How Does the Iceman Control His Body Temperature?

[PlasmaSphere]

This guy is amazing, he ran a half marathon in freezing lapland, on snow, wearing nothing more than 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.

some 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 uploaded a bit of it;



I have heard of tibetan monks having the ability to generate heat with their mind, and i heard that one monk stayed in near freezing water for an entire night. I'm not sure how true that part is, but i'll try to find the story.

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 don't even really know that.

 

[PlasmaSphere]

I found some info on tibettan monks doing this from a harvard study on their abilities. I have not found the monk that did it for an entire night, but I'm sure its somewhere online.

http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/04.18/09-tummo.html

HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

Meditation changes temperatures:
Mind controls body in extreme experiments
By William J. Cromie
Gazette Staff

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."