Psychelectric
Curiouser and curiouser
In today's world we live in a culture where professionals niche out, hyperspecializing to myriad of professions that suit very specific purposes. There are neurologists who spend their entire professional careers only studying sleep disorders. Physicists who focus their understanding of fluid dynamics. Lawyers who remember little law outside of contract law. This type of extreme focus can be a boon to our society, though it can also be a bane.
The boon that we get for society is an increase of detailed knowledge in specific fields, such as the cardiologist who discovers a way to alter the electrical conductivity of the heart to help a heart attack victim or the tropical botanist that finds specific chemical mediators in the blooming cycle of certain species. In the fields of science these contributions have advanced so much of our knowledge and how we apply it in both medicine and technology. These are the great and beautiful things about dedicating a life to a very specialized study. There is however a pathological dark side that goes hand in hand with such levels of hyper focus, and that is the autism spectrum disorder.
A basic description of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a phenotypic pattern of behaviors marked by impairment in social interaction and communication characterized by extreme behaviors. The main neurochemical issue is a decrease in the rates of Oxytocin (the bonding hormone). Amongst the many impairments in autism spectrum disorders is abnormalities in both verbal and nonverbal communication as well as impairment in imaginative and symbolic play. The impairment of the imagination and empathy are ones I find to be quite devastating. Other features associated with ASDs are significantly high rates of ADHD and OCD, so significant in fact that they are basically characteristics of the disorder.
There are many things that contribute to the development of ASDs, and contrary to popular hype vaccines do not appear to be a factor. There are genetic disorders and mutations that cause abnormal brain development, which aside from dealing with the mutagens in the environment are difficult to avoid. Traumatic brain injury increases rates. Neonatal exposure to various drugs such as Valproic Acid (a common seizure medication) increase the rates of ASDs to 20%. Children who live in close proximity to freeways are shown to have a higher risk. Children born living in close proximity to coal burning power plants. Children who live in areas with frequent pesticide use, which makes sense as pesticides are known nerotoxins. Children who are exposed to television at an early age show diminished language ability, such as the problems with the Baby Einstien videos, which were recalled due to evidence that they stunt language development. The reason this is is because language development is reciprocal, one party talks the other listens and then responds, a TV can never respond and thus never engage in communication. Another risk factor is the increase in rote robotic style tasks pushed in the classroom, such as sitting at the desk memorizing times tables. The fact is that children learn through play, and with recess being cut in many places and rote tasks being pushed at early ages to suit standardization there is an increased rate of ASDs in such school systems. Another factor is children born of engineers or other hyper focused professionals. The reason is that on average the phenotype of an engineer is one of a very details oriented person, hyper focused with less of a knack for social skills. In fact their are very high rates of ASDs among engineers.
Now I outline all of those causative factors to explain that their is no singular cause for ASDs, it is a multi factorial pathology. Where if you are looking at the level of socialization for an individual each of these factors can push a developing mind further and further into an ASD pathology.
The hyper focus in a person severely effected by an ASD to use this metaphor is a person who can't see the forest through the trees, they can't see the trees through the leaves, nor can they see the leaves through the pattern of the veins in the leaves. In children when you watch them play, you will see those moderately effected are unable to see a toy as anything different than what it represents, such as action figures can never fly and cars can never be space ships. In the more severely effected, a child will merely line up their toys or stare at the spinning wheel of a toy truck being unable to fully see the truck or the child organize them with no real signs of play at all. The level of hyper focus is such that there are children who get so devastatingly OCD with their habits such as food selectivity so that they may only eat noodles in silly shapes or they will get so obsessed with a Disney video that they watch it over and over for hours and then when its turned off will have a meltdown, which is like a temper tantrum except can last up to hours and be very aggressive or self injurious.
The reason I highlight this is because it seems that we are causing higher rates of this disorder in our society, based on our professional focus, our environmental toxins, our media addiction, as well as our educational system.
Likewise I am of the opinion that DMT has a role to play in the development of our imaginations, and I can see the sadness of what a world looks like with diminished imagination. I wonder what a world will look like with a heightened capacity for imagination.
The boon that we get for society is an increase of detailed knowledge in specific fields, such as the cardiologist who discovers a way to alter the electrical conductivity of the heart to help a heart attack victim or the tropical botanist that finds specific chemical mediators in the blooming cycle of certain species. In the fields of science these contributions have advanced so much of our knowledge and how we apply it in both medicine and technology. These are the great and beautiful things about dedicating a life to a very specialized study. There is however a pathological dark side that goes hand in hand with such levels of hyper focus, and that is the autism spectrum disorder.
A basic description of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a phenotypic pattern of behaviors marked by impairment in social interaction and communication characterized by extreme behaviors. The main neurochemical issue is a decrease in the rates of Oxytocin (the bonding hormone). Amongst the many impairments in autism spectrum disorders is abnormalities in both verbal and nonverbal communication as well as impairment in imaginative and symbolic play. The impairment of the imagination and empathy are ones I find to be quite devastating. Other features associated with ASDs are significantly high rates of ADHD and OCD, so significant in fact that they are basically characteristics of the disorder.
There are many things that contribute to the development of ASDs, and contrary to popular hype vaccines do not appear to be a factor. There are genetic disorders and mutations that cause abnormal brain development, which aside from dealing with the mutagens in the environment are difficult to avoid. Traumatic brain injury increases rates. Neonatal exposure to various drugs such as Valproic Acid (a common seizure medication) increase the rates of ASDs to 20%. Children who live in close proximity to freeways are shown to have a higher risk. Children born living in close proximity to coal burning power plants. Children who live in areas with frequent pesticide use, which makes sense as pesticides are known nerotoxins. Children who are exposed to television at an early age show diminished language ability, such as the problems with the Baby Einstien videos, which were recalled due to evidence that they stunt language development. The reason this is is because language development is reciprocal, one party talks the other listens and then responds, a TV can never respond and thus never engage in communication. Another risk factor is the increase in rote robotic style tasks pushed in the classroom, such as sitting at the desk memorizing times tables. The fact is that children learn through play, and with recess being cut in many places and rote tasks being pushed at early ages to suit standardization there is an increased rate of ASDs in such school systems. Another factor is children born of engineers or other hyper focused professionals. The reason is that on average the phenotype of an engineer is one of a very details oriented person, hyper focused with less of a knack for social skills. In fact their are very high rates of ASDs among engineers.
Now I outline all of those causative factors to explain that their is no singular cause for ASDs, it is a multi factorial pathology. Where if you are looking at the level of socialization for an individual each of these factors can push a developing mind further and further into an ASD pathology.
The hyper focus in a person severely effected by an ASD to use this metaphor is a person who can't see the forest through the trees, they can't see the trees through the leaves, nor can they see the leaves through the pattern of the veins in the leaves. In children when you watch them play, you will see those moderately effected are unable to see a toy as anything different than what it represents, such as action figures can never fly and cars can never be space ships. In the more severely effected, a child will merely line up their toys or stare at the spinning wheel of a toy truck being unable to fully see the truck or the child organize them with no real signs of play at all. The level of hyper focus is such that there are children who get so devastatingly OCD with their habits such as food selectivity so that they may only eat noodles in silly shapes or they will get so obsessed with a Disney video that they watch it over and over for hours and then when its turned off will have a meltdown, which is like a temper tantrum except can last up to hours and be very aggressive or self injurious.
The reason I highlight this is because it seems that we are causing higher rates of this disorder in our society, based on our professional focus, our environmental toxins, our media addiction, as well as our educational system.
Likewise I am of the opinion that DMT has a role to play in the development of our imaginations, and I can see the sadness of what a world looks like with diminished imagination. I wonder what a world will look like with a heightened capacity for imagination.
