The Meme Machine

186 THE MEME MACHINE
symptoms, because at least you are doing something about your health. Social
pressures kick in when the therapist asks whether last week’s treatment worked
and you feel an obligation to say yes, or at least something encouraging. And
once you say yes, the desire for consistency inclines you to convince yourself.
The placebo effect is notoriously powerful and is increased when the therapist
appears authoritative, and uses powerful sounding techniques, and impressive, if
incomprehensible, explanations.
The explanations use a mixture of scientific-sounding terms and mysterious
ones. Powerful beings and unseen forces are liberally invoked, including God
and the spirits who act through the hands of the spiritual healer. The most
commonly used word in alternative medicine is probably ‘energy’ – but the
energy cannot be seen or tested. The ch’i of acupuncture and the ‘innate
intelligence’ of chiropractic are so subtle that they cannot be investigated by any
technique currently known to science, which neatly protects the memes from
disproof. Finally, the altruism trick is liberally used, as when ‘the power of
love’ is invoked. Alternative therapists are often genuinely caring people who
really do want to help, and believe they are helping. Their patients tell them
they feel better and so the therapists naturally (if falsely) conclude that their
healing theory was right. Otherwise that may simply appear to be genuinely
caring. Either way, the patient is more likely to take on their memes – false
memes as well as true ones. All this amounts to a powerful formula for
persistent and moneymaking memeplexes. No wonder there are so many of
them around.