Overload
Frenetic exercise
Category: Actions
Type
Involuntary and voluntary
Introduction and description

Frenetic exercise means pushing the body in physical activity for an extended period of time without rest. It must be continuous exercise, hard unrelenting exercise of the muscles of the body, enough to mean we are panting hard and probably sweating profusely. It means we are pushing the body to its limits without giving it a rest, going and going and going …..
Dancing, jumping, quaking, shaking, quivering, running , rowing, cycling, paddling, swimming, cross country skiing, bouncing, step exercise, treadmill, all have produced spiritual experiences from out of body to hallucinations, to inspiration and bliss.

What you choose depends upon your preference, dancing is as effective as cross country running, quaking can be as effective as the marathon. The only key thing about this mechanism is you must push yourself extremely hard. How hard we will be able to see when I go into the background.
You do not have to be fit to do this. In fact from the observations you will see that it helps not to be that fit. But you do need to have a healthy heart.
As a method it has been used worldwide, by practically every culture from time immemorial. Do it properly and it can also benefit your health, but there are disadvantages which you will be able to see in a moment.
Before my heart packed in, even I, a slob of a [then] 50 year old woman, had a very interesting experience on a rowing machine with eyes closed in a gym listening to Bronski Beat, followed by Jean Michel Jarre on my head phones.
Method
Don’t eat for several hours before you do this, preferably fast for some time. Ensure you have plenty of fluids always with you, preferably fluids that contain essential salts - electrolytes. If you want a spiritual experience do not drink glucose drinks.
The following methods all have observations that show that they work. In some cases I have left the descriptions of effects within the method descriptions rather than make them observations. The method description describes what was done. These are really just suggestions, the possibilities are pretty endless given what has to be done and how it works
-
- Shaking
- Latihan
- Traditional shaking
- Furube
- Route marches
- Long distance cycling
- Dancing
- Pentecostal Jericho marching
- Ultramarathons
- Long distance kayaking
- Hesychasmic quivering
- Quaking
- Rave dancing
- Frenetic sports activities
- Caucus race
- Doing your own thing – here are some people who know what to do follow this LINK
How it works
Physically how it works
Lots of things happen when we exercise hard, because in a sense we are simulating the ‘fight or flight’ response:
- Our heart rate increases – to pump the glucose and oxygen round to where it is needed faster
- Our pupils dilate – so the ‘flight’ is aided by better vision
- Our saliva is inhibited – so we conserve moisture for use in exhalation [to keep the lungs moist] and sweat [to cool us down]
- The bronchi are relaxed - giving our lungs a greater capacity
- The stomach, pancreas and intestines are inhibited – so we don’t need to poo mid flight
- Urination is inhibited – so we don’t need to wee mid flight
This might appear to have no direct relevance, but it means that there is no use our eating a hamburger half way round our jogging course thinking this will give us an energy boost, because the body won’t be able to use it. The digestive system has virtually stopped. All the hamburger will do is lie, a heavy undigested mass, in our stomachs to slow us down.
So here we have the rational for not eating directly before we exercise. We also have a rational for why water is essential, preferably water with all the essential minerals we may have lost by sweating [the so called ‘salts’] .

Whenever we really exercise hard for a prolonged period we need energy to fuel muscles. This energy comes from a combination of oxygen and glucose - see Glucose and glucagon. If we don’t have enough glucose in our blood stream, glycogen in the liver is converted into glucose and is pumped into the blood so that it can go to the muscles [including the heart and brain].
When the glycogen in the liver is exhausted, the adrenal gland secretes cortisol which encourages the liver to convert amino acids and glycerol into glucose – so in crude terms we revert to our reserves and start burning fat.
The lung only has so much capacity. The air enters our lungs and oxygen is extracted by the alveolia and enters the blood stream. There is actually an exchange here as oxygen is taken up by the haemeglobin in the blood and the carbon dioxide is expelled and we breathe out carbon dioxide and water. We thus get thirsty not because we salivate [we don’t] but because we lose water from breathing and we sweat.
At such high levels of exercise, we can get to a point where there is not enough oxygen from our lungs to meet our energy needs in the process known as ‘aerobic respiration’ the conversion of glucose into energy using oxygen. This point is known as our ‘VO2 max’ – very simply put it is the maximum amount of oxygen our lungs can supply to the blood. VO2 max is short for volume per time, O2 maximum and is usually expressed as an absolute rate in litres of oxygen per minute (l/min). At a certain point the lungs can’t supply any more oxygen and we go ‘anaerobic’ we start to generate energy using ATP and glucose in a different process that does not rely on oxygen. The handy little chart below shows the stages.
Now this process produces two by-products – waste products if you like. One is hydrogen ions and the other is lactate/lactic acid. These two products accumulate in the blood.
Now lactate is found in the blood at rest, just like glucose is. The concentration of blood lactate is usually 1–2 mmol/L at rest, but can rise to over 20 mmol/L during intense exertion.
Once we slow down and have a rest, this lactate is actually converted into glucose and then if we don’t need it to glycogen, but whilst we are really active it swishes around the system in our blood. If we haven’t overdone it and our cells are still full of oxygen it gets converted into pyruvate and goes back into the cycle [called the Krebs cycle] that helps our muscles work. But at anaerobic levels there is not enough oxygen, so it stays as lactic acid.
Now we get to the stage where no one can agree what happens next. But let us review where we are. We have sweated a lot so we have lost a lot of body salts with Calcium and Potassium in those salts. We are short of oxygen in general – a mild form of Hypoxia, we are hot because raising the metabolism makes us hot and we have quite a bit of lactic acid and hydrogen ions in our blood we can’t process.

What might happen next? Well, there is a real danger we will get cramps and other awful pain and also suffer muscle damage. It doesn’t matter what the cause is [which seems to be a moot point among scientists] we know we get it. I used to play hockey [right half, quite a lot of running] and I suffered from dreadful cramp sometimes. Some say the cramp is due to the lactic acid, some say it is due to the loss of ‘electrolytes’ from sweating, some say it is due to too much insulin, some to lack of oxygen, some to low glucagons. The argument is silly really because all these are related, so it hardly matters.
And the body seeing the onset of pain releases Endorphins. If we carry on ‘fleeing and fighting’ so running and exercising beyond the cramp and pain stage, the body releases Endorphins to help us. It provides analgesia.
The part of the brain which makes all the decisions about what to do next [the processor for the function of ‘will and decision making’] gets all sorts of panic stricken messages from the physical nervous system which all boil down to a cry for help. And it makes a decision. It needs or wants to carry on running, but it will make life easier for the muscles and the body by taking away the pain and giving it a reward for trying so hard.
Endorphins resemble the opiates in their abilities to produce analgesia and a feeling of well-being. But this makes it all sound very physical – and indeed physical it is – runner’s high or dancing high is endorphin release – a sort of opium kick without the pipe [I joke], but we also need to look at this functionally.
Functionally - How it works

You now need to refer to the Model of the Mind and the generic description of How spiritual experience works.
From the body’s point of view this form of unrelenting effort is regarded as a massive Threat.
Many of our little cells are being destroyed in the anaerobic stage, the cells in muscles are being overworked to the point of breakdown and what is being sent to the Will from our Nervous system is a truly massive cry for help – a cry to stop. The cry is that much greater because the cells know very well that there is no danger, the 5 senses are sending it nothing, it is only the Will that is putting all this pressure on them, so they rebel and complain perhaps even more than they would if there was a tiger behind us.
This is not an egoless act, nor is it an act without Objectives. But there is only one objective and this can largely be forgotten, and the Personality only has to drive the Will to keep going – that is all. This technique is actually perfect for a person with a high level of ego for this reason. A squashed ego would give in.
The Will recognises that there may be a something of a Threat to itself. The brain needs energy and the processes or Functions of the brain need energy and the body – because we are pushing it and pushing it – are taking away some of that energy – quite a lot of energy.
So the Will starts to shut down, in a controlled way, non essential processes.
And the processes that it starts with are our ability to Learn and not long after there is a shut down in stages of Memory and finally Reasoning. Because we are running and have to ‘fight or fly’, the process cannot be total. We have to be able to think a little, otherwise our simulated flight might end up a disaster [remember this all goes back to early man’s mechanisms for survival].
During frenetic exercise, blood is diverted to muscles by a process called ‘shunting’, so that the blood is reduced to the intestines, for example, but the blood supply to the vital organs of the brain, heart and kidney remains relatively constant as long as it can. So it is not hypoxia per say that causes this. BUT, the brain uses glucose as fuel and at frenetic levels of exercise the supply of glucose to the brain does diminish.
Highly complex Reasoning and Memory retrieval is not a core process. We almost go back to instinctive reactions – and in some senses lose our Reason. Back to the child. And the Composer steps in and we get a spiritual experience.
Advantages
It works
Disadvantages
Endorphins are addictive. And the effects of withdrawal if you exercise too frequently and too long are awful.
Related observations
Healing observations
- Andrija Puharich - Siberian shamans - The Tests of Bodily function control 001086
- Avicenna - The Canon of Medicine - On exercise 011864
- Blacking, Professor John – How musical is man? – Music can create a world of virtual time 021982
- Castren - Siberian shaman bells, spells and dancing 003579
- Chia seeds and athletes 006751
- Cold and muscle damage 006720
- Conquering and Preventing Stress - By Judith Lynne Hanna 020100
- Doris Green & Tracy Snipe - N’Deup 003017
- Dr Stephen Black - The trances of the babalawos, or witch doctors, of the Yoruba people 011908
- Dr William Sargant - The Traditional healing of the Samburu 024327
- Dr William Sargant – On the use of making love and drumming in curing neuroses 024391
- Dr William Sargant – The Initiation ceremony of the Macumba of Brazil and Orisha cult, from Nigeria and Dahomey 024397
- Dr William Sargant – Zar healing 024393
- Drumming to combat obesity 012460
- Effects of Post-Exercise Honey Drink Ingestion on Blood Glucose and Subsequent Running Performance in the Heat 020535
- Engel, C - On the role of magicians 007306
- Health benefits 003064
- I Was Able to Forgive and Move On MDMA (Ecstacy) by Trancer 020283
- Lame Deer - Native American Indians - Sun dance ceremony 000085
- Latihan healing 002526
- Lisa Bentley - Ironman winner 012682
- Lyall Watson - Trance dancing as a cure 011390
- M A Czaplicka - Shamanism in Siberia 003036
- Mircea Eliade - John Slocum's Indian Shakers 007310
- Music therapy - The Gnawa, the hadra, gumbri, ganga, and qeraqeb 022276
- Mutwa, Vusamazulu Credo - Sacred sites and standing stones 002278
- Primus, Pearl - African dance 003014
- Raves, psychoses and spirit healing 013363
- Robert W Nicholls - Masebe 003021
- Sweating, toxins and heavy metals 006719
- Tarantella 003028
- The Balinese ketjak (kecak) 022296
- Therapy... For Me MDMA (Ecstasy) by Cherrybomb 020281
- Vitebsky, Piers - healing reindeer hoof-rot 010070
- Welsh Revivalists - Jumping 002524
- Zoroastrian - Means of achieving spiritual experience - 11 Dancing, whirling and twirling 022418
Hallucination
- Bowers, Don - Idatarod Trail sled dog race 002557
- Dancing mania in the 1500s 003043
- Goethe - Truth and Poetry: from my own life - A pandemonium of elementals 028976
- Hiking 001048
- Lindemann, Hannes - Long distance kayaking 003035
- Loyola, Ignatius of - An hallucination of Christ 000405
- Marathon volleyball 004059
- Mushers in the Iditarod dogsled race 001355
- Robic, Jure - RAAM - The Race across America 002528
- Route march in war 002527
- Shirley, Ralph - The Angel Warriors at Mons 05 – I saw all sorts of things, enormous men walking towards me and lights and chairs and things in the road 027101
- Siegrid Knecht 1971 – Rauchen und Rauchern in Nepal 015772
- Sodium imbalance in athletes 006848
- Stroud, Mike 007410
- The jerks 006803
- The Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 24-hour race: 'It is a battle with your mind' 023923
- Triathlete hallucinates 001354
- Ulrich, Marshall - He saw hundreds of green lizards flowing down the path, like a river 003032
Wisdom, Inspiration, Divine love & Bliss
- A kayaker experiences the effects of relaxation 000682
- Addiction to the high 003063
- Alice in Wonderland - Ch 03 - A Caucus race and a long tail 011107
- Alice in Wonderland - Ch 10 - 1 Lobster quadrille 010491
- Andre Rieu in London playing Sirtaki Greek dance 012123
- Better than drugs 003059
- Bruja ointment 005239
- Byrne, David - Road to Nowhere 023530
- Calmness and clarity of thought 003060
- Cross training 003053
- Crowley, Aleister - from Yoga for Yahoos 006439
- Dunlap, Scott - The runner's high 003046
- Fleetwood Mac - Tusk 021535
- Gurdjieff - Sacred dance 003652
- Hill running 003047
- Jochelson - Living in the taiga 001282
- Just running 003057
- Latihan healing 002526
- Lindemann, Hannes - Long distance kayaking 003035
- Lisa Bentley - Ironman winner 012682
- MacLaine, Shirley - The experience of inspired performing on stage 026405
- Mystical running 003055
- Orgasmic running 003058
- Overweight 36 year old runs 003054
- Riverdance - Lord of the Dance 003837
- Riverdance - The final dance 003836
- Running in the Adirondacks 003045
- Russell the Dude 003062
- Social Lubricant to Infinity MDMA (Ecstasy) by mrluky 020267
- Step classes 003048
- Talking Heads - Life During Wartime 023537
- Talking Heads - Take Me To The River 023535
- Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) 023536
- The Manuals of Taoist Sexual Practise – Talk on Supreme Guidance for the World 06 017858
- The Means of achieving spiritual experience - Shaivism – 04 Music and dance 022492
- Walking with weights 003051
- Watson, James Dewey - On sun and sex 006228
- West & Southern France, Italy - The trial of witches 010354
- Zoroastrian - Means of achieving spiritual experience - 11 Dancing, whirling and twirling 022418
Out of time
- A P Elkin - Aboriginal men of high degree - Threads and levitation 003283
- Andrija Puharich - Siberian shamans and smoke inhalation 000064
- Blacking, Professor John – How musical is man? – Music can create a world of virtual time 021982
- Bruja ointment 005239
- Daniélou, Alain – The Way to the Labyrinth – The ecstatic dances of the Sufis of Galand Bagh 021194
- David Lewis-Williams - Native American Indians - Rebirth and violence 002057
- Dionysos - The Dionysian frenzy 003025
- Dr Stephen Black - The trances of the babalawos, or witch doctors, of the Yoruba people 011908
- Dr William Sargant – Voodoo in Haiti and being 'mounted' by the loa 024399
- Dr William Sargant – Voodoo in Haiti and the possession of Lavinia Williams 024400
- Dr William Sargant – Voodoo in Haiti. And their gods live in them and they live in their gods 024401
- Ektasis and enthousiasmos 024330
- Expansion of self in the Antarctic 010927
- Hugh Brody – Maps and Dreams - The Dunne-za map of the Egg 011521
- Jennifer Isaacs - Australian Aboriginal - Making storms 000497
- Jennifer Isaacs - Australian Aboriginal - Song Poetry 001177
- Joseph Campbell - Kung dancing 011361
- Keightley, Thomas - Fee dancing 003039
- Kishi, Akinobu - Furube rebirth 002525
- Lame Deer - Native American Indians - Ghost dance 003034
- Marathon runner 003033
- Mircea Eliade - John Slocum's Indian Shakers 007310
- Mircea Eliade - On Tibetan rebirth experience 003855
- Paul Devereux - Flying over the landscape 006594
- Potanin - Kam out of body 003052
- Quakers - Kirk describes his rebirth 002397
- Scott, Doug 003583
- Stress from responsibility of work 000794
- The Dances of Manchu Shamans – Institute of Ethnic Literature 2003-2009 021561
- Ulrich, Marshall - Goes out of body running the Badwater course 003031
- Vitebsky, Piers - healing from a shaman 010073
- Vitebsky, Piers - healing reindeer hoof-rot 010070
- West & Southern France, Italy - The trial of witches 010354
- World War I trenches 001084
Enlightenment
- Ancestors, the - Art - Beheading 021715
- Azusa street revival 003038
- Bannister, Roger - A new source of power and beauty 003044
- Byrne, David - Burning down the house 023529
- Byrne, David - On ecstasy 023531
- Byrne, David - Once In A Lifetime - The God behind the universe is a song 023533
- Conquering and Preventing Stress - By Judith Lynne Hanna 020100
- Dancing mania in the 1500s 003043
- Daniélou, Alain – The Way to the Labyrinth – The ecstatic dances of the Sufis of Galand Bagh 021194
- Doris Green - The Takai of Ghana 011359
- Hypnotizing circle dance by Sufi Zikr 028145
- Lawlor - Australian Aborigine - Animal dance ceremony 003023
- Omofolabo Soyinka Ajayi - The transcendental dance 003013
- Paul Devereux - Num and shape shifting 011362
- Paul Devereux - The Giraffe Dance, Drum Dance and Trees Dance 007797
- Primus, Pearl - African dance 003015
- Richard Katz - Kung healer 011360
- Shackleton, Sir Ernest 000431
- Shackleton, Sir Ernest 001081
- The Balinese ketjak (kecak) 022296
- The Khlystys - Possessed by the Spirit 024337
- The Ship of Fools 004279
- The Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 24-hour race: 'It is a battle with your mind' 023923
- The tall men of Kham 003644
- Tracy D Snipe - Shango 003019
- West & Southern France, Italy - The trial of witches 010354
- William Seabrook - Describes Vodou 003049
In time
- Balzar, John - Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race 003222
- Black Elk - Native American Indians - Butterflies 000732
- Blacking, Professor John – How musical is man? - Venda dancing, drumming and the trance state 021978
- Bogoras - Siberian shamanism - Chukchee drumming 002237
- Carsolio, Carlos - And the descent of Nanga Parbat 011246
- Conquering and Preventing Stress - By Judith Lynne Hanna 020100
- Dancing mania in the 1500s 003043
- David-Neel, Alexandra – The god rides her and the pamos goes spinning 016317
- Dr Alexander King - Kamchatka trance 003037
- Dr Stephen Black - The trances of the babalawos, or witch doctors, of the Yoruba people 011908
- Dr William Sargant – Voodoo in Haiti and being 'mounted' by the loa 024399
- Dr William Sargant – Voodoo in Haiti and the possession of Lavinia Williams 024400
- Dr William Sargant – Voodoo in Haiti. And their gods live in them and they live in their gods 024401
- Ektasis and enthousiasmos 024330
- Engel, C - Siberian shamanism - Kamtschatka shamans 007308
- Euripides - The Bacchae 002240
- Felix Begho - Aladura 003022
- Giant strides on the Golden Gate bridge 003061
- Gurdjieff - Gurdjieff's dances 001381
- Harner, Michael 000588
- Hugh Brody – Maps and Dreams - The Dunne-za map of the Egg 011521
- Hunkpapas - Native American Indians - Sun Dance and letting blood 000498
- Jennifer Isaacs - Australian Aboriginal - Making storms 000497
- Jennifer Isaacs - Australian Aboriginal - Song Poetry 001177
- Joseph Campbell - Kung dancing 011361
- Lame Deer - Native American Indians - Ghost dance 003034
- Lame Deer - Native American Indians - Sun dance ceremony 000085
- Loyola, Ignatius of - An hallucination of Christ 000405
- M A Czaplicka - Siberian magic 001185
- M A Czaplicka - Siberian shamanism - The young shaman Enchu 003187
- Marija Volkonskaya - The shaman's frenzy 002236
- Omofolabo Soyinka Ajayi - The Sango mounts his horse 002415
- Paul Devereux - The Bushmen of the Kalahari 011353
- Rimbaud, Arthur - She didn't return and he 'cried more than all the world’s children' 003029
- Ross Heaven - Vodou Bat guerre 003020
- Scott, Doug 003583
- Shackleton, Sir Ernest 000431
- Shermer, Michael - Bike Marathon 001356
- Shinto – Kagura 003026
- Sieroszewski - Singing shamans in Siberia 003184
- The jerks 006803
- The Khlystys - Possessed by the Spirit 024337
- Tibetan Buddhism - The Pawo of Tibet 003588
- Vitebsky, Piers - healing from a shaman 010073
- Welsh Revivalists - Jumping 002524
- Wren-Lewis, John and Faraday, Ann – The Selling of the Senoi 025583
- Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race 003221
Prophecy
- Andrija Puharich - Siberian shamans - The Tests of Bodily function control 001086
- Castren - Siberian shaman bells, spells and dancing 003579
- M A Czaplicka - Siberian magic 001185
- Robert W Nicholls - Hausa Bori 003018
- Robert W Nicholls - Masebe 003021
Environmental Influence
- A P Elkin - Aboriginal men of high degree - Threads and levitation 003283
- Andrija Puharich - Siberian shamans - The Tests of Bodily function control 001086
- Dr William Sargant – The priest put out his tongue and drove a large iron spike through it 024396
- Engel, C - On the role of magicians 007306
- Jennifer Isaacs - Australian Aboriginal - Making storms 000497
- Jennifer Isaacs - Australian Aboriginal - Rain making 003024
- Mircea Eliade - John Slocum's Indian Shakers 007310
- Omofolabo Soyinka Ajayi - The transcendental dance 003013
- Robert Farris Thompson - On Challenging gravity 003016
- Ross Heaven - Vodou Bat guerre 003020
- The Dances of Manchu Shamans – Institute of Ethnic Literature 2003-2009 021561
- William Kempe 003575