Topic: Is it true that strong "social connections" are required for happiness? (Read 2451 times)

I just saw a PBS show about emotional health that claims "social connections" are required for happiness. Do you believe this is true?

where did i said you need to be a monk to do that?
the monk was just a good example, because this people can take control over body functions - which you usually can't control - through meditation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumo

accelerating your heartbeat or increasing your body temperature through running fast, sports or freaking out is something completely different.                

A limitation affecting the generalizability our findings is the small sample size due to the sacredness of the practice and difficulties in accessing g-tummo practitioners. Despite this limitation, we were able, for the first time, to document reliable CBT increases during the FB type of g-tummo practice, all within the slight to moderate fever zone, validating the legends of the extraordinary capacity of g-tummo meditators to elevate their body temperature beyond normal. However, the results also suggest that temperature increases during g-tummo meditation are neither solely a by-product of meditation nor its goal, but instead may be a means to facilitate the achievement of “deep meditative states”. The g-tummo meditators may use the CBT increases as a vehicle to enhance their attention and focus their meditative performance (which may in turn facilitate a further increase in their temperature through meditative visualization). Future studies of experts in g-tummo meditation who are capable of elevating and maintaining elevated CBT may offer promising research insights and approaches to investigating mechanisms of CBT regulation. Because many variables underlying neuronal functioning (e.g., transport via ion-selective channels, amplitude and duration of single-unit spikes) are temperature-dependent [42], [43], possibility of self-regulation of CBT may have a direct effect on self-regulating and maximizing neurocognitive activity. If future studies show that it is possible to self regulate CBT, by mastering vase breathing in conjunction with guided mental imagery without extensive meditation experience, it will open a wide range of possible medical and behavior interventions, such as adapting to and functioning in hostile (cold) environments, improving resistance to infections, boosting cognitive performance by speeding response time, and reducing performance problems associated with decreased body temperature as reported in human factor studies of shift work and continuous night operations [44], [45].

I didn't mean running or any other physical activity (the example with cyclists was to show the physiological range which can be experienced by a human). Any person can dramatically change his heart rate through strong emotions and emotional recollections, and no physical activity.

So what are you actually disagreeing with? No one in good health can kill himself with just a thought.

During visits to remote monasteries in the 1980s, Benson and his team studied monks living in the Himalayan Mountains who could, by g Tum-mo meditation, raise the temperatures of their fingers and toes by as much as 17 degrees. It has yet to be determined how the monks are able to generate such heat.

The researchers also made measurements on practitioners of other forms of advanced meditation in Sikkim, India. They were astonished to find that these monks could lower their metabolism by 64 percent. "It was an astounding, breathtaking [no pun intended] result," Benson exclaims.

To put that decrease in perspective, metabolism, or oxygen consumption, drops only 10-15 percent in sleep and about 17 percent during simple meditation. Benson believes that such a capability could be useful for space travel. Travelers might use meditation to ease stress and oxygen consumption on long flights to other planets.
[...]
"Lazar found a marked decrease in blood flow to the entire brain," Benson explains. "At the same time, certain areas of the brain became more active, specifically those that control attention and autonomic functions like blood pressure and metabolism. In short, she showed the value of using this method to record changes in the brain's activity during meditation."

A limitation affecting the generalizability our findings is the small sample size due to the sacredness of the practice and difficulties in accessing g-tummo practitioners. Despite this limitation, we were able, for the first time, to document reliable CBT increases during the FB type of g-tummo practice, all within the slight to moderate fever zone, validating the legends of the extraordinary capacity of g-tummo meditators to elevate their body temperature beyond normal. However, the results also suggest that temperature increases during g-tummo meditation are neither solely a by-product of meditation nor its goal, but instead may be a means to facilitate the achievement of “deep meditative states”. The g-tummo meditators may use the CBT increases as a vehicle to enhance their attention and focus their meditative performance (which may in turn facilitate a further increase in their temperature through meditative visualization). Future studies of experts in g-tummo meditation who are capable of elevating and maintaining elevated CBT may offer promising research insights and approaches to investigating mechanisms of CBT regulation. Because many variables underlying neuronal functioning (e.g., transport via ion-selective channels, amplitude and duration of single-unit spikes) are temperature-dependent [42], [43], possibility of self-regulation of CBT may have a direct effect on self-regulating and maximizing neurocognitive activity. If future studies show that it is possible to self regulate CBT, by mastering vase breathing in conjunction with guided mental imagery without extensive meditation experience, it will open a wide range of possible medical and behavior interventions, such as adapting to and functioning in hostile (cold) environments, improving resistance to infections, boosting cognitive performance by speeding response time, and reducing performance problems associated with decreased body temperature as reported in human factor studies of shift work and continuous night operations [44], [45].

During visits to remote monasteries in the 1980s, Benson and his team studied monks living in the Himalayan Mountains who could, by g Tum-mo meditation, raise the temperatures of their fingers and toes by as much as 17 degrees. It has yet to be determined how the monks are able to generate such heat.

The researchers also made measurements on practitioners of other forms of advanced meditation in Sikkim, India. They were astonished to find that these monks could lower their metabolism by 64 percent. "It was an astounding, breathtaking [no pun intended] result," Benson exclaims.

To put that decrease in perspective, metabolism, or oxygen consumption, drops only 10-15 percent in sleep and about 17 percent during simple meditation. Benson believes that such a capability could be useful for space travel. Travelers might use meditation to ease stress and oxygen consumption on long flights to other planets.
[...]
"Lazar found a marked decrease in blood flow to the entire brain," Benson explains. "At the same time, certain areas of the brain became more active, specifically those that control attention and autonomic functions like blood pressure and metabolism. In short, she showed the value of using this method to record changes in the brain's activity during meditation."

I just saw a PBS show about emotional health that claims "social connections" are required for happiness. Do you believe this is true?

I didn't mean running or any other physical activity (the example with cyclists was to show the physiological range which can be experienced by a human). Any person can dramatically change his heart rate through strong emotions and emotional recollections, and no physical activity.

So what are you actually disagreeing with? No one in good health can kill himself with just a thought.

Absolutely. No matter how hard you try, you can't change with just the power of thought what is made to function without any at all. The stories of men completely shutting down their heart by their will only are fables of the same kind.

Though you can always starve yourself to death instead.

sure? and maybe at the first trial... when you are in solitary confinement, you have the time to train until reaching perfection...

where did i said you need to be a monk to do that?
the monk was just a good example, because this people can take control over body functions - which you usually can't control - through meditation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumo

accelerating your heartbeat or increasing your body temperature through running fast, sports or freaking out is something completely different.                 

where did i said you need to be a monk to do that?
the monk was just a good example, because this people can take control over body functions - which you usually can't control - through meditation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumo

accelerating your heartbeat or increasing your body temperature through running fast, sports or freaking out is something completely different.                

Sex is way more important!

no, they didnt stop their heart beating.
they were controling it to a certain degree (heartbeat and body temperature).

i dont see a direct link to immortality, but lowering your heartbeat and body temperature will increase your lifespan.
this is not fiction, there is alot of talk in the scientific world about unusual phenomenoms like that.

The heartbeat can be controlled through CNS (as well as body temperature to a degree), but the heart itself cannot be stopped altogether unless you're dying on your own. But if your monks are, nevertheless, able to control some vital functions of the body why then they don't live forever?

In fact, there are a lot of interesting "docs" which ultimately turn out to be just fiction or someone's yet another insane fantasy.

I have to disagree.
there are some really interesting documentations about monks that seem to be able to control body functions which usually cant be controlled actively.
like body temperature, heartbeat etc.

Absolutely. No matter how hard you try, you can't change with just the power of thought what is made to function without any at all. The stories of men completely shutting down their heart by their will only are fables of the same kind.

sure? and maybe at the first trial... when you are in solitary confinement, you have the time to train until reaching perfection...

I just saw a PBS show about emotional health that claims "social connections" are required for happiness. Do you believe this is true? ...or
Perhaps it is propaganda to undermine the happiness of independent people who don't always require the "emotional support" of others?

What do you think?
Is it true that strong "social connections" are required for happiness?

Won't work. At first you lose consciousness, then you breath again. You don't stop breathing when you sleep, right?

stop breathing. the will to die.

I guess that's why solitary confinement is torture...

I guess that's why solitary confinement is torture...

I just saw a PBS show about emotional health that claims "social connections" are required for happiness. Do you believe this is true? ...or
Perhaps it is propaganda to undermine the happiness of independent people who don't always require the "emotional support" of others?

What do you think?
Is it true that strong "social connections" are required for happiness?