Basejumper.com - archive

So, there's a growing body of literature that novelty-seeking personalities (ie us) are generally driven, at least in part, by a deficiency of dopamine. frightening experiences, which most people find horrible and unpleasant, are found by novelty-seekers to be stimulating and boosting, and in some cases, perhaps even necessary to living a normal life and feeling normal. A major hypothesis today is that the dopamine boost we get from fear helps us overcome some natural deficiency in DA or other neurotransmitters.

The lecturer in front of class now is talking about how norepinephrine can, as a general function in the brain, enhance attention span by raising the "volume knob" of the activity that you are trying to focus on. Dopamine on the other hand, has a complementary function of turning down the background noise. So NE enhances the signal, DA reduces the noise, and they can work together to help you focus on the task at hand (i.e. paying attention to a lecturer and not surfing random websites).

(hold on.. something just popped up on steepandcheap.com)

um, ok, anyway. This might suggest a link between ADHD and novelty seeking behavior, via common dopamine effects. So my questions: are there any basejumpers out there on ritalin? (and where can I get some) And does it affect your motivation to BASE jump?

Colm

almost all the base jumpers i know have ADHD and have the ability to hyperfocus when things become very stressful.

base jumpers are not necessarily danger seekers or dare devils; they are stress seekers.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

I'm hard-pressed to think of one who isn't on, or wouldn't benefit from, ritalin or another similar medication. Most of the jumpers I know have symptoms/personalities consistent with what doc's define as ADD.

Then again, I tend to hang out with a particular epileptically motivated bunch...

hehe- so, does it help? :)

Plenty of the skydivers I used to hang out with
would use the ADD or ADHD tags as crunches.

They were NOT clinically diagnosed NOR on any
doctor prescribed medicine... but liked to use it
as an excuse in my opinion.

Now you are telling me that BASE jumpers are
also in this category. For fuck's sake, I am a
hyper, obnoxious asshole also but most times
can keep it in check.

Chess or packing or rigging or reading do not
cause me fear but I am still able to focus.

I have to admit, in the middle of reading the first post, I had to stop in the middle of it to check steepandcheap.com

There's a great book called "Mind Wide Open" about the neuroscience of everyday life. It discusses the relationships between norepinephrine, dopamine, and seratonin in the brain and how they affect personality types.

It's well worth reading.

-=Raistlin

Colm: Absolutely!

I notice the same thing about most jumpers- although i try to seek out good stress (ie feeling like i am going to die, whether its intentional or not). bad stress (i just bounced my rent check) is not so fun. it's weird, you can almost feel the different chemicals.

Speaking of feeling the chemicals, sometimes when you suddenly realize something went horribly wrong, ya get the classical "chills down your spine," right? after paying attention to that little sensation, I realized it starts in the same specific spot right in the center of my head, every time. It almost feels localized to the brainstem, but I can't figure out where. (it's not like I can ask someone, "poke me in the basal pons. Nope, that must not be it... try higher"). Or maybe it's the thalamus. But it feels like its along the midline, which is not where the amygdala is. (The amygdala is supposed to be a center for fear and emotions)

And you can even feel that sensation radiating outward, like signal that diffusely propogates through the temporal cortices, but not the other regions. I wonder if you can actually reliably tell where a sensation is coming from, that seems to be coming from inside your skull somewhere?

Ever feel like you can feel what spatial part of your brain a thought is coming from?

(No, I am not on drugs. Although, ritalin would be nice some days.)

Hmm i should probably seriously look into it... hey, raistlin: thanks for the book tip- i definitely want to check that out! I used to have a link to a great TED talk on a stroke scientist's experience having an actual stroke. bizarre and fascinating.

With meditation and practice you can
send your mind/intent/Yi to a specific
part of your body or waves of energy.

Dude, just by eating a bit of chili, I can sing out my bum.

I'm a little confused by your sentence... sending your intent to either A) a part of your body or to B) waves of energy? do you mean to say, projecting your intent outside of your body via waves of energy?

I'm always interested to hear people's personal theories behind this concept.

To a point:
Imagine you hit your thumb with a hammer.
Your mind (or Yi) will immediately go there.

Making Waves:
Imagine you are doing an aerial, wrestling,
or surfing/skating. The movement is most
clean/pure/powerful/effective when it uses
the whole body but is directed from the
center of one's body.

To practice working from the center you
can do internal exercises. These are well
known in Yoga, Chinese Martial Arts, etc.

Easiest way to conceptualize the idea is to
imagine you are doing a hoola-hoop, which
works best when your entire body is erect
in good, relaxed posture and the spin is
allowed to come from the center.

To use pilot terminology that plane of motion
is yaw, practice doing the that same circular
motion without any external feedback loop
and in both directions. Then try the same
concept in the 2 other planes of motions
pitch and roll.

Once a practitioner can cleanly perform these
small micro rotations internally in all three
dimensions then he or she can try doing the
same thing with your hands following the
movement as if driven by your center,
which is just below your navel and inside.

This is the essence of internal martial arts,
tantric sex, doing good areials, and being
able to generate immense power with very
little effort.

I have been hit in the face really fucking
hard by a guy in his 60's who weighs all
of 150 pounds and if you saw it you would
swear he barely even moved much cause
every joint and muscle from his center to
his fist was coordinated and sequentially
used to deliver power.

Power outside of one's body:
This is known as kong jing and is mythical.
Makes for fun/silly kung fu movies but is
fake and never been substantiated.

HAY LOOK EVERYONE!! LOOK!!!!

Nice!

... You are a closet hippie aren't you? ...
just kidding, just kidding.

While there is certainly no basis for kong jing to exist as a physical force, I have seen (and felt) skilled practitioners use a similarly-described principle as a psychological force. You definitely have to be "working from your center," as you say, for it to work.

It's fucking creepy.

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dude that's my sister!

i haven't seen her nipples that hard since our last family reunion

Patton Oswalt said it best: "We're here! We're queer! We're... APPLES!!! I like apples..." (from the gay retarded pride parade)