culture shock and the brain

i sometimes recount the tale of the hardest blow i have taken in my life... it was a mighty blow, some australian aborigines in a ghetto in sydney were trying to sell me fake pot -- and cheat me out of $20 -- i stupidly argued with them and the next thing i could see a five inch like diameter log -- very solid, about a yard long, coming down hard on my head, i was too slow to move.... the blow left a scar an inch long on my hairline and my head spat blood immediately -- i left and went home in an ambulance -- the pain was noticeable two days and perhaps more after that along with a sense of sadness and concussion

of course, at this stage of my life i was a terrible pothead -- perhaps i did the right thing, smoking all that pot? i cannot say one way or the other

how can tremendous physical blows and drugs and study and travel affect the mind?

certainly culture shock can and will affect the mind, it is quite something to spend a few months here and a few months there and then another half year in air conditioned sumptuous luxury (all in china) and then be confronted by the realities of central park, yellow taxis, streets that are 'a bitch to walk' in the words of one texan woman and all that shit......

i found that perhaps laziness, self-imposed incarceration (hermet life), even marijuana, can lead to a greater appreciation of life (e.g., in china) ---

i remember after making some kind of little girlfriend in ny - actually an older woman, a kind of texan, that i was trying to explain to her the reality of street bums in china and trying to differentiate that or match that to the reality of nyc

she was trying to tell me that in his consciousness everything was different, or something like that....