high desert

I’ll show you a place / High on a desert plain / Where the streets have no name ~ Photo courtesy of Serena Kali Devi at Aum Love

Neuróticos Anónimos

“I can’t seem to face up to the facts / I'm tense and nervous and I / Can’t relax / I can’t sleep ‘cause my head’s on fire / Don’t touch me I’m a real live wire.”

Day 48:  Hi, I’m B. and I’m neurotic. I get uncontrollably weepy during movie scenes. Especially when someone is experiencing some kind of adversity ..as well as when they’re overcoming adversity. Watching ‘Hunger Games’ was a real roller coaster ride. I get angry when I read the paper. I quarrel with authorities, my father, and other family members ..even when they’re not around. I feel like my tolerance for frustration is slipping into dangerous territory, which frightens me because I’m obsessive about my mental health and take frequent sanity-checks. When it checks out OK I’m afraid I may be rationalizing something away. Like, is so much media distraction good ..? Beats tranquilizers. But when does it start to do just the opposite ..? I go around and around a lot. I’m irritated by people who show-off during casual conversation. I’m irritated by myself for showing off during casual conversation, which tells me what I dislike about others is most often myself.

Shit expert

I’m out hiking with my dog Andy. At the first sign of critters ..the aroma of shit ..Andy’s got his nose to the ground. He signals me by sticking his tail out and cocking his left leg up. Can’t be just any piece of shit though. It’s gotta be fresh .. meaning less than a 15 minutes old. And it’s gotta’ be a critter like possum or rabbit (not just another dog or cat). Now Andy’s whining and it looks like he’s got the shakes so I go over and ask him what’s wrong. He looks at me like he’s just seen (or smelt) a ghost. I look at today’s droppings. Way too big for a raccoon but a bit too small for a deer. That leaves ..Bobcat! Andy looks at me like ‘BINGO’ ..and we haul ass outta’ there. I don’t underestimate his sense of smell. It’s been ‘genetically tuned’ to pick up the scent of shit left by critters he hunts ..as well as critters that may be hunting us. Sure enough, the first person we run into tells us that there’s been a bobcat sighting in the area.

Peer-mediated buzz

   James Fowler, a professor of psychology at UCSD, found that messages from our peers are more likely to initiate action than messages delivered by a political committee [ link ]. Last year, Obama’s reelection committee learned the same thing. They developed a system that leverages database technology and social-media to deliver their messages. In an instant, this system allows them to:

1. mobilize grassroots support for White House concerns 
2. provide White House support for local concerns

Apparently they took an extra step, conducted surveys ..and learned that nothing energizes participation better than ‘reciprocity’. Brilliant use of technology combined with Obama’s experience as a community organizer. Politically I’m independent and pretty damn naïve ..but I can see why this might give Republicans cause for alarm.

well of souls

Serena Devi Aum

Healer at  Aum Love

Highway 1

 

Big Sur Sunset 

Photo by Linda Sonrisa

way home

Come down off your throne and leave your body alone / Somebody must change / You are the reason I've been waiting so long / Somebody holds the key / Well I'm near the end and I just thank God for time / And I'm wasted and I can't find my way home          ~   Blind Faith

Decision making

Decisions are mostly intuitive, logical explanations
catch-up milliseconds later ~ Robert Sapolsky [ link ]

driftwood villager

I follow her into a cove ..through tide pools crystal clear .. into a village made of driftwood huts ..where women pit-bake shellfish and men spearfish in the waters of a lagoon. And I realize that I’ve always been cursed ..trying to imagine what life must have been like on planet earth ..before I came along.

Cultural para-stimuli

I’m looking for a better definition of the term ‘cultural para-stimuli’. I have only the vaguest idea that it’s some kind of mysterious force that transmits culture. I start out with the prefix ‘para’ ..which means to impart a subsidiary role to a word or agent. Paramedic for instance. Another meaning of ‘para’ is to impart an altered role to a word or agent. Parasail for instance. I think that’s the one I’m looking for. Para-stimuli are stimuli that go beyond the action of a stimulus on the nervous system. Usually it’s an alteration that results from repeated exposure. For example, ‘sugar’ produces an immediate sensation of sweet that becomes sickening after repeated exposure. Put it together and what it says is that ‘cultural para-stimuli’ are stimuli resulting from social observations that produce alterations in the nervous system that go beyond their immediate reaction. Why do need a better definition of this ..? Perhaps because of what it says about the fashion industry and why we so often choose style over substance. Perhaps because of what it says about my choice of partners. I don’t know. What I do know is what neuroscientists tell me. Repeated exposure to ‘what’s cool’ in a peer group lowers tolerance for ‘what’s appropriate’ in the amygdala. I know the word ‘amygdala’ sounds foreign ..like something from outer space. It refers to a part of the brain that sets thresholds for impulses ..or ‘impulse-control’. Without an amygdala, animals veer helplessly from one inappropriate feeling or action to another. Boredom where there should be fear .. sexual arousal where there is no provocation. What they’ve seen is that animals with an intact amygdala respond just like animals without an amygdala merely by observing or being in the same vicinity. It may be due to sight, sound, smell, whatever ..but exposure to one group serves as cultural para-stimuli to the other group. Repeated exposure to ‘what’s cool’ can actually lower discrimination for things that may otherwise be considered shocking. I’m thinking of things like lewd conduct in public that could be considered something along the lines of a ‘sex offense’. Something that could easily be done at considerably less risk in the privacy of one’s own home. Another thing that comes to mind is ‘mob mentality’ ..the predatory behavior I sometimes see at soccer matches or in crowds celebrating the Rose Parade in California. Makes ‘cultural para-stimuli’ sound like ‘zona rosa’ for communal decadence, which, I don’t know ..may say a little something about my own behavior at rock festivals.