Can You Warm Yourself with Your Mind?

Can You Warm Yourself with Your Mind?

Jessica Wapner

Kozhevnikov wanted to know if the monks could raise their core body temperatures. That’s a harder problem: maintaining an internal temperature of 98.6 degrees is more or less a requirement of having a human body on Earth. She travelled to Nangchen town, in the Amdo region of Tibet, an area known for g-tummo practice. There, she took the core body temperatures of several monks and nuns during meditation. It was January, and even inside the house where she ran the experiment the temperature hovered between thirty-two and thirty-six degrees. Kozhevnikov taped disk thermometers to the meditators’ armpits, attaching them to a computer, which allowed her to obtain readings without being in the room with the nuns. Her skepticism changed to awe as she watched the data emerge. “It was amazing,” she said. “You see the core body temperature change.” It wasn’t just that they increased their core body temperature; aerobic exercise can do that, too. It was that the meditators gave themselves fevers. At least one monk raised his body temperature from 98.6 degrees to 100.8.

In Kozhevnikov’s report, published with some colleagues in the journal PLOS One, she explains that g-tummo involves a breathing technique called “the vase,” in which meditators contract their abdominal and pelvic muscles. They picture a flame rising from below the navel to the top of the head. I asked Kozhevnikov if she could share more about how g-tummo is done; she told me that she’d agreed to keep the practice confidential as a condition of her visit. “They visualize the spine being on fire,” she said. G-tummo meditation, she went on, is not a state of relaxation but arousal. She thinks it may increase blood flow to the brain. G-tummo is difficult, requiring years of dedication to master.

Admittedly this article veers too quickly away from the question of the title (IMO at least), without really digging into the possibility of Psi. That said, it is interesting to see more and more of this paranormal & paranormal-adjacent type of stuff enter into the mainstream.

Can You Warm Yourself with Your Mind?

Jessica Wapner







Admittedly this article veers too quickly away from the question of the title (IMO at least), without really digging into the possibility of Psi. That said, it is interesting to see more and more of this paranormal & paranormal-adjacent type of stuff enter into the mainstream.

I actually took a cognitive psychology class with one of the co-authors of the Tummo research mentioned, James Elliott this last year. I don't think this is the result of the paranormal but rather a modified body schema which allows people to take over what are normally subconscious processes.  Here's the actual study since they didn't mention it. It's great reading! https://journals.plos.org/plosone/articl...ne.0058244

I have been able to create the sensation of heat just with my mind, but whether or not this is objectively raising my body temperature I don't know.  I have often wondered about this because of stories about some yogis that are said to be able to melt thick ice.  Is it paranormal?  I suppose if you can increase body temperature without losing energy, it must be but like @letseat  I suspect it is just controlling that which is usually an automatic process.