Overstates it's central premise but interesting

Overall it contains a lot of fascinating topics and covers relevant research in an engaging way. The issues crop up around the central concept of the book; the effectiveness of placebos. It basically oversells the idea and doesn't do more than a brief mention of alternative explanations, essentially amounting to a hand wave of information counter to the idea of powerful placebos.

Narration is fine for the most part, it just reads a little slow so for the first time ever I found myself ramping it up to 1.3 speed. That might be related to me not fully engaging in the material and being a little skeptical of its content.

49 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Is The Power Within Us? Well, Maybe...

Vance starts this book with the story of how he was cured of a deadly disease through his Christian Scientist background. A story of faith. And that's what flows through "Suggestible You". It's a story of placebos, curses/hexes, hypnosis, suggestibility, and even false memories.
The placebo effect gets the vast majority of airtime, but the anecdotes are compelling. I just listened to an NPR episode of a writer who helped come up with a Write Better, Quicker placebo and who wound up, hilariously, abusing it, so this was all fairly fascinating.
Most of the book is history and stories, but the latter two hours or so are how we can harness them in our daily lives. We can get through food cravings because the placebo effect has the effect of raising dopamine levels, just like food. We can run faster, have better sex, live with less pain, and we can even question our bad memories of trauma, our lousy childhoods.
Paul Michael Garcia does a decent enough job, but I dinged him a star because what humor is in the book is kinda sorta just lost. I mean, how can you make the comparison of having pain tolerance and listening to a Justin Bieber album unfunny? Uhm, Garcia can...
A decent enough book, just be prepared for a lengthy, lengthy discussion of placebos and how, basically, we're responsible for ourselves and our states of health.
Fascinating in its discussion of how Parkinson's disease can be helped, fascinating on how memories can be clouded, but it's a bit like a two-by-four over the head.
Still, who likes side-effects when there's the chance we can live without them?
It's all a matter of expectations and suggestibility. I suggest the listen, but I also suggest it as a sale item rather than a full credit. Unless you're looking for relief that's in your hands...

100 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Associations and Expectations

If you frequently question certainty along with the nature of being and why we do the things we do, this book is for you. "Suggestible You" presents so much of this in a cool and easy format, with the author often presenting a sense of humor mixed intellect. He covers a wide range of beliefs and expectations, the biochemistry of placebos and nocebos, along with strange experiences to even the unexplainable; the sciences are still quite incapable (it's a growing dilemma) of proving just what the heck is going on within our brains and the power of belief, radical or not.
It's a delightful insight into the associations and expectations that drive us and make us who we are.
Highly recommended.

24 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Very interesting book, I have recommended to several others

It is rare that I write a review but this book deserves a good review.
Has changed the way I view many things like faith healers, supplements, hypnotism and placebos.

Great journey into the human mind and how memory meets expectation, suggestion and placebo.

Couldn't stop listening to it. I also see where a great many people who struggle with some of the problems listed as being very susceptible to placebo like addiction, depression, IBS, or even Parkinson's may really appreciate learning the truth about the drugs they are being given.

Highly recommend.

Also, there is a great appendix that is a hypnotic induction to reduce pain during dental work! I'm going to cue it up next time I'm in the chair!

40 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Interesting but a bit boring listen 👂

If you are examining science of a brain you will be familiar with most cases mentioned here. Interestingly enough some authors use them to demonstrate there is no such thing as hypnosis while this one sees them as a proof.

It's a hopeful view and offers a good case for your internal medicine store vs. the external drugs.

Reading performance was a bit slow for my taste. Also, I was under the impression as if the reader was trying to sell me on ideas instead of just presenting them. This is of course completely subjective so please listen to a demo first. I fell a sleep to it twice.

On a few occasions author gives his "subtle" opinion on popular icons such as Justin Bieber. I guess these were supposed to be funny and work in favor of getting to the same page as author but they work both ways and in my opinion paint it as unprofessional. Then again these moments are rare and short.

Overall I'd still recommend this audio book as it gives hope yet has some solid science behind it. Thank you!

3 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Fantastic science book and Outstanding Reader

Would you consider the audio edition of Suggestible You to be better than the print version?

This book is excellent in every way. While it is a bit long, it kept me engaged throughout. I was on the last chapter when I started a long road trip with my 12 year old granddaughter and 10 year old grandson. They were bored and I suggested that maybe I had a book on my phone they might enjoy. I looked through my library and finally suggested that they listen to the end of this book with me, thinking that they MIGHT listen to the rest of the chapter with me without declaring it boring. To my surprise, they asked to listen to it from the beginning and they hounded me every step of the road trip to play the book because "it is so interesting". We listened to the entire book and I can say that not only did they enjoy it, I enjoyed it as much the second time as I did the first. Outstanding reading performance as well. When we got to the appendix on hypnosis, I must say the performance was so good, i had to ignore part of it and have a conversation with my wife once in a while for fear that I might be in the 10% of the population that is easily hypnotized as I was driving through a mountain pass at the time!

2 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

It could be more objective

It feels like it would be better if the book was reduced by a third. It would be easier to understand and consolidate the ideas. It would get the listener/reader not to lose interest.

2 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

I didn't know I was so gullible.

If you could sum up Suggestible You in three words, what would they be?

fascinating, entertaining, educational

Who was your favorite character and why?

Luana Colloca and her enthusiasm for placebo response and pain.

Have you listened to any of Paul Michael Garcia’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Haven't before but think he did a good job on this book.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I was fascinated.

8 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Life Changing

Fascinating and empowering... you will be entertained while discovering some of the hidden superpowers of your mind.

7 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Where's the Science

Any additional comments?

I couldn't get past the first hour or so but I felt that there was no science. It was just anecdotes. I was expecting an explanation of how and why but if it is there I didn't get far enough. I just couldn't take it any more.

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