Tibetan Monks Who Surprised Harvard Scientists
Herbert Benson was a cardiologist and celebrated professor of medicine at Harvard University. He spent years studying oriental cultures during the 1960s. At that time, the subject still caused some apprehension for some people. That’s why he waited until after midnight to infiltrate 36 Tibetan monks into his laboratory.
Benson wanted to see for himself how much myth and how much reality there was in what was said about Tibetan monks. At that time, Bruce Lee was a popular figure, but transcendental meditators were seen as people with superhuman characteristics. Benson was a scientist and didn’t believe in anything that science didn’t prove.
What he discovered that night changed his life forever. Three years later, he wrote a book that later became a best seller : The Relaxation Answer . Not only that, but he created an alternative type of medicine, which claims that faith is capable of healing and that the placebo effect has very high therapeutic power.
The Tibetan Monks of Benson
What Herbert Benson and his team found was that, in fact, Tibetan monks had abilities that contradicted scientific claims.
For example, a group of monks who practiced yoga using a technique called g Tum-mo could reduce the temperature of their hands and feet by up to 17 degrees. So far, there is no scientific explanation for this phenomenon, but the Harvard Gazette has analyzed this and other subsequent experiments.
Supposedly, Tibetan monks can raise their body temperature to the point of drying wet sheets with their bodies. That wasn’t the only discovery. Benson also found that advanced meditators using another technique called Sikkim could also slow their metabolism down by up to 64%.
Some theoretical approaches
The article Ciencia y Meditación , written by Professor Ana María Krohne, from the Antonio Nariño University, states that to date there are about 500 studies on the physiological, psychological and sociological effects of transcendental meditation inspired by the traditions of Tibetan monks.
She also mentions that the first study in this regard was published by the journal Science in the 70s. In it, the author indicates that a different state of consciousness was found in monks.
Science speaks of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep states of consciousness. Apparently, in the monks there was a fourth state that combines rest and alertness simultaneously.
In 1971, Daniel Goleman, the creator of the concept of multiple intelligences, wrote an article called “Unstressing”. In it he postulates the existence of a fifth type of state of consciousness in which there is not only simultaneous rest and alertness but also action.
Swami Rama
The question of the superior abilities of Tibetan monks and other transcendent meditators is one of those questions that always walks a fine line between fiction and reality. Therefore, it is not uncommon to find verified information, along with many myths and legends. However, it is not always easy to distinguish one from the other.
An example of this is the case of Swami Rama. He is the author of Living With the Himalayan Masters . In this work, he claims that there are Tibetan yogis and monks who are able to remain motionless for several hours and levitate.
However, there is no evidence that this is true, but there are studies that the Menninger Foundation, in the United States, carried out using him as a volunteer.
Dr. Elmer and Dr. Alyce Green studied their supposed powers. Their results indicated that Rama was capable of producing the same brain waves as sleep in his waking moments. In addition, he had been able to voluntarily stop the heart’s pumping for 17 seconds without it stopping.
Although the media published these phenomena at the time, little was said about them afterward. In any case, the results of the studies were published in Elmer and Alyce Green’s Beyond Biofeedback .
Perhaps all of this is nothing more than a sophisticated and ingenious farce. Or perhaps the mind is absolutely wonderful and we are just beginning to discover it.
