Hammer test

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

Don't know if this has been posted before, but a great test if you believe you do not exist:

 

 

Get a hammer,

place your hand on a table,

raise the hammer,

smash your hand with it.

prove your existence.

 

 

 

I ouch therefore I am.

 

 

ps: please don't do this.

[Old River]

An old Zen story: 

 

Sekkyo said to one of his monks, "Can you get hold of Emptiness?" 
"I'll try," said the monk, and he cupped his hand in the air. 
"That's not very good," said Sekkyo. "You haven't got anything in there!" 
"Well, master," said the monk, "please show me a better way." 
Thereupon Sekkyo seized the monk's nose and gave it a great yank. 
"Ouch!" yelled the monk. "You hurt me!" 
"That's the way to get hold of Emptiness!" said Sekkyo.

[Silent Answers]

Psst, Karl, that's your cue.

[Karl]

If you insist :-/

 

"I am and therefore I ouch" is the correct orientation. Existence prior to consciousness.

[Mudfoot]

That is also a great IQ test.

 

Repeat the procedure but expect another result.

[steve]

Here's a variation that came from the sick mind of an overworked surgical resident a few decades ago.

Working in a big city ER, one is inundated with people coming in with swollen, painful hands in the middle of the night.

About half the time they were injured in a fight and the other half were infected from IV drug abuse. 

 

We came up the idea of the hammer test then -

Patient comes in with a painful swollen hand --> put hand on table --> hit it hard with a hammer -->

if it's infected pus will come out, if no pus comes out it's broken...

 

We never actually did this mind you, but it did lighten the mood at 4 am...

[thelerner]

Warning, this one's R, for either restricted- over 17, or for Ridiculous.

I don't know which. but I've been thinking of this for years. 

 

Grab a needle, light a candle.  Put needle above flame to sterilize it.  Wait a few seconds, push the needle through web of skin between your thumb and pointer.

 

Jack Schwarz who was into biofeedback in the 70's used to do this and similar stuff with larger needles. Done with proper mind/body coordination there is suppose to be little or no blood.   Its still done on some of the crazier carny circuits.  

 

Big note.  I've never done it but I've thought about it.  As a mind over body exercise.  But it is a crazy thing to do. 

Edited April 28, 2016 by thelerner

[Nungali]

I have a better idea ......   wait until you have an accident .... then   appreciate material existence   .     If you need to deliberately  cause pain to yourself to realise things , well,  life must be a bed of roses !  

 

(When  one has pain every day , one does not doubt one exists    ..... but also it leads one to a  non-physical 'solution' - or at least partial alleviation .)

[thelerner]

It isn't about pain, that's secondary, as much as gaining a level of control of mind over body.  Either by disassociation or better connection.  Not that I'm all that tempted to do this crazy thing, but by the time I've had an accident and am in pain and injured,  then its too late.  I haven't learned the biofeedback to control it, even if its only in a small way.

 

Edited April 29, 2016 by thelerner