The Wedge: Evolution, Consciousness, Stress and the Key to Human Resilience

“Investigative reporter Scott Carney enjoys examining and partaking in the extremes of our environment. In The Wedge, he vigorously reports on his crusade to find techniques that can be used to adjust the body’s normal reactions to debilitating stimuli. He tries to deceive the sympathetic nervous system and manipulate its normally prescribed functions in order to avoid physical stresses such as depression, or past traumas. For this purpose, he engages in and describes a series of techniques derived from past cultural practices and current recorded accounts that involve exercises in sensory deprivation, meditation, breathing exercises, both hypo- and hyperthermia, and psychedelic plant consumption. Travel with him as he volleys with kettlebells, getting into a concentrated flow that ignores other mental pressures, follow his breathing exercises which may release chemicals that assuage nervous tension, watch as he sustains his cool through a sweat-inducing roasting sauna, or relaxes in ice chilling submersions. Buoyancy in water allows his mind to float with free associations while taking hallucinogenic drugs appears to alter his mental perceptions while his consciousness becomes more porous to deeper insights. The author believes in challenging the nervous system by taking risks and recounts his own reactions to these mind and body stressors, but the reporting is sparse on details of how other populations have reacted to these environmental pressures and whether the benefits are worth the risks. While it is interesting to read about these mind manipulating techniques, the author’s ego predominates in the bombastic writing and his ego blurs the message.”