Sweet Zombie Jesus!

Daniel Dennett likes to make a comparison between the Lancet fluke, which zombifies the nervous systems of ants so that they are readily eaten by cows, and religiously toxic ideas that propagate and cause their hosts to give up their lives.

Well that comparison is all very well and good, but ideas don't hold a candle to the real deal. I recently caught a special on rabies and it was terrifying, sad, and surreal.

This is true zombification in the human animal. This virus scrambles the brain and turns you into a violent, crazy zombie capable of spreading its madness with a frothy bite. The reality of this invading disease never hit me until I saw footage of rabies victims strapped to beds, dying. Truly sad and scary stuff.

I think it's significant that a disease exists that can get in our brains and change us profoundly. I think it's proof positive that our sense of self, our souls, are not whole units, but the result of cumulative processes that have no hope of surviving beyond their biology.

My Hero Tricks One of my Other Heroes (and Some Random Guy)

Schizo Much?

Inside my head, I just said "That's a good point" to...myself. Does anyone else think in this manner? I find that I sometimes split my inner monologue into a dialogue.

Actually, when I was younger, this was sort of a secret problem of mine. I almost had something of an anti-conscience. It was very much like the cartoon concept of an angel and devil on my shoulder. Come to think of it, I wouldn't be surprised if the development of my conscience was greatly influenced by Bugs Bunny and the like.

Anyway, when I was little, I had what I considered a troubling dichotomy. There was a sense of self in my mind that I considered the Real Me, which I also tied to my physical self, and then there was this Other Me that was purely of the mind. The troubling part was this Other Me generally laid out bad or stupid suggestions for behavior and ideas and was often in conflict with the Real Me.

Am I making sense? In other words, when I was young, I felt I had a sort of Jiminy Cricket whispering in my ear, but he whispered bad advice! What's interesting is that he still served a useful purpose --I just learned to do and think in opposition to that little guy.

But it's weird to look back on this. Aside from stories of temper tantrums when I was very, very young, I don't recall being a troubled child. So it seems this Mean Jiminy was never really persuasive. And with time, I'd say around the end of middle school (and the onset of puberty?) that part of myself disappeared.

So has anyone else ever found their minds divided in this way? How do you think?