Ok. I’ve recently published a paper with my mentor and colleagues about the ‘extreme female brain’ hypothesis of mental illness. Basically, the paper makes the case that sex differences in evolutionary pressures predispose females and males toward different prevalence rates and manifestations of mental illness. For example, more males than females are diagnosed with autism and more females than males are diagnosed with depression.
There are a few things to be clear on first:
Even though the title of the hypothesis has the word ‘brain’ in it, the study does not involve direct studies of brains. We extended this hypothesis from a large body of work done by Simon Baron-Cohen, who has made a strong case for autism spectrum conditions (ASCs) as an extreme manifestation of male-typical psychology (1).
Read MoreBabies are designed to extract more resources than mothers prefer to give (this is of course on a non-conscious levels - I’m primarily talking about physiological processes here). As the fetus grows inside your body, it causes the expansion of maternal arteries as well as an increase in blood pressure in order to extract more nutrients from the mother’s blood.
Read MoreOk. It’s time to reflect, integrate and summarize my experiences from this accelerated weekend of astrological immersion. Let’s start from the beginning.
I wake up early with ease. My partner is having a rough 4 am start but he drives me to the airport and leaves me with a sweet kiss and kind but smoldering eyes. The security line is surprisingly long for such an early flight so I gather my courage and ask a burly, bearded man if I can cut in front of him. He gracefully lets me pass him and we chat about his work: he explores territory all over the world for mining developments and has lived for a few months in several interesting places, such as Siberia! I feel grateful for his kindness and calmness in letting me rush ahead to my flight.
Read MoreI need to share a little story about how astrology shows up in my life. Last weekend, I started listening to Annie Lennox – I’d heard her music and her name before but never really connected all of her great songs together and attributed them to her and her overall collection. In fact, when I was 14 or so, I did a jazz dance with a few girls to Annie’s fantastic track, Little Bird, which is now a sure song on my life’s soundtrack. It was a fantastic number and we wore these strange, white, feather-covered unitards that gave us a most unfortunate case of camel toe, but anyway, back to my astrology story…
Read MoreAstrology is an enigma. Many people write it off as superstitious pseudoscience, often with good reason. After all pop astrology and watered-down weekly horoscopes are not illustrious examples of the depth and precision of analysis that is available to the skilled astrologer.
I’m not sure how many people realize and appreciate the incredible impact that astrology has had on modern thought; it’s truly staggering. Let’s explore a very brief list:
- Holidays we celebrate – Indeed most of our holidays, such as Easter and Christmas, were co-opted by Christians from astrological belief systems
- Days of the week – Monday/Moon’s day; Tuesday/Mars’ day; Wednesday; Mercury’s day; and so on
- Bible – the bible is JAM PACKED with astrological allusion. For example, the three wise men who arrived to greet Jesus were astrologers and based on their astrological analyses, they were some of the first people to know – based on their interpretation of the sky – that a king had been born!
Read MoreShe was resting grimly against the fence, belly softly rounded with the sweet burn of cookies digesting. Her belly is furry and golden, her ears are shallow tea cups perked toward the sky, her wings re butter-coloured and bat-shaped because she is indeed, a butterbat.
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