Free will or guided by parasites? ( Archived) (7)

I came across one interesting article about a tiny parasite that lives in cat's gut. It is quite shocking - the parasite is able to modify behaviour of rats in such a way that the rat loses its natural fear of the cat, gets eaten, and so the life cycle of the parasite continues. More shocking, in some cases infected human's behaviour may be altered too. Men engage in risky behaviours, women become more sociable, but also may get violent or depressed and at higher suicide risk. That is one known microorganism affecting human's behaviour. What if there are thousands of them each with its own influence? What about our free will then if these pesky things know how to control our brain? What if they, but not us, are the real rulers of this planet? Well, this may be a bit of exaggeration, but an interesting thought to contemplate.

Below is an interview with professor Sapolsky of Stanford University, if somebody is interested. He is researching toxoplazma, the little parasite that may do so much harm. Pregnant women need to take special caution!

Its called toxocaracatti it gets confused in the human system and ends up behind the human eye and the immune system converts it to calcium thus turning the patient blind,especialy dangerous to children due to the fact of age and the cat defecating in sand pits where children play,disgusting to see in the late stages in dogs toxocara cannis where the worm ends up in the lungs,5 mills of liquid form which is for cattle and sheep on 3 weekly based doses works well,way beter than the tablet form as it dosent work as good,can't renember the medicine ,have to go look in the cabinet.

That sounds gross, but I think the one that makes rats and people risk takers is toxoplasma gondii. The treatment is difficult, therefore people are not always treated if symptoms are not severe.

Sure, but when you hear that they are able to alter human's behaviour, it feels kind of scary because we think we have a free will to act as we want. They say that in many countries half and more of the population may be infected. So, may be then the person's character is just a combination of different infestations? Speaking about toxoplazma gondii, it is 3-4 times more common in bikers killed in accidents than in people who died from other causes. Very suspicious correlation, isn't it?