Anecdotes collected by
Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd

while sharing The Great Story
of an evolutionary universe

(updated April 25, 2008)

   

Click for Stories of Awakening to:

  
♦ Great Story Beads       ♦ We Are Stardust

♦ Learning the Universe Story       ♦ Evolutionary Parables

♦ Bridging Spiritual Diversity       ♦ Your Brain's Creation Story

 

   


"Great Story Beads"    

1. "Pick a bead, any bead, and I'll tell you its story!"
Soon after we created our "Great Story Beads", Connie was wearing her double-loop necklace while browsing in a bead store down the street from where Michael was doing a presentation in Asheville, NC. A woman commented to Connie, "Oh, I like your beads." Connie responded, "This necklace represents the entire 14 billion year story of the Universe. Pick a bead, any bead, and I will tell you its story!" A crowd began to gather, including the storeowner, who said she'd love to hold a class on Great Story Beads. "Just go to our website and download the timeline and the instructions," said Connie.

2. "Is this purple bead Darwin?"
Several times in Montessori elementary schools, Connie has had an opportunity to spend time showing children her Great Story Beads. At a public Montessori school in Denver, a handful of kids hung around after class, asking about one bead or another. Eighteen months later, Connie returned to the same school, wearing her beads, but not speaking about them. Afterwards, a 6th grade girl approached her and asked, "Is this purple bead Darwin?" Yes, how did you know that? "I remember from the last time you were here. I was in 4th grade, and I asked you about that bead."

3. "Let me tell you about this bead!"
At a private Montessori school in Portland, Connie went in to observe a class in the morning, before she was scheduled to present her participatory North American Continent program to another class in the afternoon. So she sat at one of the work stations, took off her beads and laid them on the table. Then all she did was respond to questions. Two 11-year-olds (a boy and a girl) sat at that work station for an hour, asking about the beads, while other students streamed in and out. After an hour, Connie left that table and sat observing from another table, while the 2 kids encouraged their peers to come and ask about the beads. Then they alone were the ones to respond, sometimes using the printed timeline Connie had left them to try to figure out which bead was which. Between the two of them, they had memorized correctly at least 60 of the 135 total beads.

4. "The whole school is going to make one."
A week after Connie presented a program on seeds and showed her Great Story Beads to a Montessori classroom in St. Paul, MN, she received a package of drawings from the students thanking her for her program. Here are two of the comments: "We liked your necklace so much that the whole school is going to make one. I hope you can come again." — Love, Lucas. "I like your necklace I want to mak one too. mine will have the Big Bang. the Big Bang bead will be red." — Love, Andrew.

   Children wearing Great Story Beads they created at a Montessori school in St. Paul, MN.   

5. "Cosmic Rosaries for Catholics"
Sharon Abercrombie wrote an article for EarthLight magazine on Great Story Beads as a kind of "cosmic rosary." She told us by phone that she wanted to place a similar story in another publication, and was seeking our advice. Michael asked her, "Don't you work for a magazine?" She responded that she worked for The National Catholic Reporter. "Oh, I'm sure they won't go for it," she said. "Try it," advised Michael. She did, and the result was an article on cosmic rosaries for Catholics.

"We are made of stardust!"

1. "Oh, I must have been stardust!"
We visited southwestern Colorado in the summer of 2004, and again in the summer of 2006. On our return, a woman said to Connie, "I have to tell you something amazing. Last time you told a story to the kids about how our bodies are made of stardust. My son was 3 years old then, so it is surprising that he remembered anything. But obviously he did, because awhile ago I was telling him about something that happened in the past. He asked, 'Was I born yet'? I told him no. "Was I in your belly yet?" Again, no. "Oh, I must have still been stardust!"

2. "Even bugs are made of stardust!"
In northern Georgia (January 2005), the woman who was hosting our programs at her Unitarian Universalist congregation invited Connie to do a program on stardust for the kids at the private school that rented the UU classrooms during the weekdays. Connie spent an hour and a half with the elementary age kids. The next day a teacher reported overhearing one boy tell another on the playground, "Even bugs are made of stardust!"


3. "I am a mystical atheist — and I was in tears!"
In northern California (July 2005), Connie was presenting the guest sermon on a Sunday morning at a large Unitarian Universalist Church. The sermon was on stardust, and she concluded with a "Cosmic Communion", in which children and adults may choose to come forward and be "glittered" on their forehead or back of a hand to symbolize our ancient heritage with the stars. A man in his 80s approached Connie afterwards, and said, "I'm a mystical atheist, and I was in tears — so much so that I couldn't partake of the Stardust Communion. Thank you!"

  

4. "My grandmother became an ancestor on January 26, 2004."
In New Jersey (September 2004), Connie spent an evening with children in a large Unitarian Universalist Church, teaching the science and meaning of stardust. One of the reasons she loves to tell the story of stardust is that it provides an opportunity to see death as a natural and creative part of the cosmos: Without the death of ancestral stars who then recycled the atoms they had made, there could be no planets or life. She asked the children, "Do any of you have a grandparent who has already become an ancestor?" Instead of hesitancy, the children had pride in raising their hands. One boy said, "My grandma became an ancestor on January 26, 2004."
      In February 2005, Connie did her stardust program for a small group of Unitarian Universalist children in Mississippi. She ended by having all sit in a circle on the floor, and sing a song and glitter one another to represent that we are truly made of stardust. While still sitting in circle she asked, "Did any of you learn something here that you didn't know before and that you think you will remember for the rest of your life?" An 8-year-old Christian girl who had come to church with her grandmother, and thus was visiting, responded, "I learned that my grandmother will die."

5. "What a mindbender, dude!"
In January 2003, Michael and Connie spent a week teaching the evolutionary story of the universe in meaningful ways to Navaho and Hopi high school students at a BIA boarding school near Gallup, New Mexico. Michael was recruited to teach the stardust/chemistry story to the most challenging class in the school, which teachers had nicknamed "The Science Class from Hell" because it contained seniors who had not yet passed a science class, yet who needed to pass this one in order to graduate. It took awhile for some of the youth to warm up to Michael, but after he delivered the basic science, Michael placed this all in the context of who we humans are in the universe: "Do you get this? I mean, do you GET this?" he asked dramatically. "We are stardust now evolved to the place that the stardust can think about itself!" He then paused, looking straight at the kids. After seven or eight seconds, like popcorn, one face after another lit up with delight. One particularly vocal boy (the kingpin of the class, we discovered later) exclaimed, "Wow, what a mind bender, dude!" From that point on, Michael had the rapt attention of virtually everyone.

  

6. "I knew I was related to everything!"
Connie presented several plenary talks at an ecospiritual conference held in Lexington KY in the summer of 2004. During her stardust program, she recited a quotation from the closing episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos series, which aired in 1980: "We are the local embodiment of a Cosmos grown to self-awareness. We have begun to contemplate our origins — star stuff pondering the stars!" Afterwards, a young woman came up to her and tearfully exclaimed, "I was 7 years old when I watched him say that. It changed my life!" "How?" Connie asked. Her reply: "I knew I was related to everything!"

7. "Stars don't have families!"
In the spring of 2006, Connie was doing her stardust program for a group of elementary-age children at a Montessori school in Houston. After presenting the science of stardust, she asked, "Do you think it is a good thing that stars die?" The first child to respond said, "Yes, because if stars didn't die there wouldn't be any planets." Another boy said, "It's not a good thing for the families of the stars." A third retorted, "Stars don't have families!"

8. "I am at peace with his death."
In the summer of 2004, Connie and Michael were jointly presenting an evening workshop at a Unitarian Universalist church in Ohio. Connie did a component on the creation of atoms inside of stars, and the importance of those stars dying and giving back to the galaxy all that they had created during their lives. A woman sent us an email afterwards, which read: "During Connie's talk about stardust, I knew why I had come. My father, who took his own life in May, always told me I was made of 'star-stuff'. After hearing you, I am at peace with his death. His spirit is with the goddess, but even stars die, and his substance will continue on as new life. Thanks so much!"

9. "I think I'm from that star!"
Connie was doing a program on stardust at a Unitarian Universalist church, and the minister took her aside afterwards and said, "I first learned that we are made of stardust when I read Brian Swimme's book. It meant so much to me that I've been teaching it ever since, including at a summer retreat for teens. I delivered my program, and that evening my co-leader and I wonder why it was so quiet. Where are the kids? Well, we found them outdoors lying on the grass, feet touching in a star formation, saying things like, 'I think I'm from that star!' The next day, during a private counseling session, a boy told me that he had come to camp thinking that he might commit suicide here, but that hearing the stardust story made that feeling go away."

  

10. "Where did iron come from?"
In 2003, Connie was doing a children's religious education class at a Unity church in the Chicago area, while Michael was providing the morning "lesson" (sermon) for the adults. Connie was helping kids collectively recall what they already know about the chemical elements, as a prelude to teaching that all those elements came from the stars. When she asked, "Where did the iron in our blood and in cars come from?", the children offered, "the store," "the dump," "food," "recycling." Nobody guessed, "Earth." At first Connie was disturbed that children did not know that elements come from the Earth, but then she realized that maybe they are so advanced in their thinking that they assume that everything must be kept in motion in the human economy, rather than extracting anything from Earth anymore.

  

11. "I had forgotten how much I loved learning about the stars."
Connie was presenting on stardust to a public gathering in California, when a woman began to weep. Afterward, she told Connie that in junior high she was reading a book by George Gamow for her science fair project and was thrilled by it. But she grew up with alchoholism in the family, and something happened that prevented her from finishing her project. "I had forgotten how much I loved learning about the stars."

12. "Humans will probably extinct ourselves soon."
Connie presented an hour-long religious education program for middle school kids while their parents were at the Sunday morning service at a Unitarian Universalist church in Massachusetts. While presenting on stardust, she told the kids that our own star, the sun, was about halfway through its life, and would turn into a red giant and then die in about 5 billion years. The two parent-teachers in the classroom started getting really concerned, saying things like, "But what will happen to humans then?" None of the kids seemed concerned. In fact, one said, "Why should the death of the sun concern me? Humans will probably extinct ourselves soon."
      Similarly, Connie presented an interactive stardust program with high school students at a private school in Vermont. She asked, "Does it bother you to learn that our sun will die in 5 billion years?" Here were the responses: "No, because death of stars is natural." "By then, our technology will take us to other star systems." "We will have extincted ourselves by pollution and war long before then."

13. "Just like the Lion King!"
Connie and Michael were staying at the home of a minister in New England. His son was in tenth grade, so Connie asked whether he was learning in chemistry class where the chemical elements came from. He was not, so Connie gave him a brief lesson in the science of stardust, and how that understanding now helps us to reconnect with the stars as our ancestors. The boy was exclaimed, "That's just like The Lion King!" "Yes!" Connie affirmed, as she draws the same connnection when teaching a full-length class on stardust. The boy continued, "That's my favorite movie!"
     Indeed! When Connie asks elementary age kids who has seen The Lion King there is rarely a child over the age of 7 who has not seen it — and some kids claim to have seen it more than 20 times. Connie recalls one 6th grade girl saying that for a time in her life, she watched a bit of it every day. Another boy told her that he watched it a lot while in the hospital.
     Finally, while presenting on stardust to an adult group at a Unitarian Universalist church, Connie talked about how The Lion King had, as an important teaching, for the young hero to connect with the stars as ancestors. One man grumbled, "I never watched The Lion King because I don't approve of inherited succession."

  

14. "It's more accurate to say we are made of star guts!"
Connie was presenting her stardust program in Ontario, Canada. Taking issue with her reference to humans being made of stardust, a physics professor advised her afterward, "It's more accurate to say we are made of star guts!"

15. "What's my magic name?"
Connie was presenting her interactive stardust programs to 4 different classes of students at a Catholic elementary school in Ohio. On the first day, one class was kindergartners — an age group that is younger than Connie characteristically works with. So she had to hugely amend her program. She talked about chemical elements having "magic numbers" (atomic number; number of protons in the nucleus). She concluded by whispering in each child's ear a "magic number", in order around the circle. Then she called the kids forward one by one. The teacher glittered the child's hand, and then Connie looked them in the eye very seriously and said, (for example) "You are helium! Your magic number is 2! You are found inside of birthday balloons! You are helium!" Then we rang a chime. And then the next child came forward. Those who came forward were all very serious, but their peers giggled quietly each time a magic number was spoken. The next day, I came to school to do a program for the older kids, and a kindergartner came up to me and asked, "What is my magic name again?" She then asked that I write it down for her, and then the rest of the kids each came forward to have me write down their magic names.

16. "I feel limitless."
Here is a clip of an email we received in July 2006: "Whenever I read about us being stardust, I feel, even if only for a fleeting moment, limitless. I may only be 19, but no other religion, philosophy or theory I have encountered has ever been able to do that."

"Learning the Universe Story"     

  

1. "Grandma? Is that how it really happened?"
Diana Spiegel in Dayton, Ohio, is active in the Universe Story movement, so as soon as Jennifer Morgan and Dana Lynne Andersen's book, Born with a Bang, was published, she read it to her 4-year-old grand-daughter. The child responded, "Grandma? Is that how it really happened?" It seems that children are so used to being told fairy tales that when something as awesome as the real Universe Story is presented in a way that children can enjoy, they have a hard time believing that it is actually true.

2. "The Universe is inside of me, too!"
Michael was presenting on The Great Story for a group of Catholic sisters in the Midwest. Immediately afterward, an elderly sister came up to Connie bursting with excitement. I'm familiar with the Universe Story, but I just now realized that the Universe is inside of me, too!"

3. "It's unsettling and reassuring at the same time."
Michael was using large posters of Hubble Space photos at a church program in California. When he talked about "The Hubble Deep Field Photo" one man remarked, "It's unsettling and reassuring at the same time."

4. "That's where baby stars are born!"
Connie was setting up her large posters of Hubble space photos in the classroom where she would be teaching a special kid's program on stardust at a Unitarian Universalist church in Tennessee. A 7-year-old girl and her younger sister came into the room early and immediately stepped up to the posters. She pointed to a greenish one and asked, "Is that the Eagle Nebula?" Yes! said Connie with excitement. Then the girl continued, "That's where baby stars are born!"
      At a Unitarian church in Maryland, a woman came up to Connie after a Stardust talk and pointed to the famous Eagle Nebula photo and said, "My grandson had that photo on his bedroom wall when he was in highschool."

  

5. "Is a cheetah my cousin?"
At the same Unitarian church in Tennessee where the little girl had recognized the Eagle Nebula photo, Connie asked the kids whether we are related to monkeys. One boy declared, "Fish, too, and even microbes!" Then the same girl asked, "Is a cheetah my cousin?" Yes! replied Connie. Beside herself with joy, the girl responded, "Cheetah is my favorite animal!"
     In November 2007, Connie presented her highly participatory River of Life program to 35 elementary and middle school kids at the Unitarian Universalist church in Wilmington, NC. Based on the story of our 3.8 billion year ancestry presented by Richard Dawkins in his book, Ancestors Tale, Connie's goal is to have the kids not only know in their bones but delight in the fact that they are related to every creature alive today. Periodically she pauses and asks the class playfully, "How many of you are proud to be related to a tree shrew [lungfish, etc.]?" Well, after this particular class, the teacher told Connie that she heard a girl greet her mother after the class saying with great excitement and happiness, "I'm related to a duck-billed platypus!"

6. "I feel such hope now!"
At the 2006 annual meeting of the Unitarian Universalist Association, a woman interrupted a conversation Michael was having in a cafe in order to relay something of great importance. "My husband attended one of your workshops and he brought home your DVD and said I had to watch it. I was deeply depressed, near suicidal, at the time time. Yet watching your DVD, in that one sitting, brought me out of my depression. I feel such hope now!"

7. "He said it changed his life!"
The day after Michael presented his 2-hour "Evolutionary Epiphanies" powerpoint presentation at a Unitarian Universalist church in Texas, Michael received this email: "I brought my 9-year-old son to your program tonight. He said it changed his life and made him feel better about many things. He talked about it all the way home and then wished he didn't have to go to bed so he could stay up and talk about it some more. Thanks for putting poetry and magic to the things I have been telling him."

  

8. "You're a church — and you want to hear about evolution?!"
In spring 2006, Connie conducted a teacher training for the annual UU kids day camp held at the Unitarian church of Dallas. This year's camp theme was to be, "EvolUUtion." The assistant director of religious education told Connie that when she called the natural history museum to request a staff person to visit camp with some fossils, the person on the phone responded, "Let me get this right: You say you are a church, and you want to hear about evolution in a positive way?"

9. "Cosmic whiplash!"
At a Unitarian Universalist church in Texas, a man who teaches astronomy told us that "When I teach my students, I try to present astronomy in a way that changes them forever: that gives them cosmic whiplash."

10. "A Story of Their Own"
In 2006, Connie presented a guest sermon, "We Are Made of Stardust!", at a Unitarian Universalist church in Maine. She also told a 5-minute version of the stardust story to kids gathered at the beginning of the Sunday service. A woman who had previously learned about the Universe Story talked to Connie after the service and bought the Born With a Bang trilogy to read to her young kids. She sent us this email a week later:

"My children are 6 and 8 and I have been floundering with how to raise them spiritually. I liked the idea of exposing them to all the stories, to teaching them that different people and different cultures have different pathways to the same thing — to that great mystery. The Unitarian Universalist church is a good fit for that, but something was missing: a story of their own. Thanks to the Born with a Bang books, now my kids have a story of their own, and they both really get it!
   "My daughter said to me as I was tucking her into bed the other night, 'Mom did you know our sun will die in about 5 billion years? That's kind of sad.' I couldn't comfort her by saying she won't be here, now that she knows she has been here for nearly 14 billion years. And just as I was searching for something to say, she continued in a very hopeful tone, "Maybe I'll see it! Maybe I'll be an animal like a deer by then because it probably takes a really long time to become an animal.'
    "I loved the way that she didn't dwell on the death of the sun because she realizes now that she has always been here and always will be here in some way. She knows she is part of something much larger. She knows that death is part of the cycle of life. I have tried to teach her that all along, but it definitely makes more sense to her now. And I loved the way she placed the animals on a higher plane, as she has always had a great respect and connection to animals.
    "Thankyou for teaching my children that they are stardust, for giving them a story, and for being there at just the right time for me."

11. "The first creation story I could relate to"
In 2006, Connie was presenting her "Death Through Deep-Time Eyes" sermon at a Unitarian Universalist church in the Midwest. A young woman came up to her teary-eyed, and then sent her this email:

"I am a funeral director intern and will be getting my license within the next couple of months. Every day I deal with death. Every day I hear sermons about Adam's sin, and death's sting. I always feel strange, sitting at the back listening to whichever preacher happens to be the pick of the day. I always knew I didn't believe what they spoke. I learned about evolution on the Discovery Channel. I believe it. But I have never had it put into a story that could define me. It was always distant, something that happened in the past. You brought to me the first creation story that I could relate to. No talking snake in a tree tempting a nude woman. No, you gave me words to a story that is based in fact — something I can make my own. Something that is my own. And for that, I thank you."
  

"Evolutionary Parables"     

1. "You've just invented a new form of science teaching!"
Before launching our itinerant ministry, Connie came up with an idea to teach science and values combined in a playful way by creating "Evolutionary Parables". The first parables she wrote were all in the form of narrated stories. Then she had a chance to recruit Denny O'Neil, the legendary comic book writer (Batman and Superman), to this effort. She sent him the science for the evolutionary transition of vertebrates coming onto land and Denny wrote a parable in which dialogue between two imaginary fish characters was central. With Denny's parable, "Ozzie and the Snortlefish" in hand, she was able to recruit paleontologist Mark McMenamin to follow the same format in writing a parable about his area of expertise: the origin of land plants. The result was "The Lucky Little Seaweed". Connie then converted both parables into script form, and has been using them in workshops and kids programs ever since — recruiting volunteers to play the roles of protagonist, antagonist, and narrator. When Mark McMenamin emailed her his draft of the seaweed parable, he wrote her, "Connie, you've just invented a new form of science teaching!"

  

2. "Oooh! That's the Lucky Little Seaweed!"
In April 2003, Connie brought her Great Story Beads to an upper elementary Montessori classroom in Beaverton, Oregon. As usual, the lesson proceeded by Connie simply responding to questions of "What's this bead? What's that bead?" Soon, a girl pointed to a mossy green bead, and Connie explained that it symbolized the coming of plants onto land. "Oooh!" the girl squealed. "That's the Lucky Little Seaweed!" (Her teacher had downloaded that script from our website a few days earlier and had the kids perform it.)

3. "Pluto is an adopted planet!"
In 2002, Michael presented the sermon, and Connie the children's story, during a Unitarian Universalist church service near Princeton, New Jersey. The kids came forward to participate in the children's story, which Connie introduced by asking the kids to call out the names of all the planets. After someone said Pluto, a pre-teen boy stood up near the front of the congregation and proclaimed, "Pluto is no longer considered to be a planet." Connie knew that the Hayden Planetarium in New York City had removed Pluto from its exhibit of planets, but a church service was not the place for a science lesson or debate. Somehow she muddled through the story. The next day, she confided in her friend Leslie Pilder, recounting not only her embarrassment but also the science underlying the controversy. Leslie responded immediately, "Pluto is an adopted planet!" With that, Connie was determined to write a parable about Pluto as an adopted planet — although it took her a year to create a suitable storyline. (Click to access "The Pluto Parable".)

"Bridging Spiritual Diversity"     

1. "I can now say it again!"
At a workshop in New England for Unitarian Universalists, a woman came up to Michael after he presented his powerpoint program in which a key component was how The Great Story can bridge spiritual diversity. She told him, "I grew up in the Episcopal Church, and, as a young girl, I used to love greeting the morning by stepping outside and proclaiming as I was taught, 'This is the day that the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!' When I could no longer believe the words, I stopped saying it, but I deeply missed that practice. After hearing you speak about God language, I know I can now say it again!"

  

2. "Read me a night-time book, Mommy."
A woman who was trained as a scientist told us this story after listening to Michael distinguish day language from night language. "When my daughter was young, I would read her bed-time stories. I remember trying to read her an age-appropriate science book one night. But she protested, saying, 'That's a day-time book. Read me a night-time book, Mommy." That's exactly what you are talking about, too!"

3. "We don't have to check out our brains at the door."
The day after we got our new logo up on the side of our van of the Jesus fish and Darwin fish kissing, a woman ran up to Connie in the parking lot of a Catholic college and declared, "I don't know who you are, but you are wonderful! We don't have to check out our brains at the door."

  

"Your Brain's Creation Story"        

1. "The Great Story is the best tool."
A woman in Colorado sent us this response to the new program on evolutionary brain science and evolutionary psychology we began developing in 2006. She wrote, "I think everyone can relate to the destructiveness of subconscious drives. And who wouldn't want the tools to overcome them? In this way, the Great Story perspective is the best tool I've come across for overcoming these destructive tendencies. I realize now that this is exactly why I'm so enthusiastic about the Great Story. I could never understand my crazy, destructive drives: why I ate so much when I was full and why I fell in love with the wrong men. With the understanding of evolution, it all makes sense."

  

2. "He couldn't stop talking about it!"
In 2007, Connie Barlow led a group of teens at a Unitarian Universalist church in Kentucky through a dialogue for understanding "Your Brain's Creation Story", using the two charts of the quadrune brain pictured above. The session culminated with 5 student volunteers reading dramatic scripts for "Menagerie of the Mind", and embellishing their roles by using the hand puppets pictured at left. Clearly, it was great fun for all. Most telling, the next evening a mother of one of the boys, who was attending Michael Dowd's evening program, came up to me with a look of wonder on her face. She said, "My son was in your class, and afterwards, he told me about it excitedly—he must have kept talking for a half hour!" The religious education director later told me that several of the teens said they would love to have tee-shirts bearing the animal symbols of the quadrune brain (above right), so we are now making those available through the "store" webpage at ThankGodforEvoulution.com.

3. "I have never told anyone this before."
In 2007, as part of his "Thank God for Evolution" presentation, Michael talked about our evolved Quadrune Brain and mentioned how scientists have discovered that "If we get a promotion, are voted into office, or in some other way experience a big boost in status, our testosterone levels shoot through the roof. Because testosterone is the hormone that influences the sex drive, unless we are aware of this and take precautions to ensure accountability, we can wreak havoc in our lives and those of our loved ones." Afterwards, a man drew Michael aside and said, "I have never told anyone this before, but when I was promoted to head my division, my life began to fall apart. I couldn't understand it. But I ended up with 5 affairs all going on at the same time and my marriage was in ruins. Thank you for helping me understand how this could have happened to me!"

4. "I just point to the refrigerator."
In late 2007, Connie was giving her digital slide presentation, "Ancestor's Within: Your Brain's Creation Story," for a group of adults at a Unitarian Universalist church in Georgia. In it, Connie uses a chart of the Quadrune Brain, in which animal figures playfully substitute for the 4 parts of our brain that evolved in this order: Lizard Legacy (reptilian), Furry Li'l Mammal (paleomammalian), Monkey Mind (neomammalian), and Higher Porpoise (advanced). Connie mentioned that the Higher Porpoise, which is our name for the frontal lobes, or prefrontal cortex, is not only the most recently evolved component of our brain but is the last to mature — maturing at about age 25. Without a fully functioning prefrontal cortex, we tend to follow our lower drives, even when part of us rationally knows that there is a better choice. In the Q&A that followed, a woman who is a high school guidance counselor told this story: "I have a 15-year-old daughter. A few weeks ago she asked me if she could stay out later than usual at a party — till 1 am. I responded as I often do now. I took her to the refrigerator and pointed to the article I have posted there, on how the prefrontal cortex doesn't mature till well past the teen years. She responded, "Oh, why do I have to have a mom who is a guidance counselor!"

5. "It's so ironic that science leads to this virtue!"
In January 2008, Michael was presenting an evening program on his Thank God for Evolution! book at a Unitarian Universalist church in New Orleans. His talk included a section on science's new evolutionary understanding of the human brain — and thus our new understanding of the human psyche. Afterward, a woman made this remark, "I am studying neuroscience, and the more I learn, the more compassion I have for myself and others. It's so ironic that science leads to this virtue!"

6. "Calm down Monkey Mind."
A director of religious education at a Unitarian Universalist church, used puppets to present the core concepts of our brain's creation story to children in elementary school. Later that week, her own son (in first grade) came home from school and told her about "what he was saying in his head" during a fire drill that day: "Calm down Monkey mind. Lizard Legacy, you are NOT hungry."

7. "Why my marriage failed."
In February 2008, we (Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow) were leading an all-day workshop in southern California. After our presentation on evolutionary brain science, a woman stood up and enthusiastically offered this testimonial: "I finally understand why my marriage failed." Humorously, she then added, "When dating I used to ask, 'What's your sign?' Now I can see a better question would be, 'What was your uterine environment?'" (Note: A woman stressed during preganancy will have levels of cortisol in her bloodstream that induces fetal brain growth in the more ancient sections, to the detriment of higher brain functions.)

8. Parenthood and Higher Porpoise
At one of our presentations, an elderly woman commented, "I gave birth to 4 of my 5 children before my Higher Porpoise matured!" Michael then quipped, "For most of human history, our ancestors produced offspring not because they chose to, but because sex was so pleasurable. If having or not having kids was just a rational decision, we'd have far fewer!"

9. "I ended up in a mental hospital."
In February 2008, the conversation at a workshop turned to the fallen pop music icon, Britney Spears, who was then being hospitalized for mental breakdown. Connie suggested that an evolutionary understanding of our brain can help us have compassion for her predicament. Connie said, "Britney lost custody of her kids, and then was banned from even seeing them. At about the same time her status plummeted from top of the world to profound humiliation. Both events were terrible blows to the Furry Li'l Mammal part of her brain. Who among us would not go crazy under such circumstances?"
    Immediately, a woman rose to offer this testimonial, "When my husband and I divorced, I lost custody of my kids. I was also discharged from the military and was thereafter banned from attending church at the military base. It was too much for me, and I ended up in the mental hospital."

10. "Women younger than 25 are different."
After learning that the frontal lobes of the brain (Higher Porpoise) do not fully mature till between the ages of 22 and 25, a man told Connie privately, "I'm 31, and I date women between the ages of 21 and 39. I've noticed that women under that age of 25 are different from those who are older. Now I understand why!

11. "His testosterone suit"
In Oregon in 2008, Michael was telling the church audience about how an increase in status will cause a rise in testosterone. A woman excitedly raised her hand and told this story: "My husband has a suit that, when he puts it on, turns him into a real jerk. He swaggers about the room, and I just try to stay away from him. I call it his "testosterone suit."

12. "I sounded so assured."
The day afternoon The Testosterone Suit episode, Michael was sharing the ancecdote with one of his male friends. "That happened to me!" the friend said. "I was scheduled to meet with a high government official, so I went to a thrift store to buy a suit. I tried it on at the store and the staff commented on on how powerful I looked. The next day at the meeting I was shocked to hear myself talking in a new way. I didn't sound quite like myself. I sounded so assured, and I felt that way too. Somehow the suit on the outside made me feel different on the inside."

13. "And his Furry L'il Mammal just checked out"
Connie had delivered her talk, "A Walk on the Wild Side: Your Brain's Creation Story," at a Unitarian Universalist church in Portland, OR. During the response period, a man reported that he had a whole new way to understand his 5-year-old son's meltdown the day before. "His Lizard Legacy trounced his Higher Porpoise, and his Furry L'il Mammal just checked out!"

14. "Is he rich?"
A woman was more than a week into her 2 week silent meditation retreat with several dozen other long-time practitioners of vipassana meditation. Standard discipline was to keep one's eyes averted from others at all times. Nevertheless, sitting silently at lunch that day, she noticed her mind obsessed with wanting her to raise her eyes, just for a moment, to examine the face of the man sitting directly across the table. For 15 minutes she noticed and let pass the urge, but it was relentless. Finally, she glanced up and quickly back down again. Her mind instantly registered an observation and a question: "He's good-looking!" "I wonder if he's rich?" Yes, Furry L'il Mammal will have its way, even on a meditation retreat!

FOR MORE ON "OUR BRAIN'S CREATION STORY", see chapters 8-11 of Michael Dowd's 2007 book, Thank God for Evolution!. See also a blog written by Connie Barlow: Zoey 101, Brain Science 101, and a blog written by Michael Dowd, Lizard Legacy Bites 3 More Alphas.


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