The above is one of those classic articles of american culture which needs to be aired every now and then. Come back here when you're done, but I warn you I'm not planning to talk about wing-wang squeezing today.

This is a follow on to the left brain/right brain dialogue I started here. I apologize in advance for this entry. I have to get some key words down in it so I can refer back to it later. A lot of it may not make sense now, I'm afraid.

Have you ever wonder why people get hooked on drugs? I mean why do drugs 'work'?. Alcohol and Solvents do bad things to the body and brain, creating an effect which can feel good but is actually bad. But other drugs such as Marijuana, Cocaine and Heroine 'fit' into the brain like a key in a lock. Why on earth would this be?

Obviously we evolved that way.

The key compononent to this is Anandamide, a compound that binds to the same sites in the brain as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana.

Anandamide is often called the 'Bliss Molecule' because of its ability to relieve pain and promote feelings of well being. But it is synthesized enzymatically in areas of the brain that are important in memory and higher thought processes, and in areas that control movement. That implies that anandamide's function is not just to produce bliss. In fact it turns out that it is also a chemical messenger, and is one of the first communications that occurs between mother and child, while the child is still in the womb.

This is significant, and gives us a clue as to how important this protein really is.

There is another Endegenous Cannabinoid called sn-2 arachidonylglycerol (2-AG) which is present in the body in much larger quantities approximately 170 times larger) than Anandamide, and it also locks into the body's bliss receptor. Since it has only recently been discovered, there is not much to say about it here.

So what was the point of me telling you all of the above?

Well, this is where it gets tricky. We have to go back to Julian Jaynes' theory that humanity's consciousness shifted from primarily right brain (and therefore group focused) to primarily left brain (and therefore self-focused) sometime around the last flood (3150 BC). It may have been earlier still - its hard to know for certain since there is so little known about when things happened prior to the Egyptians.

If this really happened, it could be triggered by the addition of or removal of a substance, chemical, or protein acting on the brain. Perhaps something from a plant, or a fruit.

A flood would suggest the removal of something from the human diet. A plant gets drowned into extinction.

But then we have various stories from Israel to Australia, of humanity partaking of 'forbidden fruit'.

Perhaps this fruit acted as an inhibitor for Endegenous Cannabinoids?

Either way, whatever was causing the right brain to be more heavily stimulated than the left, stopped about 5000 years ago, give our take.

Effectively, humanity went cold turkey.

What is frustrating about this is I remember this from about 12 years ago, when I first started researching this stuff. There was a long period of stability in human history. There was some kind of hallucinogenic plant that was believed to be the cause of this because it was so prevalent and was in everyone's diet (not that 'everyone' was that many people back then). But then it died out, and all of a sudden humanity starts going crazy. If I remember right, it was before the last flood, possibly even before the really big one before that (7640 BC).

So, we evolved to receive and use this 'whatever-it-was' in our diet. And since we were doing that, everyone was happy, continually talking to god, hanging out and concentrating on the group rather than the individual.

But then it died out, or something new entered our diet that acted as an inhibitor, and all of a sudden we're building cities, having wars and complaining about nipples.

There are a lot of questions about this I need to go through. The thought is clearly incomplete. But I wanted to get this written down so that I can refer back to it later.

Enough for now, I have work I'm supposed to be doing...