Sometimes people demonstrate such abilities that one wonders: isn't it a trick? But no, the "trick" is repeated several times and in front of the eyes of authoritative experts. But if we take such stories for reality, it is difficult to refrain from the question: how far are the hidden possibilities of man? And some people think that - ad infinitum!
Collector of Wonders
American Ivan Sanderson, author of the book "There are miracles", has collected an abyss of materials that refute the popular belief that there are no miracles left on our planet. There is a chapter in the book devoted to the problem of human “habitation” of the sea depths, although, apparently, experts are now inclined to the idea of transferring this task to mechanical substitutes for humans. And yet it is a pity that the book "There are miracles" was not published in Russian, and in fact was being prepared for publication in the Moscow publishing house "Mysl". It was in 1973, and apparently, these miracles seemed to someone at the wrong time.
Strange protest
In 1932, in South Cameroon, in the southwestern part of Africa, N. H. Cleverly, an acquaintance of Ivan Sanderson. Oi and told the writer the story of the water people.
One day a local police sergeant reported to N. Kh. Cleverly on the refusal of residents of some villages to pay taxes. A senior official instructed a sergeant to investigate the situation, and the local authorities sent a special representative to the "disaster" area. Accompanied by a police sergeant, the official sailed in a kayak into the depths of the swampy area where the "rioters" settled. Finally, we got out on land and went straight to the violating village.
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To the surprise of those who arrived, there was no one on the streets, and in the houses! There weren't even dogs and the ubiquitous domestic monkeys. Worried about this extraordinary circumstance, the controllers moved to another village, but, according to their impressions, it was completely extinct! The same incredible picture appeared to the controllers in two more villages.
Clue
The situation was absolutely contrary to common sense, since all these settlements were located on … an island! Much to the bewilderment of the official and the sergeant, who thought that the aborigines, frightened by something, sailed away on the available floating craft to a safe place, a myriad of boats and kayaks swayed near the local shores and piers! At that moment, the petrified controllers experienced confusion, souls and mystical horror of what had happened.
Finally the native sergeant woke up and asked permission from his fellow traveler to throw off his police uniform and dress in the local way, that is, put on a loincloth. In this form, he went far beyond the village and there he met the aborigines returning from somewhere. At first, they refused to talk about where the inhabitants had gone, but when the sergeant "pushed", they opened, as they say, their lips and called the sergeant to follow them to the shore, inviting him to lie down over the steep bank and look down …
What the sergeant saw
What the sergeant saw below does not lend itself to calm retelling: under the water, at a depth of about two and a half meters, there were "sleeping" people. Men, women, children leaned against the steep bank, heads bowed. Nearby, in baskets, dogs and domestic monkeys "slept". The sergeant, headlong, rushed to his officer and brought him to the shore, seeing the "sleeping" people under the water, the officer ordered the sergeant to go down into the water and wake them up. The sergeant unsuccessfully shook the "sleeping" by the shoulders - none of them woke up! Then, drawing full lungs of air, the police officer grabbed one of the "sleeping" by the arms and pulled up. And suddenly I saw that all the water people were fastened by vines to the roots of trees sticking out of the coastal slope! The official completely lost his head from these details and, leaving the sergeant on the shore,jumped into a kayak and swam with this incredible information to the authorities.
The documents that have survived about this strange case say that the official returned to the shore of that very village, accompanied by the commanding officers, however, by that moment all the "sleeping" along with the dogs and monkeys "woke up", got out of the water and paid the sergeant the required taxes.
Interesting folk custom
The prominent sociologist Jeffrey Gorer managed to get some more details about aquatic people. One day Gorer went to Senegal, in western Africa, with one of the local residents. The companion wished to show the sociologist an interesting folk custom. They took a boat and went out to sea. We saw many native boats around the bend. In each one sat a hunter and pulled out baskets from under the water, one after another, filled with oysters, crabs and other marine life. And below, at the bottom, her fellow tribesmen wandered about it! They bent down, from time to time they picked up something from the ground and put what they found in baskets hanging from the boats. And a stone was tied to the ankle of each, holding the collector at a depth. The natives claimed that the pickers could stay under water for up to half an hour! According to Geoffrey Gorer, the natives took some kind of herbal medicine before diving.
Another explanation
However, Sanderson, discussing this version with the inhabitants of West Africa, came across another explanation for the phenomenon of water people. The natives referred to a certain specific meditation that awakens in a person his latent possibilities. Apparently, this version is closer to the truth. According to Sanderson, his archives contain a copy of a report from five leading doctors in the British Colonial Service on a similar case. According to the report, one Mexican, after a detailed medical examination, plunged into a "grave" in the main square of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Two trucks of clay were piled on top. The poor fellow lay underground for a whole day, after which he was dug up and stood up safe and sound!
Man is not a land creature
Generally speaking, a person should be predisposed to the aquatic environment. Indeed, in the womb of the mother, the embryo is in a liquid medium and even its lungs are filled with liquid! The above is convincingly confirmed by the unique experiments of the Russian researcher Igor Borisovich Markovsky.
A little man has just been born. Mom's eyes shine with happiness. Everything is as usual, except for one thing: the birth took place in … water! And mom sees the newborn floating! Precisely floating, that is, moving the legs and arms as in normal swimming! At the same time, he remains under water, since he "breathes" so far through the umbilical cord connecting him with his mother. The baby is barely born, and already simply and naturally makes swimming movements! Does it mean that a swimming reflex lives in a person? And by about three months it fades away. Markovsky's experiments are precisely aimed at preserving and strengthening this reflex.
Incredible breath holding
And yet, the most amazing thing is the ability of children born in water to hold their breath for a period that is completely unattainable for an ordinary person - for five minutes (!) And more! Thanks to this ability, a three-week-old baby, for example, can sink to the bottom of the pool and slowly sort out pebbles there, surprisingly to the mother. And right at the bottom, he can get enough milk from a special bottle. The kid gets tired, floats up and - falls asleep, lying face down! And, without waking up, from time to time he turns his head sideways to inhale and - again face down for a slow exhalation …
The ability to hold the breath for such a long time is explained by the preservation of the properties of the so-called anaerobic respiration in an infant born in water, when oxygen enters the blood not from atmospheric air, but from nutrients accumulating inside the baby's body.
German GORDEEV