How Does Anaesthesia Work?

Carl Zimmer on anaesthesia and consciousness here.

"EXTRAORDINARY KNOWING"

Inexplicable Powers of Mind...


"Extraordinary Knowing" by Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer

This book was published in 2007, though the author, clinical psychologist and UC Berkeley Professor Elizabeth Mayer died in 2005 shortly after its completion (her obituary here).

Let me say at the outset, I liked this book. A lot of scientific-minded folks may not care for it, but... I liked it.
Those of us who frequent flea markets and garage sales do so in part because we enjoy sorting through rubble looking for the occasional gem amongst the riff-raff. I've always viewed scientific "fringe" writings in a similar manner. I enjoy perusing fringe science, even if much of it is unpersuasive and dismissable, because from time to time there is a gem, or at least, as in this instance, a worthy read.

This book has endorsement blurbs from certain advocates of the paranormal which may put off some readers. However, it also has a foreward from one of the great physicists and thinkers of our time, Freeman Dyson, who cautiously confesses he finds Mayer's story "convincing" and offers his own open-minded view of parapsychology later in the book. This is a book about intuitive or anomalous "knowing" --- knowing things without understanding how we know them. In a second foreward, psychologist Carol Gilligan writes that this is a book about "knowing through connectedness" or knowing in the way "children know;" what some would simply call 'gut instinct.'

Elizabeth's story begins in California when a special harp belonging to her young daughter is stolen after a concert and no amount of publicity or searching, brings it back (she relates the story in a YouTube video here). Months later a friend tells her that if she really wants the instrument back she should be willing to try anything... including using a dowser!
...For those who are still reading, and to cut to the chase, a dowser (and complete stranger to Mayer) 2000 miles away in Arkansas remotely locates the harp for Elizabeth. And for her 'this changed everything" in her life; changed her work, her research, and her "sense of how the world adds up." Mayer began collecting stories/anecdotes from her medical colleagues of odd, inexplicable experiences of 'knowing' things at a distance or ahead of time, and found herself inundated with examples, as they related instances often never revealed to anyone else before. Depending on your openness to such anecdotes, you will either find many of these intriguing... or dismissable as unempirical.

The book goes on to quickly recount the "strange history of paranormal research" chiefly from the late 1800's (including the Society for Psychical Research" and William James, who is liberally quoted through the volume) through the work of Joseph Rhine at Duke University in the 1930's; on analysis Mayer finds Rhine's work to be much better than his harshest critics made it out to be.
Next comes a chapter on the work (in part for the CIA) of Puthoff and Targ at the Stanford Research Institute largely on so-called "remote-viewing," which is easily as controversial as the studies carried out by Rhine. "Ganzfield" studies, in which a "sender" attempts to mentally send a picture or image to a "receiver" in another room, are one type of highlighted study. Others who show up in the book are Dean Radin, Ray Hyman, and Cornell's Daryl Bem, for those familiar with these names, and Freud rears his head repeatedly as well, as befitting the author's background in psychoanalysis.

Mayer ends up arguing that just as in "Gestalt psychology" where certain illusions are based on the inability of a viewer to focus simultaneously on both the background and foreground of a picture, thus forcing a focus on one or the other, so too many scientists are incapable of viewing "anomalous" experiences objectively in their normal rational mode, and thus too quickly dismiss phenomena that are dissonant with the empirical career world they inhabit.

Another chapter reviews some of the experimental research on the effects of prayer on patients, a topic about which much has been written in the last couple decades, and the last chapter is the now almost obligatory one all such books must have on "quantum uncertainty," relating how this concept from physics, and the related concept of "nonlocality," may apply in the cognitive world. Here, a 4-part mind/matter, conscious/unconscious model of dynamic interaction is hypothesized to try to account for some of the paranormal research findings (and also account for why such findings are often difficult to achieve or replicate). Prior to this chapter the notion of "entrainment," wherein people are shown to have synchronous physiological responses to a given stimulus, is also mentioned as a possible explanation (or at least analogy) for some paranormal effects.

At the end, despite her trepidation of 'New Age fads' and human 'credulity,' scientist Mayer is left shaken by what she finds on her "journey" through examples that are difficult to make sense of, yet real enough, she believes, to need serious investigation. It is unfortunate she passed away (from illness) before getting to pursue these areas further.

Personally, I believe there exist multiple ways of "knowing" of which the scientific method is one way. And from that perspective this volume is worth a read; others who view science as the only proper way of knowing may find the volume lacking. In the end, Mayer's book is a call to remain open to possibilities that we can't comprehend with our current operating logic; to neither dismiss nor ignore such mysteries of life, but look them square in the eye, and acknowledge their presence, without pre-judgment or bias... and that, afterall, is part of the scientific method.

B
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"SPARK: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain"

Elucidating The Mind-Body Connection... 'We Are Built To Move'....


I've long thought that movement and touch are essentials to the health and well-being of living things ("You are built to move," writes the author), and I'm also much interested in the whole 'mind-body connection' arena. So it was natural that a book entitled "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain" would catch my eye. The volume is written by Dr. John J. Ratey who has focused in the past on ADHD and other psychiatric issues, and in this volume contends that "exercise is the single most powerful tool you have to optimize brain function." There are a great many mind-body books on the market these days, ranging from questionable fluff to cutting edge science. This volume definitely falls toward the latter end of that range and is a worthy read. Its take-home message is no different than a lot of other volumes, but it does so with the backing of more brain science and research than many books.

In the Introduction Ratey writes, "...we no longer hunt and gather, and that's a problem. The sedentary character of modern life is a disruption of our nature..." And much later this: "...our genes are coded for this activity, and our brains are meant to direct it. Take that activity away, and you're disrupting a delicate biological balance that has been fine-tuned over half a million years." Ratey's book is a strong push to remain active, for the benefit of brain chemistry (and its ensuing effects).

Chapter 1 focuses on the experience of Naperville School District 203 in Illinois, giving 19,000 students PE classes that centered on fitness and lifestyle (i.e. exercise/movement), NOT sports, and the resultant benefits, including reduced obesity statistics.
Throughout the book Dr. Ratey discusses elements of brain chemistry, that are augmented by exercise including serotonin, dopamine, other neurotransmitters, and a key neurotrophin known as BDNF, among others.
Subsequent chapters focus on "stress," "anxiety," "depression," "ADHD," and "addiction," using many individual anecdotal examples, as well as laboratory research to indicate that exercise is often as effective (and safer) than pharmaceuticals for treating these conditions. Moreover, Ratey notes that exercise "adjusts" an entire series of brain chemicals, whereas drugs often only act upon a single brain chemical. And like certain drugs, exercise itself can be addictive, but Ratey shrugs, "don't worry about it," because the risk of that occurring is so small relative to the benefits gained; moreover exercise is more likely to counteract other stresses that often feed addictive behavior.

For female readers chapter 8 covers the positive impact of exercise on PMS, menopause, and post-partum problems, and the value of exercise even during pregnancy. Toward the end of the chapter Ratey writes (surprisingly to me) that, "It's well established that more women suffer from Alzheimer's disease than men, even when the statistics are adjusted for the fact that women live longer." Still, Alzheimer's and mental sharpness more generally, are definite concerns for both genders in this time of increased longevity, and regular exercise is an important protective element against the progression of age, if we hope to live, not just longer, but better.

Ratey summarizes the positive effects of aerobic exercise (essentially, movement that increases heart rate) as, 1) strengthening the cardiovascular system, 2) regulating "fuel," 3) reducing obesity, 4) decreasing stress, 5) elevating mood, 6) boosting the immune system, 7) fortifying bones, 8) boosting motivation, and finally, 9) fostering neuroplasticity. Best of all exercise is free, flexible, and readily available throughout our lives. Almost as an afterthought he mentions the value as well of 'mental exercise' and of 'eating light and eating right' for overall health. Also, research is less clear how valuable NON-aerobic activity is --- strength training, resistance training, balance work, yoga, tai chi, etc. certainly all bestow benefits, but likely not as many as aerobic work specifically for brain activity/chemistry.

Many other books probably make the same basic points and recommendations that Ratey does here; I'm just not sure how many of those books make them as solidly as Ratey does.


B+
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