That just means that 35-75% of the time someone is given a placebo instead of medicine, they still recover. But, it doesn't say how many of those people believed they were going to improve. I have a theory that we wish sickness on ourselves to some degree, as we believe we deserve it for the bullshit we keep doing to one another in order to put ourselves and our families first. But whatever they think is the success rate of the placebo, it has to be more anyway, because there is no way to tell whether it was still the placebo effect that is curing the people who are taking the "real medicine."

I admit it is not provable at all, but the comment I made, about more often than not if we believe it will happen, was more anecdotal than anything else. Just shared the placebo statistics to see if it might give it some credence.

But are we really thinking? Or do we just have the illusion of it?

This might be too deep, even for me. Lol. I experience thinking, so that means that I must exist in some form, even if that form is an illusion. So I think, I think therefore I am, is a phrase I agree with.

The free will debate is of interest to me though. I wish I could debunk fatalism, because I find it a very dangerous notion, but in truth my arguments against it at the moment are pretty weak and very abstract. Though I do think that if fatalism is wrong, then it will be our limited understanding of the nature of time that hides the truth of free will from us. I try to just ignore all of the mathematics that seems to prove we don't have free will, and just ask myself in the moment if I do. It seems that free will is the only power I have at all when I do that, the power to choose yes or no, right or wrong. If it's an illusion, it's a fucking convincing one..

Can you explain a little more in depth why author is connected to father? I have thought about the word father before. I noticed that mother, brother, sister, daughter and son, all seem to have words that rhyme with them.But the father doesn't, that I know of anyway. It is close to farther, which is an interesting word to be linked to the father. I also noticed that Earth is an anagram of heart, and add an F into the mix to get father. Perhaps of no meaning or interest at all but just thought I'd mention it as we were on the word.

Back onto the word author though, it sounds like offer a bit, which I also find mildly interesting. Because every so called authority I am supposed to adhere to, every command given to me, I have always interpreted it sooner as an offer than something I was obligated to do.

And yes, it is far more satisfying for me when I find a theory on my own and then discover that there are others out there talking about it too. This happened with a theory of mine about nimrod, to a degree, and it made me feel like I was onto something. I have a feeling that you and I will be able to discover some interesting theories together given our interests and points of research seem to be so aligned.