Running with your mind, body, and spirit.
My guest this week is Gwen Zywicke. She is a runner, cyclist, Instructor at Louisiana State University and writer. She is an ultramarathon runner who is studying the relationship between ultrarunning and mysticism. And she’s writing a book called Ultrarunning Mysticism: Mind, Body, Spirit and the Sacredness of Overcoming Suffering.
When she got to Louisiana she realized that there were a lot of bad drivers. She regularly heard stories on the news about cyclists getting hit by cars so she decided to stop cycling. And she switched to running. She was training with a friend who had run ultramarathons and she thought he was absolutely crazy but decided to give it a try. She now runs 50k, 50 miles, and an occasional 100K.
Gwen became interested in the connection between endurance and mysticism when she had mystical experiences of her own when running and cycling. As she did more research, she found that such experiences are common among endurance runners. And other cultures have traditions of hard physical endurance to attain mystical experiences or enlightenment.
The connection between mind, body, and spirit has a scientific basis as well. Our minds and bodies interact in a neurochemical cycle, and the chemicals our bodies can produce when we push our limits are identical to psychedelic drugs.
Gwen’s research has opened up other areas she wants to explore in other books. The idea of consciousness and how the brain filters reality is closely related to mystical experiences. Her book Ultrarunning Mysticism: Mind, Body, Spirit and the Sacredness of Overcoming Suffering. on Amazon now.
Facebook: Gwen Zywicke
LinkedIn: Gwen Zywicke
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