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by arcastroe 1521 days ago
Ha. Yes. This thread goes into the "dangerous thought" category. Another example of a dangerous thought: could you stop your heartbeat by just thinking? Of course, nobody sane would want to. But what if you're genuinely intellectually curious? Best try not to think about it.
1 comments
tragictrash 1521 days ago
It's not dangerous thought, it is detached from reality. If you want examples of dangerous thought, go look up how YouTube radicalizes people with their algorithm. The things in this thread are called crazy.

The answer is no. You cannot stop your heart by thinking about it.

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arcastroe 1521 days ago
Hadn't looked into it before, but found this interesting source, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22744827/

> Experiments demonstrate that it is possible for arbitrary changes in the heart rhythm to be made through conscious control of the breathing rhythm, and even a short-term cardiac arrest by means of contracting abdominal muscles.

Again, best not to try it ;)

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tragictrash 1521 days ago
You can cherry pick stuff off the internet all you want. Doesn't make it good science or plausible.

Contracting your muscles to make your heart skip a beat or two does not count as "stopping your heart by thinking". By that logic I can drive my car by thinking.

I'll give you that you can influence the rate of your heart with practice.

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