Posthuman Blues

If some human beings can function without developed brains, as medical findings suggest, then it's tempting to wonder if these individuals are truly conscious in the philosophical sense of the word. Rick Strassman thinks that DMT secreted by the pineal gland (technically, not part of the brain but situated within it) facilitates consciousness. It's possible that DMT is consciousness in some way -- perhaps what self-awareness looks like when we attempt to examine it empirically (an effort that may prove futile).





Relatively few people have had CAT or MRI scans of their skulls; could it be that there are abundant "brainless" (although not necessarily mindless) people in our midst? If so, what makes them tick? If DMT is indeed pivotal to the brain's interaction with the universe, then some "closet hydrocephalics" may be walking proof that consciousness isn't necessary in order to function "normally." (To my knowledge, no acknowledged geniuses have been autopsied and discovered to literally lack brains . . . then again, would we hear about it if they did?)





I'm reminded of Gurdjieff's disquieting conviction that the vast majority of human beings were literal biomolecular machines carrying out preprogrammed orders (shades of the virtually entrapped population of "The Matrix").