Reply #5: That's not true [View All]

[salvorhardin]

at least that's not true for this materialist. I know of no skeptic that denies that processes of the brain can have an effect on overall health. Despression would be one such example. The placebo effect would be another.

Not to speak for the other skeptics here, but for me the problem comes in when a paranormal (paraphysical if you prefer) component is brought into the picture. Our brains are made out the same physical stuff as the rest of the world. There's no reason to suppose that they somehow don't follow the same mechanisms that govern all the rest of the matter in the universe. There's also a general confusion as to the extent which processes in the brain can have an effect on general health. As I said before, you are not going to think yourself out of damage to Broca's area and you're not going to think yourself a new leg if one happens to have been severed or amputated. Actually that is part of a bigger problem of people who believe that they can "will" something to happen whether to their body or to something else.