Henry K. Beecher (1904–1976) was a controversial anesthesiologist who, for the [[CIA]] in the 1950s, studied the [[Placebo Effect]]. The placebo effect is a remarkable phenomenon whereby a harmless pill or simulated treatment produces real-world physiological effects in humans[^1]. Beecher's work contributed to the understanding of how perception of an event or a situation—real or imagined, rational or irrational—can cause consequential actions to occur. This concept is also related to the [[Thomas Theorem]], which states that "if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences"[^1]. ### Footnotes [^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.