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RE: Wim Hof and the potential of human beings
May 31, 2019 at 3:18 pm
This guy is amazing. And he's certainly proven himself with some things. I don't think anyone can doubt that a meditative state can somehow allow the body to endure extreme cold.
There is the scent of "woo" coming off him... (I was introduced to him in woo circles when I was doing massage therapy.) And this gives me some pause. Something I noticed during the years that I was exposed to much woo was that woo often worked like this: there is a legitimate thing going on, but so often this legitimate thing is buttressed with a bunch of exaggerated claims and pseudoscience-- or (at worst) sheer nonsense.
A good example of this is "chi energy." Chi gong is an excellent exercise for the mind and body. When doing these exercises, one is supposedly releasing and drawing in chi. When one does chi gong, one can even feel sensations of magnetic fields and warmth running down your arms and legs and being released. But I'm not so sure this is "chi." Long story short, I think there is something legitimate going on with the parasympathetic nervous system; "chi" is an outdated interpretation of what's going on. I'm not saying this interpretation is entirely off. It is accurate in its own way. But also inaccurate and pseudoscientific.
Here's another problem. If you go to a teacher to learn chi gong, you will (more often than not) be introduced to all sorts of whack ideas that you can channel energy into other people and heal cancer with the power of your chi. That's bullshit. And it's really a shame that it is packaged and sold this way, because (as I indicated before) I think it is an extremely healthy activity.
I think such things, after rigorous scientific scrutiny, will be proven to have some merit. But as it is now, it's so entwined with pseudoscience and unfounded claims, I gotta say "buyer beware."
*Rant over*
In regards to the OP, yeah, meditative practice can position a person to more aptly deal with life's stressors. So often in life, we are "put into the ice" so to speak and we tend to deal with such situations inadequately. Meditative practice can help a great deal.