Dr. Andrew Belaveshkin

  In Cyprus, near ancient Paphos (the village of Kouklia), there are several interesting places, little known even to guides. For example, the excavated top of the Marchellos hill, where remains of the ancient city's wall have been preserved, and nearby — siege towers and embankments. Archaeologists found hundreds of Persian arrowheads and several helmets of the defenders of Paphos.    All this is evidence of the Persian siege of Paphos during the uprising of the independent city-states of Cyprus against the Achaemenid Empire in 497 B.C. (approximately 2,500 years ago) under the leadership of Onesilus. But this was only one of the episodes of the fifty-year war of many scattered small Greek poleis against the giant Persian Empire, far superior in population, territory, and wealth.     What did the Persians want? “Water and earth.”   In the history of these wars there was everything — bribery by the Persians of votes in the Athenian democracy, the overthrow ...

  We often think of minerals only as nutrients we consume through food or supplements. Yet, in reality, we can absorb them in several surprising ways. Let’s look at a few intriguing examples:         1. Through breathing.    When you walk along the seashore, especially where seaweed is present, you can smell its distinctive scent. In doing so, you’re not only inhaling air — you’re also absorbing iodine. Studies show that the concentration of atmospheric iodine in such areas is about eleven times higher than normal. People living near the coast have urinary iodine levels 2.7 times higher than those living inland, even when their diets are identical. In addition to iodine, trace elements such as zinc and manganese can also enter the bloodstream through inhalation.     2. From cookware.    When you cook with cast-iron pots or pans, some of the iron leaches into the food — often enough to raise your hemoglobin levels. The amount of iron...

  How to stop rumination in 30 seconds. Overthinking your thoughts exhausts you and degrades your mental health. Stress is not as dangerous as endlessly scrolling through stressful thoughts. It’s like you’re reliving the stress a thousand times. You need to be able to stop this.😬 The flow of our thoughts is synchronized with the movements of the tongue, hands and eyes. To instantly calm down, you need to stop all muscle movements. So: ✅1. Fix your eyes at one point (the bridge of your nose) and hold them there. ✅2. Press the tip of your tongue against the hard palate and hold it there. ✅3. Press the back of your hands (palms up) to the front surface of the thigh and hold them there. Did you feel it? The stream of thoughts stopped. Enjoy it!     Quick stress relief here and now: 12 Ideas 1. Restore sensory connection: Focus on external stimuli instead of internal emotions. Use the 5–4–3–2–1 technique: 5 things you see, 4 things you touch, 3 things you hear, 2 th...

The dangerous myth of the noble savage. One of the most widespread and extremely dangerous myths is the myth of the noble savage, who is unspoiled by civilization, represents an example of morality and ethics, and lives in harmony with nature. This myth is universal for all times and cultures, whether it be the story of the Garden of Eden, the Sumerian Enkidu living with animals, or Roman historians praising barbarians and deriding decadent Rome. Modern narratives, such as the movie Avatar, exploit this same myth.     How did this myth originate? "Before being open, the savage was first invented." Its widespread dissemination suggests probable biological reasons, something akin to escapism, infantile regression, dopamine-induced self-deception fantasies (imagining oneself as better than others), or the fact that we forget bad things faster than good things (thus creating a cognitive illusion that the past was better)—such is the protective mechanism.   The image of the "...

Improvement through destruction. One of the most dangerous and persistent cognitive illusions is the belief that people (organizations, markets, things, books, cities, etc.) can be improved by destroying (humiliating, demolishing, violating, etc.) them. Such views are very characteristic of barbaric primitive thinking, which is currently the most widespread and has a biological nature.   Here are the main components of this illusion: all problems arise from something bad, and you can improve your life simply by destroying it; once you destroy the bad, the good will appear by itself; it takes a lot of effort to destroy the bad, while the good grows easily and quickly.   1. Childish thinking.  According to Jean Piaget, children are egocentric in their perception of the world until a certain age. They think that if something exists in their environment, it must simply be there (like air or the sun). Children under 7 years old (and adult "savages") exhibit magical thinking, i...

Zero Patient of Fascism and Communism. In epidemiology, the "zero patient" refers to the first person to contract a disease, from whom an outbreak begins. Mental epidemics, where instead of viruses, ideas (memes) spread, also follow the laws of epidemiology, and often the "zero patient" of such outbreaks is well known (for example, Frau Troffea for the 1518 dancing plague). Likewise, the mechanisms of spread (induced psychosis) are studied.    Despite external differences, the key ideas of communism and fascism were clearly formulated, popularized, printed in large editions, and had a tremendous impact on people by one person — Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Those interested can read about his biography, full of deception and crimes, but we will focus on his theses, many of which were first articulated by him and still resonate loudly today.       1. The necessity of destroying the mind and culture   The human mind is a mistake of nature. Rousseau argued that "refl...