Nuns Control Body Temperature with Their Minds
Every once in a while I get excited when science documents something that intuition or experience tells me is real, but my judging mind and the society that cultivates it assumes is false. I have written about how Yoga Can Increase Gray Matter in the Brain and treat asthma. I have told you how meditation can help you sleep and reduce stress at work. I even wrote about some amazing science showing that Your Heart May Know the Future. We know that Breathing Exercises have an amazing number of positive effects on your physiology. The breath is the link between our conscious and unconscious processes, the way to establish a conscious link between our awareness and our autonomic nervous system. Well, when you combine meditation and breathing exercises with visualizations the results are astounding.
Researchers recently visited some Tibetan nuns to take EEG readings and temperature measurements while the nuns engaged a practice known as "g-tummo" meditation. What they found is that Tibetan nuns can change the core of their body temperatures at will. This not only helps them keep warm but also give their immune systems a boost. The nuns were able to dry up wet sheets wrapped around their bodies while sitting outside in -25 degrees Celsius (-13 Fahrenheit). They were able to increase their core body temperature up to 38.3 degree Celsius (about 101 Fahrenheit).
G-tummo meditation is a spiritual practice where they harness "inner energy". The practice requires two techniques, "Vase breath", a form of breathing that causes heat production and visualization of flames near the spine.
For 15 years I have been practicing breathing exercises prior to and/or during meditation. To me it is obvious that at times my internal temperature changes drastically. Occasionally I get cold. The vast majority of the time I get warm or hot. More than once I have broken out in a sweat. To say that meditation can change your core temperature is obvious to me. What I have not ever attempted is to raise my temperature intentionally. I did have some intense experiences a few years back that appear to have raised my internal temperature permanently. I used to hate the cold. It bothers me far less now. Others can often feel me radiating heat. This perplexed me. In my attempts to figure out what was happening to me I stumbled across literature on kundalini. There is an entire branch of yoga dedicated to the attempts to "uncoil the serpent at the base of the spine" and release the immense energy that resides there. Yogic asanas, breathing exercises and meditation are the key to raising this "fire at the base of your spine". My Year on the Mountain was largely about exploring and cultivating this phenomenon. I have no doubt that it works, but I hadn't put the effort into cultivating raising my core temperature at will. Given the impending energy shortages perhaps this is what we all need living up hear in the chilly NorthEast!
[Science Daily Image: Sirikit Dam Thailand Tevaprapas Makklay/Wikimedia Commons]