" A placebo is not just a sugar pill or a bunch of sham sutures. A placebo can be an event as well as a thing. Anytime a person endows something with meaning, whether it’s a relationship or an occurrence, he is held in a warm embrace; he is helped by something that does not exist except as dream or hope or expectation. Much of the power of the placebo comes from the one who is hurting, which means we can start to see the sheer energy in states of sickness—what we are capable of doing when down and supposedly out, how strong we really are, even in our weakest moments, with our brains always ready to find us some faith. "

― Lauren Slater , Blue Dreams: The Science and the Story of the Drugs that Changed Our Minds