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It'll blow their minds when they start researching chi kung and realise it's possible to draw in more energy by breathing and move it round the body. It's also

It'll blow their minds when they start researching chi kung and realise it's possible to draw in more energy by breathing and move it round the body. It's also possible to feel some kind of field around the body. Auras and chakras don't sound so silly now do they.

Terr_ 9mo ago
"It'll blow those Chemists' minds when they start researching Alchemy and they realize the incredible power of mercury and lead to rejuvenate the body and lead to an elixir of youth!" "It'll blow those Astronomers' minds when they start researching Astrology and the powerful effect of being born under auspicious constellations!" __________ If the ancient guru knowledge is so great, what testable predictions does it offer, where "auras" are a causal mechanism? In other words, not: "Thou must intake the golden aura of oats and fiber by eating some, to counter the dark brown blockage of your Pu-point." The folk remedy might well solve your constipation, but it wouldn't be evidence for the mythology around it.
- djtango 9mo ago
  It feels really great to wield the scientific method and feel supercilious to all other people and ideas that do not arise from such infallible reasoning, and sure the progress of humanity hockey sticked since empiricism took hold. But let's not forget that empiricism is limited by what we can/want/think to measure. Like it's pretty well accepted that breathing exercises have physiological and mental health benefits but it took decades of consumerist appropriation of yoga and other techniques before academia properly found the motivation to earnestly investigate that yes breathing exercises are indeed good for you. As someone who is a deep practitioner of martial arts and athletics, if the metaphors of qi gong and yoga were purely powerful visualisation aids that already provides more than enough tangible benefit. I don't need scientists to tell me that qi is good for my body - I can feel it. So let's keep an open mind, our ancestors were anything but idiots.
  - ben_w 9mo ago
    > So let's keep an open mind, our ancestors were anything but idiots. Just not so open our brains fall out. Our ancestors were just like us, but fewer in number and inventing things from scratch. Miasma, spontaneous generation, Newtonian gravity, these were not people being idiots, and even though they have been shown to be wrong they are still close enough to still be useful today. Phlogiston also wasn't idiotic, but lacks utility vs being correct about oxygen. One of the shared ways we failed then and now is that what sounds true isn't the same as what is true; the modern easy example of this is how easily many of us get fooled by LLMs, and I suspect that's how a lot of ancient religions grew, with additions and copy-errors evolving them to be maximally plausible-sounding to a human mind.
  - Terr_ 8mo ago
    > feel supercilious Parent-poster was the one who made a supercilious prediction that "qi gong will blow those scientists' minds." Sarcastically reflecting that kind of thing back at the originator is entirely reasonable.
- nprateem 9mo ago
  Proper hatha yoga (not the modern hijacked nonsense) is literally a predictive method to experience deeper aspects of oneself, one part of which is a greater sensitivity to energy movements and corresponding fields. There is already western research on kundalini, the most potent example of bioelectrical energy, and changes in energy potential experienced by meditators. Not to mention countless empirical self-reports (upon which a good scientist would keep an open mind). But don't let facts get in the way of your prejudices.
  - Angostura 9mo ago
    > is literally a predictive method to experience deeper aspects of oneself, one part of which is a greater sensitivity to energy movements and corresponding fields. What does it actually predict? What measureable predictions can be tested?
    - nprateem 9mo ago
      That it will trigger this: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35846598/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35846598/ I know a lot of people here like to believe Western science knows everything, but fortunately there's still a lot left to discover.
  - fooker 9mo ago
    Words have meaning, don't write random things about a topic you don't understand because of cultural pride. What you have written is nonsense and demeans hatha yoga, among other things. > predictive method No > corresponding fields What field? Corresponding to what? > changes in energy potential experienced by meditators Link to mentioned research?
    - nprateem 9mo ago
      Lol. You'll want to learn what an electromagnetic field is. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31249516/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31249516/ Welcome.
    - krackers 8mo ago
- fooker 9mo ago
  > Alchemy and they realize the incredible power of mercury They were just a few centuries too early! https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/nuclear-fusion-gold-mercury https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/nuclear-fusion...
  - nandomrumber 9mo ago
    The Alchemists were right, just not ambitious enough. If they’d’ve started with turning hydrogen in to gold they’d’ve had more success, and we’d be a space fairing species by now.
    - fooker 9mo ago
      Step 1: yeet mercury into a mini sun. If this actually works, I'm going to be convinced that some alchemist overheard an alien dude talking about this but misinterpreted it in line with contemporary knowledge.
      - ben_w 9mo ago
        It does work, but nobody really cares because of all the radiation involved. Here's a paper, but given the date I have no idea if it was written by humans or by AI: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.13461 https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.13461
        fooker 9mo ago
        Seems the radiation goes away in a decade or so, not a huge amount of time in the grand scheme of things. And I guess irradiated gold or a weird gold isotope would be just fine for putting in electronics that is meant to go beyond low earth orbit.
    - cindyllm 9mo ago
      [dead]
    - runlaszlorun 9mo ago
      It's not their fault, they didn't have lean startup and blitz scaling yet. </s>
renewiltord 9mo ago
[flagged]
ben_w 9mo ago
> possible to draw in more energy by breathing and move it round the body We already know what haemoglobin is thanks
an0malous 9mo ago
I agree, I think we’re rediscovering the life force: https://labyrinths.xyz/posts/yuga-cycles-and-the-life-force https://labyrinths.xyz/posts/yuga-cycles-and-the-life-force To me the most interesting part of Levin’s research is that they can convince cells to grow two arms, two tails, etc. and when they cut off the two tails, it grows back with two tails. This is without any genetic changes, so where is the information being stored? Likewise there’s research that butterflies can be taught to have aversions to certain chemicals or smells in the caterpillar state, and they continue to have those aversions in the butterfly state even though they’re entire body becomes a chemical soup during the chrysalis stage. Where is that behavioral information being stored if not neurons? I think this is pointing to a discover that’s much more profound than the body using electricity in interesting ways. I think it’s pointing to a new force or new aspect of electromagnetism that hasn’t been discovered yet.

Terr_ 9mo ago

"It'll blow those Chemists' minds when they start researching Alchemy and they realize the incredible power of mercury and lead to rejuvenate the body and lead to an elixir of youth!" "It'll blow those Astronomers' minds when they start researching Astrology and the powerful effect of being born under auspicious constellations!" __________ If the ancient guru knowledge is so great, what testable predictions does it offer, where "auras" are a causal mechanism? In other words, not: "Thou must intake the golden aura of oats and fiber by eating some, to counter the dark brown blockage of your Pu-point." The folk remedy might well solve your constipation, but it wouldn't be evidence for the mythology around it.

djtango 9mo ago
It feels really great to wield the scientific method and feel supercilious to all other people and ideas that do not arise from such infallible reasoning, and sure the progress of humanity hockey sticked since empiricism took hold. But let's not forget that empiricism is limited by what we can/want/think to measure. Like it's pretty well accepted that breathing exercises have physiological and mental health benefits but it took decades of consumerist appropriation of yoga and other techniques before academia properly found the motivation to earnestly investigate that yes breathing exercises are indeed good for you. As someone who is a deep practitioner of martial arts and athletics, if the metaphors of qi gong and yoga were purely powerful visualisation aids that already provides more than enough tangible benefit. I don't need scientists to tell me that qi is good for my body - I can feel it. So let's keep an open mind, our ancestors were anything but idiots.
- ben_w 9mo ago
  > So let's keep an open mind, our ancestors were anything but idiots. Just not so open our brains fall out. Our ancestors were just like us, but fewer in number and inventing things from scratch. Miasma, spontaneous generation, Newtonian gravity, these were not people being idiots, and even though they have been shown to be wrong they are still close enough to still be useful today. Phlogiston also wasn't idiotic, but lacks utility vs being correct about oxygen. One of the shared ways we failed then and now is that what sounds true isn't the same as what is true; the modern easy example of this is how easily many of us get fooled by LLMs, and I suspect that's how a lot of ancient religions grew, with additions and copy-errors evolving them to be maximally plausible-sounding to a human mind.
- Terr_ 8mo ago
  > feel supercilious Parent-poster was the one who made a supercilious prediction that "qi gong will blow those scientists' minds." Sarcastically reflecting that kind of thing back at the originator is entirely reasonable.
nprateem 9mo ago
Proper hatha yoga (not the modern hijacked nonsense) is literally a predictive method to experience deeper aspects of oneself, one part of which is a greater sensitivity to energy movements and corresponding fields. There is already western research on kundalini, the most potent example of bioelectrical energy, and changes in energy potential experienced by meditators. Not to mention countless empirical self-reports (upon which a good scientist would keep an open mind). But don't let facts get in the way of your prejudices.
- Angostura 9mo ago
  > is literally a predictive method to experience deeper aspects of oneself, one part of which is a greater sensitivity to energy movements and corresponding fields. What does it actually predict? What measureable predictions can be tested?
  - nprateem 9mo ago
    That it will trigger this: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35846598/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35846598/ I know a lot of people here like to believe Western science knows everything, but fortunately there's still a lot left to discover.
- fooker 9mo ago
  Words have meaning, don't write random things about a topic you don't understand because of cultural pride. What you have written is nonsense and demeans hatha yoga, among other things. > predictive method No > corresponding fields What field? Corresponding to what? > changes in energy potential experienced by meditators Link to mentioned research?
  - nprateem 9mo ago
    Lol. You'll want to learn what an electromagnetic field is. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31249516/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31249516/ Welcome.
  - krackers 8mo ago
fooker 9mo ago
> Alchemy and they realize the incredible power of mercury They were just a few centuries too early! https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/nuclear-fusion-gold-mercury https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/nuclear-fusion...
- nandomrumber 9mo ago
  The Alchemists were right, just not ambitious enough. If they’d’ve started with turning hydrogen in to gold they’d’ve had more success, and we’d be a space fairing species by now.
  - fooker 9mo ago
    Step 1: yeet mercury into a mini sun. If this actually works, I'm going to be convinced that some alchemist overheard an alien dude talking about this but misinterpreted it in line with contemporary knowledge.
    - ben_w 9mo ago
      It does work, but nobody really cares because of all the radiation involved. Here's a paper, but given the date I have no idea if it was written by humans or by AI: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.13461 https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.13461
      - fooker 9mo ago
        Seems the radiation goes away in a decade or so, not a huge amount of time in the grand scheme of things. And I guess irradiated gold or a weird gold isotope would be just fine for putting in electronics that is meant to go beyond low earth orbit.
  - cindyllm 9mo ago
    [dead]
  - runlaszlorun 9mo ago
    It's not their fault, they didn't have lean startup and blitz scaling yet. </s>

renewiltord 9mo ago

[flagged]

ben_w 9mo ago

> possible to draw in more energy by breathing and move it round the body We already know what haemoglobin is thanks

an0malous 9mo ago

I agree, I think we’re rediscovering the life force: https://labyrinths.xyz/posts/yuga-cycles-and-the-life-force https://labyrinths.xyz/posts/yuga-cycles-and-the-life-force To me the most interesting part of Levin’s research is that they can convince cells to grow two arms, two tails, etc. and when they cut off the two tails, it grows back with two tails. This is without any genetic changes, so where is the information being stored? Likewise there’s research that butterflies can be taught to have aversions to certain chemicals or smells in the caterpillar state, and they continue to have those aversions in the butterfly state even though they’re entire body becomes a chemical soup during the chrysalis stage. Where is that behavioral information being stored if not neurons? I think this is pointing to a discover that’s much more profound than the body using electricity in interesting ways. I think it’s pointing to a new force or new aspect of electromagnetism that hasn’t been discovered yet.