oh yes,, another book, The Botony of Desire--(Michael Pollen) -- he select 4 plants chosen for specific desirable characteristics; marejuana was chose for its effects--which are mostly on memory-- when high on grass, everything seems new again. common place things are found newly facinating, etc.

our brain is wired to expect a certain set of asumptions, (daytime is charactized by it being light.. water is wet, heated thing are hot--we don't have to think about them. and we don't! but with grass, those prewired--well prewired be cause we programmed them in so long ago, they are not assumptions we are born with, but learned at an early age!- assumptions get tossed. everything is new and interesting --we taste again vanilla, as if for the for the first --since the first taste was so long ago, its forget, and just an idea of what vanilla tastes like is left. but tasted new, fresh, we are amazed by the complex, rich, flower flavor and aroma. (and Pollen goes on for pages, and pages.. and about the effects of alcohol, and some other drugs, but mostly about grass)
it has some wonderful ideas about memory.



my other obsession