WEBVTT - Labyrinths 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:05.880 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:13.760 Works dot com. Hey wasn't to stuff the bow of 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.360 your mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.640 We have just escaped from the world of the maze 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:23.800 and now we're entering into the peaceful world of the labyrinth. 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:26.960 And before we dive into this old episode, let's dive 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:29.680 into this very cool thing that is happening at the 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:34.640 Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, which is installing a triangular 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:37.600 walk in glass labyrinth that's scheduled to open to the 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:40.040 public in May. Yeah. This is designed by Kansas City 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:43.800 native Robert Morris. Weighs more than four tons, made up 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:46.960 of dozens of seven foot high, one interestant glass panels, 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:49.120 and it's ultimately going to form a fifty by fifty 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:52.200 by fifty ft glass triangle with a labyrinth in the middle. 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:54.080 And it's a true labyrinth. By the way, there's one 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:56.800 way in, there's one way out. And in this episode 0:00:56.840 --> 0:01:00.240 you're gonna hear us discuss why this is important and 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:02.320 what I love about it is it has a maze 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:05.319 quality in that it has those walls, but their glass walls, 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:08.360 so it's still a labyrinth, and it still has that 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:12.319 peaceful sort of meandering feel to it. Morris says, within 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:16.039 the Labyrinth of Paradox is allowed we lose ourselves to 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.640 find ourselves. You know. It's interesting. This reminds me of 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:23.000 an old short story uh titled In the Walls of 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:27.800 Erics by HP Lovecraft with Kenneth J. Sterling, in which 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:30.360 and this is, you know, like NT nine. I believe 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:32.959 this is published as an old pulp sci fi story 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:36.840 space Explorers landed on Venus finds himself inside of a 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:40.200 glass maze and it's it's it's very terrifying for this 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:43.039 individual because he cannot find a way out. It's a 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:47.480 true maze. It's confusing, it's it's disorienting, and the walls 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:49.480 are glass so you can see the outside of the 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:52.800 maze so clearly, but there's no way to get to it. Ah, 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:54.760 But this is not terrifying. This is supposed to be 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:58.480 a very soothing construct here at the museum. Yes, So 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:07.240 without further ado, let us enter the labyrinth. Certainly, for 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:10.000 for modern users, there is a distinction between labyrinth and maze. 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:12.920 Is the maze it's just the space of walls that 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:15.160 are confining you in and you're trying to find your 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:17.799 way out. There dead ends, there are corners, there may 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:21.400 or may not be a minotaur wandering around after you. Uh. 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:24.240 It is the stuff of the hedge maze and the shining. 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:26.920 It is the stuff of everything you see in the 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:30.320 movie Labyrinth. Despite the name Labyrinth, that is uh, it 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:33.560 is a movie in which the individual roams through mazes. Yeah, 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.560 it's a spatial puzzle. And I really think about Labyrinth 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:40.440 as more of the antidote to amaze. Yes, because you're 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:44.160 not engaging the hippocampus as you would in a maze. 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:46.560 Because in a labyrinth, you don't have to really worry 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:50.280 about the path or your memory or even trying to 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.720 stake out a blueprint, because really the blueprint is in 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:56.520 front of you. It may look like a maze, but 0:02:56.600 --> 0:03:01.680 really it's one uh, continuing path at circles around. Yeah. 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:05.320 You there's one entrance, there's one exit, and there are 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:08.840 no choices to make you simply follow the path. And 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:12.200 the path is winding, and the path is slow going 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:14.920 because you're having to take all these turns in these 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:17.600 in these twists, but never do you have to actually 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:18.919 think do I go this way or that way because 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.960 there are no choices. It is. It is one curving 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:23.640 line from one end to the other. It's like a 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:25.800 ball of string, you know, if you were to travel 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:28.360 through that string on the outside, and it looks intricate 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:31.520 and complicated, but but really it is one path. And 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:33.920 I really think about it as an act of submission 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:36.520 when you enter into this labyrinth, because you are following 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:39.680 a preordained path, right, and you are submitting yourself to 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:43.520 this path, and in doing so, um, it is a 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:48.200 sort of meditative practice because you are now UM, I 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:50.440 guess you could say you were busying your mind just 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:52.560 with the act of walking. And that's what we're going 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:55.400 to talk about today. We talked about the stress response 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:58.360 with m mazes, but now we're going to talk about 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.760 this more meditative quality of the labyrinth and what it 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:05.560 means to us on a psychological and physical level. But 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:08.800 first I want to mention that labyrinths are all over 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:12.800 the world, um, and have been for for many thousands 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:15.760 of years. You can find them in the United States, 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:20.640 in Europe and India, Afghanistan, Java, Sumatra, and various sites 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:23.720 in the US left by Pueblo Indians, the Hopi and 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.040 Zuni and others. Yeah, you see the design of a labyrinth. 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:29.279 You see it on the classic room and flooring, you 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.920 see in the remains of labyrinth throughout Scandinavian Northern Europe. 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:36.480 You see it in the graffiti at Pompeii, Ancient Britain's 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.920 cut labyrinths into the turf, Bronze Age tumbs in Sardinia, 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:43.880 other carvings dating back to three thousand DC. It's like 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:46.479 the maze. We discussed how the maze is like this 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:51.719 pure physical or pattern base, but certainly a physical embodiment 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:56.960 of either internal confusion or external navigation confusion. It is 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:59.960 about the state of confusion in the human mind uh 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.200 as a physical reality, and like you said, the the 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:06.720 labyrinth is an antidote to that. Yeah, it really is 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:09.440 the polar opposite. And it's funny that those terms are 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:12.120 used interchangeably because when you think about a labyrinth, you 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:14.920 think about wide open spaces, right, because this is typically 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:18.760 something that is uh cut into the earth or made 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:22.960 with stones or made out of stones, and so you 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:26.480 can still see the vista around you. You're not your 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:28.680 vision isn't impaired in anyway. In other words, there's not 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:31.520 something on your right or left, and uh, you can 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:35.120 see and hear everything right. In fact, some would say 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:38.960 that you're able to pay attention more to these aspects 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:41.720 of being. You're able to really tune into the sounds 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:45.440 around you, the smells, the sites. So it really is 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:47.680 the polar opposite of a maze. Yeah. Yeah, there are 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:50.799 no walls rising up around you. It's a winding course, 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:52.400 but there are no choices to be made, and you 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:55.320 generally find these your You often find them rather uh 0:05:55.480 --> 0:06:00.000 in churches, either in or in the serene garden environments. Uh. 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:03.520 I encountered one at the Desert Museum in Arizona where 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:06.200 they had one out amid the catt in this one 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:08.760 little cactus garden, and it was just really serene. You 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:11.360 start at the beginning of the labyrinth and it just 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:14.960 curls you around and you're just walking following the path, 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:19.280 noticing all these beautiful succulent plants growing all around you. 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.200 And then eventually you wind your way back out and 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:27.520 you just yesterday sought out a labyrinth within the maze 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:31.760 that is Atlanta. So, especially since there aren't really i mean, 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:35.880 labyrinths don't really make for great movie and and fictional storytelling, 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:38.680 you know, because movies and in fiction, and I mean, 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:41.760 it's all about putting you in a situation of drama. 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:46.120 So of course fictional characters wind up in mazes. They rarely, 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:49.400 it seems, wind up in labyrinth. So describe your experience 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:52.320 with the labyrinth. UM. I walked it at St. Barthl 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:57.719 Barth follow Mules uh Episcopal Church, I believe, And it 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:00.240 was an outdoor one and it was really like and 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:04.359 I'm sure I was psychologically primed for the event, but UM, 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:08.760 I spent minutes walking in a couple of times. And 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:11.280 what I noticed about it is that it does draw 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.240 you out of yourself again. The landscape is open, you 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:17.520 can see the sky, You begin to notice things, and 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:19.560 this is really important. I think we'll talk about this 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:22.840 um a little bit later. But it takes you out 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.360 of that chattering part of your brain a bit um 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:28.040 and it puts you it gives you a little bit 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:30.360 more stillness. And that's what I notice. And here's how 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:37.160 I actually tested the level of meditative uh quality to 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:39.960 this experience. I went to the Whole Foods after this. 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:45.640 Now it's uh, it's late December now and there's a 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:49.640 lot of bustling action that Whole Foods. I despise going 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:53.960 to Whole Foods, even when it's a calm period, because 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:57.520 people seem to me to act very aggressively in Whole Foods, 0:07:57.520 --> 0:07:59.280 whether or not just trying to get a parking space 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:02.320 or they're just taking their shopping carts around and jamming 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:04.760 into the aisles. For some reason, I find it to 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:07.840 be a disturbing place to be, even though it has 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:11.360 a sort of holistic vibe about it of health and 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:15.120 wellness and all that stuff. Afterwards, after walking this labyrinth, 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:17.160 I was like I was floating on air, did not care. 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:19.920 I parked really far away. Who could care about getting 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:22.920 a parking space up close? I didn't um. But of 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:25.720 course all of this again could be psychological priming. But 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:27.960 I think that does speak to this act, that when 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:30.680 you go through this physical act, that there can be 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:36.840 some sort of transformation mentally. And was it circular basically informed, 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:38.760 because it seems like that that is sort of the 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:41.600 standard for the labyrinth, is that looking at it from above, 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.400 it's the circular zone of in which this path twists 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:47.720 and turns. Yeah, it was circular, and at the very 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:51.160 center it had symbols have three things that were a 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:53.040 symbol of something. Now I think you guys, I will 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:55.800 probably been hit to the fact that I'm not a 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:58.240 religious person, so I don't know what the significance of 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:00.839 that is. I guess I'm gonna make a guess that 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:03.240 it was like the what is it, the Holy Spirit 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:07.439 of the three things? Yes, yeah, those those were the faces. 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:09.559 I thought it was just pattern recognition, but now that 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:11.800 you say that, I think it was Larry feeling it 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:14.960 was then. But it's interesting that you've mentioned how it 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:17.840 is this. There's this feeling of guidance in the labyrinth, 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:20.000 so it makes perfect sense that they would be in 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:24.040 holy spaces because, certainly within a church environment, this is 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:26.200 the idea that God is my co pilot, or you know, 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.000 I'm gonna gonna trust in something greater than myself to 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:33.040 guide me through this light life. And therefore what is 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:36.040 the labyrinth? But it is allowing the path to guide 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:39.480 you and freeing yourself of the worries about which way 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:42.240 did you go this, this way or that way. One 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:44.760 of the most famous labyrinths that is this in a 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:50.400 church setting is Chartress and m an archaeological excavation has 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:53.559 shown that the cathedral. This is in France, overlies the 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:57.120 alignment and foundations of earlier Roman buildings, and this is 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:00.959 building twelve sixty around today. This is really cool. If 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:03.280 you visit the labyrinth on the summer solstice, you'll see 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:06.480 that exactly at noon, a sunbeam falls directly on a 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:08.800 nail that was placed in the floor, you know, And 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.120 there's something beautiful about the I mean, it's still there 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:13.240 because there are no there are no walls to fall 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:16.640 down inside a labyrinth. You construct a maze. We mentioned 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:20.679 the Maze of Minos in the podcast about mazes. You know, 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:24.560 whether that actually existed in any way, shape or form, 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:27.360 you know, that's that's an area of discussion among historians. 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:29.760 Most seem to think it did not. We certainly cannot 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:33.320 find evidence of a vast subterranean maze in which a 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:37.319 monster lived. Uh. There's some speculation that the palace itself 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:40.559 there in crete, was kind of like a maze. It 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.000 had big, thick walls, and it was very intimidating and 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:45.559 a little confusing. But a lot of that has fallen 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:47.160 down and we've had to, you know, sort of to 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:50.400 to piece things back together. So a maze not only 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:52.880 a confusing but it can fall and change due to 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:55.800 the weathering of the world. Whereas, uh, it's kind of 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:57.960 beautiful to think of a labyrinth that's something that that 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:01.160 is persistent because there's no thing that can be eroded. 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:03.840 It can be covered up, but it's still there underneath 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:05.880 the turf if you know to look for it. You 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:07.560 know what's interesting about that too. I was I was 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:11.400 thinking about the Nazca lines, and these were lines drawn 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.520 by the Nasca people. And this is a civilization living 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:17.439 in modern Peru. Yeah, we're talking four between four hundred 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:23.240 and six. Yeah, and uh, this civilization actually disappeared about 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.120 fidred years ago, but you can still see the traces 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:29.880 of these lines, these labyrinths that were designed by scraping 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:33.320 away red dust and rock and revealing the white ground 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:36.720 underneath it. And um, and they're in the shape of 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:42.240 of of animals. Yeah, it's so cool, like animals, the monkeys, monkeys, 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:48.240 some humans, birds and fish are represented coming birds, sharks, lizards. Yeah, 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:50.720 and and these are huge, We're talking about six hundred 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:56.520 and sixty feet across and so ancient aliens people love these. 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:59.120 The idea it's like they would tell on aliens about 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.840 monkeys that's what this was about. Well, actually, what they 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.559 think is that this was a rite of passage in 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:09.760 that it was a contemplative act done by small groups 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:13.839 of the civilization that they walked these labyrinths in order 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:18.040 to get to the end of UM. What was largely 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:21.800 this metaphorical ritual. For not only the idea here is 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:26.160 not only is this a line that creates the shape 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:28.960 of a monkey as visible from a station, uh, this 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:32.079 is also this is a line that you traverse. You're 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.160 traversing the shape of the monkey or the lizard or 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:37.880 what have you. Yeah. So again, you know, this is 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:42.120 probably more meditative practice that was done by the civilization 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:47.120 UM and not communication to ancient aliens. UM. But I 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.240 think that it points to this idea that throughout history 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:53.719 there has been this sort of walking meditation done in 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.080 different ways. Yes, and we'll get more into the idea 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.800 of walking meditation shortly. Yeah, particularly when you consider it 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:04.000 use as a healing practice and and actually in medical 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:07.280 UM centers. Yeah, you around the world, you see them 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:09.199 pop up again and again. And as we mentioned in 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:12.199 the last podcast, a great source for these two episodes 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:15.240 was a book by esther In Steinberg titled The Science 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:18.480 of Healing Places. She devotes one chapter to labyrinth and mazes, 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:21.240 but the whole book is about how physical environments affect 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.319 us both in body and mind effectively, how they affect 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:26.080 the mind body through our you know, and this can 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:28.560 be negative, this can be positive, and and how if 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:30.439 you're building something like a hospital, you want to take 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:32.840 that into account. You don't want to build a hospital 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:35.240 it feels like a maze, if anything. You want to 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:38.959 build a hospital that feels like a labyrinth that's open, right, 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:41.440 And failing that, you just build a labyrinth in the courtyard, 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:44.240 which many places do, right, because you have this idea 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:48.000 of opening space metaphorically and physically so that your brain 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:51.920 can sort of acclaimate itself to that space. Um. As 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:55.800 you had mentioned the book Healing Spaces, there is a 0:13:55.880 --> 0:14:00.760 Harvard cardiologist that Sternberg, the author talks about. His name 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:03.720 is Harvey Goldberg, and he says that a lot of 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:08.640 these meditative practices, meditative walking, our yoga, or tai chi 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:13.439 um is really about gaming the relaxation response through breathing. 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:17.640 And he says, quote, I think of it as an 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:21.240 unclenching when the system gets overly tense. It's like a 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:25.040 tight fist is locked somehow, By focusing your attention elsewhere, 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:28.560 there is an unlocking and unclenching of the fist. Now, 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:31.240 this is really important when you think about an act 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:34.920 of walking meditation, but as in an elabyrinth, when you're 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:37.720 walking around like that, because you are focusing on something 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.200 other than yourself and yet you're allowing your thoughts to 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:48.320 unfold naturally, and this is that contemplative act that labyrinth's encourage. Yeah, 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:50.640 so think of this when you're actually walking on the 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:52.840 path of the labyrinth. What are you doing? Why are 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:55.880 you feeling relaxed? First of all, you're focusing on the 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.840 path you're having. You're looking down, and you're looking up 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:00.880 a little bit too, but kind of looking down and 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:03.400 watching the path that you're walking. There are no walls 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:06.400 to to head you in. It's about following this path 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:10.200 on the ground. Secondly, because of this, you're moving slower, 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:13.800 and because you're moving slower, you're breathing slower. Also, unlike 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:16.360 a maze, your vision is not obstructed. You're able to 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:18.200 hear and see the world around you like you mentioned, 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:20.160 and you're you're not having to depend on, you know, 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:23.320 landmarks or what have you just kind of on autopilot, Yeah, 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:26.080 which allows you to get into that mental space that 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:31.440 is healing as Sternberg and Goldberg and Herbert Benson, who 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:35.800 is very much an authority of meditative thoughts and actually 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:38.600 meditation itself. We will talk more about this. We're gonna 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:40.720 take a quick break. We're gonna talk about why labyrinths 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:44.320 were built and how it affects us at the physiological level. 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:54.040 When you look back at some of these more ancient labyrinths, 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:57.240 like the Nasca lines, again it comes up why why 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.760 did people make these? What? Why were they built? Why 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:05.640 were they created? And certainly a spiritual reason is present. 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:09.440 It's very much possibility for some of them. Some people 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:13.280 think there are astrological reasons behind them. And if you 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:17.720 look again at Chartreu, which is the cathedral in France, 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:20.720 again you see evidence that it was designed in conjunction 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.720 with the summer solstice, so that maybe it had something 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.840 to do with that. Um. I tend to think that 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.880 if the sunlight is beaming down in the middle of 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:33.200 a labyrinth on the summer solstice at noon, that that 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:38.240 would be very powerful to churchgoers, particularly if they're walking 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:40.960 the labyrinth, because it's the idea that this path is 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:45.680 in tune with celestial dynamics, with the mechanics of the universe, right, 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:48.520 and that you are in unity with nature. Yeah, Like 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:50.960 it makes me think that to do Dante's Inferno again, 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:54.520 particularly Dante's Paradise. Paradise is a very strictly ordered thing, 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:58.120 like the cosmos, whereas when Dante's actually in Hell, it's 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:02.120 an ordered system. But it's it's a lot more confusing. Yeah. 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:04.560 And then there's this I like this one. There's the 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:08.160 dancing theory. Oh yes, this is great. This takes me back. 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:10.960 There was there were like a couple of old goofy cartoons. 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:13.760 I'm sure Holly would tell you could tell me exactly 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:16.679 when and where they occur in the long list of 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.720 Disney productions. But there were a couple of goofy carloro stuff. 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:23.320 There are a couple of goofy cartoons and one he 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:27.000 quit smoking and another he was trying to lose weight, 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:29.480 I think. And they dealt They were really cool. They 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:32.679 dealt with like an adult goofy like dealing with like 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:36.040 the demands of being like a bachelor. It was weird stuff. 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:37.920 I check it out again. But but there's one where 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:39.960 he's like trying to learn how to dance, and there's 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:41.879 this kid he gets where you listen to a record 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:46.840 and you place these cutouts of feet of on the 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:49.639 on the floor and then you dance by moving and 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:51.040 he has like a mannequin with him and you move 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:53.959 from one these steps to this step, and this teaches 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:56.680 you how to dance by following the patterns on the floor. 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:00.520 It's so that he could now, in his bachelorhood, a woman. 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:04.879 So this is helping kids who are seeing their their 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:08.040 father who's now a new bachelor. Well, I think these 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:09.960 were and again pop stuff will have to clear me 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:11.480 up in this. I think people were aimed at these 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:13.440 were These were kind of like an early Simpsons in 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:15.160 a way because they were they were kind of aimed 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:16.880 at maybe a little bit at kids, but more at 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:21.000 the adults. But anyway, that the dancing ritual. Yeah, and 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:24.200 the idea, So the idea here is that Labyrinth's were 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:27.199 potentially not nearly this thing that you walk on and 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:31.480 serenely follow but you dance through because think about what 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:36.280 dances and I'm not talking like you know, grinding booty 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:40.600 shaking necessarily, but but think of something like like square dancing, 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:46.280 some sort of ritualized dance, certainly the Whirling Dervishes, where 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:48.360 there is a pattern that you're following, and you're you're 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:52.439 giving yourself up to the pattern of the dance, to 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:56.040 the rhythm of the beat, to the You're giving yourself 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:59.000 over body and soul to the music and the movement. 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:03.560 And and that is in a sense of labyrinth you 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:06.480 were becoming. You kind of become the labyrinth, You become 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:10.240 the dance, you become the music. In that becoming, you 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:14.560 cannot be this bundle of worries and and and troubles 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:16.359 that you are the rest of the time. Yeah, it's 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:18.160 the rhythm of the night. You leaven all your cares 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:24.280 behind right the night. Yeah, I won't do that anymore. 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:29.240 So what's interesting about that too is that this is uh, 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:32.800 not just something that is again an act of submission, 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:36.199 but perhaps some sort of right of passage. This is 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:39.720 perhaps something that young men who had proved themselves as 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:42.840 warriors would go through this dance. This is also a 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:46.879 fertility right for women who would go through these um 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:51.639 the labyrinth dancing. And again you're talking about syncopated rhythm. 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:56.120 You're talking about a group activity that would line everybody up. Yeah, 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:58.240 we talked before. When people are singing together, it's like 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:01.080 their neurons are all firing on this in battern and 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:03.760 some more thing with these movements, right, think about it 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:07.480 as the first Congo line. Is it congo or congo? 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:12.240 I don't know. Yeah, it's interesting. In the book, Steinberg 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:15.159 points out that this is possibly why like early in 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:18.160 church history, like certainly churches came to embrace their labyrinths. 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:21.240 Sat Bart's here in Atlanta is not ashamed of their labyrinth. 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:23.320 They're rather proud of it. But in the old days 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:26.240 there's maybe a little suspicion where the older members of 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:28.360 the church, especially like I don't know about these labyrinths. 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:32.160 There's something kind of not right about them, fancy about them, 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:37.280 you know why, because they have found all sorts of evidence. 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:41.520 In fact, an entrustan vase from six BC depicts not 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:45.600 just the dance in the labyrinth, but sexual acts going on. 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:49.360 So the church kind of like, m I'm not sure 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:53.280 about showing the positions, the sexual positions, um, you know, 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:56.840 overlaid on the labyrinth here. Maybe we could kind of 0:20:57.240 --> 0:20:59.480 cover that up a little bit. But there's a little 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:01.720 bit of that involved with it and that you know, 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:05.120 and that of course hints at paganism, right, So let's 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:07.560 talk about the way that it affects the body. Okay, 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:10.600 So you talked about this idea that when you're walking, 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:13.760 you began to slow down your breath, right, and you 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:18.359 began to relax. So your breathing slows, your heart rate downshifts, 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:20.639 and this is when your body gets the queue that 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:24.199 it's time to slow down and relax. And this is 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:29.159 the opposite of the stress response, This is the relaxation response. Yeah. 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:32.080 The slow breathing activates the vegas nerve that counters the 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:38.240 adrenaline like sympathetic nervous system response of stress. Yeah. And 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:41.359 what's really cool about this nerve is that we've known 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:45.639 that it has it's workings with stress and counteracting stress, 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:49.120 but it also regulates the immune system, in particular in 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:51.919 fighting inflammation. So when we start to talk about this 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:54.439 in the stress response, we start to talk more about 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:57.479 the immune system as a whole, because we know that 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:00.520 if your body is in a constant state of just stress, 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:02.919 that this can be destructive at a cellular level. So 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:06.360 this is why it's important to try to uh promote 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:10.560