Caffeine Linked to Hallucinations
There are many substances that cause hallucinations, but I was surprised to learn that coffee was one of them. According to an article published 13 January 2009 in Science people who drink a lot of coffee and/or other caffeinated drinks are disposed to hearing voices or having out of body experiences. So now I'm wondering if there is a meaningful statistical correlation between excessively religious individuals and heavy caffeine consumption.
It seems too much of the hormone cortisol is the main culprit in causing hallucinations and caffeine and stress increases the production of cortisol. If the fear of death or the fear of going to hell is added to the situation to increase stress we might have a formula for producing superreligious individuals. Maybe only one cup of coffee is all that is needed for some people.
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People who think there is something they refer to as god don't ask enough questions.
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You may be onto something here; caffeine = hallucinations. I was watching 20/20 on Friday the 13th, Diane Sawyer was doing a special on the children of Appalachia, a place often called the beltbuckle of the bible belt. The CDC had reported their leading health problems early death, toothlessness, depression directly to their high intake of the soft drink Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew has the highest caffeine of any soft drink, higher then most coffees and teas.
The caffeine/hallucination conection seems to explain their most common social problems; deeply religious, domestic violence, insest, child sexual abuse, meth addiction and pregent teenagers.
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If I recall correctly, they were in quite high dosages. If I recall correctly it was mostly a survey of uni students so the subjects were relatively young and the sample size was not adequate for it to be considered a conclusive study. However, what they found (once again, iirc) was that 5 cups/day for females and 6 for males, which is quite a lot, are the levels that resulted in higher chances of visual or auditory hullucinations. If you're drinking that much coffee a day you've certainly got or will get other problems as well including but not limited to high blood pressure, lack of sleep, and body chemicals out of whack from both the lack of sleep as well as the high caffiene.
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
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Oh please don't say that about my coffee. I only wish I could have an I.V. of the stuff. I don't care for the flavor of Mt. Dew, but if it has caffeine I guess I could do that. Maybe there is some truth to this though, I do hear these voices, not always nice, I just figured the voices were my bosses at work.
People who think there is something they refer to as god don't ask enough questions.
So... the voices in my head are caused by a caffine overload? o_O
Does this mean i can sue Coke/Pepsi ?
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Well I feel left out!
I have 2 cups of coffee before work 2-3 at work in the morning and either a few cups of tea or a few diet cokes towards the end of the work day. Where are my out of body experiences!!!
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Man I have about 8 shots of espresso a day and if you excuse me for using the vernacular, I ain't seen shit.
(maybe all the lsd I did in the eighties has desensitized me?)
gotta run!
Eden had a 25% murder rate and incest was rampant.
Maybe only UK citizens experience hallucinations.
This is very interesting. I drink up to 15 (extra large) cups of coffee a day sometimes. I don't recall ever hallucinating.
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