temporary versus permanent

[asakiyume]

Elsewhere on the interwebs, I follow Glenn Shepherd, an ethnobotanist who works in ... guess where? (If you guessed the Amazon, you (a) are correct and (b) have been reading this blog for more than two entries.) He wrote about an ergot-related fungus on a certain sedge which is used medicinally by the Matsigenka people.

One time when Shepherd had a headache, he was treated with some of this sedge. The headache disappeared almost instantly ... and he gained a temporary ability to juggle. He writes:

[the sedge] instilled in me a remarkable, albeit temporary, ability to juggle grapefruits. To amuse people who invariably hang around my tent, I sometimes pick up a few fruits and begin a clumsy juggling act, only to give up amidst laughter and a shower of fruits splattering on the ground. After taking the sedge for my headache, I happened to repeat the juggling act, but surprised myself as I noticed that all the fruits stayed in the air without thought or effort, no longer drifting frantically about as in prior performances. To my amazement, I was able to perfect a number of tricks and variations I had never mastered before. My Matsigenka friends laughed, but I was intrigued. Somehow, the sedge plant had improved my hand-eye coordination, turning a clumsy, hack juggler into a polished showman, at least temporarily: I repeated the performance the next day without the benefit of the sedge root, to the usual disastrous effect.

It got me thinking. That facility for juggling: it came, and it went.

But you can imagine people wanting to harness that improved hand-eye coordination forever. You can imagine Big Pharma coming in and swiping this wisdom and trying to market it to athletes and marksmen. And you can just imagine the movie of how this goes wrong as all those alkaloids work other, different changes in the brain.

I totally get wanting to keep hold of something magical and wonderful. (I doooo, I do.) But it's like a rainbow or snowflakes in your hand--they just can't stay there, and if you try to hold onto them, you're very likely going to be disappointed. The only thing you can do is try to carry an interpretation of the magic forward, let it open your eyes to other magic, like once you recognize a pattern of feathers, you can see that bird again.

... And I mean, if you like juggling, you can keep practicing. I have never been able to master it, but I used to try, back when my kids were small and had soccer games. If I were visiting a Matsigenka community, I can imagine wishing for a headache, so I might get a headache remedy and maybe be able to experience some great juggling. Just for a moment. But then too, that might have been just how the medicine worked on Shepherd. No guarantee I'd be so lucky ;-)

Comments

[sovay]

Somehow, the sedge plant had improved my hand-eye coordination, turning a clumsy, hack juggler into a polished showman, at least temporarily: I repeated the performance the next day without the benefit of the sedge root, to the usual disastrous effect.

I bet the muscle memory remained.

[asakiyume]

I was wondering that!

[ranunculus]

This made me wonder if the headache was connected with undiagnosed visual problems. Perhaps even things that our current (Western) medical community has not yet discovered. If so this would not be something that enhances everyone's ability, it would only treat an underlying condition of some patients.

[asakiyume]

Good point!

I have an intuition that indeed, it wouldn't be something that would enhance everyone's ability--maybe/probably for several reasons, including the one you mention (... which wasn't one I thought of, but works!)

[minoanmiss]

Well said

[asakiyume]

💛💛💛

[mallorys_camera]

But juggling—though fabulous—isn't something "magical." (It is wonderful. 😀)

So why not develop a drug that facilitates juggling?

I mean, I get the hatred of Big Pharma as a profit-mongering juggernaut. But not the distrust of new pharmaceutical frontiers.

[asakiyume]

I mean, I was using "magical" the way I usually do, which is just as a blanket adjective for wonderful things, not for something more technically "magical"--though I'm not sure, even, what that would be?

Why not develop a drug that facilitates juggling? Hmmm. I hadn't really thought about it as an actual proposition. If I do think of it (but only for like three minutes, so don't take this as a deeply thought-out, cast-in-stone opinion), I guess I would say that I don't see much point in developing pharmaceuticals for things that, with a little effort and work, we can master on our own, or many/most of us can. I don't have anything against pharmaceuticals for helping fix problems or to address deficits, but when it gets into making improvements on the perfectly adequate model, then -- I feel like we already have this debate when it comes to athletes and doping. But I don't know... I can see counterarguments. I mean, gender-affirming drugs are something that changes a model which, although it may seem perfectly adequate to outsiders, doesn't to the owner of the model. Gender-affirming drugs didn't happen to have to be developed separately--we could use things that already existed--but if they **had** needed to be developed separately, they'd be a good counterargument. And for instance, what about drugs that slow down aging, and so on? And who gets to decide what "normal" is--like to a man, maybe menstrual cramps are just how the body functions, tough luck, women--but most women would disagree. So I guess I have mixed feelings! I will not campaign against a drug for juggling! I'll just have mixed feelings about it.

[sartorias]

Juggling would be such fun!

[asakiyume]

And to have been doing it pretty poorly and to suddenly be able to do it well! What an incredible treat!

[amaebi]

1. What this fantastic story made me think about first is how complexly interconnected the attributes, assignments, and powers of our brains are. (And, as usual, a grumbly think about the human habit of analyzing a system's component in isolation and then presuming that that component operates independently in the empirical world.)

2. The discussion of magic hits me right in a think I've been immersed in for a few months now: that magics are workings with local environments and require extremely local knowledge. The local names for entities and actions and systems. The development of relationship with local entities (shaking hands with violets and Eurasian blackbirds). This to you courtesy of the wonders of attempting real estate transactions in a country whose requirements and systems have some overlap with the ones I've been moderately acquainted with, but I don't know how much and neither do our local magicians, and there are some common terms that can mean quite different things.

[asakiyume]

Absolutely agree with you regarding the interconnectedness of things, and how "magics are workings with local environments and require extremely local knowledge"--so much yes! "The local names for entities and actions and systems"--more yes!

What's this about shaking hands with violets and blackbirds? Is that literal? I love the idea of it as a literal thing (but it's still cool even as a metaphor).

And yes: it's very interesting indeed when things sound very similar and look very familiar--but not quite.

[amaebi]

I mostly meant shaking hands with violets and blackbirds as metaphorical, but at the same time I thought about literally (and gently) shaking hands with a blackbird. :) Eurasian blackbirds have such sweet songs! So do Eurasian blackcaps! And so do European robins, who sing before dawn! And I have heard a Eurasian cops-owl!

[asakiyume]

It's so wonderful that you're making all these new bird friendships <3

[amaebi]

Scops-owl good gracious. I have also been hearing European greenfinches, common firecrests, common wood pigeons, Sardinian warblers, and house sparrows. :) And roosters, but Merlin won't acknowledge them for some reason.

[amaebi]

I have to acknowledge that the relationships are a bit one-sided: whether I see them or only hear them, I get all excited. If they become aware of my interest, they flee.

[asakiyume]

Give it time--they may seek out out one day ;-)

[anna_wing]

It's certainly the sort of effect that would be worth studying for its potential medical applications.

[asakiyume]

I have mixed feelings, but yes, I should think science would be quite curious.

[oracne]

This made me think of a show I've seen a couple episodes of so far, called "Connected": https://www.netflix.com/title/81031737

Our brains are so weird and wonderful, and even more so is the amazing complexity of ecological interaction.

[asakiyume]

Oooh, I'll have to take a look at that!

[oracne]

The host is charming and upbeat.