You woke up in the middle of the night, you feel that someone is in the room, although the door is locked. You want to move, but your hand doesn't move. Yes you have been bewitched!
This is, of course, a joke. The night guest was a cat, you just lay there. And all the stories about evil spirits, ghosts and other mysticism that appeared in the Middle Ages were composed from a lack of knowledge. Fortunately, the 21st century is now, and much of what was once considered supernatural can now be explained by the characteristics of our brain. Alexander Panchin, a researcher at the RAS Institute for Information Transmission Problems, spoke in more detail about this, having recently delivered a lecture in Ulyanovsk within the framework of the “Think Group” project.
So is there a hand or not?
One of the frequent phenomena that is still explained by mysticism are phantom limbs. People who have lost an arm or leg periodically feel pain, or even itching, as if in the place where the same limb used to be. Until now, one can hear the opinion that phantom limbs are a clear example of the fact that a person has not only a physical body. However, scientists explain it this way: when a person loses a limb, then a specific reaction may occur in the brain. For example, the brain wants to make a fist, but cannot. Why? Because something is preventing it. And if something interferes, then you need to give the body a signal about it. The most powerful signal is pain. Actually, that's why the amputated legs ache.
- We learned to deal with phantom pain in a fairly simple way - with the help of a mirror box. A person sees the reflection of the remaining arm or leg, and his brain perceives this reflection as lost. Thanks to this, it stops signaling about pain, ” explained Alexander Panchin.
There is a downside to the brain's relationship with other organs. In some cases of such a mental disorder as Cotard's syndrome, a person begins to believe that he is missing something - arms, legs, genitals, heart, bones. Or he even feels dead. Alas, because of such mentally ill people in the Middle Ages, women, who were accused of witchcraft, paid with their lives. Some resident of Germany in the 15th century will say that his neighbor stole his heart, and that's it, her holy inquisition awaits. Now, such a disease is treated, as well as alien hand syndrome, when a person loses control of his limb. Here, too, there is no mysticism, there is damage to either the cortex of the frontal part of the brain, or the corpus callosum.
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Mara's chest presses
Another "mystical" phenomenon is sleep paralysis. A person, waking up, cannot move, it is difficult for him to breathe and it seems that someone is sitting on his chest. Because of this, in many cultures, starting from Ancient Rome, myths about demons that strangle a person in a dream arose. The peoples of the Volga region also have them. For example, for the Chuvash it is a vubar, and for the Russians it is a mara. And there are no otherworldly forces here. Sleep paralysis is the body's response to being awakened in REM sleep. The paralysis effect appears from the fact that motor and some other neurons are inhibited during REM sleep. If a person wakes up at this time, the brain simply does not have time to "turn on" them. Therefore, it is impossible to move your arms, legs and it is difficult to breathe.
- In fact, sleep paralysis is a normal reaction of the body. Wrong, this is when a person in a fast phase waves his arms, legs, turns his head. This means that he has a sleep disorder, and the brain does not reduce the activity of motor neurons, - said Alexander Panchin.
At the same time, do not confuse swinging arms and legs in REM sleep with sleepwalking. Somnambulism is, on the contrary, a violation of the slow phase of sleep. It is more common in children, but disappears over time. It happens less often in adults. By the way, many myths about ghosts in the guise of a woman in white are associated with sleepwalking. In the past, women lunatics, who wore traditional nightgowns, were mistaken for ghosts. Now they would be ghosts in funny pajamas.
No exorcist needed
It is quite easy to explain from the point of view of science and such a phenomenon as demoniacal possession. In the famous treatise of the 15th century "The Hammer of the Witches", a case is described when a priest, instead of prayers, began to swear with swear words. In the work of Cramer and Spenger, this is explained by demons who have possessed the cleric. But already in the 19th century it became clear that this happens to people suffering from Tourette's syndrome - a mental illness caused by a genetic predisposition. Something similar can happen to a person with the aforementioned Cotard syndrome, when a person begins to consider himself a "super destructor". It is no wonder that such a patient might call himself Beelzebub or some kind of demon.
And another version of "possessedness" is Alz-gamer's disease. In some cases, people with this condition begin to hear voices in their heads. And even answer them. Naturally, even 200-300 years ago such a person was perceived as possessed, although he needed not an exorcist, but a psychiatrist.
Witch's heart
And finally, Alexander Panchin spoke about the "mystic" from the distant lands - about African voodoo witchcraft and Haitian zombies.
A zombie in Haitian culture is not a half-rotted corpse from The Walking Dead series, but a person who died, then rose from the dead, does not remember his relatives and is used as a slave. Sorcerers, according to Haitian beliefs, steal the soul of this person. But back in the middle of the 20th century, American scientists began to figure out what was wrong here. After several expeditions to the island, attempts to gain access to the secrets of sorcerers, communication with relatives of zombie people, the situation was nevertheless cleared up. As it turned out, it's all about the drink or dish that the sorcerers treat their victims to. It contains some kind of poisonous fish. Having eaten it, a person either dies or falls into a coma, which Haitian peasants take for death. Plus, if a person remains alive, the poison hits his center of memory, and he does not remember either himself or his family. Remember the mankurt from "The Legend of the Donenbai Bird" by Chingiz Aitmatov? So zombies are the same mankurt.
It's even easier with African voodoo wizards. Even the brain has nothing to do with it. In Africa, it is believed that if the sorcerer pointed at the victim with a finger or some kind of wand, she will certainly die. Scientists have investigated this issue as well. It turned out that if a person does not pay attention to the sorcerer, then … nothing will happen to him. And only impressionable people with a weak heart die from the "witch's finger".
Igor ULITIN
