Overload
Hypoxia
Category: Illness or disabilities
Type
Involuntary
Introduction and description
Hypoxia is the posh name for oxygen deprivation, although this is simplifying things a little.
It is “a pathological condition in which the body as a whole (generalized hypoxia) or a region of the body (tissue hypoxia) is deprived of adequate oxygen supply”.
There are all sorts of ways in which one can suffer from oxygen deprivation - from asphyxiation; from smoke inhalation or steam inhalation; from drowning; from gas inhalation; from winding or being winded; from forms of breathing such as hyperventilation; from going up high mountains where the air is thin; from ballooning at high altitude; from parachuting from high altitudes; even anaemia can give you hypoxia; and the list could go on.
Hypoxia can occur when breathing mixtures of gases with a low oxygen content, e.g. while diving especially when using closed-circuit rebreather systems that control the amount of oxygen in the supplied air.
And hypoxia can give you a spiritual experience.
Hypoxia in which there is complete deprivation of oxygen supply is referred to as anoxia, this generally kills you
Background
One of the side effects of prolonged hypoxia is lactic acidosis. Most cells in the body normally burn glucose to form water and carbon dioxide. This is a two-step process. First, glucose is broken down to pyruvate through glycolysis. Then, mitochondria oxidize the pyruvate into water and carbon dioxide. This second step requires oxygen. If there is not enough oxygen the cycle is disrupted.
If oxygen supply is inadequate, excess pyruvate is produced, which is converted into lactate and released from the cell into the bloodstream, where it accumulates over time.
Hypoxia causes both buildup of lactate and acidification. The symptoms, of lactic acidosis are
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Hyperventilation - to remove CO2
- Abdominal pain
- Lethargy
- Shock
- Hypotension
- Irregular Heart Rhythm
- Tachycardia
Brain tissue ceases to function if deprived of oxygen for more than 60 to 90 seconds and after approximately three hours, will suffer irreversible injury possibly leading to death of the tissue. Hypoxia can also lead to permanent damage of a number of organs – the liver, the heart, the kidneys and so on. More details of this process can be found in the science section under Brain and organ damage from hypoxia
How it works
Hypoxia is a major provider of spiritual experiences - albeit often unwanted ones
Physically
Hypoxia can damage a whole host of bodily organs but these side effects may only have an impact on a long term basis. The immediate effect of hypoxia is on the brain. If you want to find out if you are hypoxic you can use instruments - see Hypoxia instruments to measure the hypoxic state.
Oxygen is being diverted from the brain. This means the brain is starved of ‘power’. If a computer is starved of power the functions start to deactivate – some programs simply do not run and this is what is happening here.
A brain deprived of oxygen which is in effect gradually shutting down will revert to the key functions – the ones it needs to survive – breathing, and so on. If we use the analogy, the computer of our brain has reverted to running the operating system and not much more.
One of the odd side-effects of hypoxia, is a form of euphoria, bliss and feelings of pleasure. Considering that you are in effect slowly dying, this would seem a most odd effect to induce. As George Shuman said in his novel ‘Last Breath’:
“When the brain is deprived of oxygen, it induces a lucid, semi-hallucinogenic state called hypoxia….. the rush is said to be ….. highly addictive”
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And it is addictive because the body releases huge quantities of Endorphins – the opioids of the body. The Will can see that we are probably not going to be capable of rescuing ourselves from the situation, so it does its best to set in motion all the things that might make the experience more bearable.
Where oxygen deprivation is severe, the input from the senses becomes irrelevant as the autonomic system fights for survival.
Thus during any form of acute hypoxia we are essentially dying and because we are ‘dying’ the body reverts to only essential functions.
Logically
It may be helpful now to refer to the Model of the Mind and to have read the generic description of How spiritual experience works.
Much of our Reasoning and Memory are not essential functions. Thus these two functions are actually suppressed.
What takes the place of these functions is an overwhelming input of messages from the sensory systems – all of them – that says HELP HELP HELP – we are being deprived of oxygen – all of us, we are dying DO SOMETHING.
But the Will, is unable to do something – it has no learnt function with which to counter the Threat and it is struggling all the time to ensure the Autonomic systems keep going.
Eventually the Will exhausted by the battle, gives in and the Composer takes over and we have our spiritual experience – which may happen just shortly before we die!
Observations
The majority of the observations are described within the very specific types of hypoxia being experienced, such as carbon monoxide poisoning or smoke inhalation, however, some miscellaneous observations are also provided here
Related observations
Healing observations
- Brothers in Arms: Beating Cerebral Palsy | Australia 023229
- Dr Stephen Black - The trances of the babalawos, or witch doctors, of the Yoruba people 011908
- Lame Deer - Native American Indians - Sun dance ceremony 000085
Hallucination
- Aortic dissection and delirium 006822
- Artificial food colourings and psychotic reactions 005658
- Blithe spirit - What dying feels like, a personal story of my meeting with the 'Widow Maker' 012524
- Cannabis and morning glory seeds - by Waking dream 015586
- Cohen, Dr Sidney - The deranged Morning glory man 015587
- Hallucinations after operations 013005
- Inchman ant and hallucinations 006449
- Lame Deer - Native American Indians - The Vision pit 000585
- Leonard Crow Dog - Native American Indians - The Vision pit 000587
- Neuropsychological functioning associated with high-altitude exposure 029522
- New Insights into Schizophrenia: a Look at the Eye and Related Structures 029519
- Pulmonary embolism produces NDE and sense of mission 013033
- Royal Air Force pilots 001361
- Surgery causes hallucinations 006349
- Volcanoes 004988
Wisdom, Inspiration, Divine love & Bliss
- Blithe spirit - What dying feels like, a personal story of my meeting with the 'Widow Maker' 012524
- Five year old goes out of body 005220
- Hodgkin's disease respiratory failure 005215
- Ricardo from Mexico experiences divine love 013063
- Taylor, Elizabeth - Video from ABC describing what she saw during seven minutes of not breathing 013009
Out of time
- A A Popov - The initiation of an Avam-Samoyed shaman 000496
- Cohen, Dr Sidney - The deranged Morning glory man 015587
- Constant babble of noise 004284
- Deliberate surgical hypothermia 001082
- Dr Stephen Black - The trances of the babalawos, or witch doctors, of the Yoruba people 011908
- Five year old goes out of body 005220
- German army lieutenant goes out of body as a result of the breathing of poisonous gases with the onset of asphyxia 027943
- Hodgkin's disease respiratory failure 005215
- Images of Paradise in the NDE 02 023004
- Knud Rasmussen - Caribou Eskimo Initiation rite 000589
- Lame Deer - Native American Indians - The Vision pit 000585
- Major F Yeats-Brown on the 'resurrection of the dead yogi' 016505
- Man crushed by a racehorse has OBE 013026
- Mircea Eliade - Shaman's Initiation whilst sick with smallpox 000832
- Morata, Ursula Micaela - Wrapped in Light 000495
- Pulmonary embolism produces NDE and sense of mission 013033
- Raymond Bayless nearly goes out of body using the yoga Shavasana position 023141
- Ricardo from Mexico experiences divine love 013063
- Royal Air Force pilots 001361
- Smallpox 000494
- Szalay, Attila - An OBE to visit his friend Raymond 023140
- Taylor, Elizabeth - Video from ABC describing what she saw during seven minutes of not breathing 013009
- The tunnel and the light in the NDE 11 023022
- Walled up in a living tomb as his hands were eaten by ants 016504
Enlightenment
In time
- Aortic dissection and delirium 006822
- Blithe spirit - What dying feels like, a personal story of my meeting with the 'Widow Maker' 012524
- Cannabis and morning glory seeds - by Waking dream 015586
- Cohen, Dr Sidney - The deranged Morning glory man 015587
- Dr Stephen Black - The trances of the babalawos, or witch doctors, of the Yoruba people 011908
- Frido, the dog's, telepathic calls of distress, save his life 028121
- German army lieutenant goes out of body as a result of the breathing of poisonous gases with the onset of asphyxia 027943
- Lame Deer - Native American Indians - Sun dance ceremony 000085
- Lame Deer - Native American Indians - The Vision pit 000585
- Leonard Crow Dog - Native American Indians - The Vision pit 000587
- Minnie and Ada 002540
- Pulmonary embolism produces NDE and sense of mission 013033
- Ricardo from Mexico experiences divine love 013063
Dying
- Blithe spirit - What dying feels like, a personal story of my meeting with the 'Widow Maker' 012524
- Minnie and Ada 002540
Environmental Influence
- James Randi 006437
- Major F Yeats-Brown on the 'resurrection of the dead yogi' 016505
- Walled up in a living tomb as his hands were eaten by ants 016504