Cutting the Cord
On a mailing list I’m on, several people are talking about a Yogic practice of cutting the lingual frenum, the cord that runs underneath the tongue and holds it fast to the floor of the mouth. The purpose of this self-mutilation is to be able to curve the tongue back behind the uvula and into the nasal cavity. This procedure is supposed to cause enlightenment.
It is pernicious nonsense to imagine that the body requires mutilation for enlightenment. We are perfect as we are. Anyone who tells you anything else is selling something.
January 31, 2009 at 3:54 pm
As someone who has his tongue pierced, my initial thought is – Why?!? A good piercer almost always pierces in front of that cord, as I understand things, to avoid damaging that very connection. Otherwise the piercee’s speech could be affected. So again I ask – Why?!?
Mind you, as someone who has a tongue ring and a large triquetra tattooed across my back, I’m all for body modification in the name of aesthetics, but it’s hardly a prerequisite for enlightenment.
Do I sound enlightened to you? Didn’t think so…
March 30, 2010 at 3:04 pm
What about the age old spot of the Trepanation, a.k.a. better know as drillind a hole through the skull for enlightenment.
Trepanation is the act of drilling, cutting, or scraping a hole into the
skull. It is the oldest surgery known to man and has been used to treat head
injuries, brain tumors, chronic headaches, insanity, and most recently,
touted as a cure for chronic depression and/or chronic fatigue syndrome. It
has been theorized that by cutting a hole into the skull and leaving it open
permanently, you would allow a permanent increase in brain blood volume, or
that the brain would adjust itself to a new equilibrium, a new ‘brain blood
volume to cerebro-spinal fluid’ ratio. The idea is that by re-opening the
skull you would allow more blood to flow to the brain, on a permanent basis,
and that you would restore the brain pulsation level to that of infancy,
when the skull had not yet sealed itself shut and forced much of the brain
blood out of the head. The increased blood to the brain would mean more
oxygen to the brain, and the theory is that it would again function at the
levels of youth.
I have seen this done from Pic.’s and one the video that is so very rear now to fine of now. Why not just take ginkgo biloba? now we know it increases “brain blood volume” but is much more safe. it’s seem to me that people that feel the need to take every use from the past and put it to use now “ca. 950 all the way to the 19th century” when it is clearly not safe and there are better means are just out to cause abuse to there bodys in the name of enlightenment, when really its just self-mutilation.