A variation in a gene known as VMAT2--for vesicular monoamine transporter--seemed to be directly related to how the volunteers scored on the self-transcendence test.
Reason: vesicular exanthem, a disease of hogs that, unlike trichinosis, is not transmissible to human beings.
The first Canadian case, thought at the time to be vesicular stomatitis (blistering of the mouth), broke out at a Saskatchewan farm on which a German immigrant had worked briefly .