Tuesday, July 30, 2002

"Whether or not you believe in the paranormal may depend entirely on your brain chemistry. People with high levels of dopamine are more likely to find significance in coincidences, and pick out meaning and patterns where there are none."

-Paranormal beliefs linked to brain chemistry, New Scientist-

According to the sources at Dictionary.com, one of the prime definitions of paranormal is that which is "beyond scientific explanation" or "not in accordance with the laws of science". With this definition - and abnormal amounts of dopamine - in mind, I must say that I am a believer in the paranormal. I must be so whether or not I believe in Faeries or telepathy simply by virtue of the fact that I do not believe in the infallability of science nor even in the possibility that science is capable of telling us everything about the universe in which we dwell. Science is without doubt a useful tool in the measuring of man and the cosmos and in the improvement of life quality, but in the way that it reduces everything to the material it is also a dangerous one. Science, I am sure, is fully capable of telling us the how of things but not the why.

I would like to suggest the following edit to the final sentence of the above excerpt:

"People with high levels of dopamine are more likely to find significance in coincidences, and pick out meaning and patterns where there are none apparent to those with low levels of dopamine"

No comments: