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View Full Version : Man runs half marathon in Lapland, on snow, barefoot and nearly naked


Zeuzzz
28th January 2008, 04:47 PM
This guy is amazing, he ran a half marathon in freezing lapland, on snow, wearing nothing more than a small pair of shorts! he wasn't even wearing any shoes. How on earth can he do that? I saw it on a discovery docu, and a scientist takes him into a laboratory to test his abilities to see if he is able to do what he claims. When he was lowered into a pool of nearly freezing water after seven minutes, when most people would nearly be dead from hyperthermia, he was actually able to increase his internal body temparature just by thinking in his mind of generating heat. The scientist was amazed, and said that it would probably be safe for him to attempt his half marathon.

You can see some of it here;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=madoDvtKEes

some more info on him here; http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?news=15740

When he was younger he nearly died in the cold before he was rescued and taken to hospital, and he says ever since then he has been fascinated with the cold, and takes pleasure in experiencing it. I have heard of tibetan monks having the ability to generate heat with their mind also.

What do you think he has control over in his body to be able to do this? Is the mechanism that controls our temparature susceptable to our own control if we can become aware of it?

Actually, what is the mechanism controls our temparature in the first place?
I dont even really know that.

And heres a harvard study on tibettan monks and their meditative heat generating abilities; http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/04.18/09-tummo.html

In a monastery in northern India, thinly clad Tibetan monks sat quietly in a room where the temperature was a chilly 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Using a yoga technique known as g Tum-mo, they entered a state of deep meditation. Other monks soaked 3-by-6-foot sheets in cold water (49 degrees) and placed them over the meditators' shoulders. For untrained people, such frigid wrappings would produce uncontrolled shivering.

If body temperatures continue to drop under these conditions, death can result. But it was not long before steam began rising from the sheets. As a result of body heat produced by the monks during meditation, the sheets dried in about an hour.

Attendants removed the sheets, then covered the meditators with a second chilled, wet wrapping. Each monk was required to dry three sheets over a period of several hours.

Why would anyone do this? Herbert Benson, who has been studying g Tum-mo for 20 years, answers that "Buddhists feel the reality we live in is not the ultimate one. There's another reality we can tap into that's unaffected by our emotions, by our everyday world. Buddhists believe this state of mind can be achieved by doing good for others and by meditation. The heat they generate during the process is just a by-product of g Tum-mo meditation."

Benson is an associate professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School and president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He firmly believes that studying advanced forms of meditation "can uncover capacities that will help us to better treat stress-related illnesses."
[continued]

firecoins
28th January 2008, 05:03 PM
blood flow regulates temperature. You can dry cold wet towels at body temperature. Even at 40.

Ashles
28th January 2008, 06:46 PM
it was not long before steam began rising from the sheets.

Do they actually mean 'steam' or do they mean visible condensing water vapour?

If they are getting those terms mixed up then it's not exactly coming across as a scientifically rigorous article.

Well for that and all the other reasons.

17 degree increase in finger temperature?
Has that claim been studied or replicated?

hipparchia
28th January 2008, 11:51 PM
I have heard other such stories about people being able to survive cold without clothes. Most notable is the Ivanov case, a Russian crazy man who developed quite a following. He used to walk in winter in shorts.

Now, there was a case several weeks ago in Bulgaria when a group of teenagers got drunk and got lost on a mountain trail (not too high mountain). One of the boys lost his shoes and walked several hours in the snow. He did not have frostbite.

Next is Jean-Louis Etienne, a polar explorer who writes he could go without gloves at low temperatures- maybe minus 20 Celsius.

So, there may be ways to pull such a trick without anything supernatural.

Maybe it is a matter of practice- after I walked on the snow barefoot (right out of the sauna), my feet seem less sensitive to cold.

Tumblehome
29th January 2008, 12:05 AM
Like firecoins said, it's the blood flow. It's hard to imagine him using his mind to increase his blood flow, but I can see maybe tensing his muscles regularly or something like that to get the blood moving.

I grew up in Saskatchewan where you can't help but notice that the body adapts to cold temperatures. In two cases that I can remember offhand, I...


- played hockey in a t-shirt at about -10 C

- cross-country skied in about -20 C with a stiff wind in a t-shirt and porous sweater, with bare hands.


Both times, I started out fully clothed in winter gear. Only when the blood got moving to the point that I was overheating did I take off some outer clothes. And once I did, I was comfortable as long as I kept up the activity.

This guy sounds like an extreme case of adapting his body to cold, and that is reasonable to me. I don't like, and don't see any reason for, attaching a "mind control" explanation to it.

Tumblehome
29th January 2008, 12:11 AM
Next is Jean-Louis Etienne, a polar explorer who writes he could go without gloves at low temperatures- maybe minus 20 Celsius.


Mailmen do that here regularly.

hamelekim
29th January 2008, 12:35 PM
Do they actually mean 'steam' or do they mean visible condensing water vapour?

If they are getting those terms mixed up then it's not exactly coming across as a scientifically rigorous article.

Well for that and all the other reasons.

17 degree increase in finger temperature?
Has that claim been studied or replicated?

Pedantic much?

Placebo effect shows how the mind can affect the body, I think that's really shows that your state of mind can have a physical impact on the body. You can argue to what degree that is, but it's there.

dudalb
29th January 2008, 01:18 PM
If he was chased by a few Eskimos with spears,we would have a remake of "The Naked Prey" going on here.......

Modified
29th January 2008, 03:32 PM
Next is Jean-Louis Etienne, a polar explorer who writes he could go without gloves at low temperatures- maybe minus 20 Celsius.

My dad goes ice fishing without gloves, and instead of using one of those plastic strainers to clear the ice from the holes, he just uses his hands. He doesn't warm them up after doing that either, he just picks up a pole and continues fishing.

Cuddles
30th January 2008, 06:08 AM
Pedantic much?

Placebo effect shows how the mind can affect the body, I think that's really shows that your state of mind can have a physical impact on the body. You can argue to what degree that is, but it's there.

Nope.

Bigt
30th January 2008, 08:13 AM
Reminds me of the Jerry Seinfeld joke that went something like this :

Scientists say that you lose 80% of your body heat through your head. That means that you can go outside naked in the dead of winter if you have a good enough hat.