A serious study in eccentricity, conducted by Dr. David Joseph Weeks, a clinical neuropsychologist from the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, has turned up some very positive information for those whom society labels as being "eccentric."

The report (which has been adapted into a book by Dr. Weeks and Jamie James entitled Eccentrics: A Study of Sanity and Strangeness, published by Kodansha Globe) concludes that eccentrics live five to ten years longer than average, and that they are usually healthier, happier, and more intelligent than the rest of us.

According to Dr. Weeks, an eccentric is "nonconforming; creative; strongly motivated by curiosity; idealistic: he (or she) wants to make the world a better place and the people in it happier; happily obsessed with one or more hobbyhorses (usually five or six); aware from early childhood that he (or she) is different; intelligent; opinionated and outspoken, convinced that he (or she) is right and that the rest of the world is out of step."

Many of us suppress our desire to do "daring" things because we are afraid of being judged by our peers as being weird or strange. The heavily conformist strains in our society encourage us to behave like everyone else, leaving our adventurous selves alone in the shadows.

Freud once wrote, "...we have to give up a certain amount of our wild nature in order to live in society." But must we really? And is it healthy?

Eccentric people are sometimes mistakenly perceived as being mildly insane, or mentally ill. But actually, the eccentric person chooses to behave in an outlandish manner because it gives them positive pleasure. In some ways, an eccentric is the flip side of the neurotic -- the neurotic can be highly insecure with feelings of inferiority, while the eccentric celebrates his or her originality with no regrets.

The eccentric people who participated in Dr. Weeks' study also scored very well on IQ tests, where they ended up among the highest 15 percent of the general population

"Eccentrics are healthier because they are happier," Dr. Weeks explains. "Stated simply, eccentrics experience much lower levels of stress because they do not feel the need to conform, and lower stress levels mean their immune-response systems can function more efficiently."

So if you feel like walking around in a raincoat on the hottest day of the year, or joining the Polar Bear Club, or shaving half your beard off while studying under-water basket weaving, go for it! You are not crazy, you are "eccentric," which as it turns out is very healthy indeed!

Prepared by Stephen Tunney for Dreamlife