4 ms·
I'm not going to comment on epilepsy because I'm not a physician or a medical researcher. To me, epilepsy seems too powerful and independently energised by lo
by wombatmobile 5y ago
I'm not going to comment on epilepsy because I'm not a physician or a medical researcher. To me, epilepsy seems too powerful and independently energised by local neuronal activity to be overridden by a voluntary thought directed at the vagus nerve.
The examples the author gives of experienced meditators being able to influence what in non-practitioners are autonomic systems, makes sense, given that there is evidence for example of Tibetan monks surviving freezing temperatures. The investigations into that phenomenon show the physiological mechanism is to burn a particular type of fat. How do the monks access that physiology? The meditation switches it on. How does that work? That's the interesting part. It takes many years to learn and decades to gain the skills, but can be stated in one simple sentence. They use visualisation.
I learned to suppress sneezing after much practice. I don't have the language to describe the technique, but I go almost to the point of sneezing, doing the inhale, and then I sort of meditate. I neither try hard to stop the sneeze or do anything active - I just let my mind go blank, and set my expectations that the sneeze is going to fade away. And it does.
- parsecs 5y agoIs suppress sneezing something unusual to be learned? I always thought that you can just not sneeze... I remember as a kid, when I noticed a sneeze was coming, I just decided that it was too much work, for whatever reason. Maybe I didn't want to find tissue, or maybe I didn't want to make noise.
- wombatmobile 5y agoI'm not sure what other people experience. In myself, I mostly found sneezing involuntary, until I learned to mediate it. Perhaps your skill is an example of having made the change when you were young. Now you've had a lot of practice. When I was 8 years old a kid at school taught me how to wiggle my ears. I can do it good - like Dumbo the elephant. Nobody else I know can do it or learn it. It seems to be something best learned young.
- whatshisface 5y agoThe ideal education would begin with a few years of language learning and ear wiggling, to make sure all of the early childhood acquisition advantages were taken before they expire.
- honzzz 5y agoOne anecdata point: I cannot easily suppress sneezing, at least not always. Delaying it for a second, for example when I am holding a cup of hot coffee and I want to put in on a table quickly before I sneeze, is sometimes possible, but I have to admit that sometimes I cannot even do that.
- sdwr 5y agoI can buy into being able to intentionally avert the triggering brain state, whether it involves the vagus nerve or not.