The Rise and Fall of the Wim Hof Empire
I was practicing the Wim Hof method uh
ended up having a hypoxic blackout
underwater no life support for 4 weeks
when he did pass out under the water and
no one noticed about approximately 30
minutes later that he was found and he
was in like a um a meditative position
underwater heart's beating but you know
there's just no brain activi he was sure
enough a goner anybody taking whims work
and going into a pool in hyper venan
you're just playing roulette there is no
amount of money that can truly comp say
for the death of the child but this is a
$67 million case there's nobody in that
organization
currently that understands the
physiology I don't think they have a
grasp on it
orders do not talk to the Press people
could have died people have died I never
wanted to tell this story about Wim Hoff
instead for years I've told you about
how his breath work and cold exposure
techniques helped hundreds of thousands
of people develop resilience and control
their anxiety depression and autoimmune
illnesses this indomitable iceman has
smed millions of devotees to his
practices myself included in 2016 we
climbed shirtless up Mount kilan gyro
together while the temperature dipped to
Min
-30° I can honestly say that I love his
method and think that whim is one of the
most inspiring people I've ever met
we've been good friends for a decade
primarily because he understood that I
would always tell the truth no matter
what and that is why I feel so
conflicted about what I'm about to tell
you what you probably know about Wim Hof
is a comfortable myth it is a story that
recounts all of the most amazing things
about the ice man and his Methods at the
same time that it masks underlying
problems within his organization and
whims own meteoric rise into the
Limelight after 10 years practicing his
method and writing numerous articles and
books that contributed to that myth I've
come to the inescapable conclusion that
it's time for me to report the full
truth about how neglectful and deceptive
activities at Wim Hoff's organization in
fire as well as as what I believe is
whims own culpability repeatedly
teaching a dangerous breath work
technique that has now led to the
suspected deaths of at least 12 people
this story is complicated but the most
important thing to remember is that whm
Hoff is best known for two techniques
hyperventilation breath work that allows
a person to hold their breath for
seemingly superhuman amounts of time and
Ice immersion when practiced separately
these components components add up to
the remarkable benefits that have
changed our scientific understanding of
human biology when they're practice
together they can turn into a toxic brew
that can make a person pass out in the
water and drown it doesn't help that Wim
Hoff used this hyperventilation
technique to set a Guinness World Record
for swimming under sea ice even though
he almost died the first time that he
tried to do it don't just take it from
me that this is dangerous I showed a
video of whim teaching this techniques
to cardiologist Rohan Francis who
immediately recognized the danger there
is a well recognized physiological
response that uh hyperventilation
followed by breathholding can trigger uh
loss of consciousness and coupling that
with immersing yourself in water then
there is a risk of blacking out and and
potentially drowning even in a small
volume of water the phenomenon is called
shallow water blackout and we'll get
into the physiology later but know for
now that it's intensely dangerous not
only that but the phenomenon is made all
the more dangerous when followed by a f
long inhale something that looks like
this which is what whim is teaching far
too often while official whm Hoff
channels include a few warnings against
hyperventilating in water whim has never
stopped te teaching the practices
despite knowing that people were dying
while practicing his method as far back
as
2014 since then I've done a deep dive
into the available news reports and
discovered at least 11 cases where Wim
Hoff method practitioners have drowned
most likely because they were following
whims example lest It Go without saying
do not try this at home here he is
teaching the exact method in an online
course available on his website do the
breathing go into the water keep on with
the breathing keep on being
focused are you
said you
immers you
focus and you stay in the water the L
Community has not been open to talking
with us about this um they refer us to
their website where they encourage
people not to do it in water but we
still see people doing it in in the
water so how come on one end they're
saying we don't encourage this but on
another end we're seeing fatalities due
to what they say they're not encouraging
a disclaimer mentioned on the website is
not enough when the leader of an
organization presses a different message
in person
when I've asked whim about why he
continues to teach these practices he's
responded with well I think we need to
get into that a little bit later because
his response touches on deep problems
where this entire organization is really
going and it's just as concerning as the
deaths themselves in order to understand
what is happening right now we need to
go back in time to how this all started
in 2013 I traveled to Poland on a
mission from Playboy magazine to debunk
whm Hof as a charlatan Guru selling
snake oil meditation practices that
promised people false
superpowers at the time I was making a
career out of these sorts of stories and
even ended up writing a book called The
Enlightenment trap about the danger of
intense spiritual seeking I thought
whims mix of inspiration and limit
pushing was the perfect recipe for a
cult leader but after a week with the
inveterate Iceman I came away with an
entirely unexpected opinion much to my
surprise his method worked I learned to
hold my breath for 3 minutes at a
stretch I meditated in the snow as Steam
wafted up off of my body and I climbed
an icy Mountain without a shirt I wrote
an article that ultimately helped launch
his career and soon after my article
came out Vice followed up with a
documentary where they talked about how
my change of heart provided the
foundation for Hoff's credibility Scott
County is an investigative journalist he
came from America to this place to cut
through the crap and the charlatan
business and all that and that was me
and now he's uh you know he wants to
write a book and bring it to America and
everything it's hard for me to express
how much meeting whim changed my life as
far as I was concerned the method was
nothing short of miraculous and whim
deserved the
accolades a few months after the episode
on Vice Joe Rogan brought Wim Hof on and
soon it seemed like the whole world was
singing the same song of breath work and
inner fire you have the longest time of
holding your breath and swimming under
ocean ice ocean ice too right yes ocean
ice have been
[ __ ] incredibly cold water where salt
water freezes over right I continued my
journey with Hoff and wrote a book
called what doesn't kill us that ended
up on the New York Times bestseller list
I became one of Hoff's Chief evangelists
going on almost 300 TV shows podcasts
news articles spreading Hoff's message
the entire time and I practiced the ice
bathing and his hyperventilation
techniques almost every day as a result
an autoimmune illness that had plagued
me since childhood cleared up and I was
taking control over my life in a way
that I never had before I knew beyond a
shadow of a doubt that his method worked
for me and hundreds of other people that
I met who had similar experiences
honestly there are hundreds of thousands
of people who have directly benefited
from this method and we can't discount
that but there was something that
needled me that whole time yes Wim Hoff
might have been an icy Prophet who
opened the door to these practices for
millions of people but he was also a mad
man I like to think of him as crazy in a
good way it takes someone a little crazy
to actually want to make ice water a
lifestyle the flip side of that equation
though is knowing that when the tendency
towards crazy crosses a line when you're
supposed to back off and I was seeing
more and more of his crazy every single
month he peppered interviews with things
that science just couldn't back up his
stunts had almost killed him on several
occasions and even left him permanently
scarred maybe even
disabled when I followed whim up Mount
kilamanjaro without a shirt at the
conclusion of what doesn't kill us his
focus on achieving some IL defined
record led the group to mutin against
him when he said that we should push on
to the final Ascent without food we had
a little uh disagreement uh about an
hour ago and most of the group stayed
behind they wanted lunch which you can't
really blame him his poor judgment and a
focus on quote pushing past perceived
limits which is the subtitle of a book
that he put out in
2011 had time and again turned a
wonderful practice dangerous I
constantly worried it would lead to
either whim or his followers getting
injured or even dying after all there
are certain limits that you won't push
past and live to tell about whim
appeared on hundreds of celebratory news
programs podcasts and TV shows and
somewhere along the way the public
perception began to be that whim had
invented the method out of thin air this
was fueled not only by the media's
glorification of him but also by the
fact that whim stopped talking about his
trips to India in the 1980s where he
learned impressively long Sanskrit
mantras and even wrote a book on yogic
techniques very few people have
mentioned that whims signature breath
work almost exactly resembles yogic
breathing patterns called nasheka
rashaka pranayama and ostria kumaka
pranayama also absent from the
conversation was the use of hydrotherapy
in the late 1800s and profry ivanovs
whose icy religious movement was wildly
popular in Russia and Europe until his
death in 1983 we ignored the teachings
of the stoics in ancient Greece who
philosophized that man could only get
stronger by pitting themselves against
the harshness of Nature and we seemingly
forgot how Friedrich nii reinvigorated
the stoic methods in his book thus spake
Zara thra when he wrote quote with a
wickedness I do begin every day I mock
at the winter with a cold
bath for almost 8 years the media
neglected all of that history and placed
Hof on an almost impossible pedestal as
the creator of cold
exposure most of the features done on
him built up the myth that whim was a
breathwork founder and expert without
reporting on his ballooning ego and the
deadly effects and consequences of his
actions his followers started to look at
him as an infallible Guru not a flawed
person who merely opened the door to a
beneficial practice I am far from the
only person who has noticed this change
in whim over the last decade a few weeks
ago I spoke with a neuroscientist AO
music at Wayne State University who fits
in with this pattern in 2018 music
published an ofen cited paper about
Hoff's ability to willfully control his
autonomic nervous system viim Hof
anybody can do that my problem with with
Rim Hof that they say oh it's magic and
it's it's kind of you know unique you
don't need Rim Hof you don't need to go
to the snsh it kind of lost its purpose
it just becomes a
business and I don't want to be
associated with that music went on to
say that his paper doesn't only apply to
the Wim Hoff method but also just about
every other Environmental Training
technique out there to quote him again
many techniques do the same thing but
inner fire wants to present it like
their method is somehow special the
results apply to anything that causes
hormetic stress unquote in other words
the Wim Hoff method's benefits aren't
nearly as unique as whim claims they
are when all of this started for me at
his dilapitated farmhouse in the
backwaters of Poland I came with the
intention of debunking a cult leader
before he turned into a danger to
himself and others now I'm starting to
wonder if maybe I got to my assignment
just a little bit too early I was
dazzled by the mindboggling effects of
the method but hadn't for foreen how the
Future Would unfold now that whim is
properly famous the alarm bells are
going off maybe it was just destiny that
things would eventually go off the
rails so here I am at the beginning once
again as strange as it might sound my
purpose for being here today is that
more than anything else I want to save
the reputation and future of the breath
work and Ice training from what I think
could be the impending collapse of the
organization that has promoted it for
the last decade you could say that I'm
trying to save whims teachings from whim
the icon and return to the spirit of
those early days when everything was
magical the the man is more important
than the method I'm I'm getting hints of
like Guru Worship in what you're saying
100% this is 100% is what's going on and
it's funny because you get like you get
them you get people talking about oh I'm
not I'm not the guru or I'm not you know
the gurus is in you and it's like yeah
you're literally setting this up for you
to be the
guru that was Brian McKenzie and like me
he has been part of the Wim Hoff story
for close to a decade he even got close
to forming a partnership with whim in a
plan to release an ice work and breath
work business across America we
acknowledged that there were some things
a little bit off about whim and the
organization around him but at that time
we thought that the message would
ultimately Prevail despite some initial
concerns and I'll be honest I was guilty
of this too when I put out what doesn't
kill us my editor and I had a Frank
conversation about what we should do
with the stories about Wim Hoff that
didn't reflect him in the best possible
light after all when I when I first met
whim I noticed that he had a large
bulbous nose that resembled the noses of
Alcoholics I'd grown up around I'd seen
him black out drunk on several occasions
and he smoked like a chimney despite
presenting himself as a paragon of human
health but it wasn't only those
superficial aspects of his daily habits
that concerned me Hoff also embodied the
worst possible model for Parenthood that
any of us could imagine after his first
wife Hoff committed suicide whim
abandoned his four children at a squat
house in Amsterdam and took up with a
woman who I'll just identify her by her
first name which is Caroline in another
city he left them in poverty alone
without any support at all this is
Marcel Hoff his brother whim wasn't
there and he he made the choice for uh
for Caroline it's it it was another nice
relationship finally it came to an end
it did did pretty long like a or 10
years and I think during that period he
didn't saw his uh own family much a lot
of wine involved a lot of uh alcohol it
was this that way of suppressing his
feelings clearly those weren't the kind
of stories that fit with the Superman
image that the media was pushing add to
this that whim often made claims that
were far beyond what science can muster
like suggesting that his method can cure
cancer covid and even AIDS
having chemo having cancer you are able
to make the absolute difference he has
adopted a decidedly conspiracy theory
forward stance on vaccines fouchy and
how a shadowy new world order controls
the world's medical system and
governments on several occasions he said
to me that if he wanted to he could stop
breathing with his mouth and lungs all
together and instead breathe exclusively
out of his
anus at the time my editor and I decided
that since the book was about the health
benefits of cold water and breath work
that including more details about his
actual history might undermine the
message that we were trying to get
across and this was the same choice that
just about every media outlet that
covered him also made we focused on the
inspiring message of self-mastery and
minimized the madness in light of recent
events I need to tell you everything
that I know so that there's a complete
record the only way that we can really
evaluate the best parts of whm Hoff is
to also understand and look at the less
than Savory side with clear eyes if we
take it all in the good and the bad and
the deadly I think that we'll all see
that on the balance whim is an
exceptionally fascinating and inspiring
person whose method need needs to be
taken seriously but will also have the
context to understand what his own
limits really are and how much Faith any
of us should put into that man himself
and the organization that enables
him now before I get into these details
I want to pause for just a second and
ask you to do me a favor for reasons
that you'll understand soon certain
individuals associated with with the Wim
Hoff method are afraid of the truth
coming out and never want my work to see
the light of day I've received threats
and harassment pretty much continually
for the last several months since they
can't actually counter the facts in this
video they are attempting to use
YouTube's terms of service in what seems
like an unfair Way by claiming that I am
violating their privacy by merely even
mentioning their names most recently Wim
Hoff's son what you you are seeing right
now includes some blurred images and
some beeps when a certain name is
mentioned don't worry you can probably
figure out who it is anyway he is after
all a very well-known person who doesn't
have a problem being public in TV shows
and other YouTube videos and podcasts
and other places like that but for some
reason he feels very strongly that his
privacy has been violated by being
mentioned here and there's a chance that
this video and even my entire YouTube
channel will be removed from the
internet quickly based on their
complaints since I want to be able to
tell you the story in full and keep in
touch I would really like you to sign up
for my newsletter in the description
down below besides regular Hoff updates
I also send out updates on Consciousness
meditation Cults and history so please
hit that link and let me show up in your
inbox from time to time and since I
don't know exactly how things will pan
out I've also started a new podcast
called Scott Carney investigates that
you can find on all of the normal
channels and I'm also mirroring all of
my content on Rumble so that if this
video does disappear you can still share
it with people who need to watch it the
most okay with that out of the way let
me tell you a story that I think
perfectly encapsulates whims Madness was
yeah yeah this also this EX you know
where he almost his stomach was totally
open he almost died perhaps you've
noticed the scar on Wim Hof's abdomen
it's not a small one you can see that
his belly button protrudes outwards and
there's a triangle that seems to be
gouged out in the whole area well the
way he got that scar tells you a lot
about the man it started back in 2008
Wim Hoff had not seen his youngest son
in almost 10 years but he was starting
to get some recognition for his Feats in
the ice and was making a little money
doing so he wanted to make amends for
his 10 years of absence so he set a time
to meet his son at beatric Park in
Amsterdam whim arrived a little early
and perhaps because he was nervous he
decided to calm himself by going for a
swim in the Park Pond while he was
waiting he paddled out to a fountain in
the center and well I'm just going to
let whim describe this part it's just a
fountain and I put it up my ass and I
cleans cleanses all my uh [ __ ] in my
intestines and you [ __ ] it out like that
and all goes and you feel good I had
done it already like 100 times so he
positioned himself over the spout and
the pressurized water cut through his
intestines Like a Knife I sat on it with
my pants but it got through my pants and
uh through the the [ __ ] up into the
intestines and it just
cuted and I got my stomach or my
intestines full of uh dirty water
knowing he was seriously injured whim
managed to make it to the shore just as
his son arrived a few minutes later
whims first words to his son was that he
needed to go to the hospital and fast
now after whim first told me this story
in 2013 I asked him if he wanted to hurt
himself intentionally in order to show
his son the depth of his grief uh you
get a feeling you want to kill yourself
you want to end the story but not not
deliberately but unconsciously sort of
yeah stop this stop this [ __ ] even if I
have to die almost I want to stop
this something like that was going on
this was a hard time in his life his
marriage Mar to Caroline in a nearby
City had broken up and he was $30,000 in
debt to the government he had abandoned
his children and hadn't seen any of them
in 10 years but think about all of this
in the context of the movement that's
grown up around him he is a man who was
clearly Reckless with his own life and
whose own subconscious desire to die
actually led him to almost actually
dying would you put your life in the
hands of a man who makes decisions like
this would you follow a general into
battle who had a death wish all right
well let me give you another example one
of the things that whim is best known
for is a now broken world record for
swimming the longest distance under sea
ice but all was not as it seemed in his
first attempt to make the crossing he
abandoned the safety protocols that he
had established and tried to Sprint
twice the distance as he had planned
originally and he had warned the crew
about in the book becoming the Iceman he
wrote that his corneus froze in the
water and he went
blind Marcel Hoff his brother was with
whim for the record attempt and he
remembers whim hyperventilating before
his underwater swim deeply in and let
him go deeply in all the things he did
for years and he's still doing not
different but I think maybe he took it a
little too far and then there's a point
yeah the oxygen is gone the energy is
gone then you let go and I think he
reached that point whim passed out and
only survived because of the quick
action of a rescue diver whim went on to
break the record the next day the
footage of him being under the water
ended up in a TV program for the
Discovery Channel and it was one of the
ways that he first started getting
recognition for his
abilities shouldn't we remember how he
almost almost drowned on that initial
attempt before we offer up accolades
about his superhuman abilities these are
just two examples of Hoff's General lack
of good judgment we only tell half the
story there are at least a handful more
that I can think of yet these stories
get sidelined in favor of the myth that
we want to believe well not many people
are going to follow his example and
clean out their bowels with Fountain
spigots the story about swimming under
sea ice is Central to the image that his
8 million social media followers see the
way he presents that message could well
be what is leading people to die now
that's a big statement so I need to give
an example in 2018 I shared a stage with
Wim Hoff in Los Angeles in front of a
crowd of about 300 people I was pretty
excited to cross-promote my book with
whim but more importantly it was a great
way to see how Wim Hoff actually teaches
his method to a crow crowd in America
the session included the usual bits of
whim revving up the crowd with a Litany
of records that he achieved as well as
the promise that would only take them an
afternoon to learn the tricks that gave
him such amazing Powers the whole crowd
breathed in deeply in unison for 50 deep
breaths under his Direction This was
enough to get people's fingers and toes
tingling some would have felt
lightheaded then as he was giving these
instructions the movie screen behind us
flipped over to that famous footage of
whim swimming under the ice and then he
told everyone to hold their breath for
the entire duration of his swim he took
about 10 Strokes underwater covering
what he estimates was 70 M the whole
crowd strained under their urge to gas
it worked on a theatrical level the
people found that it was relatively easy
to hold their breath for the minute or
so that it took we whm to paddle across
the screen but I was in shock because no
one should ever practice the Wim Hoff
hyperventilation breathing method in
water period warning labels in my book
as well as all over Wim Hoff's own site
repeatedly caution people that
hyperventilation is not a free diving
technique and yet here whim was in front
of a crowd implicitly saying the hyper
ventilation will help them push past
their perceived limits and swim
underwater just like him now if you're
new to the world of breath work you're
probably wondering why I'm making such a
big deal about this it would seem that a
technique that allows you to hold your
breath for a long time would also be
useful swimming indeed in my book what
doesn't kill us I wrote How The Big Wave
Surfer lired Hamilton briefly
Incorporated a similar hyperventilation
technique and breathhold in his xpt
training program but lir and pretty much
every other breath worker changed course
when a pair of Navy SEALs died of
something called shallow water blackout
in a pool in the midwest in
2015 anybody taking whims work and going
into a pool in hyperventilate you're
just playing roulette you're almost
guaranteed at some point to go out when
you do that newspapers began running
stories about extreme fit swimmers
suddenly
drowning now the danger comes from the
strange and unintuitive mechanisms of
the mamillion respiratory system when
you hold your breath the urge to gasp
doesn't come up because you've used up
all the available oxygen but because of
the buildup of the gas that you exhale
which is carbon dioxide in the lungs and
bloodstream the gasp sensation rises in
lock step with with CO2 levels until you
feel well like you're going to pop Wim
Hoff style hyperventilation blows off
all that CO2 and confuses the body's
alarm system to temporarily shut off
this is why people can hold their breath
for 2 or 3 minutes doing the method
unfortunately just like when you remove
the battery from a smoke detector when
the toe starts to burn the margin that
you bought yourself comes at a price the
gases get so mixed up that you can use
up your O2 and pass out before you feel
that Sensation that you're in trouble
and it gets even more dangerous when you
want to maximize your breath hold with a
full lung inhalation of air at the end
of that hyperventilation what happens
then is that you have so little CO2 in
your body and so much volume of air that
it's almost impossible for you to detect
any Sensations at all that you might
pass out it is a deadly combination now
if you're lying down on dry land it
usually isn't a problem you faint and
your body hits the reset button and you
just start breathing normally but if
you're in water that reset means you're
going to drown so hyperventilating is
more likely to make you pass out in the
water because you just shorten the
reflex to breathe longer which creates
an illusion that you can hold your
breath longer you blow off all the
oxygen in the red blood cells and it
depletes it and your brain and nervous
system protect you by shutting you down
very quickly whim knows that this is
dangerous he is well aware that people
have drowned doing his method in water
this knowledge alone should have been
enough for whim and the organization
around him to set up a firewall where he
never endorsed these sorts of techniques
publicly in any way ever there should
never be confusion about it as far as I
can tell there's not even any benefit to
learning how to do this sort of method
in water at all after the conference in
Los Angeles I reminded whim about the
dangers of shallow water blackout and
well he Shrugged it off saying that
there were warnings on his website about
not mixing his breath work and water
indeed a full two years before we went
on stage together a Dutch newspaper
connected four deaths of Wim Hoff
practitioners to hyperventilation and
even got the CEO of inner fire Wim
Hoff's son to comment here's the quote
that ran in the newspaper it's pretty
lame but then you shouldn't do the
exercises underwater everywhere on our
site and with all our Expressions we
warn people we can do no more well I
don't know if lame was quite the word
that I would have chosen but at least it
was an acknowledgement that inner fire
is aware of the problem and this is what
had me reeling why weren't they doing
more to address the problem than just
slapping a disclaimer on their website
and why was whim still making a
connection between his breath work and
the water on stage I asked Brian
McKenzie about this the last
time anybody wanted to take
responsibility for having a catastrophic
problem with something they
created is I I don't recall many
instances of that Ian maybe Brian was
right just maybe whim didn't want to
change course on something that he has
been doing all along could it be that
he's simply Too Proud to admit that he's
got something wrong in fact after I
start poking around I learned from one
of the 1500 Wim Hoff method instructors
that one of the courses that innerfire
sells on its website includes a week of
hyperventilation in a cold shower while
standing up with the same full lung
exhale that can make someone pass out I
know several people who have tried this
exact maneuver and ended up bruised on
the floor and then on week eight of the
course whim leads a lone student into
the water
hyperventilating and dunking his head in
the text next to the video there is a
bizarre disclaimer that reads the guy in
the video is Guided by whim to learn to
deal with the cold he is not doing the
breath retention and then putting his
head underwater okay so that's the
disclaimer but these are the
instructions that whim is giving in the
video do the breathing go into the water
keep on with the breathing keep on being
focused and you sit you imerse you
focus and you stay in the water 20
seconds 25 30 35 doesn't matter he this
is the exercise and then he gives the
instructions again withh holding breath
is control and then in ice cold
water at the end of the video after
after he's given these instructions
several times someone offs screen's
voice appears and reminds whim to uh
mention the potential dangers to which
whim says that water is dangerous but
that people should trust their own
senses and don't overdo it because you
know the battle with in nature you
always will lose finally because there
is no competition keep to your feel to
your sense and to your logic and see how
much you can do and uh
witness and then surprisingly you will
see you can do a whole lot my guess is
that the disclaimer was a lazy after the
fact addition to avert liability once
they realized it might give people the
idea that it was okay to hyperventilate
in water because the video clearly shows
the opposite that's whim
hyperventilating in water
in general I'd say that inner fire does
a pretty bad job warning people about
the potential side effects and dangers
associated with the method they've been
reticent to mention the abnormally High
numbers of people who report getting
long-term ttis after a few rounds of
breathing I did a video about that a few
months back that was temporarily removed
from the Internet by Inner Fire even
though I eventually reposted a modified
version that is still somehow
miraculously alive
the truly insane thing about this well
one of the truly insane things is that
hyperventilation doesn't do much of
anything to warm you up in fact for most
people it actually lowers their core
temperature that's the wrong way to do
the Wim Hoff method in the snow it's
only going to make me
colder this is why when he first taught
me the breath work in Poland in 2013 we
practic it in our sleeping bags to stay
warm despite this whim teaches workshops
where he tells people that the breath
work will heat them up um there's nobody
in that organization
currently that understands the
physiology I don't think they have a
grasp on it whim is just wrong studies
on the whm Hoff method adjacent yoga
technique concluded that suyaa pranayama
increased energy expenditure as reported
earlier to perform various vital
functions optimally without increasing
the body
temperature from what I've been able to
understand from the science of it whims
breath work triggers the sympathetic
Pathways in a way that will make you
colder in the short run it's only after
you learn to relax in the stimulation of
cold stress that you build up endurance
in the ice and start to warm up after
what I'd witnessed on on the book tour I
felt that was only a matter of time
before something bad happened on an
official whm Hoff method Expedition so
even as I continued to practice his
methods daily I kept my eye out for any
breaking news involving whim and his
method well no one has drowned at an
official Wim Hoff event the global body
count has continued to tick upwards over
the years no no one keeps official
records on this sort of thing but I
wanted to find out exactly how many
deaths there had been so earlier this
year I started looking for news reports
that specifically mentioned a connection
between drowning and the Wim Hoff method
and I found 12 of them as well as
several accounts of people doing his
breathing and blacking out in water only
to just barely
survive Britt Jackson at the
organization shallow water blackout
prevention that tries to raise awareness
of the dangers of this little known
condition says that an increasing number
of people that she learns about have a
connection to practicing the Wim Hoff
method I showed her a video of what whim
calls a baptism at one of his many icy
ceremonies and this is what she said on
one end they're saying we don't
encourage this but on another end we're
seeing fatalities due to what they say
they're not encouraging are people doing
this on their own this video would
suggest differently that they are
actually teaching
hyperventilation before submersion which
is the recipe for a shall
blackout in January
2022 Christopher koven was just one
person who was confused about whether or
not to do the Wim Hoff method in water
Chris he did this often in which he
would go to the gym and he would sit in
the hot tub um and he would practice
breath fling he would do whm Hoff prior
to going under the hot tub water he
would time himself and so there was a
clock on the wall and he'd go under and
he'd count in seconds and so he was
always trying to increase his breath
holding and hold it longer just for the
fun of it and the skill of it that's his
girlfriend Cara Spencer Christopher
dreamed of becoming a Navy SEAL but
washed out during the intense screening
session called buds still he always
wanted to find new ways to push his
limit he had probably done it over 20
times you know with nothing happening
but um when when he did pass out under
the water and no one noticed qan hovind
spent 20 minutes under the water before
someone raised the alarm according to
the list that I collected at least three
people died under similar circumstances
in 2022 alone I mean I I think it's um
putting people at risk for sure because
you can never ensure that the same
person who watches the YouTube video is
also going to catch some information on
another site talking about how you
shouldn't do something and even so if
you're doing one thing and then saying
another creates a message that's really
confusing and ultimately I think the
person that's going to go with I
probably do whatever whm Hof the master
of this method method is doing himself
because it seems like if he's doing it
then the implication is it's safe enough
another case this one out of Southern
California Andrew and Cenas drowned on
Labor Day in 2019 my brother Andrew was
a very Avid whm Hoff follower uh watched
all his YouTube videos it was always
something that you know he's done in
water he's done in showers and on the
Labor Day weekend in 2019 there was my
brother in the shallow end and he was in
like a um a meditative position
underwater passed out so I came out I
jumped the pool fence lifted him out of
the pool started you know delivering CPR
he got his heart beating when he got to
the hospital they said hey his heart's
beating but you know there was just no
brain activity he was sure enough a
goner they rushed Andrew to the hospital
but it was already too late I asked Yama
akabari the cardiologist at UCA Hospital
who ultimately declared Andrew brain
dead to describe exactly what happened
while he was hyperventilating he had
less blood flow to his brain he
basically got dizzy it's like putting
somebody in a in a choke hold he fell
down and unfortunately if he would have
been in in not in water he probably
would have started breathing again in
this case he had he had um fluid in his
lungs so he probably while he was semi-
passed out he probably tried to take a
few breaths underwater and I mean you
don't need much you know even if it's as
as shallow as this if you go face down
you're breathing water in another case
out of New Zealand a young man named
Hamish Jameson did several rounds of
whmh half breathing in a community pool
and passed out in June 2020 I was
practicing the wimh half method ended up
having a hypoxic blackout underwater
unnoticed for 8 minutes I had CPR and
five defs to get my heart going again
and I ended up on EO life support for
four weeks
yeah I I didn't know the risks feel very
grateful for being here but the only way
that I found out that he was doing the
Wim Hoff method in the water was because
he survived and that a newspaper then
covered his story as part of a local
inquest even famous people have gotten
into trouble with the Wim Hoff method in
water two years ago Josh Watkin uh the
kid from the movie Searching for Bobby
fiser who is an avid whm Hoff method
practitioner told the author and
podcaster Tim Ferris that he
enthusiastically tried to prolong his
breath holds underwater by doing what he
says was whm Hoff inspired breathholds
in a New York City Pool he passed out
for 4 minutes only to be rescued by a
fellow
swimmer given the proliferation of cases
and the fact that whim continues to
teach the dangerous combination of
breath work and waterw work it's no no
surprise that some people have opted to
pursue legal Solutions no more Young
Americans should die doing the whim Hof
breathing methods which we've seen have
a proven track record of leaving deaths
and drownings in their wake the amount
we're seeking is going to be very
significant there was a legal complaint
filed in Los Angeles County court on
December 21st
2022 about the death of high school
senior meline Rose meter according to
the complaint meline had practiced the
Wim Hoff method for about a year finding
it helpful to regulate stress and
anxiety that morning it was a Hot August
day she had an argument with her mother
on the phone she then put on a bathing
suit and went out to the pool and
practiced Wim Hoff breathing at which
point she passed out and drowned in the
shallow end the complaint goes on to say
that she was a strong swim swimmer her
father Raphael Meer who is a personal
injury lawyer filed suit against his
ex-wife Tammy for introducing meline to
the Wim Hoff method as well as Wim Hoff
himself and inner fire BV this is a $67
million case the lawsuit claims that the
Wim Hoff method has no proven health
benefits and that inner fire knowingly
teaches a dangerous breath work practice
in the water without adequate warnings
the first and Prime Ary goal of the
litigation is to obtain an injunction
that will enjoin whm Hoff from marketing
his deadly breathing technique in the
United States when I approached Hoff for
a comment on the lawsuits just before
the publication of this piece he
responded with this message which well I
think I'm just going to let speak for
itself do real research covid and origin
of the Wuhan gain of function research
vaccine lies and death death medicine
side effects deaths and permanent
disability Epstein list Ukraine proxy
war environmental damage accidents
coverup politics etc etc I help millions
of people you do not seem to be
interested in I work with seven
universities now do real investigative
research instead of these tendous
questions cannot cooperate with magazine
per se wanted to open dialogue but there
seems to be none of real value here that
to me seems like just a list of
conspiracy theories and a deflection
against what are important allegations
and things that whim should respond to
as of June 15th 2023 neither whm Hoff
nor Inner Fire have filed an official
legal response to the complaint in the
LA courts all of the people on the list
were whm Hoff method practitioners who
died in water most likely I believe
because of shallow water blackout there
are some caveats of course no one can
say with 100% certainty the exact events
that led to each death and coroners
don't even have specific codes to
identify shallow water
blackout however these numbers are
indicative of a trend I believe it's
likely a radical undercount of the real
problem since most people who drown
never end up generating news stories
even though the data set is small four
of those people died in
2022 the first death that I have a news
report for is in 2015 which to me
indicates that the pace is picking up
indeed even as I began reporting this
story I added two more bodies to the
total there are a few reasons for this
the first is the most obvious in the
last few years Wim Hoff's popularity has
absolutely exploded there was a TV
series in the United Kingdom and he's
appeared on goop with gwenneth paltro
and makes regular appearances with
Russell Brand there are hundreds of
YouTube videos explaining how to do his
breathing technique and there's a movie
in the works about whim a biopic
meanwhile whm Hoff continues to conflate
breath work and waterw
work
at this year's winter travel event in
Poland a hundred people paid about
$3,000 each to spend a week with whim
pushing their own boundaries on the last
day they jumped off a 30ft waterfall one
by one all 100 of us jumped the
fall so to answer the question if all of
your friends jumped off a cliff would
you do it
too that that's Ricardo bengoa who was
at the event and right after that whim
got the idea after they all splashed
into the water that everyone would come
together with him and take a right of
passage that he calls a baptism and then
he just said okay we're gonna breathe 10
times and um we're gonna hold our breath
for 20 seconds you know underwater
Ricardo benoa enthusiastically joined
the circle and one of the members there
later posted a video of the whole
ceremony on the internet it shows whim
leading the whole group in a series of
12 deep breaths and then a full inhale
before submerging their heads together
in the water now while I doubt that
anyone in that particular video would be
in danger of drowning in this instance
the problem is that wi is spreading a
message that is okay to connect these
two practices at all they're starting to
seem like a guru sort of thing where um
anything that he says is going to be
right as I've said before I greatly
admire whim in many many ways since our
first meeting he and I have been on
friendly terms we send text messages
back and forth about the science of
breath work and funny pictures of our
pets but after I started collecting
information that connected whim breath
work to Deaths whim started to get
defensive his answers over text message
were characteristically odd he wrote to
me that 28,000 people drown every year
and that I was blaming him for all of
their deaths and then well he wrote this
I'm going to quote him here look into
baptism the real meaning of it you might
learn something I know what I do baptism
the real one is shutting down our over
controlling mind and activate deep
healing mechanisms in the body not going
to explain this physiologically to you
not into competition Sports here which
is entertainment since the Roman Empire
who killed an innocent man called
Jesus now I have trouble telling you
exactly what this message specifically
means except that it has a certain air
of whim comparing himself to Jesus
I don't know about you but this is the
sort of message that I would expect from
the leader of a cult indeed this message
along with the one that he sent me after
I asked him about meter's death pretty
much devolve into a Litany of conspiracy
theories and deflection and don't appear
to take the gravity of the situation
seriously and this leads me to another
aspect of inner fire which is is whm
Hoff's organization and it Bears a
second look since it might color the way
we collectively understand what's going
on like other groups that I've written
about before while covering up the
insular politics of spiritual Pursuits
inner Fire's first reaction to anything
that contradicts the image that they
want to present inevitably leads to a
knee-jerk instinct to cover up the truth
they pull from the same Playbook even
against instructors that they have a
falling out with well whim doesn't play
much of a role in the day-to-day
operations his son yes one of those
children that he left homeless for 10
years is CEO and manages everything with
a characteristic aggressive Mo uh they
take an awfully big cut of what you are
doing and they threaten you on a regular
basis with
lawsuits he'll yell like he'll yell at
people to get his own way he'll bully
people to get his own way and he'll use
the cake if it seems right but really
he's just going to tell people you're
doing it my way or Not by his own words
enam doesn't practice the method himself
you know I don't practice his method
right he's also clear that his decision
to rekindle things with his father after
10 years of absence didn't necessarily
stem from an enduring and deep bond 19
years ago I saw a opportunity with my
dad I I haven't I didn't spoke to him
like for 10 years or something I made my
little website blah blah he broke up
with his wife uh in those times and I
saw an opportunity I grabbed it you know
because he was famous as the icem man wh
of method did not exist it was like but
he did have a lot of attention towards
him now let me tell you a story
about back in 2018 I'd begun reporting
on a story that I'd heard about that 38
whm Hoff method instructors and training
got stuck on the top of a mountain in
Poland during an ice storm they weren't
wearing shirts and the situation was
Dire but maybe not deadly still three
instructors ended up with body
temperatures of just 90° F flirting
dangerously close to death they had to
be taken down the mountain by polish
search and rescue the weather could have
been a little bit worse and it could
have been way worse for for everybody so
people could have died that's Steven
pner who was on the mountain that day
fortunately everyone was ultimately okay
yet Adam's reaction wasn't to admit that
there had been a problem but instead to
cover up the event lest it make the
organization look bad
from
orders do not talk to the
Press designed a cover story he said
they'd pin it on this other group of
shirtless hikers in Poland that was
scheduled to be here the next weekend
and he told everyone to convince the
media that it was that group not a Wim
Hoff method group that had run into the
trouble what we were do told this to say
is it was Mountain Rescue was called for
that group when I got wined that
something was strange that happened to a
large group of instructors I messaged on
WhatsApp and he sent me 13 screenshots
of information claiming that my
journalism was irresponsible and that it
was this other group that had gotten
into trouble all along he fingered a man
named mate and I'll include a link to
all the screenshots of that below so you
can see his exact words I also did a
video on this that I'll also link
to told that same exact story to
everyone who asked my name is Ma shishka
I'm a breathing train
and
physiotherapist next day television come
to my house and stuff like this so so it
was really bad it is hard to even
imagine mate had no idea what was
happening when polish television Crews
arrived on his doorstep after all his
group hadn't even started climbing the
mountain yet but within minutes of the
TV story airing his phone started
ringing off the hook as 250 people had
signed up for his expedition they all
wanted to know if he was going to put
them in danger the money that he was
Raising for a sick child that was in
Jeopardy of just disappearing they put
it on
me lied and he told other people to lie
on his behalf not only that but just
didn't stop at denying that something
happened but actively sought out a rival
business and said it was them all
along this is the face of an
organization that is so caught up with
the myth of an indomitable Iceman that
the truth no longer matters it's a sign
that they will do whatever they can to
control the message and go to Great
Lengths to hide any of their own
missteps I reached out to over email to
comment on what I found during my
reporting he sent two emails in response
the first was to deny that Hoff ever
teaches hyperventilation in water that
he was unaware of the pending loss suit
that whim and his sisters share equally
in the company profits and that there
was no coverup on sneska when I
presented him with additional evidence
to my claims he responded with this you
have follow-up questions with lies
supporting them they make no sense this
is not journalism but just dumb silly
actions of yours you should be ashamed
of yourself I didn't lie to get success
I Amon honest I give you honest answers
and have nothing to hide you at the
other hand just come with lies to try to
get a reaction of me this will be the
last time I spend some energy on you
personally I just checked your videos
and the only way to get views is to use
our name that's because of our work and
dedication you profited from a lot don't
you feel embarrassed that you cannot get
views of your own in your own ways do
something constructive man you're just
sinking lower and lower just a little
free advice for you now
whim and you have seen my evidence you
can decide for yourself what you think
the truth really is to some degree whim
knows that his son is a liability to the
reputation of the organization and a
potential stumbling block for spreading
the message around the world
while might have been the right person
to start the method initially his
actions make inner fire look corrupt
what needs to happen is need to step
down from his pedal Stone there being so
pedantic about what he what he is doing
and that he thinks that he is the man
and in power and thing is the we won't
change and change needs to happen I feel
awkward within the own
organization the way it has been handled
like I don't care guys you do this and I
do this right and for the rest I have
never been on my own website I don't you
know I let it go feel endorsed for going
for the good yes love on the other hand
it strikes me that is also in a
difficult position the disclaimers on
the website and his occasional
interruptions of whim speaking
engagements to remind people of the
potential dangers of following all of
whims instructions to the letter might
be the best that he can do to control
the craziness of his father looked at
from this
perspective really has an impossible
task he's been on the ground level of
building a profitable business around
his father's Charisma and
Madness and now whims words carry so
much weight that cannot control the
outcome
anymore I think these are all signs
about an untenable tension at the heart
of the booming Iceman movement or as Wim
Hoff's brother Marcel observed and if we
become too dependent on a person who is
leading and that is the old Paradigm it
doesn't work anymore when I stood
shirtless next to whim at the base of
Mount sesa 10 years ago I knew that
there was a chance that this could be
the beginning of a quasi religious
movement that was destined to go off the
rails I'd seen it before in my book The
Enlightenment trap I wrote that gurus go
through different stages of development
at first they brim with enthusiasm and
have a message that spreads in the world
because it is legitimately beneficial to
their flock but over time money and
worldly considerations eventually stem
the groups growth and a minor Scandal
can upend the entire facade there comes
a predictable pattern of deaths coverups
and lies until ultimately the
organization Falls to Pieces the reason
that my initial reporting didn't bang
that drum was because at the same time I
knew there was potential danger there
was also an amazing opportunity to
spread a method that would let just
about anyone find find happiness health
and strength I chose to take the most
optimistic Outlook because I did and
still do believe that these methods
offer very important benefits to the
world I continue to be a daily
practitioner of breath work and Ice
immersion even though that I'm bringing
out a story that no doubt will anger
some people in this
community this is because as a
journalist I have a belief that the best
way to make a path to a productive
future is taking a long hard look at the
facts we have to follow the truth no
matter where it leads us I don't know
what the Fate will be for whatever Wim
Hoff does in the future I have hope
though that things can turn back but it
would take a fundamental change in the
organization's practices and in our
Collective desire to foster a myth
around a Madman this is something that
we can do we can appreciate how whim
opened the door to a great set of
practices without turning him into a
guru whether he wants this role or not
whim Hoff leads by example the cult of
personality around him puts him on a
pedestal that underplays the
questionable parts of his past while
overemphasizing the greatness of his
achievements it is possible to hold
these two opposing ideas in our heads at
the same time but we need to accept whim
as a prophet in the same breath that we
know he's a Madman in my mind it's the
only way to save his message otherwise
it's likely that the suspicious deaths
of 11 people in shallow water is only
the beginning of another darker story
thank you so much for watching this
video you've been here with me like for
more than an hour and you are a hero for
sitting through my whole Exposition
about the Wim Hof method
however I want you to be sure and I want
you to understand that Wim Hoff is still
a huge part of my life and I love the
method it has changed my perspective on
everything so if you're still into
watching a little bit more go check out
this video about what 10 years of the
Wim Hof method has done to make me feel
well pretty awesome in just about
everything that I do
and again thank you for being
[Music]
here