WEBVTT - Leprechaun Hallucinations 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.279 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuffworks 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:14.880 dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:17.480 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. And 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:21.239 todays St Patrick's Today. So we have a little bit 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:23.520 of a little bit of fun here for you from 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:27.000 the archives, an episode about lepri Cons a little bit, 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:33.840 but also primarily about hallucination. Yes, Liliputian hallucinations we're talking 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:36.720 about on the tiny, tiny scale. So we hope that 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:42.239 you guys enjoy and have a happy holiday. I have 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:46.720 always loved St. Patrick's Day. I don't have I'm basically 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:49.159 of Scotch German heritage, so I don't have that you know, 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:53.280 distinctive Irish roots link to it, and I don't have it, 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:55.360 you know, I don't have the like the Catholic link 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:58.960 to it either. But from a very early age, like 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:01.280 my family was always in to St. Patrick's Day. You know, 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:03.760 my mom's mom is a kindergarten teacher, so we would 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:07.200 have green things, we would eat green treats, green beer, well, 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:09.560 no green beer, but but maybe like a green cake 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.039 or a cupcake or something. And I still with St 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:13.520 Patrick's Day comes around, I'm like I need to eat 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:15.960 something that's green. I need to get like a pistatio cupcakes, 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.840 the Statio pudding. Um. But more importantly, we would, to 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:24.120 a certain extent, we would celebrate the the Irish myth 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:27.760 of the of the leprechn We would always watch Darby 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:31.080 O Gil and the Little People, that classic Disney film 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:35.160 with Sean Connery in it. Wow, you guys did it up. Yeah. Yeah, 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:37.720 we were big into the holidays, so we would always 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:40.360 watch Darbo Gil and a Little People. Sean Connery would 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:42.880 sing and it was awesome. Lepri cons would run around, 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.480 there was a banshee. Um. You know, it was just 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:48.160 it was a great film. I still watch it from 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:51.160 time to time. I just I feel like this is 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.840 really informed, like your ideas of creatures in the world. 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:58.480 Like somehow this is like an early influence on you. Yeah, definitely, 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:00.800 I mean we we really we got into Halloween and 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:03.080 then we would really get My big thing on on 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:05.760 holidays is that if a holiday has magic to it, 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:10.080 then it's in creatures specifically, then it's great. Like I 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:13.760 can obviously Halloween. I love Christmas. You know, you know, 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:15.560 the Christmas season can get a bit annoying when it's 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:19.600 over commercialization, but ultimately it's a season in which, on 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.840 one hand you have a magical man sneaking into your 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:25.480 house to give you gifts. There's there's Crampus running around 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:29.400 beating people. There's what's his name, Brumschnickel, the the other 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:33.399 Germanic holiday visitor. There at various takes on St. Nick 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:35.400 And then and if you get into the more religious 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:37.200 aspect of it too, you have like the Son of 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.200 God being born on earth. They're they're all these fantastic 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:43.120 things happening. St. Patrick's Day is also in that vein, 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.160 unlike Valentine's Day, where it's just about people in love 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:49.360 and stuff. But but St. Patty's Day there's this backbone 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.120 of myth and legend to it and uh and it's awesome. 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:55.560 So so what is your background with Leprika? Well, quickly, 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:58.799 Valentine's Day clearly needs some sort of creature's lacking that 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:02.200 we should really get into the idea of brainstorming that 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:04.840 without listening. Yeah, yeah, that's another s side project for 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:08.000 all of us. Um, But for me, St. Pat's has 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:09.960 just always been St. Pat's. I gotta say. In my 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:13.160 family it was sort of like their Santa Claus is 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:15.679 really like the dude down the street who's dressing up 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:20.720 and um, lepricrons don't exist truly, really, and happy fourth Birthday, 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:23.880 I'm just kidding, no, but really that wasn't That's not 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.480 really something that we celebrated much. But I will say 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:32.800 that the diminutive, diminutive stature of lepricrons always thought were 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:36.520 fascinating as a little kid. And what I find even 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:40.920 more fascinating is that there is a type of hallucination 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:46.800 that deals with this, this Liliputian quality. Um. And that's 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:49.040 what we're going to talk about today, because again in 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:53.000 celebration of St. Patty's Day, but also as a further 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:56.480 investigation into how the mind works and how it scales 0:03:56.520 --> 0:04:02.040 our reality. Alright, So the Leprechnilipic from Irish folklore, this 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:05.720 is a fairy shoemaker uh and he's and he goes 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:08.400 by various names including it really depends on where you 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:11.600 are in particular region of Ireland uh and or the 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:14.800 history books. So you have lucre pan and again this 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:18.480 basically translates to little body and then there are various 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:24.520 versions of that lubrican lubrican lucre pan Luprican. They are 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:26.920 all these various takes on it, but as the one 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:29.359 that we really go with today, of course is Lepricn. 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:34.080 And the Lepricn is a is again a shoemaker. You 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:37.000 generally would see him with just a single shoe. There 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:39.279 would never be a second shoe around, which is a 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:41.760 little suspect and should have been a tip off to 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:44.159 people who end up messing with said lepricon. This is 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.200 like waste management job, Like, you know, maybe that's for 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.240 Lepricn being is shoemaker. Yeah, like you should be a 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:52.640 little aware that where's the other shoe. There's something fishy 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:55.200 going on also, and this is something that will come 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:57.840 up if, especially if the Lepricn is pressed about his 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:01.400 personal belongings. He carries a p but the purse only 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:04.800 contains a single shilling, much like a pizza delivery boy 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.840 only carries twenty dollars or less. The idea here is, oh, 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:11.279 you're gonna try and steal me gold. I only have 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:15.560 this one shilling, but I may have lots of gold elsewhere. 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:19.560 That's the big thing. This idea grows that Leprichns have 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:23.960 access to a massive quantity of gold and and certainly 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:27.560 in the mythology they do. They're paid by the ferry 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:29.800 folk for what I'm not sure. I guess repairing that 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.440 one shoe over and over again. So and there they 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.640 save up their money and they're laundering the money kind 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:40.200 of kind of money Launders h. But people get this 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:42.360 in their mind, Oh there's a Lepricn. If I capture 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:46.080 the Lepricn, then I can get access to his fabulous gold. 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:48.200 I can make him tell me where it is. And 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:50.080 later you get into the idea of the Lepricn gives 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:52.400 you three wishes. But ultimately the route is, if you 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:55.160 catch a Leprichn, you can totally rob him of everything 0:05:55.200 --> 0:06:00.680 he owns. That's how the the average Lepricn chasing uh 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:04.960 individual was was thinking. So, um, what would typically happen? 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.039 I should say that the classic story, of course, is 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:08.960 the guy catches the Lepricn says, oh, take me to 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:11.279 your gold. And you have to know that if you 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:14.440 look away from the Lepricn at all, then he can vanish, 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:17.120 he can turn it visible. He's a supernatural creature with 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:20.120 these powers at his disposal. So what happens if the 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:21.880 Lebricn says, oh, I'll take you to the bush that 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.599 I have the gold buried beneath and so, and who 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:26.839 knows if this bush actually has the gold under it 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:30.320 or not. Um it works. The trick works well either way. 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:32.160 But it takes him out there and says, oh, it's 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:34.160 under this bush. And then the guy who's captured the 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:36.719 Lepricn realize I don't have a shovel. I have no 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:40.120 way of digging up this gold. So he says, I 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:42.840 know what I'll do. I'll take this red bandana or this, uh, 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:45.240 this kerchief or whatever, and I'll tie it, tie this 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:47.280 red kerchief to this bush, and then I'll go home 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:49.160 and I'll get my shovel and i'll come back. So 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:51.560 he lets the Lepricn free, goes back home, he gets 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:53.360 the shovel, comes back, and what has the Lepricn done. 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:56.680 The Lepricn is tied the red kerchief to every bush 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:58.800 and tree in sight, so there's no way for him 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:01.080 to remember which uch. What's he gonna do dig up 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:03.159 all of them? He'll try for a little bit before 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:06.159 he loses his mind, I guess. But that's the trickster 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:08.240 aspect of the lepricn. Okay, see that just takes me 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:11.640 back to the thirty Rock maxim, which is never follow 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:15.520 a hippie to a second location. Same thing with the lepricron, right, yeah, 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:20.080 so he the elepricns engage in various tricks like this. 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.600 They are largely solitary creatures, though they do have a 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:28.600 king name Lubden. They're all males too, correct. Yeah. I 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:31.000 did see some possible mention of female elepricns, and the 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.560 idea being that female elepricuns do exist, but they're even 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:36.200 more tricky, so they're I guess they're harder to observe 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:38.680 in nature. They're making that second too, yeah, or maybe 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:43.239 they're lessened to messing around and and and deceiving humans. 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:48.960 Because ultimately, the idea here is that lepricns are a 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:52.840 type of fairy folk. They are fairies and fairies. The 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:56.400 notion of fairy varies greatly around the world, but there 0:07:56.440 --> 0:08:01.400 exists a nearly global idea of diminutive men, magical humanoids 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:05.040 and that are out there in the world, often generally 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.920 hidden from view, kind of an underworld taking place or 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:10.240 you know, or in the natural world or underground or 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:12.320 you know, somewhere that the humans are less likely to 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:14.800 see them during the course of their day. What I'm 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:17.880 trying to say is that they have a rich cultural 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:22.680 history um and some amazing mythology going on there beyond 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.760 the lepricn but all of this relates to fairy f 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:30.000 like Eventually, the idea is that even these magical people 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:34.160 were defeated by essentially the modern day Celts, and they 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:36.680 drive all these magical people out into the peripheries of 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.120 the world. But you can still glimpse them, you still 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:41.839 see them sometimes. Well. See, this is what I think 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.079 is so interesting about it, is that it is so 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:48.880 deeply ingrained in the cultural fabric, particularly and when we 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:52.880 talk about lebri cons in Ireland right and how this 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:57.920 really informs everybody's perception of life. And I wanted to 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.960 point out a couple of things. One is that Lepricrons 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:06.360 are protected under European Union Law KULD you not, yes, 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:09.520 at least the ones that dwell in calling Ford in Ireland. 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:12.840 The directive is an effort to preserve the rich biodiversity 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:16.440 of the area called the slab Foy Loop, which is 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:19.960 now a protected area for flora, fauna, wild animals, and 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.720 lepri cons. And this is a directive that was stemmed 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:25.760 in part by a group of lobbyists who recounted a 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.960 tale in nineteen nine of p J. O'Hare who happened 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:31.960 to be over by wishing well this man and he 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:34.200 heard a scream and he said he went to the 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.520 wishing well and he found, um, first of all, a 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:41.080 patch of burnt ground. And beside this patch he found 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:44.640 a little hat, jacket and trousers with four gold coins 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:48.720 in the pockets. The close of the naked lepre con, 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:51.959 as this lepricon is called, are actually on display at 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:55.559 Pj's Pub in carling Ford. So you know, as this 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:58.560 a tourist trap, absolutely, but again is it part of 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:03.440 the imagination, the the cultural fabric. And um, you know, 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.800 I'm not saying that pg o hair was that he 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:11.520 actually witnessed. You know this What we see is that 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:16.760 maybe a streaking lebre con gone gone wild. But um, 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:23.800 but but perhaps p J O'Hare was also participating and um, 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:27.360 you know, some sort of cultural tradition. Maybe he had 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:31.679 too much to drink, or maybe he had a hallucination. Okay, 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.880 And this is where this really comes into play because, 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:39.240 according to Oliver Sacks and his World Science Festival interview 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:44.199 about his new book on hallucinations. He says that hallucinations 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:48.280 really are cultural in nature and specific to the individual's background. 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:51.400 So he said that seeing miniature people is one type 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:54.640 of hallucination, as we said, a subtype. But depending on 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:58.640 the person's cultural background, the miniature person could be a lepricn, 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:02.640 a dwarf, a ary. So that's why I think this 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:06.760 is fascinating because, uh, if you have this hallucination, it 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:09.559 is colored by your perception, what you have grown up with, 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:12.160 the sort of stories, and this is the sort of 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:16.199 thing that might be expressed depending on certain external conditions 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:20.480 or neurological conditions that you have. So of course, if 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:24.040 we're going to talk about these Liliputian hallucinations, and that's 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:26.640 what they're called, we should first sort of give a 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:30.440 little bit of an intro on hallucinations. Yeah, it's worth 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:33.720 noting that hallucination is we're discussing here. It's just one 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:38.600 way of looking at essentially paranormal experience. As we discussed 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:42.120 in our alien abduction episode. People have always seen weird 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:44.520 things in the woods and the skies. He used to 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:47.240 be fairies. Then depending on your cultural flavoring, maybe it's 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:50.440 angels or maybe sci fi flavoring makes you see UFOs. 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:54.480 We've always seen things, We've all we've always had these experiences, 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:56.600 and there are various ways you can explain them that 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:00.400 range from simple imagination of a youngster to neuro logical 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:05.480 disorder and uh and and it's it's definitely happening for 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:08.560 the person who is experiencing them. Yeah, and UM. When 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:12.520 we talk about hallucinations, we're talking about many different sensory modalities, 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:17.559 turning about visual, auditory, old factory, gustatory, tactile, and other um. 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:20.520 And you can actually if a person is undergoing a 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:22.680 hallucination at the same time that they're going m R right, 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:24.960 you can actually try to figure out the type of 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:28.240 hallucination there have having by looking at the blood flow 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:30.200 to the region of their brain. And so, for instance, 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.559 if you see increased blood flow to the fusiform gyus, 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.960 which is where you detect face faces, then you know 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:40.760 someone is having some sort of um visual hallucination having 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:44.640 to do with perhaps even a little person. UM. So 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:46.760 it's kind of funny to me because when we talk 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:50.000 about hallucinations, we really think about them as being apart 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:52.560 from us and otherworldly. Yeah, we tend to think of them. 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:57.240 An hallucination is seeing something in the world as it is, 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:01.080 not it's seeing the world wrong, but that that really 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:03.880 implies that there is a correct and definitive way to 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:07.440 experience reality. Yeah, because I was thinking about this. We 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:13.160 really do have a very tenuous line between imagination and reality. 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.200 And I was thinking about this in the context of 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:18.800 our blue sky, right, because what is the blue sky 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.560 butt an illusion to us? Because if you think about it, 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.160 the only reason why we're seeing a blue sky is 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:30.920 because violet and blue have the shortest wavelengths and they 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:33.800 scatter a lot more than long ones. Some particles like 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:36.560 oxygen and nitrogen molecules are present, so those are the 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:38.760 ones that are most apparent to us. So that's what 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.120 we see when we're looking up in the sky. And 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:43.680 then it's not that we just see a purple and 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:46.520 a blue sky. No, the mind can't even really sort 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:48.760 of deal with that because of the machinery that we 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:52.440 have um with our perception of color, it kind of 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:54.920 has to mix some of that with white until it 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.200 turns out to this cohesive blue that we look up 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:01.360 in the sky at so it really makes you think 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:04.120 to what extent am I experiencing the world around you? 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:08.680 I mean, ultimately, our brain, it's it's it's inside of 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:11.000 some bone, it's inside of some skull, depends on these 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:15.600 sensory uh mechanisms to experience the world and then translate 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:20.080 that into data. So essentially the brain is blind anyway. Well, 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:23.720 and it's highly sensitive to suggestion. We've mentioned this before, 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:26.000 but there's a twenty eleven study at Whole University in 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:29.120 the UK, and it asked participants to imagine a color 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:33.040 while looking at a great pattern. And what they found 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:36.400 is that those people who were most susceptible to hypnosis 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:39.200 in other words, given to suggestion, they were able to 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.720 actually hallucinate the colors at will when they were asked to, 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.280 which was corroberated by an m R. I. So again 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:49.200 there's this idea of you know, what is you know, 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:50.960 we bring this up a lot, like what is reality 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:54.200 and how much of it is colored by our perceptions? Yeah? 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:56.280 So much of the I mean you can argue that 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:58.960 our perception of reality itself is a is an hallucination, 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:02.800 and any um alteration of that is just a it's 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:05.280 just a change in the flavoring. Um. We're gonna take 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:06.840 a quick break, and when we get back, though, we 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:10.000 are going to talk about this specific type of hallucination 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:14.640 that deals with the detection of tiny things, tiny people, 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:29.360 tiny animals. All right, we're back. And in this episode, 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:32.040 we of course started off by talking a little bit 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:36.320 about fairy folk and Laprikaans paranormal experience essentially, and we're 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:40.760 getting into into discussion of how hallucination, it's particular modes 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:46.920 of hallucination make us see tiny people and tiny things. Yeah, 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:51.200 and you know, before we start talking about um about 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:54.440 this perception or this illusion of tiny people or things, 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:58.200 I wanted to point out that it is amazing when 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:01.480 you think about it, that our eyes and our minds 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:06.200 are able to visually reconstruct things. So for instance, if 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:08.400 you have, you know, a plate on the table and 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:10.480 the fork next to it, and you continue to look 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.080 back and forth at those items, your brain has to 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:17.480 over and over again visually reconstruct those items and also 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:20.440 do that, um, you know, in the context of moving 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:24.040 back and forth. So it's got the movement element. And 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:28.920 what we're talking about here is perceptual constancy. So what 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:30.720 your mind is doing is saying that plate is still 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:32.800 the plate, and is still the dimension that it is, 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:34.720 is still the scale that it is. And this is 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.000 a lot of work for your brain to do, in 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:38.640 your eye to do, to take in all of this 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:41.080 data and make us feel as though we are on 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:45.640 the same, uh constant state where things are the same 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:47.560 and have a constancy to them. Yeah. One of the 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.000 things that this discussion of hallucination really drives home is 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:54.160 that site and our perception are the mental processes that 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:58.600 makes site possible are pretty complex and uh, the least 0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:02.640 little bit of something can can go wrong or or change, 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:06.399 and it can can have some pretty dramatic effects on 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:09.280 how you perceive reality. Yeah, it's funny because you really 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:11.960 do take it for granted. How stable the images are 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:14.639 around you and how stable the story that that your 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:18.879 perception is telling you is all because of these different 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:21.399 parts of your brains working in concert. There is something 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:26.520 called micropesha or alice in Wonderland syndrome, and this is 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:30.520 when objects actually appear smaller, and it's not necessarily the 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:32.840 mechanics of the guys, but it's really the interpretation of 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:35.919 the data that causes the objects in the visual field 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:41.240 to appear minuscule. So when you have these lilocution hallucinations, um, 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:45.080 they are forming complex visual hallucinations of people, objects, or 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:48.840 animals that are greatly reduced in size or sometimes exaggerated, Yes, 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:52.000 sometimes exagger which also ends up going into all sorts 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:54.840 of mythological possibilities there as well. Right, we've got some 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:56.960 example too that that really sort of dwell in this. 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:00.919 And the hallucinations are vivid and they evoke varied responses 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:04.440 including fear, anxiety, or even pleasure. Um, They've been seen 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:07.840 across the board and people who are experiencing delirium tremens 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:11.000 from alcohol withdraw, people who have eyesight problems such as 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:16.000 macular degeneration, and people with mental disorders like schizophrenia. Although 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:20.320 in schizophrenia, even though hallucinations are are more common, this 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:24.880 type of hallucination, this little acution, is very rare. Yeah, 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:26.760 And most of the cases that we're looking at with 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:29.600 little acuction, Uh, it's a it's a situation where the 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:34.399 person is otherwise mentally fine, Like they're not They're not 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:38.920 a disturbed individual or a quote unquote crazy person. It's 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:40.680 not like, oh, that crazy person on the streets seeing 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:42.920 little people. Of course, they are they're crazy. No. It's 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:46.000 for instance, one of the cases that Oliver Sacks talks 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.040 about in in his book Hallucinations, which is excellent high 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.439 They recommend anyone at all interested in this pick that up. 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:55.880 It's very readable, just a great book. Uh. In his book, 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:58.920 he talks about a patient that he refers to his Zelda, 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:02.520 who eated in two thousand nine. She was an historian, 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:08.040 and some of the hallucinations that she ended up seeing 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:11.439 included she saw a great granddaughter, she saw a trio 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:14.119 of witches. She saw her hair rising up in the 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:17.280 mirror like it was witless. She saw tiny people crawling 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:20.280 out of the TV. She saw gaily dressed figures sort 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:23.600 of parading around. She saw six ominous tall men in 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:26.879 brown suits around her hospital bed. She saw a little 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:30.280 men in green caps. And she saw small fairy like 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:34.119 children sort of moving around as well. Just to give 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:37.480 you an idea, because a lot of these hallucinations, again 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:39.760 it's things are larger or smaller than they need to 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:43.800 be um So you're you're encountering giants, you're encountering little 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:47.240 people oftentimes that they're really brilliant to behold. The color 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:50.800 scheme will be amazing. So you in the costuming if 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:54.080 the if costumes are perceivable, the costumes will be crazy 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:57.679 and exotically bright. So you can really see where the 0:19:57.720 --> 0:19:59.919 idea of a fairy folk can emerge from. This beca 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:01.720 all they were little people, and they were dressed like 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:04.680 they were from another world, and their colors were unreal 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.359 and magical. Well, and they were mischievous. To write, a 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:12.520 lot of times these accounts have um the little people 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:15.560 that are running around doing various things that we are 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:19.800 nefarious or yeah, and they're disappearing or they're reappearing necessarily 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:23.360 obeying the physical laws of our world. Now, these are 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:26.280 called released hallucinations because it's thought that they are released 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:30.600 or instigated by the removal of normal visual afferent input 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:34.720 into the association quartex. So in the case of Zelda, 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:38.879 there was reduced blood flow to the optical and parietal lobes, 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:44.040 and so this caused the hallucinations. Um. But probably one 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:48.400 of the one of the things that is most associated 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.160 with this is something called the Charles Bonnet syndrome yes 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.399 or CBS, and this is a common condition among people 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.520 with compromised vision. So when you think compromised vision, of 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:00.719 course We're not saying the person is necessarily completely Uh. 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:05.879 They might be suffering from just age related necular degeneration, cataracts, glaucoma, 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:09.439 diabetic eye disease. Their site may be somewhat limited, but 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.639 they're still able to visually perceive the world to a 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.879 certain degree. Yeah. The idea is that the information received 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:18.320 from your eyes actually stops the brain from creating its 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:22.000 own pictures. So when you lose your sight or partially 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:24.679 lose your sight or it's damaged, your brain is not 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:27.359 receiving as much information from your eyes as it's used to, 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:30.480 and it begins to fill in those gaps by creating 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:34.479 this sort of fantasy uh, pictures or patterns. And then 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:37.280 when this occurs, you experience the images short in your 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:40.040 brain as hallucinations. It's kind of this idea that the 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:43.120 world that we live in, because you can we look 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:45.360 at like when we're just looking around a room, we're 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:48.560 looking at particular little spaces, and then then we're moving 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:51.320 in another little space where we're kind of basically the 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:54.119 world that we're in exists in our minds, and we 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:57.479 use our vision to constantly upgrade the details of that 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:01.400 mental image that we interact with there was a one 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:04.400 case of a Miss c an eighty year old woman. 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:07.720 She complained of little people dressed in blue and gray 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:11.600 leaves hiding in her cupboard cupboards, and she also saw 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:14.240 tiny black cats from time to time, and her chief 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:17.480 complaint was that the little people like to watch her undressed. 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:21.600 So of course she was examined. They found that her 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:26.639 cognitive functions were fined fine, fine and uh, and that 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:29.919