So THAT'S why we're CRAZY!! M'HUNH!

From: hellpopehuey@subgenius.com (HellPopeHuey)
Date: Thu, Oct 2, 2003

"Bob"damnit, it had to be more than just not chewin' the ol' wafer and
refusing demands for baboon-ass submission on the job! We ARE special!
Nyeeeehhh!!!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/10/031001061055.htm

Biological Basis For Creativity Linked To Mental Illness

Psychologists from the University of Toronto and Harvard University
have identified one of the biological bases of creativity.

The study in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology says the brains of creative people appear to be more
open to incoming stimuli from the surrounding environment. Other
people's brains might shut out this same information through a process
called "latent inhibition" - defined as an animal's unconscious
capacity to ignore stimuli that experience has shown are irrelevant to
its needs. Through psychological testing, the researchers showed that
creative individuals are much more likely to have low levels of latent
inhibition.

"This means that creative individuals remain in contact with the extra
information constantly streaming in from the environment," says
co-author and U of T psychology professor Jordan Peterson. "The normal
person classifies an object, and then forgets about it, even though
that object is much more complex and interesting than he or she
thinks. The creative person, by contrast, is always open to new
possibilities."

Previously, scientists have associated failure to screen out stimuli
with psychosis. However, Peterson and his co-researchers - lead author
and psychology lecturer Shelley Carson of Harvard University's Faculty
of Arts and Sciences and Harvard PhD candidate Daniel Higgins -
hypothesized that it might also contribute to original thinking,
especially when combined with high IQ. They administered tests of
latent inhibition to Harvard undergraduates. Those classified as
eminent creative achievers - participants under age 21 who reported
unusually high scores in a single area of creative achievement - were
seven times more likely to have low latent inhibition scores.

The authors hypothesize that latent inhibition may be positive when
combined with high intelligence and good working memory - the capacity
to think about many things at once - but negative otherwise. Peterson
states: "If you are open to new information, new ideas, you better be
able to intelligently and carefully edit and choose. If you have 50
ideas, only two or three are likely to be good. You have to be able to
discriminate or you'll get swamped."

"Scientists have wondered for a long time why madness and creativity
seem linked," says Carson. "It appears likely that low levels of
latent inhibition and exceptional flexibility in thought might
predispose to mental illness under some conditions and to creative
accomplishment under others."

For example, during the early stages of diseases such as
schizophrenia, which are often accompanied by feelings of deep
insight, mystical knowledge and religious experience, chemical changes
take place in which latent inhibition disappears.

"We are very excited by the results of these studies," says Peterson.
"It appears that we have not only identified one of the biological
bases of creativity but have moved towards cracking an age-old
mystery: the relationship between genius, madness and the doors of
perception."

This research was funded by the Stimson Fund and the Clark Fund at
Harvard University and by the Connaught Fund at U of T.

HellPope Huey
Oh, I got plenty o' nuttin'...damnit

"The strangest thing is that he asked no questions
when the doctor started preparations in the area."
- Vanessa Guimares, manager at a clinic in Brazil,
where a patient entered for an earache,
but ended up having a vasectomy performed in error

"Understanding is a 3-edged sword."
- Ambassador Kosh

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From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>

HellPopeHuey <hellpopehuey@subgenius.com> wrote:
>
> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/10/031001061055.htm

KEY PARAGRAPH for SUBGENII:

>"If you are open to new information, new ideas, you better be
> able to intelligently and carefully edit and choose. If you have 50
> ideas, only two or three are likely to be good. You have to be able to
> discriminate or you'll get swamped."

Or:
"The next time you think of something stupid to say, try NOT SAYING IT."

That's what I told a guy who gave me a whole lot of free money one
time, and by gobbs, I believe he got his money's worth. Because he
ACTUALLY TRIED IT. And it DOES WORK. Present company excluded, of
course.

--
4th Stangian Orthodox MegaFisTemple Lodge of the Wrath of Dobbs Yeti,
Resurrected (Rev. Ivan Stang, prop.)
PRABOB

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: hellpopehuey@subgenius.com (HellPopeHuey)

"Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com> wrote:
> "The next time you think of something stupid to say, try NOT SAYING IT."
> That's what I told a guy who gave me a whole lot of free money one
> time, and by gobbs, I believe he got his money's worth. Because he
> ACTUALLY TRIED IT. And it DOES WORK. Present company excluded, of
> course.

But Doktor, if we stop saying all of our STUPID stuff, the Church
will dry up entirely and Nenslo's worldly foils will dry up by 97%!
Besides, imagine what it would be like if "Bob" was suddenly truly
SMART and ALMOST a match for CONNIE. *SHUDDER*

HellPope Huey
I'm the other Other White Meat and I vote

"Realists are always hated...
particularly in a sanctimonious society of hustlers,
which is what the United States has been from the begining,
where the first law is
"I wont blow your scam and you don't blow mine".
- Gore Vidal

"That's quote a hole you're digging."
"Thanks, Bob."
- "The Simpsons"

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