Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: March 29, 2024, 1:32 am

Thread Rating:
  • 1 Vote(s) - 2 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Wim Hof and the potential of human beings
#1
Wim Hof and the potential of human beings
Are you familiar with Wim Hof? They call him "the iceman," because he can control his own body temperature and immune response, allowing him to stay in freezing temperatures for long periods of time wearing nothing but a pair of gym shorts. He's been tested on and probed by scientists for years now. As far as anyone can tell, he is doing things that people thought were impossible for human beings to do. This begs the question: what are we really capable of and don't realize because of our lifestyle?

[Image: wim-hof.jpg]

He explains it all in this video (please forgive the clickbait-ish title):





Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wim_Hof#Sc...stigations
[Image: nL4L1haz_Qo04rZMFtdpyd1OZgZf9NSnR9-7hAWT...dc2a24480e]
Reply
#2
RE: Wim Hof and the potential of human beings
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Long story short, I think there is something legitimate going on with the parasympathetic nervous system; "chi" is an outdated interpretation of what's going on.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.
Reply
#3
RE: Wim Hof and the potential of human beings
(May 31, 2019 at 3:18 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote: 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.

I agree. I find it pretty easy to filter out what I consider B.S. I don't think of Wim as "woo" at all, because I'm so focused on the primal aspect of his practice, and the idea that we are coddled by 21st century living, and that intentionally making ourselves uncomfortable is key to unlocking what we naturally have to fight and survive. That makes perfect sense to me. That's probably because my brain shuts off any time he goes too far. i'm sure there are some, maybe Wim himself, who claim cold showers and breathing techniques can cure cancer. That's a horrible and disingenuous lie, an exaggeration born out of a true and good thing.
[Image: nL4L1haz_Qo04rZMFtdpyd1OZgZf9NSnR9-7hAWT...dc2a24480e]
Reply
#4
RE: Wim Hof and the potential of human beings
(May 31, 2019 at 3:53 pm)Aegon Wrote: I agree. I find it pretty easy to filter out what I consider B.S. I don't think of Wim as "woo" at all, because I'm so focused on the primal aspect of his practice, and the idea that we are coddled by 21st century living, and that intentionally making ourselves uncomfortable is key to unlocking what we naturally have to fight and survive. That makes perfect sense to me. That's probably because my brain shuts off any time he goes too far. i'm sure there are some, maybe Wim himself, who claim cold showers and breathing techniques can cure cancer. That's a horrible and disingenuous lie, an exaggeration born out of a true and good thing.

I think what you take away from him is spot on. We are not using all of our innate faculties.

I was introduced to him in a series of lectures which also included crackpot theories about Coral Castle. So I may not be giving him a fair shake. It's just that the Coral Castle guy was promoting a dvd with breathing exercises he developed under the tutelage of Wim. A bit of "guilt by association" might have tempted me to post a (perhaps impertinent) rant about woo.
Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Can someone help me understand this potential finding and what it implies? orthodox-man 16 1940 May 6, 2018 at 12:18 am
Last Post: Fireball
  EMFs and Human Health Rayaan 0 811 August 20, 2013 at 2:57 am
Last Post: Rayaan



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)