I started kicking around the idea of writing a book about attention about 6 months ago. I’ve had to slowly whittle down the focus and trajectory of the outline. One chapter called “Feats of Attention” discusses just that – impressive historical accounts of sustained attention or focus. One of those feats is g-tummo meditation.
In February of 1981, Herbert Benson, a Cardiologist and faculty member at Harvard Medical School, travelled to the Himalayas of Northern India. He would later found the Benson-Henry Institute at Mass General Hospital, one of the first research clinics looking at the connection between spirituality and health.
Dr. Benson had heard about monks that could do all sorts of wild things to their bodies, such as warming the body temperature up beyond any measurement thought possible. Benson brought a team of researchers to Northern India, equipped with EEG equipment, thermometers, and spirometers to measure oxygen intake. They were given a unique glimpse into a shrouded tradition of meditation called, g-tummo. Imagine gulping down air so forcefully that your belly contorts and contracts like a python digesting a rat, all the while acutely visualizing fire moving from the top of the spine down to the bottom. This is a crude explanation of g-tummo, and it really is a fascinating practice.
Dr. Benson and the researchers measured body temperature at various places on the body including the core and the limbs under cold conditions. The human body does a good job at regulating temperature, which is why there is such a narrow and predictable temperature all humans operate under healthy conditions. When the body is exposed to cooling, the most precious organs are spared while less necessary things for survival like fingers and toes are put on the chopping block and experience reduced blood flow. Tummo monks were placed in a cold environment and asked to meditate placing attention on the breath while using the g-tummo method. Under normal circumstances, researchers would begin to see body temperature drop especially in the hands and feet as the monks would become cold due to exposure. This isn’t what happened. The team found that the monks were able to increase the temperature in their fingers and toes by 16-17 degrees Fahrenheit!
Benson and his team were able to witness a ceremony among the tummo monks, in which they gathered in a room at 40 degrees, soaked sheets in 49 degree water and wrapped them around their bodies. You can find videos of this ceremony on YouTube and I suggest you check it out. After a short time of meditating, researchers noted that body temperatures were increasing to the extent that the sheets were steaming until they were dry.
This is a snippet from the book, and I expound on how attention can affect autonomic processes in the human body. Hope you enjoyed and feel free to reach out!