Im in ur head messin wit ur mind

[Anthile]

Well, a simple discussion I had with Fleur this afternoon reminded me of a topic that I created in a different forum some months ago.
Since I don't want to influence any opinions I will provide just some links:

http://www.livescience.com/technology/060210_technovelgy.html

http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/060803_tgondii_culture.html

 

[Jesin]

I hope they're not serious in that second article about "adding to cultural diversity" by inducing neuroticism being a good thing.

 

[Deleted member 1424]

I read about this before on Cracked some time ago; though it didn't mention anything regarding schizophrenia or human infection. I find it interesting how humans are instinctively frightened of parasites and especially ones that effect the mind. Mind altering/controlling parasites are commonly used in sci-fi to evoke fear and disgust (halo too now that I think on it). The very notion of such creatures makes my skin crawl and I'm not remotely squeamish.


I always knew lolcats were inherently sinister though.

 

[Anthile]

From what I (I guess that's the Ni) can extract from stories about parasites is that they are an allegory for a (sudden) change of paradigm in persons. The most blatant example might be The Body Snatchers where the aliens are a clear allegory for communism, how it "infects" people and how it "spreads".
The heroic character (with whom the audience should identify) finds himself usually alienated and cannot trust other people but himself. It is very important to recognize that the parasite has bad intentions and that the paradigm change is always for the worse.

 

[walfin]

Must the paradigm change necessarily be for the worst even if the parasite has bad (or maybe not bad per se, merely selfish) intentions?

The seedless grape is reproducing so successfully today only because of humans' selfish desire to eat them.

 

[snowqueen]

This is apparently not a new finding. Here is an article from 1996 for example. Bloody scary!

 

[brain enclosed in flesh]

Sure. Why not? Makes sense to me. There's naturopaths who firmly believe that candida albicans also messes with its host's mind. I went to one who said that this was my problem and that I shouldn't eat any sugar, wheat, yeast or dairy to 'starve' the yeast. I tried it for awhile but I couldn't deal. And now I'm on the mood stabilizer lamotrigine (actually anti-seizure medication) which seems to be working. Maybe it's killing the candida as haloperidol does with toxoplasma. Although I kind of doubt it.

Parasites, infections, STDs- they all alter your brain. So does consuming a bunch of caffeine or taking too much cough medicine or smoking a joint. That's how it is.

EDIT: forgot to say- candida is supposed to cause you to have sugar cravings so that you will continue to feed it and it can grow, eventually spreading throughout your body.

Edit #2: Whoa, look what I just found on healthscout: "(Candida albicans) in the brain can cause seizures and acute changes in mental function or behavior." !