Book News

"West of Jesus:" Surfing, Science and the Origins of Belief - A Spiritual and Scientific Surf Quest

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 4 October, 2006 : - - After spending two years in bed with Lyme disease, Steven Kotler had lost everything: his health, his job, his girl, and, he was beginning to suspect, his mind. Kotler, not a religious man, suddenly found himself drawn to the sport of surfing as if it were the cornerstone of a new faith.

Why, he wondered, when there was nothing left to believe in, could he begin to believe in something as unlikely as surfing. What was belief anyway? How did it work in the body, the brain, our culture, and human history?

Into this mix came a strange story. In 2003, on a surf trip through Mexico, Kotler heard of “the conductor,” a mythical surfer who could control the weather. He’d heard this same tale eight years earlier, in Indonesia, but this time something clicked.

With the help of everyone from rebel surfers to rocket scientists, Kotler undertakes a three year globetrotting quest for the origins of this legend. The results are a startling mix of big waves and bigger ideas: a surfer’s journey into the biological underpinnings of belief itself.

Also noteworthy about this book is that the author had Lyme and surfing cured it, here's a bit about why: 

Surfing--especially the intense focus required to ride a wave--mimics the intense focus of meditation. Lyme, among other stuff, destroyed the author’s short term memory, concentration, and ability to learn (Lyme experts call these features ‘brain fog’. But researchers have shown that meditation boosts learning, memory and concentration.

Moreover a recent study done by University of Wisconsin neuroscientist Richard Davidson, working in concert with Tibetan monks, shows that meditation physically alters the structure of the brain, producing higher levels of 'gamma waves,' the brain waves most often associated with happiness, heightened awareness and coordinated thinking.  

Which raises another question, Can action sports really cure disease? 

Lyme and every other auto-immune condition (MS, Chronic Fatigue, AIDS, etc) have built in stress triggers. The more stressed out you get the sicker you feel...this is the terrible catch-22 of disease. One of the other things that surfing/action sports release is the performance-enhancing drug dopamine. Used to be that scientists thought dopamine was the reward portion of the need/reward system.

Turns out they now know that dopamine isn't produced when you've completed the task, rather when you take the risk required to complete the task. Thus anyone with an auto-immune condition who isn't actually pushing themselves to take a few risks (even if that means just leaving the house and going for a walk) can't get the benefit of dopamine.

And without this it's very hard to be happy/lower the stress levels that are keeping one sick. Couple this to the above info about meditation and you start to see that yes, actually, they can cure disease even though it's completely counter-intuitive.

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Patricia Mora

Books - Surfersvillage