Blog #171--Interesting Tidbits Not Included in Book, Part 10

In this continuing series, I share information not included in my book “It’s a Secret, So Pass It On: a Toolbox For life” but which supports its information and conclusions.

Tidbit #1: There has been a worldwide war on drugs for many years now. Some drug dealers have been arrested, along with many drug users. Prisons are full of those caught using or selling drugs, and privatized prisons have become especially profitable as a result. Those who distribute and sell drugs to addicted customers while avoiding prison are making massive amounts of money, as are the banks that launder drug spoils. Some governments around the world sell drugs for a variety of sinister purposes, with the profits being used in a clandestine fashion.

There seems to be no end to this cycle since some of these drugs can be highly addictive. An experiment where rats were placed alone in a cage with nothing to do has been used to justify this perpetual war on drugs. They were given two water bottles, one of which was laced with cocaine. As expected, the rats in the experiment became addicted and continued to drink the cocaine water until they died. This became proof that the only way to prevent addiction was to outlaw the use of addictive drugs.

However, as author Johann Hari wrote in an article published on informationclearinghouse.info, January 24, 2015, a researcher named Bruce Alexander detected a flaw in the experiment and sought to correct it. Since he reasoned the rats were lonely and bored in their isolated cages, he created an elaborate Rat Park. The rats had plenty of company, as well as toys to play with and tunnels to explore.

The rats in Rat Park had equal access to the two water bottles, but they used less than a quarter of the drugs used by the isolated rats. None of the rats in Rat Park became heavy users, and none died. Carrying the experiment further, Alexander took rats that had used cocaine heavily in isolated cages for 57 days and placed them in Rat Park. While these rats had a few temporary withdrawal symptoms, they adapted to their new surroundings and ceased their heavy use of the drug. Hari described Alexander’s conclusions:

“Professor Alexander argues this discovery is a profound challenge both to the right-wing view that addiction is a moral failing caused by too much hedonistic partying, and the liberal view that addiction is a disease taking place in a chemically hijacked brain. In fact, he argues, addiction is an adaptation. It’s not you. It’s your cage.”

These results are not limited to rats. While many have heard the sad story about how 20% of U.S. soldiers became heavy heroin users during the Vietnam War, what most have not heard is that 95% of those soldiers stopped using the drug once they returned to their more comfortable home environments. When they were able to live in a pleasurable environment, they no longer needed the drug.

It is no wonder drug dealers have targeted ghettos and other lower class environments. People living there are much more susceptible to long-term addiction. Of course, jailing them has the same effect. Even if they can’t get drugs in prison, they return to that life once released if they have no better alternatives. Giving them positive alternatives might be the best solution to the drug problem. A little love and understanding would go a long way to freeing them from a life of misery.

Tidbit #2: Many species are sensitive to the Earth’s magnetic fields according to a report by David Ferguson in the January 2, 2014 edition of rawstory.com. For instance, when allowed to move around freely, a vast majority of the time the 70 dogs in a two-year study urinated and defecated along the North-South magnetic axis and avoided the East-West direction. The exact reason for the behavior is as yet unknown, but dogs are certainly not the only species that responds to magnetic influences.

Salmon return to their birthing areas to spawn by following magnetic lines of force. Sea turtles likely do the same, as do many migrating birds. Ants have been shown to be aware of the Earth’s magnetic alignment. The honey bee “waggle dance,” used to provide directions to help hive mates find sources of nectar, is based on the same principle. I have no doubt humans respond to these electromagnetic influences also, but like the other species, we may be doing it unconsciously and cannot identify why we behave certain ways at specific times.

Tidbit #3: It has long been assumed that consuming dirt is bad for us. But free-roaming pigs eat dirt, and we eat them. Plants need dirt for their survival, and we eat a wide variety of plants. Studies have shown that children who grow up on ecologically managed farms have a lower incidence of allergies and asthma than those from industrialized farms or urban areas. Perhaps it is as much the dirt as the food that makes us healthy.

For those with an interest in pursuing this subject in greater depth, I recommend an article by Dr. Daphne Miller from yesmagazine.org, December 6, 2013 entitled “The Surprising Healing Qualities...of Dirt: A doctor discovers exposure to healthy farm soil holds keys to healthy bodies.”

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