In my second novel in the "Streetlethal" series,
"Gorgon Child" I have a sequence where my
hero Aubry Knight undergoes a manhood
ritual that involves running across a desert
while holding a mouthful of water. I was
asked to comment on this, and that gives
me an opportunity to take a break from
talking about Musashi (don't worry, I'll
get back) but also to discuss a couple of
health and consciousness things, and also
to use this as an example of integrating
your specialized knowledge into your
writing work.
1) The "holding water" technique was
something I came across decades ago
as an Apache ritual, if memory serves.
The technique forces concentration,
and more importantly--breathing
through the nose.
2) When you force someone to breathe
through their nose during exercise, you
limit the amount of oxygen they intake.
This forces them to keep the exertion level
below the anaerobic threshold. You
can't gasp open-mouthed, gulping air.
You must pace yourself, and remain
below the level where the Kreb cycle
begins to break down and you cannot
re-convert fatigue toxins to produce
ATP. This means becoming smoother
and more efficient, rather than just
pushing yourself, multiplying
biomechanical errors.
3) Once you become aware of the flow
of breath, it opens the doorway to a
vast world of internal states. Because
breathing is the only process that is both
voluntary and autonomic, it is the
doorway to control of the CNS as well
as the sympathetic and parasympathetic
nervous systems, controlling the fight
or flight response. Fabulous for stress
control, health, concentration, energy,
even pain management.
4) By placing my lead character into a
situation where he had to evolve or
die, I had the chance to create a
"teaching" moment, where real
physiological science met Eastern
"mysticism" to create an entertaining
sequence with a touch of reality.
Anchoring a spiritual practice in
hard science is one of my favorite
things in the world.
Steve
####
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3 comments:
Was watching reruns of "Surviving the Cut" last week. Episode on Navy Combat divers.
They get to be tossed in the water with hands feet velcroed, hands behind the back (I'm told first hand in prior days it was tight zipties to really mess with your mind).
They have to desend and "bob" for a certain period and it takes great control not to panic and the key is to control their breathing on the way down and rate of ascent, then they have to circle the pool several times. Then at the end they have to desend, grasp a mask in their teeth and bob 5 more times. At this point they're pretty oxygen depleted and they still have to breath through the nose or loose the mask and fail.
Wow, there is really much useful info here!
This won't really have effect, I think so.
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