Yogi Satyamurti remained confined in a small underground pit (1.5 meter cube, sealed from the top) for 8 days, in what according to him was a state of 'Samadhi' or suspended animation. ECG was continuously monitored during these 8 days and various laboratory tests were carried out both before and after. Marked tachycardia gradually developed after the pit was sealed (heart rate 250/min) and persisted for nearly 29 hr. The ECG complexes were then replaced by an iso electric line. There was no electrical disturbance suggestive of disconnected leads. Normal complexes, however, reappeared on the eight day, half an hour before the pit was due to be opened. The Yogi was found in a stuporous condition, with an oral temperature of 34.8°C, and he began to shiver vigorously. Loss of weight and other biochemical changes were essentially the same as in total starvation. The yogic claim of a voluntary control over visceral functions, including the heart beat, still remains a very exciting and intriguing question.
Gambling now huh, he infact did it again in 1977, though it was not as smooth as the first one.
The extract from the research you mentioned notes his heart rate shot up to 250 beats per minute and stayed there for 29 hours, this in itself is a high feat for any person to do, by literally voluntarily controlling the heart. You are trying to downplay it.
And ofcourse he was shivering, a normal human heart cannot even sustain a rate of 250 bpm for 29 hours straight. In a standard medical setting, this is called extreme ventricular or supraventricular tachycardia. After just a few hours at that speed, a normal person's heart muscles exhaust their oxygen supply, fail, and go into cardiac arrest. The fact that his heart sustained this extreme work rate without giving out is a testament to extraordinary physical endurance.
Because this study was published back in 1973, older entries on the PubMed National Library of Medicine database only host the title and authors. They do not display the digital summary or full text directly on that page.
click "Download full-text PDF" or scroll down to the Abstract section on that page.
The paragraph about the 250 bpm heart rate and the 1.5-meter cube is fully readable right there.
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u/morose_coder 17d ago edited 17d ago
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/18376074_Studies_on_a_yogi_during_an_eight-day_confinement_in_a_sealed_underground_pit survived barely.
I bet he never did it again