Wim Hof 'The Iceman'

Few facts of amazing Wim Hof 'The Iceman' -

- he climbed past the “death zone” altitude on Mount Everest (~7,500 meters) wearing nothing but shorts.
- he completed a full marathon above the polar circle in Finland, in temperatures close to −20 °C (−4 °F). Dressed in nothing but shorts
- he holds World Record for the longest ice bath, now set at 1 hour 53 minutes and 12 seconds.
- he ran a full marathon in the Namibia Desert without water.
- he was injected with toxins under doctor supervision and demonstrated that he could effectively control his autonomic immune response.

Now, like most I thought he is a "freak of nature" and one of a kind whose feats cannot be replicated.... but guess what...
he was able to train others to achieve the same effect...with only 4 days of training!

check out this documentary by VICE

Research on mindfulness

Digital Shamans

Placebo: Cracking the Code

Our shared condition -- 'consciousness'

John Searle's TED Talk...

AWE

...by Jason Silva

The quest to understand consciousness - [Antonio Damasio]

Definitely 'An idea worth spreading'

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.




source: vowe.net

Mind-body medicine -- rebellious alternative?

Mind-body medicine is a patchwork of ideas about the way in which we think that our minds make us sick, and might make us well. The big ideas influence how we think about disease, how we seek out different care for ourselves, even how we experience our bodies in health and illness.

Mainstream medicine says leave your mind out of it, you've got a bodily disorder, and we're going to cure it with some kind of physical intervention. And mainstream medicine is often pretty good at this. So as long as it's doing its job very well, a lot of us are very happy to embrace it.

Read the article Minding our health - interview with Medical historian Anne Harrington

• Power of suggestion - ex: placebo effect
• Power of our own positive thinking
• Certain personality types get particular diseases
• Type A - risk of heart attack
• Stress is really a modern invention
• Difference between Stress and Exhaustion
• Advanced practice of meditation might be able to sculpt the brain (also see Buddha on the Brain)

source: salon.com