Sleeping positions

History, religion and culture
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VK RAMAN
Posts: 5009
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:29

Re: Sleeping positions

Post by VK RAMAN »

Is there any empirical study to support this view. While I am not discounting the value of Guruji's observation, educated members of this August group may like to throw some light.

Rsachi
Posts: 5039
Joined: 31 Aug 2009, 13:54

Re: Sleeping positions

Post by Rsachi »

Disclaimers:
I follow Sadhguru for many of his life-changing talks and his mass movement around Isha.
I deeply admire his presentation skills and the optics in his talks and a glibness in his "scientific" explanations.


My comment about sleeping with head towards the north:
1.Techtonic plate movement of earth's outer crust land masses is currently believed to be due to earth rotation and gravitation effects involving the sun and moon. No connection with earth's magnetism. And land masses move not just in one direction.
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2. The interaction of iron molecules in blood in the presence of powerful magnetic fields 1000x - 10000x earth's field strength for example inside an MRI is still too faint and our blood doesn't rush crazily into our head inside an MRI.

The interaction of all molecules and atoms possessing magnetic moment (much more pervasive than iron molecules in blood!) inside an MRI is very transient (=paramagnetism) and measured and mapped by a sophisticated means.
3. Motor cars and trains and ships made up of mostly iron don't rush to the north pole.
4. I do believe there are unknown reasons why our ancestors forbade sleeping with head towards north.
It may be due to any of these: geomagnetic effects on our nervous system (electrical phenomena), paramagnetism (Sadhguru!), planetary gravitation effects, and simple superstition based on imperfect empirical data. One thing is sure- such a belief exists!
5. Whatever I strongly believe, has an effect on my mind and in turn modifies biology as well as behaviour. That's why we say "Man the Unknown"!

:) That's why Sadhguru may, in his own way, be right!

kvchellappa
Posts: 3598
Joined: 04 Aug 2011, 13:54

Re: Sleeping positions

Post by kvchellappa »

Thanks, Rsachi, for a scientific explanation. We need to move along those lines while keeping faith unobtrusively.

VK RAMAN
Posts: 5009
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:29

Re: Sleeping positions

Post by VK RAMAN »

I know the emotional balance change during Ammavaasa and Pournami. We can observe that on those who are mentally disturbed. I wonder if any such effect on sleeping position when our head pointed to North. Thanks rsachi and I respect your views.

rshankar
Posts: 13754
Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:26

Re: Sleeping positions

Post by rshankar »

The problem with these so called 'scientific' explanations are that they are just one man's (or a few men's) opinions - there is no way to design a study or experiment to prove or disprove them.

So, it's "authenticity" is all in the presentation - I like the quotes around scientific in Sachi's post.

While it is true that the blood vessels in the brain are not able to accomodate as much as vessels in other parts of the body do, there is no evidence that it is so restrictive that even one extra drop would lead to a hemorrhage. This would mean that everytime we smell, we'd need to have a bleed in olfactory cortex, as it has been shown with fMRI scans that blood flow increases to that part of the brain when we smell (and so on and so forth). Furthermore, I am not aware of any autopsy studies that have found hemorrhages in the brains of a vast majority of people.

And I think there is a limit to the power of mind over body - for example, if one were to convince oneself that the Sun rises in the west, and believe in it, and went about life as if it were true, the biological effect, if you will, will be that he/she will be labeled as a psychotic, and not that he/she is establishing a scientific fact.

What I have heard about not sleeping with your head to the north is that that the young elephant (kari kaLabham) whose head was chopped off to replace ganESa's head was sleeping with his head to the north. So, we avoid a similar fate by not sleeping so...

I do wonder if people (of Indian origin) Down Under are indeed OK sleeping with their heads to the north.... ;)

Rsachi
Posts: 5039
Joined: 31 Aug 2009, 13:54

Re: Sleeping positions

Post by Rsachi »

Ravi,
Mark the words - belief modifies "my" biology and behaviour. Hypnosis is an extreme example and often comes to my mind in the presence of bhaktas enraptured by their guru.

rshankar
Posts: 13754
Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:26

Re: Sleeping positions

Post by rshankar »

:)
Understood, but doesn't make it right.
Also hypnosis cannot occur without one's implicit consent!

Sundara Rajan
Posts: 1081
Joined: 08 Apr 2007, 08:19

Re: Sleeping positions

Post by Sundara Rajan »

Sadguru's pseudo scientific explanation is as good as my grand mother's explanation that "sleeping with your feet towards south will invite the Lord of Death Yama for, Yama loka is said to be in the south" ! Magnet attracts elemental Iron only and not Iron containing compounds as Hemoglobin. My uncle did daily "sirasAsana" even in his eighties, as did/do many others, and there has been no case of hemorrhage in the brain cause by this . My comment has nothing to do with the fact that I am no fan of self proclaimed "sathgurus".

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