Scientific Explanation Wanted

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Fellow extropians,

To me it seems quite surprising that some of the ideas presented in this forum are quite relevant to what some Indonesians experience in their everyday lives. I would like to post a series of messages regarding phenomenons I have observed, some first handedly and others second handedly. I surely hope that you can give me scientific explanations for them.

• A Javanese traditonal dance called the "Jaran Kepang" frequently exhibits tranced dancers who walk over glass shards, eat hard coconut skin and eat glass shards. There are no visible post trance side effects. I observed the Jaran Kepang myself, and saw no possible illusion present. In a West Javan ritual, called the "Debus", a gigantic nail is hammered into a dancer's abdomen, and combustible material is poured and ignited on a dancer's hair and used to cook eggs. Again, with no visible physical effect.

If there are some kind of hypnosis involved, I do not understand how glass shards can be safely digested. I believe there is an unknown scientific process at work, and if they could be studied there might be medical and scientific benefits to our society.

P. Amaripuja
gojava@zdnetmail.com

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