I assume that most of my readers, belonging to the more educated part of the global village, follow the leading academic journals in most fields. Some of you might, however, have overseen an article indicating that the intake of caffeine may cause hallucinations. Yes, that is right. Large amounts of coffee, tea, chocolate or energy drinks increases the risk of hearing voices, seeing ghosts and whatever.
So, if you are being abducted by aliens or otherwise experience things your rational side cannot explain, you should cut down your coffee intake.
Yet another reason to advocate moderate beer consumption instead of other beverages…..
Actually, what the paper says is that people who drink coffee have a greater chance of seeing hallucinations than people who don’t. Nothing is said about whether the coffee is causing this. In fact, it might just as well be that when people have hallucinations they start drinking coffee in order to cope. Or that smoking gives you hallucinations, and that smokers are more likely than others to drink coffee. And so on.
In short, the paper is very close to worthless.
Sorry if I sound grumpy, but this story pissed me off when it was in the mainstream media. Apparently I haven’t cooled down entirely yet…