Damn you, brain..
Let me first say, like quite a few people who have posted already, that i am rather a terrible cynic. I don't believe in the paranormal (although it is extremely interesting in a cultural/psychological kind of way). I don't believe in Beardy McSkyface, fate, luck, homeopathy, acupuncture, chi, ectoplasm (even though I find THAT on a regular basis... Call it plausible deniability), the bermuda triangle, crop circles, UFOs (I'll get to that later), ouija boards, any kind of religion. You can tell I am a blast at parties...

Alot of the stories this week have been about unexplained sightings / experiences (funny that). I used to think (back when I was seventeen, knew everything and didn't use quite so many parentheses) that anyone who believed in things of this nature were mistaken, deluded or just plain idiots. Then I had an experience that made me realise something. It was a weekend trip to Amsterdam. 'What? This is a drug story! Nothing to do with the paranormal!', you shout, but hear me out.

Thing is, during the course of a long weekend in Amsterdam, I accidentally (okay, not entirely) ate a huge bunch of mushrooms. I'm talking, a little bit more than you're meant to take in one go, at least your first time. A few of my friends had rather adverse reactions to the stuff, but I escaped relatively unscathed. I did spend an entire night in the dark in our motel room (everyone else had to leave to chase one of our friends who wet himself and ran away to jump in a canal, they had to fish him out), but the experience was like nothing else I had ever had before.

It was that night I realised just how powerful the human brain is, what incredible ability it has to decieve. To put it in a really nerdy context, it's like a GeForce 99millionXT in terms of graphics processing power. People who haven't been on drugs can't really describe it - I saw things that night, not like some drunk guy who can't see properly - I actually saw the carpet turning into water, swallowing the furniture. I saw the walls bend into spirals, the door turn circular like Frodo's house in LOTR. The funny thing was that through all of this all I could think about was how amazing my brain was to be able to create these things for me - what kind of a computer would it take to be able to render the kinds of things I was seeing? And not some fuzzy, half remembered drunken antics, this was vivid. And I still remember it. I have since had similar experiences (on drugs) and these have confirmed what i thought - I'm not saying drugs are great or anything like that, they just give you a striking glimpse of what the human brain is capable of visualising. You can say that the drugs create these things, but they don't. All the drugs are doing is releasing chemicals in the brain which trigger certain parts of it to become active (or over-active).

Which brings me to my point (eventually). It's not surprising at all that so many people have paranormal, religious and spiritual experiences. In all of this, no-one really gives the brain its due credit - it is an insanely powerful machine, capable of visulising things that no-one could ever dream of - and we don't know the half of what it can do. The brain remains one of the biggest mysteries to science (one of the few things I have total faith in, if you can call it that). Be it sleep deprivation, stress, drugs, whatever trigger, the brain can, and will, do amazing things whether you ask for them or not, and often without warning.

I don't want to sound preachy or weird, but I have seen what my brain can do, and how utterly convincing it was, and it has made me a lot more understanding towards people who have had weird things happen to them, be it on drugs or not. The brain really just is the greatest liar of them all.

People who attribute their extraordinary experiences to ghosts, the almighty, or UFOs should stop and think about the most amazing thing of all... that squashy pink thing sitting between their ears. It holds all the answers. And someday, hopefully, we will learn them.

But then, do we really want to?

ooooOOOOOoooooOOOOOOOO

Its about six inches long and sits in your head, at the controls!
(fox_handybread, Tue 8 Jul 2008, 0:22, 6 replies)

Great read
*click*

I soak mine in alcohol on a regular basis. That seems to keep it in check.
(Axeman Jim, Tue 8 Jul 2008, 1:02, closed)

*Click* Now that
DOES frighten me! I've tried the odd thing in the past but the real mindbenders like mushrooms or acid, those things terrify the living bejesus out of me. My brain only just copes with normality as it is! 2 puffs of grass sent me on a 2 hour paranoia trip during which I never uttered a word but was completely terrified the whole time for no reason. Took me 3 days to feel fully normal again. 2 puffs!

The old grey matter is a splendid thingy though, apparently we only use 10% of it, which makes me wonder..... what has evolution got in store for us next and what's the other 90% for? It's probably for pr0n though, most things are :P
( baw__bag contains traces of nuts on, Tue 8 Jul 2008, 2:30, closed)

of course your brain ...
... doesn't actually have to render all that stuff in interactive hi-res 3d smell-o-vision -- it can just tell you it's done so, and you'll believe it. :-)
(haberman is singing in the changes, Tue 8 Jul 2008, 12:55, closed)

we only use 10% of our brain at any one time.
it all gets used at some point, just not all at the same time.

which is a good thing if you think about it...imagine thinking everything you've ever thought all at once...
(MrChimp previously Monsieur, Tue 8 Jul 2008, 13:56, closed)

*click*
I've felt exactly the same way on drugs before, thinking how incredible my brain is. I also had a very weird night with a mate on shrooms, where we were convinced that a section of the wall was an intricate japanese carving, and we were both pointing out stuff and the other one could see it too. Turned out to be a bit of rag rolled wall.
( Madam Marlboro wonders if you've found her yet, Tue 8 Jul 2008, 23:56, closed)

.
"Be it sleep deprivation, stress, drugs, whatever trigger, the brain can, and will, do amazing things whether you ask for them or not, and often without warning."

And don't forget meditation.

Also, see this old post of mine for some more of my thoughts on the subject.
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Wed 9 Jul 2008, 1:11, closed)