34
31. Danny A. Riley of the Medical College of Wisconsin, who ran an experiment
with five rats in the Soviet Cosmos satellite, discovered that when weightlessness
renders excess musculature unnecessary, "muscles not only shrink but also lose
blood vessels, nerve connections and even their own cells...." These disturbingly
deleterious effects showed up in only two weeks. ("Muscles in space forfeit more
than fibers," Science News, October 29, 1988, p. 277.)
32. According to Soviet research confirmed in the author's personal communication
with NASA.
33. The Crow Indians ritually lopped off the joint of one finger. The Sioux ran
thongs under their pectoral muscles, then were hoisted toward the sky until a
muscle tore. And African tribes have mutilated themselves with ritual scarifications,
while the primitive tribes of Malaysia have indulged in painful piercing and
distension of the earlobes. How could there possibly be an adaptive value to these
practices? Quite simple. By opening wounds in the body, the rituals invited
infection. Those who survived the deliberate breach in the body's protective
barriers and overcame the resultant microbial invasion had immune systems that
would stand their progeny in good stead. Most of the rites that sliced through the
fortress of the skin took place as part of the ceremony that allowed young males or
females to pass into adulthood, when sexual activity is permitted and reproduction
becomes a possibility. Those who didn't survive the ordeal did not get to
reproduce. For the individual, self-mutilation was not a great way to ensure
survival. But it was a dandy way to raise the overall health of the group. (For
information on the Crow Indians, see Dudley Young, Origins of the Sacred: the
ecstasies of love and war, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1991, p. 223. For
Malaysia, see Redmond O'Hanlon, Into the Heart of Borneo, Salamander Press
Edinburgh, Ltd., Edinburgh, 1984.)
34. Richard Bergland, M.D., The Fabric of Mind, Viking Penguin Books, Ltd.,
Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 1986, p. 64.
35. quoted in Richard Bergland, M.D., The Fabric of Mind, p.64.
36. George Ordish, The Year of the Ant, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1978,
pp. 61-62. George Ordish is an economic entomologist.
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