Author: Dr. Barbara N. Horowitz
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
ISBN: 0385670613
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 451
Book Description
Engaging science writing that bravely approaches a new frontier in medical science and offers a whole new way of looking at the deep kinship between animals and human beings. Zoobiquity: a species-spanning approach to medicine bringing doctors and veterinarians together to improve the health of all species and their habitats. In the tradition of Temple Grandin, Oliver Sacks, and Neil Shubin, this is a remarkable narrative science book arguing that animal and human commonality can be used to diagnose, treat, and ultimately heal human patients. Through case studies of various species--human and animal kind alike--the authors reveal that a cross-species approach to medicine makes us not only better able to treat psychological and medical conditions but helps us understand our deep connection to other species with whom we share much more than just a planet. This revelatory book reaches across many disciplines--evolution, anthropology, sociology, biology, cutting-edge medicine and zoology--providing fascinating insights into the connection between animals and humans and what animals can teach us about the human body and mind.
Zoobiquity
Author: Dr. Barbara N. Horowitz
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
ISBN: 0385670613
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 451
Book Description
Engaging science writing that bravely approaches a new frontier in medical science and offers a whole new way of looking at the deep kinship between animals and human beings. Zoobiquity: a species-spanning approach to medicine bringing doctors and veterinarians together to improve the health of all species and their habitats. In the tradition of Temple Grandin, Oliver Sacks, and Neil Shubin, this is a remarkable narrative science book arguing that animal and human commonality can be used to diagnose, treat, and ultimately heal human patients. Through case studies of various species--human and animal kind alike--the authors reveal that a cross-species approach to medicine makes us not only better able to treat psychological and medical conditions but helps us understand our deep connection to other species with whom we share much more than just a planet. This revelatory book reaches across many disciplines--evolution, anthropology, sociology, biology, cutting-edge medicine and zoology--providing fascinating insights into the connection between animals and humans and what animals can teach us about the human body and mind.
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
ISBN: 0385670613
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 451
Book Description
Engaging science writing that bravely approaches a new frontier in medical science and offers a whole new way of looking at the deep kinship between animals and human beings. Zoobiquity: a species-spanning approach to medicine bringing doctors and veterinarians together to improve the health of all species and their habitats. In the tradition of Temple Grandin, Oliver Sacks, and Neil Shubin, this is a remarkable narrative science book arguing that animal and human commonality can be used to diagnose, treat, and ultimately heal human patients. Through case studies of various species--human and animal kind alike--the authors reveal that a cross-species approach to medicine makes us not only better able to treat psychological and medical conditions but helps us understand our deep connection to other species with whom we share much more than just a planet. This revelatory book reaches across many disciplines--evolution, anthropology, sociology, biology, cutting-edge medicine and zoology--providing fascinating insights into the connection between animals and humans and what animals can teach us about the human body and mind.
Making Animals Happy
Author: Temple Grandin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks
ISBN: 9781408800829
Category : Animal behavior
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
'The modern day Doctor Dolittle' (Guardian), bestselling author of Animals in Translation, investigates the secrets of mental health in animals.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks
ISBN: 9781408800829
Category : Animal behavior
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
'The modern day Doctor Dolittle' (Guardian), bestselling author of Animals in Translation, investigates the secrets of mental health in animals.
Wildhood
Author: Barbara Natterson-Horowitz
Publisher: Scribe Publications
ISBN: 1925938123
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 329
Book Description
A revelatory investigation of human and animal adolescence from the New York Times bestselling authors of Zoobiquity. Teenagers: behind the banter, the tediously repetitive games and clicks, the moping and screaming, the fast living, and the jockeying and preening lie the rules of the entire animal kingdom. Based on their popular Harvard University course, latest research, and worldwide travels, Natterson-Horowitz and Bowers examine the four universal challenges that every adolescent on our planet must face on the journey to adulthood: how to be safe, how to navigate hierarchy, how to court potential mates, and how to leave the nest. Safety, status, sex, and survival. For parents and children, predators and prey alike, this is a powerfully revelatory book, entertainingly written. To become, as its reader does, for a while, a young bat or a young humpback whale, or even an octopus tapping a shrimp on the shoulder or an orca silencing their victim, is a giddying experience. The authors open up horizons for their ordinary human readers as they go about their daily animal lives, and permit them to look afresh at the confusing and exhilarating experience of adolescence. Even your average teen will not get bored.
Publisher: Scribe Publications
ISBN: 1925938123
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 329
Book Description
A revelatory investigation of human and animal adolescence from the New York Times bestselling authors of Zoobiquity. Teenagers: behind the banter, the tediously repetitive games and clicks, the moping and screaming, the fast living, and the jockeying and preening lie the rules of the entire animal kingdom. Based on their popular Harvard University course, latest research, and worldwide travels, Natterson-Horowitz and Bowers examine the four universal challenges that every adolescent on our planet must face on the journey to adulthood: how to be safe, how to navigate hierarchy, how to court potential mates, and how to leave the nest. Safety, status, sex, and survival. For parents and children, predators and prey alike, this is a powerfully revelatory book, entertainingly written. To become, as its reader does, for a while, a young bat or a young humpback whale, or even an octopus tapping a shrimp on the shoulder or an orca silencing their victim, is a giddying experience. The authors open up horizons for their ordinary human readers as they go about their daily animal lives, and permit them to look afresh at the confusing and exhilarating experience of adolescence. Even your average teen will not get bored.
The Nature of Fear
Author: Daniel T. Blumstein
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674916484
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
A leading expert in animal behavior takes us into the wild to better understand and manage our fears. Fear, honed by millions of years of natural selection, kept our ancestors alive. Whether by slithering away, curling up in a ball, or standing still in the presence of a predator, humans and other animals have evolved complex behaviors in order to survive the hazards the world presents. But, despite our evolutionary endurance, we still have much to learn about how to manage our response to danger. For more than thirty years, Daniel Blumstein has been studying animals’ fear responses. His observations lead to a firm conclusion: fear preserves security, but at great cost. A foraging flock of birds expends valuable energy by quickly taking flight when a raptor appears. And though the birds might successfully escape, they leave their food source behind. Giant clams protect their valuable tissue by retracting their mantles and closing their shells when a shadow passes overhead, but then they are unable to photosynthesize, losing the capacity to grow. Among humans, fear is often an understandable and justifiable response to sources of threat, but it can exact a high toll on health and productivity. Delving into the evolutionary origins and ecological contexts of fear across species, The Nature of Fear considers what we can learn from our fellow animals—from successes and failures. By observing how animals leverage alarm to their advantage, we can develop new strategies for facing risks without panic.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674916484
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
A leading expert in animal behavior takes us into the wild to better understand and manage our fears. Fear, honed by millions of years of natural selection, kept our ancestors alive. Whether by slithering away, curling up in a ball, or standing still in the presence of a predator, humans and other animals have evolved complex behaviors in order to survive the hazards the world presents. But, despite our evolutionary endurance, we still have much to learn about how to manage our response to danger. For more than thirty years, Daniel Blumstein has been studying animals’ fear responses. His observations lead to a firm conclusion: fear preserves security, but at great cost. A foraging flock of birds expends valuable energy by quickly taking flight when a raptor appears. And though the birds might successfully escape, they leave their food source behind. Giant clams protect their valuable tissue by retracting their mantles and closing their shells when a shadow passes overhead, but then they are unable to photosynthesize, losing the capacity to grow. Among humans, fear is often an understandable and justifiable response to sources of threat, but it can exact a high toll on health and productivity. Delving into the evolutionary origins and ecological contexts of fear across species, The Nature of Fear considers what we can learn from our fellow animals—from successes and failures. By observing how animals leverage alarm to their advantage, we can develop new strategies for facing risks without panic.
One Health
Author: Ronald M. Atlas
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1555818439
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 332
Book Description
Emerging infectious diseases are often due to environmental disruption, which exposes microbes to a different niche that selects for new virulence traits and facilitates transmission between animals and humans. Thus, health of humans also depends upon health of animals and the environment – a concept called One Health. This book presents core concepts, compelling evidence, successful applications, and remaining challenges of One Health approaches to thwarting the threat of emerging infectious disease. Written by scientists working in the field, this book will provide a series of "stories" about how disruption of the environment and transmission from animal hosts is responsible for emerging human and animal diseases. Explains the concept of One Health and the history of the One Health paradigm shift. Traces the emergence of devastating new diseases in both animals and humans. Presents case histories of notable, new zoonoses, including West Nile virus, hantavirus, Lyme disease, SARS, and salmonella. Links several epidemic zoonoses with the environmental factors that promote them. Offers insight into the mechanisms of microbial evolution toward pathogenicity. Discusses the many causes behind the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Presents new technologies and approaches for public health disease surveillance. Offers political and bureaucratic strategies for promoting the global acceptance of One Health.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1555818439
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 332
Book Description
Emerging infectious diseases are often due to environmental disruption, which exposes microbes to a different niche that selects for new virulence traits and facilitates transmission between animals and humans. Thus, health of humans also depends upon health of animals and the environment – a concept called One Health. This book presents core concepts, compelling evidence, successful applications, and remaining challenges of One Health approaches to thwarting the threat of emerging infectious disease. Written by scientists working in the field, this book will provide a series of "stories" about how disruption of the environment and transmission from animal hosts is responsible for emerging human and animal diseases. Explains the concept of One Health and the history of the One Health paradigm shift. Traces the emergence of devastating new diseases in both animals and humans. Presents case histories of notable, new zoonoses, including West Nile virus, hantavirus, Lyme disease, SARS, and salmonella. Links several epidemic zoonoses with the environmental factors that promote them. Offers insight into the mechanisms of microbial evolution toward pathogenicity. Discusses the many causes behind the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Presents new technologies and approaches for public health disease surveillance. Offers political and bureaucratic strategies for promoting the global acceptance of One Health.
Inside Animal Minds
Author: Mary Roach
Publisher: Disney Electronic Content
ISBN: 1426210035
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 65
Book Description
The Animal Intelligence Bundle: “Minds of Their Own” by Virginia Morell (March 2008) “Almost Human” by Mary Roach (April 2008) “The Genius of Swarms” by Peter Miller (July 2007) In “Minds of Their Own,” Virginia Morell provides an overview of the science of animal intelligence. She introduces you to an African gray parrot named Alex, a bonobo named Kanzi, and a border collie named Betsy. Each of these animals tells us something interesting about the way they perceive and manipulate their world. The article also looks at what scientists are learning about the intelligence of dolphins and crows, beyond mere communication. In “Almost Human,” Mary Roach takes us to the savannahs of Senegal to meet a group of 34 chimpanzees, whose behavior and social structures have given scientists some important clues about the nature of their communication and intelligence. In “The Genius of Swarms,” Peter Miller looks at the collective behavior of ants, bees, and other insects for what they can tell us about social organization and how sometimes intelligence lies outside of the individual brain. This article served as the basis for his book, The Smart Swarm: How Understanding Flocks, Schools, and Colonies Can Make Us Better at Communicating, Decision Making, and Getting Things Done.
Publisher: Disney Electronic Content
ISBN: 1426210035
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 65
Book Description
The Animal Intelligence Bundle: “Minds of Their Own” by Virginia Morell (March 2008) “Almost Human” by Mary Roach (April 2008) “The Genius of Swarms” by Peter Miller (July 2007) In “Minds of Their Own,” Virginia Morell provides an overview of the science of animal intelligence. She introduces you to an African gray parrot named Alex, a bonobo named Kanzi, and a border collie named Betsy. Each of these animals tells us something interesting about the way they perceive and manipulate their world. The article also looks at what scientists are learning about the intelligence of dolphins and crows, beyond mere communication. In “Almost Human,” Mary Roach takes us to the savannahs of Senegal to meet a group of 34 chimpanzees, whose behavior and social structures have given scientists some important clues about the nature of their communication and intelligence. In “The Genius of Swarms,” Peter Miller looks at the collective behavior of ants, bees, and other insects for what they can tell us about social organization and how sometimes intelligence lies outside of the individual brain. This article served as the basis for his book, The Smart Swarm: How Understanding Flocks, Schools, and Colonies Can Make Us Better at Communicating, Decision Making, and Getting Things Done.
Buster
Author: Will Barrow
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1466887869
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
"With some dogs you share a boil in the bag breakfast and maybe a blanket on a cold desert floor. Some you wouldn't leave in charge of your Grandma unless you wanted to find out just how fast the old girl could run. But, if you're very, very lucky there will be the one dog you would lay down your life for – and for me that dog is Buster." Buster, an English springer spaniel who has served his comrades and his country with unstinting devotion, has saved thousands of lives. This is the story of his partnership with RAF Police Sergeant Will Barrow, told by Will himself, describing how each came to save the other's life. It is a relationship that produced some heroic feats—including sniffing out explosive vests that led to the arrests of two suicide bombers—in the dust and desert heat of Afghanistan and beyond. Buster, uniquely, has served five tours of duty in three theatres of war (Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan)—more than any other military dog. He also won the prestigious Crufts Friends for Life Award in 2012, and has gone on to become the official lifetime mascot of the RAF Police, the only dog in history to have been honored in that manner. A best friend in dog's clothing, an RAF dog with his mossy feet firmly on the ground, Buster is truly a dog in a million.
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1466887869
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
"With some dogs you share a boil in the bag breakfast and maybe a blanket on a cold desert floor. Some you wouldn't leave in charge of your Grandma unless you wanted to find out just how fast the old girl could run. But, if you're very, very lucky there will be the one dog you would lay down your life for – and for me that dog is Buster." Buster, an English springer spaniel who has served his comrades and his country with unstinting devotion, has saved thousands of lives. This is the story of his partnership with RAF Police Sergeant Will Barrow, told by Will himself, describing how each came to save the other's life. It is a relationship that produced some heroic feats—including sniffing out explosive vests that led to the arrests of two suicide bombers—in the dust and desert heat of Afghanistan and beyond. Buster, uniquely, has served five tours of duty in three theatres of war (Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan)—more than any other military dog. He also won the prestigious Crufts Friends for Life Award in 2012, and has gone on to become the official lifetime mascot of the RAF Police, the only dog in history to have been honored in that manner. A best friend in dog's clothing, an RAF dog with his mossy feet firmly on the ground, Buster is truly a dog in a million.
Hormonal
Author: Martie Haselton
Publisher: Little, Brown Spark
ISBN: 0316369195
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 234
Book Description
The hidden intelligence of hormones and their role in empowering women to succeed sexually, reproductively, and socially. Did you know women walk more, eat less, socialize more, meet more men, dance more, and flirt more when they're ovulating? Or that PMS may have evolved to get rid of boyfriends with unfit sperm? Behind the "fickle" differences in what women find sexy about men, or what they like to wear, there's a hidden adaptive intelligence that has been shaped over eons. In this provocative and paradigm-shattering book, Martie Haselton, the world's leading researcher on sexuality and the ovulation cycle, takes a deep, revealing look at the biological processes that so profoundly influence our behavior and sets forth a radical new understanding of women's bodies, minds, and sexual relationships, one that embraces hormonal cycles as adaptive solutions to genuine biological challenges. At the core of Hasleton's new Darwinian feminism is her remarkable discovery that humans, like our animal cousins, possess a special phase of sexuality, called estrus, which comes with a host of physiological and behavioral changes. Rigorously researched, entertaining, and empowering, Hormonal offers women deep new insights into their bodies, brains, relationships, and affairs, allowing them to make better-informed choices about sex, marriage, friendship, contraception, and more. Above all, Hormonal is a clarion call to appreciate and embrace the genius of female biology.
Publisher: Little, Brown Spark
ISBN: 0316369195
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 234
Book Description
The hidden intelligence of hormones and their role in empowering women to succeed sexually, reproductively, and socially. Did you know women walk more, eat less, socialize more, meet more men, dance more, and flirt more when they're ovulating? Or that PMS may have evolved to get rid of boyfriends with unfit sperm? Behind the "fickle" differences in what women find sexy about men, or what they like to wear, there's a hidden adaptive intelligence that has been shaped over eons. In this provocative and paradigm-shattering book, Martie Haselton, the world's leading researcher on sexuality and the ovulation cycle, takes a deep, revealing look at the biological processes that so profoundly influence our behavior and sets forth a radical new understanding of women's bodies, minds, and sexual relationships, one that embraces hormonal cycles as adaptive solutions to genuine biological challenges. At the core of Hasleton's new Darwinian feminism is her remarkable discovery that humans, like our animal cousins, possess a special phase of sexuality, called estrus, which comes with a host of physiological and behavioral changes. Rigorously researched, entertaining, and empowering, Hormonal offers women deep new insights into their bodies, brains, relationships, and affairs, allowing them to make better-informed choices about sex, marriage, friendship, contraception, and more. Above all, Hormonal is a clarion call to appreciate and embrace the genius of female biology.
The Sun Is a Compass
Author: Caroline Van Hemert
Publisher: Little, Brown Spark
ISBN: 0316414433
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
For fans of Cheryl Strayed, the gripping story of a biologist's human-powered journey from the Pacific Northwest to the Arctic to rediscover her love of birds, nature, and adventure. During graduate school, as she conducted experiments on the peculiarly misshapen beaks of chickadees, ornithologist Caroline Van Hemert began to feel stifled in the isolated, sterile environment of the lab. Worried that she was losing her passion for the scientific research she once loved, she was compelled to experience wildness again, to be guided by the sounds of birds and to follow the trails of animals. In March of 2012, she and her husband set off on a 4,000-mile wilderness journey from the Pacific rainforest to the Alaskan Arctic, traveling by rowboat, ski, foot, raft, and canoe. Together, they survived harrowing dangers while also experiencing incredible moments of joy and grace -- migrating birds silhouetted against the moon, the steamy breath of caribou, and the bond that comes from sharing such experiences. A unique blend of science, adventure, and personal narrative, The Sun is a Compass explores the bounds of the physical body and the tenuousness of life in the company of the creatures who make their homes in the wildest places left in North America. Inspiring and beautifully written, this love letter to nature is a lyrical testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Winner of the 2019 Banff Mountain Book Competition: Adventure Travel
Publisher: Little, Brown Spark
ISBN: 0316414433
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
For fans of Cheryl Strayed, the gripping story of a biologist's human-powered journey from the Pacific Northwest to the Arctic to rediscover her love of birds, nature, and adventure. During graduate school, as she conducted experiments on the peculiarly misshapen beaks of chickadees, ornithologist Caroline Van Hemert began to feel stifled in the isolated, sterile environment of the lab. Worried that she was losing her passion for the scientific research she once loved, she was compelled to experience wildness again, to be guided by the sounds of birds and to follow the trails of animals. In March of 2012, she and her husband set off on a 4,000-mile wilderness journey from the Pacific rainforest to the Alaskan Arctic, traveling by rowboat, ski, foot, raft, and canoe. Together, they survived harrowing dangers while also experiencing incredible moments of joy and grace -- migrating birds silhouetted against the moon, the steamy breath of caribou, and the bond that comes from sharing such experiences. A unique blend of science, adventure, and personal narrative, The Sun is a Compass explores the bounds of the physical body and the tenuousness of life in the company of the creatures who make their homes in the wildest places left in North America. Inspiring and beautifully written, this love letter to nature is a lyrical testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Winner of the 2019 Banff Mountain Book Competition: Adventure Travel
Meetings With Remarkable Men
Author: George Ivanovich Gurdjieff
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
ISBN: 1465505911
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 486
Book Description
EXACTLY A MONTH HAS ELAPSED since I finished the first series of my writings—just that period of the flow of time which I intended to devote exclusively to resting the parts of my common presence subordinate to my pure reason. As I wrote in the last chapter of the first series, I had given myself my word that during the whole of this time I would do no writing whatsoever, but would only, for the well-being of the most deserving of these subordinate parts, slowly and gently drink down all the bottles of old calvados now at my disposal by the will of fate in the wine-cellar of the Prieuré, and specially provided the century before last by people who understood the true sense of life. Today I have decided, and now I wish—without forcing myself at all, but on the contrary with great pleasure—to set to work at my writing again, of course with the help of all the corresponding forces and also, this time, with the help of the law-conformable cosmic results flowing in from all sides upon my person from the good wishes of the readers of the first series. I now propose to give a form understandable for everyone to everything I have written down for the second series, in the hope that these ideas may serve as preparatory constructive material for setting up in the consciousness of creatures similar to myself a new world—a world in my opinion real, or at least one that can be perceived as real by all degrees of human thinking without the All and Everything: Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, p. 1236 slightest impulse of doubt, instead of the illusory world which contemporary people picture to themselves. And indeed, the mind of contemporary man, of whatever level of intellectuality, is only able to take cognizance of the world by means of data which, whenever accidentally or intentionally activated, arouse in him all sorts of fantastic impulses. And these impulses, by constantly affecting the tempo of all the associations flowing in him, gradually disharmonize the whole of his functioning, with such sorrowful results that it is impossible for any man, if he is able to isolate himself even a little from the influences of the established abnormal conditions of our ordinary life and is willing to think about it seriously, not to be terrified—as, for example, by the shortening of our life with each decade. First of all, for the ‘swing of thought’, that is, for establishing a corresponding rhythm for my thinking and also for yours, I wish to follow somewhat the example of the Great Beelzebub and imitate the form of thinking of one highly respected by him and by me, and perhaps already, brave reader of my writings, by you, if of course you have had the daring to read through to the end all of the first series. That is to say, I wish to introduce at the very beginning of this writing of mine what our dear-to-all Mullah Nassr Eddin1 would call a ‘subtly philosophical question.’ I wish to do this at the very beginning because I intend to use freely, both here and in my later expositions, the wisdom of this sage, who is now recognized almost everywhere and upon whom, it is rumoured, the title of ‘The One and Only’ is soon to be officially conferred by the proper person. And this subtly philosophical question may already be sensed in that sort of perplexity which is bound to arise in the consciousness of every reader of even the very first paragraph of this chapter, if he compares the many data on which his firm convictions about medical matters are based with the fact that I, the author of Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, after the accident which nearly cost me my life, with the functioning of my organism not yet fully re-established owing to the incessant active effort Mullah Nassr Eddin, a legendary figure in numerous countries of the Near East, is an embodiment of popular wisdom.
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
ISBN: 1465505911
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 486
Book Description
EXACTLY A MONTH HAS ELAPSED since I finished the first series of my writings—just that period of the flow of time which I intended to devote exclusively to resting the parts of my common presence subordinate to my pure reason. As I wrote in the last chapter of the first series, I had given myself my word that during the whole of this time I would do no writing whatsoever, but would only, for the well-being of the most deserving of these subordinate parts, slowly and gently drink down all the bottles of old calvados now at my disposal by the will of fate in the wine-cellar of the Prieuré, and specially provided the century before last by people who understood the true sense of life. Today I have decided, and now I wish—without forcing myself at all, but on the contrary with great pleasure—to set to work at my writing again, of course with the help of all the corresponding forces and also, this time, with the help of the law-conformable cosmic results flowing in from all sides upon my person from the good wishes of the readers of the first series. I now propose to give a form understandable for everyone to everything I have written down for the second series, in the hope that these ideas may serve as preparatory constructive material for setting up in the consciousness of creatures similar to myself a new world—a world in my opinion real, or at least one that can be perceived as real by all degrees of human thinking without the All and Everything: Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, p. 1236 slightest impulse of doubt, instead of the illusory world which contemporary people picture to themselves. And indeed, the mind of contemporary man, of whatever level of intellectuality, is only able to take cognizance of the world by means of data which, whenever accidentally or intentionally activated, arouse in him all sorts of fantastic impulses. And these impulses, by constantly affecting the tempo of all the associations flowing in him, gradually disharmonize the whole of his functioning, with such sorrowful results that it is impossible for any man, if he is able to isolate himself even a little from the influences of the established abnormal conditions of our ordinary life and is willing to think about it seriously, not to be terrified—as, for example, by the shortening of our life with each decade. First of all, for the ‘swing of thought’, that is, for establishing a corresponding rhythm for my thinking and also for yours, I wish to follow somewhat the example of the Great Beelzebub and imitate the form of thinking of one highly respected by him and by me, and perhaps already, brave reader of my writings, by you, if of course you have had the daring to read through to the end all of the first series. That is to say, I wish to introduce at the very beginning of this writing of mine what our dear-to-all Mullah Nassr Eddin1 would call a ‘subtly philosophical question.’ I wish to do this at the very beginning because I intend to use freely, both here and in my later expositions, the wisdom of this sage, who is now recognized almost everywhere and upon whom, it is rumoured, the title of ‘The One and Only’ is soon to be officially conferred by the proper person. And this subtly philosophical question may already be sensed in that sort of perplexity which is bound to arise in the consciousness of every reader of even the very first paragraph of this chapter, if he compares the many data on which his firm convictions about medical matters are based with the fact that I, the author of Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, after the accident which nearly cost me my life, with the functioning of my organism not yet fully re-established owing to the incessant active effort Mullah Nassr Eddin, a legendary figure in numerous countries of the Near East, is an embodiment of popular wisdom.