On the 10th of November the Sixth Form had the huge privilege of listening to Dr Chris Jagus speaking about the brain and the paranormal.
Dr Jagus is a Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry. He is currently responsible for the assessment, investigation and treatment of mental health problems in older people on the Isle of Man with a main focus on dementia patients. He qualified in Medicine at Sheffield University in 1988, initially training as a GP but then retraining to become what he is today. This all led to his fascination with the function of the brain and in particular the ways in which perception shapes our world and beliefs and the abnormalities of perception that can occur. These abnormalities can be interpreted as paranormal/supernatural, the main topic of his lecture. He taught us about not only the ways in which the brain can be tricked into thinking certain things purely due to perception, but also about how the brain concludes information, how it can interpret events differently due to environmental factors, why out of body experiences occur and in particular, how the brain hates gaps.
As someone who is very interested in psychology and how the brain interprets events and information, I found this lecture particularly useful and incredibly interesting to listen to. I would love to hear more from Dr Jagus in the future.
Sophie Long – L6
