There is one hanging in a hall in the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History, where it spooked and fascinated me when I was a kid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_Face_Society

That’s a sad, but also very telling, anecdote. It seems to me I’ve known a lot of people like those flinchers. For some reason I think it would’ve been far more preferable if the flinching had occurred in a social space untainted by love-and-oneness ideology — a square dance, say — because then people would’ve been less inhibited about apologizing for what was in many cases, I’m sure, an inadvertent reaction. In the context you described, they must’ve been hurt/angered or confused by their own reactions, and apologies would’ve been awkward if not impossible, I imagine.

That, or they were all just jerks.

I just had a look at Gina Marie’s site to check out her eyes for myself, and, pardon me for saying so, and maybe this is just my left side speaking, but she’s really cute.

Another incident related to asymmetry is as follows. One of my oldest and best friends has a much smaller left hand than his right, as a result of a drug his mother took in pregnancy. (The drug was later banned.) So 15 years ago he and I went to this Sufi/Gurdjieff mystical circle dancing event in our hometown.

The attendees were divided into an inner and an outer circle of dancers of about 35 people each, and the circles moved in opposite directions, so that the members of each circle danced past the members of the other circle.

They gave us some very simple steps and a very simple song to sing. And each time the circles moved, we were to join hands with the new person across from us and look deeply into his or her eyes and sing the line “Liiiiive welcoming to alllll.”

During the break, my friend said something to me along the lines of “Let’s get the f*** out of here.” Everyone he had joined hands with had involuntarily flinched, shocked and then embarrassed, as he and they looked deeply into each other’s eyes.

Your point about the tougher side taking more of a beating is interesting. It sounds like what you’re saying is, in essence, that what doesn’t kill you makes you weaker. Which sounds about right.

My right side is stronger and has generally received much more damage from my environment than my left. Most of my scars are over there, for instance.

I’m also creeped out by Gina Marie’s description of what her eyes do, but it’s really only my right side that’s creeped out, while my left side finds the matter acceptable and normal.