Even though the sun has yet to rise, the wide array of colorful consecrations shining from the the bodies of the devotees light the long way forward to the Batu Caves.
Swimming through the sea of shaved yellow heads and thick early morning dew, one can’t help but to gyrate in tune with the bellowing chants of the crowd and the melodic rump-a-dum-dum reverberating from the long line of drummers dancing along their side.
I take a deep breath in and fill my lungs with the intoxicating scent and vigor of the ubiquitous burning incense; even though I only slept a few hours the night before, I feel more awake and alive than I can remember.
A quick glance to my lower right and my eyes are met by a pentrating stare peircing through me. The man, deep in trance, is draped in a gown of leaves and has red paint smeared around his eery wide grin. Like many of the other participants, this devotee is carrying a kavathi via hooks in his back. I stand immobilized by this man’s hypnotic glare; while being restrained by one of his entourage, he lunges forward snapping his jaw at me to and fro in a slow irregular motion.
Further ahead, close to the Batu River, a priest deep in chant spears a metal rod the width of a pinky and lengh of an arm through an entranced man’s jaw. As I look on wide-eyed in disbelief, I feel a tug on my right arm from behind.
A young Indian man, body covered with white ash, implores me to join him in the procession of his friend. He leads me down the path, right aside the river; I instantly start dancing with the crowd as if it’s an uncontrollable reaction–which it was.
The priest places his hand on the devotees forehead, who is a huge tree of a man–the bright fruits hooked on his body contrast sharply with his charcoal colored skin.
All of a sudden, the devotee jumps back into a ritualistic dance, swaying side to side, and then dives on the ground with arms outstretched and commences in a series of wild frantic gyrations to the loud cheering of his proud family and friends.
When the devotee has finished the ritual, he leans back and greedily takes puffs out of a cigar with a swagger and air of confidence appearingly unbeknownst to the human race.
It’s the eve of Thaipusam, and on this holiest of Hindu days, an estimated 1.5 million devotees from all over the world come to Kuala Lumpur to make the journey to the Batu Caves and pay their respect to Lord Murugan and all that he represents–valour, vitality, and happiness, as well as the triumph of the power of good over evil.
The reasons for participation, as well as the degree of participation, vary significantly; some seek to overcome bad karma, some as penance for their sins, and others to honor a vow.
Of course, many perform the ritual also as a means of reaffirming their faith. And to me, this is the most amazing thing about Thaipusam: the incredible power that unwaivering faith can hold. Many hear about this festival, and others like it, and are stunned to find out that most of the participants never bleed and are left with a complete absence of wounds or marks from the flaggleation underwent. But by understanding the deep interconnection between mind and body, this should not be so shocking: just as the body directly affects the mind, the mind also does the body. By deeply believing in something, in anthing, we alter our physiological composition to appropriately achieve what our mind is telling us; Thaipusam is testament to this extraordinary power in belief.
Please check my videos link as I uploaded three new videos http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=papiunc1
6 Responses to “Power in Belief”
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February 7th, 2007 at 4:46 am
Yeah- this “mind over matter” business is astounding to those of us who are primarily existing on a physical level…
I remember one of these kinds of festivals where the men were walking and dancing (in some kind of meditative state) through burning hot coals of a fire… They didn’t get burnt feet or feel any pain, either… Don’t remember which country it was in, though, or which religion or which festival- just remember the ferocious heat of the coals and the MEANDERING men going through them….
I’m surprised that nobody minded you taking the photos… And they are GREAT photos!!! Nust have been an INCREDIBLE experience for you!
Love from Nita
February 9th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
Tim,
Very interesting post. It sounds like an amazing experience to witness. I’m very interested in learning more about the mind-over-matter topic. It’s baffling to me how someone could put a hook through their body and not bleed because they were in the zone. Or that someone could eat molten lead (as I once saw on TV) without burning their mouth. It goes against my understanding of the physical nature of the world into a realm that I’m interested in but haven’t learned much about. I’m hesitant to throw around the word “miracle” but it seems like some of this stuff is outside of physics as we understand it. How can the mind stop the body from having a physical reaction to heat or a hook?
February 14th, 2007 at 3:54 am
NITA–some of the entranced participants definitely minded me, as well as the many other photographers on hand, taking their photos. I was in the midst of a few attacks actually. The man in the “Ritualistic Dance” video with the black cane, long hair, and body covered with fruit, gave me a real scare.
He caught eyes with me while I was filming him, let out a series of disturbing loud snarls and groans, then he stampeded forward in frantic lunges while repeatedly stabbing his metal cane on the ground with force. The devotee came within a few inches of taking out my big toe with his cane; at the last moment one member of his entourage pulled him off of me and the camera-man at my side.
The key to keeping all of one’s toes and other valued body parts, from what I am told, is to never cross one of the participant’s paths. In the devotee’s hypnotized state, he is only able to think of one thing: fulfilling his objective–making it to the top of the Batu Cave. Any object or thing in his way is seen as not only an obstacle, but also as an enemy, preventing him from attaining his mission.
CALEB–Yea, the power of the human mind is absolutely incredible, and often baffling to many of us, particularly us Westerners, because our culture of science teaches us all about what’s possible and what’s not. And merely by believing that something is impossible, we alter the reality and make it so.
When I wrote: “By deeply believing in something, in anything, we alter our physiological composition to appropriately achieve what our mind is telling us”, I meant it literally. As the literature in Neuroscience corroborates, the mere act of belief, or as the case may be the belief in disbelief, alters the chemical reactions in our mind and thus our perception of reality, and as such directly affects what we can physically achieve and what we can not.
The reality that we perceive we choose to perceive, and by acknowledging all of the ‘impossibilities’ out there, we seriously limit our scope of possibilities. To say that something is impossible—or rather as you put it a ‘miracle’ (only possible through divine intervention)—is akin to a blind man stating that sight is impossible. Just because you, or those around you, are not able to experience something is in no way evidence of its non-existence.
T. Lobsang Rampa, a once renowned Tibetan Lama and Abbot, sums it up in his very readable “The Third Eye”:
“The ways of the foreigners are strange and not to be accounted for…they believe only that which they can do, only that which can be tested in their Rooms of Science. Yet the greatest science of all, the Science of the Overself, they leave untouched.”
If you’re interested in learning more about this mind-over-matter ’stuff’, in addition to the above book, ‘Unlimited Power’ by Anthony Robbins, and ‘The Power of your Subconscious Mind’ by Joseph Murray are all a good start.
My experience in this domain, however, is all indirect: from books or other peoples’ accounts. Nita, although, has had some direct experience in the matter. If you feel comfortable shedding a little more light on this topic, Nita, I’m sure all the readers—me certainly included– would find it enlightening, and at the very least, an interesting new perspective.
February 19th, 2007 at 3:35 am
Very interesting indeed. Mind over matter is a tenet I am still trying to grasp myself. I have not experienced anything like what you just went through, but have seen things in documentaries involving similar unexplainable physical phenomena. I have read some things too about using your mind to create your reality. It has changed my perspective on how I see a lot of things happening in my life. I hope to hear more when you get back.
February 24th, 2007 at 7:37 am
Hi again Tim!
You invite me to talk about my “mind-over-matter” experiences, but they were not of a similar nature to the ones you describe… They were more in the realm of coming OUT of the body…
In one experience, I was at a “seminar”- A friend took me- It was a Buddhist/Hindu mixture of some sort, and the man who was leading it was some great leader-type… We were in the middle of a meditation, all with eyes closed, and I felt myself leave my body and go flying above, watching everyone from above in the VERY crowded room as they were deep in meditation. I was feeling GOOD up there, flying around… and ALL OF A SUDDEN, the LEADER gives me a VERY direct command to GET DOWN and he ZAPPED me back into my body. He was VERY angry that I was fooling around up there when my concentration SHOULD have been on the inner-meditative process…. The sudden zap back into my body caused by his commanding-force was unpleasant, and I never did return to that Seminar….
The second experience was similar but PLEASANT: I was at a Psychic Seminar, and a few of us had gotten together and were standing in a circle meditating and I flew out of my body and up into the air and looked down upon everyone. I could see myself standing down ther- that body didn’t seem to be any more a part of ME than any of the other bodies down there. I could see some people who were standing at the door behind where my body was standing (so the back of “my” body was facing them… I felt at one with the people in the room and was enjoying flying around up there and looking at everyone from that perspective. I think that there may have been a few other people flying around, too, but we didn’t interfere or interact with one another- we didn’t have to, because our group was as though we were all ONE, and everyone was enjoying the experience…. The CLARITY of seeing everyone from above and the feeling of FREDOM in my weightless-flying are still well-remembered….
I’ve had other “mind-over-matter” types of experiences, but of different natures- NONE of them, however, having to do with rising-above physical pain as described in your entry….
I have never tried to EXPLAIN the experiences- how they happen, or why they happen… I just know that they happen… And I believe that it is MORE than “just the mind” causing stuff like this to happen- it is the mind connecting with a vibrational-level that allows it to happen.
The mind has to be “open” to the vibrations– just like, when I did “hands-on-healing”, the mind has to be “open” to the vibrations of the person being healed- has to be “open” to the pain of that person, and has to be able to “feel” the “painful” vibrations going out of the person being “healed” and the “curing” vibrations coming in…
“Mind” over “Matter” is more than just “mind”- it is CONNECTION to a different vibrational/level/system than the one in which the mind/body is usually connected to…. And the different vibrational level includes the previous mind/body level- it is greater-larger-more encompassing- than that previous level…
At least- that is the way I see it… Can’t explain the experiences any better….
Love from nita
February 28th, 2007 at 4:39 am
“A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest–a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task mst be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
~Albert Einstein