Who needs a brain?
Published: Wed, 06/07/17
I was listening to the recent book of the week on R4, Admissions, an account of a life in brain surgery by Henry Marsh. It was well worth listening to and one thing that stuck in my mind was Dr Marsh’s description of the Sea Squirt (Ciona intestinalis) which absorbs its own nervous system. Then Venetia came home from a Feldenkrais course she is attending and described the talk that day which also mentioned the Sea Squirt. In both cases this aquatic creature was being used as an example of the importance of physical movement for developing and maintaining the well being of the nervous system.
Apparently the Sea Squirt has two stages of life. In the first it is a free swimming tadpole type creature with a tale and a nervous system, including a primitive brain, which facilitates swimming and hunting for food. However, as the creature matures it sticks its head to a rock and changes into the adult form which is not much more than a mouth, a stomach and an anus. Seawater circulates through and anything nutritious is caught and absorbed. This process requires very little intellectual capacity so the adult Sea Squirt absorbs the rudimentary nervous system it had in its larval form and loses any capacity for action or movement.
This seems to work well enough for Tunicates (the name for this group of creatures) and they have been around for over 550 million years. However, the Sea squirt is often used as a horrible warning as to what will happen to you and I if we don’t get regular exercise and move around enough.
Of course comparisons between creatures which have evolved separately for 550 million years or thereabouts should not be stretched too far. (Although the way that children can morph from active five year olds to teenagers more firmly stuck to social media than the sea squirt to his rock makes me wonder if a form of evolutionary convergence is taking place after all.)
It is true that the longer you can maintain appropriate physical activity the better shape you will stay in. I have personally never been much interested in sport in the modern sense. (I think Marx was onto something with his idea of the ‘Opium of the People’ but he should have thought of football rather than religion.) Yes, playing football or rugby, tennis, cricket etc does require movement and coordination which must be good for the nervous system while there is involvement. The problem is the strain put on the body during a playing career which will usually be over quite early in the lifespan of a normal person.
So, how to maintain activity which will stimulate and develop the nervous system throughout your lifetime? Walking, gardening and everyday physical activities will certainly help and we should seek to be as self-reliant as possible in terms of walking rather than driving and being able to do practical things for ourselves. There is going to the gym and building up cardio vascular capacity and muscular strength, again, good as far as it goes but there are limits to how far you can train without actually damaging your body, especially as you get older. The other problem is being dependent upon lifestyle for your activity. What happens when the gym is closed or you can’t work in the garden because it is winter, or your dog dies and there is no reason to walk any more?
A basic practice is the only way to really maintain your well being, a practice as basic as brushing your teeth, sleeping each night and eating breakfast. Of course, not everyone manages these basic things on a regular basis and their lives tend to be pretty chaotic. For me Stav has provided this practice through the stances as the basis and simple weapon training as a slightly more advanced activity. When I train with other people I have the capacity to do so. If I ever have to defend myself I am probably better prepared than I would be otherwise. The most important reason I practice Stav is because it keeps me fully alive and I am not dependent on anyone or anything to enable me to practice.
Later this month I will be holding a short course in Crewkerne which will look at simple ways of training with the four lengths of stick we use in Stav. A simple practice is all you really need to maintain your well-being, but you do have to do it. Come on the course and I will show you what works for me, then you can develop what works for you. I will be sharing the same ideas at the USA course in September.
Details here: Stick training, Crewkerne 24th June http://www.somersetstav.co.uk/stick.html
USA training, Leaf River, Illinois 30th September to 1st October http://iceandfire.org.uk/usasept17.html
regards
Graham
PS The Crewkerne course on the 24th will be the last one I will be teaching there for a while because Venetia and I are moving in July, more on that soon. So, if you are one of those people who is always meaning to come to a course but never quite makes it this one will be your last chance for a while.
PPS If you want to know more about Sea Squirts this is a good article http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2015/06/why-the-sea-squirt-eats-its-brains-out.html