watched this documentary on the discovery channel last night… about this symptom called alien hand syndrome. it affects people who have had strokes, leaving certain parts of their brain permanently damaged, or the people who have had their two hemispheres of the brain detached from each other in a drastic operation to keep their epileptic siezures under control. sufferers of this disease basically go through their daily lives with one of their hands having a mind of its own. it behaves independantly, grabbing at things at will… damn freaky. there was this guy who was trying to eat with a fork, but his left hand kept holding an empty saucer in front of his mouth, getting in the way. another woman was trying to dress herself, but the alien hand kept pulling her skirt down. yet another woman complained of waking up in the middle of the night and finding her hand trying to strangle her. i am intrigued. very. seems the most common manifestation of alien hand syndrome lies in one hand trying to undo the actions of the other… patients open a book, and the other hand closes it. switch on a light, and the other hand switches it off. takes something, the other hand puts it back. it’s a constant struggle for these people. esp that guy who almost stabbed himself in the eye with his dinner knife, or that woman whose alien hand has this thing for doorknobs, and won’t let go off any that it happens to latch itself onto.
the production crew then enlisted the services of a hypnotist, who put 5 volunteers under the suggestion that they had alien hand syndrome. they awoke, fully unaware that they had been under hypnosis, and that they had been given a new “ability”. the a camera then follwed them as they individually walked through a crowded mall. one guy started grabbing at the bras hanging on the discount racks, another started on a current bun someone was eating at a deli. yet another latched on to a stuffed toy and wouldn’t let go, and a female subject’s hand developed an affinity for the door handle at the mall entrance. the process was, of course entirely reversible, but still left me kinda spooked out.
the implication of such occurances, according to “experts” is that there may be no such thing as free will. it may be that the body makes decisions on its own, the brain is informed, and it merely endorses those decisions. those it rejects for any number of logical reasons will simply not be carried out. in the case of brain damage, the brain is somehow unable to reject decisions made by the body, and the subconcious reigns free over the affected limb.
eek.
look at your hand. did YOU decide to put it where it is?
Gary :: Aug.25.2002 :: Old Deadjournal posts :: No Comments »