Dealing With Headaches

“The only thing that seperates us from the animals is mindless superstition and pointless ritual.” –Latka Gravas, Taxi

In these modern times, we may like to think that we are far more intelligent than our ancestors, but that’s a load of rot. We act just the same now in 2008 as we did in 1008. Case in point: the placebo effect. Healers have known for thousands of years bout the power of belief. Some of the magic of the shamans and medicinie men of anicnet times was in getting the placebo effect to work in the patient.

The Old

Diseases and aliments like chronic headaches were seen to be caused by the spirit world. In one sense, we can’t see the bacteria and viruses that get ill or the chemical reaction in the brain that bring on a migraine, so that’s just as mysterious and unseen as spirits are.

A Native American healer didn’t just say, “Take two herbs and call me in the morning.” That didn’t quite cut it — even when all the patient needed to do was take two herbs. An elaborate ceremony was held, with drumming and beseeching the spirits and then the healer would extract the source of the sickness with his mouth. The healer would then show the patient the object — an arrowhead, worm or whatever — and say, “There! It’s out of you now. You will get better.” And invariably, the patient would get better.

A ritual like this is detailed in The American Indian: The Spirit World put out by Time-Life Books in 1992. It notes that an unnamed shaman admitted, “We could cure without that just by singing and remembering the vision, but people need something to see.”

The New

In 1987, Philadelphia decided to construct the very first building that would be larger than the top of the statue of William Penn on the tower of City Hall. Many buildings in Philly are now larger than William Penn’s hat.

Philly’s major sports teams lost a lot. Granted, they had been loosing before 1987, but I digress. FOr some reason, lots of Philadelphia sports experts concluded that the reason Philly sports teams could not bring home a championship was because

of a curse from William Penn, because Philly built skyscrapers taller than his hat.

Now, William Penn was a Quaker and would be mortified by the thought that he would dabble in curses, but again, I digress. And so this local legend became known as “the curse of Billy Penn’s hat.”

When the Phillies were headed for the World Series, no chances were taken. A small statue or Willam Penn (which you can get in any Center City souvenier shop) was glued to the top of Philly’s tallest building, the Comcast Center.

I kinda doubt that little statue helped make the Phillies better players, but I guess it worked, because the Phillies went on to win the World Series.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.