The Joe Rogan Experience - #712 - Wim Hof
Episode Date: October 21, 2015Wim Hof is a Dutch world record holder, adventurer and daredevil, commonly nicknamed the Iceman for his ability to withstand extreme cold. ...
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and boom we're live you're here thanks not a wolf t-shirt on nonetheless yes endurance you know is
that what it is yeah something i bought it this morning i thought you know it's of the lakota
indians in the venice beach uh venice beach lakota indians they're probably not legit
probably pakistan or something. Yeah, yeah.
Probably.
But the symbol, it symbolizes endurance, but not, you know, not physical endurance.
Do I did stuff.
But more like believing.
You have a very fascinating life, my friend. And you have done some amazing things.
I've been paying attention to you for the last couple months pretty intensely,
and leading up to this podcast, I've been researching you a lot.
And first of all, I want to know, how did all this get started?
For people who don't know who you are, you've accomplished a ton of world records.
You've endured things that most people think may be physically impossible.
You've proven they're possible. You've shown that you can people think may be physically impossible. You've proven they're possible.
You've shown that you can alter your immune system on demand.
You can regulate levels of stress hormones that people thought were unable to be controlled by the human mind,
that were autonomous, and you're doing this all on your own.
I've never heard of anybody else doing this.
First of all
How did you get started in this and?
What led you to this?
Yes
like many
probably I was in a soul search and
I visited many countries traditions languages
Esoteric disciplines and also like you also like karate and kung fu and yoga,
but also the Dharavish, the Sufi, Buddhism,
all kinds of traditions and disciplines,
but it could not really fulfill me in the depth.
A certain day, it was a Sunday, I was attracted to cold water i don't know why but uh because i was
seeking already for years you have a charge within you you always keep on looking searching seeking
and at that moment i felt the attraction and i knew I'm going to go in, you know, ice water.
And it only took me 30 seconds or one minute it took, but I felt this is it.
This is able to connect me with the depth of my physiology the way nature has meant it to be.
So it felt too good.
I felt connected.
This is not something you were drawn to before?
Not really.
Per accident.
I was more conscious at that moment.
And from there, I began to do it every day.
17 years old I was.
Done.
That's about 38 years ago.
And from there I began to do it on daily, you know, every day.
And this is in Holland?
This is in the Netherlands.
It's cold water.
It's cold water.
Water transmits the temperature like 25 times more than the air.
Temperature like 25 times more than the air.
But I returned the other day and the other day because I felt so good.
I felt connected.
And it's all about the connection within which I was looking for, the depth, which I could not find in books. I read about hundreds of books on philosophy, on religion, on esoteric disciplines,
all kinds of books, you know, searching, searching, searching.
But the answer is not in the head.
The answer is in the body and the brain together.
And cold water triggered this.
And then from there on, the cold water, at a certain point, when you do it regularly,
you become conscious your breathing pattern is going to change.
Because you've got to be more effective.
You need more oxygen to withstand the impact of the cold.
And that needs oxygen.
It needs combustion in the cell.
And feeling it, i was doing that and i changed my breathing pattern and when i changed my breathing pattern is when the
magic began then i began to see you know lights by manipulating the breathing differently lights
like how so yeah they got in in the, they call it the chakras.
In China, they call it the qi, the qi, and so forth.
And I found out that this was very possible
in a very short period of time.
And this is nothing someone's showed you how to do.
This is something you figured out on your own. The cold is my only master. The cold is my only teacher.
And the breathing, when you say you altered your breathing patterns, like what do you mean
exactly? Like, uh, when I went in at a certain point, I knew how to be, you know, very relaxed going in and then let the cold impact go within and then
begin breathing deeper and then a certain dance between the cold and your
breath begins to start up begins to charge your body. And after 25 breaths like that, very conscious in the cold.
The cold is a force and it has its impact.
And you go along with the cold and what it does on the physiology, and you use your breathing.
Now I know what happens physiologically, but then, then those days it was all by feeling and what
does happen physiologically you become fully charged the the carbon dioxide goes out
o2 begins to roam freely throughout the body and fills up every cell and ph levels go up
no when you when you say you altered your, what you're showing me here is just breathing in and breathing out.
What's specifically different about that than normal breathing?
The way I used it was like after 25 breaths, it was so fully charged, I could stay like five to seven minutes under the ice every time.
Very controlled.
And that means that there is not only a whole lot of oxygen inside the body,
but the pH levels go up.
Now, later on, I began to understand by science, by thinking about it, and deducting and all that.
I saw that we are able to tap into the brainstem, the adrenaline.
We showed lying in bed people producing more adrenaline.
Now I know how to show to people just in a couple of days.
That means every listener right now is able to do that. So we have proven this scientifically. And it showed that people
lying in bed were able to produce more adrenaline than somebody in fear going for its first bungee
jump. Bungee jump. still I'm still confused as
to how you're doing anything differently other than deep breathing you're taking
a deep breathe in and deep breathe out and no we retent from breathing after
exhalation retent we stop breathing after exhalation once breathe in like
what show me the method like if if you if you go with me
30 times okay
let go okay fully in once again fully in letting go
right on fully in but letting go not fully out just letting go. Not fully out, just letting go. But fully in.
Once again.
And once again.
Come on.
Don't hesitate.
Give it.
It's about changing the chemistry right now in your body.
So I'm breathing in.
If you become lightheaded,
and at a certain point you're so fully charged,
and the pH levels go to a very high level,
you're able to stay without air in the lung for minutes.
Just keep on.
The feeling is understanding.
Go on.
And deeply in.
Letting go.
Deeply in. Letting go. Deeply in.
Letting go.
Deeply in.
Letting go. Ten times more. Deeply in. Letting go.
Deeply in. Letting go. I'm gonna time it.
Letting go.
Deeply in.
Letting go. Give it fully. Take him in. Letting go. Take him in. Let it go. Give it fully. Take him in. Let him go.
Take him in.
Let him go.
Take him in.
Let him go.
No hesitation.
I do this with the ovary as well.
And he feels wonderful.
Take him in.
Fully let him go.
Okay, five times more deeply and letting go deeply and letting go deeply and letting go two times more
letting go and stop. Just stop.
Witness.
Without air in the lungs, you are able to stay much more than normally.
Why? Because we changed your chemistry.
Carbon dioxide went out, O2 went up, filled up all the cells and the pH levels go up. Then we are able to tap into the central nervous system. And at the end, we got the brainstem. And that's the place of the
pineal gland, hypothalamus, pituitary gland. And the pineal gland makes the secretion of adrenaline in dangerous situations.
Normally, we do not get into it because of our shallow breathing.
But this is the way to get into the most primitive part, the reptilian brain,
without many difficulties and fend off bacteria, getting better into the endocrine systems.
fend off bacteria, getting better into the endocrine systems.
We'll talk about it later.
You're past 1.10 in minutes, and you're still on. That shows that the capacity to fill yourself up with oxygen is a lot more than we normally use.
And as we do not use it, we are not making use of the full capacity of our physiology.
Now we found out we got different layers,
and we never use it.
And this is the way to learn to use it,
to tap in and bang into the primitive brain,
into the endocrine systems, immune systems,
the way nature has meant it to be.
Everybody is able to do it.
1.45, and this is only round one.
If we would do like three rounds, you would go to three minutes, four minutes,
without air, without training.
It only shows the capacity to store up oxygen inside.
We never use that.
You're doing great is doing already to to five
almost 210 whenever you feel the urge to breathe you don't need to force is only
learning how to oxygenize the body and all the cells you're going great man nice one ha ha feels good huh hey yeah yeah yeah that's okay two thirty oh yeah when you
feel the urge to breathe you breathe in fully and keep it for 10 15 seconds then that's one round
fully in and keep it and now you press your belly
the neck and then the head.
And now you are able to tap into the brainstem.
Yeah, that's it.
If we would do it again, you would, you know, supplement.
I got very lightheaded.
It was interesting.
Yeah, of course.
And the breathing, the breathing in part.
Sure, sure.
So to explain to people at home, what I'm doing is I'm breathing in all the way, as deeply as I can, but I'm not breathing out all the way.
Yeah.
I'm just breathing out a little bit.
And then I'm breathing in more, and I'm just breathing out a little bit.
And I'm breathing in more, and I'm breathing out a little bit.
Yes.
If you breathe in completely, you get all the oxygen possible inside.
If you just let it go,
then you get it to where the exchange of the gases happen.
And this is the way best to oxygenize the body.
So it's a different way to get into the chemistry of the body.
And we have shown this. That's one of the fascinating things if people are
listening this guy this guy's fucking crazy yeah all you are you definitely
crazy crazy about my wife beautiful way I know what you've done is you've allowed
scientists to test you every step of the way,
and you've proven that all this is true.
When we're saying these things, I mean, these are things that have been studied at universities.
What was the university in Holland?
Radboud University.
Radboud.
And they injected you with an endotoxin?
Endotoxin, yes.
To prove that you can auto-regulate your immune system.
Exactly, exactly.
Normally, it's a controlled experiment, and they did it with thousands of people already,
and nobody was able to control to the depth of the immune system
because the endotoxin provokes a response in the immune system. You become feverish,
you get headaches, all over agony, uncontrolled shivering, vomiting, you know, things like that
happen. But the people I trained, first I did it myself. Then they said, yeah, but you are the
Iceman. You are an exception on the rule. You confirmed the rule because of this.
No, I said, anybody can do this.
Why would they say that you confirm the rule?
If they have a rule and one person can do something different, then the rule doesn't work.
It's not a rule anymore.
That's absolutely true between us.
But in science, it only works.
It's only validated if it is a group who's doing it.
Right, but how many in the group are doing your method?
That's the thing.
When they test normal people on things, the amount of people that are doing what you're doing
and trying these kind of experiments and going under ice and breathing the way you're breathing,
it's almost none worldwide.
I mean, I'm sure more people now are inspired to do it because
of you but so i don't understand how they could say that you confirm the rule because you don't
you know you don't it doesn't apply to you yeah that's a saying you know the exception confirms
the rule that's a dutch saying so i i told yes i'm Iceman. I got so much experience. I did so many challenges and records.
But no, the thing, my mission is to show that everybody is able to tap in their physiology a lot deeper just in a couple of days.
And it has been shown, 12 people in a comparative study, 12 people been instructed and 12 people non-instructed. The
non-instructed people got to be sick, all of them, and the instructed people, all of them were not
sick. Now this endotoxin, what exactly is the endotoxin? The endotoxin is a part of a bacteria, and the immune system recognizes it as a negative intruder.
So that's why it is a controlled experiment.
And this is the way they inject it, and they try to learn about the immune system, the endocrine systems,
by doing these controlled experiments on many, many people
all over in the world.
Now, prior to doing this, what made you think that you could do this?
Like, what convinced you that you could actually regulate your immune system to react to a
response that was injected into your body like that?
Now you're talking, too.
Now we begin to talk. Like 25 years ago, I already stated and told everybody
the autonomic nervous system and the immune systems
related to the autonomic nervous system can be influenced.
The autonomic nervous system will be no longer autonomic.
And that's what I told.
Many people mocked me because of it.
And they told me
negatively that I was crazy and all that.
See 25 years ago you were in your 20s then?
Yeah, no no no yeah 30s.
Okay, how old are you now?
56.
Okay.
Yeah 56. But then I told it then and now it's scientifically proven.
Yeah.
Why?
Because inside I know.
So you're this 31-year-old guy, and you have this idea in your head that you can control your immune system.
Yes.
What gave you this thought that you could do this? You know, in the beginning, when I was 17 years old, as the story began,
I went into the cold and it just felt good.
I felt connection.
After years of searching, then you have a certain kind of knowledge, you know,
from the inside also, the gut feeling and intuition.
And that's more than the
What we think and this is not a reaction to how your body felt when you got out of the water
Like you're saying hmm. I feel like I get less sick. I feel like I'm healthier
Oh, it's just it was that too. Yes. Yes
But it was also you you felt internally that you were controlling it like like you could feel it? Yes, yes.
Oh, yeah, you get a real sense.
Listen, you are a fighter, for example.
You got an opponent.
But this time, the opponent is yourself.
And you know it from the inside.
And you feel it from the inside.
And it makes you happy, it makes you strong, and it makes you healthy.
And this is what we have lost from nature and now it's back so so in a sense what you've done is
you tapped into something extremely primal by dealing with one of the most primal elements
of all which is cold yes so the cold like in the Vice documentary, I thought it was really fascinating.
You said cold is your God.
Yes, it is.
Yeah.
If I had a teacher, I've never had a teacher.
That's amazing.
And no guru or mentor or saifu or anything like that.
The cold.
That's my teacher.
That's my God.
I've been dodging the cold since i was a little kid
it's amazing you just felt compelled to jump into that yes and what was when you're saying
this to people when you're 31 years old and you're telling people i can control my immune
system they must have been like you're out of your fucking mind look at this guy he's jumping
in the freezing water and he says he can control his immune system.
How did you convince people to the point that you got actual scientists to measure your blood, do legitimate scientific studies on you?
Like, what was it, your accomplishments?
Like, you went, for people who don't know, you did a bunch of really unbelievable tasks.
You climbed Everest in your shorts.
Did you have shoes on when you climbed Everest?
Yes, I had to with spikes.
Spikes because you were climbing on ice.
Otherwise it's too slippery.
And I ran marathons.
You had no shirt on.
No shirt on.
Just in shorts.
I think going by clothes is insane because it's like you're not challenging nature.
You can go up with a car as well.
And then you go up Everest.
Anything artificial you use in nature doesn't make you having the right connection with nature.
And what I wanted to challenge in all the challenges I did,
like marathons beyond the polar circle
in midwinter and shorts,
but also in the heat of the desert
without drinking,
or hanging by one finger
on one and a half kilometers,
like a mile up in the air.
What?
In wintertime.
You hung by one finger a mile up in the air?
Yes, yes.
Where was this?
At the altar in Holland between two hot air balloons and then climbing between them.
And then there was a thing, a device I could hang.
You just hooked it on with one finger?
Yes.
How long did you hang there for?
25 seconds.
Jesus Christ.
25 seconds.
With one finger?
And in wintertime. Oh, finger. And in wintertime.
Oh, my God.
In wintertime.
You know you lose control when the blood becomes colder in the hands.
Yeah.
You lose control.
So that was the challenge.
It's mind over matter.
And I wanted to show that in all the challenges, the adaptive power of ours is enormous.
The adaptive power of ours is enormous.
But as we are not stimulating or using that anymore,
you get a neglected body and become sick or half in its potency.
It's all very logic.
So the powers that our body has, the untapped powers that we probably had for millennia,
dealing with the cold, dealing with the heat, dealing with adversity, dealing with struggle. All those powers are not being tapped
into. So because of that, the body just atrophies and it doesn't know what to do with itself.
Exactly.
You think that that may be also a cause of depression?
Yes. I'm right now into new research. As soon as I want to do research, they did research on mindfulness, for example.
Mindfulness related to depression.
And I think not only me, also psychiatrists, they saw the blood values, the markers in the blood within our study,
and most probably our method, this, what we just did,
brings the people very much faster into controlling their endocrine system.
The endocrine system is about hormonal balances in the body,
and because we are not able to tap into that we are victimized because
of too much stress or this or the daily life or whatever and we get depressed and we are not able
to get out of it now this method because of tapping into the endocrine systems makes you feel
you are able to rebalance the hormonal disturbance in the body,
creating eventually in length the depression.
So I want research on this because this is my wife died in 95 because of suicide.
I have four children with her.
I was powerless then.
My heart was broken and had no
money, no nothing. And then this struggle and this fight began. I'm going to prove this to the world
and create a shortcut for anybody who is depressed or, you know, sick and everything. And now we got the key. We got the key to the endocrine systems
and the immune systems.
And anybody can do this.
And because it is done by science,
it's beyond speculation.
We make it a choice.
And that's why I'm on a mission.
And this mission brings me here to Joe Rogan,
who's a good guy.
He's a fighter himself.
And he loves life,
and he brings it out.
And he tries people out. I can see.
I can tell. Try people out?
Yeah, yeah. Try people.
Who are you? What are you doing?
And things are that.
It's a... I like it. I love it.
And we need to do this, because we
gotta change this world where there is no control.
I mean, we can build, we can fly to the moon.
We can make, this is more intelligence than the whole Apollo 13 project.
Yes?
You're fine.
Yes.
This is the fruit of our mind.
And the power of our mind is enormous.
But now it is time to use the same power to learn to control our happiness, strength, and health.
And we are showing this now.
So you feel like what happened with your wife, that your wife killed herself, was due to depression.
your wife killed herself was due to depression and you feel like that that type of depression the depression that a lot of people experience is because their their mind is not stimulated
the way it was intended to by nature is that a fair way of describing your thoughts on this
absolutely and that we're left with a residual effect of civilization in a way where your mind is it's overwhelmed with
things that really are not natural like living in a cubicle the stress of office life traffic
things that aren't natural exactly we are living toward the system but it should be going around
right the system once again should serve our happiness, strength, and health.
And now we have proof that we are able to tap into the endocrine systems and the immune system far deeper.
So we've got to try this, and it is natural.
Anybody can do this in just a couple of days.
Right now we are in the third year of the university books here in america
the the testing the iceman it's not about me anymore it's about the comparative study
and then it tells the endocrine systems and the immune systems and it only takes one guy
is endurance you know believe that we are able to tap in deeper
into our physiology,
thus enabling the person
to direct his hormonal secretions.
Strength, for example,
lying in bed,
as we told already,
producing, lying in bed. There's told already, producing lying in bed.
There's no rhinoceros coming to that guy.
No, he's at ease.
And he controls completely the stress hormone.
And a controlled stress hormone works like medicine.
A non-controlled stress hormone works in the end acidic.
And that becomes no good.
And we are victimized because we have no
control in daily life anymore but the stress is there so the stress is there but there's no
physical exertion yes and that's why they've shown tests that in many cases exercise can be just as
good as antidepressants just as good as medication for people who are depressed which totally makes
sense if what you're saying is right that It totally makes sense that your body like has a desire to exert itself.
And it is a built in system that's designed to deal with certain natural stresses,
running from predators, dealing with the cold and dealing with weather and climate and nature
and the adversities of the environment as far as like challenging
yourself, climbing hills and exerting yourself. We don't do that that much. And because of that,
that's what you think leads to this dis-ease of the brain.
Yes. And, you know, for many people who are depressed, they are quite unable to get into their body and begin to run and things like that.
It's the brain.
And we are going to solve this by very easy techniques.
Instead of them having to run because their environment is really pressing upon them,
they feel completely immobilized.
But if you are able to tap into the brain
and let them make feel the change,
that he is changing the chemistry of the brain,
then he becomes a different person much faster.
But I'm a subject to science,
and I want more research on this.
And soon we have the outcomes, and then we will tackle this problem with depression.
Because it's related to the endocrine systems and having no connection with it.
Normally the hypothalamus in our primitive brain, the stem is not under our control but these breathing
techniques deriving from being in the cold so much they are very effective not only in the cold
which is stress but also in the heat also for a predator also on mount Mount Everest where there is a lack of oxygen outside,
and also for daily stress.
What was the first one of these experiments that you tried to do
to try to show the effectiveness of your methods?
I was at a physiological department in the same university, different department,
and that's called physiological department.
And I stood there for 80 minutes in a tank full of ice,
for 80 minutes, fully connected to wires,
being, blood was taken.
So you just covered in ice?
Covered in ice.
I've seen the pictures of it. It looks insane.
Except for this arm, because the blood was taken away from it.
And you know what they saw?
And I was talking to these people, to these professors who were, well, everything was,
because I was very much in control.
And they saw the core temperature even rising while I was inside.
Your core temperature was rising while you're covered in ice for 80 minutes?
Yes, yes.
And you see how much power we have.
You know how much power cold can be.
But how much more power we are able to learn to control.
And the blood taken from me while I was in the tank,
I got a few remarkable results.
One is the blood taken, it was exposed to endotoxin afterwards,
but in a laboratory without me, ex vivo it's called,
and they saw normally it has a very violent reaction on the immune cells in the glass of the laboratory.
And this time, 0%, 100% suppression.
And that's my blood.
100%?
100%. So the endotoxin just gets squashed the moment it gets
in there and that's the bacteria yeah and that's the immune system and that's the way we are
actually built uh to be able to and uh that was one really another remarkable thing before i was Before I was going into the tank, they took blood from me as well.
And this blood was looked upon into it by a microscope.
And they saw 300% more metabolic activity in the cell without moving.
That's the mind.
My mind was already into,
I go inside that one, in that box.
I need to do 80 minutes.
I program myself up to cell level,
what I'm about to do.
I need more energy,
because energy is needed to withstand the impact of the cold.
So I control my body by my mind.
And that's all of us.
And this mind then makes the connection with the hypothalamus, which is the brainstem.
And that is able to control the hormonal system, the immune systems, the vascular system, all the
systems.
Now, when you say that your metabolic rate rose 300%, is that a normal thing because
of the cold?
Because that's one thing that they tell you, that it's a great way to lose calories, just
dress very lightly when it's cold outside, and it forces your body to work hard to stay
warm.
So it was an effect of that yeah
it was it was it was and that's a also a thing about the brown fat adipose we got all these
cells but as we never exposed to cold anymore it doesn't it's not stimulated it's like a muscle. You are not trained. It becomes weaker.
So we got also these cells which need stimulation.
I did experiments with the brown fat adipose in the nuclear department of nuclear medical department in Maastricht, a different university. And it showed that I had the same brown fat adipose levels as a young man,
like 20 years, 15 years.
They still have it.
You get older and you wear clothes and you lose it.
It's logical.
But I always expose myself to cold on a regular basis.
So they had me exposed as well in an experiment like that. And they saw that with the same level or amount of brown fat adipose cells,
I could produce five times more energy.
That's what they saw.
five times more energy.
That's what they saw.
So compared to these guys,
because of the breathing and influencing on cell level,
I was able to do five times more.
And this could be a solution
for people who have overweight
because when the fat is consumed,
which is very in the moment when you need it, then it gets depleted.
Then the rest of the white fat in the body is being withdrawn very systematically, very effectively, direct.
times more effective is maybe a solution for many people living in the West with obese problems and heart problems, vascular problems because of it, etc.
There's a type of therapy that's becoming really popular here in America called cryotherapy.
A lot of athletes use it.
And I started using it a few years ago.
A lot of people from jujitsu were telling me about this thing.
You go, you stay in this, it's a box.
It's 250 degrees below zero and you do three minutes in it.
Yeah.
I do it four days a week now.
It's amazing.
It's nice.
It's amazing.
I get out of there.
I feel so great.
And I had my friend, Dr. Rhonda Patrick, who's a scientist.
And she explained all the, what's happening inside of it and
then I took her to the ice to the chamber and had her stand in the the
cryo chamber and she she said it was incredible when she got out of it but
seeing it she was a scientist she understands the body very well so she
knew that there was it was raising her levels of neoprenephrine and her whole
body was being stimulated by this reaction to this
extreme 250 degree below zero cold yes i did it too and uh uh yeah have you done the one where
you get inside of it fully or the one that's just from the neck fully and uh and uh up till the neck
a couple of times and uh yeah i could stay quite long inside. I bet you could stay in there forever.
How long could you go in there for?
I don't know, maybe 10 minutes or something.
But still feeling okay.
I do three minutes.
Yeah, three minutes is okay, too.
I do three minutes and 30 seconds,
and I do it more than anybody in the whole place.
I can't believe you could do 10 minutes.
Yeah, you know, it's a thing with nature.
Just keep going and keep going,
and then you just push your boundaries.
That's it.
But it is not necessary to reestablish the right natural connection between your brain and your endocrine systems and immune systems.
Just a little bit of cold is enough to trigger the vascular system the right way, enabling it to work better with the nervous system.
And then the breathing and focus your mind.
Like the mind was able, without moving, to produce 300% more metabolic activity in the cell.
That is mind.
The mind is so much able to do so much more and this is
the quintessence this is the essence of what i come to tell you we gotta change our belief
we gotta change the way we think it's like a paradigm shift and why Because we have proven with thousands and thousands of results, beyond speculation,
that we are able, if we use our mind, once again, not in dependency for doctors and this and that,
no, you are able to repair yourself whenever you feel not healthy or depressed or with a loss of energy, you know, strength, happiness, and health,
then you should go in and breathe better.
And then you will reestablish the connection with the endocrine systems, immune systems, and the brain together.
with the endocrine systems, immune systems, and the brain together,
and then repair whatever is producing an obstacle for you to function in the world.
Maybe you are able to function in the world, but you don't feel good.
You don't feel happy, and you don't feel strong. So say if a person had a cold, a slight cold, what would you recommend they do?
I would say breathing once.
Breathing your method.
Yes.
Breathe in fully, as hard and deep as you can, and then just exhale a little bit.
And then breathe in as far as your lungs can stretch.
How many times?
Like 20 times.
20 times.
Then take them in, and then go to the place, to the spot where you feel the cold is happening.
Could be in the throat, could be here, could be, you know, somewhere in this part.
So go in your mind to that spot.
You know what happens when I'm in the ice for an hour, for example, most of the times I begin to feel it, the cold, at the part of the kidneys,
which is mostly on the surface, and the cold gets there, the ice.
Then I ain't got no, there is no way I'm able to move because it's like six, seven hundred kilos of ice around me.
And I'm not able even to breathe very much because it's pressurizing
what I learned is to think it away within a minute within a minute I make the difference
from the brain to the kidneys and change the temperature like 10 degrees
this is a measurable thing you've changed temperature like 10 degrees. This is a measurable thing?
You've changed a measurable 10 degrees?
Dr. Ken Kamla, who did experiments with me.
I did records here in New York, in Florida.
I don't know.
I was at a couple of places.
And while I was in the show, for example,
Regis and Kelly show.
You know the guys?
Right.
And he saw my core temperature was dropping, was dropped to 32 degrees Celsius.
Celsius.
I don't know.
But it's far lower.
It's very low.
People are normally not able to raise the temperatures anymore.
They just go into unconsciousness and coma and things like that.
But I rose the temperature back.
And he said he never had seen a person do that.
Because physiologically stated in the science books books it's not possible and i say you
know so much more is possible than not only you know connecting with your core temperature
but also with the endocrine systems so when you say you were raising your temperature where what
was the environment that you were raising your temperature in where you were in the water while
this was happening yes in the tank so in the tank freezing cold and you raising your temperature in? You were in the water while this was happening? Yes, in the tank.
So you're in the tank, freezing cold,
and you raised your temperature from there?
Yes.
That's amazing.
No, what we are able to do, that's amazing.
That's amazing.
Life is amazing.
Life's pretty amazing.
Living is a wonder, and we have to re-experience that. And that's the paradigm shift.
We are able to learn to control.
It needs some steady attention.
Like a baby needs attention to grow up.
We need to pay attention to ourselves again.
Trust ourselves again.
Believe.
Believing is neurotransmitters in the right way.
And when it connects with the body again and we got the techniques.
And it has been shown with thousands of again and we got the techniques and it has been
shown with thousands of results that we are able to control the endocrine systems or a better set
our mood becoming happy yes or no serotonin melatonin dimethyltryptamine and all the other
hormones we are able to tap into that system we have shown that another
one the strength which is adrenaline epinephrine norepinephrine noradrenaline and cortisol and all
that we have shown more than somebody lying in bed than somebody going into a bunker gym that's
strength and then health health is the immune systems learning to tap
into the immune systems and like cryotherapy as you were talking mentioning it goes up to
the bone marrow and it activates these blood markers over there and people with arthritis then are able to move a barrier again after a session like that
but we with these breathing techniques we get into the bone marrow as well and there we have the t
cells the t cells and b cells and they are a part of the specific immune system. And the specific immune system normally only begins to work after two weeks.
And then the body knows what kind of molecules it needs to produce
to kill the intruder cell.
And it gets on the membrane, the skin of the cell, and it kills it.
Instead of inflamating the older body, it goes very specifically.
But it takes two weeks.
We do it in one quarter of an hour with this breathing.
And only with this breathing, you are able to control the pH level.
And the pH level, right as we are mammals, if you look in nature, you see all these mammals. If you take blood from them,
they all have the right pH degree, very alkaline. But only because we wear clothes and we live in
a comfort zone, we do not stimulate. Thus, oxygen doesn't get as deep as it could. You have shown this.
Two and a half minutes without air in the lungs.
That means the capacity to store up oxygen
is far bigger than you normally use.
That's still pretty minor though, right?
Like you held your breath for seven minutes.
Is that what you did?
Yes, and under the eyes.
But that, once again,
what did you do?
You have been fighting people I never could win of.
Because I was not trained to do that.
You have trained to do that.
I trained to do this.
That's the range of possibilities.
But it's very unimportant.
We don't need to know heroes we need to become healthy strong
and happy does it matter whether you breathe in through your nose or in through your mouth
because there's a big thing in yoga and they teach you that and a lot of other in
jiu-jitsu they try to teach you to breathe in through your nose i wrote books on the subject before. Now I say, it doesn't matter what kind of hole you use, just get it in.
That's it.
You know these girls and these women, I just tell them that.
Make a joke, but the serious thing is we got it scientifically endorsed.
No speculation.
Just do it.
It is easy, easy accessible very effective because the idea
is when you breathe in through your mouth it induces panic breathing that's what they say
in in jujitsu that just to keep yourself calm you're supposed to
you breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth in through your nose and out through
your mouth and in yoga they try to teach you to do the entire class through your nose yeah yeah i don't think it matters yeah no it doesn't matter at all and i'm going to tell them that
tomorrow yeah just do it in this technique which has been shown as the first group in the world to
be able to tap into the autonomic nervous system related to the immune system and the endocrine system, it shows the depth.
And this depth normally is a result maybe of yogis
who are really going into samadhis and dharanas
and into the kundalini up to the sahasrara and all that,
the kumbhaka yogis.
I know all the terminology. I know all this, all the terminology.
I've been doing Sanskrit and Hindi before.
But I thought to be far too complicated.
They made it into a myth.
We Westerners, we have no time.
We want to understand things the way we are
living and i thought to simplify it and science backed it up now when you're talking about your
breathing you were saying that when you were young that you when you discovered this type of breathing
that you could see the lights. Yes.
You know, that's one of the core components of kundalini yoga.
Yeah, chakras.
Yeah, that they experience this intense state due to this specific type of breathing.
I haven't practiced it.
This is the nervous system.
I could make you do this in 15 minutes.
But what is that?
Is it just your body's production of psychedelic chemicals? That's the nervous system. The nervous system is about electrical potential.
So it's just firing?
That's it. You are just manipulating the nervous system, pressurizing it,
and then electricity comes out bigger.
So what you were saying before about someone who has a cold, so you would tell them
to utilize your breathing method and concentrate on the area in which they're sick.
Like if they have a lung infection, concentrate on clearing the lungs.
Any infection, any disease, anything they got, we have the ability to connect with our body.
You just have to absolutely believe it.
And you have to absolutely be focused on it if you if you want your phone
then if i want my phone then i need to grab this one not not this one not this one and not that
i have to be busy with what i'm doing you have to grab the actual phone right you i gotta go to the
place where something is happening so if there is a disturbance you go to the disturb until you release it you gotta
learn to connect once again that's the change of the belief the the change of the belief is not
nothing more than the the mind which is neurotransmitters electrical potentials and use
it once again instead of being alienated because of comfort behavior,
you learn to use these neural microbiological patterns again,
which are existent.
But they are down-exercised, unexercised.
That's why we don't trust them because they are not so strong.
That's why we don't trust them because they are not so strong.
Learn that these are very capable of you making connection with the endocrine systems, immune systems far deeper.
Thus, being able to control happiness, health and strength.
And we are going to prove this more and more because I'm dealing with the universities.
And I want cold measurements, figures, statistics, no speculation.
Well, that's what separates you from a lot of people who've made these crazy claims.
You've actually done physical feats that show extraordinary abilities.
What you did in Mount Everest, no one's ever done before,
and I've never even heard of any attempting to do something like that.
You ran a marathon, a half marathon in Finland.
Did you run it barefoot?
Yes.
Above, I mean, you were, how cold was it out?
It was like minus 30 outside?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And you were shirtless, right?
Yeah, yeah, just shorts.
Shorts, barefoot.
You run a half mile at minus 30.
So that's, what is that, 13 miles?
Yeah, 13 miles.
Jesus.
Yeah, it was something.
It was something, man. But that's undeniable.
That's undeniable.
So when people, is that why you started doing these things,
so that people would pay attention to what you're doing?
Because when you hear someone's doing that,
when you hear someone's climbing Mount Everest in their shorts,
you go, what? Okay, what is he doing? when when you hear someone's doing that when you hear someone's climbing Mount Everest in their shorts you go what okay what is he doing how's he doing that
and then when you find out you're incredibly healthy and you're vibrant and you're doing all
these things and you're allowing yourself to be tested and you're showing this ability to regulate
your immune system and this is all incredibly exciting stuff and then the scientists come in
because then they're like okay what is going on here and we have to change our beliefs about what is possible with the human exactly?
And be very clear about it. No speculation it all began with
You know where when I felt so powerless with my wife then those days I loved her to death
But not in that way, of course
days i loved her to death but not in that way of course i work now with the four children i have with her i had with her i still have with her and i began to i only could find rest and
peace within the depth of my own being emotionally you know you cannot see it but it is there and for that I went into nature I began to
climb without gear and go into the ice more and this made me silent within that was my curing
it calmed your all the horrible stress and depression emotion is stress and later on I began to understand about it.
But then it caught the attention of the news and then they began to ask,
but are you able to do this then too?
And I told them, oh yeah, I can do that.
I can swim under the ice, like distances.
Oh yeah, I can climb a mountain barefoot in the snow.
Yeah, I can hang by one finger in the air.
Yeah, I can run a marathon shirtless beyond the polar circle midwinter.
I can do all this.
And then science came in.
It came into the newspapers and the internet and all that.
And they told, how is this possible were they did they not
believe you at first yeah of course that if somebody it tells in the books in the university
books now where which have been dedicating one chapter about the uh iceman which is the study
which we did there you see the old story where professors normally, they say, yeah, this is not possible.
In the books, it's stated, it is not possible to do a half marathon barefoot or climbing Mount Everest that way because of the physiology of ours and the hardships outside.
It's not possible.
But this guy is doing it.
So how?
So began to raise questions.
And then they invited me to be tested.
And they were skeptical, of course.
They were absolutely skeptical and only want clinical proof of what I was doing, which
surpassed the physiological laws stated in the in the
books if I was able to produce that in laboratory settings and then they had a
you know something to start off with to do which could be a possible method or
abilities evidence-based helping people who are sick.
And now we are going to do more clinical studies
showing sick people to be able to cure a lot faster
or not having to make use of as much medicine as they do now.
Because I'm not anti-pharmaceutics or anything like that,
because I'm not into politics,
but I want people to know
there is so much more within every person here in the world
which will enable you to tackle disease,
unhappiness, and having no energy or strength.
And we are able to do that.
And that's love.
I want to bring back love in the world, constituted by happiness, strength, and health.
It's just fascinating that you're such an outlier that it took one person to come up with this method and one person to challenge these ideas that the body can't do this.
And now they have to reconsider.
There's 7 billion people on the planet.
We've been around for who knows how long.
We've thousands of years of written history.
And then they had these laws that they believed that the body was capable of doing and not capable of doing.
This is where it ends.
That your body can't do this.
Your body can't do that.
And you came along.
One guy.
Wim Hof.
You come along and you change everything.
That's amazing.
That's truly, truly amazing.
It's amazing.
I was never out there to change the world.
But because of things happened in my life,
I was triggered in the depth of my body and even in the emotional part, as I explained before,
because of my wife and all that.
And now I'm very, very certain I got a mission.
It was born in 2007 in the Feinstein Institute,
Manhattan, New York,
when Dr. Kevin Kamler
gave me the results,
blood results,
after an experiment
in the Feinstein Institute,
which is a biochemical institute.
And he told me,
if you are able to reproduce
these results
and pass it on to a group of persons, say in two weeks, then that would mean huge consequences for human mankind.
Then the missionary was born.
My mission was born.
And since then, I want to get into it and beyond speculation, prove it by evidence.
And it is belief.
Emotion and belief are very close together.
We lost the emotion.
We lost the feeling, the sensitivity.
And we lost the belief within ourselves.
And we got to go back to the belief.
Belief is able to tackle science.
Belief is able to tackle science. Belief is able to tackle any
problem in life
by every person.
And belief is chemistry.
And we have to go back
to that chemistry. And we are showing
this by
scientific evidence
and results. I think what you're doing
is so important. It's so important to human beings
because we were operating under a false assumption.
And this false assumption had made it into textbooks.
And if a guy like you comes along
and shows a method for changing your physiology,
and if you could teach that to children early on,
you would change their operating paradigm.
You would change the way their mind views the world.
You would change.
And that's why I'm here.
You would empower them.
That's why I'm here at Joe Rogan's already.
Thank you.
I'm right on.
It's a pleasure.
Handshake, sure.
Now I understand why you can hang by one finger.
What is that feeling like, man, when you're hanging a mile in the air by one finger?
What is that feeling like?
I felt great.
in the air by one finger what is that feeling like I felt great you know all the all the things that I do I never know it before I'm doing it so what it's
gonna feel like yeah yeah what's gonna do you practice hanging from your finger
before yeah yeah I bet then at home yeah if you fall when you yeah you just fall
30 centimeters.
But over there, it's a different thing.
But, you know, you learn to surpass your fears.
And you learn to calculate with your body as a part of the calculation.
What was the scariest one of these stunts
that you tried to attempt?
Scariest?
What about the one where you...
Most exciting, most of the fear,
because fear is just, you know,
advising signal within,
which was the one.
Maybe swimming under the ice.
I lost track.
Listen to this story.
This is nice.
I had no goggles on well when i dove like one meter thick
ice so the ice is three feet thick for people don't know what a meter as you're diving into
the water and where is this in finland finland so the water polar circle insanely cold water
it's it's like needles.
But I was trained.
I did not even feel the needles.
Because that's one thing.
And then I did my breathing really good.
This was the day before I was going to do, attempting to do a world record.
So I had a general repetition.
And there was nobody.
Only one diver somewhere. But he was not in the water
and
to me I didn't want
to just try
and train half the distance
no if I have to do it tomorrow
I'm going to do all the distance now
but nobody
took real attention
and nobody was
so serious. They only thought
we are the safety around the real
record with the television and this and
that and all that. So
I began to do this breathing,
which you just did.
And then at a certain point
I was so lightheaded and this
and that, but then in the water, in the
cold, and you become fully charged with oxygen. So much I was so lightheaded and this and that. But then in the water, in the cold.
And you become fully charged with oxygen.
So much that your pH levels go really up.
There you feel lost.
First you need to go under the ice.
And then you begin to swim.
Stroke by stroke.
Every stroke is something more than a yard.
How far are you going under the ice?
The length in that record was about 60 yards. So 60 yards holding your breath under the ice.
But 40 yards later, I could not see anything anymore.
Because the retina froze.
Your retina froze.
Yes.
Retina froze.
And I missed the hole at 60 yards.
And I was counting subconsciously.
I had it all figured out.
So much strokes.
That means then I'll arrive at the other hole.
How far in did you go blind?
Like 70, 75 yards.
It's when I need to go back.
You only think very instinctively at that moment.
There is no space for thinking.
And now when you say you went blind, how much could you see?
Very little?
A blur.
Blur.
Yes.
So I went on swimming and trying to find a way to the hole, but I never found it.
And I had actually, in the distance, I made the biggest distance ever.
I could never reproduce this.
But it doesn't matter.
The thing is, I lost the fear of death right over there.
It's like every animal in the world dies, you know, in peace.
When they die, not of an accident or this or that.
Because their blood is alkaline.
pH level is really up.
And the body is able to retreat in the nervous system.
Then go into the central nervous system.
And then the tunnel of the light.
And that's it.
You go to sleep.
And I had the same sensation.
My pH levels were so
frozen
before I went in
that there was
never a lack
of oxygen.
The lack of oxygen was there, but it was
never disturbing with
withdrawal. There was no panic.
Of the energy. There was absolutely no panic. Of the energy.
There was absolutely no panic.
Actually, I felt a little bit good, you know, like a rush, like going to sleep.
Wow.
And then somebody grabbed me.
You were close to death.
Yes.
So somebody grabbed you and saved you.
Like two times I experienced this.
I lost my fear of death.
And that's a personal story.
I wouldn't try it under, you know it beneath the water, these breathing exercises.
You have to learn first to recondition your body to its natural state,
and then you get a different connection.
You are more able and become more conscious of your abilities.
So someone grabbed you and brought you to the hole?
Yes, to the 50-meter hole, back. So you had turned around and went to the hole? Yes, to the 50 meter hole. Back.
So you had turned around
and went backwards
trying to find out
where the hole was.
Yes.
So there was more than one hole
set up?
Hole was here.
Hole was there.
I went that way.
So one was set up
in 50 meters.
Oh, you say you missed it.
I tried there
and then they brought me back here.
Okay, so for people...
I did more than double the distance.
So for people listening,
you missed it by going to the right,
and then you went to the left, and you couldn't find it.
So there was a 50-meter hole, and then what was the second hole?
70 meters?
No, no, no.
It's just...
One 50-meter hole.
One 50-meter hole.
That's it.
There was just one hole.
Okay.
So you just totally missed it.
Yeah.
And so then they brought you back to the hole.
Yeah.
So you did accomplish what you set out to, but you did it while being blind.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I'm still blind.
And double the distance.
Did it mess with your vision at all permanently?
No, no, no, no.
No.
So when you got out of the water,
how long was it before you could see again?
Almost directly.
Really?
Almost directly.
Yeah, the blur stayed a little.
But that's cool.
I began to...
As oxygen comes back,
it almost directly was restored again.
One of the things that I found fascinating about the cryo tank
is that your eyeballs don't get cold.
Why does everything get cold, but my eyes don't get cold?
I found that fascinating when I'm outside and I'm freezing cold, too.
It's never the eyeball itself.
And I don't know if there's a lack of nerve endings or I don't know what it is.
We are not built to swim under ice, but we are built to be able to walk like Inuits outside for hours and days and maintain vision because that's survival.
Right.
But you can also get snow blind, right?
Yes.
With the white.
Yeah, the white.
Somehow or another, the reflection off the white.
Yeah, that's the different story.
Yes.
Yeah, with the white.
Like on Mount Everest, on these mountains, actually, we are not built to get up there either, I found out.
But it's an amazing one.
But you did it, and you did it in shorts.
Yes.
Did that piss off the other people that are trying to climb Everest?
What?
Did that piss off the other people that are trying to climb Everest?
Yeah, I don't think it is a challenge to do it in clothes.
Yeah, it's no challenge.
You are not in contact with the natural environment at that moment.
But how come so many people die if it's not a challenge?
It seems like it's a big challenge.
Are they just not prepared properly?
Yeah, there's a lack of oxygen over there.
And if you use all the time oxygen at a certain point, you don't use oxygen.
And you get in a storm or a blast or a wide out, things.
Then you're just lost.
Yeah, simply lost.
Up there, it's a different loss now listen i am going for the fourth time now climbing
kilimanjaro in in in january coming and the and i teach people to do it in a record time without
mountaineering experience and even having you know diseases diseases like Roma or asthma or chronic diseases, things like that.
In four months, four days, actually, one day in one month, I train them.
And then they have to do homework, say, exercising at home and believing.
Just be in it.
No, no ego.
We go.
I always tell.
no no ego we go i always tell and then in four months the oldest participant without mountaineering experience is 76 years old and we are going to do it in a record time that's learning how to use
if you know how to use the adaptive power of ours and you endorse it with the right breathing and belief.
The belief was the neurotransmitters who are influencing on cell level.
The breathing brings about the right pH level, and then the adaptive force is able to adapt, to enter the body because the chemistry is right and when you
say the right ph levels is this something that's been measured like yes the difference in the ph
levels of your body from this yes we just completed new8 and then went down to the normal real natural standard, which is 7.3, 7.4.
But most of us, we have lower and more acidic state levels of pH degrees.
And we did research on pain.
Now, if you are able to control to 7.6 pH level, you are able to control the pain signal.
It falls apart.
Trimerization, trimer, it's the three components,
and if you bring up the
pH level controlled to 7.6,
it falls apart.
You don't feel the pain anymore. And we
lost the ability to suppress
or control the pain.
Now, with this breathing,
influencing on the pH level
consciously, you're able
to learn to control the pain we just finished
the studies and 100 screw once again wow now this mount kilimanjaro thing is this the first time
you've ever led a group of people say a third time already would you like anything else to drink
yeah more coffee anything oh yeah yeah beer yeah okay let's get a few beers. Oh, yeah. Oh, boy, here we go.
Yeah, sure, man.
So this Mount Kilimanjaro thing, you're going to take these people.
Do you have any concern taking a 76-year-old person without any understanding of their physical condition?
Are you going to give them a thorough examination or have someone do that?
How are you going to approach that?
You know, after 30 years or 35 years
almost 40 years already of you know experience of exposing the body the physiology to extremes
i know and i can feel if i'm fit or somebody is able or fit to do, and being part of a calculation in the extreme.
I learned to climb without gear on rocks.
That means you read the rock first,
and then you are part of the calculation.
Is Sam Adams in there?
Yeah.
Get some of those, too.
Hey, have a nice beer, man.
Yeah, have a Heineken. That's from your people, right? No, that. Hey, have a nice beer, man. Yeah.
Have a Heineken.
That's from your people, right?
No, that's German, right?
Isn't it?
Boston.
Boston.
Oh, is that a Boston?
What is that?
Yesterday, it was in Boston.
Boston.
It says Chicago on the other one.
Yeah.
Oh, so it's Heineken.
But Heineken, what is that?
Is that from Germany?
Amsterdam.
Isn't it from Amsterdam?
Amsterdam.
Your people. Yeah. Amsterdam. Your people.
Yeah, your people.
Well, your people have accomplished some incredible things.
Holland is the birthplace, well, not the birthplace,
but one of the greatest kickboxing nations in the world.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm training Alistair over it.
Yeah, I want to talk about that.
So what are you doing for Alistair?
The same I did with you and get into you.
You know, if you're doing... Cheers.
Yeah, cheers, man.
So with Alistair,
how did Alistair find out about you
and how did this get started?
Alistair is absolutely
not stupid. He's a very
controlling and intelligent person. Yeah, He's a very controlling and intelligent person.
Yeah, he's a very smart guy.
He's calculating what he is doing and he's trying to get always the best out of it.
So he came to me because of people saying, hey, this guy is scientifically endorsed.
He got some methods about breathing and focus and it's all been measured. So
he asked me
to come by and he came by.
This is in Holland? In Holland, in Amsterdam.
Where this beer come from.
Cheers. Cheers.
And we just had we had a talk
and the man is so in control of his body
he can read my mind
when he's talking with me
if I'm being right
because he can feel what happens
with his logic and his body
so he thought it to be right
and okay.
And then he is listening.
He's a pupil.
He's very humble.
He's a nice guy.
That's all.
And he is learning,
listening,
respecting.
Okay.
And then he took it up.
I told him what to do.
I told him, you have to regain the connection with the hormonal system.
You know, when you fight, you try everything, and your hormonal system gets out of balance, sort of, is possible.
From stress.
Yeah, from stress.
Training.
Yeah.
And those people live in the extremes so
your hormonal system gets out of control and we bring it back first and you know you know what
you want you want to win but more of it you want to have control within and you want to feel that
you are able to steer and direct your body and in the training you want to get better
but if you frustrate yourself then it's because of hormonal disbalance and you're training training
training but it doesn't get through and what we do is just taking away the blockages and the balance
the the disbalance thus you got to open way because
you want to win, you want to increase, you want
to become better. And you know your
feeling.
And then take up with cold
water, I told him.
And easy does
it. You begin with cold showers.
That's all. And now
he's taking cold baths, you know, ice
bath every day and
it's two weeks later he told me he is improving so much that you regained the
connection with his deeper physiological systems the endocrine and the and a
immune system as well but he is healthy already. But endocrine systems,
that's important for him
because, you know,
it's pure adrenaline what happens
when you do a match.
But you're living to worth it.
I have learned how to deal with the mind.
I explained about the mind as well.
And now, two weeks later,
I got a phone.
He told me, I'm going to win.
Why? Because I feel I'm in charge with my own body.
And I'm not talking bigger.
Alistair Overeem is his person.
I don't know the way he is now, but I'm going to meet him, say, next week
and do a last training, directing,
simply awakening his ability, like everybody,
the ability to connect with the deeper physiological systems within our body,
enabling us to do about anything,
because this adaptive power is really so far out.
Well, for fighters, that could be a huge advantage because one of the big things that happens to them during hard training
is their endocrine system starts to break down.
Their testosterone levels are very, very low during training camps because they're oftentimes overtraining,
meaning their body can't recover and they're training so so hard their body doesn't have enough time to recover.
Do you think that you can stimulate the production of testosterone in people's bodies?
Oh, yes.
You know, think logically.
Testosterone is about procreation and all that, you know,
and defense of your territory.
It's a natural thing.
But if you keep on training, training, training, training,
then the body shuts down because there is no need to defend.
You are looking for some imaginary opponent.
That's what the nature of this endocrine system is telling you.
So you have to learn to control this primitive
reactive part of ours it's a primitive brain the brain stem and learn to bring it under your
dominion and as we are if you take on too much adrenaline then it becomes acidic and you mess up the endocrine systems. Very logic.
Now, we have shown that without forests,
we are able to produce more adrenaline
than somebody going into a bunker jump.
You know, very fearful.
And how do you do that?
You were saying that earlier.
If someone's lying on their back...
What did you do?
The breathing method?
Exactly.
But do you have them The breathing method. Exactly.
But do you have them visualize something terrifying?
No.
Once again, if I want my beer, I'm not grabbing this telephone.
Right.
No.
Neither this one.
Now this is my beer.
You know?
Just be busy with what you are aiming at.
Okay.
That's it. Mm-hmm.
And visualization comes from itself, you know?
You see a mountain and you feel,
I want to climb this.
Then it'll be there.
Every time you are there and tuning the body
toward the eventual performance,
and this is the way it is done inside and sometimes you can
you know visualize first and then but I say like breathing by the nose by this
oh well there's that and oh it doesn't matter what kind of hole you use just
make it happen but what how do you stimulate adrenaline though like? Like, if you have someone lie on their back.
Like, if you have me lie on my back
and I'm starting to do your breathing exercises.
Got you.
You know what we do?
Okay.
They saw it in the university.
They saw...
They got these devices
to measure the saturation of oxygen in the blood.
And normally, at sea level like here
it's like 100 but this is only the measurement device they created it and it goes from 100 to
30 percent 30 percent everybody is dead something like that at 40 50 50 normally. There people die. So they have these measurements.
They measured us.
No, the guys I trained.
And they saw not only 100%,
but probably 150%.
But the measurement device is wrong.
It's just based on what we think that our body is capable of.
I put this aside.
We do this breathing exercise.
Then you see directly on the monitors what happens if you are without air in the lungs,
staying without air in the lungs, staying without air in the lungs,
like you did, two and a half minutes.
What happens?
Everybody after one and a half minute
got to this 100% on the device,
on the monitor,
probably 150,
but it was only visually shown
and visible
after one and a half minute
that the 100% was reached
then it went into 90
80, 70, 60
50, 40, 30
measurement device shuts down
bang, we go even lower
and then the body
the primitive brain
the brain stem
the reptilian brain
who only reacts on cold
like reptilians, cold, warm
deprivation of air
things like that, you know, very primitive
we got a part
the brainstem of ours works like
that, it reacts
so at that
moment it doesn't
think
there is no oxygen.
No, it just reacts because there is no oxygen inside the body.
But because the pH levels have been risen, nothing is happening to the body.
The primitive brain is reacting the the brain stem and it gets
into this survival mode and so much that adrenaline wow is over there so it's just about holding the
breath for long periods of time while you how simple is it how simple is it? How simple is it? Wow, and that causes a drip. Well, that makes sense. And that way, without any damage in the brain or nothing like that,
it also begins to, if you do it on a regular basis,
it begins to reestablish neural patterns between the neocortex,
the surface of the brain, our thinking, and the primitive brain.
That makes sense because when you had me hold my breath, and I only did it for two minutes,
but I was starting to panic.
My body was going, what are you doing, dude?
What are you doing?
Come on, breathe, bitch.
My body was telling me, come on, breathe, breathe.
Hey, Joe Rogan is a bitch.
I call myself a bitch all the time.
Me too.
That's my secret. My secret is I'm not a fan of me.an is a bitch. I call myself a bitch all the time. Me too. That's my secret.
My secret is I'm not a fan of me.
Life is a bitch.
My secret is I'm not very impressed by me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Me too, me too.
Now, this Mount Kilimanjaro thing, I want to get back to that because to me, what's
dangerous about that is not you because I think that you have a very deep understanding of who you are and what you're capable of.
And obviously, you've done amazing things.
But these other people, how do you know them?
How well do you know these folks?
How do you feel them?
Yeah, how well do you know them?
Feel.
You love that.
Knowing is feeling.
You love that, yeah.
Feeling is understanding.
Right.
And we have the ability, like living in a, you know, we're a pack of wolves.
No, we are mammals too, in a pack of people.
We are able to exist in nature.
And as I know the challenges in nature and how to counteract in interaction with the nature,
I know how to lead people through extreme
in extreme conditions.
And I already did it twice. First
with 26 people. The oldest one
was 65 people without
mountaineering experience
and with four
bypasses, coronary
bypasses. You were 65 years old?
And coronary
bypasses and
a guy with cancer, two people with the disease of Crohn, one with roma arthritis.
What is roma?
Roma.
Roma arthritis.
Arthritis?
Yeah.
Arthritis, atrosis, you have all kinds.
And autoimmune diseases.
Right.
And we had a lot of them.
MS, multiple sclerosis. Really? For example. Right. And we had a lot of them. MS, multiple sclerosis, for example.
Really?
Yes.
And you've been able to help those people
improve their conditions?
Not only.
There are 26 people,
and we told them in the press,
we are going to climb the Kilimanjaro
in three days, in shorts.
And everybody's saying,
but in this condition condition without mountaineering
experience people are going to die the physiology states that this is not
possible right many many many arguments and then we didn't do it in three days
we did it in two days oh my god and they changed these guys they have a lot more
control within their lives and they know from
within. Then last year
or this year, January,
we did it once again
over and we did it.
We took 16 hours
off from the two days.
From the 46 hours, went to 31.
48 hours
to 31 hours.
And this time, the oldest man is 76 i can feel it if one is able to do it
it's him and then i have still have to see about the youngsters because their mind is yet not so
in connection with the body that's interesting that you say that because ultra marathons are typically run by older people.
It's one of the more interesting aspects of that endurance sport.
Brain-body connection.
They're also tougher.
Yes.
And, you know, like the Bushmen, they hunt a kudu, like for two days, and the kudu is...
And they just... Persist persistence training yeah that's us we
do conscious breathing and this conscious breathing is a neural pattern between the body and mind and
the animal hasn't got it well the animal is also not physiologically capable running long distances
like a person is they they tire out they're built for sprints and that's what they do they just wear them out they persistence hunt they
chase them down and they wear them out but oftentimes they're too exhausted at
the end of it even enjoy it yes yes okay but it shows once again the mind the
mind and the breathing because the, when people get a headache, which is the first sign of acclimatization problems,
high altitude disease, AMS, acute mountain sickness is what it is,
then just make them breathe and bring more oxygen to the brain.
So if you're climbing up, you're not using any of those oxygen tanks that a lot of those people use
nothing like that and when you hear about people dying up there do you think that you could have
helped those people if you taught them oh yes techniques oh yes yes yes oh absolutely i saw all
the you know 26 people ranging from 22 to 65 with coronary problems, with all these diseases, and still able to do it within two days in shorts.
They're all in shorts.
They're all in shorts.
76-year-old guys in shorts.
Yes, yes.
And women, yeah, not only in shorts.
Wow.
But it happens, you know, and it's possible.
People transform.
People get back to their natural ability.
That's it. People transform. People get back to their natural ability. That's it.
Wow.
That's a big responsibility to take a group of people like that and to be...
You understand.
It is a big responsibility.
But I'm so sure because I trust nature.
So I just respond to what I feel naturally with these people.
But what if you get somebody with you that's a legitimate bitch?
Like what if someone signs up for it and they just fold under pressure?
There are people like that that do that.
Yeah, I know.
I know what you mean.
I say no ego, we go.
Like before.
Right.
And this is that.
And I got a very good sense of control and detecting if somebody is hiding something.
Because if you hide something and you have an attitude on the mountain, the mountain is much stronger than you.
It's going to break you.
And you think that would be a big issue, the attitude of the person?
Yes.
Yes.
It will horrify the person yes yes it will horrify the the person's situation and then it's not you know
he will uh he will block us of going up you know and get a rhythm out it's just a problem but
he won't be he or she won't be able to get up on the mountain anymore and you're saying an attitude meaning like a negative
attitude or an attitude of ego like the ego protecting you from giving in and and and
realizing your true potential right you have to learn to let go like in the cold as well you have
to learn to let go then things can happen in the body naturally and then you are able to manipulate
and they can absorb your mindset as well they can absorb your example and that's one of the
things like I can tell just talking to you and being around you that you have
this this very powerful belief in what you're saying what you're doing and when
people around you and they tell me that
telling me that he's a fucking good bitch man we love life well you know what i'm saying i love you too people absorb that when when people around someone like you that has this legitimate powerful
belief in what you're saying and and what you've proven to be true then other people absorb that
and it's one it's a thing that if someone has an attitude,
meaning a negative attitude,
if they have too much ego,
they're going to say,
well, who the fuck's this guy?
Well, why does he think he knows this?
Well, you know what I've done?
Let me tell you what I've done.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That type of person is going to fall apart, right?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I always say, yes, the heart nature is my teacher,
and he is merciless but righteous.
Yeah, merciless but righteous is true.
You know what is possible because you have achieved it.
And they know that you know this truly.
There are people in Taekwondo, the teacher is called a Sabomnim, you know, like sensei in karate.
Sabomnim is the Korean version of it.
And what that means, a literal translation is one who leads by example.
But you leading by this example, you doing this and showing these people that this is all possible.
Yes.
They absorb that.
That's one of the reasons why it's so important to be around a positive motivated motivated people yes yeah you when you're around them you take that in
who take that in and when you're around people who are troubled and they're falling apart and
failing at everything you take that in too and it's bad for you you know and you could you could
be around people that are always in trouble and your life will be affected by their negativity yes so when
you take these people with you you are raising them up with your own mind with your own your
own belief in what you have done and what they can do you make them better yes sir it is that way
we should heal each other again yeah and we can we can if everybody does their own part yes if everybody gets in that fucking water don't be scared get in that water yeah do you think that the cold water
is maybe even better than like a cryo chamber because it's it's so hard to breathe in cold
water you know when i was uh hosting uh fear factor one of the hardest things that we had
people do was cold water stunts.
Because, especially if you're not used to it, I mean, I've jumped in cold water before.
One of the craziest feelings is you can't breathe.
Like, when you get in the water, your body goes,
It's like this weird thing where you can't, even if your head is above water, you can't.
Like, if I get in a pool,
okay, like a normal pool, like a swimming pool, it's nice. I can breathe. I breathe just like I
can right now. But if you get in cold water, even if you're up to the same level, your head is above
water, you can't breathe. It constricts your body's ability to take in oxygen. Do you think then, in that sense, that maybe there's more benefit even to getting in a
tub of ice and water than there is in one of those cryo chambers?
I think so, yes.
Yeah.
You see it longer too, right?
Yes.
You see the difficulty with cold water.
You see the difficulty with cold water. You see.
And as you see, that means it needs a greater performance and greater control over the body to do that.
Yeah.
But then once you do this consciously, you get a bigger control over your body.
And you are able to perform better.
And it's a vascular thing.
I can't explain, but it takes quite some time.
So maybe it's like the, maybe the smart thing to do is to do both things is do like a cryo chamber for the physical effects, because they say that the cytokines are released in
the body when you get to like 150 degrees below zero, like that's like the most benefit
where your body produces the most anti-inflammatory reaction.
You don't get that cold when you get in the ice bath with water in the ice.
It doesn't get to 250 degrees below zero.
But maybe there's more benefit with the mind and with controlling the breathing in that respect because you have to breathe in deeper, longer.
And you can sit in an ice bath for 20 minutes as opposed to the
three minutes of the, like when I've taken people into the cryotherapy place, you know,
they say, I don't think I could do it.
I'm like, well, the first time you do it, you only do it for two minutes.
You count to 60 twice and it's over.
Just go one, two, three, four, five, six.
You do that, you're one-tenth of the way there.
You count to six, you're one-tenth of the way to 60.
Do it 10 times, you get to 60.
Do it again, and you're done.
It's over.
It's two minutes.
It's nothing.
You can hold your breath for two minutes.
It's not that hard.
But ice bath is a different story.
You get in that ice bath, you climb into that thing,
and it's half ice, half water.
You're fucking breathing.
You can't breathe.
That's when you really have to.
Yeah.
But you can't, for athletes, you can't train after you do the ice bath.
After you do the ice bath, your body is so cold that they say you can't work out afterwards.
But you can work out after you do cryotherapy.
So maybe, like, the benefit for athletes is to do a combination of the two things.
Yeah, sure, sure, sure.
I do.
is to do a combination of the two things.
Yeah, sure, sure, sure.
I do.
When I get these people going,
then within a couple of hours,
you will see that they are able to do so much more.
It's awakening the right pH levels once again,
controlling it by breathing and focus, using focus,
and then having a lot more control over the chemistry.
And the chemistry is needed, controlled, when you get the impact of the cold, which is a force.
You need to produce chemically within your own body,
consciously, a contra-force, an opposing force.
And we are quite able to do that,
but you have to know how to do that
that and for every individual it's a little bit different so for tuning like so uh yeah it's a
vascular thing you say well we are able to go like 20 minutes in a cold ice bath eventually but not in a cryotherapy
therapeutical chamber and that's because it works different on the body and it works on the marrow
it gets deeper inside it's a dry it's dry and you know water gets 25 times faster into the body it's a different
force and i i recommend myself i don't know exactly but i would recommend the ice bath
beyond cryotherapy and cryotherapy is you know very artificial you you need a tank you need this and people are not able to get into
it but when you get
the means cryotherapy
is okay I always
said the cold is okay
but there needs to be
so much more research
yeah yeah yeah you're sure
yeah there needs to be more research
so much more research and
once again I want to be beyond speculation.
But we are able, and that's my belief, like 25 years ago, I told everybody, the autonomic nervous system in relationship to the immune system can be influenced far deeper.
And they mocked me then.
And now it's science. and they changed the books and now i tell
everybody listen up health strength happiness is ours that's our natural state and whatever we use
therein cold or heat or stress or this or that which is an impact on the body, we are able to withstand it,
or able to control it, as we are able to control the system, which is our producing
happiness, strength, and health. Well, your story, one of the most amazing
aspects of it, is your story is a story of persistence and belief, because you've been
doing this for a long time, but it's not until recently that you've sort of broken through to the mainstream.
I think Vice had a lot to do with that.
That Vice piece was so powerful.
Thanks, Vice.
Vice. Shane Smith, my man.
Yeah, right on.
When you watch that piece, it's undeniable,
because you're seeing you do these things,
and you're watching your enthusiasm in your belief
You're taking these other people those reporters that were with you through this these experiments in these these techniques it
It's got to feel good for you to finally be able to get this word out and to realize that the light is at the
End of the tunnel that you've sort of reached this place where your ideas have gone viral.
Yes.
Recognition.
Do you know who Kelly Starr is?
He's a famous strength and conditioning coach.
And he's the author of The Supple Leopard.
Becoming the Supple Leopard is a very, very respected strength and conditioning coach.
When he found out that I was going to have, I didn't even talk to him.
But he found out through the grapevine that you were going to be on my podcast.
And he sent me a text message.
And I'll paraphrase it, but he said that what your work is some of the most important work
that's being done today in the world of understanding the human body.
That's what he was saying.
He was saying that what you're doing right now for athletes and for people that want to understand
how their body works is some of the most important shit that's happening right now.
And that for self-empowerment, for this, that's got to feel good for you, does it?
I mean, what does it feel like to you to realize that from the time you were 17, having this
calling to jump into cold water, to getting this understanding of what that really means
to this breathing method you're developing and then having this scientific proof like this this this
justification this elaborate testing that was done on you that shows that your your method has been
it's been proven it's effective it's real it's it's written down yes undeniable emotionally you
know how how deep can you go if you lose your wife etc but it has been
healed
it's one of my songs too
I think
now I've scientifically
proven it, recognition has come
the mockery has stopped
respect is regained
reestablished
and that's good but there is still so much work
to do because the love and the care for the planet, for the children, for all the living beings
still is not established. We got to change the mind and we got to go on now. I don't want anybody
to suffer anymore from not being happy or not having strength or not being healthy.
And bring back the harmony.
Until that, we need to go on.
But I'm really thankful for people like yourself and this person.
Kelly.
Kelly, thank you very much for endorsing this.
We are going on, and Harvard is coming in, which is one of the best universities of the world.
And we will undeniably prove that we are able to become strong, healthy, and happy.
Everybody.
And what does Harvard want to do?
I don't know yet, but, you know, the same person
you were talking about, Rhonda,
Rhonda, who's a physician.
Dr. Rhonda Patrick. Exactly, Rhonda
Patrick. She was with me
two weeks ago, or one and a half
week in Amsterdam, or
in the Netherlands, my place.
We had a great, great discussion.
Later, she looked it up
and compared the blood results
with the the threat number one in america which is uh arteriosclerosis it's the heart disease
anything what what goes with the arteries and the veins and all that and that that our alkalosis within this technique is capable of influencing in the arteriosclerosis,
not a little bit, big time.
It's chemistry.
So we got it not only for the public enemy, number one, killing so many people in the U.S.
It's all over the Western world.
We got it also for depression, and we got it also for actually any disease.
We got to bring back the belief that we are beings who naturally should be happy, strong, and healthy.
And as long as there are systems or this or complications,
and nobody knows anymore how to be happy and without war and without tensions and too much grieving and too much greed and all that, then we got work to do.
Because the new world is a world of harmony.
And we are working on this.
And we do this together.
I love the fact that you believe that.
And I think that it is possible.
And I really do.
I mean, I've been called a...
Cheers, my brother.
Cheers.
I think we live in a unique time
because we can share information now
in a way that was never possible
just a decade ago.
And something like this,
a podcast,
it's free and it goes out instantly
and then the world gets it.
Beautiful.
And then this information gets shared and transferred
and everybody gets a hold of it
and then it reshapes the way people think.
The millions of people that will listen to this
it will absolutely affect their lives.
And how many of them will act on it?
It's up to them.
But it is possible and it will become viral
because of that.
Your ideas are becoming viral.
Yes, and it's a
non-dogmatic choice yes we gave the people no religion we give the people
results no speculation if you do this then this happens and we want to bring
back the natural state which is healthy strong and healthy anybody can do this
because it's endorsed with thousands of results.
And these are the means.
You are helping to make a paradigm shift possible.
So it's great work what you do.
And the world needs it.
And somebody needs to do it.
So we do this together.
And for that, this is good.
It is very good.
But the beautiful thing about what I'm... It's not really work.
I'm just having a conversation with a cool guy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the beautiful thing
about this. Likewise. Now, do you
monitor your diet at all? Are you
conscious about what kind of foods you eat?
Do you have a specific diet that you follow?
They messed up food
really good. They
synthesized it and they voluminized
it and they make it
really shiny. If you take a paprika
you don't need a mirror.
But the
nutrients therein,
they are changed.
Maybe half or less than half
of the nutrients which
normally should be in there.
Vegetables, you mean. They're making it more
durable. Yes. And also with the meat and all that.
So my diet is more vegetarian, and I eat once a day.
Once a day?
Yeah, once a day after six.
After six?
After six.
So you haven't had anything to eat?
No.
After 35 years, today haven't had anything to eat? No. Yeah.
After 35 years, today, I had my breakfast.
I never have a breakfast.
But it's because of the jet lag.
It took energy.
What time is it now in Holland?
In Holland, it's like a nine hours difference.
Nine hours ahead.
Ahead.
Oh, yeah.
Well, that makes sense.
It's midnight. It hours ahead. Ahead. Oh, yeah. Well, that makes sense. It's midnight. It takes energy.
But because I have this control
over the endocrine
systems, the melatonin,
serotonin, which is the day and the night,
I didn't suffer
any jet lag. But still, it takes
energy. You don't suffer jet lag when
you fly that far? No. Really?
No, no, no. That's
hormones.
By doing when you fly that far? Really? No, no, no. That's, you know, hormones. So by doing your breathing method,
you can sort of mitigate that?
Is that what it is?
Yes, sir.
I have a rule that I follow
whenever I go anywhere
that I might get jet lag.
I go immediately to the gym.
It's the first thing I do.
Unless I'm exhausted.
That's your way to regain strength
and connection with the body.
I exert myself in a very, very strong way.
I don't do a light workout.
I do a ferocious workout when I land,
and it usually resets me.
Right.
Yeah, I understand.
Because if you do a ferocious workout,
you get into the adrenaline axis of yourself as well.
Well, I do a lot of, people might think it's silly, but I do a lot of things when I work
out.
One of the things that I do is I work myself into this state where I feel like what I'm
doing is I'm fighting for my life.
I mean, it might sound crazy, but I put myself in a position.
Yeah.
Sounds beautiful.
If I lift weights or if I run on a elliptical machine or
one of those things do uh some sort of uh cardiovascular i do it like i'm fighting for
my life and i feel like uh that's that's the way i understand the maximum benefits of it now
listening to you it makes sense why i'm doing this like i've just been doing this sort of
instinctively because i feel like over the years of exercising that's the way i've gotten the best
results and but people they listen what the fuck are you doing?
You're not fighting for your life.
Like, I know I'm not.
But in my mind, I am.
When I do it, I'm 100% committed to it because my survival depends on it.
You're literally fighting for your life when you do extremes like I do.
And you know it. And you are very focused at that moment that you have to go beyond your conditioning.
You're not playing.
You're not pretending.
You're under the ice.
You are fighting for your life.
And, you know, a jet lag is something out of your conditioning.
If you are conditioned, you're not able to surpass the effects of a jet lag.
But if you are able to get out of the conditioning, go through it all,
then you are able to regain contact with the serotonin, melatonin balance within the body.
And thus, yeah, overcome jet lag.
There is no jet lag. So one meal a day in the evening, and what's typically a meal for you?
Oh, I like pasta.
I'm sorry.
It's terrible for you.
They say it's terrible, et cetera, but I like macaroni.
It's delicious.
Yeah, I like it.
I'm Italian.
I enjoy it.
It tastes great.
I love it, too. I love it. I like Italian. I enjoy it. It tastes great. I love it, too.
I love it.
I like it a lot.
So you eat a lot of pasta?
Well, that's a lot of carbs.
You burn off a lot of calories, obviously, if you're doing all this crazy physical stuff.
I can eat anything.
I can eat anything, any amount, but I do it after 6 o'clock.
Why after 6 o'clock?
When you wake up in the morning, you're not hungry?
Or is it a conscious decision?
I don't want to be stuffed. I eat very lightly. When you wake up in the morning, you're not hungry? Or is it a conscious decision? I don't want to be stuffed.
I eat very lightly.
I eat very lightly in the morning.
My first meal is almost always fruit now.
That's mostly what I eat.
If I work out in the morning, I have a few pieces of fruit.
And I don't stuff myself.
I do it until I feel like I don't need anymore.
And then I work out.
And then afterwards, I have something light.
Like today, I had some sushi. Very anymore. And then I work out. Sure. And then afterwards I have something light. Like today I had some sushi.
Very light.
You know, not much.
Sounds great.
And then at dinner I usually eat a lot.
But I...
It's not about you.
You know?
It's about those people who are getting in so much.
Right.
It's not...
They don't use it in the body anymore.
They're taking in too many calories.
Yeah.
And they have no control.
But it tastes good.
This is about it.
See, I think for a lot of people, the problem is they go to a job that they don't really enjoy.
And they're stuck in traffic.
And then they get to work.
And the reward is they'll have a donut.
They'll have some coffee.
They'll have an egg sausage sandwich with cheese and mayonnaise.
But you're getting sensations
when you're eating that that are pleasurable and that's the reward and it's to take that
reward away from them you're you're you're giving them a few less bright spots and otherwise dull
day yeah yeah exactly is what you call it and that so. The day's got to be dull.
We got to bring back the intensity of the wonder of the day.
And that comes with being consciously connected with the depth of your physiological systems.
It also comes with making good choices as to what you do for a living and how you spend your time.
Oh, yes. We need to be creative, all of us, because creation and being creative is the expression of the soul.
And the soul needs to breathe like anything, you know, and it needs to expand in consciousness.
Yeah, I've always had a real hard time with the expression creative people.
This guy's creative. He's creative. creative she's creative because people are all creative everyone's
creative it's just a matter of finding what it is that you're creative with some people are
creative with constructing cars some people creative with clothing oh yeah people are
creative like it's a part of being a human being it's, it's saying someone's a creative person is like saying
they're a hard rock.
You know,
everyone,
everybody's creative.
Yeah,
the serenity
which goes along
when people are creative
is beautiful.
It's a natural part
of being a child.
Every child
draws and paints
and plays with things
and sculpts
and makes little things and it's a now and it
gets beaten out of us it gets beaten out of us in school and beaten out of us with jobs and beaten
out of us with responsibilities and careers pink floyd yeah a teacher leave them kids hello just
yeah another break in the wall yeah my man yeah that's um but that for a lot of people they're like that's great but how do i get out
of this and that's unfortunately that's your own path you got to figure that out on your own but if
if you can the problem if people also people get burdened down with bills and responsibilities and
debt credit card debt first of all they get you with student loan debt i don't know how it is in holland do you guys have public universities
yes yes yeah the same thing oh man that's a there's a resistance to that in this country
and it makes me sick school should be fucking free yeah it should be free you're not making
any money and we should encourage people to learn as much as possible so that they could contribute
more and i don't know how to do it but if i have to pay more taxes Jesus Christ I'll pay more taxes I think we should all be enthusiastic
about people being able to get out of school without being hundreds of
thousands of dollars in debt I mean we have a enormous problem this we got we
don't have the same problem with us we we got a partial, you know, you got to redeposit the loan, which you build up, something like that.
But it's much smaller.
Yeah, it's smaller.
It's smaller.
But yet it is not the solution. should be that the system is so complicated, so
away from us,
it should begin
to look, people should
be strong, healthy, and
happy. Are we able
to do that?
And that's what we do scientifically
right now.
Science demonstrative
non omnes factae sunt.
Ser pluris ad hoc in venide.
It's sort of a Latin
show.
The science
didn't prove it all.
There is more to prove.
And the school is not
where we should
live for. The life is the school.
And in life we should be happy, strong, and healthy.
That's the way we are naturally built.
So all the system...
It seems like it's all tied together, right?
Yes, yes.
It's quite logic, very simple, very effective, very there.
And yeah, we just keep on making sense.
We lost the sense.
Do you think that society has moved too fast for our bodies?
I mean, because I think this is all kind of tied together.
You're talking about depression, and you're talking about how our body is not really designed to deal with the stress that it deals with
without any of the physical taxing of the actual unit of the body itself,
the stress of exercise, of exertion, of dealing with the environment and the cold. All these things are sort of, there's demands that are on the body.
And the same could be said about the demands of society, the demands of our culture, the demands of civilization.
the demands of society, the demands of our culture, the demands of civilization.
Do you think that maybe what's happened is that our civilization has gotten too advanced, too fast,
and our bodies just have not been able to adapt, so they're left in this state of confusion and anguish because they're trying to get what they—
There's reward systems that are deeply ingrained in our DNA, and they're not being satisfied.
Yes, exactly.
That's the neural connection between the neocortex and the brainstem, the primitive part, the
human part of the thinking, and the reptilian, the primitive brain, the brainstem, is cut
off somehow.
is cut off somehow.
And that's why we don't control the stress,
just stress, which is stress hormone.
And the endocrine system is connected to the brainstem.
And we lost this.
And there's too much going on.
And we think the body will follow,
but it is not following anymore.
We have problems.
And what we right now do is consciously bring back the neural channeling between the neocortex with the brainstem.
And then I think it'll solve, it'll make sense again. So exercise, breathing, diet, all in consciousness, mindfulness, all these things are connected to live a happy life.
Yes, because happiness is about controlling the endocrine systems.
And they are resetting over there.
And that needs neural channeling.
What is the difference between the way you approach a cold environment versus the way you approached,
what is the thing that you did in the
desert with no water yeah i did it with a physiologist a doctor who was monitoring me
and he saw without me having prior experience in the heat you didn't have any experience in
the heat at all no it was up into the where did you go and what did you do? In Namib Desert.
Where is that?
Sausage Valley near South Africa.
I went down there.
It's a very dry desert.
Maybe the driest desert in the world.
Maybe the second.
I don't know.
Enough to have an impact on the physiology.
And I went up there and I lost 5.2 liters of water, of water.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, things happening.
That's jugs.
Yeah, that's quite a...
So you ran a marathon, is that what it was?
Yeah, yeah.
So it was 26 miles in that desert.
And without drinking, no drinking water at all. No drinking. Did you rehydrate beforehand?
Did you like drink a shitload of water before you ran to coffee to two cups of coffee?
I'm a little bit addicted to coffee. I don't know if I'm going to master this.
Yeah. Doesn't matter. Tastes good.
Yeah.
But that's all.
No, my mind was already there, you know.
I'm going to do this and whatever.
No extra water or anything like that.
And so you brought in physiologists to monitor your body while you were doing this?
Yes. And then he saw all the range, my core body temperature remained 37 degrees.
It's like, you know, the normal body core temperature.
But, dude, I lost 5.2 liters of water.
So, even in extreme conditions, you are able to control the body.
In extreme conditions, you are able to control the body.
And while you're running, are you actively engaging in these breathing exercises while you're running? I always say to the persons who do endurance, you know, long distance running, could be 100 kilometers or 100 miles or 500 miles.
They probably are knowing, not probably, they have to know to breathe more than the normal conditioned breathing patterns, which are shallow.
Because if you're not breathing deep enough, you will exhaust the reserves of oxygen in the tissue.
And then the man with the hammer comes.
You know, you become acidic.
You're not able to run anymore.
That's because the depletion of the oxygen in the tissue is done. I like the expression, the man with the hammer comes.
Yeah, yeah.
You're not able to do anything.
That's a crazy way to look at it, though.
And then the man with the hammer comes.
Yeah. anything. That's a crazy way to look at it though. And then the man with the hammer comes.
Yeah.
So,
I always say, take one principle because we have the ability to
store up more oxygen, but then
you have to go past
your conditioned breathing pattern
which is too shallow
and under performance,
under pressure,
it will just take the oxygen out of your tissue.
And then at a certain point, it's depleted and you are not able to run anymore
because your pH levels become too low.
So you are able to influence while you perform
by thinking.
You know what thinking does, influencing cell level.
But also breathe more than you feel is needed.
Oh.
Okay.
So if you're running and you're like...
Instead, you just go...
You take big, deep breaths.
And just mess with your own body.
Then you are able to get into the tissue and maintain in the cell biology oxygen.
Instead of disconnecting and becoming acidic, oxygen is inside and gets on and is producing energy.
It's called aerobic dissimulation.
It's a process in the cell.
But we are very able to do that.
And I do that and I show that people just in a couple of hours how to do it.
I stand with people like even barefoot in the snow, in short,
say on day two or three,
for one hour in the horse stance.
You know the horse stance?
And then stand for one hour in shorts in freezing temperatures, barefooted,
for one hour in the snow in horse stance,
because they influence, coal takes oxygen to combust energy combustion and it takes energy and it needs
oxygen and um and the horse stance is a performance is a pressure so it creates heat it it creates
heat it creates control it shows that we are able to influence cell biology
by bringing consciously
more oxygen inside,
thus producing more energy.
So, how do you keep people
from getting frostbite?
Because I would think
that standing in the snow barefoot
could make you get frostbite.
After an hour,
they are still not suffering from frostbite after an hour they are still not not not suffering
from frostbite any anything so how do you get frostbite we begin to sing and we begin to have
fun while this is going on so i had i had these east european and russian people coming to my
place as well and they look really tough and this and that.
And they have this attitude.
I say,
okay, let's do an experiment.
If somebody is very tough,
we take a bottle of vodka,
we put it in front of us,
we stand outside in the horse stance,
barefooted,
and then in one hour or one half hour is also
okay, we drink all the bottle
and still remain in balance
because cold
is affected if you get alcohol
in the blood
so you need more oxygen, you need more
control and we drink the whole
bottle of vodka
Oh you drink vodka, not water, vodka
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you drink vodka, not water. Vodka. Oh, yeah.
I think he said water.
Vodka comes from the
word water. Water
is water.
That's how crazy Russians are.
Vodka, water,
same thing.
Just drink.
So you put a bottle of vodka in front of them.
And they have to drink the whole bottle.
I say, I do crazy experiments.
I guess.
Yeah, man.
Come on.
Life is crazy.
You got to do crazy experiments.
Under anybody's definition, life is crazy.
But we're having fun.
But we never did it uh but yeah i think
you know if you have a hangover a hangover you know then if you do 20 minutes this breathing
then you have no hangover anymore the it works that way you are learning to detox yourself
in 20 minutes.
I have a guy that I do podcasts with occasionally.
His name is Dr. Carl Hart, and he's an addiction specialist and brilliant guy.
And he explained hangovers to me in a way that I never understood.
He's like, we have this very confused sense of what addiction is.
And he said, what a hangover is, is your body being addicted to
alcohol. Even from one binge session, your body creates these mitigating responses to the alcohol.
And then when the alcohol is no longer present, your body has this horrible headache. And what
it is, is a compensatory response to the alcohol. That's what it is. Amazing. Adaptive. Yeah. I
mean, that's what a hangover is. Adaptive forces.
Yeah, so he redefines the premise of addiction,
and he believes that our ideas of addiction are very self-limiting.
Yes.
So we have very self-limiting ideas about our control over life itself.
Yes, and then your breathing method just flushes this out of the system.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
In any sense.
What other athletes have you worked with other than Alistair?
Olympic sports,
uh,
supporters,
uh,
like rowing people,
people who are doing judo,
judo.
Uh,
also very aerobic,
right?
Yeah. Uh, and,udo. Also very aerobic, right? Yeah.
And skaters, hockey team.
And when did these people start coming to you?
Yeah, whenever I had this scientifically endorsed result.
This is when people begin to think, hey, man, this is real. People think when it is
scientifically proved, then something is real. Now, how do you have the time to engage all these
people? I mean, it seems like you've got a lot of people pulling on your time now, right?
Yeah. Yeah, it does. But once again, I got my mission. My mission is to help as much children in the world as possible.
We have to bring back care and love.
And this is my mission.
And I believe in what I do.
So let the science come.
But the science, as I see it sometimes, is as fast as a slow turtle.
They need protocols.
The science has to be very thorough.
The problem is you're legitimate 100%,
but a lot of people are not.
I've had a lot of people on this podcast
that I thought were legit,
and then after talking to them,
and then after going over their stuff,
and then after being in contact with people
who've criticized their work,
you realize they're bullshit artists.
They're just really good at being a bullshit artist.
And some of the stuff they say is true.
That's the art itself.
It is.
It is.
Unfortunately, those people, they bullshit themselves as well.
That's one of the fascinating things about bullshit artists is they're their own victim.
They're the victim of their own work.
And, you know, a guy like you, it's frustrating to you because you are legit and you want this message to get out there.
Yes. because you are legit and you want this message to get out there. But that scientific method is critical
because that scientific method is also establishing the veracity of your work.
It's establishing that absolutely what you're doing is provable and it's real.
It's one of the things that makes you so unique
is the fact that it's not just you and your method.
It's not just anecdotal evidence.
It's the fact that there's a bunch of people out there
that have actually tested you,
that have no vested interest whatsoever and you being accurate
In fact would probably like to debunk you just as much as they would like to prove you accurate
And they can't and that's that's what things get very very very interesting
What's fascinating to me is that you're this one guy?
You're like an outlier in the most extreme sense of the term because there's seven billion people and this one guy has figured some shit out.
What if you weren't around, man?
What if you didn't exist?
We might never figure this shit out.
It might be 100 years before somebody figured it out.
You know?
It makes you wonder what people knew.
Now we work together.
Yes.
I do not only love you, I love your work.
I love your spirit. No, I love the spirit. And that's why only love you, I love your work I love your spirit
No, I love the spirit
And that's why I love you
You know, for what we do
And it needs to be done
Somebody needs to do it
And if we do it together, we are stronger
Well listen, I love you too
And I love your spirit
And I love what you're doing
And I will help you in any way I can
I will get this word out as much as possible
I believe what you're doing, man.
I think what's fascinating is that the parlor tricks, as it were, or your feats, your amazing
endurance feats, that's what's bringing people to you.
When you see you on Everest in your shorts, there's this one image of you out in the snow
and you're bouncing on some and, uh, you're
bouncing on some ice. Yeah. Like that gets people going, what the fuck is this guy doing? And then
they start researching it and then they start realizing like, Whoa, this guy, this, there's
been scientific examinations of his claims and it holds up like, here's this is one image of you
here. Oh yeah. That, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's a great picture, man.
When people see shit like that, they go,
what the fuck is this crazy guy doing?
He's got no shorts on.
He's out in the snow.
It's freezing cold out, and he's having a great time.
It's very contagious in a lot of ways.
I have a great time.
It seems like.
What's going on here?
What is in this picture here?
This is Columbia Sportswear. This is a commercial. Oh And it seems like. What's going on here? What is in this picture here? This is Columbia Sportswear.
This is a commercial.
Oh, it's a commercial.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They did it.
And so that's on the Mont Blanc.
And that's in the Alps.
Wow.
And yeah, more stuff.
That's a crazy picture to see you out there in that frozen
tundra yeah in your shorts yeah no shirt on it's all there you know well how about the one when
you're up there in the lotus position yeah that one oh yeah that's uh iceland iceland jesus now
how do you keep your legs from getting frostbite? What causes frostbite, and how are you able to stop that from happening?
We got an ability to maintain above zero within the cell biology.
But as we not expose ourselves anymore, we get frostbite, et cetera.
we not expose ourselves anymore we get frostbite etc but if you get into the system and you learn to control right and you get the right ph degrees then the frostbite will not come because we got a
mechanism to do that that that that will bring the cell temperature just above zero.
That means in Fahrenheit, what is it? 32.
32.
Because if it gets below, you get a reputable cell damage.
But yeah, we are mammals, and we are able to do that, like dogs and etc.
Well, we know that people adapt to certain environments.
They know that Inuits have adapted a very interesting ability with their hands,
where their hands don't freeze up and get numb.
Whereas a person like me from California, if I was in their environment, I would have a real struggle.
But for them, it comes natural, and their bodies adapted to this extremely harsh environment.
It seems like human beings are much more pliable
than we give them credit for.
That's the adaptive power which we have
and never resort to
because we live in a comfort zone,
a kind of behavior,
and we think we can control nature.
But as long as we do not control
what makes us happy, strong, strong and healthy we have no control at
all and i want to bring it over there that's interesting so what we've been doing is trying
to control nature we've been trying to build houses and heat them up and we've been trying
to control the environment instead of control ourselves to adapt to the environment. Exactly.
And it's nice to have a nice fireplace and everything accommodated, et cetera.
But sometimes, like a dog, you need to go out.
And you know what else, too?
The fireplace, you don't appreciate that fireplace unless you're cold as fuck.
That's when you really appreciate it.
It's when you really begin to enjoy.
Yeah, like after your eyeballs thaw out. Like we when you really appreciate it. It's when you really begin to enjoy. Yeah, like after your eyeballs
thaw out. Like, what are you talking about?
Yes, yes. Going blind. I bet if you got
in front of a fire then, it would be
a glorious fire. Wow, man. You're very
silent and serene at that moment.
Yeah. Enjoying every
bit. We need the harsh to
appreciate the mellow. You know,
we need hard things
to appreciate soft
things we need violence I think sometimes to appreciate peace it's like
there's something fascinating about human beings that we almost are designed
to overcome and if we do not overcome we find we find ourselves lost yes and
it's all about consciousness yeah being. Being aware of life itself, which is a wonder.
So we are going to bring it back first chemically and then make understandable that consciousness and love are the best things on earth, accessible for everybody.
for everybody now are you experiencing over like how what has been the the last like few years like what has it been like where people are awakening
themselves to your accomplishments and your work and your your belief what what
has it been like it seems like is at least me on the outside becoming more
and more aware of you it's like I'm getting people tweet at me all the time
with your videos and articles about you and all these different people ask me about getting you on.
It seems like there's an awakening that's going on.
How much of a requirement has that been on your time and you?
And what does that feel like to you to have all these people sort of like overwhelmingly coming after you now?
Yeah, I love it.
I love it.
Yeah, I love it. I love it. But and I think this way and being with people like you, like Joe Rogan is an entity is not just you. It's more it's an image we got to use and abuse all this for the goal to bring it non dogmatically to anybody and every person in the world.
We want to make the world happy.
We want to make it strong and healthy.
We want to bring consciousness of the wonders of life itself.
And as long as it is not there,
then all these people who tweeted you
and who are helping me now,
that's the way I feel it it's it's it's love itself
that brings me toward uh this yeah this mission and the destination of it is helping children
love and care i thank these people very very much from the heart and we still need to go on. So we all need you.
You keep bringing up children.
That's a primary focus.
Is that because you feel like they're the most receptive to new ideas?
Exactly.
They are open, and they have to learn from people who are wise.
You know, we are the elders.
Somebody's got to do it.
And that's us.
So we have the responsibility.
And are we able to respond?
And that's right now, right here.
That's why I'm here with you.
And you're asking, and I can feel you are somebody, you know, you go deeper into it all then yeah what is deeper than love
what is deeper than the care for a child and that's what we need and once begins to establish
the love continuously without fear of disease without fear of being unhappy without fear of disease, without fear of being unhappy, without fear of having no energy, etc.,
then the love will bloom, because that's the natural flower of every person.
And that's why I call it children, etc.
We have to make this beautiful, beautiful planet, which is actually the best spot in all the universe.
We don't need to look beyond Mars or there or there or there.
Just look within and make this world a better place in harmony with the nature.
And it begins with the children.
I share that idea.
And I've been saying to people for a long time that one of the things that makes me so enthusiastic and so optimistic about the future is the fact that we can reach kids now
in a way that we couldn't reach them before. We can reach kids with ideas and with open-mindedness
and with just massive amounts of information that just weren't available before and that if you can
change their opinion or inform them or expose them to new ideas that generate new creative
ideas inside them, then you have broken the system.
And this system that's designed to carve paths that have already been traveled.
And then, you know, I want to be a lawyer just like my dad.
And you get on that same fucking path and you get stuck.
And I think now there's an infinite number of paths and they're branching off into infinite different directions
and new streams and new new tributaries and I think we live in a beautiful time because
of that because a guy like you in Holland can get your ideas out you see I've do a few
things and then all sudden people know about it and then it spreads and then you connect
with other people and you connect to me and I connect to the internet and then
it connects us.
And then there's going to be people that are practicing what you do and then they're going
to tell their friends and it's going to get, they're going to tweet about it and write
blogs about it and boom, boom, boom and make videos.
And then it's overwhelming and it becomes overwhelming and then it becomes a natural
part of life.
Yes.
And it is overwhelming.
The wonder of life is overwhelming it is overwhelming the wonder of
life is overwhelming it is and uh media is helping us it is internet and all that this kind of media
is the best because no one's controlling it you know the fact that anybody you could start your
own podcast nobody is controlling it you ever thought about starting a podcast no not yet
why not i got i got this i got him to help me on the podcast.
You never did this.
Why didn't you do that?
We'll talk to him.
Jamie will school him.
We'll get this straight.
Right on.
So beside the Harvard thing, the studies, what else do you have going on that people can look forward to?
We got different universities.
And we got different protocols out to do work on arthritis.
Arthritis?
Yeah.
And different autoimmune diseases in general.
And about depression.
I want to get.
We are able to control depression.
Really.
That's amazing.
I mean, that's a huge, huge, huge huge problem not just in this country but all
over the world yes it's one of the one of the main problems that plagues modern human beings
yes and it's not so difficult it's very simple but you know the genius of things is to make
things simple and that's belief we are built to be happy strong and healthy we just need to go back to nature the natural laws
within us and uh and connect again very simple um is there anything uh that people should read
that you've done or or watch is there any the Vice documentary, is there anything else that people, that you recommend people check out? You know, this study, which we did,
is actually the first study that showed that the autonomic nervous system in relationship with the
endocrine systems and immune systems are deeply to be, deeply able to be influenced.
are deeply able to be influenced.
So bacteria has no chance.
Things like that, you know?
That's crazy because that's also, you know,
I had a friend of mine who got a staph infection,
a horrible staph infection.
I posted a photo of it online the other day because he got MRSA,
which is medication-resistant staph infection.
It's horrific.
You should do this.
You think that something like this
could help that oh uh i think i'm sure about it but my my son my team is always saying i don't
say you are curing people i see unless it is totally scientifically proved it was 25 years
ago i stated something that is scientifically proved now, and it changes science as it is.
Well, I think what they're doing is they want to rein you in just because they understand
the importance of what you're saying, and that they're optimistic, but cautiously optimistic.
It is so.
It is so.
But if I see the person, and always, they won't get worse of it, at least.
And I saw miracles happening because life is a miracle. natural ability and then changing all the disbalances
so much that they felt
confident within their own
bodies again and taking
away, regaining
control over the immune systems
and yeah, then diseases
go.
It's very simple. You just
need to do it. Just need to activate those
systems that are already inherent in the body.
Exactly.
You know, I just think guys like you, I mean, I want to say guys like you, but I don't know anybody else like you.
But I think what you've done is so amazing and so important because out of all these human beings,
of all this stuff that's going on, all the different activities and interactions, all the different thoughts. It just takes one person to step out with a new, unique idea
that could be completely revolutionary
and change the way people behave
and the way people interface with nature.
And I think you've done that.
And I thank you very much, man.
Thank you for coming on here.
I really, really appreciate it.
I love you.
It's a pleasure.
I love your work.
Thank you.
And keep on, and we do it together.
Yes, absolutely.
We are all on the same mission,
bringing back love and confidence
that we are able to do, you know,
to be a part of this wonder.
Well, anything you ever need tweeted
or put on Facebook or put on the podcast,
just let me know,
and you got an open invitation
to come back anytime you want.
I really appreciate it.
Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Wim Hof an open invitation to come back anytime you want. I really appreciate it. Yes, sir.
Thank you very much.
Wim Hof, ladies and gentlemen.
And your Twitter page is what?
It's Iceman...
What is it?
Innerfire.nl?
No, the Twitter page is...
Iceman Wim Hof.
Iceman Wim Hof.
It's actually Iceman Hof.
It's Iceman underscore HOF.
And that's the Twitter page.
And your website is, what is your website?
Your website is?
Wim Hof, what is it?
WimHofMethod.com.
WimHofMethod.
Wim, W-I-M-H-O-F-Method.com.
Thank you, brother.
Appreciate it.
Right on.
All right, folks.
See you soon.
Mother, holy mama.
Ha, ha, ha.