Cinderella: Magical Thinking

In Cinderella's version of the Grimm Brothers, there is no Fairy Godmother. Cinderella's wishes do come true, but not through some magical fairy, but rather from a hazelnut tree growing on her mother's grave. Cinderella would walk towards the tree, would ask for a wish she deeply desires, and all of a sudden a white bird would come down out of nowhere, carrying every single thing she needs to fulfill her heart's desire. A magical wish-fulfilling tree... sounds odd, does it not?
Magical thinking is about linking one’s inner personal experience with the external physical world. “I asked the tree from my mother’s grave for beautiful clothes to wear to the ball, and he gave them to me!”... That an example of what I’m trying to say. It doesn’t make much sense... Well, actually it could have it.
In the 20th century, Freud did a small study about this. He argued that there are two fundamental forms of thought: primary and secondary process. The primary process is the one related to the pleasure principle, what drives one’s instincts and seeks immediate gratification of all needs, wants, and desires. The secondary process is like rational thought: it connects one's instincts with reality, and based on that, provides rational analysis that allows the person to adjust to the environment.
Magical thinking is a form of primary process. So, Cinderella knew what her instincts were, but couldn’t relate them to reality... Can you?

Photography by @Victoria Borodinova

Tangled: The Golden Flower

The other day, I was in the Taj Mahal, and I noticed something that caught my attention: the lily-like flower carved in the marble walls of the great mausoleum. I remembered that, in the Tangled movie, the Golden Flower was a Lilium, a very similar (not to say the same) flower. Why would they use a Lilium? The plant that Rapunzel’s mother ingested in the original fairy tale was a Rampion, that has a totally different flower... So I started researching. The first time a Lilium appeared in history was in a painting in Crete, in the year 1580 BC. For the Greeks, this flower was very precious: a myth says that it was created with Hera’s breast milk. For many cultures, this Lily symbolizes purity, chastity and virtue, and in a few cases death. In some others, it even represents Heaven on earth, or reaching a paradise in the afterlife. As for it’s pharmaceutical value, it was commonly believed to have magical qualities, using it to treat fever, wounds and arthritis in the Victorian Era. In E...

Brave: The Fire Waterfalls

Is it true? Does the Fire Waterfall really exist? Why is it called that? These are the questions that I asked myself when I saw the first two or three scenes of ‘Brave’... And I’m here to answer those questions. Yes, the Waterfall really exists, and it’s called the “Horsetail Fall”, a seasonal waterfall that flows in the winter and early spring. Unlike what we see in the movie, this waterfall is not located in Scotland, but in the east side of El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, California. The “Horsetail Fall” is also known as the “Firefall” because of a beautiful optical illusion that takes place here only a few days in the year. Around the second week of February, the setting sun hits Horsetail Fall at just the right angle to illuminate the upper reaches of the waterfall. And when conditions are perfect, Horsetail Fall glows orange and red at sunset. These ‘Perfect Conditions’ are: First and foremost, Horsetail Fall must be flowing. This depend...

Jumanji, Welcome to the Jungle: Citronella and the Mosquitoes

Alex, played by Nick Jonas in the new movie of “ Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle ”, has weaknesses as every other player in the game, but the most important of them is the ‘allergy’ to mosquitoes. In the scene where he makes margaritas for everyone, we see that his house (built by Alan Parrish ) is loaded with lots and lots of citronella candles to keep away mosquitoes... But what does citronella exactly do to these creatures? First of all, let's define what citronella is. What we call citronella is an oil obtained from the stems of mainly two species of the Lemongrass family: the Cymbopogon Nardus and the Cymbopogon Winterianus . This oil contains a majority of aldehydes and alcohols , being the active compounds in citronella oil (for the purpose of repelling mosquitoes) camphor , eucalyptol , eugenol , linalool , citronellal and citral . What does it do to mosquitoes? Well, some evidence suggests that these compounds interfere with mosquito olfactory receptors. It is sa...

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