WEBVTT - Leprechaun Hallucinations 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:06.720 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:13.920 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.400 My name is Robert lamp and I'm Julie Douglas. And 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:19.159 is this episode is coming to all you guys and 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:21.880 gals out there. It is, of course coming to your rights. 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:26.200 We're leading up into St. Patrick's Day, which I have 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:30.680 always loved St Patrick's Day. I don't have I'm basically 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.120 of Scotch German heritage, so I don't have that you know, 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:37.240 distinctive Irish roots link to it, and I don't have it, 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:39.320 you know, I don't have the like the Catholic link 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:42.920 to it either. But from a very early age, like 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:45.280 my family was always into St. Patrick's Day. You know, 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:47.720 my mom's mom is a kindergarten teacher, so we would 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:51.159 have green things. We would eat green treats, green beer, well, 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:53.520 no green beer, but like maybe like a green cake 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.000 or a cupcake or something. And I still with St. 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:57.480 Patrick's Day comes around, I'm like, I need to eat 0:00:57.520 --> 0:00:59.320 something that's green. I need to get like a pistatio 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:03.240 cupcake if the statuo pudding um. But more importantly, we 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:07.360 would to a certain extent, we would celebrate the the 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:10.920 Irish myth of the the lepri Con. We would always 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:13.920 watch Darby O Gil and the Little People, that classic 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:17.679 Disney film with Sean Connery in it. Wow, you guys 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:20.280 did it up. Yeah. Yeah, we were big into the holidays, 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:23.240 so we would always watch Darbo Gil and the Little People. 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:26.160 Sean Connery would sing and it was awesome. Lepri Cons 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:28.960 would run around, there was a banshee. Um, you know, 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:31.559 it was just it was a great film. I still 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:34.720 watch it from time to time. I just I feel 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:38.080 like this is really informed, like your ideas of creatures 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:40.240 in the world. Like somehow this is like an early 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.920 influence on you. Yeah, definitely. I mean we we really 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:46.160 got into Halloween and then we would really get My 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:48.840 big thing on on holidays is that if a holiday 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:53.320 has magic to it, then in creatures specifically, then it's great. 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:57.480 Like I can obviously Halloween. I love Christmas, you know, 0:01:57.520 --> 0:01:59.240 you know, the Christmas season can get a bit annoying 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:01.680 with this over commercial realization, but ultimately it's a season 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:05.320 in which, on one hand, you have a magical man 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:08.280 sneaking into your house to give you gifts. There's there's 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:12.359 Crampus running around beating people there's what's his name, Brumschnickel, 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:16.720 the the other Germanic holiday visitor. There at various takes 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:18.760 on St. Nick and then and if you get into 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:20.520 the more religious aspect of it too, you have like 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:23.240 the Son of God being born on earth. They're they're 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:26.600 all these fantastic things happening. St. Patrick's Day is also 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.079 in that vein, unlike Valentine's Day, where it's just about 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:32.280 people in love and stuff. But but St. Patty's Day 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:34.959 there's this backbone of myth and legend to it, and 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:38.040 uh and it's awesome. So so what is your background 0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:41.440 with Leprika? Well, quickly, Valentine's Day clearly needs some sort 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:44.680 of creature because it's lacking that. We should really get 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:47.359 into the idea of brainstorming that with our listening. Yeah, yeah, 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.200 that's another a side project for all of us. Um 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:53.160 But for me, St. Pat's has just always been St. Pat's. 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:55.320 I gotta say, in my family it was sort of 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:58.400 like their Santa Claus is really like the dude down 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:02.120 the street who's dressing up in um Lepricrons don't exist 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:06.120 July really and happy fourth Birthday. I'm just kidding, no, 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:08.600 but really that wasn't. That's not really something that we 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:13.480 celebrated much. But I will say that the diminutive, diminutive 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:18.639 stature of lepri consays thought were fascinating as a little kid. 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:23.320 And what I find even more fascinating is that there 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:27.440 is a type of hallucination that deals with this, this 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:31.480 Liliputian quality um. And that's what we're going to talk 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:34.960 about today, because again in celebration of Patty's Day, but 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:39.360 also as a further investigation into how the mind works 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:42.760 and how it scales our reality. Yeah, so in this episode, 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:47.000 we're kicking off with a little pop culture lepricn shenanigans. Here. 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:48.840 I'm going to talk just a little bit about the 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:51.320 myth of a lepricn because I think it's it's ultimately 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:54.600 far deeper than Lucky Charms and Darby O Gill, and 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:56.920 I want to make sure I do that justice. And 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:00.960 then we're going to get into hallucinations and how uh 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:05.920 some of these hallucinations can contribute and and or possibly 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:10.320 are responsible for our visions of little people. That's right, 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.600 because as as we have mentioned, this is a sort 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:18.120 of sub type of hallucinations that exist across various conditions 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:22.040 that we'll get into. All right, So the Leprechnu from 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:26.640 Irish folklore, this is a fairy shoemaker uh and he's 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.040 and he goes by various names that include it really 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:31.640 depends on where you are in particular region of Ireland 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:35.240 uh and or the history books. So you have lucar 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:39.159 Pan and again this basically translates to little body. And 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:45.360 then there are various versions of that lubrican, Lubrican, lucar Pan, Luprican. 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:48.039 They are all these various takes on it. But as 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:50.000 the one that we really go with today, of course 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:55.360 is Leprecn. And the Lepricn is a is again a shoemaker. 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:57.920 You generally would see him with just a single shoe. 0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:00.560 There would never be a second shoe around, which is 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:03.120 a little suspect and should have been a tip off. 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:05.440 Two people who end up messing with said Lepricn. This 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.400 is like waste management job, like you know, maybe that's 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:11.600 for Lepricn, the being issuemaker. Yeah, like you should be 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:13.680 a little aware that where's the other shoe. There's something 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:16.440 fishing going on also, and this is something that will 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:18.640 come up with especially if the Lepricn is pressed about 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:22.200 his personal belongings. Uh, he carries a purse, but the 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:25.560 purse only contains a single shilling, much like a pizza 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:29.799 delivery boy only carries twenty dollars or less. The idea 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:31.760 here is, oh, you're gonna try and steal me gold. 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:35.880 I only have this one shilling, but I may have 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:38.159 lots of gold elsewhere. That's the big thing. This idea 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:44.520 grows that lapricns have access to a massive quantity of gold, 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.640 and and certainly in the mythology they do. They're paid 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:50.480 by the ferry folk for what I'm not sure. I 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.000 guess repairing that one shoe over and over again. So 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:55.200 and there they save up their money and then they're 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.560 laundering the money. What kind of kind of money Launders 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:02.240 the lepricns up. But people get this in their mind, Oh, 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:05.120 there's a lepricn. If I capture the lepricn, then I 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:08.080 can get access to his fabulous gold. I can make 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:10.200 him tell me where it is. And later you get 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:12.240 into the idea of the lepricn gives you three wishes. 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:14.680 But ultimately the route is, if you catch a lepricn, 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:17.840 you can totally rob him of everything he owns. That's 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:23.400 how the the average lepri con chasing uh individual was 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.920 was thinking. So what would typically happen. I should say 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:29.039 that the classic story, of course, is the guy catches 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:30.880 the Lepricn and says, oh, take me to your gold. 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:33.160 And you have to know that if you look away 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:35.920 from the Lepricn at all, then he can vanish, he 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:38.760 can turn it visible. He's a supernatural creature with these 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:42.280 powers at his disposal. So what happens is the Lebricn says, oh, 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:43.640 I'll take you to the bush that I have the 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:46.479 gold buried beneath and so, and who knows if this 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:49.080 bush actually has the gold under it or not. Um 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.440 it works. The trick works well either way. But it 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:54.200 takes him out there and says, oh, it's under this bush. 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.760 And then the guy who's captured the Lepricn realizes I 0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:58.839 don't have a shovel. I have no way of digging 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:02.000 up this goal. So he says, I know what I'll do. 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:04.960 I'll take this red bandana or this, uh, this kerchief 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:07.320 or whatever, and I'll tie it, tie this red kerchief 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:09.040 to this bush. Then I'll go home and I'll get 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:11.000 my shovel and I'll come back, So he lets the 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:13.760 lepricn free goes back home. He gets the shovel, comes back, 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:15.680 and what is the lepricn done. The lepricund is tied 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:18.840 the red kerchief to every bush and tree in sight, 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:21.520 so there's no way for him to remember which bush. 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:23.360 What's he gonna do dig up all of them? He'll 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:25.640 try for a little bit before he loses his mind, 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.920 I guess. But that's the trickster aspect of the Lepricn. Okay, 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.800 see that just takes me back to the thirty rock maxim, 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:34.480 which is never follow a hippie to a second location. 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.000 Same thing with with the leprichn. Right, yeah, so he 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:42.280 the Elepricns engage in various tricks like this. They are 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:46.720 largely solitary creatures, though they do have a king name Lubden. 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:50.520 They're all males too, correct. Yeah, I did see some 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:52.960 possible mention of female Lepricns in the idea, being that 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:55.960 female lepricns do exist, but they're even more tricky, so 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.280 they're I guess they're harder to observe in nature. They're 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:00.640 making that second shoo, yeah, or may be their lesson 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:06.600 to messing around and and and deceiving humans. Because ultimately 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.920 the idea here is that lepricns are a type of 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:14.720 fairy folk. They are fairies and fairies. The notion of 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:18.440 fairy varies greatly around the world, but there exists a 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:23.760 nearly global idea of diminutive, magical humanoids and that are 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:27.200 out there in the world. Um often generally hidden from view, 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:29.840 kind of an underworld taking place, or you know, or 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:32.280 in the natural world or underground or you know, somewhere 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:34.280 that the humans are less likely to see them during 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.720 the course of their day. Uh. And they they vary 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:40.880 in temperament depending on the myths. Sometimes they are they're benign, 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:45.640 sometimes they're mischievous, sometimes they're they help humans out. Sometimes 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:48.680 they steal babies from cribs and replace them with changelings. 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:53.560 It it varies. Now. Folkustorian Carol rose Um, who I love, 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:56.520 I've always loved her, just to Encyclopedia's One about Monsters, 0:08:56.520 --> 0:08:59.559 one more about Fairies, and uh uh I keep always 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:02.360 keeping by my desk next to Brewers and my other 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:05.600 monster books. But she divides fairies into two types. You 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:07.760 have trooping fairies, and these are fairies that have communities, 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:10.720 kingdoms and governments. And then you have solitary fairies. And 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:12.280 these are the ones kind of like the Lebricn, they're 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:16.360 more associated with up one place and they don't really 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:18.320 necessarily have as much to do with the rest of 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:22.719 their kind. So for the Irish, the most famous solitary 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:27.240 fairies are the Lebricn of course uh arguably the Banshee Uh. 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:31.400 And then you also have they're more famous trooping fairies, 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.439 the Dinners She formerly known as the two if the 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:38.160 Day Diana and which means the people of the Goddess Dna, 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:41.040 and these are a legendary race of super beings who 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:45.760 overthrew two other ancient people in primoral primordial Ireland that 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:49.880 included the monstrous fear bowls. These were the second inhabitants 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:54.320 of Ireland, Squat and Dark also known as the Corka 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:57.560 o d c the people of Darkness or the Corka 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:01.640 Do Widney the people of night Um. When the tu 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:05.400 efaddani Uh defeated, then they forcing the retreat into the 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:09.480 mountain caves and they kind of um, you know, devolved 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.760 into grotesque goblin like creatures in the ground. And then 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:17.040 they also defeated the Fomorians, who were themselves transformed into 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:21.920 grotesque demons when they fell to the invading fur box. So. Um, 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:24.480 what's really great about about Irish legend and myth is 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:26.800 that when you get past the Leprecn and the Banshee, 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:28.959 when you get past Darby O Gill and Lucky Charms 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:33.320 and the the awful Lepricn movies, there's this rich, powerful 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:38.520 epic story of these uh, these genocidal wars between these 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:43.320 different races of super beings. Because the dynasty, the Efaddan, 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:48.000 and they had all these intense magical powers at their disposal. 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:50.840 They could turn invisible, they could shape shift, they could 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.000 blink out of existence here and blink back into existence 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:56.880 over there. Uh. And they were always fighting these wars. 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:00.000 For instance, uh, they were fighting at one points against 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.920 the Fomorian chief bowler, who had an evil eye in 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:06.280 his forehead, destroyed all who looked upon it. And uh 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:08.160 and sometimes you see this is kind of like a 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.680 third eye in his head. Some depicted that way, others 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:12.560 depict him he's like a one eyed man with like 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:14.560 a Uh. The in the one eye has to be 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.120 covered because if anybody makes side contact with it, they die. 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:21.040 One of my favorite artistic examples of this, though, is 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:24.040 the idea that he has like one eye where his 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:27.920 two eyes should be, but his brow has grown out 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:32.440 into this grotesque flap that falls over his face, and 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.080 so to unleash the power of his eye in battle, 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:37.800 he has to have two people with like a wooden 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:40.120 pole come up and use that wooden pole to lift 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:42.640 his floppy brow up so that he can destroy them 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:47.959 with his sight. So, well, one more and then I'm done. Uh. 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:51.120 And then also uh, the two fo they had done, 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:54.000 and they had a they had a king named Nuada, 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.880 and Nuada lost an arm in battle. Uh, and so 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:00.400 they replaced it with a silver arm, which they men 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:04.200 grew flesh over. So we had this amazing like magical 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:07.040 cybernetic arm. So okay, I'll stop now. No, I mean, 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.440 when we get into prosthetics series, it's pretty crazy. Um. 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:12.200 What I'm trying to say is that they have a 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:18.320 rich cultural history UM, and some amazing mythology going on 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:20.760 there beyond the lepricn but all of this relates to 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:25.480 fairy for like. Eventually, the idea is that even these 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:29.680 magical people were defeated by essentially the modern day Celts. 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:32.199 And they drive all these magical people out into the 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:34.920 peripheries of the world, but you can still glimpse them, 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.720 you still see them sometimes. Well. See, this is what 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:39.600 I think is so interesting about it is that it 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:44.040 is so deeply ingrained in the cultural fabric, particularly and 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:48.439 when we talk about lebri cons in Ireland right, and 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:53.640 how this really informs everybody's perception of life. And I 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:56.360 wanted to point out a couple of things. One is 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:02.520 that lebri cons are protected under European Union law. Kid you, yes, 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:05.680 at least the ones that dwell in calling Ford in Ireland. 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:09.000 The directive is an effort to preserve the rich biodiversity 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:12.559 of the area called that's leab Foy Loop, which is 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:16.120 now a protected area for flora, fauna, wild animals and 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:19.880 lepri cons. And this is a directive that was stemmed 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:21.880 in part by a group of lobbyists who recounted a 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:25.200 tale in nine of p J O'Hare who happened to 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:28.360 be over by wishing well. This man and he heard 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:30.680 a scream, and he said he went to the wishing 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:34.080 well and he found um, first of all, a patch 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:37.360 of burnt ground. And beside this patch he found a 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.880 little hat, jacket and trousers with four gold coins in 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:45.280 the pockets. The close of the naked lepre coron, as 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:48.600 this leapricon is called, are actually on display at Pj's 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:51.880 pub in carling Ford. So you know, is this a 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:55.560 tourist trap? Absolutely, But again is it part of the imagination, 0:13:55.720 --> 0:14:00.280 the cultural fabric? And um, you know, I'm not saying 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:05.560 that PJ. O hair was that he actually witnessed. You 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.800 know this. What we see is that maybe a streaking 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:14.040 lebre con gone gone wild. But um, but but perhaps 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:20.360 p J O'Hare was also participating and um, you know, 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:23.960 some sort of cultural tradition. Maybe he had too much 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:28.000 to drink, or maybe he had a hallucination. Okay, And 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.680 this is where this really comes into play because according 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:36.560 to Oliver Sacks and his World Science Festival interview about 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:40.640 his new book on hallucinations, he says that hallucinations really 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:44.440 are cultural in nature and specific to the individual's background. 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:47.560 So he said that seeing miniature people is one type 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.800 of hallucination, as we said, a subtype. But depending on 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:54.800 the person's cultural background, the miniature person could be a lepricn, 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:58.760 a dwarf, a fairy. So that's why I think this 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:02.760 is fascinating because is uh, if you have this hallucination, 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:05.320 it is colored by your perception what you have grown 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.000 up with, the sort of stories that maybe the warfare, 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:11.120 maybe the prosthetic arm of a lebri con got lodged 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.840 into your brain, and this is the sort of thing 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:17.920 that might be expressed depending on certain external conditions or 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:22.160 neurological conditions that you have. So, of course, if we're 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:25.640 going to talk about these Liliputian hallucinations, and that's what 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:28.440 they're called, we should first sort of give a little 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:32.160 bit of an intro on hallucinations. Yeah, it's worth noting 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:35.560 that hallucination is we're discussing here. It's just one way 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:40.160 of looking at essentially paranormal experience. As we discussed in 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:43.960 our alien abduction episode. People have always seen weird things 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:46.680 in the woods and the skies. It used to be fairies. 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:49.400 Then depending on your cultural flavoring, maybe it's angels or 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:53.360 maybe sci fi flavoring makes you see UFOs. We've always 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:56.120 seen things. We've all we've always had these experiences, and 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:58.600 there are various ways you can explain them that range 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:03.680 from simple imagination the youngster to neurological disorder and uh 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:07.680 and and it's it's definitely happening for the person who's 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:11.360 experiencing them. Yeah, and um. When we talk about hallucinations, 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:16.960 we're talking about many different sensory modalities, turning about visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:20.440 tactile and other um. And you can actually if a 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.320 person is undergoing a hallucination at the same time that 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:25.160 they're going m R right, you can actually try to 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:28.480 figure out the type of hallucination there have having by 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:31.000 looking at the blood flow to the region of their brains. So, 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:33.760 for instance, if you see increased blood flow to the 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:38.240 fusiform gyus, which is where you detect face faces, then 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.320 you know someone is having some sort of um visual 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:45.880 hallucination having to do with perhaps even a little person. Um. 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:48.120 So it's kind of funny to me because when we 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:51.080 talk about hallucinations, we really think about them as being 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:53.800 apart from us and otherworldly. Yeah, we tend to think 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:57.920 of them. An hallucination is seeing something in the world 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:01.560 as it is, not it's seeing the world wrong, but 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.439 that that really implies that there is a correct and 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:08.240 definitive way to experience reality. Yeah. And because I was 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.119 thinking about this. We really do have a very tenuous 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:15.520 line between imagination and reality. And I was thinking about 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:18.760 this in the context of our blue sky, right, because 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:21.719 what is the blue sky butt an allusion to us, 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:24.680 Because if you think about it, the only reason why 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:29.159 we're seeing a blue sky is because violet and blue 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:33.480 have the shortest wavelengths and they scatter a lot more 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:37.080 than long ones, and particles like oxygen and nitrogen molecules 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:38.800 are present, So those are the ones that are most 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:41.200 apparent to us. So that's what we see when we're 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:43.359 looking up in the sky. And then it's not that 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:46.119 we just see a purple and a blue sky. No, 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:49.000 the mind can't even really sort of deal with that 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.960 because the machinery that we have um with our perception 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:54.800 of color, it kind of has to mix some of 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:58.600 that with white until it turns out to this cohesive 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:00.920 blue that we look up in the sky. Yet Yeah, 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:03.920 and is is pointed out in the Excellent Colors episode 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:07.080 of Radio lab Um. It's it's arguable that too, that 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:10.240 individuals who do not have a preconceived notion of blue 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:14.240 would not really see the sky as blue. Like there's 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:17.639 also that level of cultural layering of it. So it 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:20.600 really makes you think to what extent am I experiencing 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:24.919 the world around you? I mean, ultimately, our brain it's uh, 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:27.639 it's it's inside of some bone, it's inside of some skull. 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:31.879 It depends on these sensory uh mechanisms to experience the 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:35.600 world and then translate that into data. So essentially the 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:39.760 brain is blind anyway. Well, and it's highly sensitive to suggestion. 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:42.680 We've mentioned this before, but there's a study at Whole 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:46.040 University in the UK and it asked participants to imagine 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:49.720 a color while looking at a gray pattern. And what 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:52.919 they found is that those people who were most susceptible 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:56.080 to hypnosis in other words, given to suggestion, they were 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:59.399 able to actually hallucinate the colors at will when they 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:02.439 were asked to you, which was corroberated by an m R. I. 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:05.679 So again there's this idea of you know, what is 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:07.600 you know, we bring this up a lot, like what 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:10.360 is reality? And how much of it is colored by 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:12.880 our perceptions? Yeah? So so much of the I mean 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:15.119 you can argue that our perception of reality itself is 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:18.919 a is an hallucination, and any um alteration of that 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:22.240 is just a it's just a change in the flavoring um. 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:26.600 For instance, there's a close eyes visualization closed eye hallucinations 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:29.000 that occur. When I was a kid, I would do 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:31.040 this a lot, where I would close my eyes. No 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:34.840 guests to his board, and generally you see colors moving around. 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:37.280 It's like an instant fireworks show. Maybe I was just 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:39.439 easily amused. I don't know, I was. I was. I 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:41.119 was an only child for a bit until my my 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:42.440 sister's were born, so I just s been a lot, 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:44.560 you know, a certain amount of time by myself. But 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.560 even now, as I've discussed before in yoga, when I'm 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:51.400 engaged in Shivasana, the corpse pose meditation, at the end 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:55.119 of the yoga session, I'm closing my eyes and I'm seeing, 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:57.720 and I'll end up seeing colors and ultimately I'll see 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:00.760 forms and figures and faces even and uh and really 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:03.959 that is an example of closed eye hallucination. I'm not 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:07.359 doing anything to my body in this an instance, except 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:10.080 working out with yoga for a little bit and then 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:14.159 sort of calming myself. But I'm seeing things that are 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:16.840 are not there within my mind. That's interesting because when 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:18.560 I was little, one of my favorite things to do 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:20.800 was to close my eyes and pretend I was on 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:23.800 a grid and shrink myself and then expand myself on 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:26.400 that grid. And I thought I was a little bit insane, 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:29.119 but you know, I felt my body doing that, and 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:32.720 so it's it's interesting that there's part of our brain 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:36.480 that we can really tap into to manipulate our experiences 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:38.720 like this. Um, We're gonna take a quick break, and 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:40.440 when we get back, though, we are going to talk 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:44.520 about this specific type of hallucination that deals with the 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:54.760 detection of tiny things, tiny people, tiny animals. All right, 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:58.879 we're back. And in this episode, we of course started 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:00.680 off by talking a little bit about fairy folk and 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:05.600 Leaprikaans paranormal experience essentially, and we're getting into into discussion 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:10.600 of how hallucination, it's particular modes of hallucination make us 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:15.720 see tiny people and tiny things. Yeah, and you know, 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:19.840 before we start talking about um, about this perception or 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:23.000 this illusion of tiny people or things, I wanted to 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:26.760 point out that it is amazing when you think about it, 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:31.240 that our eyes and our minds are able to visually 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:35.040 reconstruct things. So for instance, if you have you know, 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:37.119 a plate on the table and the fork next to it, 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:39.760 and you continue to look back and forth at those items. 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:43.640 Your brain has to over and over again visually reconstruct 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:47.159 those items and also do that, um, you know, in 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:49.960 the context of moving back and forth. So it's got 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:53.840 the movement element. And what we're talking about here is 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:57.760 perceptual constancy. So what your mind is doing is saying 0:21:57.800 --> 0:21:59.560 that plate is still a plate, and is still the 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:02.040 demension that it is, is still the scale that it is. 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:03.920