Wednesday, December 11, 2013

On Fetal Programming


I got this hypothesis. I got a lot of them, actually.

This particular one is that the hormones released by the pregnant woman can have a profound effect on the fetus. Not just a little effect but a big one. These days this is known as fetal programming, or epigenetics.

I probably first began to think about this in the '90s, when I encountered a study of children born during and right after WWII, in Germany. There were an inordinate number of homosexuals born, and it was theorized this was due to stress hormones that were released by the mother during pregnancy, because of the war.

It reminded me of John Kay, who was the lead singer of the '60s band "Steppenwolf." He was born with a "congenital" disorder called achromatopsia (complete color blindness), so he can only see in black and white. He's legally blind. He was also born in East Germany, right after WWII.

I also know a woman who has it, as does her brother. Both also are starting to suffer from kidney failure. What do they have in common? A father who was exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam.

Recently I've been wondering about some odd things I've been seeing. Masculine women and feminine men. I didn't see them in high school or college. Now I'm seeing enough of them that they are on my radar screen.

I sometimes wonder if this is due to stress hormones when a woman is pregnant (the stress from working, because she has to and not because she wants to? from our catastrophic economy and all the bad things that go with it?), or all the chemicals and hormones in our water and food supply...or what?

Thom Hartmann has a radio program and written several books, including one called, The Edison Gene, which is about ADD. He - and others - have looked at the vast literature of fetal and child development.

Apparently when a fetus is under stress, hormones are released to prime the brain to be ready for a hostile environment, which means certain parts of the developing brain are pared away. If the fetus is not under stress, different parts of the brain develop and different parts are pared away.

This paring away of brain cells is normal. We lose about half our connections from the time we are born until we are teenagers. It's why a kid less than five can pick up two or more languages without even trying, but adults cannot. The cells and connections are not there anymore. What is not normal is the paring away of certain parts of the brain due to great stress. That is not a good thing.

Writes Hartmann: "The baby in utero has determined to some extent whether the world outside is safe or hostile...at every stage the brain must decide which of the two poles - safe or hostile - to emphasize."

Corporations (which I do not like at all because they are creations of the State and which I often refer to as Cosmodemonic Transnational Megacorporations) have started to use the idea of fetal programming to - what else? - make a profit at the expense of everything else. I consider them the Ferengi, or the Tyrell Corporation.

Martin Lindstrom, who spent 20 years in advertising, exposed some tricks corporations use to program fetuses.

From an online summary about his book, Brandwashed:

"An Asian shopping mall chain theorized that pregnant women spend a lot of time shopping. Lindstrom writes that it deliberately introduced smells and sounds that would entice pregnant women to return to the stores. 'It sprayed Johnson & Johnson baby powder in every area of the mall where clothing was sold,' he writes. 'Then it infused the fragrance of cherry across areas of the mall where one could buy food and beverages. Then it started playing soothing music from the era when these women were born.' Sales to pregnant women rose significantly, as hoped for. But the mall chain later learned a surprising fact, Lindstrom reports: Babies of those pregnant women would be calmer and more content whenever they entered the mall. This suggests that even in the womb, you can be reached by marketing."

Then there was this, from "Business Insider":

"What pregnant women eat not only affects their unborn child's development, but their future habits too. A pregnant mother's diet physically transforms the fetal brain, which affects what the baby will later want to eat, according to studies by Dr. Josephine Todrank at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

"But the case with Kopiko is extreme. Months later, it rolled out a coffee product which tasted just like the candy, which became hugely successful with kids. Lindstrom says that mothers would even give agitated newborn babies the coffee, which quickly calmed them down. Four years later, Kopiko coffee has become the third-largest brand in the Philippines."

I am reminded of a novel I read when I was a teenager, Hell's Pavement, by Damon Knight, in which people were brainwashed/programmed to do little more than shop and spend money, by the threat of imaginary demons that they hallucinated but were taught were real.

Obviously there are two entities that I absolutely do not trust: the State, and Corporations. They are the enemies of everyone. After all, Mussolini did admit that fascism is "Corporatism."

And given any chance at all, they'll use whatever they can to program/brainwash us.

3 comments:

Amy said...

Hormones rule everything in the body. change the environment/stimuli, change the hormone secretion.

Yes, I do think the fetal hormonal environment is critical to our development. It's not scientific, it's instinct. Make the mother nervous about one aspect of survival or another, and her offspring inherit a propensity towards that particular anxiety. If the environment favors that development, it will appear.

I wonder if genes follow rather than lead. We are more than our genome, but it's a larger component in our development than we credit it. I often think it means we shouldn't go trying to live in extremes or explore too far outside our boundaries unless we're ready to sacrifice a significant portion or our lives, or even our genetic fitness (defined as reproduction). The amygdala exists to cue us into risks we need not take. Fortune favors the bold, but o'er reaching our grasp is a sure way to draw down the fury of God.

Glen Filthie said...

Good theory on the face of it Bob, but I think I can trump it.

The overwhelming number of queers are liberals. This to me suggests that homosexuality is a function of sociological pressure rather than genetics.

Liberals LOVE to shock and offend - it is one of their hallmarks. They will burn flags, riot, indecently expose themselves, make offensive comments publicly - anything to get their point across. Sometimes these behaviours aren't even aimed at getting a point across - it is about offending others and asserting their own rebellious natures. Today's queers are the new rebels sticking it to The Man, as are the gender benders and castration fetshists. I think that as the shock value wears off the numbers of queers will start to decrease.

Also, liberals tend to do an awful job of raising their children and educating them - and they infest the schools and universities. They actively promote and encourage homosexuality and other sexual perversions. They are testing the waters for pedophilia right now. If they are as successful with that as they were with homosexuality - I suspect you will see scads of new pedo's coming out too.

Unknown said...

All I can really say is that there is something strange going on, it's not a good thing, and I think the end results are going to be bad.