Human phantom tails

by phil on Friday May 7, 2010 1:18 AM
evolution

For a couple minutes, I stared at a bird flapping its tail feathers back and forth like it was struggling to scratch an itch. I then slipped into a vicarious state, where I was the bird with the same struggle. And then I felt a tingling at the base of my spine, like I was struggling to contract a muscle that I didn't know I had. The feeling reminded me of when I first learned to wiggle my ears, and how I used all my concentration to get a muscle to flex for its first time.

And then I wondered if I was tapping into some leftover nerve endings connected to my vestigial ape tailbone. I even had a few brief moments where I felt what I imagined amputees felt, that I was manipulating a phantom limb.

Comments

Rick said on June 24, 2010 4:48 PM:

I have totally had this same feeling, though usually when extremely happy as if to wag my tail. Weird, huh?