THE MIND & BODY BLOG

While we are all closely following how science is growing rapidly and its outreach is expanding exponentially, the proportionate and unprecedented rise in superstition and pathological beliefs within the ecosystem of religion has somehow escaped our notice. Futurist Alvin Toffler, in his book ‘Future Shock’ had forecast a gradual change in human and social behaviour in the form of death of permanence, death of reliability and the demise of bureaucracy. He was recording his observations in the context of nations changing over from a controlled economy to free economy. Is it, therefore, possible what Toffler wrote could finally be coming true? And, if at all it is happening, the transformation of his vision into reality is turning out to be much quicker and larger than one would have imagined. Science is on the verge of producing human clones and robots with human-like intelligence. Developments in stem-cell and genetic research are all set to produce miracle cures making man’s

Aristotle’s remark on humans, ‘Man is by nature, a social animal’ has remained one of the most remarkable observations about our functioning as a society. However, when social animals tend to behave pathologically or when they go out of bounds and turn rogue, they end up whipping up havoc, a situation which understandably does not augur well with a civilized society, and in effect a nation built on its sound premise. As a neurologist, while analysing the current upheavals in the social milieu of our nation, I tried to make sense of our surroundings and its happenings by presuming our brain is like a jungle, full of life subject to simultaneous growth and decay. The animals, ghosts, demons and sages invariably become a part of the brain’s synaptic network, which comprises of both the green areas and areas full of deadwood. The next question in the line of thought that arises is: Who rules the jungle? Is it the lion, who with his courage, conviction and aura of authority, g