Overload
Climbing high mountains
Category: Actions
Type
Involuntary and voluntary
Introduction and description
“Climbing is the activity of using one's hands and feet (or indeed any other part of the body) to ascend a steep object. It is done both for recreation (to reach an inaccessible place, or for its own enjoyment) and professionally, as part of activities such as maintenance of a structure, or military operations”.
Background
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You can of course climb a hill, but you are not likely to get a spiritual experience. The sort of climbing that produces results is high altitude climbing and it is no accident that ancient religions used very high mountains for religious ceremonies. The Inca, the Buddhists, the Africans, the Japanese and the Native American Indians, for example, all revered high mountains and also built shrines and performed ceremonies there.
How it works
Being at high altitude causes Altitude sickness. High altitude is greater than 8,000 feet and extreme altitude is greater than 19,000 feet. About 20% of people ascending above 9,000 feet in one day, for example, will develop altitude sickness – for more detail see Altitude sickness.
Altitude sickness occurs because the air contains less oxygen at higher altitudes. Therefore, there is a lower amount of oxygen for an individual to breathe. In effect altitude sickness is a form of Hypoxia.
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Some contribution may be made by Hypothermia particularly if it is very cold, and there is an additional contribution from the form of Frenetic exercise needed to climb mountains of this sort. The danger may also result in Overwhelming fear and terror. Note that one or more of these problems may result in the release of Endorphins. Endorphins are addictive, which may explain the compulsion many climbers have to keep climbing and climbing and climbing.
Observations
Hallucinations are not uncommon in the Himalayas. Reinhold Messner describes hearing voices that helped his route-finding as well as seeing his father as a young climber during his return to Nanga Parbat. This is mentioned in the book "To the Top of the World".
The books of Bonington, Tasker, and Boardman mention seeing ghost-like climbers in archaic clothing and brandishing archaic gear. In one of the books, Nick Estcourt describes being followed up an early morning climb from an advanced base camp and thinking it was a Sherpa. As the figure came closer, he noticed old tattered clothing and then the figure vanished.
Related observations
Healing observations
Hallucination
- Angels and avalanches 004977
- Climbing high mountains – modern example 000510
- Climbing high mountains – scientific paper 000512
- Climbing the DiBona 004976
- Jeremy Windsor met Jimmy while climbing Mount Everest, but then he disappeared 027849
- Kinshofer, Toni 003435
- Knud Rasmussen - Climbing high mountains 000508
- Kuen, Felix 003429
- Messner, Reinhold 003432
- Neptazane 019678
- Neuropsychological functioning associated with high-altitude exposure 029522
- Out-of-body experience in the Karakorum 023102
- Smythe, Frank - The last 1,000 feet of Everest are not for mere flesh and blood 021202
- Stranded Russian climber 'hallucinated' during Pakistan ordeal 027489
- Viagra 005742
Wisdom, Inspiration, Divine love & Bliss
- Benson, Arthur Christopher - The Alter Fire 028292
- Heim, Professor Albert von St Gallen - And his near death experience 021104
Out of time
- Agapitoff and Khangaloff - Siberian shamanism - Climbing high mountains 000505
- Black Elk - Native American Indians - Climbing high mountains 000506
- Climbing high mountains – scientific paper 000512
- Climbing high mountains – Shinto 000507
- Heim, Professor Albert von St Gallen - And his near death experience 021104
- Messner, Reinhold 003436
- Messner, Reinhold 003430
- Noyce, Wilfrid 000509
- Out-of-body experience in the Karakorum 023102
- Reverend Bertrand 000511
- Scott, Doug 003583
- Smythe, Frank - A description of a fall and OBE on the Grohmannspitze in the Dolomites 021249
Enlightenment
- Carsolio, Carlos - Helped by the spirits of the mountain 008377
- Laubscher, B J F – The farmer who he felt his consciousness enter into every particle belonging to an infinite whole 023318
- Messner, Reinhold 003434
- Messner, Reinhold 003433
- Messner, Reinhold 003431
In time
- Agapitoff and Khangaloff - Siberian shamanism - Climbing high mountains 000505
- Angels and avalanches 004977
- Carsolio, Carlos - And the descent of Nanga Parbat 011246
- Carsolio, Carlos - Helped by the spirits of the mountain 008377
- Climbing high mountains – modern example 000510
- Haston, Dougal 003584
- Heim, Professor Albert von St Gallen - And his near death experience 021104
- Knud Rasmussen - Climbing high mountains 000508
- Scott, Doug 003583
- Smythe, Frank - The last 1,000 feet of Everest are not for mere flesh and blood 021202