re: #11 Bob Levin

This doesn’t sound just a little bit racist at worst, and culturally elitist at best? I really don’t know how that entry became number three in the Google search, regarding animal penises, but the reality is that there are a some staple herbs, much like a major scale, in Chinese medicine (penises are not among these), and they are very effective—if the healthcare consumer knows how to make informed choices.

I have every respect for Chinese contributions to our understanding, including those of Chinese neuroscientists who are doing real science. I find it hard to have respect for a ‘medicine’ that sees no role for the brain in the question of consciousness, even if it is presented as ‘Chinese medicine’.

Obviously, herbs can be valuable sources of genuinely effective medicines, modern medical science makes them more effective by thoroughly investigating their effects and through rigorous testing and development.

PS neuroscientists and philosophers are not entirely uninterested in meditation and it’s effect on the brain/consciousness; take Sam Harris, for example, who is very interested ion what happens inside the brains of people who are practised in meditation, but has no interest in any attempt to validate the woo-woo’s.