[leareliovag]

dear friends,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak...y_b_73898.html

be well, be love.

david

the future of the body
posted november 23, 2007 | 02:19 pm (est)

a tide of media articles over the past few years has made it clear that medicine is putting almost all its future hopes on genetics. but a small study from ucla offers an intriguing alternative, one that could be just the tip of the iceberg. researchers found that children and teenagers who described themselves as positive thinkers had higher thresholds of tolerance for pain. on the other hand, young subjects who had learned less positive coping skills (such as worrying about problems or turning to someone else for help) were less able to tolerate the application of pressure or heat to the skin, which was how pain was measured in the laboratory.

the significance of these findings is that psychological attitudes changed basic physical sensations. it had already been shown that we don't all respond to pain alike. when asked to rate pain on a scale of 1 to 10, people who are subjected to the same stimulus come up with far different reactions. what feels like a 1 on the pain scale to one person can feel like a 6, 7, or higher to another. instead of being simply a physical variation, the new research suggests that personal interpretation is involved. yet to the person feeling the pain, this isn't a subjective event. the degree of discomfort is completely real.

why is this the tip of an iceberg? i was reminded of tummo, an ancient form of tibetan meditation that originated in india as a yogic practice. buddhist monks who practice tummo are able to withstand extreme cold without discomfort or bodily harm. clad only in a thin layer of silk, they can sit all night in ice caves in the himalayas or on the surface of a frozen lake. long considered a legendary skill, tummo has been verified by western researchers, who discovered in the 80s that the monks are raising their body temperature by up to 8 degrees centigrade, or 14 degrees fahrenheit. in essence, they are controlling a feedback loop in the body that is normally automatic. a region of the brain known as the hypothalamus is responsible for regulating body temperature, but in this case the monks are inserting their own intention, and what was once automatic becomes voluntary.

[pharmablogger]

...clad only in a thin layer of silk, they can sit all night in ice caves in the himalayas or on the surface of a frozen lake. ...

cool! i had just read (in something huna-related i think) about monks who were "tested" by having to sit next to (or perhaps on) a frozen lake while draped in a wet sheet. in order to pass they were to dry the sheet by raising their body temperature.