VMs: Yet another weird hypothesis ...

["PK#01" <pklist01@xxxxxxxxx>]

In Elmar. R Gruber "Psychic Wars, Parapsychology in Espionage and Beyond" -
quite a fun book to read (note 1) - op page 198 I came across this:

In a clinical context, the temoral lobes first became known through what is
known as the temporal lobe syndrome. The first person to describe it was
Norman Geschwind of Harvard Medical School (note 2). It is caused by
injuries (lesions) to the lobes and expresses itself in a reinforcement of
religious certainties, a compulsion to write (hypergraphy) and the practice
of bizarre sexual habits. The actual religious belief held is of no
importance; the syndrome makes the person receptive to any sort of religious
teaching, which often vaccilate within quite short periods of time (note 3).

Now - is that a profile of our man or not? If we follow the "sick mind"
hypothesis of the VMS this certainly supports it :-)

Note 1 is mine, notes 2-4 are from the book:

(note 1) -  No I'm not a weirdo, I just read this for it's amusement value
and don't really care whether it is true or not. I always enjoy a good
story, true or not (for example Pynchon).

(note 2) - Norman Geschwind, Behavioural Change in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy',
in Psychological Medicine, 9, 1979, pp. 217-19

(note 3) - Anthropological studies provide some indications that shamans,
indigenous healers and participants in posession cults experience unusual
electrical discharges in the temporal lobes, see Michael J. Winkelman,
Shamans, Priests and Witches: A cross-cultural study of macro-religious
practitioners, Arizona State University, Tempe 1992

(note 4) - Michael A. Persinger, Religious and Mystical Experiences as
Artifacts on Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis, in Perceptual and
Motor Skills, 57, 1983, pp. 1255-62

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