Consider the several recovery programs based upon the Alcoholics Anonymous' "Twelve Steps".

Step two invokes a "power greater than onself"; step three suggests one turn one's will & life over to that power.

Now there are several "powers" one can use to get healthy, or extracted from obsessive or destructive behaviors, doctors & anitbiotics being two obvious examples. (This is not a question about medicine or its efficacy.)

My question is based upon the implication: given that the program can work, and there is no true power outside the obvious physical manifestions, how can we further research this Jedi mind trick?

"A mind which claims it cannot stop destructive behavior yet chooses to invoke a power outside & greater than itself is a powerful mind indeed."