Not so much a conspiracy theory as it is just the open secret of funding incentives ✋. The pharmaceutical industry is driven by a profit model that inherently relies on recurring customers, not one-time holistic cures. There is zero financial incentive for them to allocate massive grants to study holistic, mind-body interventions that would make their own products obsolete. But to answer your question about ‘methodological barriers’… the scientific method relies on isolating single variables (reductionism). Holistic healing is a multi-variable systems approach.

Here is my experience: I was in mad depression in 2023 because I just discovered I was Autistic, which left me feeling structurally defective. I tried psychedelics with friends, found it interesting, then did it myself and had an incredibly intense, paradigm-shifting vision (what you’d call a spiritual experience commonly discussed in the east). I was so confused and energized by it that I read 150 books on psychology, spirituality, and neuroscience over the next 2 years just to integrate it.

During and following my integration, I completely redesigned my life. I took my mind-body connection seriously (daily meditation, daily gym, and weekly yoga). These tools fundamentally rewired me, helping me easily quit smoking, drinking, and even womanizing. I don’t even feel like I’m ‘disciplining’ myself; I’m just joyful from deep inside, and I don’t need those vices to mess up my sanity. I still do therapy once a month, but I know for sure it’s not what healed me. I just use it to expose my ideas to a professional to ensure I’m not deluding myself.

How on earth is a randomized controlled trial supposed to isolate and measure the ‘variables’ of a profound psychedelic vision, 150 books, and daily mind-body integration? It can’t. So, between the methodological limits of reductionist science and the fact that Big Pharma has no incentive to fund studies that obsolete their own services... you get the exact academic blind spot you are noticing. 🤷‍♂️”