# Just a thought on literature



## missy42 (Sep 30, 2014)

I'm not entirely sure this is the place to put this, but at least I'm posting it to see if I'm the only one whose considered this....I was just thinking, Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass"...the whole concept (despite the whole acid trip concept) reminds me of DPD. Sometimes I look in the mirror and am convinced that I'm on the wrong side (despite knowing very well that I'm on the reality side). Any thoughts? Perhaps Carroll knew a little about it....but most likely not.


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## Guest (Oct 11, 2014)

missy42 said:


> I'm not entirely sure this is the place to put this, but at least I'm posting it to see if I'm the only one whose considered this....I was just thinking, Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass"...the whole concept (despite the whole acid trip concept) reminds me of DPD. Sometimes I look in the mirror and am convinced that I'm on the wrong side (despite knowing very well that I'm on the reality side). Any thoughts? Perhaps Carroll knew a little about it....but most likely not.


I agree.. there's lots of odd concepts in Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.. One that springs to mind is 'time running backwards' (can't remember which book that's from?) The whole concept of time thing gets me, and then conceptualising time running backwards does my head in even further.

Ohh and another one.. 'One pill to make you smaller and one pill to make your taller'.

Interesting subject, thanks missy.


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## *Dreamer* (Feb 18, 2014)

Well, there is such a thing as "Alice in Wonderland" syndrome. Another perceptual distortion known to neurologists. It is believed because Lewis Carroll (author of AIW) had migraines, he also may have experienced this. Here's a NYTimes article on a woman who has this and her daughter has experienced it as well. It is actually called Todd's Syndrome after the neurologist who first wrote a paper on it.

Fascinating stuff. V.S. Ramachandran, M.D., Ph.D. and Oliver Sacks, M.D. have talked about these various neurological oddities.

Just two paragraphs from this blog in the NYTimes Health section.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/23/alice-in-wonderland-syndrome/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

*New York TImes*
Mind

*I Had Alice in Wonderland Syndrome*
By Helene Stapinski
June 23, 2014 4:57 pm

"Episodes usually include micropsia (objects appear small) or macropsia (objects appear large). Some sufferers perceive their own body parts to be larger or smaller. For me, and Paulina, furniture a few feet away seemed small enough to fit inside a dollhouse.
*Dr. John Todd, a British psychiatrist, gave the disorder its name in a 1955 paper, noting that the misperceptions resemble Lewis Carroll's descriptions of what happened to Alice. It's also known as Todd's syndrome."*

"Having had it myself, I had a sense it wasn't dangerous. But I wanted to know more. I contacted several neurologists whose work with the syndrome I found online and learned more about its possible triggers: *infections, migraine, stress and drugs, particularly some cough medicines.
Epilepsy and stroke were sometimes linked as well, the researchers said. *Some even believe that Lewis Carroll, who described his migraines in his journal, may have suffered from it"

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Interesting that many perceptual distortions including DP/DR come with migraine, epilepsy, stroke, stress and drugs ....


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## *Dreamer* (Feb 18, 2014)

Ohh and another one.. 'One pill to make you smaller and one pill to make your taller'.

"Go Ask Alice, When She's Ten Feet Tall" .... I was a kid in the 60s. I think I really should have been a hippie. 

"White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane, later Jefferson Starship ...


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## Guest (Oct 12, 2014)

missy42 said:


> Sometimes I look in the mirror and am convinced that I'm on the wrong side (despite knowing very well that I'm on the reality side). Any thoughts?


Wow.. that's very similar to something I experience occasionally. I'd always assumed some mirrors were like doorways to another dimension. I've talked to therapists a lot about this experience&#8230;


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