Life as Self-fulfilling Prophesy

Life as Self-fulfilling Prophesy; Truth Telling, Part the Umpteenth

By John Taylor; 26 December, 2005

This series on lying and truth telling began with `Abdul-Baha
describing (I think) what is now known as the placebo effect. The
Master gave the example of a doctor who lies to a moribund patient,
saying, "Thank God, you are cured!" Even if this is not strictly true,
He absolves such a doctor of blame, presumably because such lies can
and often do act as self-fulfilling prophesies.

Language, by its very nature, creates reality as much as merely
describing it. A word has a mysterious, divine quality, in divine
hands at least. As John put it: "In the beginning was the word, and
the word was with God, and the Word was God." Islamic civilization
gave rise to an art called "Kalam," or the art of the word, that my
Dictionary of Philosophy describes as "the adducing of philosophical
proofs to justify religious doctrine." (Dictionary of Philosophy, p.
189) Later this "word art" was brought to the West by Thomas Aquinas
and others, eventually being dubbed "theodicy," justifying the ways of
God to men. The Muslim doctors who applied kalam were called
mutakallimun; they practiced a rational art for supernatural ends.
Under the Bab's Badi' calendar, we devote an entire 19 day month to
reflecting upon this art of Kalimat, Words. From this we can safely
conclude that the métier of Kalam is no longer confined to
mutakallimun or professional theologians, it is a universal duty of
all who can speak and believe at the same time.

Such is the power of the word, of language and belief combined that it
can transmute even lies into truths and truths into lies. Such is the
contagious influence of an inspired speaker alone, above and beyond
the reality of the context of her words. In the case of our lying
doctor, if he walks in and declares you to be dead meat, that alone
can be the death of you, even if you are ostensibly healthy.

If a doctor tells you the opposite, that you are cured of a hopeless
disease, even if it is not literally the case, the very belief he
instills alone and in itself cures, irrespective of any further
treatment. When just saying so does not suffice, a doctor can hand a
medication to a patient and declare, "This will cure you." Even if the
prescription is null, a harmless sugar pill -- now known to all as a
placebo -- a cure that cannot possibly physically cure the patient, it
has been demonstrated that in a regular percentage of cases the
patient's body is "fooled" into curing itself. A lie is made into a
statement of truth.

In recent months improved brain scans are showing more graphically
than ever before to researchers how powerful and convincing the
placebo effect is in action. The effect is so impressive that they
have taken the unusual initiative of advising doctors to take the time
and effort it takes to sell patients on any medications they
prescribe. The latest scanning technology displays before our very
eyes that a body of a patient who does not firmly believe in a drug
remains utterly sluggish and unresponsive to a drug, one that can and
should work as advertised. The unbeliever's body simply fails to
respond on a molecular level to administered drugs. Every physical
factor is ready but the drug has no effect. It might as well be a
sugar pill. On the other hand, we can see that in every case where the
mind of a patient is duly prepared and hopeful, the drug has exactly
its intended effect.

Soon it will be part of the job description of a good physician to be
a convincing cheerleader and salesperson for her medical treatments.
This is especially so considering that over decades the open use of
placebos has done relatively little harm. Consider that even if a
lying doctor's well meaning untruth fails to work a miracle and the
moribund patient dies, at least that patient will have died a less
hopeless and miserable death. Still, "above all, do no harm" is a
major strut of the Hippocratic Oath, and it could be argued that
sanctioning lying, even in a good cause, does harm to the credibility
of the medical profession.

Still, it stands to reason that cheerleading lies can do little harm
to physicians' reputations among the living, since, as the saying
goes, a doctor buries his mistakes. Who cares if legions of dead
people can justly object: "Man, I will never trust the word of a
doctor again!" What matters is that a few living survivors can
truthfully say,

"He said `you are cured' and I was cured. Just as God said, `be thou
and we were created, so the doctor said I was cured and I was. I
cannot believe this! Actually, I must have believed it or I would not
be here, would I?"

By no means is the placebo effect (and its ethical repercussions)
restricted to medicine. The effect applies to everyone, every moment
of the day, especially when talking about oneself. Whenever someone
asks, "How are you?" you can truthfully answer, "Terrible." This is
always a truthful answer, considering the dark shadows, the dashed
hopes and realized fears that loom in everyone's temporal existence.
Or just as truthfully, even should afflictions be mounting like a
flood, one can say the opposite.

"I am just great, wonderful! I am doing better than ever in my life! I
am content. It could not be better."

The placebo effect of saying it makes it so, words becoming flesh,
makes life a little sweeter - or sourer -- at every turn. So when I
ask how you are doing, go ahead, tell me a lie. Be a cheerleader to
yourself, about yourself. The only one you will be deceiving will be
your own dark side.

If the human race is to survive, in the near future our political
understanding will have to become much more sophisticated very
quickly. Just as a doctor's job description will require cheerleading,
the job description of a citizen will demand learning the art of
Kalam, acting effectively and consistently as a mutakallimun. For it
is faith, belief, that sustains our success as a species. Each and
all, every minute of the day live on truth telling, on faith and the
words that sustain rather than cut away at faith. As God in the Bible
advises, "Choose life," for our attitude to life is a self-fulfilling
prophesy.

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com