible impact on reality. This list features films that have impacted various sectors of life, such as legislation, government, corporations, and people’s personal lives. The list does not include a film’s pop culture influence as a criterion, such as movies that caused a new fashion trend or films that influenced other films. The movies in this list are not ranked in terms of individual greatness but in terms of the achievement of their effect on reality.

Related: Top 10 Movies That Changed Film-Making Forever

10 The Truman Show

Peter Weir’s 1998 Oscar-nominated film The Truman Show was a critical smash and one of several box office hits for Jim Carrey in the 1990s. The film tells the story of a man, played by Carrey, who slowly realizes his life is actually a reality TV show that is being filmed for the entire world to see. The Truman Show accurately predicted society’s soon-to-be newfound obsession with reality television and offered profound critiques of media corruption, corporate power, and the role of advertising in our lives.

Shortly following the film’s release, Joel Gold, a psychiatrist at New York University’s School of Medicine, and his brother Ian Gold, a professor at McGill University, began exploring patients who were convinced the media was controlling their lives and that they were at the center of their own reality TV show. Joel Gold first began seeing patients with these symptoms in 2002, and after giving an academic lecture in 2006, around sixty people came forward claiming they were experiencing these same psychotic delusions.

Many of the patients specifically mentioned they felt like the protagonist in The Truman Show, leading the Gold brothers to label this phenomenon “The Truman Show delusion.” While The Truman Show delusion or Truman Show syndrome has yet to be officially recognized as a medical condition, the growing number of cases has raised many questions surrounding culture’s impact on psychosis.^[1]

9 Taxi Driver

Martin Scorsese’s seminal and highly controversial film Taxi Driver (1976) is one of the defining films of the New Hollywood movement and pushed the boundaries of violence on film. The film features Robert De Niro as the infamous Travis Bickle, a loner who becomes psychotically obsessed with Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) and Iris (Jodie Foster), a twelve-year-old prostitute. After being rejected by Betsy, Travis decides to get revenge by killing the man she works for, a politician, although he ultimately does not succeed.

Taxi Driver was already immensely controversial due to its graphic content, but in 1981, its controversy reached new heights following John Hinckley Jr.’s attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. Hinckley Jr. would go on to claim he became fascinated with Taxi Driver and shot Reagan because he wanted to impress Jodie Foster, just as Travis wanted to do to get Betsy’s attention.

Debates began emerging surrounding the links between the rise in violence found in pop culture and its effect on society, an issue that has only gained momentum in the years since. Taxi Driver also is not the only film to cause copycat crimes; movies such as Natural Born Killers (1994) have also “influenced” countless real-life crimes.^[2]

8 2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is one of American cinema’s most ambiguous and audacious films. Its opaque themes have sparked countless debates that have yet to be settled over fifty years after its release. And its technical prowess has stood the test of time, for it still remains one of the greatest-looking films of all time. Directly related to the world-renowned special effects in the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey astounded audiences to the point that many would go on to use the film in one of the twentieth century’s greatest conspiracy theories.

A little over a year after the film’s release, the United States beat the Soviet Union in the space race and became the first nation to land astronauts on the moon. Not long after, conspiracy theorists began running with a story that involved NASA approaching Stanley Kubrick to direct a fake moon landing because of how realistic he made 2001: A Space Odyssey look. Moon landing deniers point to Kubrick’s The Shining (1980), which has several allusions to Apollo 11, as proof of Kubrick confessing to his involvement in faking the moon landing.^[3]

7 JFK

Another highly controversial film, Oliver Stone’s JFK (1991), tells the story of Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) and his attempts to uncover the truth behind John F. Kennedy’s assassination. In the years since its release, many have called into question the historical accuracy of the film, with Stone taking many liberties with the truth in order to aid in his Kennedy conspiracy theories. However, regardless of how accurate the film may or may not be, the film caused enough of a stir that the United States government needed to step in.

JFK was such an enormous success, resulting in an overwhelming number of people beginning to believe the FBI, CIA, and United States military were all involved in the assassination. The controversy forced President George H.W. Bush to sign the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, which promised the early release of all documents relevant to the assassination. Documents have slowly been released over time, starting in 1993, with the final documents being released in 2017. However, most of the information released has done little to dissuade conspiracy theorists.^[4]

6 The Snake Pit

The Snake Pit (1948) was based on Mary Jane Ward’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name about a woman’s experiences dealing with schizophrenia in a mental hospital. The film won numerous awards around the world and featured an Oscar-nominated performance from Olivia de Havilland. The film was one of the first Hollywood films to seriously address mental illness.

The Snake Pit takes a deep dive into the staff abuses, inhumane conditions, and controversial treatment of the mentally ill. The success and popularity of both the novel and film helped spark massive reform in mental hospitals across the country. The conditions of the facilities, the procedures performed on patients, and patient treatment options all received radical reforms in many states across the country.^[5]

5 Scenes from a Marriage

Ingmar Bergman’s iconic 1973 miniseries Scenes from a Marriage, which was also released as a condensed theatrical film, was recently remade by HBO—but to much less success than the original series. Starring Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson, Scenes from a Marriage examines the disintegration of the marriage between Marianne and Johan. The series/film commences on the tenth anniversary of the marriage and shows how insecurities, jealousy, and existential neuroses cause the relationship to collapse.

Scenes from a Marriage was a massive triumph that was viewed by nearly half of Sweden’s population. Within a year of its release, the divorce rates in Sweden jumped to record highs, and the number of couples seeking relationship therapy skyrocketed. Waiting lists for couples’ therapy went from a few weeks to a few months, with many people viewing the series as an almost documentary-style examination of marriage.^[6]

4 Blackfish

Blackfish (2013), a documentary focusing on orcas at SeaWorld, is one of the most successful films of all time at achieving societal change. The documentary covers the violent history of the killer whale Tilikum and how human negligence and abusive conditions at SeaWorld eventually led to the deaths of several people, including trainer Dawn Brancheau.

The film was so powerful that it led to a myriad of protests against SeaWorld, essentially crippling the corporation and its reputation forever. SeaWorld’s attendance rates took a massive hit, and its second-quarter net income in the year following the film’s release dropped 84%. Many entertainers who had planned performances at SeaWorld backed out. In addition, SeaWorld lost numerous advertising sponsors, and most significantly, the park announced in 2016 that it would no longer breed orcas.^[7]

3 The Thin Blue Line

Errol Morris’s 1988 documentary The Thin Blue Line covers the trial and conviction of Randall Dale Adams for the murder of police officer Robert Wood. The movie caused a stir in the film community for its use of reenactments, which at the time many believed had no place in the documentary medium. Through these reenactments and interviews, The Thin Blue Line covers the inconsistencies of the case and demonstrates that Adams was wrongly convicted of the crime.

Adams had been in prison for eleven years when The Thin Blue Line was released in 1988. A year after the film’s premiere, Adams’ case was reopened, and his trial was deemed unfair, resulting in his release from prison after more than twelve years. The real killer, David Ray Harris, was never charged for killing Robert Wood. However, he would eventually be executed for a separate murder.^[8]

2 The Grand Illusion

Jean Renoir’s anti-war film The Grand Illusion hit the silver screen in 1937, only a few years before Nazi Germany would occupy France. Renoir’s film critiques the rise of fascism and radical nationalism and instead celebrates man’s universal humanity, which transcends all borders. The film was praised in both Italy and the United States; however, this praise caught the attention of Joseph Goebbels.

Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, labeled the film “Cinematographic Enemy Number One” and ordered every single copy of the film destroyed, including the original negative. He almost succeeded, too, as most of the film’s prints were destroyed. Unfortunately, the few that remained were either incomplete or in poor condition. It was not until the 1990s that the original print was discovered, having traveled throughout several countries in a remarkable sixty-year journey.^[9]

1 The Battle of Algiers

Gillo Pontecorvo’s landmark 1966 film The Battle of Algiers offers an intense look at the effects of colonialism through the lens of the Algerian War between Algeria and France. The film is notable for its documentary style, use of non-professional actors, and its nuanced depiction of both sides of the conflict. However, The Battle of Algiers is perhaps best known for its scenes of torture and urban terrorism.

As a result of its hyper-realistic documentary style, The Battle of Algiers was screened by the United States government in 2003 at the dawn of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan to help open conversations on how to combat urban warfare tactics and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using torture to gain information. The primary goal was to learn from the film why the French failed strategically even though they were successful tactically.^[10]

When paranormal researcher, Fiona Broome, discovered that several people shared her false memory of Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s, she came up with the term “Mandela Effect” for similar incidents. Some quantum theory enthusiasts have taken the Mandela Effect theory a whole lot further, stating that it’s proof that the multiverse is a real thing and that parallel realities continuously clash with one another. Some even believe that the Mandela Effect came into play at the same time that the Large Hadron Collider was introduced.

However, thousands more think it’s simply our minds playing tricks on us.

What do you think?

Related: Top 10 Mandela Effects (Movie and TV Edition!)

10 Did Tom Cruise Wear Shades or Not?

The “Old Time Rock n Roll” scene in Risky Business featuring Tom Cruise became an instant classic after the movie was released in 1983. Tom Cruise’s dance moves in the scene have been parodied countless times, including very memorably by snarky butler Niles in the American TV sitcom The Nanny and the cast of Scrubs.

Curiously, in the vast majority of these parodies, people wear shades when they strut along to the lyrics of “Old Time Rock n Roll”—Niles included. That is because most people around the world seem to remember Cruise wearing shades during the scene. And yet, he doesn’t. And there’s the white vs. pink shirt… but that’s for another list.^[1]

# Did Lucy Have Some “splainin” to Do?

In the beloved 1950s TV sitcom I Love Lucy, Lucy did indeed have some “splainin” to do. But no matter how many people remember the quote, “Lucy, you got some splainin’ to do,” Ricky Ricardo never actually says those words in that order. He does, however, say things like “‘Splain that if you can” or “Lucy, ‘splain.”

Yet, there are people who would die on the hill of “he did so say that!”

Another very well-known line misquoted all the time is “Beam me up, Scotty.” Star Trek’s Captain Kirk never utters this line but does say, “Beam us up, Mr. Scott,” during “The Gamesters of Triskelion” episode.^[2]

8 Did King Henry VIII Hold a Turkey Leg?

The Mandela Effect happens with just about anything, including movies, TV series, books, Broadway shows, and even paintings or portraits.

One of the most famous paintings of King Henry VIII is of him sitting at a dinner table, just his upper torso visible, holding a turkey leg in his hand. At least, that is how most people visualize it. In reality, there is no painting of King Henry VIII holding a turkey leg. There is, however, a Renaissance painting of him holding a pair of leather gloves in one hand and the string of a scabbard in the other.
Expanding on this Mandela effect example, some people took things even further by claiming that Henry VIII was the first English king to eat turkey and that he was a huge fan of the meat. There is also a host of examples in the media in which Henry VIII is depicted as holding or eating a turkey leg as a direct result of the belief that the turkey leg painting exists.^[3]

7 Abe Vigoda Is Really Dead Now, Isn’t He?

Abe Vigoda had a great role in The Godfather and a starring one in Barney Miller. But he will forever be remembered for being dead 30 years before he died.

Vigoda was first reported dead in 1982 by People Magazine. Despite him still being alive and well five years later, a local newspaper in New Jersey reported him dead again. Letterman pounced on the story, and it became a long-standing joke. And in turn, the joke fuelled the fire of Vigoda’s death myth. A running gag about Vigoda’s purported death started up at Friars Club during the roast hour, and Jeff Ross had a really fun time saying, “My one regret is that Abe Vigoda isn’t alive to see this.” Vigoda would then jump up in mock anger from his seat in the audience and shake his fist at Ross.

Abe Vigoda died for real in 2016, but when TMZ broke the news, reporters were hesitant to pick up on the story because of the ongoing gags.^[4]

6 Is Cinderella Castle also the Entrance to the Magic Kingdom?

Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World has been re-decorated on several occasions to mark different celebrations. One of these makeovers took place in 1996 when it was transformed into an 18-story birthday cake for the 25th anniversary of the Orlando resort. Currently, the castle sports a massive 50th crest as well as blue jewels, pearls, and ribbons in celebration of Disney World’s 50th anniversary. “The World’s Most Magical Celebration” will end on March 31, 2023.

But apparently, the Cinderella Castle can also up and move locations when it feels like it. While most people know it to have always stood at the end of Main Street, several visitors and fans are adamant that the castle is actually the entrance to the theme park.^[5]

Maybe the park is spookier than some would like to believe?

5 Did a Protester Get Run Over by a Tank in Tiananmen Square?

In 1989, soldiers fired at peaceful protestors in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. The protests started on April 15 and were forcibly shut down on June 4 when martial law was declared. It is estimated that thousands were killed and thousands more wounded both inside and outside of Tiananmen Square.

What most people remember, however, is Tank Man—the protestor who stood firm and unwaveringly as three tanks approached him. Fortunately, he was pulled out of the way before getting hurt. But many people recall this incident differently. Some claim they watched it on TV and saw the tanks running right over the man, killing him. Others even stated that it was the first death they witnessed in real-time.^[6]

4 Does Billy Joel Sing a Melody or a Memory?

“Piano Man” is one of the most instantly recognizable songs in the world and is immensely popular whenever karaoke contests are in full swing. The lyrics are also fantastic and truly blend with the music in a magical way.

But there is a Mandela Effect at play here too. The second verse of the song starts out with the words, “He says, Son, can you play me a melody?”

Right?

Nope. Even though this is what most people hear and believe the lyrics to be, the correct words are “He says, Son, can you play me a memory?” The melody, ironically, contains the line, “Well, we’re all in the mood for a melody.”^[7]

3 Is He Dancing or Standing by the Record Machine?

While we’re on the topic of music, Joan Jett is responsible for one of the biggest earworms in the history of music. “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” is a foot-tapping classic that starts with the line “I saw him standing there by the record machine.”

Or so thousands of people think. What Jett actually sings is, “I saw him dancing there by the record machine.”

There are dozens more Mandela Effect examples in music too. These include the line from the Bee Gees tune “How Deep Is Your Love” that is not “I really need to know,” but “I really mean to learn,” and The Mamas & The Papas’ popular “California Dreaming” that doesn’t include the lyric “I began to pray,” but instead “I pretend to pray.”^[8]

2 Does The Thinker Hold His Hand against His Head or His Chin?

The bronze sculpture The Thinker stands in the Musee Rodin in Paris. The sculpture depicts a nude male figure sitting on a rock and leaning over with his right elbow on his left thigh. The weight of his chin rests on the back of his right hand, according to many tourists.

But several people who have visited the statue believe that the statue’s right fist is pressed against his forehead. The frontal view of the statue reveals that the knuckles of the right hand are actually pressed up against his mouth—and his hand is not in a fist.

Several books, both fiction and non-fiction, describe the statue as having his right fist to his forehead, though, confusing the issue even more.^[9]

1 Did Nelson Mandela Die in the 1980s?

And here we are. Back at the beginning—the Mandela Effect caused by an incorrect memory about Nelson Mandela himself.

People worldwide have the persistent memory of Nelson Mandela not only dying in prison in the 1980s but also of clips of the funeral aired on TV and riots in several cities. Some even insisted that they’d learned of his death at school in the ‘90s and were flabbergasted when the news broke in 2013 that Mandela had died aged 95.

This original Mandela Effect gave rise to a slew of conspiracy theories, including one that said because he died in 1985 at the age of 67, South Africans today are encouraged to perform “67 minutes of charity” on the late stateman’s birthday. It is even believed that an imposter was installed in Mandela’s place and that it was the doing of the government at the time. The man, named Gibson Makanda, then became the first democratic president of SA. And somewhere in there, as is the case with all persistent conspiracies, the Illuminati also seems to have had a hand in conjuring up the “big lie.”^[10]

The placebo effect happens when someone is given a pill, a shot, or some other form of treatment, and are told it will help with their ailments. They feel better, but it’s just their mind and body healing itself because the treatment is essentially fake. Researchers are very interested as to why it works, because understanding it will help with patient care and decrease the amount of drugs that need to be prescribed.

10. It Was Discovered to Protect Consumers

The first test for the placebo effect took place in the late 18^th century after a Connecticut doctor named Elisha Perkins was granted a patent for medical devices he called “tractors.” Perkins’ tractors were wand-like pieces of metal about three inches long. He claimed that they were made of special materials, but they were really just steel and brass. Perkins said that his tractors could help with sore joint and other aches and pains — he charged an enormous amount of money to run his tractors over the sore spot for about 20 minutes, and people claimed they felt better afterwards.

Other physicians were dubious about the powers of tractors, so a British doctor named John Haygarth performed tests with different materials like bone, a slate pencil and a tobacco pipe. He found that he could get similar results, and he concluded that any improvement the patient felt was just in the patient’s head.

9. It Has Physical and Psychological Responses

The placebo effect may seem like something that’s solely psychological, but there’s strong evidence that your body physically reacts to it. In 2005, researchers at the University of Michigan performed PET scans on 14 healthy young men. Their jaws were injected with a saltwater solution to cause pain. A short time later, they were given a placebo and told that medicine was on its way. On the scans, researchers saw that the area of the brain that releases endorphins was active after the placebo was given. The participants also claimed they felt less pain, and their tolerance for pain went up.

A study published in 2001 gave participants a placebo mixed with drugs that blocked endorphins. The result was no placebo effect. While research is still being conducted, these two studies show that endorphins may have a big role to play in making placebos effective.

8. The Bigger the Production, the Bigger the Effect

If someone is sick and needs treatment, one of the quickest and most effective ways to treat them is through an injection. That made researchers wonder — if pills gave a placebo effect, would a placebo injection be even more effective? Between 1956 and 1965, and then again in 2000 and 2006, there were tests that compared people who received placebo shots and people who were given sugar pills. In all of the studies, they found that when using a medical device such as a needle to give injections the subjects had greater improvements than the people who took the placebo orally. It speaks to the power of the placebo effect that symbols like needles, which are tied to treatment and cures for diseases, play such an important role.

7. Fertility Can Be Affected

Even fertility can be affected by the placebo effect. In one study, a group of 55 women that had polycystic ovarian syndrome were trying to get pregnant. Over the course of six months, 33 of the participants were given a placebo and 32 were given fertility drugs. Out of the placebo group, five of the 33 women got pregnant, while seven of the 32 women receiving the drugs were able to get pregnant, making the difference statistically insignificant. In other tests, the pregnancy rate is as high as 40% while taking a placebo. Researchers believe that the women in these tests were less stressed, making them more likely to get pregnant.

6. Placebos Can Negate the Effect of Drugs

In most placebo tests, they look to see if a fake drug or treatment can help someone. However, it can also have the opposite effect and suppress the ability of actual drugs if the person isn’t expecting them to do anything. Researchers in Germany and the United Kingdom looked at brain scans of people who were given painkillers — half the group was told they’d be given strong painkillers, while others were just told they’d be given a placebo. They found that people who were told they’d be given the painkillers had signs of relief, while those who thought they were taking a placebo had the effectiveness of the drugs completely eliminated. Positive thinking helps, but expectations are important as well.

5. Price of Treatment Affects Results

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati performed a test on 12 people with moderately advanced Parkinson’s. They gave each of them a placebo and told them that they were effective for the treatment of Parkinson’s, but some were told their pills were 15 times more expensive to make than the alternative. Those who received the “expensive” placebo showed a greater improvement than people who took the “cheaper” placebo. In another test, 67% of the participants had improvement from the expensive placebo, while 58% said they felt better after taking the cheap placebo. These tests show how much our expectations play into medical treatment. If someone’s medication costs more, they have higher expectations for it to work.

4. Brand Names Affect Results

The perceived cost isn’t the only thing that changes how well a placebo works. Studies have shown that people believe brand name drugs are more effective than generic drugs, even though both drugs are identical in every aspect except for name, color, shape and size.

Brand name drugs are much more expensive because pharmaceutical companies put a lot of money into research, development and marketing. A generic drug is released after the patent runs out, which is 15 years after regulators approve it. So while prescribing brand names after that period is an incredible waste of money for insurance companies and patients alike, they’re more effective simply because people think they’ll be. They’re not inherently superior, but we have a tendency to connect brand names to quality.

3. Placebos Work Better Than Ever Before

Researchers have found that the placebo effect is getting more powerful, especially in studies that involve antidepressants, anti-anxiety agents and pain relievers. This strange phenomenon has been a problem for pharmaceutical firms, because it makes it more difficult to get drugs approved by the FDA. One theory is that people now have more faith in doctors and pharmaceuticals. During studies for drugs, participants get one-on-one attention from the doctors who prescribe them medication. Just visiting a doctor has therapeutic powers, and then they prescribe drugs that the participants expect to work. Our expectations have been raised, making placebos more effective in an almost cyclical relationship.

2. It Can Still Work Even If You Know

Even when people know they’re taking a placebo, the treatment can still be effective if they expect it to be. Researchers at Harvard performed a study on 80 patients who suffered from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Half of them didn’t take anything, and the other half took placebo pills. They were plainly told that they were “placebo pills made of an inert substance, like sugar pills, that have been shown in clinical studies to produce significant improvement in IBS-symptoms through mind-body self-healing processes” (note the difference from entry six, where patients were explicitly told that the placebos didn’t work). They even printed Placebo on the bottle.

By the end of the test, about twice as many people in the placebo group felt better than the control group. Amazingly, the known placebos worked as well as some of the strongest IBS medication.

1. Placebo Surgery is Effective

It’s one thing to take a pill or receive a shot as a placebo, but surgery is another matter. A surgery physically changes someone, but crazily enough a number of different studies have shown that people feel better and start to heal after placebo surgeries. In Finland, surgeons had patients come in to have surgery to repair torn cartilage. Half the patients received the surgery. The other half were anesthetized, then the doctors cut them open and pretended to perform the surgery, going through all the same motions but not actually operating. Amazingly, both groups improved.

Another study found this worked on people with broken vertebrae. Half of the test subjects would go in for vertebroplasty, which would reconstruct the vertebrae, while the other half was given a placebo surgery. In two different trials, they found the placebo surgery worked just as well as the real surgery. There are still a lot of questions about how placebo surgeries work, but the implications are staggering.