Human Improvement Body: Holding breath

The holy jihad against any technology in the Dune series started out with a stupid girl smashing medical equipments. Until the idea “thou should not create a machine in the image of god” spread like a virus and resulted in a specialized profession. The Mentat.

A Mentat, is a person trained to function like a computer. He developed abilities to compute massive amount of information in a fraction of a second. We know it can be done because of the idiot savants that lives in mental institutes.

Given training, our body can withstand the most extreme of situations. The current breath holding record is about 9 minutes, that is beyond an accident or freak of nature.

Why did I mention this? Well, as an accident, I discovered a neat way to hold my breath. You see, my average has never surpassed 45 seconds, with the best score at 1 minute on a good day.  The reason is the discomfort and extra effort I spent holding more air than what my lungs are used to.

As I was lying in bed typing an entry yesterday, I watched my stomach rise and fall and wondered if my stomach can hold any air. So I focused on pumping air in there, before I know it, I passed the 2 minute barrier on my first try.

This happened because different muscles were used to hold the air inside and doesn’t trigger a rejection signal. I later experimented filling both my stomach and lungs, but the result is still less than 2 minute.

Try it… just don’t hold it for too long. You might forget to breath afterwards. It almost happened to me.