SoS 219: Dr. Christopher Lynn, Transcendental Medication, and Coping with Awareness

The SoS Team puts one of their own in the hot seat as Courtney and Cristina interview Dr. Christopher Lynn about his book Transcendental Medication: The Evolution of Mind, Culture, and Healing. His book offers a unique perspective on why human brains evolved to have consciousness, yet we spend much of our time trying to reduce our awareness. It outlines how limiting consciousness—rather than expanding it—is more functional and satisfying for most people, most of the time. He suggests that our brains evolved mechanisms to deal with the stress of awareness in concert with awareness itself—otherwise, it is too costly to handle. Defining dissociation as “partitioning of awareness,” Dr. Lynn touches on disparate cultural and psychological practices such as religion, drug use, 12-step programs, and dancing. The chapters draw on biological and cultural studies of Pentecostal speaking in tongues and stress, the results of our 800,000+ years watching hearth and campfires, and unconscious uses of self-deception as a mating strategy, providing practical insights into our daily lives. As a professor of Anthropology at the University of Alabama, Dr. Lynn's research explores critical intersections between culture and health. His work also includes investigating the relationship between tattooing practices, known as tatau, and immune response among Samoans to understand how cultural practices may influence physiological responses. Dr. Lynn is also the executive producer and co-host of the Inking of Immunity podcast. ------------------------------ Find the book discussed in this episode: Transcendental Medication Lynn, C. D. (2022). Transcendental Medication: The Evolution of Mind, Culture, and Healing. Routledge. ------------------------------ Contact Dr. Lynn:Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, E-mail: cdlynn@ua.edu, Twitter:@Chris_Ly ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Cristina Gildee, Guest Co-Host, HBA Junior Fellow, SoS Producer Website: cristinagildee.org, E-mail: cgildee@uw.edu, Twitter:@CristinaGildee Courtney Manthey, Guest-Co-Host, Website: holylaetoli.com/ E-mail: cpierce4@uccs.edu, Twitter: @HolyLaetoli