ratschkopf

Virtual Reality Devices are all around us all ready. Your smartphone / PC is just a more primitive form of it than a VR-Headset like the Oculus Rift or the Vive Index is. There already were people who found such great immersion in video games that they played themselves to death. Being awake at gaming marathons for several days at a time and disregarding basic human needs have caused these tragedies. I personally believe that as time progresses and technology enables us to build increasingly immersive devices, it will become more common for someone to use a device non stop. Especially if it‘s a VR Headset or Augmented Reality Glasses that don‘t require you to put them away for any other task. Humanity as a whole will become more and more dependent on these devices. With more immersion comes a larger number of people who are willing to spend their lives in a virtual world. Virtual Reality will become increasingly indistinguishable from our „usual“ reality. Following this, why would you have to care if it‘s real or „only“ virtual, especially if the virtual world is far more accessible anyway. You can do much more in VR already, like flying and teleporting through an environment which is already pretty close to reality in my opinion. Future humans might not even feel the need to explore the real universe, because it‘s much easier to explore space via a game. (Games like these already exist, like: Star Trek: Bridge Crew, it may not be very complex now, but that won‘t stop developers and AI from making more content). Interestingly enough, this could even explain the fermi paradox. I have a Oculus Rift myself and can definitely image a future in which virtual reality will „replace“ a larger portion of our reality that many might think.

I mean that it works for them, that they can say they are feeling healthier or what ever. Not that spiritual energy is flowing through their body. That's unfounded and is just one of many ways you could substanciate what's happening to somebody who is practicing tai chi. Personally I think it has much more to do with how we feel in general. The mind and conciousness can have a great effect on the own state and mental health. Tai chi is most likely working in a similar way like placebo medicine or homeopathy. I think that humans can "trick" themselves into believing things so that their own mind can have a real and measurable effect on their body. I suggest watching an episode of Michael Stevens (Vsauce) Mind Field Series about it, called "The Power of Suggestion" (Season 2, Episode 6).

You are probably right that this is the reason why I don‘t find much about it. But I would like there to be more people interested in this just because it‘s at the edge of our conciousness. I would like to control my body as much as I can and try to find ways of controlling my eye muscles independently for example. Even if it‘s a pretty useless ability, it‘s bothering me that I can‘t do it. Because it makes me realize how little I can use my body and how limited the mind is.

Well ok, I have to admit that I didn't really look into tai chi at all and I didn't know what it was when I wrote my post. Seeing that it's being practiced tells me that it definetly is a thing and that it does work, wether it's a placebo or not. But still, the difference to tai chi is that this sensation isn't such a huge deal. You don't have to focus for longer periods of time or believe in it and so on. You just have to lay down and relax your muscles so much so that feeling starts to kick in. What I find weird about it that there is so little I find about it online.

Hey guys, I just wanted to clarify: I am generally not somebody who believes in absurd spiritual things that are unscientific or things like tai chi. I am not religious and (try to) build my opinions on empirical evidence. This sensation is pretty much the the only thing I believe in that sounds so strange and ridiculous. More precisely, I think that tai chi is not much more than a placebo effect which is being held alive by people who believe in all sorts of falsities that are unscientific. I myself know lots of people who report on things that I think are basically wrong. And I don‘t want to be one of them. Reading through my text again though, I have to admit that it did sound quite unrealistic or that I was trying to be the spiritual guy who finds out that he has a soul and is going crazy about it. This may led you to believe that I am just one of these people who ignores scientific evidence and tries to build his own unsubstanciated theory about the human body and the universe. When I described the feeling I said it feels like being pulled down. That‘s because it‘s the closest feeling I could associate with it, not because I believe that I will actually escape out of my body and can fly around with some weird soul of me or something similar. I believe that pretty much everything that has to do with our consciousness happens in the brain and that there is no spiritual self that could ever leave the body. In reality, I think that only a few of the posters in this thread actually had the same sensation like me, Keenan Ross‘s post for example describes a feeling which is far more intense than mine. I can‘t know wether his experience was real or not, but I would also „agree with you“ that his experience sounds unrealistic to me. I don‘t think this sensation is something similar to tai chi. That‘s because when I do it, it just feels like a usual ability like breathing or moving an arm. The only difference is that it is not as easy to control. It‘s like the ability to curl your tongue or to „breath into your stomach“ to be able to burp. (I don’t know if that’s what actually happens). Or like moving the muscles in your nose (I thinks it the nasalis muscle) or in your ears, both things which I can control but some I know can‘t. Or like moving only one eye brow only one eye at the time. It‘s difficult because we as humans aren’t usually doing it and don‘t need to anyways. Not everybody trained themselves to do it but it‘s possible. That‘s also why my original thesis was that it‘s just „squeezing“ (releasing) some hormone into your body. Usually this releasing of hormones happens completely subconciously but in this specific case, it may just be that you can control it if you know how to. Also, I said that I only created an account to answer this thread. That‘s because I never stumbled upon this site before, not because I‘m usually a spiritual person who does not look through a site like scienceforums. I would be happy to talk to you about this more, because I really feel like the sensation isn‘t such a big deal after all. It‘s most likely just some weird ability to control some function of your body that primarily makes your body feel different.

Hello, I also just created an account to reply to this post. Here are my thoughts on the matter: My decription of what it feels like: The sensation makes me feel like I‘m being pulled down towards the ground. It feels like I‘m dragging myself about an inch down. As if you were sinking into your own body. It‘s almost like extreme relaxation but feels more exhausting than usual relaxing. When it starts, it starts rather quickly, with almost no delay. I would guess it‘s only about 200ms max from not feeling it to feeling it. But the intensity of the effect can vary depending on how concentrated I am in this (exact) moment which only lasts a few seconds. I feel it in my muscle areas, at my limbs (arms, legs the most) How to invoke the feeling: 1. Lie down (If I were to hold my arm up for example, it doesn‘t really work) 2. Get relaxed 3. Stop breathing (I don‘t hold my breath but rather exhale everything and then stop with inhaling for the duration of the feeling) 4. Try to let go of your muscles / body as much as you can. If it doesn‘t work directly don‘t be discouraged. I think it may be similar to controlling crying or something similar which you usually don‘t control. Also interesting to note: There is a clear difference between just relaxing and doing this „feeling“ / having this sensation. I can more or less control wether I do it or not. But only for a few seconds, after which I feel like I have to wait a little bit before I can go again. Also: It becomes continously harder to hold the feeling whilst doing it. The longer the duration the more I have to stop with it. My history / story: I‘m 17 and did this „extreme relaxing“ of the muscles at a few points in my life. I think my first time was when I was about 13-14. At the time I didn‘t really care about it and forgot about the feeling. Since then I did it a few times up until now, when I‘ve finally decided that I want to do some research and I‘m very happy to find this thread. My thesis of what it might be / how it can be explained: I‘m pretty sure this isn‘t some imaginary thing that only exists because I think it exists. I think there are many placebo effects in everyday life but this feeling is almost as clear as moving my body or rotating and twisting my tongue for example. After reading this thread and seeing the comment from thaar and his example of a dude who measured his body during the process, I‘m leaning towards the theory that when doing it, you control your adrenaline / some other (similar) hormone levels. This would explain the supposed increase in heart rate and the „electric“ feeling many were talking about. It’s also supported by the fact that I have to stop with it after a short period of time. Releasing some hormone couldn‘t continue forever non stop, could it? Still, I‘m sure there is a way to come up with a much more precise explanation of this phenomenon. That‘s why I don‘t plan on stopping with the „investigation“ of this My Plan going forward: I want to measure my heart beat / heart rate while doing it and then compare it to when I don‘t do it. When I try to „measure“ my heart rate by resting one of my hands on my chest to feel the heart beats, I‘m pretty certain that the rate increases. And finally to wrap this up: I believe that many if not everybody can do this. It may be a thing like crying / burping on demand, where not everybody can do it but it‘s possible once you got the hang of it.That‘s why I encourage you to try it and also reply to this thread with your own findings.