Do you ever get that really strange feeling sometimes where you look around and think: I am really here. This is not a dream. I really do exist in this world that I am currently observing, and if I were to die right now, this world would continue to exist even without me here to experience it. I had that feeling last night, just before I went to sleep. I call it consciousness shock. It's terribly hard to explain, but I bet you're nodding your head right now in recognition. I always go through a weird vertigo when I'm in consciousness shock -- a kind of doubling back on myself as I struggle to step out of myself and observe my own consciousness. It seems like the experience should be frightening or upsetting, but in fact I find it oddly gratifying.

On a related topic... why did the first man get circumcised? Maybe a couple of guys were pissing together behind the village a few thousand years ago, and they had this conversation:
Guy A: See this chunk of skin that we have to pull back when we urinate? I bet you could just cut that right off.
Guy B: Well, I suppose you could. But why would you?
Guy A: Maybe He Who Lives Way Up In The Sky And Is The Answer To All Of Our Questions Because We Haven't Invented The Scientific Method Yet wants us to.
Guy B: Yeah, and maybe He doesn't want us to. I think I'll err on that side of things, seeing as how it doesn't involve indescribable pain and weeks of agonizing recovery.
Guy A: Okay, let's compromise. We don't actually have to do it, but we'll start doing it to all of the young boys, before they're old enough to question it.
Guy B: All right, I'm in.

(I realize that there is currently a raging debate over whether or not to circumcise, and that many people make a case for circumcision based on health issues. But I doubt they were compiling penile cancer statistics 5,000 years ago, and in any case circumcision at that time would have introduced major health risks due to the lack of surgical expertise and the risk of infection. I still wonder what made that first man agree to let someone else slice into his foreskin.)

+posted by Lawrence @ 8/22/2003 05:21:00 PM