Global Mind Control, not just possible, probable!

Global Mind Control is not just possible, it's probable! Preposterous?

Behold the power of parasites. No, not the science fiction kind, the science kind. Carl Zimmer, author of Parasites Rex, shares some interesting facts about a parasite which infects half of all the human beings presently on our planet (and it's possible link to schizophrenia).

Are brain parasites altering the personalities of three billion people? The question emerged a few years ago, and it shows no signs of going away.

I first encountered this idea while working on my book Parasite Rex. I was investigating the remarkable ability parasites have to manipulate the behavior of their hosts. The lancet fluke Dicrocoelium dendriticum, for example, forces its ant host to clamp itself to the tip of grass blades, where a grazing mammal might eat it. It's in the fluke's interest to get eaten, because only by getting into the gut of a sheep or some other grazer can it complete its life cycle. Another fluke, Euhaplorchis californiensis, causes infected fish to shimmy and jump, greatly increasing the chance that wading birds will grab them.

Forces the host to 'kill itself'? Is this X-File territory? Where did my serum go... you know, my antidote to the alien virus that you can tell you have because black stuff floats around in your eyes... and where did my tin-foil hat get to?

Of course, these parasites do not 'control' their hosts in any conscious sense. Anymore than a drug does when ingested, but the fact that these parasites are living things is what seems so... well, alien.

Those parasites were weird enough, but then I got to know Toxoplasma gondii. This single-celled parasite lives in the guts of cats, sheddding eggs that can be picked up by rats and other animals that can just so happen be eaten by cats. Toxoplasma forms cysts throughout its intermediate host's body, including the brain. And yet a Toxoplasma-ridden rat is perfectly healthy. That makes good sense for the parasite, since a cat would not be particularly interested in eating a dead rat. But scientists at Oxford discovered that the parasite changes the rats in one subtle but vital way.

Great. A cat parasite. We just got a cat. Or did we? Actually, it adopted us. I wonder if there is something going here. Cat shows up at our door and won't leave. Of course the kids love it. Now we have a cat and I am most likely going to be infected by Toxoplasma. Toxoplasma?

... The scientists speculated that Toxoplasma was secreted some substance that was altering the patterns of brain activity in the rats. This manipulation likely evolved through natural selection, since parasites that were more likely to end up in cats would leave more offpsring.

The Oxford scientists knew that humans can be hosts to Toxoplasma, too. People can become infected by its eggs by handling soil or kitty litter. For most people, the infection causes no harm. Only if a person's immune system is weak does Toxoplasma grow uncontrollably. That's why pregnant women are advised not to handle kitty litter, and why toxoplasmosis is a serious risk for people with AIDS. Otherwise, the parasite lives quietly in people's bodies (and brains). It's estimated that about half of all people on Earth are infected with Toxoplasma.

One thing I do not need is to have my brain activity altered any more than it already has been.

Given that human and rat brains have a lot of similarities (they share the same basic anatomy and use the same neurotransmitters), a question naturally arose: if Toxoplasma can alter the behavior of a rat, could it alter a human? Obviously, this manipulation would not do the parasite any good as an adaptation, since it's pretty rare for a human to be devoured by a cat. But it could still have an effect.

Some scientists believe that Toxoplasma changes the personality of its human hosts, bringing different shifts to men and women. Parasitologist Jaroslav Flegr of Charles University in Prague administered psychological questionnaires to people infected with Toxoplasma and controls. Those infected, he found, show a small, but statistically significant, tendency to be more self-reproaching and insecure. Paradoxically, infected women, on average, tend to be more outgoing and warmhearted than controls, while infected men tend to be more jealous and suspicious.

Fascinating. Knowing how this works would be useful for the super secret organization whick secretly controls all the world's governments and is even now plotting to create a one world government... Or maybe the toxoplasma has gone to my head?

The most interesting part is in the end.

It's controversial work, disputed by many. But it attracted the attention of E. Fuller Torrey of the Stanley Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. Torrey and his colleagues had noticed some intriguing links between Toxoplasma and schizophrenia. Infection with the parasite has been associated with damage to a certain class of neurons (astrocytes). So has schizophrenia. Pregnant women with high levels of Toxoplasma antibodies in their blood were more likely to give birth to children who would later develop schizophrenia. Torrey lays out more links in this 2003 paper. While none is a smoking gun, they are certainly food for thought. It's conceivable that exposure to Toxoplasma causes subtle changes in most people's personality, but in a small minority, it has more devastating effects.

A year later, Torrey and his colleagues discovered one more fascinating link. They raised human cells in Petri dishes and infected them with Toxoplasma. Then they dosed the cells with a variety of drugs used to treat schizophrenia. Several of the drugs--most notably haloperidol--blocked the growth of the parasite.

Ladies and gentlemen, take another look at your cat. They seem affectionate, but are they? They come and go as they please. Not like dogs. No, man's best friend leaps for joy when you come home from a hard days work in the salt mines. Cats, are less enthused about you, and more enthused about the meal you are about to feed them.

Take a cold hard look. What do you really know about your cat? Does he/she (it) see you as a master or a slave? While you work everyday to be able to buy Meow-mix to feed your cat they lounge around draped across the floor or at the foot of your bed like spoiled and pampered royalty.

Think. In a cat's mind you are the slave. They are affectionate just as any master would be with their favorite servants. What better way to domesticate mankind than with a little known and completely unnotable parasite that also turns rodents into easier prey as well.

Are cats actually an alien race here to enslave us?

Food for thought.

[H]egemonic Word count: 1121

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