I watched a mind blowing BBC Documentary the other night on The Man Who Los His Body. Ian, an Englishman woke up one morning and found himself unable to move. He was not paralyzed but he experienced nerve damage in the part of his brain responsible for proprioception. His sense of touch was gone completely, yet he was not paralyzed. Doctors were baffled. There was no diagnosis for this odd condition (only 10 cases reported in the world!) and doctors concluded that Ian would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Through tedious hours, weeks, months and years of rehabilitation Ian was able to bypass his own nervous system relying solely on his vision and his memory of movement. Eventually Ian was able to teach himself to sit up, stand and walk again. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?

Ian used imagined movement or ideokinesis to remember how it felt to walk, sit, move etc... Relying solely on his vision and on imagined movement Ian accomplished the impossible. We mistakenly perceive our muscles and bones as responsible for movement when in actuality our nervous system is the initiator of ALL movement. The brain sends a signal through the nerve cells to the legs signaling for movement to occur; however, if there is no feedback from the legs--as in Ian's case--there is no return signal to the brain. Therefore, Ian must rely on his vision to convey that his legs are indeed located beneath him. Visual feedback is sufficient to communicate to the brain allowing Ian to walk. Every movement Ian executes is precisely calculated. It gets exhausting but for Ian it was certainly worth it!

Watch the documentary in full here. Get ready to have your mind blown!