“My neighbor swears that every night a brownie wanders around her apartment. He does no harm, only occasionally breaks a cup or two and eat a few sweets, - I. Zayonts writes to us from Riga. - I don't believe in brownies, but what could it be? My friend Jeanne G. says we can be visited by beings from other worlds. They even wrote about it in the newspapers …"
Yes, and the editorial board receives such letters. People describe "miracles" that happened to them, with their neighbors, remember the extraordinary events that happened to their parents. It is impossible to dismiss such stories, and it is impossible to understand each of them. So we asked the Moscow psychiatrist Mikhail Ivanovich Buyanov to analyze just one, but a typical story.
The phone rang: - Have you already heard that aliens have settled in Moscow? - Yes, the earth is full of rumors. - So how is it? - What how? Whether aliens exist, no one knows for sure, some believe in it, others do not. But this is not my competence, ask radio astronomers. But as for the specific "aliens" in Moscow, about which you speak … it would not hurt to check. My interlocutor and I agreed at the first opportunity to deal with the mysterious history on the spot, since the address was indicated exactly - Izmailovo, house, apartment.
In a few days I was to give a lecture for psychiatrists who had come to Moscow for refresher courses. The topic was mental infantilism - neuropsychic disorders, in which the underdevelopment of the emotional-volitional sphere comes to the fore. Let's say, a teenager of thirteen or fourteen years old, with a normally developed intellect, behaves like a child of eight or nine years old. Such teenagers love to play a lot, study extremely unevenly, constantly fantasize. While selecting patients for demonstration (this is the custom in lectures of this kind), I learned that a 14-year-old teenager had been admitted to the hospital after reading science fiction novels and imagining that he himself was communicating with aliens. His fantasies were changing, like the May wind: he declared that he had seen with his own eyes the aliens living in his apartment,that he traveled with them to their home planet, and negotiated to the extent that he was an alien himself … You will not surprise a psychiatrist with such fantasies how many Napoleons and Genghis Khans passed before our eyes. Now here's a new story: the twentieth century is crowding out the psychiatric "classics", and space aliens take the place of the Genghis Khans … And suddenly it dawned on me: is this the guy who caused our telephone conversation? It turned out to be the same one. At the lecture, he willingly talked about himself, not embarrassed that he often did not make ends meet. There was a lot of childishness in his behavior, and it was clear that this handsome guy was either playing a trick on his loved ones, or he blurted out in a temper, but he didn't have the courage to admit. And he decided to "stand to the end" - secretly moved furniture (aliens!), Gradually drew his relatives into his hoaxes,especially a little sister, in a word, he got stuck in his venture so that he could not get out without outside help. Stopping him was not easy. “Scientists come to us, even famous academicians,” he broadcast, “they record my speeches on a tape recorder, reproduce them on typewriters, examine me with all kinds of equipment, and do acupuncture. They say that all over the world there are five of the same "phenomena" … The orator did not care whether they believed him or not. He has already repeated the story dozens of times to relatives, friends, unknown "academicians" - and now to us. And he also wondered why his mother took him to psychiatrists and insisted on hospitalization? However, he could guess that his mother wished him well, was looking for someone who would help him cope with the fantasy in which he was literally drowning. Perhaps, inwardly, he himself was not against such help … Finally,the boy "confessed" to those present in his extraterrestrial origin, said that he possesses superhuman strength, can overcome any obstacles, mentally move objects. He was offered to demonstrate his abilities - but "by an effort of will" not a page on the calendar turned over, nor the phone rang.
A few days later, I and two friends (engineers by profession) talked with the parents of the "alien" at his house - an ordinary two-room apartment, the family is also the most ordinary. “We guessed before that our son was playing a trick on us,” said the father. “But what could we do? Some people came to us, they said that aliens live with us, they groaned, gasped. How can you not believe - we are simple people, uneducated people, we respect science. Yes, and the police were there, they also noticed something … It was felt that, despite all the inconveniences, the boy's parents were flattered to receive learned people and even a little sorry that everything had "burst". As for the police, the head of the department, a calm and reasonable person, told us by phone that none of his subordinates had observed anything "supernatural" in this apartment. End of the story? Not at all. The dual position of the boy's parents is understandable in its own way, although not commendable; Well at least the mother, nevertheless, caught herself in time … But what to say about "learned people" with and without titles? Since the boy announced that he was communicating with aliens, the rumor about "aliens in Izmailovo" snowballs rolled around the city, acquiring details on the way. The apartment, where aliens are, has turned into a courtyard. Who has not been here! And although no one saw the miracle, the stories of the young dreamer continued to be taken at his word.where aliens are, has turned into a gateway. Who has not been here! And although no one saw the miracle, the stories of the young dreamer continued to be taken at his word.where aliens are, has turned into a gateway. Who has not been here! And although no one saw the miracle, the stories of the young dreamer continued to be taken at his word.
The human psyche is truly inexhaustible, it harbors many unexpected things, about which psychology (and her sister psychiatry) can only speculate so far. We still do not know everything about our own psyche and the psyche of our neighbor (although experience and traditions help mutual regulation), the laws of mass, group psychology have been studied even less. Dozens of questions arise as soon as one thinks about facts like the story of an infantile teenager-“alien”. Belief in miracles is still alive today, although it would seem that it should not have social, economic or cultural roots. “Go get on with the man! - Gogol exclaimed ironically in Dead Souls - he doesn't believe in God, but believes that if the nose is scratched, he will certainly die; will miss the creation of a poet, clear as day,everything imbued with harmony and high wisdom of simplicity, but he will rush exactly where some daring will confuse, twist, break, twist nature, and he will like it, and he will shout: “This is it, this is the real knowledge of the secrets of the heart!” life does not put a penny on doctors, but will end up turning at last to a grandmother who heals with whispering and spitting …"
Superstition and gullibility are also closely related. And maybe it is worth looking not for their social or economic roots, but for their psychological ones? After all, superstitions and "miracles", as a rule, grow out of innocence and naivety, lack of information (however, the mass of information not included in the system is also evidence of half-education). It is very conducive to fantasizing, to any contacts (from brownies to "newcomers") and just loneliness, and "thirst for the miraculous", and fashion for sensations. Finally, one cannot discount the tendency of a certain part of people to hallucinations and even to induced, that is, "induced", insanity … One example from fiction. The hero of Yuri Kazakov's story "Cabias", a boy named Zhukov, walks one evening to a neighboring village and meets a watchman on the way. He informs between times,that there are cabias in the vicinity - like devils or gnomes. And they play pranks, of course, they catch up with fear of passers-by. Zhukov laughed at the half-literate old man, but as he passed through the forest he remembered his story and immediately felt that the cabias were somewhere nearby, heard their footsteps, laughter, tapping. “Holding his spirit, he turned slowly and looked at the barn. The roof of the barn hung in the air, even the stars were visible in between. But as soon as he glanced at her, she sat down on the log house, and behind the shed something ran with a stomp in the field with a strangled monotonous cry "Oh!.. Oh!.. Oh!.." - farther and farther. Zhukov's hair rose, he jumped up and jumped to the side. "Well! he thought. - Lost!.. “Cabias, devils, gnomes, brownies, trolls from time immemorial have conscientiously served the creators of fairy tales and poems,“participated”in children's games and practical jokes for adults, but, by the way,and were taken seriously by many, fed various superstitions and the most ridiculous rumors. It's one thing when a gnome is a poetic or musical image. Like any image, it is conditional, carries a certain semantic and artistic load. It's another matter when a gnome (or a devil, or a brownie) is perceived as a real creature! Let's leave aside the pure pathology, when people drink to hell and, in a state of delirium tremens, shake off petty evil spirits, or for patients with narcolepsy, this evil spirits sometimes crumple before falling asleep. Now we are talking about practically healthy people. And among them, says the professional experience of a psychiatrist, single women and adolescents most often "see" cabias and their relatives. Both are distinguished by excessive trustfulness and are easily susceptible to suggestion, their thinking is one-sided, criticality is dormant, their horizons are limited. The younger the child,the less he distinguishes between reality and fiction, hardly distinguishing himself from the character in which he plays. But sometimes getting used to the image takes on painful features: for several days or even weeks, the boy behaves, say, like a cat or a dog. Parents laugh at first, then punish the child, then run to the doctor. And, if the doctor is experienced, he quickly returns the child from the world of painful fantasies to a healthy reality, where, by the way, no one is forbidden to fantasize, only in a different way. And if it's not a child, but a teenager? Adults, listening to him, don't know what to think? He doesn't bark, of course, and he doesn't run on all fours, he just talks about cabias or aliens. Some shrug their shoulders in response, others believe (especially when the story of a young dreamer is talented).in which he plays. But sometimes getting used to the image takes on painful features: for several days or even weeks, the boy behaves, for example, like a cat or a dog. Parents laugh at first, then punish the child, then run to the doctor. And, if the doctor is experienced, he quickly returns the child from the world of painful fantasies to a healthy reality, where, by the way, no one is forbidden to fantasize, only in a different way. And if it's not a child, but a teenager? Adults, listening to him, don't know what to think? He doesn't bark, of course, and he doesn't run on all fours, he just talks about cabias or aliens. Some shrug their shoulders in response, others believe (especially when the story of a young dreamer is talented).in which he plays. But sometimes getting used to the image takes on painful features: for several days or even weeks, the boy behaves, say, like a cat or a dog. Parents laugh at first, then punish the child, then run to the doctor. And, if the doctor is experienced, he quickly returns the child from the world of painful fantasies to a healthy reality, where, by the way, no one is forbidden to fantasize, only in a different way. And if it's not a child, but a teenager? Adults, listening to him, don't know what to think? He doesn't bark, of course, and he doesn't run on all fours, he just talks about cabias or aliens. Some shrug their shoulders in response, others believe (especially when the story of a young dreamer is talented). Parents laugh at first, then punish the child, then run to the doctor. And, if the doctor is experienced, he quickly returns the child from the world of painful fantasies to a healthy reality, where, by the way, no one is forbidden to fantasize, only in a different way. And if it's not a child, but a teenager? Adults, listening to him, don't know what to think? He doesn't bark, of course, and he doesn't run on all fours, he just talks about cabias or aliens. Some shrug their shoulders in response, others believe (especially when the story of a young dreamer is talented). Parents laugh at first, then punish the child, then run to the doctor. And, if the doctor is experienced, he quickly returns the child from the world of painful fantasies to a healthy reality, where, by the way, no one is forbidden to fantasize, only in a different way. And if it's not a child, but a teenager? Adults, listening to him, don't know what to think? He doesn't bark, of course, and he doesn't run on all fours, he just talks about cabias or aliens. Some shrug their shoulders in response, others believe (especially when the story of a young dreamer is talented).of course, and does not run on all fours, just talks about cabias or aliens. Some shrug their shoulders in response, others believe (especially when the story of a young dreamer is talented).of course, and does not run on all fours, just talks about cabias or aliens. Some shrug their shoulders in response, others believe (especially when the story of a young dreamer is talented).
Let's go back to the literary example. What happened to Kazakov's Zhukov is the well-known (both in norm and in pathology) so-called visualization of representations, in which the images of folklore and literature come to life, become almost real. In Astrid Lindgren's wonderful book, young children see Carlson living on the roof - this is also, in essence, a visualization of representations. It happens to anyone, but more often, we repeat, among inexhaustible dreamers, those who are looking for miracles and are tensely waiting for them. The imaging phenomenon is not necessarily pathological. Children who play with Carlson are quite normal, as was Faraday, who admitted that he “sees” magnetic lines of force. The history of medicine knows cases of the so-called induced insanity, when, succumbing to the inventions of dreamers or maniacs,hundreds and thousands of healthy, but overly trusting and thirsting for a miracle, people saw signs in the heavens, haloed saints on the domes of churches, committed ridiculous deeds, including mass suicide. In an atmosphere of universal tension and continuous prophecies, many could not stand their nerves, they began to hallucinate - to see the characters of the Apocalypse, signs of the end of the world. Nowadays the subject of “visions” has changed, but the internal mechanisms of their appearance have remained unchanged. Each century has its own illusions … For example, a man came home. Tired, thoughts are busy with the events of the working day, but he was not very successful. He looked into the dimly lit room and recoiled in horror: a hefty viper perched on the table. He grabbed the stick and reached for the switch: to blind, it will be more convenient to hit! Turned on the light - there was a scarf on the table. I looked in the mirror - I barely recognized myself:pale face, perspiration on the forehead; at least a valerian was close at hand … In this case, it is not a hallucination, but an illusion, an error of perception: the scarf is real. But it happens that a person sees or hears something that is not really there. However, neither hallucinations nor illusions are inherent in a person from the outset, even within the framework of pathology they (and not only their content) often depend on various, often difficult to take into account, social factors. Ancient old women still believe in old brownies, who used to love to knock over the dough, break the cup and duck under the stove, giggling disgustingly. Those who are younger, more willingly believe in aliens, whose "tricks", however, are no different from the tricks of archaic brownies. There are some (mostly people with higher education) who claimthat the former brownies are aliens from outer space (no one has ever seen brownies, and the intentions of the aliens, "as you know" (!), do not include themselves!). This is the reasoning. The author wants in advance to insure himself against possible accusations of conservatism. The author does not even think to be ironic about the idea of extraterrestrial civilizations and with sympathy, even with hope, follows the search for brothers in mind. But hearing reasoning like the one above. he can't help smiling. Unfortunately, very many do not see in them either the absence of elementary logic, or simply bad taste …even with hope follows the search for brothers in mind. But hearing reasoning like the one above. he can't help smiling. Unfortunately, very many do not see in them either the absence of elementary logic, or simply bad taste …even with hope follows the search for brothers in mind. But hearing reasoning like the one above. he can't help smiling. Unfortunately, very many do not see in them either the absence of elementary logic, or simply bad taste …
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More than three years have passed since I told in Komsomolskaya Pravda about the teenager who excited Izmailovo. The boy was discharged from the hospital a long time ago, he is studying again and behaves as if nothing had happened (the memory of this story makes him laugh). But the “public train” continues to drag on, and my acquaintances are still mad at me. How so: tape recordings of eyewitnesses who observed the phenomena described by the boy go around the city - and I stubbornly ignore all this! You can't be so incredulous, they reproach me. And I object: you can. They are trying to convince me of the existence of a scientific fact. Okay, I say, give me scientific proof! Where are they? Without them, there is no fact. What is there? Illusions, hallucinations, or even an ordinary lie. Yes, a lie. Let's not be afraid of this word. For a professional psychiatrist, it does not carry any offensive meaning. There are people who are unusually greedy for lies, great lovers of composing and listening to similar inventions from others. Moreover, most often these are completely normal, healthy people, well, perhaps, speaking in a professional language, with a small share of pathology. And here, I must say, comes the usually “murderous” argument. Yes, they tell me, logically you are absolutely right, but you really want to believe that a stranger from some Aldebaran settled in an apartment. You are destroying this fairy tale. The point is that it's not me - life itself is destroying. No sooner had the rumors settled around the "miracle in Izmailovo" and my article in "Komsomolskaya Pravda", as the newspaper "Izvestia" told us a similar story ("Grandmother Stefa, an alien", issue of June 5, 1985). All Chelyabinsk spent the day and night on Electrodnaya Street, where the granddaughter of Stefa's grandmother, Tanya, got the hang of throwing pebbles and potatoes at people, and they were in full confidence that there was no one to do this except for evil spirits. Grandmother imagined that aliens were visiting her, that she herself, if you think about it, of extraterrestrial origin. And she asked to call the "outfit of scientific workers" (which was done immediately …) And this is a fairy tale? But why such a wretched tale? A brownie from Aldebaran settles in and starts breaking furniture or throwing bricks - it must be understood, for "scientific" purposes … But someone obviously needs such consolations. "Honor to the madman who will bring mankind to a golden dream" (Beranger)? There is also a "golden dream", an escape from reality with its unbearable information overload for many, with human disunity in big cities,where telephone interjections replace intimate conversations. Fairy tales, fairy tales! Not only children need them - otherwise humanity would not remember them - but to everyone who is lonely, trusting, weak in spirit, defenseless, who is waiting to be encouraged, entertained, carried away, led … So let's leave aliens aside for now (will arrive, appear - then we will think about how to relate to this fact), and think about the mechanisms for the emergence of false inferences, ways of transferring them from one person to another. Is there at least some rational grain in all this, what is its nature? Now in the West, literature about brownies is held in special esteem. Yes, exactly about brownies! Psychologists and parapsychologists (these, however, shy away from the "primitive" brownies of folk art and write about the complex parapsychic phenomenon "poltergeist"), sociologists and doctors,writers and cosmologists - everyone is excited about this intriguing plot. And yet, according to the majority of serious authors, brownies - in whatever guise they appear - are the fruits of lies, spread most often by adolescents. "Cheating Children in Parapsychological Research" is the title of an article by the former chairman of the research committee of the British Society for Psychological Research (the oldest and most authoritative institution in the West for the study of unexplained mental phenomena, it is 100 years old). And in 1982 in London, the book "Explanation of the Unexplained" by the famous psychologist Hans Jurgen Eysenck (his book "Test Your Abilities" was published in Russian) and the parapsychologist Karl Sargent, in which the authors come to the conclusion that "reports of strange incidents originate in mostly from elderly women,who really want only one thing - to talk to someone, or from cunning, deceitful families. " According to Eysenck and Sarjeit, half of the stories about brownies belong to children who deliberately deceive gullible listeners. "Deception", of course, is an unpleasant word, but what can you do if children have not yet developed the same moral criteria as adults, and it is not entirely clear to them that it is wrong to lie. (It is worth remembering that the infamous "Salem trial" over witches in 1692, which cost many people their lives, was also the result of an initially innocent child's play …)if children have not yet developed the same moral criteria as adults, and it is not entirely clear to them that it is wrong to lie. (It is worth remembering that the notorious "Salem trial" of witches in 1692, which cost many people their lives, was also the result of an initially innocent children's joke …)if children have not yet developed the same moral criteria as adults, and it is not entirely clear to them that it is wrong to lie. (It is just right to remember that the notorious "Salem trial" over witches in 1692, which cost many people their lives, was also the result of an initially innocent child's play …)
According to Eysenck and Sargent, 95 percent of reports of brownies (and aliens, I would add) are not even worth checking. Well, the distrustful reader will say, even if all 99 percent can be written off about deception, mental pathology, fashion, gullibility, and so on - but the one remaining, what to do with him? The question, by the way, is quite common! And there is an answer to it. Yes, statistically this very “percentage” remains, but only, let us note, statistically: no one has seen this “percentage”, which unconditionally fits into the framework of the fantastic versions we reject. He has not yet refuted or crossed out anything. It's just that you need to study it more carefully than the instantly exposed 99! Perhaps, something still unknown to science will be found … Opponents insist: over the past three centuries, about 600 cases of the "brownie phenomenon" are allegedly described in the literature,and all descriptions are absolutely the same, although they were made in different eras, in different countries and by different authors. Well, what's so unusual about that? It's all about those who describe: the descriptions will be similar and those who believe in gnomes or mermaids will describe their feelings in the same way and patients with delirium tremens. Only in this case there would be not 600, but 600 thousand or 6 million similar descriptions … I would venture to rephrase Tolstoy: all healthy people are different, they cannot be classified according to mental properties, but all patients are the same in this respect. All reasonable people are not alike, all deluded people are alike.patients with delirium tremens will describe their feelings in the same way. Only in this case there would be not 600, but 600 thousand or 6 million similar descriptions … I would venture to rephrase Tolstoy: all healthy people are different, they cannot be classified according to mental properties, but all patients are the same in this respect. All reasonable people are not alike, all deluded people are alike.patients with delirium tremens will describe their feelings in the same way. Only in this case there would be not 600, but 600 thousand or 6 million similar descriptions … I would venture to rephrase Tolstoy: all healthy people are different, they cannot be classified by mental properties, but all patients are the same in this respect. All reasonable people are not alike, all deluded people are alike.
Convulsive adjustments in patients of Hippocrates or Avndenna and in current patients are the same, although the information baggage of patients is different. Before, there were those possessed by spirits, now - by aliens, holographic formations, space and anything else. Previously, the gossips passed from mouth and mouth stories about the miraculous "Phenomena" and "signs", now they transmit tape cassettes to each other with recordings about aliens and cabias. Everything is subject to modernization: the plots, the technique of their transmission, but not the very fact of the presence of gossips. True, life is becoming noticeably more complicated: various anomalies in the atmosphere, natural and man-made, give rise, of course, to rumors about UFOs (we refer the reader to the speech of Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences V. Troitsky, in which, in our opinion, all the accents are placed reasonably and comprehensively) [Science and Religion, 1982, No. 10. See also:Gakob Vl. UFO: home port - Earth. - "Science and Religion", 1986, No. 7-10.]. And yet my opponents do not give up: it cannot be that there is nothing at all, except for fantasy, ignorance and mistakes! I do not know. Maybe there is, and it's too early to put an end to it. For now, I propose to confine ourselves to ellipsis, repeating after Pushkin: let us not be superstitious or one-sided. Anything that is not clear needs to be investigated to the end. But also not to pass off the unexamined as "well established." Like the “fact” of alien scouts living in Izmailovo …let us be neither superstitious nor one-sided. Anything that is not clear needs to be investigated to the end. But also not to pass off the unexamined as "well established." Like the “fact” of alien scouts living in Izmailovo …let us be neither superstitious nor one-sided. Anything that is not clear needs to be investigated to the end. But also not to pass off the unexamined as "well established." Like the “fact” of alien scouts living in Izmailovo …
On May 6, 1875, DI Mendeleev sent to the Physical Society at St. Petersburg University "Proposal on the establishment of a commission for the consideration of phenomena called mediumistic" [For details, see: V. Demyanov Dama-spirit and perpetual motion machine. - "Science and Religion", 1984, No. 8.], where, in particular, it was said: "These phenomena should not be ignored, but should be carefully considered, that is, to find out what belongs to the field of all known natural phenomena, what to fictions and hallucinations, which are shameful deceptions and, finally, does not something belong to the category of inexplicable phenomena occurring according to still unknown laws of nature. After such consideration, these phenomena will lose the seal of mystery that attracts many to them, and there will be no room for mysticism."
More than a hundred years have passed, and what fair words!
Author: M. BUYANOV, candidate of medical sciences