The Invasion of the Body-changers

Nearly ten years ago, I wrote the first version of a dark comedy (sample chapters can be downloaded from A Man for Every Purpose) in which the protagonist, a formerly respectable professor of philosophy, seems to be in a rather confused state of mind. I’ll ruin part of the surprise, assuming it’s ever published in its entirety, by saying that much of the confusion of the protagonist’s thought comes from alien genes introduced into his body by a virus that nearly killed him.

There is no magic that will exclude environmental chemicals or alien genes from our bodies. Our environments leak into us and we leak out into our environments. We often alter our own chemical balances on purposes, using alcohol or far more dangerous drugs. Sometimes, we can cause permanent changes by excessive use of various substances or by exposure to workplace chemicals or whatever.

I’m hardly surprised to read this entry, Toxoplasma – the brain parasite that influences human culture, on Ed Yong’s fine science education blog. We learn from this young research scientist who writes only about peer-reviewed results that:

In rare cases, T.gondii infection causes a disease called toxoplasmosis that produces mild flu-like symptoms and only really threatens foetuses and those with weak immune systems. But in most instances, the parasite acts more subtly.

Carriers tend to show long-term personality changes that are small but statistically significant. Women tend to be more intelligent, affectionate, social and more likely to stick to rules. Men on the other hand tend to be less intelligent, but are more loyal, frugal and mild-tempered. The one trait that carriers of both genders share is a higher level of neuroticism – they are more prone to guilt, self-doubt and insecurity.

The entire article is worth reading if only for its intelligent discussion of the problems with too simple or literal an interpretation of these results or results of similar sorts of studies.

Yet, it’s likely that we are altered, for good or bad by various living entities or non-living substances that enter our body uninvited. Parasites, in particular, can spew out various products, some intended to change the metabolism or behavior of its host. This particular parasite reduces fear in its host for one cycle of its life, rodents, so that they’re more likely to be captured and eaten by the host for the next cycle of its life, cats. As Yong explains, human beings are a dead-end in the reproductive cycle of T.gondii, but the various chemicals it spews out to change the brains or hormonal flows of rodents are likely to have some effect upon us. Notice that men infected by this parasite tend to be mild-tempered. This may be a sign of a lowering of fear levels which is the effect upon rodents — tests of different breeds of dogs have shown the gentler breeds, such as Labrador Retrievers, have far lower levels of fear in many circumstances than the aggressive breeds, such as German Shepherds.

I don’t know how matters have turned out but, back when I was learning a little about these areas in the 1990s, some scientists were claiming the gene for feline leukemia was a fragment of a gene for a growth hormone in an ancestor of the baboon. It’s most likely it was transported from one species to another by a virus. And that’s how I made matters work in that novel I referred to above. Poor Milt emerged from a blood-fever disease with some mental peculiarities including an occasional desire to enter stagnant bodies of water and feast on pond-scum. Somehow, he had acquired genes from some species of aquatic worm. And I was obviously writing a parody in which serious scientific ideas were mixed with modern myths, such as genocentric literalism.

I’m not surprised that toxoplasma might change the personalities of those human beings it infects. If so, it would have an effect upon cultures. Since toxoplasma infections are far more common in tropical regions, then we might have cultural differences which come not from human DNA or from human interaction with physical environments but rather from a difference in infections by region and maybe by level of economic development. The chemicals in the products we handle in the developed West, the heavy metals found in the dust on our roads (such as platinum from catalytic converters), the various hormones in our meats and dairy products, and certainly the constant flow of certain hormones in response to hectic lives, are likely to have some effects upon us.

This is a bothersome matter to those who define the human self in terms that imply it is, or ever could be, sealed off from what’s around it. To me, it’s just another complicating aspect of our world and one which is amusing in a somewhat darkish way. And I don’t necessarily think there to be any deeper meaning, other than the impossibility of truly walling ourselves off from Creation or even much walling ourselves off from this universe during our mortal existence.

Once upon a time, a transcendentalist champion of the fairer sex announced with the most generous of motives, “I accept the world,” only to be asked by Sir Thomas, a champion of a certain hard-headedness, “Ye gads, what choice have you?” [My memories of a reported exchange involving Margaret Fuller as a young woman and Thomas Carlyle as a middle-aged and somewhat wise skeptic.]