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2. Imprints. It appears (as of 1990) that animals have brief periods of imprint vulnerability in which their nervous systems can suddenly create a personalized reality-tunnel unique to itself. These imprints permanently bond neurons into reflex networks which seemingly remain for life. The basic research on imprinting, for instance, for which Lorenz and Tinbergen shared a Nobel Prize in 1973, demonstrated that the statistically normal snow-goose imprints its mother, as distinct from any other goose, shortly after birth. This imprint creates a "bond" and the gosling attaches itself to the mother in every way possible. These brief points of imprint vulnerability can literally imprint anything. Lorenz, for instance, recorded a case in which a gosling, in the temporary absence of the mother, imprinted a ping-pong ball. It followed the ping-pong ball about, nestled with it, and, on reaching adulthood, attempted to mount the ball sexually. Another gosling imprinted Dr. Lorenz himself, with equally bizarre results.
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Robert Anton Wilson (Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You and Your World)