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From: pnorton@beaux.atwc.teradyne.com (Peter Norton)
Subject: Re: Consciousness and the Senses/Brain development
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References: <3c57el$buv@netaxs.com> <kak112-1012940953570001@ppp19.cac.psu.edu> <1994Dec10.191105@west.cscwc.pima.edu>
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Date: Mon, 12 Dec 1994 19:51:30 GMT
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103t_english@west.cscwc.pima.edu writes:
>kak112@psu.edu (Keith Kendall) writes:
>>> ...
>> But all this discussion of hallucination, et. al., assumes that the brain
>> has had previous sensory input from which to fabricate!  As I understand
>> it, the human brain, after it develops as an anatomical unit, needs
>> sensory input to generate it's inital neural network connections.  The
>> logical question is then, what happens to an individual who has *never*
>> (from conception onwards) has external stimuli?  Any speculation?  (I say
>> speculation because I *hope* there has never been a lab trial of this!)
>> 
>
>From neural network theory, we could speculate that the brain wouldn't do very
>well. In fact, I'd guess that any such person would sicken and die from lack of
>stimulation before the age of 2-3...

There is an interesting video called, I think, 'The Elder Brothers Warning',
about a South American tribe who would choose an infant at birth to become the
tribe's shaman/seer, who would be raised in a dark cave with little or no 
contact, never seeing the outside world, until brought out for the shamanic 
initiation around the age of puberty.  Apparently, they then easily 
developed non-ordinary cognitive powers.

