26 May 08 All In The Mind?

It’s said that the mind is a funny thing. Life is but a state of mind. After all, we’re all only here because of our consciousness; think about it.

Still, I have just listened to an interesting BBC radio story entitled The Man Whose Mind Exploded.

70 year old self-named Draka Oho Zaharzar lives in Brighton on the south coast of England. He’s been filmed by Andy Warhol, modelled for Salvador Dali, and danced at The London Palladium.

he’s been in two serious road accidents that left him in comas, had two nervous breakdowns, and tried to commit suicide twice.

He now has almost no short term memory and has filled his tiny apartment with thousands of pictures and pieces of paper to remind him of who he is and what is happening in his life.

As for Drako’s memories, the fact that he was a muse of Salvador Dali is one of the more unusual ones – that he has a wife is another. Nearly everything else he forgets.

He can remembers the past but not the present, yet this doesn’t seem to bother him.

Recently too, I read a moving book by Robert Kurson entitled Crashing Through. It’s the true story about Mike May (not a known relation), who lost his eyesight in an accident at the age of three, and was given the opportunity to try to have it restored forty five years later. It was actually not an easy decision for him to make, and there were a lot of mental obstacles to try and overcome along the way.

Both these stories made me realize the obvious – that everything we do, comes down to what is inside our head – the brain. When that doesn’t work properly for whatever reason, it changes things in strange ways for the person concerned and for those around them.

Tags: andy warhol, bbc, bbc radio, brighton, comas, consciousness, crashing through, eyesight, funny thing, london palladium, mental obstacles, muse, nervous breakdowns, radio story, road accidents, robert kurson, salvador dali, short term memory, south coast of england, strange ways, tiny apartment, toby amies, true story