The concept of corporality in integrative psychotherapy

O. V. LAVROV

In theoretical, practical and psychotherapeutic researches of the second half of the XX and the beginning of the X I century, more and more attention is paid to the relationship of consciousness and body, mental and bodily, which leads to the emergence of special areas in psychology, including bodily components in the subject of psychology. The main practical areas in this area include: bioenergetics (W. Reich, A. Lowen), body-oriented therapy (I. Rolf, D. Chodorow, A. Green), dance movement therapy ( Lewis, M. Chase, P. Schilder, E. Whirte, M. Wigman ), holding therapy ( M. Welch, J. Prerop, J. richer ) and integrative psychotherapy ( H. Petzold ). Psychosomatics, psychophysiology, and neuropsychology are traditionally considered academic areas. A special place is occupied by a new area of ​​scientific knowledge - physical psychology.

The psychology of corporality as a field of scientific psychological knowledge is a complementary field to the field of scientific knowledge about consciousness. The body as such cannot act as an object of psychological research, in which some parallel processes take place with mental processes and which has causality in relation to the mental. The body is the place of being of the subject, that extended and explicit plan in which the subject manifests himself not only physically, but also mentally - due to the mediated interaction of the body and the psyche. As the main mediator of this interaction, corporality can be considered, which, on the one hand, has a corporal-sensory material basis of corporality, and on the other hand, a sense-forming basis of consciousness.

The proposed concept of corporeality considers the epistemological and ontological dimensions of corporality, as well as the subjective and objective hypostases of the corporeal "I", which are irreducible to each other and coexist in the unity and continuity of the ontic (extended physical body of the subject). The epistemological dimension is a space equivalent to bodily being, which is formed into images and concepts (words). The ontological dimension is revealed in the conscious relation of the subject to his own bodily existence - here-and-now at each specific moment of time. It is directly connected with the conscious figurative and conceptual series, but is not limited to it and goes beyond its limits - being itself. The subjective dimension of corporality - the corporal "I" of a particular subject - is an active, goal-setting and integral part of corporality, actually ontologizing abstract equivalents (images and concepts) and performing conscious actions.

Ontically, the subject is the one who IS, who is present (according to M. Heidegger) - HERE - regardless of whether he knows about it or not. The presence of a certain subject is noticeable to others through its existential (physical presence, feelings, speech, etc.) and other-existential (signs, texts, etc.) manifestations. The corporeal being forms the basis of the here-and-now of the presence of the subject in this place of the “World” and contains not only the obviously physical, physiological, but also the mental and spiritual movements of the “I” that are actually expressed through it. To what extent the existential manifestations of the “I” are conscious and to what extent they express the true experiences, thoughts and will of the subject - this is fully evidenced to the outside observer by the bodily being of this subject. In other words, a thorough analysis of the patient's bodily manifestations in the process of psychotherapy can serve as an objective indicator of the degree of the patient's awareness of his current state in particular and the peculiarities of his attitude to unconscious mental contents in general.

The presented concept of corporality is built on the basis of an analysis of a rather large empirical material (about 450 clinical cases). It uses the following basic definitions, which are sequentially disclosed in this article:

· extended physical human body- ontic object belonging to the subject; the place of the extended being of the subject, which makes it possible for physical contact with the outside world;

· bodily existence- a set of events occurring (and also occurring) in the body of the subject;

· physicality- a category that includes epistemological and ontological, conscious and unconscious, subjective and objective aspects of the body and bodily existence of the subject;

· body image- sensual mental equivalent of the body in the mind of the subject;

· body concept- conscious mental equivalent of the body in the mind of the subject;

· body diagram- integral physiological sensorimotor equivalent of the body in the cerebral cortex;

· bodily "I"- subjective correlation, subjectivity (consciousness, activity, meaningfulness and purposefulness) of bodily existence;

· archetype of the body unconscious - an ontic receptacle of the subject's bodily existence, inaccessible to direct awareness, having a direction, a semantic structure and belonging to the processes of mental shaping.

The corporality of the subject in this context is considered as:

· "text" (image, concept, bodily "I") and as "reality" (body, bodily being, body archetype);

· the basis for the formation of a sense of reality and as a condition for adequate testing of reality;

· equivalent (semantic copy) and directly feeling (experiencing) reality;

· objectively represented in the mind of the subject (in the form of a sensual image and concept) and subjectively represented in his being in direct impressions and bodily expression;

· the conscious element of the "bodily I", mediating the sensory and psychomotor interaction of the subject with the world;

· a conscious element that mediates the interaction of the subject with his physical body;

· the condition for integrating the level of vital activity and the bodily-sensory being of the subject with the being of the mind; and as a condition for the formation of a nuclear gender identity;

· the basis of the semantic integration of the conscious and unconscious contents of bodily existence into the existence of the subject.

The phenomenon of corporality reveals belonging to different levels of the subject's being:

· as a body scheme - to the level vital activity;

· as images and concepts of the body - to bodily-sensory And rational-volitional being;

· as a bodily "I" - to existential-individual being(see fig. 1).

Fig.1 Ontological metaphor of the psyche

Events that exist outside of conscious bodily existence as such form the basis of the bodily unconscious.

Under bodily-sensory Being in this concept is understood as the resulting experience of the subject, which is the basis for the formation of a "sense of reality" and the basis for adequate testing of reality. In addition to direct impressions, the experiences of the subject are also influenced by the processes of life and thinking.

Body Unconscious

Even the first psychoanalytically oriented researchers came to the conclusion that unusual sensory and motor disturbances in certain parts of the body must be considered as a symbolic expression of repressed desires. T. Shash considers a hysterical symptom as some "iconic sign" - a way of communication between the patient and another person. Patients with hysteria unconsciously use their body as a means of communication, as a language for conveying a message that cannot be expressed in the usual way. These symbolic meanings are partly determined by childhood experiences. If people significant for the child attach a special meaning to any part of the body or its function, emphasizing its value or, conversely, react negatively to the symptoms associated with it, then the child forms associative links between this part of the body or function, on the one hand, and a special attitude or behavior towards it - on the other.

The body is a kind of living form, constantly spontaneously carrying out the act of life, while possessing certain material (bodily) properties. The body is able to feel, feeling is a property of life, embodied in bodily form. Due to psychosomatic sensitivity, the body bears the imprints of the reality of the past, affecting the experience of the present.

F. Perls called the body-spiritual organization of a neurotic "leaky". W. Reich and A. Lowen diagnosed sensory “prohibitions”, distortions of bodily and emotional life based on the bodily states of their clients, based on the fact that the depth and strength of a person’s feelings are expressed in body reactions. The character of the individual, according to Reich, manifests itself in his body in the form of muscular rigidity or muscular armor, organized in a kind of "protective system". Relaxation of the physical and psychological armor in combination with analytical work contributes to the solution of personal problems, the improvement of a person. The discovery of emotions "frozen" in the body makes it possible to react to them, the experience of repressed experience ceases to block actual experiences.

K. Jung suggested that there is a bodily consciousness and a bodily unconscious, and the images of the body and the ability to control them are in the area of ​​Ego-consciousness, and affective experiences and a special uncontrolled bodily organization are in the area of ​​the unconscious.

At present, the evidence of the connection between emotional states and bodily expression is not in doubt. However, most often these relationships are considered in a causal paradigm, linearly - either the cause of emotions is in the body, or emotions are the cause of bodily changes. Of course, causal relationships exist, but most likely they are not decisive. Following C. Jung, the author assumes that the body (the explicit plane of being of the subject) and any mental manifestations (the implicit plane of being of the subject) are in synchronous (not sequential, but simultaneous) coincidence with each other, which has a completely uncontrolled (ontically unconscious) and amenable to conscious control (ontologically unconscious and conscious) levels of agreement and coincidence of the body and psyche.

In this concept, under bodily unconscious refers to events occurring simultaneously in the extended physical body and in the psyche of the subject, which are not recognized by consciousness or cannot be framed in images or words accessible to consciousness. Thus, the area of ​​the corporeal unconscious exists in the being of the subject - as a certain set of real bodily-sensory events - but without describing these events in a figurative or verbal form at the level of awareness of the relationship between events and images (words).

The unconscious bodily organization, which has an affective fullness, consists in the totality of the phenomena of bodily-sensory being in complementary relationships with the being of the mind. Finely differentiated and realistic human intellect, according to Jung, leaves room only for undifferentiated (archaic) feelings and undeveloped intuitive abilities. And, conversely, the ability for a full-fledged, deep sensory experience and the ability to grasp the whole exclude a developed ability for analytical testing of reality.

In the work “Libido and Its Metamorphoses”, K. Jung writes about the structure of the soul, which unites the contents of consciousness and the unconscious. The conscious is ephemeral and momentary, but necessary for ordering human life. Conscious processes cover his mind, will and sensations; intuition, feelings and drives are the least subject to conscious control and understanding. Unconscious processes oppose conscious ones, but move towards them ( enantiodromia or oncoming traffic)¾ the principle of the interaction of opposites, established by Heraclitus and used as the main assumption in the analytical psychology of K Jung.

In the unconscious, Jung placed the source and form of the spiritual heritage of mankind, or rather, the possibility of access to it.¾ archetype, calling this level of the unconscious collective. This natural formation "is an irrational given", "identified universe". According to Jung, the archetype is a mental organ, but acts against the will and mind. Archetype is empty¾ it creates and mediates only itself possibility of transformation from the primitive form of his original instinctive essence to make a breakthrough into other - higher dimensions.

The very word "archetype" was borrowed by Jung from ancient philosophers and Goethe. Philo called the archetype the image of God in man; Plato¾ eternal idea; Blessed Augustine¾ the primordial image underlying human knowledge; scholastics¾ natural image underlying human knowledge. Thus, the archetype of K. Jung¾ is an idea that grew out of his individual life impression of the existence universal ways of being human. The archetype has a number of properties¾ collectivity, depth, autonomy, attraction (force of attraction) and a certain form.

archetypal image , i.e. the manifestation to consciousness of some archetypal content (which is not identical to the archetype), is fundamentally different from the image of memory, even though the content of both of them may be similar. The archetypal content has always WAS, and in memory¾ EAT.

The relationship between archetype and experience is built in the movement of the process. shaping. Each side¾ internal (archetypal) and external (environmental)¾ affects the other forming subject's own experience. In archetypal forms past experiences are crystallized and future experiences are sanctioned.

Archetypal forms are formations that have a bodily-spiritual nature: the archetype is associated with ideas (points up) and drives (points down). In this sense archetype cannot be attributed to either a material or an ideal phenomenon, which is why it represents an ontological metaphor of the inner reality of a person.

M. Mamardashvili believed that the reality of human existence is actually a metaphor¾ hiding behind the broken empirical facts of the existence of patterns of their connection.

Developing Jung's idea that corporeality has not only conscious, but also unconscious content, this concept assumes that the basic (unconscious) mental form of corporality is internal body, which can be ranked among the archetypal formations containing the bodily existence of the subject.

From a simple syllogism:

1. There is a bodily unconscious.

2. The archetype is the structural basis of the unconscious.

3. Consequently, there is an archetype of the body unconscious, -

it is assumed that the corporeal unconscious has fundamentally the same structure as the unconscious in general (i.e., like the unconscious, it is not directly connected with corporality), and has the same properties (transformations, shaping, connection with collective and individual experience).

An analysis of the empirical clinical material showed that the archetype of the internal body (the bodily unconscious) is observed in some of the main archetypal images of directional visualization, which are fundamentally different from sensory images of the body. Protoforms were distinguished among them, i.e. the simplest forms (Fig. 2):

Rice. 2Protoforms of the internal body

The protoform has no volume, color, internal structure and transparency for the mind. It is interesting that Russian nesting dolls and snow “women” surprisingly resemble these archetypal images. In this simplest form, the archetype of the corporeal unconscious is found only in children under 12 years old, as well as in adults suffering from alexithymic disorders.

The archetypal image of the internal body becomes available to consciousness upon contact with the content of the internal image of the body, i.e. at the moment of experiencing it from the inside, abstracting from sensory sensations. If the transition to non-sensory perception of the body is difficult, then the subject most often detects a sensory image of the body.

In the process of individuation, protoforms are transformed and integrated into more complex archetypal formations:

Animal - animus (feminine and masculine) archetypal forms of the body are integrated into the corresponding archetypes and thus the corporeal is synchronized with the mental. At the same time, the physical body is “transparent” for the consciousness of the subject, i.e. becomes more sensitive to the experience of reality.

Shadowbody shapes are also a product of integration with shadow archetypes and in images they often represent something pre-human: insects, animals, birds, fish, mythological creatures with a characteristic brutal content (dirty, frightening, evil, sick). In the process of visualization, the bodily archetypal content is experienced at the level of the physical body.

bodily incarnation selves is the Eternal Child, whose presence in directional visualization is often associated with physical sensations in the chest area.

personala variant of corporeality is a “dressed” image of the body, in which those parts that have a negative conceptualization are hypertrophied.

The integration of the body archetype with other archetypes and the self leads to a cyclic transformation in the images of directional visualization: the circle transforms into a ball, transparent to light and energy.

Visualization images in which the body is not fully represented (some of its parts are missing) or partially materialized (mortified) can be considered special forms of this archetype. These body images can be transformed during psychotherapeutic work and, as a rule, it turns out that the body counterparts accumulate certain unconscious contents of a traumatic nature.

Figure 3 "Typology of characters and the "internal body" shows some of the most typical visual images of the "internal body" found in representatives of various clinical characterologies.

psychopathic personality "Headless horseman »	narcissistic personality "Doll or Robot"	Schizoid personality "Black"
paranoid personality "Jellyfish"	Depressive-manic personality "Wounded"	Masochistic personality "Grey Shadow"
Compulsive personality "Leaving"	Hysterical personality "Bust"	obsessive personality "Matryoshka"

Rice. 3Typology of characters and "internal body"

In the internal plan, the order of communication of the carrier with his own body is formed. For example, in persons with psychopathic character traits in the internal plane of the body usually lack a head, while they complain of frequent headaches.

At narcissistic For personalities, the image of the “internal body” is usually represented by inanimate objects resembling bodily forms (dolls, robots). Somatization of functions: sexual, food and respiratory.

Internal plan of the body in a person with schizoid personality type is visualized as solid black or gray fog. Somatic phenomena are practically absent.

At paranoid personality, the form of the “internal body” is vague and monochromatic. Somatization occurs spontaneously, without a characteristic localization in the body.

In people with depressive-manic character traits, the image of the "internal body" often resembles a wounded body, in which the main areas of damage are the chest, face and hands. There is an assumption that the greatest probability of somatization is associated with the functional respiratory system.

The image of the "internal body" masochistic personality often looks completely colorless and incorporeal, resembling a shadow. Somatization is quite deep, involving many bodily functions.

At compulsive personalities, the image of the "internal body" is usually visualized from the back and is distinguished by rich vital colors. Somatization often occurs in the spine (lumbar and sacral).

At obsessional personalities, the image of the “internal body”, as a rule, is devoid of limbs, in which somatization most often occurs.

Particularly characteristic are the images of the internal body hysterical personalities. In these archetypal images, the lower part of the body (below the waist) is almost always missing. It is either generally inaccessible to awareness and really insensible, or walled up in something inanimate. Somatically suppressed and vulnerable in a hysterical personality is the genitourinary system.

According to K. Jung, it is the body (in Jung's understanding it is rather corporality) that acts as a material carrier of unconscious contents that manifest themselves in psychosomatic symptoms.

Corporeality and the corporeal "I"

Corporeality as a category can be viewed from two main perspectives:

¨ in epistemological- as a category that mediates the interaction in the mind of the subject of the relationship between the body and the mental.

¨ in ontological - how phenomenon, representing the correlation of the main manifestations - "image of the body", "concept of the body", "corporeal Self" and "internal body". In this division, there is a disidentification of the conscious and unconscious components of corporality, as well as the reality of the existence of the body and the reality of texts about the body in the mind of the subject.

Corporeality as a Phenomenon can be analyzed from the subjective and objective sides:

¨ from subjective- as directly existing "body self", experiencing impressions and expressing itself and its attitude to the world in bodily expression.

¨ from object - as a mental equivalent of the body, formed on the basis of sensory experience - a sensory model of the body and in the process of understanding its properties and capabilities - the concept of the body.

"Bodily I"a subject actively manifesting himself in bodily existence, having the ability to receive sensory experience, translated into images and concepts, and the ability to express himself in bodily expression.

The corporeal "I" is actually an integral existential element of the Ego. It, in fact, is the subjective embodiment of bodily existence and nuclear gender identity. It is the bodily "I" that has gender, sexual and reproductive instincts, survival instinct, homeostatic needs and motives, and along with them - the image and concept of its body.

According to Fischer, the absence of the body "I" in many psychological theories of personality reflects a general trend of rejection of biologically oriented theories. However, the body as such and the corporeality of the subject are not identical to each other, but are in complementary relationships: the actual phenomenon (body, corporality), its equivalent (corporeality) and the subject that is in direct experience and comprehension of experience.

The pioneer of psychology, who included the bodily "I" in the structure of the mental, was W. James, who considers the personality as a three-subject entity:

· subject A - the bearer of biological experience;

· subject B - the bearer of social experience;

· subject C - the bearer of spiritual experience.

If we consider the usual language formula "my body", then we can find an internal contradiction fixed in the language. That is, my "body" is not quite "I", and at the same time - the body is not completely alien - "mine". Such a binary division is the most accessible for the analysis of the phenomenon of the bodily "I". The child begins to comprehend himself and the world, starting from his own body: he learns to distinguish between "inside" and "outside", "here and there" and other bodily designations, distances and directions. In this way he receives and appropriates bodily experience.

The real "I" feels itself to have a "location" inside the body. This "location" is strictly localized. But the "I" never identifies itself with the body. The body is one of the objects of his perception, like other objects represented in three-dimensional space ... the body is a limited object that has a border around the "I" - the latter exists within the boundaries. The body is just the body, and it is defined by the term "mine". The “I” is aware of itself embodied in it. Having no extension, the "I" has a "location". ... it is always "here", and this "here" is realized somewhere within the bodily boundaries. (Landholm).

In the categories of consciousness it is impossible to experience bodily existence. To think of a body and to live in it are not the same thing. The subjective and objective aspects of the phenomenon of corporality exist separately from each other only in the mind of the reflective subject.

Corporeality as the basis of being a subject in the world is formed on the basis of subjective experience, internal impressions, only to a small extent relying on objective, sensory experience, which is included in corporality only insofar as it is an integral part of the integral experience of the body and carries objective, necessary information, however, it is by no means definitive. The determinant is the very bodily being, which is not so much "affected" as "shown" (L. Wittgenstein).

In being, subjectivity reveals itself. The description of the “subjective side” of being directs the focus of consciousness into this dimension, thereby creating a reflexive equivalent of subjectivity. Subjectivity itself is elusive in cognition, one can only be subjective.

The being of the subject in bodily extension constitutes the subjective aspect of corporality. A distinctive feature of the subjective aspect is the position "I am - who, where, why." The subjective experience “I am the body” is manifested in a sense of belonging and identification with one’s own bodily existence, which is not only bodily, but only manifests itself through the body and corporality.

In connection with the existence of the phenomenon of corporality, the "body" of the subject becomes not only an organ of action, but also an organ of cognition, an organ of establishing relations with the world.

Thus, "corporality" as such is the result of the semantic integration of the subject's sensory experience, both bodily and mental, i.e. experience received not only through the senses (on the basis of which the “body schema” and in many respects the “body image” are built), but also through internal impressions.

The category and phenomenon of corporeality, which the author uses in this work, allow us to present the problem of the relationship between the corporeal and the mental from a dialectical position, according to which there is a "third" beginning that unites two opposites - the body and the psyche - into a whole - the corporeality of the subject, which has ontological and epistemological status, subjective and object characteristics, as well as conscious and unconscious components. With such a formulation of the problem, questions about the causal monistic primacy ("either - or") and dualistic irreconcilability and autonomy ("both - and") of the bodily and mental are removed.

Body Equivalents

Among the mental equivalents of the body in psychotherapeutic practice, the concept of “body image” is most often used.

J. Chaplin (1974), defining the image of the body as "an individual's idea of ​​how his body is perceived by others", reduces the image of the body to the concept of the body. According to D. Bennett (1960) "body concept" represents only one aspect of corporeality, and the other aspect is the "perception of the body" (or in this context, the sensory image of the body). The latter aspect is considered by Bennett primarily as a visual picture of one's own body, and the "body concept" is defined operationally as a set of features indicated by a person when describing the body, answering questions or drawing a human figure. Moreover, if an individual describes an abstract body, then this is a “general concept of the body”, but if one’s own, this is a “own concept of the body”. In contrast to the "perception of the body", the "concept of the body" according to Bennett is more influenced by motivational factors.

The attitude of the subject to his bodily incarnation is based on the perception of the body, the formation of concepts, value and value judgments regarding their bodily properties (with an object attitude to the body - only about bodily properties as such, with a subjective one - about reflected personal properties in bodily qualities), which is largely determined by the process of cognitive self-attribution. Attributing certain features or characteristics to your body is not fundamentally different from how a person gives them to other people.

Each person, in addition to internal equivalents of events, phenomena, processes, also has their ideal desired images. Even the individual derives the definition of his well-being from a comparison of bodily experiences with a standard. A person builds an image of a “desired, ideal body” and his goal-setting activity is to ensure that the “real body” corresponds to the desired model. There are many such “ideal” ideas. They are formed as a result of the impact of the cultural environment of development and the requirements for appearance existing in it, the idea of ​​health and attractiveness (in each culture, the standards of beauty are different), about gender differences, also under the influence of others (nuclear family, reference groups) and the information they broadcast about qualities of the subject's body.

On the one hand, the presence of an ideal image provokes the subject to improve the body, on the other hand, it drowns out the real bodily existence, puts prohibitions on many vital manifestations of the body. The "appearance" of a person - ideal or far from ideal - is a kind of compromise between his bodily existence and external social requirements, through it the subject designates himself as the owner of certain personal and social qualities, values, etc. The value of individual bodily qualities may change under the influence of social processes and group opinion.

Traditionally, body image is considered as the result of the activity of certain neural systems, and its study is reduced to the study of various physiological structures of the brain. In this case, the concept of "body image" is often identified with the concept "body diagram”, which was introduced by Bonniere (1893) according to some sources, Schiller - according to others, and actively used by G.Head. It means a plastic model of one's own body and its parts, formed in the human brain on the basis of perception, sensation of kinesthetic, tactile, pain, vestibular, visual, auditory and other stimuli in comparison with traces of past sensory experience (Fig. 4). The body scheme provides adjustment of the position of body parts, control and correction of a motor act depending on external conditions (Fig. 5). The physiological basis of the body schema is a functional system that integrates the flow of sensitive impulses from one's own body and its parts. This system integrates a dynamic, three-dimensional-spatial image of the body, created by current sensitive information, and a static image of the body, acquired in ontogenesis through training based on long-term memory.

To control movements, the brain needs information that is not contained directly in the primary signals of the receptors. In addition, the primary sensory signals do not contain the most general information about the kinematic structure of the body: the number and sequence of links, the number of degrees of freedom, the range of movements in the joints. The course of movement is assessed by comparing the real afferent with the expected one (efferent copy). For multilevel kinematic chains equipped with receptors of different modalities, the efferent copy turns out to be quite complex, and its construction requires an internal model. Both frontal and parietal lobes, sensorimotor cortex, parietal-occipital and temporal regions of the brain take part in the implementation of the act of bodily awareness.

In psychophysiology, there is a concept of an integrative scheme of the body. The mind, the brain and the world have integrative properties. Particularly in the brain

level of sensorimotor zones ( SM I and SM II ) of the cortex, there is a multimodal integration of afferent flows coming from the receptors of the body. Efferent impulse discharges are also generated here, coordinating bodily movements. The afferent structure of the sensory-motor system (more precisely, the somato-

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Human corporeality and its sociocultural modification

organic bodyhuman is his natural, natural body. To characterize this body as a certain biological system, a whole system of concepts has been developed in science, which are explained and refined in human biology, anatomy and physiology.

These include, first of all, such concepts as the "organism" and the "physical state" of a person (the state of his morphofunctional development).

When characterizing the physical condition of a person, a set of indicators is taken into account: the constitution of the body (its structure), the diverse physiological functions of the body as a whole and its individual organs.

Among the features that characterize body constitution, include, first of all, the body-addition. The indicators of the latter are, in particular, height, body weight, chest circumference, etc.

Among the various physiological functions of the human body, there are motor function, which is characterized by a person's ability to perform a certain range of movements and the level of development of motor abilities. A variety of physical qualities are associated with human motor activity.

Physical Qualities- these are congenital (genetically inherited) morphofunctional qualities, due to which the physical (materially expressed) activity of a person is possible, which receives its full manifestation in expedient motor activity. These include qualities such as muscle strength, speed, endurance, etc.

In motor activity, they manifest themselves as human motor abilities.

The physical qualities and motor abilities of a person differ significantly from his mental (intelligence, will, memory, etc.), moral, aesthetic and other qualities, although they are closely related to them. The most important indicator of the physical condition of a person is physical health, which is understood as the correspondence of morphofunctional development in the norm and the degree of its resistance to adverse external influences.

Another important characteristic of the physical condition of a person is the level of his physical perfection, i.e. such a versatile and harmonious development in a person of his anatomical and physiological systems (both separately and in relation to each other), which allows him to effectively perform social functions in relation to certain specific conditions of his activity. It was about such a "harmonious all-round development of the activity of the human body", as an important goal of physical education, wrote
P.F. Lesgaft.

The physical condition of a person, the physical condition and its various properties, parameters do not remain unchanged. Under the influence of various factors - both biological and social, they are constantly changing. These changes characterize the process physical development person.

For more efficient use of their physical qualities and motor abilities, a person can rely on certain knowledge that tells him how, where, when and for what it is better to use them (for example, knowledge about how best to carry out certain movements). The realization by a person of his inherent physical qualities and abilities in activity is determined by certain interests, needs and motives (for example, the need for movements, etc.).

This is a brief description of the inorganic human body.

It is important to consider, however, that in humans (unlike other living organisms) in addition to its natural, organic body, develops and intensively develops another - inorganic human body.

inorganic human body- this is all the variety of the objective world (second nature) artificially created by man, which functionally serves as a kind of continuation and addition to the human body: tools and means used in production activities (machines, machines, computer systems, etc.), as well as various household items , from the simplest (table, chair, dishes) to the most complex ones that have arisen at the present stage of the development of civilization (TV, refrigerator, etc.), as well as factories, roads, vehicles, etc.

This world of man-made objects is called inorganic human body.
And this characterization is not just a metaphor. It expresses the understanding of man as a being whose existence is determined by his special corporality, which includes two interrelated components: the biological organization of the human body and its inorganic body.

After these brief preliminary explanations, we will move on to a discussion of the central question - whether the human body belongs to the world of cultural phenomena, and what place it occupies in this world.

Somatic culture human has a complex structure. Let us note some relatively independent, although closely related elements, blocks, components of this structure. The main indicators and components of the somatic culture of the individual are:

attitude of the individual to his body as a value;

the nature of this relationship (only a declarative or also a real attitude, involving conscious, purposeful activity in order to maintain normal and improve one's physical condition, its various parameters (health, physique, physical qualities and motor abilities);

variety of means used for this purpose;

the ability to apply them effectively;

the level of knowledge about the body, about the physical condition, about the means of influencing it and the method of their application;

what values ​​the person associates with the body; the ideals, norms, patterns of behavior approved and implemented by it in practice related to caring for the physical condition;

the degree of orientation towards this concern;

the desire to help other people in their recovery, physical improvement, and the availability of appropriate knowledge, skills, values, etc. for this.

This concept was the basis of the program developed by us "Indicators, components and factors of physical culture and a healthy lifestyle of various groups of the population", according to which in 1983-1992. a number of sociological studies (including international ones) were carried out.

These studies have confirmed the effectiveness and fruitfulness of the proposed theoretical concept.

A similar interpretation of physical culture is given by I.M. Bykhovskaya.

In her opinion, physical (bodily, somatic) culture can be defined as a field of culture that regulates human activity associated with the formation, preservation and use of bodily-motor qualities based on ideas about the norms and ideals of their functionality, communication, expressiveness and beauty. .

Understanding the analyzed element of culture, which we designate by the term "somatic (physical) culture", has a number of important features.

Firstly, somatic culture, understood in the above way, clearly differs from its interpretation as a certain form of motor activity used to influence a person and solve a wide range of socio-pedagogical and cultural tasks.

Usually, as was shown above, these two understandings of physical culture are not clearly distinguished (at least, their difference is not fixed by the introduction of some special concepts).

In the interpretation of somatic culture to a certain extent, also associated with its motor activity, which has a cultural status. Of course, not every physical activity of a person has such a status, belongs to the sphere of culture.

But to the extent that human movements are modified by the impact (spontaneous and conscious) of the social environment, “intertwined” with certain social needs, knowledge, value orientations, norms and rules of behavior, etc., they certainly belong to culture.

Motor culture (culture of movements) is the sphere of human somatic culture.

Motor activity is included by us in somatic culture and to the extent that it acts as a certain means of formation, correction, improvement of the physical condition of a person, his bodily existence.

When we include motor activity in somatic culture, we mean not certain, but any types of these activities. But, of course, only to the extent that socially formed abilities and skills of a person to perform certain movements are associated with it, and since it acts as a means of social correction of a person’s physical condition in accordance with certain value orientations.

At the same time, it is important to note that somatic culture includes a wide range of socially formed physical qualities and abilities that are not limited to motor abilities.

In addition to them, it includes, for example, such physical qualities that characterize the anatomical system of the human body, in particular, its physique.

In this regard, an important element of somatic culture is not only culture of movements (motor culture), but also body culture . An important element of somatic culture, affecting both the anatomical and physiological systems of a person, is also culture of physical health .

No less important is the fact that motor activity, which is part of somatic culture as a certain means of influencing the physical state of a person, does not exhaust all these means. These include, in particular, also such means as the use of the natural forces of nature, a rational regime of work and rest, etc.

An important feature of the concept, which distinguishes it from other well-known concepts of physical culture, is that in it not only pedagogical, educational means of influencing the human body , on his physical condition, as is usually done, but and all other socially developed means of this kind - surgical, medical, genetic engineering, etc.

Such an approach, which at first glance seems very unusual and even paradoxical, has very good substantive grounds.

First, it is a direct logical consequence of the considered concept of somatic (physical) culture as a sphere of culture associated with the activity of a social subject (and the means used in this) for the purposeful formation of a person's corporality. In this regard, it is surprising that the supporters of this concept do not make such a logical conclusion.

Secondly, this approach gives meaning, justifies the introduction of the very concept of "somatic culture", because otherwise it simply duplicates the concept of "physical education".

Thirdly, this approach makes it possible to take into account, single out, not confuse and consider various means of socio-cultural modification of a person's bodily existence. Find out their place within the somatic (physical) culture of an individual, a particular social group or society as a whole at various stages of historical and cultural development, and therefore trace the change in their role and significance in the course of social evolution.

And, finally, fourthly, this approach is of extraordinary practical importance, since it focuses on cooperation, cooperation, coordination of the efforts of all those who seek to have a conscious, purposeful impact on the human corporeality - teachers, physicians, nutritionists, valeologists, environmentalists etc.

The effectiveness of such a "technology" of physical culture formation is confirmed by many years of experience in its practical implementation - in work with students and schoolchildren. And if we turn to history, we can point out that even Plato, in one of his dialogues, put the following words into the mouth of Socrates: "... in the general service of the body, I see two parts: gymnastics and medicine. They are constantly in mutual communication , although they differ from one another.

One of the essential features of the proposed theoretical concept of somatic culture is that the entire "building" of this specific area of ​​culture is not reduced only to a "block" of socially formed physical qualities and abilities of a person in accordance with cultural patterns, although this block is given a central place. in this building.

In addition to this "block", somatic culture includes a number of other "blocks" that are associated with the attitude of a person (of any social group or society as a whole) to the physical qualities and abilities of a person.

Accounting for this circumstance is important for understanding the relationship of somatic culture to other elements, spheres, forms, varieties of culture.

First of all, we need to revise the prevailing views on the relationship between this element of culture and spiritual culture.

In particular, one can hardly agree with the very frequent attempts to distinguish and even oppose physical (somatic) and spiritual culture.

With this approach, physical culture is deprived of its spiritual content and is reduced only to the physical, bodily, material.

THEM. Bykhovskaya emphasizes that "physical culture is not an area of ​​direct "work with the body", although it is the bodily-motor qualities of a person that are the subject of interest in this area."

Like any sphere of culture, physical culture is, first of all, "work with the spirit of a person, his inner, and not the outer world ..."

Therefore, somatic culture culture, and not just as the physical state of a person or the process of physical development, includes a number of phenomena of the spiritual world of knowledge, motives, norms and patterns of behavior, etc.

A person with a high level of development of somatic culture should know well the patterns of functioning and development of the body, ways, mechanisms and means of influencing it. Such a person should develop a need for a systematic impact on his physical condition in order to change it in the right direction. This person must have the skills and abilities to use the most effective means of such influence correctly, in accordance with the norms and models accepted in society (or those that he himself has developed and which he is guided by).

Hegel argued that "in truly cultured people, a change in figure, in the way of holding oneself, and in all kinds of external manifestations, has as its source a high spiritual culture."

The well-known Russian psychologist P.P. Zinchenko: "... the involvement of a living movement, action, activity, deed in the sphere of analysis of a spiritual organism is an account in this organism of human corporality, acting in its spiritually ennobled, cultural, and not only in natural forms."

At the same time, taking into account all the above, it is hardly possible to agree with the attribution of the analyzed element of culture only to the sphere material culture, as is often done, as well as with attempts to consider it as a kind of culture, different from its forms such as material and spiritual culture.

Socially formed qualities, abilities and functions of the human body are not limited to physical qualities and abilities. Along with a variety of physiological, he performs, in particular, various mental functions related to intellect, will, memory, etc.

On the basis of taking into account this circumstance, along with somatic culture, mental culture , covering intellectual culture, culture of attention and other mental qualities and abilities of a person.

It is this sphere of culture, and not spiritual culture, that differs from somatic (physical) culture. And when the latter is opposed to spiritual culture, then spiritual culture (which differs from material) and psychic culture are confused.

It is also necessary to take into account the relationship of somatic culture with mental culture within the framework of such an element of culture, which can be called psychophysical culture .

Somatic culture also differs from aesthetic culture, moral culture, culture of behavior, communication and other elements of culture, and at the same time is associated with them.

At the same time, it is hardly possible to agree with the opinion that culture associated with human corporeality, acting as a basic, fundamental layer of culture, is present (although not always in a conscious and realized form) in any area of ​​cultural activity.

The argumentation of this position becomes possible only on the basis of a rather vague interpretation of this element of culture, when it is considered "as a certain essential unity of both moral, and aesthetic, and intellectual, and activity-practical (actually physical) culture."

Another feature of the proposed concept of somatic (physical) culture is that it takes into account specific historical character human corporeality as a cultural phenomenon.

Z. Krawchik identifies the following main problems of theoretical analysis of the body in axiological categories: 1) body structure and socio-ecological structure; 2) ways (technique) of using the body; 3) body control; 4) the body as a symbol; 5) the human body and religious cults.

THEM. Bykhovskaya notes that the cultural analysis of the bodily existence of a person involves taking into account at least three aspects:

a) the social determinism of the body, as well as the social conditionality of the goals and objectives proclaimed in connection with and about the bodily existence of a person, their generation by certain social conditions, social institutions;

b) appeal to the features of the formation of value orientations, interests, needs of people associated with the body;

c) taking into account the factor of ideological as well as moral legitimation of samples, norms, standards in this area accepted by society, i.e. their rationale and justification.

It highlights the main "problem blocks" associated with the analysis of human corporeality as a sociocultural phenomenon, the factors of its modification, as well as the features of perception, evaluation and use.

The first problem block provides for the analysis objective social impacts on human corporality (corporality in the system of environmental factors; corporality and lifestyle features, the socio-economic structure of individual social groups; the system of social institutions and corporality).

The second block is related to the study images "bodily man" in the structure of everyday ideas and specialized systems of knowledge, including scientific ones.

The third problematic block includes problems related to somatic socialization and inculturation as a purposeful process of translation, mastering and development of values, knowledge and skills associated with the bodily existence of a person.

The fifth problem block, according to I.M. Bykhovskaya, involves the analysis of such problems concerning active-practical attitude to human corporality, as:

Control, restrictions, "discipline" of the human body in social practice; instrumental and expressive use of human somatic and motor characteristics;

Transformation and purposeful formation of corporality on the basis of accepted values, norms, ideals, samples, etc.

Preliminarily, it can be assumed that, apparently, as society develops, the importance of various means of consciously influencing the physical condition of a person, and among them - pedagogical means, will increase more and more.

At the same time, the possibility is not ruled out that the further development of science will help discover new, more effective means of influencing (in accordance with social and individual needs) the human body, its physical qualities and motor abilities. Perhaps they will be associated with genetic engineering, although many scientists are already expressing fears about the serious negative consequences that intervention in the human body based on these agents can lead to.

Within the framework of the concept of somatic culture developed above, it also opens up the possibility of raising and analyzing the question of the possible and real value orientations of the individual, various social groups and society as a whole in relation to the bodily existence of a person, the evolution of this system of values, its nature within the framework of modern culture and soon.

One of the most important areas of cultural analysis of corporality is the analysis of the cultural values ​​of the body.

More M.M. Bakhtin drew attention to the need for a culturological analysis of the "body as a value" and, in connection with this, a solution to a problem that "is strictly distinguished from the natural scientific point of view: from the biological problem of the organism, the psychophysiological problem of the relationship between the psychological and the bodily, and from the corresponding natural-philosophical problems."

The basis for determining the value of the body is the social functions that it performs within the framework of life, on the basis of what value orientations it is formed and used by social subjects, what "patterns of behavior" are associated with it.

The subject of care and cultivation can be a body that provides high performance of a person. The subject of special concern may be the physique, evaluated according to aesthetic criteria. Cultural examples of the formation of a strong and hardened body are known, and, on the other hand, the ascetic "mortification" of the flesh, the desire to preserve the body from any external influences.

Certain attempts have been made and are being made to systematize the cultural values ​​associated with the human body. One of the first attempts of this kind was made (more than a hundred years ago) by F. Znaniecki in his work "Sociology of Education".

F. Znanetsky pointed out that one of the tasks solved in the process of physical education is the formation and development of such physical qualities in a person that are desirable, eliminating or preventing the appearance of undesirable features, and therefore, "in the formation of physical types in accordance with social requirements.

Table of contents
Fundamentals of scientific research in physical culture and sports
DIDACTIC PLAN
Main features of the methodology
Fundamentals of research strategy

The call of ancient philosophers to know oneself is no less relevant today than in ancient times. A person needs to know the capabilities of his body in order to resist diseases and make life the most active, full.

An essential feature of a person's physical capabilities is the presence of huge reserves that can be developed and used if necessary. Even in animals that are closest in their biological nature to humans (for example, in mammals.), The body's reserves are much smaller. The machine, like any mechanical device, is completely devoid of such. Depending on the mode of operation, it can be "used" to a greater or lesser part of its capabilities, however, their value remains unchanged and is only wasted in the process of wear of parts.

Man, on the contrary, develops in the process of activity. The ability to improve and develop, to which we are so accustomed that we usually do not notice it, is an amazing property of a person. This allows us, at our own will, as if by the power of magic, to transform our body, increasing its physical capabilities many times over.

That is why it is so necessary to study the reserve capabilities of the body - after all, they are, in essence, the most valuable thing that determines the level of our health, ability to work and, ultimately, the usefulness of human life.

The first part of the paper presents the theoretical aspects of the problem. The limits of the capabilities of the human body are revealed with the help of actual historical examples, unique cases recorded in various sources.

In the second part of the work, the author conducts a study of the physical capabilities of his own body. In addition, the author has done work to improve these capabilities, various methods have been carried out: a set of exercises for flexibility, a relaxing technique.

Part I. The limits of the human organism.

1. Temperature limits of human life.

Since our life is provided by strictly regulated temperature conditions for biochemical reactions, it is clear that a deviation in any direction from the comfort temperature should have an equally adverse effect on the body. Human temperature - 36.6 ° C (or, more precisely, for the depth of the so-called core - 37 ° C) is much closer to the freezing point than to the boiling point of water. It would seem that for our body, which consists of 70% of water, cooling the body is much more dangerous than overheating it. However, this is not so, and the cooling of the body - of course, within certain limits - is much easier to tolerate than heating.

Healthy people can withstand an increase in body temperature up to 42°C. Increasing it to 43 ° C, according to doctors, based on hundreds of thousands of observations, is already incompatible with life. However, there were exceptions: cases of recovery of people whose body temperature rose to 43.9 ° C and even higher are described. So on July 10, 1980, the Grady Memorial clinic in Atlanta (USA) received a 52-year-old black Willie Jones, who suffered from heat stroke, that day the air warmed up to 32.2 ° C, and the humidity reached 44%.

Jones' skin temperature reached 46.5°C. He was discharged 24 days later in a satisfactory condition.

Foreign scientists conducted special experiments to determine the highest temperature that the human body can withstand in dry air. An ordinary person can withstand a temperature of 71 ° C for 1 hour. 82°C - 49 min. , 93°С - 33 min, 104°С - only 26 min.

The super marathon that took place in Death Valley, the California desert, is also striking, considered the driest and hottest (50 ° C in the shade and about 100 ° C in the sun) desert in the world. 28-year-old French runner Eric Lauro, who has long dreamed of such a test, started 250 km west of Las Vegas and ran 225 km in Death Valley in five days. For 7-8 hours, he overcame about 50 km daily. For five days of running through the hot desert of Loiro, weighing 65 kg with a height of 1 m 76 cm, lost 6 kg. By the end of the run, his pulse increased so much that it was difficult to count it, and his body temperature reached 39.5 ° C.

As for low temperatures, many records have also been set here.

In 1987, the media reported an incredible case of the resuscitation of a man who had been frozen for many hours. Returning home in the evening, 23-year-old resident of the West German town of Radstadt Helmut Reikert got lost, a snowdrift fell and froze. Only 19 hours later he was found by his brothers who were looking for him. As the doctors suggested, having fallen into the snow, the victim became cold so quickly that, despite the acute lack of oxygen, the brain did not receive irreversible damage. Helmut was taken to the intensive cardiac surgery clinic. Where for several hours the blood of the victim was heated with a special device. A blood thinner was also used. And only when the body temperature rose to 27 ° C, the doctor, using electric shock, "launched" the victim's heart. A few days later, he was disconnected from the heart-lung machine, and then discharged from the hospital.

And here is another striking case registered in our country. On a frosty March morning in 1960, a frozen man was delivered to one of the hospitals in the Aktobe region, found by chance by workers at a construction site on the outskirts of the village. Here are the lines from the protocol: "A numb body in icy clothes, without a headdress and shoes. The limbs are bent at the joints and it is not possible to straighten them. When tapping on the body, there is a hollow sound, as from blows to a tree. The temperature of the body surface is below 0 ° C. The eyes are wide open, the eyelids are covered with an icy edge, the pupils are dilated, cloudy, there is an ice crust on the sclera and iris. Signs of life - heartbeat and respiration - do not determine. Diagnosis: general freezing, clinical death. "

Naturally, on the basis of a thorough medical examination, the doctor P.S. Abrahamyan, who examined the deceased, had to send the corpse to the morgue. However, contrary to the obvious facts, he, not wanting to accept death, placed him in a hot bath. When the body was freed from the ice cover, the victim was brought back to life with the help of a complex of resuscitation measures. An hour and a half later, along with weak breathing, a barely perceptible pulse appeared. By the evening of the same day, the man regained consciousness. After questioning him, we managed to find out that he lay in the snow for 3-4 hours. He not only remained alive, but also retained his ability to work.

Striking are the cases of people spending many hours in icy water. So, during the Great Patriotic War, Soviet sergeant Pyotr Golubev swam 20 km in icy water in 9 hours and successfully completed a combat mission.

In 1985, an English fisherman demonstrated an amazing ability to survive in icy water. All his comrades died of hypothermia after 10 minutes. after the shipwreck. He swam in the icy water for more than 5 hours, and, having reached the ground, he walked barefoot along the frozen lifeless shore for about 3 hours.

In order to increase the body's resistance to adverse environmental conditions, hardening is used.

During hardening, the temperature difference between the environment and the core of the body brings down a powerful stream of exciting influences on the sensitive apparatuses of the skin, which, like in a thermocouple, energize the body, stimulating its vital activity.

Today it is already known for sure that hardening is a necessary component of a healthy lifestyle, an important component of high performance and active longevity.

Particularly interesting in terms of health is the hardening system developed by P.K. Ivanov, which Porfiry Korneev experienced for decades. All year round, in any weather, he walked in the same shorts, barefoot, swam in the hole, for a long time he could be without food and water, while maintaining cheerfulness, optimism and efficiency. He has thousands of followers who have learned not to feel the cold even in the most severe frost.

2. Life without breath, food and water.

You can go for a long time - weeks and months - without food, you can not drink water, but life without breathing stops in a matter of seconds. And the whole life of each of us is measured by the period between the first and last breath.

It turns out that under the influence of systematic physical training, a person acquires the ability to withstand a lack of oxygen - hypoxia. Resistance to it is becoming an important component of a record achievement in modern sports. When performing extreme physical stresses, the possibilities of the respiratory and circulatory organs do not suffice in order to provide the working muscles with a sufficient amount of oxygen. Under these conditions, the winner is the athlete who can, due to strong-willed efforts, continue intense muscular work, doing the seemingly impossible. That is why highly trained athletes develop the ability to hold their breath much more than untrained people. The duration of such breath holdings in athletes reaches 4-5 minutes.

If, however, special effects are used that increase the "reserve" of oxygen in the body or reduce its consumption during the subsequent breath holding, then the time during which it is possible to do without lung ventilation increases to 12-15 minutes. In order to stock up on oxygen for the future, athletes breathe an oxygen-enriched gas mixture (or pure O2), and a decrease in oxygen consumption is achieved through psychological adjustment: self-hypnosis, which contribute to a decrease in the level of vital activity of the body. The results achieved seem incredible, the world record for the duration of diving was set in 1960. in California by Robert Forster, who was under water for 13 minutes. 42.5 s. Before diving, he spent 30 minutes. breathed oxygen, trying to absorb it in reserve as much as possible.

Curious are the observations of the American physiologist E. Schneider, who in 1930 registered even longer breath holdings in two pilots - 14 minutes. 2s. and 15 min. 13 p.

And here is another event that took place in 1987. Two small children survived after spending 15 minutes. in a car that ended up at the bottom of a Norwegian fjord. The misfortune happened when the car driven by the mother skidded down an icy road and rolled down into Tandsfjord, located on the west coast of Norway. The woman managed to jump out of the car, a four-month-old girl and a two-month-old boy were inside the car at a depth of 10 meters. The first car that was stopped by the mother belonged to one of the employees of the local commune, with the help of a radiotelephone, they immediately managed to get the fire brigade to their feet. And then the circumstances developed in an incredibly happy way. The duty officer who received the alarm knew that the diving club had its base just near the site of the tragedy. The kids were lucky, because at that time there were three divers in the club, fully equipped for rescue work. They immediately got involved in saving the children. After a fifteen-minute stay under water, the children went into cardiac arrest. However, they were saved.

How long can a person live without food? We are familiar with the pangs of hunger, if not from personal experience, then from stories about polar explorers, about lost geologists, about shipwrecked sailors.

During the Great Patriotic War, in July 1942, four Soviet sailors found themselves in a boat far from the coast in the Black Sea without water and food supplies. On the third day of their voyage, they began to taste the sea water. In the Black Sea, the water is 2 times less salty than in the World Ocean. However, the sailors were able to get used to its use only on the fifth day. Everyone now drank up to two flasks of it a day. So they, it would seem, got out of the situation with water. But the problem of food supply could not be solved. One of them died of starvation on the 19th day, the second - on the 24th, the third - on the 30th day. The last of these four - the captain of the medical service P. I. Yeresko - on the 36th day of fasting in a state of obscured consciousness was picked up by a Soviet military vessel. For 36 days of sea wandering without eating, he lost 22 kg in weight, which was 32% of his original weight.

In 1986, the Japanese Y. Suzuki climbed Mount Fuji (3776 m). At an altitude of 1900 m, the 49-year-old climber got into a strong snow storm, but managed to hide in some kind of hut. There he had to spend 38 days, Suzuki fed mainly on snow. The rescue workers who discovered him found Suzuki in a satisfactory physical condition.

When fasting, water intake is of great importance. Water allows the body to better conserve its reserves.

An unusual case of voluntary fasting was registered in Odessa. An extremely emaciated woman was taken to a specialized department of one of the hospitals. It turned out that she had been starving for three months with the intent of suicide, having lost 60% of her weight during this time. The woman survived.

In 1973, seemingly fantastic periods of fasting for two women were described, registered in one of the medical institutions in the city of Glasgow. Both of them weighed more than 100 kg, and to normalize one had to fast for 236 days, and the other for 249 days.

How long can a person go without drinking? Studies conducted by the American physiologist E.F. Adolf showed that the maximum duration of a person’s stay without water largely depends on the ambient temperature and the mode of physical activity. So, for example, being at rest in the shade, at a temperature of 16-23 ° C, a person may not drink for 10 days. At an air temperature of 26°C, this period is reduced to 9 days, at 29°C - up to 7, at 33°C - up to 5, at 36°C - days. Finally, at an air temperature of 39 ° C at rest, a person can not drink for no more than 2 days.

Of course, with physical work, all these terms are reduced.

After the earthquake in Mexico City in 1985, a 9-year-old boy was found under the rubble of a building, who had not eaten or drunk anything for 13 days and, nevertheless, remained alive.

In February 1947, a 53-year-old man was found in Frunze. Having received a head injury, he was without food or water for 20 days in an abandoned unheated room. At the moment of discovery, he did not show breathing and did not feel a pulse. The only clear sign indicating the preservation of the life of the victim. There was a discoloration of the nail bed when pressed. And the next day he could talk.

3. Reserves of a person's physical capabilities.

Physical exercises and sports are the most powerful stimulants that ensure the development of the capabilities of the human body. They also make it possible to objectively study the most important side of the functional characteristics of our body - its motor resources.

According to Academician N. M. Amosov, the margin of safety of the "construction" of a person has a coefficient of about 10, i.e., human organs and systems can withstand stress and perform loads that are about 10 times greater than in ordinary life. Regular exercise allows you to turn on dormant reserves.

The main reserve capabilities of the human body are shown in Table 3.

When the famous bacteriologist Louis Pasteur suffered a cerebral hemorrhage as a result of long-term intense mental work, he did not stop his active scientific activity, he began to combine it with a strict regimen of regular physical exercises, which he had not previously engaged in. After a stroke, he lived for another 30 years and it was during these years that he made his most significant discoveries. At the autopsy, it turned out that after the hemorrhage and until his death, Louis Pasteur had a normally functioning cortex of only one hemisphere of the brain. Physical exercises helped the scientist to use the reserves of the preserved brain tissue with maximum efficiency.

Let us remember N. A. Morozov, a Narodnaya Volya member, who for 25 years, being a prisoner of the Shlisselburg fortress, suffered tuberculosis, scurvy, rheumatism in it and, nevertheless, lived for 93 years. He was treated without drugs, without vitamins - with a strong-willed attitude, fast long walking around the cell and dancing.

Very serious physical abilities are developed by special yoga exercises. So, for example, in the 60s. of the last century in Bombay, yogi Jad demonstrated to the Bulgarian scientist Professor Georgy Lozadov his ability to raise the body to a height by mental effort. In fact, there was nothing supernatural here and not, moreover, there was a mental effort. Judd simply learned to perform the unusually difficult exercise of making a kind of jump into the air by instantly contracting the spinal muscles with an almost simultaneous straightening of the body.

Many more examples could be cited demonstrating the extraordinary perfection that a person is able to achieve in controlling his body.

In the last century, Harry Houdini won wide fame. He developed exceptional flexibility, thanks to which he publicly demonstrated the release of handcuffs put on him in a few seconds. Moreover, he did this even when he was buried in handcuffs in the ground or drowned in an ice hole, even 3 minutes did not pass. how Houdini, buried alive or drowned, crawled out of the ground like a mole, or, like a seal, appeared from the icy water and bowed to the admiring public, waving the handcuffs he had taken from his wrists. This man, due to the exceptional mobility of his joints, could not be tied at all with any ropes and chains.

The American circus performer Willard demonstrated to the public an even more amazing phenomenon: in a few minutes he increased his height by about 20 cm. curves of the spine and it was due to this that he became for some time higher by a whole head.

Marathon runners show special endurance. Moreover, people of different ages are engaged in marathon running.

In literature, Philippides, the best runner of the ancient Greek army, is often remembered, who ran in 490 BC. e. the distance from Marathon to Athens (42 km 195 m), to report the victory of the Persians over the Greeks, and immediately died. According to other sources, before the battle, Philippides "ran" through a mountain pass to Sparta in order to enlist the help of the allies, and at the same time ran over 200 km in two days. Considering that after such a "jog" the messenger took part in the famous battle on the Marathon Plain, one can only be surprised at the endurance of this person. Indians - representatives of the Tarahumara tribe ("fast foot") are distinguished by special endurance. The literature describes a case when a nineteen-year-old Tarahumara carried a forty-five-kilogram parcel over a distance of 120 km in 70 hours. His tribesman, carrying an important letter, covered a distance of 600 km in five days.

But not only the Indians demonstrate a seemingly supernatural physical performance. In the 70s of the 19th century. Swiss doctor Felix-Schenk set up such an experiment on himself. He didn't sleep for three days in a row. In the daytime, he continuously walked and did gymnastics. For two nights he made 30-kilometer crossings on foot at an average speed of 4 km / h, and one night he lifted a stone weighing 46 kg over his head 200 times. As a result, despite normal nutrition, he lost 2 kg in weight.

And what reserves does the physical strength of the human body have? Multiple world wrestling champion Ivan Poddubny is an outstanding strongman. But, according to his own statement, his father, Maxim Poddubny, possessed even greater strength: he easily took two five-pound bags on his shoulders, lifted a whole haystack with pitchforks, indulging in, stopped any cart, grabbing it by the wheel, knocked it down by the horns of hefty bulls.

Poddubny's younger brother Mitrofan was also strong, who somehow pulled an ox weighing 18 pounds from a pit, and once in Tula amused the audience by holding a platform with an orchestra on his shoulders that played "Many Years."

Another Russian hero - the athlete Yakub Chekhovskaya in 1913 in Petrograd carried 6 soldiers in a circle on one arm. A platform was installed on his chest, along which three trucks with the public drove.

Our contemporary power juggler Valentin Dikul freely juggles 80-kilogram kettlebells and holds the "Volga" on his shoulders (the dynamometer shows the load on the athlete's shoulders is 1570 kg). The most amazing thing is that Dikul became a power juggler 7 years after a severe injury, which usually makes people disabled for life. In 1961, acting as an aerial acrobat, Dikul fell in a circus from a great height and received a compression fracture of the spine in the lumbar region. As a result, the lower body and legs were paralyzed. It took Dikul three and a half years of hard training on a special simulator, combined with self-massage, to take the first step on his previously paralyzed legs, and another year to fully restore movement.

4. Mental reserves of the human body.

Physiologists have established that a person can use only 70% of his muscular energy by willpower, and the remaining 30% is a reserve in case of emergency. Let's take an example.

Once a polar pilot, while fixing his skis on an airplane that had landed on an ice floe, felt a jolt in his shoulder. Thinking that his comrade was joking, the pilot waved it off: "Don't interfere with work." The push was repeated again, and then, turning around, the man was horrified: in front of him stood a huge polar bear. In an instant, the pilot found himself on the plane of the wing of his aircraft and began to call for help. The polar explorers who ran up killed the beast. "How did you get on the wing?" - asked the pilot. "Jumped," he replied. It was hard to believe. During the second jump, the pilot could not overcome even half of this distance. It turned out that in conditions of mortal danger, he took a height close to the world record.

An interesting example is described in X. Lindemann's book "Autogenous training": "During the repair of a heavy American limousine, a young man fell under it and was crushed to the ground. The victim's father, knowing how much the car weighs, ran after the jack. "A man's mother ran out of the house and lifted the body of a multi-ton car with her hands on one side so that her son could get out. Fear for her son opened the mother's access to an emergency reserve of strength."

Emotional arousal sharpens not only the physical, but also the spiritual and intellectual capabilities of a person.

There is a case with the French mathematician Evariste Galou. On the eve of his death, being seriously wounded in a duel, he made a brilliant mathematical discovery.

Positive emotions are a universal healer for many ailments.

The news spread around the world about the amazing self-healing of the famous American writer Norman Cavins from a severe handicap of collagenosis with ankylosing spondylitis (the process of destruction of the connective tissue of the spine). Doctors estimated his chance of a full recovery as 1:500. But Norman Cousins ​​managed to seize this insignificant chance. He preferred laughter therapy to all medicines and ordered the funniest comedies for himself. After each such session, the pain receded at least a little.

And here is another example. Pablo Casals, a 90-year-old musician from Puerto Rico, suffered from a severe form of rheumatoid arthritis, in which he could neither straighten up nor move without assistance. His only cure was to play the piano works of his favorite composers - Bach and Brahms, after which there was no trace of stiffness and immobility in the joints for several hours. Casals died in 1973 at the age of 96, giving concerts until his very last days.

Every person spends a third of his life in a dream. How long can a person stay completely awake?

The "record" of insomnia among men belongs to the Mexican Randy Gardner - 264 hours. And among women - a resident of the South American city of Ciudaddel Cabo: she did not sleep five minutes to 282 hours!

Well, what are the "records" of a person in the field of maximum duration of sound sleep?

For more than 20 years, IP Pavlov observed the patient - the Altai peasant Kachalkin, who all this time was in a state of constant numbness and immobility, but heard everything that was happening around him. An interesting way, with the help of which IP Pavlov woke up his patient. At 3 o'clock in the morning, when there was silence in the city, he quietly approached Kachalkin's bed and said in a whisper: "Get up!" And Kachalkin got up, thus having overslept from the time of the coronation of Nicholas II to the Russian throne until the civil war.

Nadezhda Artemievna Lebedin from the village of Mogilev, Dnepropetrovsk region, spent almost 20 years in a lethargic dream. She fell asleep in 1954 at the age of 33 during the illness of subcortical encephalitis. In 1974, Nadezhda's mother died. "Say goodbye to your mother," they told her. The sick woman, shaken by the news, screamed and woke up.

In addition to sleep and wakefulness, a person can still be in a kind of intermediate state, in this state the human body has amazing capabilities.

The well-known orientalist Yu. N. Roerich observed the so-called "running yogis" in Tibet. In a special state, they run along narrow mountain paths over 200 km in one night. Moreover, if such a "running yoga" is stopped, brought out of a kind of "trance", then he will no longer be able to complete his marathon run over difficult rough terrain.

The secret of immersion in this state is the ability to relax all the muscles of the body as much as possible, to control muscle tone. To form a dream-like state in oneself, yoga uses a "dead pose" or shavasana.

Many scientists note that managing one's state of mind is a matter that is quite accessible to anyone who seriously aspires to this person.

It is interesting to note that K. E. Tsiolkovsky in his brochure "Nirvana" also recommended, like yogis, to plunge into a state of ecstatic disconnection from the outside world in order to acquire peace of mind.

This issue was studied in more detail by the author of autogene training, the German scientist of the beginning of the last century, I. Schultz. He developed the highest degree of autogenic training - the treatment of nirvana, or nirvanotherapy. Exercises of this stage are carried out against the background of maximum self-immersion, or self-hypnosis, in which there is a sharp narrowing of consciousness and there is no reaction to external stimuli.

As a result of self-immersion, one can learn to see dreams of a given content.

The ability for vivid visualization, for example, is based on the phenomenal memory of a reporter from one of the Moscow newspapers, whom Professor A. R. Luria had the opportunity to observe for almost 30 years. He memorized a table of 50 digits in 2.5-3 minutes. and remembered for several months! It is interesting that the numbers reminded him of such images: "7m - a man with a mustache" 8m - a very plump woman, and "87 a plump woman with a man who twists his mustache.

Some people who call miracle counters also resort to similar techniques. In seconds, some of them are able to calculate and determine, for example, what day of the week will be October 13, 23 448 723, etc.

The counter Urania Diamondi believes that their color helps her to own numbers: 0 - white, 1 - black, 2 - yellow, 3 - scarlet, brown, 5 - blue, 6 - dark yellow, 7 - ultramarine, 8 - gray-blue , 9 - dark brown. The process of calculation was presented as endless symphonies of color.

These are just some of the possibilities of the human psyche. Many of them are trainable. There are special exercises for this.

Part II. Practical study of the reserves of the human body

1. Determination of the physical condition of a person.

Objective. Determine the basic physical characteristics of a person and compare them with optimal values, thereby identifying problems and weaknesses that need further improvement.

Method of performance: the subject performs several exercises that allow to identify his physical condition at the moment. The results are entered into a table and compared with the controls.

The test is carried out two to three hours after eating. To measure the results, a stopwatch or a watch with a second hand is used.

Exercise 1: Endurance.

For this exercise, the steps of the stairs are used. One is placed on a raised platform, legs alternate at a pace of four "steps" in ten seconds. Keeping this pace, the exercise is done for three minutes. After a thirty-second pause, the pulse is measured, the result is entered into the table.

Exercise 2: Mobility.

A mark is made on a wall or other vertical surface at shoulder level. You need to stand with your back to her at a distance that allows you to tilt forward without interference. The legs are placed shoulder-width apart. From this position, you need to tilt and quickly straighten up, turning to the right and touching the mark simultaneously with both hands. Lean forward again and repeat to the left. Count how many times you can touch the mark on the wall in this way within 20 seconds.

Exercise 3: Flexibility.

This test requires a partner. You need to stand on a chair, put your feet together and, without bending your knees, lean forward as low as possible, stretching your arms. The partner must measure the distance from the fingertips to the edge of the chair (above or below its level). In this case, it is necessary to stay in the extreme position for a few seconds.

Exercise 4: Press.

Lie on your back and grab your hands on a fixed support (lower edge of the cabinet, central heating battery, etc.). Close your legs and, without bending your knees, raise them to a vertical position, then lower them to the floor. Record how many times within 20 seconds you can raise and lower your legs.

Exercise 5: Jumping.

Stand sideways to the wall, stretch your arm up and mark this point on the wall. Put your feet together, take the chalk in your hand and jump as high as possible. Make a second mark. Measure the distance between the marks and record the result.

See the test results in the evaluation table (Table 4) in the appendix.

Conclusions: the results of the experiment show that the level of development of physical qualities is mainly at the average level (closer to the lower limit). All of the above qualities need training. Particularly low indicators were recorded for flexibility, the result for this quality was not included even in the average indicators.

2. Development of flexibility.

The purpose of the work: through the use of a special set of exercises to develop the necessary quality.

Method of implementation: after a month of practicing a special set of exercises that develop flexibility, a control test is carried out (see experiment 1). As a result of comparing old and new indicators, a conclusion is made.

Flexibility training occurs using the following complex:

1. Standing, legs apart, arms down. 1-2 circular movements back with the right shoulder, 3 - 4 - the same with the left, 5 - raise the shoulders, pull the head in, 6 - lower the shoulders, 7 - raise again. All exercises are repeated 6-10 times.

2. Standing, hands in the castle in front of the chest. Circular movements with closed brushes to the left and right. 10 circles in each direction

3. Standing, in the left hand a small object (for example, a ball). Raise your left hand up, bending, lower it behind your head, bend your right hand behind your back from below. Transfer an item from the left hand to the right

4. Standing, legs apart, hands on the belt. 1-3 - alternate springy torso torso to the right leg, to the left, forward. When tilting, try to reach the floor with brushes. Don't bend your knees.

5. Standing, legs apart, arms lowered, 1-4 - leaning forward, circular movements of the body to the left, 5-6 to the right.

6. Standing facing the support, left leg on the support, hands on the belt. 1-3 - springy slopes to the left leg. Change leg. 4-5 - tilts to the right leg.

7. Standing sideways to the support, left leg on the support, hands on the belt. 1-3 - springy slopes to the left leg, 4-5 - downward slopes to reach the floor with brushes). Change leg. 6-8 - tilts to the right leg, 9-10 - tilts down.

Conclusions: After a month of daily exercises, a flexibility test was conducted. (see exercise 3, experiment 1).

Without training, this exercise was performed only 7 times, after a month of training, it was possible to complete it 12 times, i.e. show an average result.

Thus, through physical exercises, it was possible to expand the capabilities of the body, flexibility increased significantly.

3. Mastering the relaxation technique.

The purpose of the work: to learn how to relax the body, using a similar state, which is achieved through the development of yoga techniques ("dead posture", or shavasana) (Fig. 1).

Execution method: starting position: lie down on the mat, heels and toes together, hands pressed to the body.

1st stage. Close your eyes and relax the whole body while the head will bow to the left or right, the arms will freely lean back with palms up, the socks and heels of the legs will disperse. Complete relaxation should be mentally controlled, starting from the toes and down to the smallest muscles on the face. 2nd stage. Against the background of complete relaxation, without opening h, try to imagine a clear, blue, cloudless sky.

3rd stage. Imagine yourself as a bird soaring in this clear blue, cloudless sky.

Conclusions: I managed to master the relaxation technique according to the yoga system. The use of this technique makes it easy to restore strength, make up for the lack of physical and mental energy, feel rested, full of energy, more relaxed and mentally balanced. After completing this exercise, you cope with the educational material, memory improves, attention concentration improves.

Conclusion.

Studying the capabilities of the human body, one comes to the conclusion about its amazing strength, the perfection of adaptive mechanisms. It seems incredible that the extremely complex, consisting of hundreds of billions of specialized cells that every second need "material supply" with oxygen and nutrients, sensitively reacting to insignificant fluctuations in the chemistry of the environment, the human body exhibits such unique vitality.

Nowadays, more than ever, a person needs strength and perseverance in an effort to overcome the most insidious of all the dangers that threaten health and its very existence - the danger of a passive lifestyle, in which instead of natural stimulants - exercises and hardening means, various surrogates are used - direct destroyers of the body with inevitability leading man to degradation. It is no coincidence that in economically developed countries the main cause of death at present has become diseases associated with incorrect behavior leading to health problems.

Human capabilities are very wide and, most importantly, v can be expanded through appropriate training (hardening system, physical exercises, mastering breathing exercises, relaxation systems, etc.).

And even if the first steps on this path turn out to be difficult, 1 it is worth remembering the advice of Marcus Aurelius: "If something is difficult for you, then do not think that it is generally impossible for a person; but consider what is possible and characteristic of a person, consider it accessible to myself".

Review of modern concepts and hypotheses.

Are there limits to the physical perfection of man? There are at least two answers to this question. One of the points of view, which in one form or another is held by many modern specialists in the field of sports, says: the current world records are really the highest world achievements for all times and peoples. The further growth of records is associated not with the physical improvement of a person, but with the development of measuring technology. More recently, achievements in athletics were recorded to the nearest tenth of a second, and now electronic chronometers register time to the hundredth of a second. And that is not all. Sports such as cycling count in thousandths of a second. But that's not all either. In weightlifting, the prospects for new records are associated with the registration of not only kilograms, but also grams, etc. Thus, records will grow, results will improve, first by grams, then by milligrams, then by fractions of milligrams, but a person, as a carrier of records approached its physical limit. Why?

Because there are natural biological limitations of the human body, associated purely physiologically with the resistance of the skin, joints, bones, muscles, with the maximum load that they can withstand. American biochemist and biomechanic Gideon Ariel, who studies the reserve capabilities of a person, calculated the limit in running 100 meters for men -9.60 seconds. Muscles, tissues and bones of a person will not withstand a greater speed - they will burst from tension. In long jumps, the limit lies at around 896 centimeters (14 each). Thus, Bob Beamon's record of 890 centimeters can be said to be borderline. moment of push of 700 kilograms - almost critical, greater load of the muscles, ligaments, joints could simply not withstand.

However, the idea that the current generation has already reached the limit of the human body is not new. A similar idea has been expressed more than once by specialists in almost every past generation. Especially often the limit was associated with the existence of a certain boundary, which it is impossible for a person to overcome.

For example, in weightlifting at the beginning of the century, such an unattainable magic number was “400 kg”. Experts, spectators and athletes themselves increasingly expressed the opinion that athletes had approached the limit of what was possible. Years, decades passed, and the milestone of 400 kg remained unattainable. In 1928, at the 9th Olympic Games in Amsterdam, the 110-kilogram hero Josev Strassberger sets a stunning world record in triathlon, but this is only 372.5 kg. It took another whole 7 years until Joseph Manger lifted 402.5 kg in triathlon. Munger himself weighed 145 kg, and all contemporaries unanimously decided that he had approached the limit of what was possible. After that, many more years passed, the methods were improved, but for a long time the result was 400 kg. remained a grandmaster frontier. But in 1955, the 170-kilogram Paul Anderson showed a result that contemporaries, enchanted by the magic figure, refused to believe - 512 kg. He was called the most outstanding athlete of all times and peoples. And none of the contemporaries had any doubts that 512.5 kg is the final limit of human capabilities, which will remain an unattainable peak. The champion himself told reporters that he had breakfast “with 30 scrambled eggs, drinks 5 liters at a time. milk and can eat 20 steaks” [by 7].

Indeed, the limit of human capabilities. However, after 5 years at the Olympic Games in Rome (1960), a slender tall athlete, who weighed almost one and a half times less than Anderson, lifted 537.5 kg. It was the Russian athlete Yuri Vlasov, who ate like all ordinary people. Then Vlasov was asked the question: “How much, in your opinion, will the most outstanding athlete be able to score in the very, very distant future?” He named a figure that seemed unrealistic to many - 600-630 kg. And in 1972, Vasily Alekseev already overcame the 600-kilogram milestone - 640 kg [7 each].

So, sports authorities call one or the other record - the limit of human capabilities. However, there has not yet been a limit that has not been overcome. Therefore, other sports authorities are more optimistic. Immediately after the Moscow Olympiad, Vice-President of the International Athletics Federation L. Khomenkov compiled a table of expected results by the end of the 20th century. For example, he estimates that male sprinters will run 100 meters in 9.75 seconds, while women will run 10.60 seconds. As for the high jump, men will take a height of 250 cm, and women 210 cm [14 each].

And very often, researchers associate going beyond the limits of a person's physiological capabilities with the study and use of altered states of consciousness and the activation of a person's reserve abilities. As L.P. Grimak writes: “Many sports physiologists and psychologists are increasingly saying that modern sport deals with the maximum human capabilities, which are close to the calculated, theoretically permissible. In our opinion, such views are explained only by the fact that the calculations carried out include only physical, "machine" indicators of a person and do not take into account those highly productive properties of the nervous system and psyche, which will continue to contribute to the emergence of even higher sports results. He found that this condition is largely identical. This is a peak state close to a trance, and it is characterized by calmness, confidence, optimism, focus on what is happening, high energy, extraordinary clarity of perception, self-control and maximum use of internal resources.

Optimistic researchers usually look to the east as proof of their predictions, since altered states of consciousness have always been actively used in eastern culture of self-improvement. For example, the well-known orientalist Yu. A. Roerich told how he observed in the Himalayas the art of running yogis - “heavenly runners” who are able to run for several days without stopping and without slowing down. They could cover 200 kilometers in a night along narrow mountain paths, adhering to a speed equal to the world record in an hour run. Our athletes have not yet come close to such a pace and such endurance. Therefore, many psychologists tend to be more optimistic about the future of sports, assuming that great prospects can open up for coaches and athletes when science succeeds in uncovering the mechanisms of the abilities of oriental masters, which are still called supernatural. Altered states of consciousness are used both in oriental health systems and combat systems. In fact, almost all Eastern systems of self-improvement are based on a spontaneously occurring trance state. In an early work by one of the co-authors of this article, S.A. Rybtsov analyzed psychedelic techniques used in martial arts. He showed that as the main requirement necessary to achieve success in studies, the requirement is usually called - to change the state of consciousness, to enter a trance. As the yogi Ramacharaka writes, accompanying his Science of Indian Yogi Breathing: “The exercises given in this chapter require appropriate internal conditions and a certain spiritual state. People who are not serious by nature, who do not have a sense of spirituality and reverence, it is better to leave these exercises and do not try them, since they will not get any results.

Based on the phenomena described in the literature, activated through altered states, the physical capabilities of a person are quite wide. For example, in relation to the temperature regime. On the same scale are Bulgarian women dancing on hot coals; on the other, Tibetan yogis, who are able to sit near an ice-hole on a frosty night, dry sheets soaked in ice water with the warmth of their bodies. Eastern styles, thanks to the use of special trance states in them, revealed the reserve capabilities of the body in their adherents, giving them almost supernatural physical abilities. Modern science has not yet confirmed some of these abilities (although, we note, it could not reject either) - for example, the ability of yogis to levitate. The existence of other abilities has been proven, although not explained - the ability of yogis to stop the beating of the heart, plunging into a state close to clinical death for days and weeks. The third ability is more or less studied and widely used in the Oriental sports arts, even those practiced in Europe. These are the states of "steel shirt" and "steel hand". "Steel shirt" - a condition in which a person becomes insensitive to blows in general, knife blows (a knife cannot cut through the skin), and even (according to the masters) to a bullet. "Steel hand" - a state in which a person is able to break solid objects with his hand.

In his previous work, S.A. Rybtsov presented several ways to obtain such states, which are used by martial arts trainers today: “One of the well-known qi-gong techniques is to mentally grasp an imaginary tree and swing it. This method allows you to quickly enter a trance and is often used to achieve such complex "miracles" of qi-gong as "iron shirt" and the ability to break solid objects. Another qi-gong technique is associated with the ability to turn to stone, turn into a rock, acquire insensitivity to blows. An analogy with this technique can be found in modern hypnosis, it is called catalepsy. Unfortunately, not everyone gets catalepsy easily. The most talented for it are people with sensory perception of the world (kinesthetics). The technique consists in the maximum tension of all or a group of muscles for several minutes, usually after an attempt to relax, the most talented people experience muscle stiffness, body insensitivity and the ability to crush blows.

FROM goal verification of the reality of some of the possibilities described in the literature of yogis and masters of martial arts, we conducted the following study. We took a number of well-known phenomena for study: walking on coals, lying on glass, breaking solid objects (bricks, boards) with a hand, creating a “steel shirt” - the insensitivity of the body to a knife strike, an increase in physical strength. And until now, some researchers generally reject the reality of some of these phenomena, others explain them on the basis of some mystical concepts, for example, walking on coals by the special disposition of fire spirits.

Hypothesis. We assumed that many of these abilities are associated with altered states of consciousness and that all these things that are impossible for an ordinary person (more precisely, in an ordinary state) are achievable with a change in mental state.

When planning the experiment, we proceeded from the following assumption, if physical abilities of this type are indeed associated with altered states of consciousness, then by changing the state of consciousness in a direction, we can reliably demonstrate them. The study was conducted as part of trainings and practical exercises with psychology students.

This hypothesis was confirmed.

Experiment. The following models were chosen for the experiment:

1. Lying on glasses. In the presence of the subject, several bottles were broken, it was required to lie on the glass with a bare back, raise his head and stretch his arms up to get the maximum load on his back.

2. Lifting weights. A group of subjects (consisting of 4 or 2 people) was asked to lift a person sitting on a chair on outstretched fingers, grabbing his armpits (group of 2 people), or armpits and knees (group of 4) people . The weight of the person being lifted ranged from 60 to 80 kg, thus, one subject had a load of 15–40 kg.

3. Insensitivity to the impact of a flying knife. A knife of medium dullness was chosen, such that when it was released from a HEIGHT of 50–70 cm, it would stick into a wooden object. Then the knife was released over the subject's stomach, first from a height of 50–70 centimeters, then the height increased to one and a half meters.

4. Walking on coals. The fire burned out (burned for at least 2-3 hours). The coals were raked in a thin layer, forming a path of 1.5–2 meters. The subject was asked to walk along them.

5. Breaking solid objects (boards and bricks). The bricks were the most ordinary, from a nearby construction site, and the boards were chosen such as to withstand the weight of a person standing on them. Boards and bricks were placed on two supports, after which the subject was asked to break them.

We took two groups of subjects. The control, which included 10 people, students - psychologists attending another training, not related to the development of physical abilities. Experimental, which included 30 people, students and teachers from different universities who came to trainings involving the use of altered states of consciousness ("trance art", "Ericksonian hypnosis" and "self-improvement training").

The participants in the control group were told about the development of physical abilities with a change in the state of consciousness, photographs were shown, after which they were asked to try to do the same in light conditions (lie down on “dull glasses”, step on the coals once). The performance of the phenomena by the experimenter was not demonstrated.

Results. For most of the subjects in the control group, it was usually enough to look at the equipment prepared for the experiment in order to refuse to participate in the experiment. Or the subjects made attempts to break a brick or step on the coals, but the feeling of physical discomfort quickly led to the cessation of these attempts. However, two people who had a good preliminary trance training (two years of yoga or meditation experience), after explaining the methodology, could do some of our phenomena due to the fact that they were able to achieve the desired state themselves.

For the subjects of the experimental group, the experiment was carried out in two stages. At the first stage, they were shown techniques for changing the state of their own consciousness (methods of self-hypnosis [see 2]), after which they did a series of exercises on the use of these techniques. Further, the experimenter demonstrated the phenomena described above, visually using changes in his state of consciousness for this (repeated self-hypnosis formulas, did some physical exercises of a trance character). At the second stage, all this was proposed to repeat to the subject. First, the subject, with the help of physical exercises (some yoga assanas) or self-hypnosis, or light hypnosis, changed the state of his consciousness. Suggestion like "I weigh nothing, my back is completely relaxed, I cover it with an invisible power cocoon", etc.

After that, more than half of the participants in the experimental group could immediately repeat many of the phenomena demonstrated. The rest refused the experiment, mainly because when they looked at the glass or the coals, they came out of a trance state. However, after training in the art of trance (for 1-4 days), all of them could reach the necessary states of consciousness and do most of the experiments.

The first sign of achieving the desired state is the loss of a sense of fear, the emergence of a sense of self-confidence and one's own strengths. Without this feeling, practicing complex trance phenomena (lying on glass, walking on coals, etc.) is categorically contraindicated.

Reserve abilities once discovered were "anchored", that is, they were fixed. And after several repetitions, the subjects automatically entered the desired state without the help of the experimenter, barely starting to perform the experiment. Although trance qualities develop in all people if they reach the desired state, but like in any other field, there are also talents here. One person, after 4 days of training, hardly takes a few steps on the coals and is satisfied with this. Another from the very first immersion in a trance expresses a desire to dance a complex dance on the coals and is able to dance it for a long time. Like any ability, trance qualities are trainable. With the help of training, even those subjects who did not succeed at first, eventually mastered what they were looking for.

Mild physical injuries in the participants of the experimental group occurred mainly due to the fact that they suddenly came out of a trance, or tried to do a phenomenon based on willpower, not trance ("I'd rather cut myself, but not look like a coward"). An example, an experienced subject once again lies down on the glasses, feeling something like a downy feather bed under him, and then a mosquito sits on his nose - an annoying representative of our everyday reality - this is enough for the subject to feel, instead of a feather bed, how a sharp piece of glass digs into back. /Another case. The subject, imagining herself weightless, walked over the coals. Then she turned around in disappointment and shouted: “Yes, they have completely cooled down” - and she jabbed her foot into the coals, checking, and then, with a gasp, jumped back - the coals did not think to cool down at all.

In fairness, it should be noted that such cases were very, very few. And the explanation for this is not only a unique technique developed by us. Simply, even in a normal state, it is almost impossible to receive significant physical damage in such conditions. In a few seconds, while a person takes steps on scattered coals, one cannot get serious burns; gently lying down on the glasses, in the most difficult case, you can get only a few superficial cuts (the experimenters checked all this beforehand with their backs and legs). All this suggests that the unusual physical abilities that we have explored are not rightly called unusual, they are almost ordinary, and only slightly require a change in mental state.

Of all the phenomena described above, the last one caused the greatest difficulty: breaking solid objects with a hand; to demonstrate it, in addition to changing the state of consciousness, a number of other abilities were needed, in particular, a tendency to develop muscle catalepsy.

Probably, the ability to lie on glass, beat off knives, walk on coals is associated with a specific effect on the skin and neuromuscular systems. And the one who knows how to do this is also able to do many other things, such as maintaining health, the ability to quickly heal wounds: superficial and deep / including ulcers /. Some of the phenomena described above also have a peculiar healing effect, of course, not the collapse of bricks, but lying on glass and walking on coals. One of the participants in the experiment said that after she walked on the coals, her head stopped hurting. Another, who complained of sciatica, noted that lying on the glasses had a very beneficial effect on her. And there are many such examples. The reasons for such an action are varied - this is the effect of stress that occurs before the start of the experience, and euphoria after its positive outcome. Perhaps the influence of massage, carried out in these experiments.

The discussion of the results. And yet, what about the "physiological limit" of the human body. After all, the relationship of reserve physical abilities with the state of trance, hypnosis and self-hypnosis in sports psychology has long been known and is used in preparing athletes for competitions, in psychological preparation during training, etc. “Most often, suggestion and autosuggestion are used to achieve the necessary states: sleep before a responsible start, rest in between attempts, emphasizing one’s own strengths and weaknesses of opponents, bringing oneself into an optimal pre-start, pre-training or post-training state” Well-known psychotherapist, creator of “Ericksonian hypnosis” M Erickson in his book gives several interesting techniques for generating certain mental states in athletes, which he used in his practice. He used one of these techniques to train Olympic shot thrower Donald Lawrence. Entering the future champion for the first time in a trance, Erickson told him: “You have already thrown the shot at 17 meters. And tell me honestly, do you really think that you know the difference between 17 meters and 17 meters and 1 centimeter. Naturally, Lawrence said no. Then Erickson gradually increased the distance: “17 meters and 2 centimeters”, “17 meters and 3 centimeters”, etc. . Thus, Erickson showed the athlete the relativity of his limiting beliefs. And the real results of the athlete also gradually began to increase and, finally, brought him the long-awaited victory in the Olympic Games.

Indeed, many authors associate the activation of the reserve capabilities of the human body with altered states of consciousness. Indeed, these abilities either appear under the influence of stress (and this is already an altered state) or are demonstrated by trance masters (yoga, martial arts). And in our experiments, a change in the state of consciousness (hypnosis, self-hypnosis) led to the activation of the physical capabilities of the body (withstanding high temperatures, heavy weights, etc.). Yes, but... there are well-known, purely biological laws of the functioning of the human body. For example, heating water under normal conditions to a temperature of 100 degrees leads to its evaporation. And heating the body - to burn. And the tensile strength of the skin when trying to cut it is the same physical reality as the tensile strength of paper under the same conditions. This is confirmed by the opinions of sports doctors and biologists about the limits of sports records, the limits that our body imposes on us. This position was very well formulated by the well-known researcher of the “physiology of records” E. Yorkl: “Some track and field achievements can no longer be improved. The graphed sprint curve has flattened out. Long jumps seem to already have a “record-limit” - it seems to me impossible to jump further than Bob Beamon with his phenomenal jump-flight of 890 centimeters. If, contrary to my theory, athletics were constantly progressing, then soon the result in running for 200 meters would be 16.97 seconds, and for 400 meters -37.23. But everyone understands that this is impossible.

And no change in the state of consciousness should affect the laws of resistance of the material. A change in the state of consciousness can activate some normally not used reserves of physical strength, flexibility, endurance, but cannot increase the ignition temperature of the skin, or the tensile strength of the skin, bones and muscles. But, as both our studies and the studies of other authors have shown, such a phenomenon is possible. Why? What happens when a person changes the state of his consciousness, and the result of the change is the activation of some unusual physical abilities of his body.

We analyzed the formulas of suggestion and self-hypnosis, which were used in our experiments to achieve the desired states by the subjects.

How it was. A group of volunteers who wished to "develop these abilities" were taught the elements of self-hypnosis, after which one of the already trained subjects or the experimenter himself demonstrated "how simple it is" - this moment is necessary to create the desired mood (maybe this mood can be called the expectation of a miracle ). Then the students directed their state. This is where the most interesting stuff comes in. As in many other experiments with a change in the state of consciousness, the autosuggestion formulas contained not only invocations to oneself (“I am strong” when lifting weights, “my legs feel nothing” when walking on coals), but also altered characteristics of the outside world (“a weight is light”, “gravity disappears and now I’m already sliding freely through the air” or “I’m standing on the beach, there are smooth warm pebbles under me”), as a result of this, not only the state of consciousness changed, but, as many subjects noted, perception of the outside world. At first, the unpleasant feeling of fear disappeared, then an incomprehensible self-confidence arose; then something happened and the person freely did what some time ago considered impossible. It is interesting to see how the perception of the surrounding world has changed. For example, in a situation where the subject imagined himself on a hot beach, sometimes for a moment, it really seemed to him that under his feet there were not red-hot coals, but only hot beach pebbles. This moment was usually enough to take the necessary few steps and feel the euphoria of luck, stronger than any "anchors" fixing a new ability. Or the subject imagined that he weighed nothing, and for a moment it also suddenly seemed to him that he had actually lifted off the ground (of course, in neither case, impartial observers recorded anything, yes, probably, there was nothing in our constant physical reality). And the subjects themselves, after demonstrating the phenomenon, never claimed that they really “slid above the ground” or “ended up on the beach.” It was a state that lasted a fraction of a second and was almost indistinguishable from ordinary ones, but, as a rule, it was not possible to realize phenomena without it. It should be noted that the change in the state of consciousness in our experiments was never profound (for example, we did not use classical hypnosis), the subjects during the experiment, before and after it, retained a complete orientation, who they were and where, talked with the experimenter, moreover, some of them did not even consider their state changed.

By the way, there is an interesting hypothesis related to a similar phenomenon: the activation of reserve physical capabilities in a state of severe stress. In emergency situations (threat to life), sometimes even the most ordinary people could demonstrate, without expecting it from themselves, truly inhuman capabilities of their body (a granny who pulled out a chest from a burning jota, which four healthy men barely brought back). However, they are unable to repeat this. Doctor of Philosophical Sciences N.A. Nosov collected quite a few examples of the manifestation of unusual abilities of a person in a state of stress and he explained them, based on his own concept, - the transition of a person from our reality to a reality of another level, an extraordinary reality in which other laws of nature operate, more precisely, the loss of a person for some time “from constant reality to virtual”. According to this hypothesis, under the influence of stress, a person for a moment “falls out” from the action of the laws of nature inherent in our physical reality and enters a virtual reality, where the laws of nature can be different, and these other laws (less gravity, a changed course of time , change in the resistance of materials) allow him to escape.

But after all, in our experiments, half of the trance formulas were not the induction of additional abilities (“I am strong”), but a kind of description of the changed parameters of the external world, the world in which the subject must walk on coals or lift weights (“the weight of a person decreases” or “it’s not glass around you, but soft rounded pebbles”, etc.). It turns out that the subject created a virtual reality around him, where the laws of nature slightly different from the usual ones reigned (gravity decreased, resistance of the skin and muscles increased). Exactly the same virtual reality can occur in a state of stress, when all the forces and capabilities of the body are activated with one - the only goal - to be saved. It is much more difficult to artificially create such a reality, but the situations that were set by the conditions of our experiment were much simpler than those of the notorious grandmother with a chest or a polar pilot with a bear.

In previous works, we hypothesized that there is an initial relationship between consciousness and physical reality, which expresses that the physical environment can also influence consciousness, and vice versa, the internal activity of the psyche (virtual worlds of imagination, fantasies, dreams, plans) lead to a change in the environment. reality. We also assumed that the result of the impact of consciousness on the external world can be several ways to change the physical reality: 1) through objective activity (do it yourself); 2) through the creation of virtual reality, i.e., to achieve the desired in the internal plan (creativity / write a novel /, dream, hallucination, etc.); 3) through the impact on random processes (achieving the goal by natural, but unlikely means) - usually interpreted as an accident; 4) through an apparent miracle - interpreted as a miracle.

The idea that virtual reality (the own reality of the person creating it - the subject, the reality of imagination) is capable of generating changes in the physical environment is deep, archetypal and primordial. And human consciousness is in complex interactions with the material world of physical reality. According to S.L. Rubinshtein, the interaction of Man and the World presupposes "the communion of finite man with infinite being and the ideal representation of this being in man himself." At the same time, not only the World influences the Man, but also the Man influences the World.

The activation of the body's reserve abilities in altered states of consciousness (as well as under stress) can be explained in two ways. For example, the case with the grandmother, the chest and the fire. First, under the influence of stress, the woman's physical strength increased. Secondly, under the influence of stress, she changed the physical environment in such a way that the chest became light (for example, she changed the gravitational constant of our physical world). The second approach, developed in our previous works, suggests that the mental activity of consciousness is capable of somehow influencing the reality surrounding the subject not only in ways mediated by activity, but directly influencing the laws of nature that govern the universe.

The last approach is supported by the fact that in modern physics quite a lot of theories have been developed that involve the interaction of the psyche and the physical world (the bootstrap concept, the concept of wave function reduction with the participation of consciousness, the anthropic principle, the hypothesis of torsion fields, etc.).

Our experiments with the activation of the reserve capabilities of the human body in altered states of consciousness indirectly also testify in favor of this assumption. Indeed, the subjects, in an effort to activate their reserve physical abilities, begin, in addition, to set themselves the conditions of the external world. It can be said that they create a virtual reality around themselves, in which slightly different laws of nature operate. Of course, this happens in a limited space and for a very short time, and then the homeostatic universe can again triumph in its integrity. But this short moment of time may be enough to save oneself or to set a new record.

Therefore, our answer to the question of whether there is a limit to the physical capabilities of a person turns out to be rather optimistic. The property inherent in consciousness to “influence the physical world” and “change physical reality” allows us to push far the upper limit of human capabilities. Of course, if a person can "influence physical reality", for example, by changing the gravitational constant for a short moment, then Bob Beamon's record is far from the limit. In the field of altered reality, you can jump higher and further. But the physical improvement of the human body turns out to be inseparable from the overall development of a person, as a representative of the Homo sapiens species, and it is associated with the development, rather, of "mental" strength, rather than physical.

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Notes:

The work was carried out with the participation of S.A. Rybtsova and E.I. Khitryakovo