The Amazing Mind
Last month we looked at the real-life superpower, for lack of a better term, of Barbara Ann Brennan who has a gift of seeing energy around all living things. She has been able to hone these skills to determine, locate and heal illness in others. One might think that this was impossible, yet, she does it. Do we have the capacity ourselves to go beyond the mind’s normal ability?
Tibetan monks, famous for their powers of mind over matter, have been on researchers’ radar for some years now. Some scientists even study the monks’ extraordinary mental abilities exclusively. Such is the importance they place on the demonstratable feats that go far beyond the average person’s. One such scientist is Herbert Benson, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and president of the Mind-Body Medical Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston. He believes that by studying persons who practice advanced meditation, we will be better placed to find non-pharmaceutical solutions for stress-related illnesses and conditions for the immediate future, and perhaps even advance our knowledge of the mental and physical capacity to cope with the effects of space travel for the longer term.
Benson’s attention was particularly drawn to practitioners of gtum-mo meditation. This is an ancient form of meditation that focuses on controlling and manipulating the body’s physical processes. Practitioners have been observed raising the temperature in their fingers and toes by as much as 17 degrees. Researchers witnessed monks spending a February night in zero temperature on a rocky ledge at 15,000 feet altitude in the Himalayas wearing nothing but a shawl and suffering no ill effects. In one experiment, a monk was placed in room of 40F and covered with a cold, soaking wet towel (49F). For the average person, these conditions would have made their body temperature plummet. The monk, however, generated so much heat that steam rose from the freezing cold sheet and it was completely dry within an hour.
Gtum-mo practitioners can also use the same techniques to slow their metabolism (that is, the rate at which the body consumes food and oxygen) by as much as 60%! To put that in perspective, the body is capable of lowering metabolism and does so naturally during sleep, but that only constitutes a reduction of 15%. One man from The Netherlands, Win Hof, has been demonstrating these incredible abilities as a long-time practitioner of gtum-mo. He has set 26 Guinness World Records for his resistance to prolonged exposure to cold and direct contact with ice. He ran a full marathon in the Naimib Desert without benefit of water or any form of hydration. He climbed Mount Kilimangaro wearing only shorts. In 2011, researchers at Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands conducted an experiment on Hof. They injected him with a toxin that produces flu-like symptoms (fever, headache, shivering). Hof did not develop any symptoms after the injection. Science has documented his ability to control his autonomic nervous system, defying the seemingly impossible. What’s more, Hof is convinced that we all have the ability to control our body’s systems. Potential benefits include lowering blood pressure, reducing stress, controlling pain, developing a stronger immune system, increasing energy, faster recovery from illness or injury and resistance to extreme weather conditions, among other benefits. He developed the Hof Method which he happily teaches and makes available to anyone who is interested. Apparently, it is possible.
To be continued next month…
By Elaina Curran, HPD, DSFH, AdvDPLRT, Clinical Hypnotherapist and Past Life Regression Therapist
As published in BS35 Local Magazine - September 2019 issue
