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Experiments demonstrate that it is possible for arbitrary changes in the heart rhythm to be made through conscious control of the breathing rhythm, and even a short-term cardiac arrest by means of contracting abdominal muscles.
Dumb idea, and possibly backwards but let me explore this.
I am not in conscious control of my heart (in that I cannot will it to stop). It operates in the subconscious, in the autonomic nervous system.
I was thinking of a group of beings that would require conscious effort to maintain their heart function (at least in a normal heart. I understand I can outsource my heartbeat to a machine, and then switch it off). For these alien-type of beings might be that it is more akin to breathing, in that I can willingly hold my breath and I am given some leeway to do this where I won’t be catastrophic. They might romantically link heartbeats together when in love (or ‘heart skip a beat’ deliberately halt their hearts as a sign of devotion), or make songs with them.
But I was wondering if this group of beings at one point had hearts like ours, and if for us there were any systems that we evolutionarily were “in control” of that were made into automatic functions. “Handing over the wheel.” I’m not talking about slowing through meditation.
So for a fantastical example, us being at one point conscious of our heartbeat, playing an active role and then transferring control to an automatic system.
I remember growing up and being afraid of this. I had this idea that if I had a kid, I’d magically lose my own consciousness and it would be in some what planted into my child if I had one - and I’d kind of exist on autopilot in my original self.
I also recall as a kid wondering if it was just a state of adulthood, in which you operated like a “regular” human being but you were no longer in control of yourself. You basically got increasingly habituated, increasingly on autopilot through similar life experiences, that you lost yourself and never even realized.
Do you get less conscious as the days go by?