It could be said that the human mind and body can only go so far before they reach their limits. The idea that we could somehow surpass our limitations is a misnomer. First, we would have to define what a limitation is compared to the human body and what it is capable of. A limitation can simply be defined as any obstacle that the human body could not overcome without outside help and or intervention. For example, when getting a cold, the human body has it’s internal defense mechanisms that can attack and kill the virus. However, the symptoms that transpire during the cold can not be subverted without medications that help nullify their effects. A headache can go away in time however there is no immediate way for the body to simply overcome the effects of a headache instantaneously. In this example, the limitation outlined would be the body's ability to instantly nullify the effects of the symptoms without taking some form of medication or using some form of external manipulation to control the perception of symptoms. This would be an example of a limitation. The question that can now be posed is “Could the body adapt or be trained to overcome what are its perceived limitations?”. Let's explore these ideas and adding some conjecture ultimately assume as to whether it is truly possible to break one's limitation.
Let's take a look at an example of this in popular media. In the anime community, there is a character named Saitama. The character is also known by the title of “One Punch Man” which implies that Saitama can eliminate any foe or adversary with a single punch. In the anime no matter how impossible the odds Saitama has shown time and again to be able to push past the limitations of what a normal human should be capable of. Saitama has simply broken past all his limitations by simply exercising in a certain manner for a certain amount of time. Due to his extensive albeit simple training regimen, Saitama was able to surpass what his body should be capable of doing. He has been shown to have incredible and unmatched strength. His durability feats are of which something indestructible could handle. The speed which he has displayed is comprehensible to most other characters in the fictional world. All of his feats were simply attained by doing, 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 squats, followed by a 10km run, all done daily. The high repetitions allowed for increased physical output with the 10km run allowing for endurance training. When Saitama reveals this training regiment as the reason for his immense strength the other characters are taken aback by how simple it is to perform.
Saitama as a character is considered to be a gag character, however, the idea of a human being able to break past their limitations is not something new in history. Throughout history, many folk tales have described humans who have exceeded what was thought to be possible. Fables of old tell stories of heroes who somehow did the impossible and broke past their human limitations. Often are revered as great demigods or possessing abilities that do not seem human to other individuals. These tales have helped inspire and guide mankind to believe that the impossible is indeed possible. Characters like Saitama give way to the idea that simply doing anything in repetition or with great practice comes great power and abilities. If this were true however then why don’t we see heroes anymore? Why are there no longer tales of humans doing something extraordinary to exceed what could be possible? Is it possible at all to go past what our limitations are designed to do? These are questions that I seek to answer by attempting to delve deeper into the human body and mind. By putting myself through these practices would I too be able to do the unconventional and exceed my expectations?
The human body is incredible in every aspect. Countless billions of cells are all working together to create a form that not only has moved through physical space but has also overtaken its environment. Think of how many other things in nature can manipulate their physical surrounding on the scale that humans have. There are nearly no others that can do what we have done. In roughly 300 thousand years we have created skyscrapers planes and cars. We have traveled great distances even reaching the stars. We did all these things with a physical body that is so frail it could be destroyed by simply everything around us. Nearly everything in this environment can kill us. Yet somehow we have done things that make us seem nearly indestructible. How is it that a sack of bones and water has been able to do all these things without ever breaking our physical limitations? We still get colds, we still break bones, and we still fall. The fact that most of us have made it past birth is a miracle in and of itself. While the human body is capable of some great things is it ever truly possible to go beyond what seems to be a limit?
For most of my life from young child to adult I have partaken in many forms of martial arts. Several of them have varying tenets that dictate training and repetition to hone the body into a weapon. Many martial arts and their practitioners believe themselves to be somehow capable of doing things that no others can do. This is especially common amongst the beginner to intermediate range. Generally speaking, most martial arts practitioners believe that they can break bones with a single strike, that they can take on 10 men in a single fight, and even that they are fast enough to dodge knives and bullets. Of course, these are some gross exaggerations however not uncommon at all. I am guilty of thinking I could run straight up a 20-foot wall or hear a trigger being pulled and move faster than a projectile even when I don’t see it coming. I thought that I could run faster and longer than the average human. That I could jump further. That I was capable of finding a fault or weakness in practically anything even if I never met or saw it before. This false sense of bravado has led me through life with a false sense of superiority and an almost god-like complex at times. However, as I get older I am realizing more and more how foolish and naive I truly was all these years. At no point did I think that I would grow to be this old. But here I am questioning the limitations of the human body.
The human body in actuality has a breaking point between 4,000 newtons or less. That's considering simply looking at breaking a bone. Some bones need less pressure and some need more. Add additional variables like angle, movement, tissue and fat, water density, muscular development, age, gender, and other factors you can get varied results. Simply there are a lot of calculations that go into how the body can broken down or destroyed. If you're only looking at it from an external physical stimulus, there a varying degrees of ways that the body can be dismantled and defeated. To contrast however when we look at internal variables and factors we get an even wider array of results. Too much salt, fat, sugar, and even water can directly or indirectly take down the human body. Since the body is comprised of multiple cells and organisms working in symbiosis to create what we are it's difficult to surmise that it's possible to somehow take hold of those organisms and bend them to fit our needs. Is there truly possibly a way to influence subatomic and or microscopic organisms to say, increase one's strength, or supply the brain with more oxygen to process synapsis faster? The question stands could it be possible to take hold of the body by way of the conscious mind to control external and internal outcomes?
What is consciousness? What makes a mind a mind? How is it that we have come to believe we are somehow a part of but also not a part of something that doesn’t know we technically exist? What is it that makes us feel as though we are more than a bunch of chemical interactions that keep happening to create what we call life? Is living nothing more than a bundle of chemical reactions? And at what point did these chemicals say this is me and I am living? Each day we do things that we don’t even realize we are doing. We blink, breathe, destroy and repair cells, and move parts of the body that we don’t even know we are moving. At what point are we in control or are our chemical reactions in control of us? Are we merely the by-product of a colony of cells and matter that walks and talks and thinks something of itself? What are we really and why do we matter?
One of the hardest concepts to go over mentally is the realization that we are simply a bundle of cells and nothing more. When we realize that we are nothing but cells walking around acting a person it's a bit disturbing. Surely this is a massive reduction of all that truly creates what we. Dismissing some scientific and religious descriptions of what we truly are and what we are meant to do, the question still gnaws at us all on some level. Are we more than this or is this simply all we are? A limitation that can be overcome is not a limitation at all. A limitation implies a finite point unto which one could go no further. The idea that we could push past a limitation is something that most of us would not think of. However, some of us still probe around with the idea that we could indeed break past our limitations and do more than would seem possible at first glance. Some of us still peek beyond the veil and try to see if their more to all of this than what we were either told or led to believe. Our curiosity is insatiable beyond a shadow of a doubt. We choose to not accept the simple answers and question why the answers exist at all. So again the question remains is it possible to push past a limit? I do not know this answer however I intend to find out.
As I grow older and closer to my mortality I question a great many things. Ideas and thoughts that most others have either simply accepted or forgotten. Some fear the answers and some fear to ask the questions at all. They fumble through life with the simplicity of ignorance assuming such things could either never be known or that if we ever found out it would change our perception of reality. Yet still many like myself do not accept these tired old definitions. We want something more, we need to feel fulfilled and our hunger for knowledge beyond knowledge is never satisfied. The idea that some are afraid to even ask the question is astounding. Why can't I fly? Why can't I move faster than light? Why can't I lift a car over my head? Surely these things sound like that of an immature child who watched too much TV and believed that heroes truly do exist. That comic books are somehow based on true events and that the extraordinary do exist. The way I have always assumed it to be was that if the questions exist so too did the answer. Meaning there are no questions that can be asked that can't be answered. Surely some would think the answer could be a no or it is not possible. But that doesn’t always make the most sense. There has to be more or else why would almost all of humanity dream of more?
Historically society is riddled with ideas of humankind doing things that are not common. A man lifts a helicopter to save a pilot pinned underneath. A person survives in the desert without food and or water and has to cut their arm off to survive. A person falls from a height that would normally be fatal and walks away with so little as a scratch. A person survives underwater without oxygen for far longer than recorded previously. History both current and past is littered with true accounts of superhuman feats. Humans are capable of surviving amazing odds. Events that would seem almost fictional. Some stories are not so indifferent as comic books or anime. A character like Saitama also known as the one-punch man, surely has to be based on something right? It's not merely that we created a story of something that could not exist, or at least that's what I like to tell myself. If any or all of these things could be possible does that mean we could somehow tap into this imagination and create a reality where characters like Saitama could be possible? Can we break our limiter?
Throughout my studies in my early 20s, I have come across an idea that I found to be most profound. While studying psychology, physics, mathematics, and quantum mechanics, I started to find a strange connection between the human mind and the physical world. What I have noticed is that there have been multiple events of scientists and or laymen who have proposed an idea and eventually that idea became a reality. Examples of this are looking for a particular that was responsible for gravity. At the time no such particle existed and then after years of searching it was found that the graviton exist. Another would be where theorists believed that matter that was not physical light could exist and eventually dark matter was birthed. At another point, it was surmised that all matter could be made up of vibrating strings and thus string theory was proposed and then validated. Or, where two men believed it was possible to create a contraption that could take flight, and thus flying was achieved. In track and field, there was a concept of a sub-4-minute mile. When the first person to achieve a sub 4 minute mile was achieved it seemed like more and more athletes started to be capable of completing it as well. Conjecturally it would almost seem as if anyone thinks it so too they will it to be. As if reality is being created by the idea of what reality is and what we would want it to be. Someone across the globe thinks of creating a robot and then robots are made. Someone thinks of creating a machine that can wash clothes and thus washing machines are born. Someone thought wouldn’t it be cool if we could transmit data through radio waves and eventually wifi was spawned? I could go on and on with a myriad of examples of where people have somehow thought of it and then it came into existence. Does thinking truly make it so?
As of this point, I have asked a lot of questions however I am not sure where the answers lay. I think that most of the time I could break these limits and become more than I wish I was. I wanted to share some of these ideas and put them out into the world to see if there was anyone else who has thought of these things as well. I know I am not alone in believing that I could be more than I thought I was. Perhaps one day I will know the truth, however at this point I’m just going to keep getting older and not knowing where the limitation is to break. It's like knowing the door exists but never having the key to open it. As I search for the key I find clues that the key exists and one day I hope to find a way beyond this into the unknown. Till then I'll drink my coffee and ponder the universe as I always have and always will. Thank you for reading my incoherent ramblings.
