Inside the Forever War Against Parasites Trying To Control Our Brains

CC BY 4.0, Wikipedia Commons

"You are not understanding our nature."

The voice is gentle. I feel an immediate twinge of guilt, a desire to reconcile. Maybe I’m jumping at shadows. Maybe it’s telling the truth.

But maybe not. I’m dealing with a symbiote unlike any in the biological world: One with the power to persuade. To communicate with its host, make rational arguments, physically share emotions and feelings. Even now, I want to believe it’s sincere. But is that because I’m actually convinced, or because it’s so good at persuasion? Even the sensual warmth I’ve been feeling could be just another manipulation, a covert hijacking of my neurotransmitters.

I shouldn’t trust it, I think coldly, pushing away from my desk.

Anything that can talk to you can also lie to you.
~ an excerpt from Sleep of Reason

THE REAL SCIENCE:
The presence of parasites in such deep parts of pre-history, shaping the animal genome at its most basic level, is why Del Giudice feels they could be forgotten drivers of early, fundamental evolution.

“Many aspects of neurobiology are destined to remain mysterious or poorly understood until parasites—the brain’s invisible designers—are finally included in the picture,” he writes.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a28941527/brain-parasites/

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