Isolation

Long periods in solitary may cause psychosis. Other studies have shown subtle physical changes to the brain when mammals become isolated. Research from the University of Illinois, published late last year, showed that the enzymes needed to produce a stress-reducing brain hormone drops significantly when mice are isolated. This can lead to aggression as well as anxiety. There is an overwhelming body of evidence that long periods of solitary confinement causes problems such as psychosis in prisoners, and that unmarried people who live fairly socially isolated lives become more ill, die earlier, and have more mental illness. Conversely, there is evidence that older people can maintain the health of their brains for longer if they keep them stimulated by solving problems.

In another report it says, “People being held for questioning in police stations, for example, may be treated humanely, but they get virtually no sensory input,” he says. “If the detention is for short periods of time, I don’t think that’s a problem, but there is talk of extending the period of time for which people can be held on suspicion of terrorist offences. And if people are indeed more suggestible, the longer they are held in isolation, the more that must raise questions about the reliability of their evidence.”

But there is another side to this which suggests that there are very different ways of being, and that many of the tests simply report the negative effects of the ‘normal’ human being’. “Two of the participants coped well, sleeping through much of the period. All found it profoundly boring; most found it distressing. One young woman became convinced that her sheets were wet even though, when she checked, they were found not to be. Most of the volunteers started pacing their small rooms like caged animals during the second day and felt less and less safe as time went on.”

Nothing is said about the two who coped well. Here is an interesting description from a young serviceman. “I had an eye injury to my left eye and was rushed to hospital. The result was that the back of my eye had split and I had to remain with bandages over my eyes for six weeks. Straight away I was asked several times if I needed a radio to listen to. That seemed a ridiculous suggestion because I now had a long time living in all the wonders in my mind. I never got tired or bored with it. In fact when the nursing sister said in my hearing that I must now get up and walk around I played deaf the next day making out I hadn’t heard. The sister soon got me out of bed though. But it wasn’t a shock to be made to be active, I like that too”.

I see that evolutionary we are very new to self awareness and are very vulnerable; also our personality is not usually built organically but is something artificial put upon us. To understand this see Programmed