Photographs of Loved Ones Can Be Effective Painkillers
It’s amazing how something as simple as a photograph or holding a loved one’s hand can reduce, block or even eliminate pain. Hypnosis works much in the same way…by using the power of one’s mind, you can literally change the physical state of your body.
Ferris Jabr, writing for Scientific America, elaborates:
A Psychological Science study in 2009 first showed the effect. Psychologist Sarah Master of the University California, Los Angeles, and her colleagues studied 25 women and their boyfriends of more than six months. The researchers subjected the women to different degrees of thermal stimulation-a sharp, prickling sensation-as they either held their boyfriend’s hand while he sat behind a curtain, held the hand of a male stranger behind a curtain, viewed a photograph of their boyfriend or viewed a photograph of a male stranger. Holding their partner’s hand or viewing his photo decreased the women’s pain significantly more than touching or viewing a stranger-and the photo was just as effective as the physical contact.
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Photographs of Loved Ones Can Be Effective Painkillers.