Which is interesting in itself - if we could figure out more about this effect, perhaps we could harness it better.

I've also read this book, and while I didn't have the immediate benefits of the parent commenter, it did help me to take ownership of my situation, and to work through the pain.

For me the key was activity and building up the endurance/tone of the lower lumbar. This hurt a lot in my existing state, but once I cut the vicious cycle of inactivity leading to reduced muscle tone causing more pain, I was able to turn it around and reduce my pain and dysfunction almost entirely.

Sarno's Theory could actually be a plausible explanation for the placebo effect. If some percentage of people suffering a condition have psychosomatic symptoms, when you give them a pill and tell them it will cure them, their brain could switch to creating a different psychosomatic effect (such as headaches instead of backache). This would give the effect of a placebo cure, and side-effects for the placebo cure (which is also something that is observed).