One of the reasons behind this problem is related to the placebo effect and the faith issues recently raised on the "No Gods" and "God Still" threads.
That issue is that the boundary between the universe of "subject" and the universe of "objects" is not clearly understood in any discipline.
There is a wide range of phenomena in which subjective changes bring about experiential changes indistinguishable from "real" and physical. Placebo cures are the most widely remarked. Wine-tasting based on the suggested retail price tag is another. But in addition to the impact of thought and subjectivity on physical being, there is also a very poorly defined set of phenomena coupling changes in thought with changes outside the sphere of the body in objective physical universe space as well as social space.
I believe where this field of enquiry will eventually lead is toward the non-dogmatic and non-deistic assessment of the individual spiritual entity, about which past opinions and superstitions range from "does not exist" to "nothign else exists" and everywhere in between.
Whatever the outcome of such enquiries, it is very plain that there is a hell of a lot of disentangling and sorting out to be done in this region where the "I" meets the "It".
And I think this is an important quest. Because, as we have all been told, ""It" happens."