I agree it's not rigorous, but it's not necessarily bullshit.
We know the placebo effect is quite strong (stronger than we can fully account for, in fact.)
Postulating that it is possible to engage the placebo effect voluntarily is an interesting claim, but given that the placebo effect does exist it is not, on the face of it, impossible.
I'm definitely interested in more rigorous research in this area.
I do think there is a lot of BS going on here (unsubstantiated medical claims). However, being able to engage a "full strength" placebo effect when the patient knows that it is just a placebo effect would be quite helpful. The experiment design to prove whether or not that is happening would have to be quite clever (multiple categories of placebo-unknown vs placebo-known vs meds). A few anecdotes about people being saved by magic juice definitely doesn't prove it. We know things like big bright pills are better at inducing placebo and placebo is stronger when the patient believes it will work. If we could consistently trigger a full and strong placebo effect without any medicine then it would be a useful and helpful first line of treatment for non-critical issues. Interesting indeed.
This is the only reasonable question to ask regarding the veracity of the result. Tripling/halving the post-injection/implantation/course lifespan of a sample of thirty-ish rats is nowhere near bullshit, so the next question is whether we've replicated that result.
We know the placebo effect is quite strong (stronger than we can fully account for, in fact.)
Postulating that it is possible to engage the placebo effect voluntarily is an interesting claim, but given that the placebo effect does exist it is not, on the face of it, impossible.
I'm definitely interested in more rigorous research in this area.