“I felt this attraction to the cold water,” he says. Even today, he has a difficult time explaining the impulse. The son of working-class parents with an abiding interest in yoga, karate and Hinduism, he was walking beside a half-frozen Beatrixpark canal when a powerful urge overcame him, and he stripped down. It all started one winter day in Amsterdam, when Hof was 17. But that’s just one man, and just one man is not enough to change the course of modern medical history. “One that doesn’t want to get out! Squeeze, yeah! Nice!” He pauses. “Squeeze it like you’ve got a big shit to get out of you!” Hof says. At that point, oxygen is flooding the body and carbon dioxide is being expelled from the bloodstream. Thirty seconds after that, he sucks in a bunch of air and, as instructed by Hof, bears down on the newly held breath, trying to press it into his brain. One minute after he started to hold his breath, the Airstream owner is looking a little peaked.
It hardly fazed the deep breathers – or at least not as much as it could have. Not only that, but in a 2014 study, researchers injected 12 other WHM subjects with a toxin that normally causes flulike nausea and fever. It all sounds kind of nutty, of course, but in a 2012 study, Hof’s theory was put to the test by university researchers in the Netherlands, who examined samples of his blood and found that, as Hof claimed, he could indeed manipulate his immune system at will and, in so doing, fight and win battles against diseases of all kinds. For one, blood-cell oxygen levels are plummeting, from 100 percent to under 80 percent, triggering a fight-or-flight response that sends stress-hormone levels rocketing, in turn suppressing inflammation and, over time, leading to all kinds of health benefits.Ĭaught up in the moment, Hof allows a few departures from the science behind his method, barking stuff like, “We are changing the chemistry! You’re becoming alkaline! Carbon dioxide is not working! Your body is supremely present! We are going past the lymphatic nodes! Adrenaline is shooting out of your body, resetting your body! Yes, yes, go with your mind!” According to Hof’s theory, certain changes are now occurring inside the body. There is no need for breathing.”Īnd then the seconds begin to tick by, with the guy holding his breath.
When the last breath is absorbed, Hof says, “OK, now let it go, and stop. He has him take 40 of these breaths, during which blood-cell oxygen levels rise to the maximum amount possible. He tells his new pupil to forcefully suck in a big lungful of oxygen (“Fully in!”), then exhale normally (“Let it go!”), in a modified form of hyperventilation. “Every person will be happy, strong and healthy! We’re awakening people! Then peace will come on this Earth! These famous actors, they’re gonna go up Mount Kilimanjaro in shorts! After that, the world will know!”Īt about the same time, the owner of the Airstream trailer, a string-beanish fellow, rounds the corner, takes a seat, and just like that, Hof has him taking deep breaths to demonstrate the cornerstone of the WHM. “We’re on the brink of change of awareness and consciousness!” he says. He speaks loudly, rolling his R’s in grand fashion, as only a Dutchman can, and, when talking about the WHM, his eyes turn almost feverish. As usual, he’s shirtless, scraggly-bearded and happy to expose what for a 58-year-old man is an impressive array of muscles. He’s come to the States to participate in a Michigan-based medical study and to try to find donors to help support his cause. Today, Hof has plopped himself into a chair next to a gleaming Airbnb-rented Airstream trailer set high above a coastal California canyon. Singer Paulette McWilliams on Her Years With Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, and Steely Dan In all, he has claimed 26 world records for his various feats, including the Guinness World Record for longest ice bath (1 hour, 52 minutes and 42 seconds), enabling him to rightfully be called “the Iceman.” But that’s not enough for him. It doesn’t matter to him that over the past few years he’s become some kind of global cultural phenomenon, making media appearances all over (Discovery Channel, ABC, NBC, National Geographic Channel) to provide the lowdown on not only his breathing technique but also his nearly superhuman ability to withstand cold, which is another part of his method and always a crowdpleaser. Here he is, claiming to hold the secret to curing MS, arthritis, diabetes, fear, depression, anxiety, pain, PTSD, bipolar disorder, cancer, you name it, and nobody seems to care. Wim Hof’s position on big-big-name celebrities like Jim Carrey, Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise is that they are going to help take him and his far-out, revolutionary, health-restoring way of deep breathing, known as the Wim Hof Method (WHM), to the next level.
0 kommentar(er)
