
Cold war experiments to find a superman in sport - prostoalex
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/18/superhuman-sport-cold-war-mind-power-men-on-magic-carpets-ed-hawkins-extract
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zaroth
I believe the underlying thread here is positive or negative _visualization_
which can sometimes produce effects so staggering that we mentally leap to the
mystical.

Believing you can do something is often said to be a prerequisite to achieving
it. Exactly how much it matters to the outcome I’m sure is up for huge debate,
but small and large things alike in your day can be measurably impacted by
your mental state, and visualization is an extremely effective way to alter
your mental state in a given moment.

Weightlifters (even non-pro) will be able to identify with my own experience
in reaching new PRs. Muscle activation in particular is some percentage
physical and some double digit percentage mental. If you _know_ you can lift
that weight, it just doesn’t feel as heavy.

I’ve read that athletes often visualize their performance very viscerally to
prepare their body to perform a routine. Reading the passage about a
basketball dribbler thinking of himself being able to literally pass through
other players on the court, to me is just a form of this positive
visualiation.

To take it a step further, someone visualizing all that negative energy,
turning it into a semi-controlled form of mass hysteria, absolutely has a
significant physical effect on the people participating, and very likely also
the people watching nearby.

The idea that this could work on a physically isolated subject who is unaware
of the experiment would be the true revelation, but it is yet to be seen.

We do have “superpowers” in many ways, but unfortunately the laws of physics
put somewhat of a damper on macro scale _spooky action at a distance_.

~~~
rjf72
The power of the mental can be demonstrated through something as simple as
adrenaline. This is something that is mentally produced and can enable feats
that seem superhuman, enormous strength and speed in particular. If somebody
could consciously control this, they'd effectively be a superman, though I'd
expect not for long. I think it's reasonable to assume that the reason we
cannot manually control things such as adrenaline is because of the wear and
tear on our bodies. It's almost like overclocking. You can generally lift,
without adrenaline, an amount that you can safely lift (though not necessarily
control). But factor in adrenaline and you can lift _far_ more than you can
safely lift and very likely injure yourself in the process.

A more controversial example (since it includes foreign substances) would be
PCP, but it's a similar story. A single man suddenly seeming to gain the
strength and endurance is not because the drug is somehow physically changing
him - it's just shutting off various critical systems like pain detection. A
similar story to the above in that we are physically capable of vastly more
than our bodies consciously enable, but the consequences usually involve
pushing your body past its physical limits which can result in self injury.

But yeah I've also noticed the exact same thing you mention with visualization
and lifting. It'd be interesting if visualization somehow helps us, even if
slightly, consciously override our subconsciously enforced performance limits.

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ToBeBannedSoon
> In one creepy experiment, the scientists implanted electrodes in a mother
> rabbit’s brain, took her young litter off to a submarine and, when it was
> deep below the surface, killed them one by one. At each synchronised time of
> death, the mother’s brain reacted.

~~~
4gotunameagain
I wonder if this is reproducible... ...

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evolvedcleaning
This reminds me of the time that a couple on vacation saw me and made a hand
motion and muttered what sounded like nonsense. I saw it out of the corner of
my eye and didn’t fully process the visual motion initially (being peripheral)
but heard the audio.

At that moment, my hand stumbled and I dropped my brand new phone with case
(except screen) onto the pavement, which happened to impact the screen with a
rock and cracked it.

While the obvious explanation is that it was due to my own clumsiness along
with bad luck, I had the distinct sense that they were experimenting with
(what they likely thought of as) voodoo or magic, mind control or influence,
etc. It was surreal and all happened in slow motion.

In another incident I was with classmates at a school basketball game on the
sidelines. I’m a terrible shot with no shooting ability at all. My classmate
quiets everyone down and says “watch this” and throws me the ball. A big group
of people in the stands are now focused on me and I chuck the ball at the rim
line drive style and sunk it. Everyone erupted.

To this day I’m convinced they said some prayer or otherwise did magic. Group
positive energy. Who knows.

Fascinating subject and highly relevant in today’s interconnected world.

~~~
lsh
Upvoted. Prayer and voodoo are the most logical, rational explanations here.

~~~
hutzlibu
Since both definetely have heavy influence on the mind, sure.

(in both examples he directly witnessed people influencing him, not that they
were hidden in a dark room somewhere else)

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Havoc
Rather eccentric article...

On a related topic - I recall seeing a documentary about two twins of eastern
origin that both had freakish long distance running and specifically VO2 max
ability. Anyone recall a name by chance?

