Meet The Superhuman Wim Hof: The Iceman

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to me god is cold you could say that I

think of the gold as a noble force it's

just helping me it's training me it's

bringing me back to the inner nature

the way it was meant to be and this way

I do not only Angelo the cold as

obstacle

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we live in a world where there's all

kinds of false healers and fake

alternative medicine programs you can

sign up for it's a rare moment in

history when someone comes along who

could perform real miracles with real

evidence to back them up wim HOF has

defied logic time and time again and

always under scientific scrutiny

he holds the world record for being able

to be submerged in ice for almost two

hours without his core body temperature

changing he's climbed Mount Everest in

nothing but a pair of shorts and ran a

marathon in the desert without drinking

any water

he's even proven in a laboratory setting

that he can withstand illnesses using

the power of his mind but he's not a

freak of nature according to wim anyone

can do what he can do they just have to

learn his method the wim HOF method

using a combination of cold immersion

breathing techniques and mental focus

anyone can accomplish feats that were

previously thought to be impossible

the statute of establish KU Nevada oh

good yeah next stop come Aconitum for

two months ago

middle C relative Monica Technica and

relative Cocteau tight mid middle

dynamic on the oak at immune system

deliver included we were skeptical so

will invited us to take a crash course

in his method and see just how easy it

is to become superhuman

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we first met win on his houseboat in

Holland where he began to teach our

whole crew the basics of cold immersion

growing up in the 21st century were

naturally skeptical of everything we

read on the Internet

but to put Wims method to the test we

would have to suspend our disbelief

because no true miracle can be

accomplished without some faith in this

case the miracle would supposedly

involve the crew and I taking off our

clothes and climbing to the top of the

freezing cold mountain Eska in Poland

but before that our training began in

the canals of Amsterdam so while I'm

climbing the mountain if they haven't

done the training then they'll be

screwed basically

yes yeah we are going to start with the

breathing you will see feeling is

understanding and later on we can dig in

all kinds of scientific literature and

readings and comparisons and statistics

and all that we don't need you are going

to feel it we are pioneers and by fully

it okay just go on no thinking just for

you your head is becoming lightheaded

when was gonna teach us how to endure

the cold like him but first we had to

learn the basics wim told us to spend

one minute breathing in more air than we

let out then he instructed us to take

one last breath and hold it by using his

technique we were able to hold our

breath from much longer than usual I

didn't really know what was going on but

my body was doing things it had never

done before and I was pretty freaked out

but also very curious as to where this

would take me it was like I was going

through some kind of second puberty

where instead of becoming an adult I was

becoming a superhuman first around 2:17

format crazier it's something yeah yes

still

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cuz I wanted to hurt buzz my whole body

was just kind of like tingling and then

when you said to just stop breathing

just didn't seem like I happen to

breathe at all it's really amazing

who are you who are you

I mean I can't argue with the results

you've done things that no one's ever

done before but there have been hundreds

of people throughout history in the past

four thousand years who have claimed to

be able to do all sorts of miracles by

controlling their body using the power

of meditation and breathing what makes

you different is it that you're the

first one who can actually do it I'm

absolutely not the first one who was

able to do this but I am the first one

to bring it to science and to take away

the speculation around it what was your

life like before you became the Iceman

and actually I was a father of four kids

and bringing them up alone because my

wife accidentally the ninety five so

that kind of like adversity and sadness

maybe motivated you to inspire yourself

and in the same way a lot of people who

do yes yes is a deep trigger where I got

peace was in these breathing exercises

swimming outside in the cold the coldest

merciless but righteous as well

so wyms just told me to get into my

shorts which can't be a good sign

because it means that we gonna get into

the water

when's already shirtless so scared

shitless just chill out man that is some

cold Amsterdam canal

December water you going the way I know

it naturally goes I feel like if you

keep relaxed and you stay in there you

can do it forever like this guy right

here look at this mad man so now our

producer has to go in as well because

she's gonna need to be there well

hello take it easy you know people think

I'm crazy maybe I'm crazy but not

because of my breathing techniques not

because of my cold water swimming not

because of my being fearless in extreme

challenges the first time I went under

the Earth's water is as sharp as needles

I saw this as a big huge sharp diamond

at 35 meters I lost sight because the

retina it froze I couldn't see nothing

couldn't breathe of course and then my

consciousness succumbed to a lower

consciousness this is survival I do not

fear yet I fear not to live fully if I

left fully I'm not into that

it isn't all about breaking records Wims

mission is to use his body as a

laboratory to revolutionize our

understanding of physiology in 2011 he

was injected with a bacterial endotoxin

in an experiment that challenged our

understanding of the nervous system in

normal humans the injection should cause

a strong immune response leading to

fever chills and headaches but not and

when it appeared that he was somehow

able to suppress his immune response by

making his body secrete adrenaline

suggesting that his method can allow us

to influence our immune system at will

scientists thought he might just be a

freak of nature so to further prove this

theory they performed the same

experiment on 12 subjects women trained

in Poland and the same thing happened

normally it's very difficult to increase

your adrenaline levels by your own will

adrenaline is released by the autonomic

nervous system and autonomic means that

you cannot voluntarily influence it so

if you walk outside and you are wrapped

on the street you will have a heart rate

of 160 and your blood pressure will be

sky-high within seconds but if I ask you

now to increase your heart rate you

cannot do that you cannot fall entirely

modulate that and with the techniques of

wim HOF we show that he was able to

increase his adrenaline levels to very

high concentrations even higher than

people that go bungee jumping for the

first time there was something that we

didn't think possible before then if we

learn to influence our immune system at

will we could potentially use that to

treat inflammatory disorders where the

immune system is overactive including

Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis

but wim didn't seem to think that there

were any limits to what his method can

accomplish and that made me skeptical he

was eager to show that he could help

anyone including people with cancer so

we invited us to dinner with his friend

Renee Hooda a famous philosopher of

science who had taken up the wim HOF

method after being given two months to

live I don't think

a Wonder worker and I'm not taking him

as a Wonder worker a miracle worker I

would do to forego that people who have

cancer think the terror of their cancer

next week that's not a fact but there

are very good things happening so this

is really is kind of on the frontier of

science it's science that we are testing

now it's it's science that we don't yet

have a full explanation for but we know

that it has results worth studying

yes well the real frontier science is

looking if this immune system is an auto

immune system or that we can influence

our immune system in the hope for that

the immune deficiency diseases decrease

and the results are hopeful hopeful I

used to work myself everything that wimp

does is based on science but surely

faith and women nature and ourselves is

also really crucial to accomplishing the

things that women teaches people to do

as soon as you put the exercise in the

center can you see the difference

between religion and spirituality and

science is in fact just the explanation

religion spirituality and science are

circling about something that's

definitely good for us train your body

man as a human what is this done for you

I'm not easily convinced but I'm always

looking for something that gives me some

control in this [ __ ] situation that

we have a life expectancy of two months

and then you're out of control and maybe

it's the same as mister yeah look that

autonomous immune system I would like to

be autonomous myself a little and when

there is really something that can be

done and proves it's alright and makes

me feel better it it it's

it was very satisfying it was very

satisfying it's pleased that nobody who

sees his program think that you just are

getting to control and I'll drive onto

some mountain & Conquer Cancer

I don't like this speech of conquering

cancer and doing something but when you

get something to do and to practice

which I understand and which you can do

and which satisfies some feeling of

control comes back and I like that very

much

hypothetically if research came back and

it turned out that actually your methods

weren't working there was some kind of

trick of adrenaline or some other factor

that accounted for all of the feats of

endurance what would that make you feel

I'm okay you know I want it to be

evidence-based in size and I don't want

to give any false hope to any person in

this world so I'm into science but he is

interested in a natural method that

needs only the commitments of a person

to make it work within just a day or two

days you will be able to go deeper into

the system and learn to control the

immune system cardiovascular system the

hormonal system the muscular system

autonomic nervous system all that I mean

it's just learning to go back into the

inner power which we all have we

traveled to Poland for the next step in

our training which would hopefully end

with us climbing mountain Eska in our

shorts and not getting hypothermia

in Amsterdam we had our first little

taste of training with the Iceman but

for us to really get into what wim calls

cold hard nature he's invited us here to

mount Nazca in Poland this is where he

trains all those big groups including

the 12 scientific test subjects that

later prove they were able to suppress

their immune response in an endotoxin

test

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Megan would let Joe Joe Joe control into

your brain

nobody else's

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it's really bizarre to be in a room with

a bunch of people who are tripping out

from breathing you get these tingly

sensations throughout your hands and

your body feels like everything's

vibrating and then you get kind of like

a sense of euphoria and for me that was

it

I you cried yeah while I was inside with

all my hands like this they just looked

and I could not move them then I just

cried and kind of cried and I couldn't

stop crying but I also wasn't thinking

about anything sad it was just like it

came up it's hard to talk about it

without sounding really cliched but what

I first did the breathing in the middle

of it I remember thinking like I'm so

happy I just want to get up and hug all

of you people I love you I love all of

you I guess that's how you become a

hippie pretty much yeah

I was amazed to see some of the

reactions that people had here what's

happening when people have these kind of

big responses what we do we are going

deeply into the physiology past the

conditioning and what appears people

begin to cry or they release anger

whatever is hidden deeper than the

conditioning these techniques make it

quite able to go really deep I guess

it's kind of similar to when a

psychologist get someone to relive past

trauma and come to terms of it we do not

need psychotherapy okay just breathing

just bring back the control within

yourself connect back with the body this

time we are able to cleanse it all all

the people say you know that you cannot

steer a life or you cannot do this and

yeah it's part of life and it's destiny

and it is fate [ __ ] fate and the [ __ ]

destiny and all that no this time we

learn to control our happiness health

and strength and that's not

philosophical or sectarian it's

chemistry you ever get me

really negative people who never really

have ever come to the class of a very

good example of death Scott Caan is an

investigative journalist he came from

America to this place to cut through the

crap and the Charlotte on business and

all that and that was me

you know the charlatan and the crap took

him to two days when he converted into a

but this [ __ ] is good and and he was

standing with us in the in short after

two days and how he's you know he wants

to write a book and bring it to America

and everything it may look like a

Pentecostal sermon at times but if you

hyperventilate for long enough it's

normal to experience euphoria of muscle

spasms and seizures it's more difficult

to imagine how that can make it easier

to stand out in the snow for an hour

maybe like in the immune response test

it had to do with secreting adrenaline

but whether it was from ancient secret

of human physiology or simply brute

force endurance and mental focus

it seemed that Wims method was working

on the grill my suspicion was that the

secret is the infectious charisma of wim

himself and just being in his presence

was inspiring us to accomplish things we

never would have normally done

you're getting into some pretty deep

places with your mind and although it

sounds kind of out there I mean when you

experience it I can't even

it's scary / amazing at the same time I

don't know where but I was gone and I

saw things and I didn't even notice that

I was screaming and making noises it was

really amazing it's just something we

don't know we can do in the east part of

the world it's in the culture to teach

people how to do it in the rest of the

part of the world it's not a culture

enlightenment is a form of happiness and

health and it's not as deep and profound

as people imagined I had a thing called

Crohn's disease about ten years ago

Aventis like detox centers and spent

thousands and thousands of dollars on

lots of different alternative health

improvement things a lot of them are

quite new agey and just a little

[ __ ] least Liam HOF has been working

with a lot of different types of

scientists and advanced hospital

research so that that's the beautiful

thing and you've seen him on the

Guinness Book of Records really sitting

in a an ice cube for two hours

so what's going on we are filling the

torches gasps you know we are going to

the waterfall later on like a fairy tale

Wims method would never have spread

beyond himself if it wasn't for his

business savvy son Aenon who's turned

the Iceman into a website an app and a

global brand I send him in some juice

when it wasn't done Sania

hey I've been looking around here but

even in these places were the women of

method didn't exist four years ago it

was an Iceman doing the trick which was

the only one person so Iceman is a

superhero nobody can be as the Iseman

because it's just one person it's a

superhero wim HOF is a person like

everybody else and he already gained

this fame to attract the attention to

show the whole world that everybody is

able to do much more than thought of so

I thought that's a beautiful goal to

bring that back to the people and yeah I

started doing the platform so now you

guys are you know I saw the things

already from my childhood what he could

do with people and so I trusted him how

much of this came out of the tragedy of

your mother's death everything started

there because my mom was like psychotic

they constant here with 11 personalities

and she was never there for us it was

always my dad being there for us they

stuffed our up with pills and to get her

outside of society and she committed

suicide so that was this beginning of my

dad exploring from okay what's the

answer were lies all these problems so

he went challenging himself you know if

you don't have an answer if they don't

have an

you're going to find yourself like I

know where I came from from a valley

it's like a trauma she jumped from

eighth floor

that's my grief I loved her to death but

the world is huge it's not interested in

natural methods so much it's the money

it's very difficult to bring this to the

establishment but we are on it so

science in time now we'll take it on and

we do our stores everyone's about to

participate in this kind of non

religious ritual they hold the torch in

the fire we hold water

yeah it might look a little bit

sectarian and I've said it before I

don't think this is a color but the

thing is when so charismatic if he gave

me any poison to drink

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four three two

there you go one there we go all in let

him go the group had gone and Daisy and

I were left with our own personal Iceman

trainer in the lead up to climbing

Mountain Eska we were gonna need all the

extra help we can get that was like the

trickiest has been yeah you you get

eventually the these white your

hallucinations but here is the summit

which we are going to get you tomorrow

in snow and ice and just in short this

is what I did before

Mount Everest I was up till here in

short coming from five thousand two

hundred to five thousand eight or six

thousand four hundred six thousand seven

hundred seven thousand five hundred

seven hundred over here I was he walked

up Mount Everest in his shorts what have

you done with your life we've just done

the fun part of the wim HOF method which

is where we get to do the breathing

exercises and make ourselves feel really

giddy and now it's time for the part

that everyone hates which is stripping

down to our shorts and jumping in a

freezing cold waterfall the water's

running so it doesn't actually freeze

but the temperature is below freezing

that means this is pretty much the

coldest water I'll ever experience

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we've just come out of the freezing cold

water I cannot tell you how cold it was

was the coldest water I've ever

experienced I can't feel my toes at all

like to each one of my toes the toe next

to it feels like a foreign object in my

shoe because I just can't feel them you

just start to think like fight-or-flight

mode I need to get out of this water

this is not where humans are meant to be

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obviously you have like your mission

which is a noble one but I have to ask

is it not also a bit about the bragging

rights of being able to say I climbed

Mount Everest in my shorts if I can use

it I use it all the time

but too many records too many of them

have given no real peace within myself

my unrest fullness deeply within created

by not me by by destiny itself so I

gotta solve this until it's at peace and

ok I will keep on I think the King and

queens all these 40 had the thing about

that if you are healthy electro

magnetically you are able to distinguish

a energy field around your head and a

co-lead doing that thing that you always

do when I'm really into what you're

saying it feels beautiful metaphors I'm

ready to accept you as my leader and

then you say something that I can't

quite get my head around what is an

electromagnetic halo oh that's that's

just the nervous system actually is

electrical signals yeah okay and if your

brain is only now not [ __ ] up yeah

then you get a nice electrical field

around your head do I have any kind of

aura yes you you got really yeah what's

it doing what's it what does it look

like oh wow wait wait a minute

let's go it it's going yeah [ __ ] you

it's already Devin you're the king

she's the queen well done today and and

tomorrow even better nature calls us and

mother nature says I got to tuck you in

a minute

because of a powerless situation grief

and emotion and now I got power and now

I want to take away and show

scientifically that depression and all

the diseases of almost all the diseases

we are able to learn to prevent them

from developing inside the body because

we are able to have a connection direct

inside which goes far deeper than ever

thought well I'm gonna show the world

that everybody is able instead of being

powerless to have power over his own

system

we just stayed in that freezing cold

water for one minute and the craziest

part is I feel warm on the inside it

must be the adrenaline or something but

I finally get I get it by standing in

there and letting the adrenaline rush

over you you'll feel the cold I could

stand out here for a while but I'm not

going to because I might die we go up to

1400 meters that zacapa from the copper

we go to the Shaniqua and it's cold so

all you have studied Matt you are going

to need it and now just don't think but

focus trust your body to be able to go

the elements up there and you will be

able with that you show yourself do you

ever wanted a real test of the wim HOF

method this is it

if you concentrate hard enough this snow

looks like sand in it you just feel like

you're at the beach exactly that's the

mind if your mind is on it and you're

quite capable of dealing with the

elements yeah because it is a bit nippy

really yeah

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there's a method to this what I'm doing

is breathing in more oxygen that I need

and then breathing out without fully

letting go doing that five times and on

the final breath squeezing the oxygen

into your chest neck and head and that

creates either real or illusionary heat

and then you let go and that's how we

got the top of the mountain my crampons

minor cramp on emergency it's fine

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there are a few theories as to why when

the HOF can do what he can do one is

that he has a higher level of brown

adipose tissue or brown fat in his body

which is a heat generating tissue in the

body studies have shown that people who

work outside in the cold have higher

levels of brown fat so it's possible

that he's able to manipulate the level

of brown fat in his body by exposure to

the cold like we're doing right now

another theory is that he's able to

secrete the hormone noradrenaline at

will through breathing and by jumping

into cold water and that adrenaline

allows him to overcome coldness and

illnesses another theory is that he uses

a form of meditation similar to the

Tibetan tumor meditation which by

shutting off the activity of the mind

your metabolism gets redirected into

generating heat it's probably a

combination of all those three and it's

an as-of-yet unexplained physiological

phenomena as well but when takes it a

step further he says that using his

method you can go deep into the body and

actually control your own autonomic

nervous system and immune system

I went to the scientific scrutiny of

research and put me to the test and they

saw amazing things but damn days had you

who are the Iseman you are just one test

subject and I said no what I can do

anybody can do you can just start doing

these techniques and you can modulate

your adrenaline levels by will stress

hormones are able to modulate your

immune response there are many diseases

that are influenced by your immune

system and you can imagine that it will

be of interest if you could modulate

that immune response and suppress it

that it might be of benefit for patients

with diseases like that how did it feel

when you finally got recognition from

the science world that your methods

works I cried really you know what

happens

your wife whom you love so dearly she

suicides you don't understand you just

don't understand you have no power

anymore and finally because you have

been everywhere looking for how to

silence degree to finally get scientific

recognition

time will you break that's the time

where you can relieve that's the time

you can let go that's when you cry

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look at look at the glass oh whoa Wow

Wow mother holy mama it's nicer ha ha

it's amazing what he can do when you

actually force it yes

to natural ability we crossed the border

from Poland into the Czech Republic and

now we're just about 270 the tallest

mountain in the Czech Republic in our

shorts cloud on all the way good how are

you feeling good once again back home

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one of the reasons it's been so

difficult for women to get his method

accepted by the scientific establishment

is that it's an immigrant our society's

view of the body of medicine women's

figured out a way to influence the

immune system without the use of

pharmaceuticals and that could have big

ramifications for people with

inflammatory disorders whether it can be

used to cure actual diseases remains to

be proven this is the frontier of

science so it might be many years before

we fully understand the implications we

came into this with a heavy dose of

skepticism but within a few days we were

able to comfortably climb a freezing

cold mountain and nothing but our shorts

wim gives people a chance to take back

some control over their minds and bodies

and for people who suffer from

depression or illnesses not gonna help

can be priceless

what's the final stage in your mission

final stages go back to the brief go

back to the love to the last love I want

to bring back love in the world

love is compelled by happiness strength

and health if you radiate good energy

because you're healthy happy and strong

that's love so love is my mission

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breathe it's for free its life it's good

Cyrano in a Sierra Nevada

so Pico Blanco

sorry limited or AHIMA food I'm Evan

Dando since pathos Oregon he recommend

if you need to breathe you take them in

and blow your mind

come on it's natural drugs ignited

you