1 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:06,000 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:13,560 Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 3 00:00:13,600 --> 00:00:15,920 Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And 4 00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:19,280 Speaker 1: we're a little late getting into the recording studio today 5 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:23,000 Speaker 1: because we just had in an office wide meeting with 6 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:28,200 Speaker 1: cheap How Stuff Work legal consultant Richard W. Glazer. Uh. 7 00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:32,400 Speaker 1: Great guy, excellent lawyer. But anytime we have these in 8 00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:36,159 Speaker 1: person meetings with him, it's always a little bit te. Well. Yeah, 9 00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:39,160 Speaker 1: part of the problem is that you can't approach him physically, 10 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:42,320 Speaker 1: and if you do, he will immediately start wheeling away 11 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:45,000 Speaker 1: because he cannot be touched, right, and he's not gonna 12 00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:47,680 Speaker 1: find a wheelchair or anything. He is. He just remains 13 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:51,239 Speaker 1: on a wheeled platform that's covered with throw pillows and 14 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,840 Speaker 1: stuff with with hay. Yeah, it's basically a wooden palette 15 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:57,760 Speaker 1: with with little roll the office chair wheels on the bottom. 16 00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:00,880 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, And I mean you need that when you 17 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:03,680 Speaker 1: suffer from the glass delusion. That's right, because there's nothing 18 00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:06,440 Speaker 1: actually wrong with him that he doesn't suffer from brittle 19 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:09,800 Speaker 1: bone disorder anything of that matter. He's the guy from Unbreakable. 20 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:12,399 Speaker 1: He's not the villain from Unbreakable. He's just he just 21 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:15,600 Speaker 1: has this psychiatric delusion that his body is made out 22 00:01:15,640 --> 00:01:18,640 Speaker 1: of glass, which makes it all the more horrifying when 23 00:01:18,640 --> 00:01:21,319 Speaker 1: you roll through a pont city market here because everything's 24 00:01:21,360 --> 00:01:25,240 Speaker 1: under construction, Right, He's constantly afraid that the construction workers 25 00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:27,679 Speaker 1: on site are going to grab him and turn him 26 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:30,360 Speaker 1: into a glass window. Yeah, but the meeting is over, 27 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:33,240 Speaker 1: the meeting is done with glass or has rolled off 28 00:01:33,319 --> 00:01:37,039 Speaker 1: back to his the padded chamber of his offices, And 29 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:40,800 Speaker 1: we're here to talk about glass delusion itself, the real 30 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:44,680 Speaker 1: glass delusion that is largely a product of the past, 31 00:01:44,720 --> 00:01:48,680 Speaker 1: but as we'll discuss, has popped up with some contemporary 32 00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:52,000 Speaker 1: cases as well. Right, so you're not likely to meet 33 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:55,440 Speaker 1: or have met somebody suffering from the glass delusion, but 34 00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:58,600 Speaker 1: there are times and places in history where this was 35 00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:04,920 Speaker 1: an extremely common psychological ailment. Yes, they're certainly common enough 36 00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:08,440 Speaker 1: that it pops up in the literature and well, as 37 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:11,919 Speaker 1: we discussed that, uh, that raises some questions at times. 38 00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:14,880 Speaker 1: But let's let's start by just looking to the literature 39 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:17,120 Speaker 1: and looking at some of the key cases that pop 40 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:19,720 Speaker 1: up in history, and then we'll start teasing us a 41 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:22,880 Speaker 1: part of it, sure well. One early case that we 42 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:25,960 Speaker 1: have in the literature is the story of King Charles 43 00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:29,560 Speaker 1: the sixth of France. So Charles the sixth had a 44 00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:32,880 Speaker 1: sort of troubled reign. He inherited the throne of France 45 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: when he was eleven years old. He didn't immediately get 46 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:39,360 Speaker 1: to wield power because some of his older relatives were 47 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:42,359 Speaker 1: sort of ruling as regions for him. Eventually he came 48 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:45,679 Speaker 1: of age and sort of took the throne in actual practice. 49 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:49,639 Speaker 1: But Charles suffered from mental illness throughout his life, and 50 00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:53,400 Speaker 1: some of his episodes are described as basically paranoid in nature. 51 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:56,840 Speaker 1: One of the earliest in our histories is that Charles 52 00:02:56,960 --> 00:02:59,880 Speaker 1: was out on a minor military campaign with a group 53 00:02:59,919 --> 00:03:02,320 Speaker 1: of knights and soldiers going out to I think fight 54 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:06,840 Speaker 1: some near do well duke and a stranger approached the 55 00:03:06,880 --> 00:03:09,960 Speaker 1: procession that Charles was in and warned him that he 56 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:13,840 Speaker 1: was going to suffer a great betrayal. And after this warning, 57 00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:18,040 Speaker 1: one of Charles's soldiers happened to make the mistake of 58 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:21,399 Speaker 1: making a metal clanking noise with his helmet or armor, 59 00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:25,040 Speaker 1: and Charles freaked out. He started attacking his own men, 60 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:28,000 Speaker 1: and he allegedly killed one of his own nights in 61 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:32,120 Speaker 1: the ensuing confusion. But this is not the most topically 62 00:03:32,160 --> 00:03:35,920 Speaker 1: relevant of Charles's delusions because, according to accounts recorded by 63 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:40,120 Speaker 1: Pope Pious, the second, one of the other common delusions 64 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:42,960 Speaker 1: that Charles would suffer from was the belief that his 65 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:47,280 Speaker 1: body was made of glass, and so he during these 66 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:51,720 Speaker 1: times he allegedly refused to let people touch him, and 67 00:03:51,880 --> 00:03:54,280 Speaker 1: he would sort of like sit still and try to 68 00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:58,480 Speaker 1: cushion and protect himself from being shattered. He even demanded 69 00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:01,640 Speaker 1: some form of reinforce clothing is a sort of like 70 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:05,440 Speaker 1: armor to protect his fragile body. Huh. You know, it's 71 00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:08,640 Speaker 1: it's it's fascinating to to think of this in connection 72 00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:10,920 Speaker 1: with his his place in life, you know, ascending to 73 00:04:10,960 --> 00:04:13,640 Speaker 1: the throne so early. Um, you know, even if he 74 00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:19,360 Speaker 1: didn't have even if his power was more symbolic early on. Um, 75 00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:22,719 Speaker 1: because it will we'll discuss the two things that keep 76 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:26,479 Speaker 1: coming up with with the glass delusion is that of 77 00:04:26,760 --> 00:04:30,159 Speaker 1: the body is a vessel, breakable vessel and uh and 78 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:33,799 Speaker 1: and fragility and uh and the impermanence of life. Because 79 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:35,919 Speaker 1: here's a guy who you know, he's he's essentially a 80 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:39,440 Speaker 1: vessel for blood, right he has. It's his blood that 81 00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:41,080 Speaker 1: has the claim to the throne, and he is just 82 00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:44,320 Speaker 1: kind of the the fragile container for that blood and 83 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:47,880 Speaker 1: for that that right to rule. And uh and he 84 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:50,919 Speaker 1: and he's probably throughout his life he has you know, 85 00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:55,120 Speaker 1: has a very clear view of just how um, how 86 00:04:55,160 --> 00:04:58,680 Speaker 1: slight that grasp of power and that position really is. Yeah, 87 00:04:58,680 --> 00:05:00,599 Speaker 1: it's got to be, especially the case when you are 88 00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:04,040 Speaker 1: a child king, Like if you inherit the throne at 89 00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:06,720 Speaker 1: a very early age, it's quite clear that you are 90 00:05:06,760 --> 00:05:09,800 Speaker 1: not capable of ruling yet, and that is made clear 91 00:05:09,839 --> 00:05:11,839 Speaker 1: to you by the fact that there are some older 92 00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:15,520 Speaker 1: regions actually pulling all the strings. Um. So it's not 93 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:18,280 Speaker 1: really your merit that you can believe makes you king. 94 00:05:18,320 --> 00:05:21,920 Speaker 1: I mean, not that merit makes any king king. But yeah, 95 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:26,160 Speaker 1: you're definitely just waiting your turn because of who your 96 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:28,719 Speaker 1: parents were. Yeah. And it seems like the common tropes 97 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:32,159 Speaker 1: that you see in in historical accounts and reenactments and 98 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:34,000 Speaker 1: of course in our fiction, is you either you're going 99 00:05:34,040 --> 00:05:36,800 Speaker 1: at fragile direction. I'm who I'm this glass thing. I'm 100 00:05:36,839 --> 00:05:39,880 Speaker 1: just this child at the center of this huge wheel 101 00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:44,039 Speaker 1: that's turning or you go in the megalomaniac direction of like, 102 00:05:44,120 --> 00:05:45,760 Speaker 1: of course I'm in charge. I know on eleven, but 103 00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:48,920 Speaker 1: I know everything and I'm fully, fully capable of ruling 104 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:52,960 Speaker 1: this kingdom right now. That's not the not the only 105 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:55,200 Speaker 1: case we see in history, but that again, that was 106 00:05:55,520 --> 00:05:59,240 Speaker 1: that's the earliest glass delusion case on record that we 107 00:05:59,279 --> 00:06:02,480 Speaker 1: could find. Also, there's a sixteen fourteen case, So this 108 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:05,200 Speaker 1: is some of the centuries later recorded by the physician 109 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:09,360 Speaker 1: to fill up the second of Spain Alfonso Ponce descenta 110 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:13,479 Speaker 1: cruz Uh. The patient is actually unknown. We don't know 111 00:06:13,480 --> 00:06:16,039 Speaker 1: who this individual was, but it was possibly a French 112 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:20,160 Speaker 1: prince as he was also described by French King Henry 113 00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:23,760 Speaker 1: the fourth Chief Physician. So this is another case where 114 00:06:23,760 --> 00:06:27,560 Speaker 1: you have an individual who's just languishing on straw beds, 115 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:32,479 Speaker 1: avoiding being broken by any kind of physical contact. Um, 116 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:35,000 Speaker 1: there's a there's a large sense of melancholy in all 117 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:37,799 Speaker 1: these cases as well. You know, it's like I can't 118 00:06:37,880 --> 00:06:41,039 Speaker 1: move because if I move, I might I'm I'm gonna die. 119 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:44,280 Speaker 1: I'm gonna shatter. Sure, And we don't just mean melancholy 120 00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:46,440 Speaker 1: in in the modern sense. We would use it like 121 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:50,480 Speaker 1: melancholy in the infinite sadness, but the actual sort of 122 00:06:50,560 --> 00:06:54,839 Speaker 1: medieval bodily humors based theory of melancholy, which was a 123 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:59,120 Speaker 1: somewhat different thing. Yeah, and also far more debilitating and 124 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:02,000 Speaker 1: and seen as is rooted in these these key these 125 00:07:02,040 --> 00:07:06,360 Speaker 1: four key biological principles, right, the four key humors. So 126 00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:09,240 Speaker 1: the treatment, of course was interesting for this and it 127 00:07:09,279 --> 00:07:11,080 Speaker 1: seems a bit tongue in cheak. I don't know to 128 00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:14,160 Speaker 1: what extent we can we actually believe it, uh, But 129 00:07:14,280 --> 00:07:17,320 Speaker 1: supposedly that the treatment for this individuals class solution was 130 00:07:17,360 --> 00:07:20,000 Speaker 1: to set fire to the straw in the bed, which 131 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:21,880 Speaker 1: immediately cured him because he jumps out of the bed 132 00:07:22,200 --> 00:07:24,560 Speaker 1: for fear of the fire. And well, he doesn't shatter, 133 00:07:24,600 --> 00:07:26,880 Speaker 1: he doesn't break. And you see this kind of sink 134 00:07:26,960 --> 00:07:29,640 Speaker 1: or swim treatment in a in a number of the accounts. Yeah, 135 00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:32,080 Speaker 1: there was another account I was reading about in one 136 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:34,960 Speaker 1: of the main sources we used for this episode, where 137 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:37,920 Speaker 1: and I believe it was suspected that this is an 138 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:40,640 Speaker 1: embellished or made up account, but the story goes that 139 00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:43,400 Speaker 1: there was a man who believed his buttocks were made 140 00:07:43,400 --> 00:07:46,240 Speaker 1: of glass, and the doctor cured him by beating him ye, 141 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:49,960 Speaker 1: beating him like basically spanking him with a cane and saying, look, 142 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:53,360 Speaker 1: your buttocks are not shattering, and the pain you're feeling 143 00:07:53,440 --> 00:07:56,800 Speaker 1: is purely organic in nature. And I think in that 144 00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:01,160 Speaker 1: in that account or story, the the individual with glass 145 00:08:01,160 --> 00:08:04,680 Speaker 1: delusion was himself a glass artisan, so you had that 146 00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:09,360 Speaker 1: level of complexity to it. Another example from history would 147 00:08:09,400 --> 00:08:13,720 Speaker 1: be the Flemish poet philosopher Guests bar van borel From 148 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:16,840 Speaker 1: who lived from four to sixteen forty eight, also known 149 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:22,560 Speaker 1: as bar Lais. Yeah, this is another individual who reportedly 150 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:26,400 Speaker 1: suffered melancholy throughout his life and may have suffered a 151 00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:30,360 Speaker 1: mirror delusion, or it's possible he was just waxing poetic 152 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:33,240 Speaker 1: and philosophic when he said the following. But how often 153 00:08:33,240 --> 00:08:37,559 Speaker 1: the fantasy wants to act absurdly and ridiculously in melancholics 154 00:08:38,080 --> 00:08:41,080 Speaker 1: of how much does it convince the unhappy fellows? This 155 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:43,640 Speaker 1: one thinks he's made of glass and terrified, is fearful 156 00:08:43,840 --> 00:08:46,600 Speaker 1: of people standing close to him. And and and in this 157 00:08:46,640 --> 00:08:48,560 Speaker 1: we kind of get into one of the problems that 158 00:08:48,559 --> 00:08:50,480 Speaker 1: it emerges when you look back on the glass delusion 159 00:08:50,559 --> 00:08:54,240 Speaker 1: literature is that how many of these cases are actual 160 00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:58,640 Speaker 1: cases where someone was suffering from, you know, psychiatric delusion 161 00:08:58,920 --> 00:09:01,760 Speaker 1: about the nature of their body, and to what extented 162 00:09:01,800 --> 00:09:05,240 Speaker 1: they the embellish stories, are they just outright uh, you 163 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:09,079 Speaker 1: know literary devices uses of the metaphor of the body 164 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:12,200 Speaker 1: is glass. Yeah. One of the things about the glass 165 00:09:12,200 --> 00:09:15,520 Speaker 1: delusion is that it's so it's so imagistic, and it's 166 00:09:15,559 --> 00:09:19,240 Speaker 1: so evocative, and it makes a great story. And whenever 167 00:09:19,320 --> 00:09:21,719 Speaker 1: there is a condition that makes a great story, you've 168 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:24,559 Speaker 1: got to be suspicious of some of these historical accounts 169 00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:27,480 Speaker 1: because they make such great stories. Yeah, it reminds me 170 00:09:27,559 --> 00:09:30,240 Speaker 1: of the you know, the old not even that old, 171 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:33,000 Speaker 1: but the the the sort of urban legends about the 172 00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:35,600 Speaker 1: you know, somebody took so much LSD that they thought 173 00:09:35,679 --> 00:09:38,599 Speaker 1: they were a bug and climbed inside a keyhole, or 174 00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:40,360 Speaker 1: I thought they were a key and climbed inside a keyhole, 175 00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:43,760 Speaker 1: something like of that nature. Um, which it sounds wonderful 176 00:09:43,760 --> 00:09:46,600 Speaker 1: because it's so ridiculous and so ridiculous that it's actually 177 00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:49,200 Speaker 1: kind of horrifying. But then when you start teasing an 178 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:51,200 Speaker 1: apart and saying, well did this really happen? Was that 179 00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:55,080 Speaker 1: actually a delusion or is it just make for some 180 00:09:55,400 --> 00:09:57,720 Speaker 1: compelling bit of fiction. Yes, So one of our main 181 00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:01,360 Speaker 1: sources for this episode was an essay by someone going 182 00:10:01,360 --> 00:10:04,360 Speaker 1: by the name gil Speak published in the History of 183 00:10:04,360 --> 00:10:07,320 Speaker 1: Psychiatry in nine and it was called an Odd Kind 184 00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:11,520 Speaker 1: of Melancholy Reflections on the Glass Delusion in Europe fourteen 185 00:10:11,559 --> 00:10:15,160 Speaker 1: forty to sixteen eighty. And the author of this essay 186 00:10:15,240 --> 00:10:19,720 Speaker 1: makes some really interesting general observations about when you see 187 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:22,280 Speaker 1: this delusion popping up, and one of the most interesting 188 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:25,959 Speaker 1: to me was that the author says it is an 189 00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:29,800 Speaker 1: affliction of the man of letters in Europe. Yeah, this 190 00:10:29,880 --> 00:10:32,400 Speaker 1: is interesting because because again we already touched on the 191 00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:35,600 Speaker 1: literary history of glass delusion that we see it in 192 00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:40,280 Speaker 1: medical accounts, published studies essentially of the day, as well 193 00:10:40,320 --> 00:10:43,319 Speaker 1: as as fiction outright fiction as well, and and that 194 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:46,199 Speaker 1: sort of space between where you don't know of if 195 00:10:46,240 --> 00:10:48,680 Speaker 1: a have a poet or philosopher is talking about something 196 00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:51,080 Speaker 1: that actually happened or just you know, trying to make 197 00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:54,319 Speaker 1: a prove a point about the human condition. But any rate, 198 00:10:54,360 --> 00:10:57,160 Speaker 1: you have certain individuals who are perhaps saying already a 199 00:10:57,200 --> 00:11:01,600 Speaker 1: little um more inclined toward bouts of melancholy, and they're 200 00:11:01,640 --> 00:11:04,400 Speaker 1: reading all this stuff there of a class where they 201 00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:07,000 Speaker 1: have both the time and the ability to consume all 202 00:11:07,040 --> 00:11:11,079 Speaker 1: of these materials and uh, and so they're they're feeding 203 00:11:11,080 --> 00:11:14,720 Speaker 1: their mind with the idea of glass delusion and perhaps 204 00:11:14,760 --> 00:11:19,800 Speaker 1: allowing then their mind to to generate the delusion. Right, 205 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:22,600 Speaker 1: So the prevalence of glass delusions could be kind of 206 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:27,719 Speaker 1: self reinforcing. The people who are the most in temperament 207 00:11:27,840 --> 00:11:30,120 Speaker 1: susceptible to it are also the people who are being 208 00:11:30,200 --> 00:11:33,800 Speaker 1: fed stories about it, right. Yeah, It's kind of like 209 00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:37,000 Speaker 1: if if today somebody was watching a bunch of zombie 210 00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:40,920 Speaker 1: uh TV and reading zombie fiction and zombie comics and 211 00:11:40,960 --> 00:11:43,640 Speaker 1: then suddenly started believing that they themselves were undead or 212 00:11:43,679 --> 00:11:46,440 Speaker 1: but we're getting to have a very real fear of 213 00:11:46,440 --> 00:11:49,839 Speaker 1: of the undead. And likewise, if individual centuries from now 214 00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:52,520 Speaker 1: looked back on media from today and said, oh, there 215 00:11:52,559 --> 00:11:55,280 Speaker 1: were a lot of these zombie stories going on, where 216 00:11:55,280 --> 00:11:59,120 Speaker 1: any of these accounts actual happenings, where they were just 217 00:11:59,200 --> 00:12:01,640 Speaker 1: a fiction people were obsessed with in the day. Yeah, 218 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:05,800 Speaker 1: is it life imitating art or the undead imitating life? Yeah. 219 00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:08,959 Speaker 1: Like one of the big examples that comes up comes 220 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:12,720 Speaker 1: from Servants the Lawyer of Glass, which of course we 221 00:12:12,800 --> 00:12:16,760 Speaker 1: reference in our introduction here, which which tells the story 222 00:12:16,800 --> 00:12:20,920 Speaker 1: of of a lawyer who is essentially poisoned. Um did 223 00:12:20,920 --> 00:12:24,199 Speaker 1: you want to you want to break into into his story? Well, 224 00:12:24,240 --> 00:12:28,000 Speaker 1: of course yeah. So the the young lawyer is a prodigy. 225 00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:32,760 Speaker 1: He is very gifted and witty and skillful, and he 226 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:36,000 Speaker 1: graduates from law school. And there is a young lady 227 00:12:36,160 --> 00:12:38,680 Speaker 1: who falls in love with him and wants him to 228 00:12:38,800 --> 00:12:41,240 Speaker 1: fall in love with her. So she comes up with 229 00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:45,360 Speaker 1: a love potion that is supposed to get the job done, 230 00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:49,400 Speaker 1: but instead it goes haywire. She slips the love potion 231 00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:52,280 Speaker 1: into a fruit that he eats, and instead of falling 232 00:12:52,320 --> 00:12:55,319 Speaker 1: in love with her, he falls into a coma. And 233 00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:58,199 Speaker 1: then when he wakes from his coma, he suffers from 234 00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:01,000 Speaker 1: the delusion that his body is made of glass. He 235 00:13:01,040 --> 00:13:05,079 Speaker 1: has contracted the glass delusion. Nevertheless, he goes on to 236 00:13:05,160 --> 00:13:08,480 Speaker 1: have a pretty famous and interesting career. So he becomes 237 00:13:08,520 --> 00:13:11,760 Speaker 1: known all over the place for being the glass lawyer, 238 00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:14,960 Speaker 1: the lawyer who has to travel around and a coach 239 00:13:15,040 --> 00:13:18,240 Speaker 1: filled with straw to you know, blunt all the corners 240 00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:20,600 Speaker 1: and make sure he doesn't get chattered. They say. He 241 00:13:20,760 --> 00:13:23,440 Speaker 1: walks in the center of the street to avoid roof 242 00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:27,520 Speaker 1: tiles falling down on him and shattering him. And then 243 00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:31,600 Speaker 1: eventually he wakes up from his delusion. He says, oh, no, 244 00:13:31,720 --> 00:13:34,280 Speaker 1: you know what, I'm not made of glass, but now 245 00:13:34,360 --> 00:13:36,480 Speaker 1: this is what he's famous for. So I have to 246 00:13:36,559 --> 00:13:37,839 Speaker 1: keep that. I have to keep it going. I have 247 00:13:37,880 --> 00:13:40,520 Speaker 1: to keep images of that, right. Um. So yeah, this 248 00:13:40,600 --> 00:13:44,000 Speaker 1: becomes a you know, a fertile meme for literate Europeans. 249 00:13:44,040 --> 00:13:46,839 Speaker 1: And you see glass buttocks showing up in a lot 250 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:53,840 Speaker 1: of these accounts. They are all kinds of glass body parts, arms, legs, heads, hearts, chests, 251 00:13:54,040 --> 00:13:57,120 Speaker 1: but it seems like the most common one is buttocks. Yeah, 252 00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:00,120 Speaker 1: because it's also the most humorous. And I think, I 253 00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:03,320 Speaker 1: guess that's the That's the thing is that if if 254 00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:04,800 Speaker 1: you're going to tell a story about somebody with a 255 00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:06,839 Speaker 1: body part made out of glass, that the buttocks are 256 00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:10,160 Speaker 1: perfect well to mention. Another literary example in the English 257 00:14:10,160 --> 00:14:13,920 Speaker 1: play Lingua from sixteen o seven by the playwright Thomas 258 00:14:13,960 --> 00:14:17,480 Speaker 1: thom Kiss. There is a glass man in this play 259 00:14:17,559 --> 00:14:21,960 Speaker 1: named Tactus, who says to a character named ol fact Us, quote, 260 00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:26,320 Speaker 1: I am a urinal I dare not stir for fear 261 00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:29,120 Speaker 1: of cracking in the bottom and so in this we 262 00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:32,120 Speaker 1: get into the subset of glass man, in which the 263 00:14:32,280 --> 00:14:35,480 Speaker 1: glass man is not only a glass vessel, he is 264 00:14:35,520 --> 00:14:38,560 Speaker 1: a glass vessel full of urine in the delusion. Right, 265 00:14:38,600 --> 00:14:41,440 Speaker 1: So the author of that essay I mentioned tells us 266 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:45,200 Speaker 1: that actually, at the time urinal was a synonym. It 267 00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:48,680 Speaker 1: just meant like a glass flask, a small flask, but 268 00:14:48,760 --> 00:14:51,200 Speaker 1: that it certainly had the connotation of something you would 269 00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:54,600 Speaker 1: fill up with urine. But sitting around the study and 270 00:14:54,640 --> 00:14:57,000 Speaker 1: you need, you need to go, you just grab whatever 271 00:14:57,080 --> 00:14:59,760 Speaker 1: kind of glass apparatus is the handy, right. Yeah. And 272 00:14:59,800 --> 00:15:02,720 Speaker 1: as just one of the uh, the connections here when 273 00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:06,680 Speaker 1: you start looking at the what glass delusion meant to 274 00:15:07,160 --> 00:15:12,240 Speaker 1: contemporary UH readers and anyone hearing any of these stories. Yes, 275 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:16,760 Speaker 1: so the glass delusion isn't just about the physical fragility 276 00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:19,160 Speaker 1: of the body that the breakable nous. It takes on 277 00:15:19,280 --> 00:15:22,400 Speaker 1: other significant dimensions as well. Indeed, I mean at the 278 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:26,000 Speaker 1: time we see fortune is often described as a goddess, 279 00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:29,040 Speaker 1: a fickle goddess that's made of glass. You know, it's 280 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:34,800 Speaker 1: it's fragile, it's it's fickle. Um. Likewise, chastity sometimes explained 281 00:15:34,960 --> 00:15:38,800 Speaker 1: UH with the metaphor of glass. Uh, the particularly the 282 00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:42,960 Speaker 1: French bishop Saint Francis to sales who compared to the 283 00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:45,720 Speaker 1: human body to glass. And and then you have these 284 00:15:45,720 --> 00:15:48,600 Speaker 1: different human bodies going around uh, and they should not 285 00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:53,680 Speaker 1: be carried together without danger of collision and break it um. 286 00:15:53,720 --> 00:15:56,800 Speaker 1: And then there's this rich tradition in the Bible describing 287 00:15:56,880 --> 00:16:00,320 Speaker 1: the human condition as that of a vessel. And now 288 00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:03,440 Speaker 1: there's not a number of these these descriptions that that 289 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:07,400 Speaker 1: appear in the Biblical tradition are conflicting and there's not 290 00:16:07,720 --> 00:16:11,160 Speaker 1: a definite thread throughout them, but one of the basic 291 00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:15,080 Speaker 1: ones is the human body as a vessel in which, 292 00:16:15,440 --> 00:16:18,480 Speaker 1: like the Holy Spirit is invested right right, if you 293 00:16:18,560 --> 00:16:21,720 Speaker 1: cracked this vessel, the pure element that's being poured in 294 00:16:21,800 --> 00:16:24,600 Speaker 1: can spill out. It's a bad thing. So sort of 295 00:16:24,600 --> 00:16:26,840 Speaker 1: the body is a temple type thing, right, Yeah. Yeah, 296 00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:31,240 Speaker 1: there's this idea that one wants to preserve his purity 297 00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:34,400 Speaker 1: and goodness, and but you do that by remaining intact 298 00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:37,200 Speaker 1: to not let it spill out onto the ground and 299 00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:39,560 Speaker 1: be wasted. Which makes me instantly think of the kool 300 00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:43,560 Speaker 1: aid man. Really is our our our generation's glass man. 301 00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:46,880 Speaker 1: He is he is a vessel of glass and uh 302 00:16:47,440 --> 00:16:50,360 Speaker 1: God or you know, the Kulai corporation, whoever has invested 303 00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:53,120 Speaker 1: him with this red power. You know. One of the 304 00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:56,360 Speaker 1: things I immediately think of then, is that if the 305 00:16:56,400 --> 00:16:59,160 Speaker 1: kool Aid Man were to lose his kool aid, to 306 00:16:59,200 --> 00:17:01,680 Speaker 1: be cracked and leak all of his red power out 307 00:17:01,680 --> 00:17:04,560 Speaker 1: onto the ground, he would not only be fragile and breakable, 308 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:07,800 Speaker 1: but he would be transparent. You could see straight through 309 00:17:07,840 --> 00:17:11,000 Speaker 1: the kool Aid Man. And that seems significant also in 310 00:17:11,040 --> 00:17:14,399 Speaker 1: the history of the glass delusion. That's right. Uh, photophobia 311 00:17:14,840 --> 00:17:16,760 Speaker 1: factors into a number of these So not only are 312 00:17:16,800 --> 00:17:19,880 Speaker 1: you afraid that you're going to to shatter on impact 313 00:17:19,880 --> 00:17:22,119 Speaker 1: with any other kind of physical object. Not only are you, 314 00:17:22,119 --> 00:17:25,400 Speaker 1: you know, keeping yourself confined, you're you're super soft, bad, 315 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:28,360 Speaker 1: but you're also closing the shutters because you don't want 316 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:31,879 Speaker 1: light to shine through you. Yeah, because that would be 317 00:17:31,920 --> 00:17:34,919 Speaker 1: kind of horrifying, right, because they're the light is shining 318 00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:38,960 Speaker 1: through your glass body, revealing the emptiness of your form 319 00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:42,920 Speaker 1: in addition to the ephemeral nature of your form. Yeah, 320 00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:46,359 Speaker 1: it's like the ultimate privacy. Weird out. You're not only exposed, 321 00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:50,080 Speaker 1: but you're actually transparent. People can not only see your nakedness, 322 00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:53,520 Speaker 1: but see beyond you. Yeah. At the time when as 323 00:17:53,720 --> 00:17:57,480 Speaker 1: as optics, uh, you know, makes its way into everyday life, 324 00:17:57,560 --> 00:18:00,760 Speaker 1: especially for you know, learned individuals. Yeah, you know, you're 325 00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:03,840 Speaker 1: you're putting a looking glasses, spectacles on your nose, on 326 00:18:03,880 --> 00:18:07,040 Speaker 1: your nose so you can read, etcetera. By the early 327 00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:11,000 Speaker 1: seventeenth century, you actually see numerous books with titles that 328 00:18:11,080 --> 00:18:14,280 Speaker 1: refer to the looking glass to imply a means of 329 00:18:14,440 --> 00:18:18,480 Speaker 1: self discovery. So, as gil speak argues in his work, 330 00:18:19,119 --> 00:18:24,240 Speaker 1: you see a melancholic photophobia representing the fear of self discovery, 331 00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:26,760 Speaker 1: a kind of techno metaphor for the old adage the 332 00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:30,000 Speaker 1: light that sets me free, you can also blind me. Yeah, 333 00:18:30,080 --> 00:18:32,280 Speaker 1: So it's not just the fear of being seen through 334 00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:35,520 Speaker 1: by others, but the fear of seeing through oneself. Another 335 00:18:35,520 --> 00:18:38,200 Speaker 1: thing about the kool aid Man, he's made out of glass. 336 00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:41,320 Speaker 1: He seems like the perfect candidate for glass delusion. And 337 00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:43,440 Speaker 1: yet what is the other thing that coolant kulaid man 338 00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:47,840 Speaker 1: does all the time. He busts through cinder block. So 339 00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:50,680 Speaker 1: how does that? How does that work? How I've never 340 00:18:50,720 --> 00:18:54,440 Speaker 1: really really questioned it. I was just, you know, I 341 00:18:54,800 --> 00:18:57,199 Speaker 1: just completely trusted the media that I was presented with. 342 00:18:57,440 --> 00:18:59,280 Speaker 1: Of course, kool Aid Man can bust through a wall, 343 00:18:59,560 --> 00:19:03,000 Speaker 1: but he's a glass vessel. What's what's going on here? Well, 344 00:19:03,080 --> 00:19:06,240 Speaker 1: he could be some of that special reinforced glass that 345 00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:09,040 Speaker 1: you know they use in the in the army vehicles 346 00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:12,160 Speaker 1: for windshields and stuff. It doesn't break so easily. I'm 347 00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:14,840 Speaker 1: not quite sure why they would invest that technology in 348 00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:16,920 Speaker 1: the kool Aid Man. Or maybe it's all about the 349 00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:20,119 Speaker 1: Koolaid itself, Like he should break like without the kool 350 00:19:20,119 --> 00:19:22,200 Speaker 1: Aid in him, he would have no power. He would 351 00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:24,720 Speaker 1: be just that fragile vessel. But Koolaid is so good 352 00:19:25,280 --> 00:19:28,800 Speaker 1: and so potent that it can make even the kool 353 00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:33,080 Speaker 1: Aid Man of a creature of glass breakthrough that wall. Yeah, 354 00:19:33,280 --> 00:19:35,320 Speaker 1: Or it's just that the cinder blocks in the wall 355 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:38,080 Speaker 1: have been made with sand and thus are very very soft. 356 00:19:38,119 --> 00:19:41,480 Speaker 1: Maybe that's true. That's true. So another aspect of the 357 00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:43,920 Speaker 1: glass delusion that might be interesting to talk about would 358 00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:49,200 Speaker 1: be the significance of glass as a technology, because the 359 00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:54,159 Speaker 1: bodily fragility delusion is not It did not begin with 360 00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:57,080 Speaker 1: the glass delusion. In fact, gil Speak tells us that 361 00:19:57,320 --> 00:20:00,960 Speaker 1: there are classical and medieval accounts of earthen where men. 362 00:20:01,080 --> 00:20:04,880 Speaker 1: So this is sort of older glass style. The ceramics, 363 00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:08,040 Speaker 1: the glazed ceramics that are not quite the type of 364 00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:12,120 Speaker 1: clear glass we think about emerging is the windows stuff 365 00:20:12,560 --> 00:20:15,680 Speaker 1: of more recent history. But back in the olden days, 366 00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:18,159 Speaker 1: you might think you were a clay pot and you 367 00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:21,080 Speaker 1: could crack just as easily as a clay pot. Yeah, 368 00:20:21,119 --> 00:20:24,359 Speaker 1: and the techno metaphor here, uh, you know it just 369 00:20:24,760 --> 00:20:27,199 Speaker 1: it makes perfect sense. You can imagine some you know, 370 00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:29,960 Speaker 1: member of an ancient culture and they have this ceramic 371 00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:32,520 Speaker 1: pot that they've created, a lot of work has gone 372 00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:34,359 Speaker 1: into it, a lot of artistry, and it's a it's 373 00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:37,920 Speaker 1: a useful item, but it's also so easily easily shattered, 374 00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:42,000 Speaker 1: so that that seems an irresistible metaphor for the human experience. 375 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:44,720 Speaker 1: And as we discussed in our recent episodes on techno religion, 376 00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:47,639 Speaker 1: that we can't help but look to our technology and 377 00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:51,520 Speaker 1: our man made devices and systems and try to use 378 00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:55,280 Speaker 1: those to define ourselves, whether you're talking about you know, 379 00:20:55,440 --> 00:21:01,240 Speaker 1: metaphors for you know, agricultural technology or or construction technology 380 00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:05,440 Speaker 1: and ancient texts or modern interpretations where we we think 381 00:21:05,480 --> 00:21:07,639 Speaker 1: of our mind as a computer or we, you know, 382 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:12,280 Speaker 1: illogically think of our memories as videotapes. Yeah, and very much. 383 00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:15,399 Speaker 1: I think there is the same kind of thing we 384 00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:19,280 Speaker 1: talked about in techno religion, where ancient metaphors, ancient technological 385 00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:23,760 Speaker 1: metaphors are very acceptable to us. Talking about the turning 386 00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:28,680 Speaker 1: of a wheel that feels sufficiently ancient and and deep 387 00:21:28,840 --> 00:21:31,760 Speaker 1: enough in the human experience to be a metaphor for 388 00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:36,680 Speaker 1: something magical and and related to God. But talking about 389 00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:40,760 Speaker 1: computers and cell phones that feels crass in the context 390 00:21:40,800 --> 00:21:43,640 Speaker 1: of religion. And I think the same thing could could 391 00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:47,520 Speaker 1: possibly apply when talking about what delusions are likely to 392 00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:50,640 Speaker 1: take hold. Things that are I don't know, have more 393 00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:54,640 Speaker 1: of an ancient pedigree seem to be more plausible to us. 394 00:21:54,840 --> 00:21:57,560 Speaker 1: Of course, then again, you do hear people saying they 395 00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:00,399 Speaker 1: put microchips in my brain. I mean that is modern 396 00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:03,320 Speaker 1: delusion some people suffer from. Uh do you know what 397 00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:05,800 Speaker 1: I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, totally. I mean we when we 398 00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:08,320 Speaker 1: take that that understanding of it and when and we 399 00:22:08,359 --> 00:22:11,600 Speaker 1: can easily apply it to uh uh you know, to 400 00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:16,240 Speaker 1: the fourteenth century, because this is a time when we 401 00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:22,040 Speaker 1: saw an existing technology glass really really developed, really evolved 402 00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:24,280 Speaker 1: because because we've had glass for a while, we we 403 00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:27,080 Speaker 1: have earliest some of the earliest man made glass objects. 404 00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:32,320 Speaker 1: You know, generally beads date back to around UHT b 405 00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:37,600 Speaker 1: c E. But around twenty we see the crown glass 406 00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:41,440 Speaker 1: blowing technique really kick off. Broadsheet glass emerges earlier in 407 00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:46,119 Speaker 1: twelve twenty six, and these really um change what's possible 408 00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:48,800 Speaker 1: with glass and the and the sort of applications that 409 00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:52,199 Speaker 1: we can we can use. And of course, uh, you 410 00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:56,080 Speaker 1: know we're seeing stained glass so up in in churches, uh, 411 00:22:56,359 --> 00:23:00,000 Speaker 1: which which has an interesting connection to to mystical thoughts 412 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:03,040 Speaker 1: on glass. Uh. There is a certainly a mysticism of 413 00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:06,680 Speaker 1: light at the time, a key factor in the Abbott 414 00:23:06,920 --> 00:23:11,399 Speaker 1: Shuger of Saint denis his a twelfth century push for 415 00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:15,080 Speaker 1: larger windows and colored glasses in churches. And of course this, 416 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:17,399 Speaker 1: you know that the mysticism light of light here is 417 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:19,840 Speaker 1: you know, pretty obvious. You get into ideas of of 418 00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:24,040 Speaker 1: light as this, uh, you know, this metaphor for God's presence, 419 00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:27,600 Speaker 1: for God's love, the light of God shining in uh. 420 00:23:27,600 --> 00:23:29,719 Speaker 1: And of course optics have always been an area of 421 00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:33,439 Speaker 1: scientific inquiry, even in times when when science was you know, 422 00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:37,200 Speaker 1: lobbed in there with the philosophical and even magical pursuits. 423 00:23:37,840 --> 00:23:41,200 Speaker 1: You have glass, balls, mirror, other optical creations often used 424 00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:46,200 Speaker 1: as wards against evil spirits, are used in divination. So, uh, 425 00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:49,280 Speaker 1: there's fertile ground there for you. Even as glass begins 426 00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:52,560 Speaker 1: to show up everywhere, um, at least in the ritzier 427 00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:56,720 Speaker 1: parts of your your your local population centers, there's still 428 00:23:56,800 --> 00:24:00,520 Speaker 1: a lot of mysticism, uh, in if not the substance itself, 429 00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:02,760 Speaker 1: at least in the fact that it is used as 430 00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:05,199 Speaker 1: a convance for light, Yeah, and the fact that it 431 00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:07,920 Speaker 1: can be used to manipulate light. And I'm sure once 432 00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:10,960 Speaker 1: that happened, that must have been strange to people, for 433 00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:13,359 Speaker 1: for whom that was new. Yeah. I mean, look what 434 00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:16,600 Speaker 1: a stained glass does to the interior of a cathedral, right, 435 00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:19,919 Speaker 1: It transforms the light of day into this, uh, this 436 00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:24,199 Speaker 1: phantasmagorical mix of colors. Yeah, and light is something we 437 00:24:24,240 --> 00:24:27,560 Speaker 1: don't normally think about being able to manipulate, at least 438 00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:30,480 Speaker 1: not in the you know, at your caveman level of technology, 439 00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:33,440 Speaker 1: or even at your you know, early Middle ages level 440 00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:37,000 Speaker 1: of technology. What are you gonna do with light? I mean, 441 00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:39,119 Speaker 1: it's just coming from the sun. And you can make 442 00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:41,679 Speaker 1: it with fire, and you can I guess you can 443 00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:44,600 Speaker 1: put a shade up. I mean, what's so pervasive now 444 00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:47,439 Speaker 1: our optical technology and our manipulation of light that we 445 00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:50,119 Speaker 1: don't even think about it, but we are just today 446 00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:52,600 Speaker 1: we're just wizards of light. Like just in this room, 447 00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:55,280 Speaker 1: look at all the sources of artificial light coming at 448 00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:58,240 Speaker 1: us in the way that we're we're manipulating even the 449 00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:02,760 Speaker 1: the artificiality of it through various you know, various lenses, 450 00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:06,920 Speaker 1: through screens, through different types of bulbs. I mean, it's 451 00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:09,119 Speaker 1: it's kind of crazy. So today we live in an 452 00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:11,119 Speaker 1: age where we don't even question the magic. But if 453 00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:12,840 Speaker 1: we look back to this time where the mat a 454 00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:16,040 Speaker 1: lot of the magic is really beginning to come online, Um, 455 00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:18,119 Speaker 1: you can see where that would really get into people's 456 00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:23,520 Speaker 1: heads and help feed existing tendencies towards delusion. Yeah. Okay, 457 00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:28,080 Speaker 1: so we've talked about the images and the ideas that 458 00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:31,359 Speaker 1: fed into the glass delusion, but I think we haven't 459 00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:34,959 Speaker 1: really talked about the explanation for the glass delusion. And 460 00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:38,719 Speaker 1: this is always sort of difficult territory and psychology, where 461 00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:43,520 Speaker 1: you're trying to explain what need a psychological delusion answers. 462 00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:47,360 Speaker 1: But that is something that people have speculated upon. So 463 00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:50,720 Speaker 1: why does the glass lawyer think he is made of glass? 464 00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:55,040 Speaker 1: What causes that? Yeah? In this it really ties well 465 00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:58,880 Speaker 1: into what's known as terror management theory or t MT, 466 00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:02,480 Speaker 1: which is a direct from a cultural anthropologist, Ernest Becker's 467 00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:07,200 Speaker 1: efforts to explain the motivational underpinnings of human behavior, which 468 00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:12,360 Speaker 1: you know everything. Yeah, I mean that's the key argument 469 00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:15,119 Speaker 1: is that like the biggest thing in life is the 470 00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:19,159 Speaker 1: is the eventuality of death, and that every knowledge of 471 00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:22,160 Speaker 1: it knowledge you have to realize it's coming. It's gonna happen, 472 00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:24,080 Speaker 1: It's gonna happen to me, it's gonna happen to everyone 473 00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:27,199 Speaker 1: I know and love, UM, and there's nothing I can 474 00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:29,360 Speaker 1: do about it. And there's there's very little I can 475 00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:32,560 Speaker 1: do to predict when it's going to happen. And so this, 476 00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:35,280 Speaker 1: this knowledge of death, this knowledge of impermanence, is so 477 00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:39,200 Speaker 1: pervasive that it factors into everything we do, both the 478 00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:42,080 Speaker 1: fear of it, the wish to avoid it, and the 479 00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:47,720 Speaker 1: desire for immortality, either some sort of literal immortality through 480 00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:53,600 Speaker 1: today science, um, religiously through ideas of resurrection, or reincarnation, 481 00:26:54,119 --> 00:26:57,800 Speaker 1: or you know, you know less less literal ideas of immortality, 482 00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:00,239 Speaker 1: such as I'm gonna I'm gonna be faint, so I'm 483 00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:02,840 Speaker 1: gonna really make a name for myself, or have lots 484 00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:05,600 Speaker 1: of kids. That's lots of children, or I'm just gonna 485 00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:08,600 Speaker 1: I'm gonna make sure that my grave marker is made 486 00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:11,520 Speaker 1: out of stone. I'm not made out of stone, but 487 00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:13,800 Speaker 1: at least something with my name on it will be 488 00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:16,280 Speaker 1: made out of stone, and I will have a curse 489 00:27:16,359 --> 00:27:18,960 Speaker 1: carved into it than anyone walking through the graveyard will 490 00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:21,680 Speaker 1: tremble to look upon. And so you can really see 491 00:27:21,680 --> 00:27:25,199 Speaker 1: where if you look at life through the lens of 492 00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:29,360 Speaker 1: terror management theory, you can see how how glass delusion 493 00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:32,920 Speaker 1: fits fits neatly into that. You can see. Sure, Yeah, 494 00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:36,520 Speaker 1: it's kind of a perfect physical metaphor for realizing the 495 00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:41,239 Speaker 1: fragility of one's existence, sort of the metaphorical fragility that 496 00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:45,200 Speaker 1: you're always just a moment away, potentially from the end 497 00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:48,679 Speaker 1: from being shattered. Yeah, and you know, in this it 498 00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:52,040 Speaker 1: reminds me a little bit of a scene from David 499 00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:55,000 Speaker 1: Cronenberg's Crash. Did you ever see this one? No, that's 500 00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:57,120 Speaker 1: one of the few Cronenberg's I've not seen it. Yeah, 501 00:27:57,119 --> 00:27:59,520 Speaker 1: it's I've heard. It's messed up. It's messed up. It's 502 00:27:59,520 --> 00:28:04,920 Speaker 1: a weird lick about individuals who fetish eye uh, like 503 00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:10,080 Speaker 1: famous lethal car crashes and just car crashes in general. Um. 504 00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:12,960 Speaker 1: But there's a scene early on where, if I remember, 505 00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:16,640 Speaker 1: a character has been in a pretty pretty catastrophic car 506 00:28:16,720 --> 00:28:19,879 Speaker 1: wreck and they have just recovered from their injury. Uh, 507 00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:21,879 Speaker 1: and there there's a scene of them riding in the 508 00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:23,680 Speaker 1: car and it's kind of a split shot with half 509 00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:26,479 Speaker 1: of the half of the scene is uh, is inside 510 00:28:26,520 --> 00:28:29,240 Speaker 1: the vehicle, and then half of it is the busy 511 00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:31,600 Speaker 1: highway on the other side. And it really does a 512 00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:33,919 Speaker 1: great job of, you know, driving home this uh, this 513 00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:37,920 Speaker 1: character's realization about the fragility of the human body. Yeah. 514 00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:41,240 Speaker 1: There's that quote from the novel Sutree by cormck McCarthy, 515 00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:46,000 Speaker 1: which is is great if you wonderful. Yeah, it's very funny, 516 00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:50,680 Speaker 1: which is unusual for McCarthy. Uh. That says, what could 517 00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:54,200 Speaker 1: a child know of the darkness of God's plan? Or 518 00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:56,880 Speaker 1: how flesh is so frail? It is hardly more than 519 00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:59,840 Speaker 1: a dream. It's a great line. No, not one of 520 00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:03,440 Speaker 1: the funnier moments in the in the book, but no, no, 521 00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:06,080 Speaker 1: no contact with watermelons in that one. But no. That 522 00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:09,200 Speaker 1: Centre is a wonderful, wonderful book, full of plenty of 523 00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:12,959 Speaker 1: Corey McCarthy darkness in places, but also again it's it's 524 00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:16,760 Speaker 1: also core McCarthy. It is is most humorous. So one 525 00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:19,320 Speaker 1: of the things you might have noticed about pretty much 526 00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:21,560 Speaker 1: all of the cases we've mentioned so far is that 527 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:24,760 Speaker 1: they come from a particular time and place. We're talking 528 00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:28,760 Speaker 1: about early modern Europe, and that was a particular time 529 00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:31,320 Speaker 1: and place in which this delusion seemed to take hold. 530 00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:35,400 Speaker 1: It suddenly became popular, and you had glass buddocks everywhere. 531 00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:39,320 Speaker 1: But there are some more recent and even some modern 532 00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:42,040 Speaker 1: cases of the glass delusion, and I think it would 533 00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:45,640 Speaker 1: be really interesting to transition to look at those, yeah, 534 00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:49,920 Speaker 1: because because these definitely occur outside of that era of 535 00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:53,080 Speaker 1: of glass is an exciting technology, outside of an era 536 00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:57,160 Speaker 1: in which you had these clear cultural influences, you know, 537 00:29:57,200 --> 00:29:59,960 Speaker 1: regarding the humors and you know, the idea of the 538 00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:02,920 Speaker 1: body as some sort of a biblical vessel, etcetera. And 539 00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:05,640 Speaker 1: then as we come to the work of psychiatrist Andy 540 00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:10,400 Speaker 1: Lemaine Um from Leaden in the Netherlands, and he has 541 00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:15,080 Speaker 1: in recent years claim to have uncovered contemporary cases of 542 00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:19,760 Speaker 1: glass delusion. Interesting. Yeah, he was apparently lecturing on the topic, 543 00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:22,440 Speaker 1: you know, just historically, you know kind of you know, 544 00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:24,720 Speaker 1: how how we've been discussing it. Uh, And then he 545 00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:27,800 Speaker 1: was approached by a Dutch physician who claimed to have 546 00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:30,800 Speaker 1: run across a nineteen thirties case of a woman who 547 00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:34,920 Speaker 1: believed her legs and back were made of glass, suspected 548 00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:38,600 Speaker 1: by the Dutch physician in question to have have been 549 00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:43,520 Speaker 1: part of her particular extreme fear of personal contact. Which 550 00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:46,680 Speaker 1: is which is an angle on it that that hadn't 551 00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:49,760 Speaker 1: really but we haven't really discussed and maybe as ultimately 552 00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:52,560 Speaker 1: a more modern angle to take on it, this gorea 553 00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:57,040 Speaker 1: phobia as the root of glass delusion in an individual. Yeah, 554 00:30:57,040 --> 00:30:59,840 Speaker 1: it shows up in some of these earlier descriptions about 555 00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:03,120 Speaker 1: people who who feared being approached by others less to 556 00:31:03,160 --> 00:31:06,760 Speaker 1: those people shatter them. But those older cases really do 557 00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:09,920 Speaker 1: seem to have more to do with death. It seems 558 00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:13,520 Speaker 1: to me like they fear all kinds of mechanical and 559 00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:17,320 Speaker 1: physical trauma, you know, being afraid of roof tiles falling 560 00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:19,760 Speaker 1: on you, or of being jostled too much in the 561 00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:22,920 Speaker 1: carriage or something which you're both kind of fears of technology. 562 00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:26,440 Speaker 1: That's interesting, Yeah, but but this is strictly talking about 563 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:29,960 Speaker 1: personal contact. And typically when you're thinking about what would 564 00:31:29,960 --> 00:31:33,360 Speaker 1: break glass, you don't think about somebody's hands. You think about, 565 00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:35,840 Speaker 1: you know, dropping it on the floor or something like that. 566 00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:40,320 Speaker 1: But I can definitely see how this type of glass 567 00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:44,080 Speaker 1: delusion could come into play as well. Yeah, and then 568 00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:48,480 Speaker 1: you know, following this, another doctor brought him an additional 569 00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:53,080 Speaker 1: case from a different hospital from around nineteen but it 570 00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:56,880 Speaker 1: but but the really key moment in uh Leman's research 571 00:31:56,960 --> 00:31:59,080 Speaker 1: came when a young patient showed up at his own 572 00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:02,560 Speaker 1: hospital claiming to be made out of glass. So, of 573 00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:05,200 Speaker 1: course he did what you know that you would expect. 574 00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:06,840 Speaker 1: He said, well, we'll come on in, I will get 575 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:09,480 Speaker 1: you a nice cushion to set on, and we will 576 00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:11,960 Speaker 1: talk about your glass delusion because I really want to 577 00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:13,760 Speaker 1: find out what's at the root of it. And and 578 00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:17,720 Speaker 1: he made sure uh not to lead the questions too much, 579 00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:20,640 Speaker 1: not not to immediately presume that it had to do 580 00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:23,600 Speaker 1: with with with terror management theory and a fear of 581 00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:26,640 Speaker 1: death and impermanence, etcetera. Say, here are the symptoms you 582 00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:29,560 Speaker 1: should be experiencing if you have glass delusion. Yeah, I 583 00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:31,120 Speaker 1: mean this guy's this guy's a pro. He knows what 584 00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:35,760 Speaker 1: he's doing, so um it. In questioning this patient, it 585 00:32:35,840 --> 00:32:40,680 Speaker 1: emerged that the patient's feelings were similar to the way 586 00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:45,800 Speaker 1: we see through the glass in a window, observing everything beyond, 587 00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:49,280 Speaker 1: has been not seeing the glass itself. So it was 588 00:32:50,480 --> 00:32:54,760 Speaker 1: it's it's tied in this almost a fear of invisibility. Yeah, 589 00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:59,600 Speaker 1: so not just being exposed, but but of being inconsequential. Yeah, 590 00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:02,600 Speaker 1: like I'm just not not only am I just another person, 591 00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:05,480 Speaker 1: but I'm a person that everyone just sees through, Like 592 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:09,240 Speaker 1: I only take up space, but not in people's minds, 593 00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:13,760 Speaker 1: not in their actual perceptions of reality. That's fascinating. Yeah, 594 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:16,560 Speaker 1: I think that the quote from from from the individual 595 00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:19,800 Speaker 1: as they were as they're looking out a window at 596 00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:23,160 Speaker 1: the vista beyond, they say, that's me. I'm there and 597 00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:26,360 Speaker 1: I'm not there, like the glass in a window. Yeah. 598 00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:28,680 Speaker 1: So in the right up we read of this incident, 599 00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:33,680 Speaker 1: they described how Lemayne found out from this patient that 600 00:33:33,800 --> 00:33:37,560 Speaker 1: the patient had been in an accident, and following the accident, 601 00:33:37,720 --> 00:33:42,120 Speaker 1: his family had been very overprotective of him, and that 602 00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:46,680 Speaker 1: this glass delusion served as what they called a distance regulator. 603 00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:50,680 Speaker 1: It was an attempt to have a sort of self 604 00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:54,880 Speaker 1: controlled level of distance and privacy from all of the 605 00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:57,480 Speaker 1: people leaning in on his life. So it might not 606 00:33:57,560 --> 00:34:00,520 Speaker 1: be that a person necessarily fears being in con sequential. 607 00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:03,400 Speaker 1: It might be that they desire to be less the 608 00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:07,000 Speaker 1: focus of other people's attention, which which serves to bring 609 00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:10,799 Speaker 1: us back around, interestingly enough to the young eleven year 610 00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:14,000 Speaker 1: old King Charles, right, because here's this individual who's at 611 00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:16,960 Speaker 1: the center of all these machinations and concerns about the 612 00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:20,640 Speaker 1: future of a kingdom. Uh, it's it's you know, we're 613 00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:24,239 Speaker 1: speculating here, but it seems like he would be very 614 00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:29,000 Speaker 1: easy for him to feel in consequential and overmanaged and overtouched. Yeah. 615 00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:30,719 Speaker 1: I think that's a good thought. And then, of course 616 00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:34,480 Speaker 1: there's also the possibility that the glass delusion has something 617 00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:38,640 Speaker 1: to do with fears of effacement and social humiliation. Yeah, 618 00:34:38,680 --> 00:34:40,279 Speaker 1: and this ties into the into the idea that we 619 00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:43,200 Speaker 1: live in this modern age where it's so easy to 620 00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:49,520 Speaker 1: have anxieties about our personal fragility, but also transparency, especially 621 00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:52,600 Speaker 1: of our personal space. Um So this again ties back 622 00:34:52,600 --> 00:34:54,920 Speaker 1: into that idea that that I am I'm not only 623 00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:57,799 Speaker 1: am a made of glass, but I am transparent and 624 00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:00,799 Speaker 1: I don't matter. I'm just a transparent vessel in this 625 00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:04,239 Speaker 1: world of transparent vessels. You can almost think of that 626 00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:07,440 Speaker 1: as being a physical metaphor for how some of us 627 00:35:07,560 --> 00:35:11,440 Speaker 1: exist in the online era, right in the era of retweets, 628 00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:16,240 Speaker 1: where where ideas and content often just kind of flow 629 00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:19,319 Speaker 1: through you and back out. That's where it's so easy 630 00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:21,959 Speaker 1: to be more connected than ever before to the people 631 00:35:21,960 --> 00:35:27,160 Speaker 1: in your life, but also more isolated. Yeah, I'm sharing 632 00:35:27,200 --> 00:35:30,759 Speaker 1: what I have seen. I do not produce my own light. 633 00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:33,759 Speaker 1: So I wonder if that means that we could see 634 00:35:34,560 --> 00:35:37,719 Speaker 1: more cases of glass delusion. Yeah. I wondered about what 635 00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:40,760 Speaker 1: the future of glass delusion might be since we've we've 636 00:35:40,920 --> 00:35:44,279 Speaker 1: sort of seen that it might have some relationship to 637 00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:48,600 Speaker 1: the development of glass technology throughout history. Like in the 638 00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:51,600 Speaker 1: earthenware age you have the earthenware delusion, in the clear 639 00:35:51,680 --> 00:35:54,759 Speaker 1: glass age, you have the glass delusion. What could the 640 00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:57,880 Speaker 1: future material based delusion be? Like will we ever have 641 00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:01,640 Speaker 1: the carbon nanotubes delusion? I don't know exactly what that 642 00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:03,279 Speaker 1: would be. I was just trying to think are there 643 00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:06,879 Speaker 1: any future materials people could feel like they were. Well, 644 00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:09,840 Speaker 1: one of the things I thought of was translucent concrete. 645 00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:11,839 Speaker 1: Have you read about this, No, I have none. Yeah, 646 00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:16,400 Speaker 1: it's concrete building material that has embedded elements like that. 647 00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:19,719 Speaker 1: It might be things like optical fibers that allow the 648 00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:22,560 Speaker 1: transmission of light. So the kool Aid Man could be 649 00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:26,239 Speaker 1: translucent concrete. That's why he's so strong, but you can 650 00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:28,800 Speaker 1: still see through him. Ah see he was. He's a 651 00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:33,160 Speaker 1: visitor from the future, bringing to us the joys, the wonders, 652 00:36:33,239 --> 00:36:37,440 Speaker 1: the holy miracle. Yes, uh, this this meta material. I 653 00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:41,000 Speaker 1: think that's something that's actually interesting. If you wanted to 654 00:36:41,040 --> 00:36:43,239 Speaker 1: think about a future in which we do not have 655 00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:46,280 Speaker 1: such fears about fragility, but we still have the fears 656 00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:51,400 Speaker 1: about transparency, maybe there will be the translucent concrete delusion 657 00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:54,320 Speaker 1: where we we still have all of these ideas about 658 00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:57,480 Speaker 1: who sees me, who sees into me, who sees through me? 659 00:36:57,920 --> 00:36:59,799 Speaker 1: Do I exist? Do I take up space? Do I 660 00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:04,200 Speaker 1: flect light? But people aren't so concerned about their own death. 661 00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:07,080 Speaker 1: I mean, this could be if we get the kind 662 00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:10,640 Speaker 1: of Aubrey de Gray future where where the ultimate bad 663 00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:13,640 Speaker 1: ending is not a physical death but just a bad 664 00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:17,960 Speaker 1: social outcome. You know this since this brings to mind 665 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:22,280 Speaker 1: the fact that we do see quantum mechanics and also 666 00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:26,880 Speaker 1: theories regarding the multiverse um factor into a lot of 667 00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:31,480 Speaker 1: our considerations about self and where we are in our life. Uh. 668 00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:33,239 Speaker 1: And a lot of this, I feel is is you know, 669 00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:36,520 Speaker 1: comes from our consumption of media that employs those concepts. 670 00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:39,400 Speaker 1: Is there is there like a comic book or a 671 00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:43,440 Speaker 1: sci fi usage of meta materials that it could have 672 00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:46,600 Speaker 1: this impact on everyone? I don't know. I'm sure there is, 673 00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:48,479 Speaker 1: and I just can't think of it right now. Yeah, 674 00:37:48,560 --> 00:37:50,120 Speaker 1: Like I'm trying to think if there's a if there's 675 00:37:50,160 --> 00:37:52,640 Speaker 1: a comic book character who really makes use of some 676 00:37:52,719 --> 00:38:01,239 Speaker 1: sort of meta material or special material, um, clay Face maybe, yeah, 677 00:38:01,560 --> 00:38:04,040 Speaker 1: oh yeah, that's sort of like the fear of being Well, 678 00:38:04,120 --> 00:38:06,759 Speaker 1: it's always a metaphor and whatever the material is, it's 679 00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:09,600 Speaker 1: always a metaphor for your personal hangouts. Because clay Face 680 00:38:09,719 --> 00:38:13,719 Speaker 1: is what he's an actor, who's uh you know, is 681 00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:17,880 Speaker 1: he really anybody inside? Right? He can assume all these forms, 682 00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:21,319 Speaker 1: but he himself is formless. Um. You know. It also 683 00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:24,840 Speaker 1: brings the crypt kryptonite, which isn't a material, but it 684 00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:27,799 Speaker 1: is at an element. But we do see that used 685 00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:29,080 Speaker 1: a lot of Someone will say, oh, well, that is 686 00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:32,040 Speaker 1: my kryptonite. That is the thing that in and of 687 00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:35,320 Speaker 1: itself can bring about my downfall. So you know, here's 688 00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:37,759 Speaker 1: a thought that might be interesting or might be kind 689 00:38:37,800 --> 00:38:40,160 Speaker 1: of dumb. I'll let you be the judge. One thing 690 00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:43,520 Speaker 1: I was thinking about was that beings with partially glass 691 00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:48,960 Speaker 1: of biology might not be unthinkable in the universe. Because 692 00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:51,680 Speaker 1: here was my reasoning, and and this isn't original to me. 693 00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:55,560 Speaker 1: I've heard people express this idea before. Earth Animals like 694 00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:59,680 Speaker 1: humans are carbon based life forms, So we inhale oxygen, 695 00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:02,960 Speaker 1: which is O two, and then we exhale the waste product, 696 00:39:03,040 --> 00:39:06,280 Speaker 1: carbon dioxide, which is c O two, because we're carbon based, 697 00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:10,040 Speaker 1: if it were possible to have a silicon based organism, 698 00:39:10,120 --> 00:39:12,319 Speaker 1: and I have no idea if that's possible or not, 699 00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:15,560 Speaker 1: but it's an idea that comes up in debates about astrobiology. 700 00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:19,480 Speaker 1: And it breathed oxygen like us, would it inhale O 701 00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:23,400 Speaker 1: two and then exhale silicon dioxide the same way we 702 00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:28,960 Speaker 1: exhale carbon dioxide, because silicon dioxide is the main constituent 703 00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:33,640 Speaker 1: of glass. And if that's possible that is a legitimately 704 00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:39,360 Speaker 1: horrific space dragon that instead of flame breath has glass breath, 705 00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:43,320 Speaker 1: breath of glass. I like it though, it uh, you know, 706 00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:45,080 Speaker 1: brings to mind just last week we were talking about 707 00:39:45,120 --> 00:39:51,280 Speaker 1: Stephen King's Beach World in nineteen seventy short story about uh, 708 00:39:51,560 --> 00:39:54,920 Speaker 1: about individual's landing. I think it's like two humans and 709 00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:58,719 Speaker 1: an android, or a crew of humans and androids that 710 00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:02,240 Speaker 1: crash on a desert world. And at first it seems lifeless, 711 00:40:02,320 --> 00:40:04,200 Speaker 1: but of course you wouldn't have a short story if 712 00:40:04,200 --> 00:40:07,800 Speaker 1: there wasn't something out there. So the silicon sand dunes 713 00:40:07,920 --> 00:40:11,879 Speaker 1: sort of become sentient and then hypnotize one of the guys. Yeah. Yeah, 714 00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:14,520 Speaker 1: so it was pretty creepy. It's pretty creepy. Uh, it's 715 00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:17,959 Speaker 1: it's one of the great early King stories. And uh yeah, 716 00:40:17,960 --> 00:40:20,280 Speaker 1: you have silicon based life in the form of these 717 00:40:20,640 --> 00:40:24,640 Speaker 1: this you know, collective sand entity. But if that kind 718 00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:27,440 Speaker 1: of life form existed on beach World, then perhaps there's 719 00:40:27,600 --> 00:40:30,000 Speaker 1: on the other side of Beach World there is a 720 00:40:30,080 --> 00:40:33,680 Speaker 1: city where you have glass beings walking around, or a 721 00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:37,520 Speaker 1: glass breathing dragon, glass breathing dragons. Now they are all 722 00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:41,239 Speaker 1: kinds of examples in fiction of people shattering. This is, 723 00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:44,480 Speaker 1: in fact, I think, a very popular trope for some reason. 724 00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:47,279 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, one of the big ones. I feel that 725 00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:50,359 Speaker 1: really that really kicked off a lot of it. Of course, 726 00:40:50,400 --> 00:40:53,080 Speaker 1: as in Terminator to where you have the scene where 727 00:40:53,120 --> 00:40:56,680 Speaker 1: the liquid metal TEA one thousand is frozen solid with 728 00:40:56,719 --> 00:41:00,760 Speaker 1: the liquid nitrogen and then shattered. Yeah he's made brittle. Yeah. 729 00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:03,919 Speaker 1: So you see continuations of that trope, and we're trying 730 00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:06,400 Speaker 1: to think of a number of these. Time cop has 731 00:41:06,440 --> 00:41:10,239 Speaker 1: a couple of kills, it's great. My mind immediately went 732 00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:13,640 Speaker 1: to Jason X because there is a scene in Jason 733 00:41:13,800 --> 00:41:18,080 Speaker 1: X where Jason murders an unfortunate young lady by putting 734 00:41:18,160 --> 00:41:21,120 Speaker 1: her face in some liquid nitrogen that freezes it and 735 00:41:21,160 --> 00:41:25,000 Speaker 1: then shattering her face on a countertop. And then and 736 00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:28,480 Speaker 1: then Horizon there's a frozen corpse that breaks apart. Mortal Kombat. 737 00:41:28,560 --> 00:41:31,440 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Zero does that to you, Donne. He freezes 738 00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:33,759 Speaker 1: you and then punches you to shatter you. Yeah, yeah, 739 00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:36,480 Speaker 1: sure does. And then uh and then of course, like 740 00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:40,120 Speaker 1: Mirror Creatures, there's the the Young Sherlock Holmes movie which 741 00:41:40,719 --> 00:41:45,120 Speaker 1: involved a stained glass night, or at least the the 742 00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:50,160 Speaker 1: hallucination of a stone of a stained glass night killing somebody. Um, 743 00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:53,600 Speaker 1: I seem to recall that both Krull and Barbarella had 744 00:41:53,840 --> 00:41:59,200 Speaker 1: minions that shatter into into shards when they're killed. You 745 00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:02,280 Speaker 1: linked in the notes for this episode a wonderful scene 746 00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:04,920 Speaker 1: from the movie Warlock three that I watched late at 747 00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:07,400 Speaker 1: night last night, right before I went to bed. Julian 748 00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:10,200 Speaker 1: sands right, and he was he's he's wonderful, And yeah, 749 00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:12,719 Speaker 1: he turns a woman into glass and then shatters her, 750 00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:17,640 Speaker 1: not with the most pristine of special effects. Everybody still doesn't, 751 00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:22,520 Speaker 1: so God bless him. Um. Likewise, Uh, there's a you know, 752 00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:25,840 Speaker 1: there's a scene in Labyrinth that involves a reality shattering 753 00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:29,080 Speaker 1: into glass. Pretty much anything that you could run across 754 00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:32,040 Speaker 1: that involves Medusa or a gorgon, there's no if you're 755 00:42:32,040 --> 00:42:34,279 Speaker 1: gonna turn an individual into stone, you also need to 756 00:42:34,320 --> 00:42:37,640 Speaker 1: shatter somebody that has been turned into stone. Yeah, even 757 00:42:37,680 --> 00:42:40,200 Speaker 1: in an age where the glass delusion might not be 758 00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:44,440 Speaker 1: a common delusion for people to actually suffer from, it 759 00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:47,920 Speaker 1: is still a very common image in our imagination for 760 00:42:47,960 --> 00:42:50,920 Speaker 1: some reason. Yeah, because you have things in our life 761 00:42:51,040 --> 00:42:54,800 Speaker 1: that are beautiful, well crafted, in pristine and we attach 762 00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:56,759 Speaker 1: a lot of value to them, and they are so 763 00:42:56,840 --> 00:43:00,840 Speaker 1: easily trashed, they're so easily bro can it don nothing 764 00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:05,399 Speaker 1: and made made completely useless, made May you know their 765 00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:09,800 Speaker 1: their beauty transformed into just ugliness. And we can't help 766 00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:12,440 Speaker 1: but see our own reflection and see our own doom. 767 00:43:12,960 --> 00:43:16,360 Speaker 1: Uh in those examples. All right, So there you have it, 768 00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:19,680 Speaker 1: mirror delusion. You know, a brief journey through the history 769 00:43:19,719 --> 00:43:22,720 Speaker 1: of mirror delusion, where it came from and how it 770 00:43:22,719 --> 00:43:26,160 Speaker 1: it really hasn't gone away? Uh, you know out certainly 771 00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:29,839 Speaker 1: the delusion itself is a psychiatric manifestation. You do see 772 00:43:29,920 --> 00:43:32,880 Speaker 1: very few cases off today, but the the the the idea, 773 00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:37,160 Speaker 1: the concept, the tying of of of impermanence to shattered 774 00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:40,400 Speaker 1: objects continues to reson it. Yeah, we'll always have Mortal Kombat. 775 00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:44,200 Speaker 1: We will, We always will. All right. Hey, in the meantime, 776 00:43:44,239 --> 00:43:45,759 Speaker 1: do you want to check out more episodes of Stuff 777 00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:47,640 Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind? Go to Stuff to Blow your 778 00:43:47,640 --> 00:43:50,800 Speaker 1: Mind dot com. That's the mothership. That's where you'll find uh, 779 00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:54,080 Speaker 1: all the blog posts, all the podcast episodes, all the videos. 780 00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:56,520 Speaker 1: Links out to our social media accounts because you can 781 00:43:56,520 --> 00:44:00,000 Speaker 1: find us on Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, or Google Plus. And hey, 782 00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:02,799 Speaker 1: the landing page for this episode will include links to 783 00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:06,919 Speaker 1: some on site materials that are related, as well as 784 00:44:07,320 --> 00:44:10,360 Speaker 1: to a couple of offsite sources. If you want to 785 00:44:10,400 --> 00:44:13,160 Speaker 1: explore this topic further, and if you want to tell 786 00:44:13,239 --> 00:44:15,320 Speaker 1: us about your favorite scene in a movie where somebody 787 00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:18,239 Speaker 1: gets turned into glass or some other brittle material and 788 00:44:18,239 --> 00:44:20,560 Speaker 1: then shattered, or if you want to tell us about 789 00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:23,439 Speaker 1: an interesting delusion where people thought their body was made 790 00:44:23,440 --> 00:44:26,799 Speaker 1: of some foreign substance or material, you can email us 791 00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:33,040 Speaker 1: at blow the Mind at how stuff works dot com. 792 00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:35,560 Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit 793 00:44:35,640 --> 00:44:42,759 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com