Yoga helps you explore the mystery of "the heart stops but the person does not die"

In India, qigong and qigong practitioners are collectively referred to as yoga. A well-trained yogi can go for days without eating or drinking, speed up or slow down his heart rate, and so on. The magical mystery of yoga has always attracted the attention of scientists from all over the world.

Yoga is extremely popular in India. The imprint left by religious yoga is deep. In addition to religious yoga, there is also a large amount of secular yoga in India. The latter abandoned the mysterious color of religious doctrines and took self-cultivation as a means to maintain physical and mental health, prevent diseases and prolong life. There are many yoga schools in India that specialize in teaching yoga, and many yoga masters have traveled across the oceans to Europe and the United States to teach their skills.

In 1935, Yogi Krishna Mahari of Madras, India, claimed that he could stop the heart. French cardiologist Thalis. Dr. Bross observed him live using a portable electrocardiograph. Krishnamahari took a few breaths and then entered a state of tranquility. After the experiment began, Yoga's pulse could not be felt, heart sounds could not be heard, and the electrocardiogram showed a straight line, proving that the heart had stopped beating. But people are still alive, and Therese Bross's observations have aroused the interest of more scientists in yoga. In 1961, doctors in New Delhi observed three yogis who claimed to be able to stop the heart. The observation results confirmed that Yoga's pulse, blood pressure, and heart sounds had stopped, and only the electrocardiogram showed a normal curve. X-rays revealed that the diameter of the heart had decreased. This proves that the heart has become extremely weak due to its shrinkage in size.

How does yoga control your heart activity?

There are two yoga performance processes: they first take a deep breath, then hold the breath, and forcefully expand the throat, chest muscles and abdomen. Doctors believe that this method can dramatically increase abdominal pressure, thereby greatly reducing the flow of venous blood into the heart. As a result, the ventricles are insufficiently filled with blood, heart activity is greatly weakened, and the size of the heart gradually decreases, so that the pulse cannot be felt from the body surface, blood pressure cannot be measured, and heart sounds cannot be heard. Of course, only those who have practiced yoga for many years can produce such miraculous effects using this method. Ordinary people should never try it lightly, because it may cause fainting or even death.

The third yoga method of entering a state of tranquility is to contract the stomach violently, lifting it above the diaphragm. Doctors believe that this method can increase the tension of the vagus nerve, thereby weakening heart activity.

Interestingly, these doctors also found the Yogi Krishna Mahari who was observed by Therese Burrows in 1935, when he was sixty-seven years old. He agreed to repeat his performance, but was worried that he was too old and the effect would not be good. He said that without a month of preparation, it would be impossible to achieve good results. He also performed movements to increase intrathoracic pressure. Several other observations were the same as last time, except that this time the electrocardiogram produced a curved line. Doctors in New Delhi believe that the straight line recorded by Teresa Bross last time may have been caused by a technical error.

In 1968, scientists took a closer look at a yoga performance called "Buried Alive." There were four performers (one was a professional yogi, two were secular yogis who had studied qigong for three years, and one was a healthy man without any yoga skills). They went down to the tomb one by one and sealed the top with loess without any pores. Professional Yoga stayed down there for eighteen hours, and the other three stayed down there for fourteen hours each. Experiments have shown that both professional yogis and ordinary participants have greatly reduced their oxygen demand in the tomb.

What is the reason for this? Physiologists have long known that if people inhale air with a high carbon content, the cerebral cortex and subcutaneous layer will be compressed, causing muscle relaxation, weakened visceral activity, and reduced endocrine secretion, which will inevitably result in a decrease in oxygen demand. Therefore, it is normal that the oxygen demand of people in tombs with highly concentrated carbon content is reduced. Another point that can also illustrate the correctness of this judgment is that the yoga practitioners who were tested could not withstand the decrease in oxygen content in the air outside the tomb.

A doctor at the Udaipur Medical College in India made an incredible observation about yoga. A yogi named Satyamurthy was "buried alive" for eight days and nights in public. The experiment was carried out as follows: first, a grave was dug, without any food, and only five liters of distilled water were put in. According to yoga, this water is not for drinking, but for moistening the air. At the end of the test, half the water remained. The temperature inside the cave is between 24° and 33° Celsius. After eight days and nights, the tomb was opened and the yogi was still sitting there in the same posture as when the experiment began, but his whole body was in a state of stiffness and he was unresponsive to changes in his surroundings. The body temperature dropped significantly to only 34.8°, compared to 37.2° at the beginning of the experiment. When the sealing soil was first opened, Yogi's whole body trembled violently. It was two hours later that his body temperature returned to normal. During the trial, yoga resulted in a 4.5 kg decrease in body weight and an increase in blood sugar. It should be particularly noted that during the trial, the metabolism of the yoga body not only did not stop, but also did not decrease significantly.

During the eight days and nights that the yoga was tested, the electrocardiogram was monitored continuously, with only a few brief interruptions. The electrocardiogram records were unexpected: two hours after being "buried alive", the heartbeat gradually accelerated, reaching 250 beats per minute on the first night! This continued until the evening of the first day, when a straight line suddenly appeared on the electrocardiogram, which surprised the doctors.

What does a straight line on an electrocardiogram mean? The doctors checked the equipment thoroughly and confirmed that everything was normal and there were no problems. "Yoga is dead! The terrified doctors decided to stop the experiment immediately and dig out Yoga. But Yoga's assistant thought there was no need to make a fuss. He said that Yoga was still alive, but his heart had stopped beating... So the experiment continued. Half an hour before the scheduled end of the experiment, the electrocardiogram began to show curves again, and the heart rate was recorded at 142 beats per minute! What caused the electrocardiogram to show a straight line? It is still a mystery. If Yoga detached the electrode plate by himself and then reconnected it by himself, this would require a very familiar electrocardiogram technology, and not one or two leads, but twelve leads! Besides, how could Yoga, whose whole body was in a state of stiffness on the eighth day, connect the electrode plate by himself?

Of course, it is not credible to say that yoga stopped his heart, because his metabolism was normal throughout the experiment. The magical mystery of yoga is waiting for further exploration by scientists.