How Time Perception Influences Physical Healing

With every sounding out of an idea like “you create your reality” or “you can will something into existence”, a critic of this position will be on hand to dismiss it as pseudo psychology. Another study has been published to bolster the scientific credentials of the position that cognitions influence material reality.

The idea that our beliefs shape the world around us has been demonstrated across a number of planes already, including in the realm of self-control (Job, Dweck & Walton, 2010) and stress/eustress (Folkman, 2007). David Robinson’s book, The Expectation Effect, makes a strong case for the influence of our thoughts on experience. At the same time, therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) rely on the idea that thoughts hold great influence.

Aungle and Langer’s (2023) own work cites examples such as the influence of belief about genetically determined ability in terms of exercise capability and satiety; in both experiments, the information the participants received about their ability influenced their physiological responses.

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The New Study

Aungle and Langer’s recent study is striking in that it reports on the influence of perception on a force that is robustly physical and material and apparently directly causal.

The authors had their 33 participants undergo cupping therapy (an ancient therapy involving breakage of the skin, usually in the form of small cuts) on different body parts before they were placed in different temporal conditions.

The control group was exposed to a clock that ran normally for 28 minutes, while the two other groups also experienced 28 minutes of actual time. However, one group believed they had experienced 14 minutes (slow time), while the other believed they had experienced 56 minutes (fast time). Photos of their cuts were taken just after they had been made and then after 28 minutes. Then, an independent group of participants rated levels of healing.

The authors report that there were significant differences between levels of healing between the 56-min group and 28-min group (p<0.0001), the 56-min group and the 14-min group (p=<0.0001), and also between the 28-min and 14-min group, albeit with a higher p-value at 0.034.

Their work is another challenge to Cartesian dualism that separates the mind from the body and could even be used as a challenge to hard materialism. The authors instead speak of the bidirectional “mind-body unity.”

The authors’ work has also reported that blood glucose levels are influenced more by perceived time than “clock time” and that electroencephalogram (EEG) activity and cognitive performance relied on perceived sleep rather than actual sleep.

At the root of studies such as this, and the conversations that stem from them, is the idea of self-fulfilling ideas. While discussions are ongoing and evidence continues to be traded, perhaps a repackaging and transfer of Pascal’s Wager could be beneficial. Given the ever-increasing level of support for the position that our thoughts fundamentally shape our realities, wouldn’t it be favorable to shape our thoughts as best we can so that they align with health, success, and adaptivity?

This could begin with taking stock of our cognitions and reflecting on which might benefit from a degree of adjustment.