Jaybeee
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quote:
ORIGINAL: RapierFugue
quote:
ORIGINAL: Jaybeee
quote:
ORIGINAL: RapierFugue
And you're aware of some of the more complex ways one's own mind can deceive one?
Thought I'd come back to this as I find it intriguing - actually, I'm not aware, please enlighten me!!
Ok, as a sort of "101" - there are a number of temporary states, some physical, some mental, that can lead to feelings of "something external is affecting me" (as just one example). I'm certainly no expert, but during my time working with certain healthcare providers this came up one day while I was speaking to a consultant neurosurgeon at a respected London hospital. He said that certain vitamin deficiencies (as just one example) can cause the brain to perceive internal and external events differently, and incorrectly. Ditto changes in brain chemistry. These can lead to things like euphoria, paranoia, and a whole host of other effects, none of which are "real", but are "real" to the subject. Certain foods can also do this for some individuals, such as nutmeg. Even low blood-sugar, such as when famished, can be a factor, and the ways in which several of these things can interact is also an unknown. The thing is, what one person experiences will almost certainly not be what another does, even under the same conditions.
A number of low-grade psychological disorders also sometimes manifest in the same, or similar, ways. Sometimes the individual recovers on their own, but the feelings and emotions brought out in them during that period may remain.
Then there’s external contaminants – mercury and lead intake effects are much rarer than once they were (“Mad as a hatter”, for example, comes from the fact many hats were finished to a shine using mercury, and mercury’s effects on the brain are well known) but hospitals still see examples of such contaminants even today, and often the subject is completely unaware of having been contaminated – in one case history I saw (from not so long ago) a man had begun to develop mania and obsessive-compulsive tendencies. He was treated with the standard meds, but his condition deteriorated, and he was eventually detained under Section 4 of the Act, and later, an extended application made under Section 2. During the second period of assessment his family (while getting his stuff together) managed to accidentally break a floorboard in his flat, and when someone was called in to replace it they found a huge pool of a mercury-or-solvent-rich liquid; the theory was that his flat, in the basement of a converted older building, had become the “trickle down” point for some form of illegal chemical activity further up in the block, years previously, and the stuff had lain there undetected ever since. This tallied with his history, in that he’d been fine for as long as he’d had a job, but only developed advanced symptoms once he’d been made redundant – he’d simply been spending more time at home. Sadly, although he improved enough to be released, he never fully recovered – the damage had already been done.
The central issue is that (as I understand it), because the effects are produced within the mind, as a result of one's own brain chemistry changes, rather than the application of an external drug (like, say, LSD, as an extreme example), it's very difficult for the subject to be objective; they "feel" real because, to that person, while undergoing them, they are "real".
Please understand I'm not saying that's the case with you, or with any other "believer", but the brain can play some amazingly subtle tricks on a person.
I daresay we're straying off topic BUT, as someone who's passionate about nutrition in particular, and biology or any science in general, I'd be very interested in pursuing the issue of what misperceptions are caused by what nutrients/chemicals further.
Any good links you know of?
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