A "miracle cure"

I stayed at an ashram in Gujarat/India for a few month a couple of years ago. An older gentlemen in his 80s bugged me daily to help him with his back pain, he could not even sit on a chair without pain (during our 3 x 2 hours sittings). He became sort of a nuisance, although I had explained to him that the method I use would not work on old people and structural defects he kept bugging me on a daily basis, even during lunch and breakfast. Finally one day on the way to the lunch area when he walked next to me I put my left hand over his back just for a second or two, more to make him shut up than with any intent of doing any healing. I didn't even cycle at the moment. He jumped and said "great, it worked" - and I thought "PLACEBO". 

Funny enough from that day onwards I saws him sitting down on a cushion at the floor for the remainder of his stay, approx. another 2 weeks. This should not have worked, according to Bengston at least. Its the only such case I ever encountered.