Christopher Wark (00:00.066)
When you go into the cold, you expose yourself to a hormetic stressor. A hormetic stressor is self -inflicted acute stressful exercise. And that, it gets into the bone marrow so deep. And there, what it does, it ignites white and red blood cells. It ignites immune cells, therefore. It recycles damaged cells. It ignites stem cells.

and it destroys cancer cells.

Christopher Wark (00:36.014)
All right, gang. Well, today my guest is the Iceman Wim Hof. He is an incredible inspirational human who holds numerous Guinness World Records for feats of endurance and cold exposure. Some of his feats include the fastest half marathon time running barefoot on ice and snow, being submerged in ice for an hour and 53 minutes.

Swimming 58 meters under ice with no wetsuit and without breathing, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in shorts. And there's a long list. There's probably a lot more that I'm not even aware of that he's accomplished, but through his own experiences, he has developed a method that he believes can help others tap into their innate ability to control their body and their mind through intentional breathing, cold therapy and commitment.

And he calls this the Wim Hof method. And maybe many of you know of Wim Hof. He's become quite well known in the last decade. And I love his, I love his philosophy. I love his practical teaching. He's so inspirational to me. And many of you know, I've, I've talked about him for years. I've, I've celebrated him for years and because the techniques that he teaches are known to help.

reduce stress and anxiety, improve immune function, increase energy and dopamine, help you feel better, help you recover from exercise faster, improve your sleep, improve your confidence, improve your focus. Like there are all these benefits. And so he's also the author of a book called the Wim Hof method. And here's that book right there. It's, a fantastic book. Highly recommended. I've read it. Okay. That's enough introing. Wim great to see you.

Thank you, Chris, for having me. And I just read your incredible story, an amazing reach you got to people who are so -called normally helpless and overtaken by the system. Well, it does not need to be that way. Aren't we just born with the defense systems intact?

Christopher Wark (02:57.314)
to face anything that happens within our lives. Isn't that logical? So, because that is no longer there and we alienated from our innate capacity to heal ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, all that, that's why I went into the search, soul search, because I'm a soul. Without the soul, I stink.

in one day. So I'm here now, a soul, and I have the right to be happy, strong, and healthy. So are you. So are the listeners. Anybody who's listening now, listen up, really. We are the future. The future is independence of systems that loves us to be sick.

because then they can make money. That is the real cancer. That is the real sickness, is the money. You don't want to have people healthy if you have a sick industry that makes money by the trillions on us being sick. You don't want to lose your clients and the food. We don't need so much food every day and we need healthy food. I mean,

Food should be food. That's all. Period. Boom. What they put in makes the food make energy in us to combat what is alien in the food. And that means in the end, we don't have the energy to maintain our bodies because it's fighting the wrong thing coming in with the processing of the food. It's poison.

and the body is built to fight it. Anything that is alien, it wants to fight. So we are actually in a continuous fighting mode in our bodies because of low grade inflammation, which in the end will lead up to deregulation of the immune system that's cancer.

Christopher Wark (05:20.93)
That's chronic inflammation. That is autoimmune diseases that causes depression by disrupting neuronal transmission on cell level on the nerves. And then their neurotransmitters are not sufficient anymore present by which we call it depression. It's a loss of pressure.

Now I found a method in my soul search that really works beyond any words, because there's a lot of blah blah, a lot of philosophy, a lot of utopian kinds of thoughts about what can we do? if we only do this in the future, then it's going to look. No, no, no, I don't want promises. I want the innate capacity to heal myself.

to feel that confidence and to have that neurological connection. And I'm proving that over and over in scientific research, because I don't like speculation whatsoever. So there I am. Well, I love your passion and we, we agree. I agree with everything you said, and it is, it's awesome. I can't wait to dive into some of the research that has been done on you and on people that you've trained and what

what has, what we've learned from the work that you're doing. But before we get to that, so in your book, you talk about the first time you were exposed to ice or the cold, really to the cold. You were 17 years old. I was also 17 years old. The first time I was exposed to the cold, I was on a retreat with my father. was like a father and son adventure camp and

One of the days we did a hike through the mountains and there was a section of the hike where we had to jump into a stream and swim upstream for maybe 20 feet and, then get out and pick up the trail again. And, and it was the coldest water I had ever been in, in my life. It was probably in the fifties, 50 degrees, you know, Fahrenheit.

Christopher Wark (07:40.629)
And I can remember, I mean, I'll never forget, right? It was, it was a shock. It, my skin was on fire, right? It was, it was, it was exhilarating and a bit torturous, but I did it. Now the difference between you and I is I didn't want to do that again. Right? So when you first had a cold exposure experience, what, what made you want to go back to it to continue that practice?

That's exactly what it is. It is the motivation. I was philosophizing so much. I was a thinking kind of person, philosophizing in my side, debating inside, thinking what is this all about? What is life all about? What do they say? How can they teach me to get to the bottom of myself, to the deepest of myself? And there was none. It kept on the ruminating, ruminating circles.

like buzzing vultures around my alive being. Well, I was not dead, but already there it is. Why are you here? You don't know. You don't know. You don't know why you are alive? What is that? So then I found the attraction by intuition to go into cold water. I just felt it.

I think at that moment was my intuition saying, hey, I'm going to stop you ruminating. I'm going to stop this circling kind of pattern. I'm going to show you what life is. And it showed me, my subconscious led me. And then from there, I never skipped a day. I never skipped a day, and that is like 40, 46, 47 years ago.

And I'm still doing it. I'm loving it like the first time because when I went in for the first time, there are no words to describe it. But if I use words, this is it. That was the feeling. This is it. It's like, Chris, if you fall in love with a person you love, you you don't know what's happening. It's just happening.

Christopher Wark (10:06.197)
It is stronger than you're thinking. That is exactly what happened at that moment. So you had this revelation and you just decided I need to do this every day. Yes, and it was not like I was talking to myself when you feel good, very good about something you are drawing. You can think what you are, whatever you if you love something you can think this or this, but there is no block.

on the way possible to stop you. You just find a way around it. So that's what I did. I followed my feeling and that led me into this practice. And the first 25 years, people were saying I was crazy, an idiot. How can you go into the cold? I am crazy and all. But you started in the beginning when you skipped your clothes to get to the other side.

You were exposing for the first time the biggest organ of your body, and that is your skin. And then your skin became alive. But it's logical. It's like a muscle you have never used. How can you think of it to be able to push like 40 pounds in one go? No, no, you have to go gradually into the cold. Then it only takes 10 days.

to be in the right cardiovascular condition, to take on the impact of the cold and feel great while you go. So that is the power of your body. Yeah. You talk about this in your book. So you recommend cold exposure 10 days in a row. And after 10 days, there really is a, there's, just a shift in your body's ability to adapt to it. And,

I've certainly experienced this. The first time I did cold showers was in 2004. was, you know, fresh off a cancer diagnosis. I was changing my whole life, doing everything I could find every, every therapy, every, every supplement, every herb. was, I was doing everything I can find to try to help myself. found Dr. Richard Schultz and Dr. Schultz was an advocate of hydrotherapy. And so in one of his books, he said,

Christopher Wark (12:31.585)
You need to take hot and cold showers, alternating hot and cold, as hot as you can get, as hot as you can stand it, and then go switch it to the full cold and as, as cold as you can stand it, as long as you can stand it and go back and forth. So, you know, I was like, okay, you know, he didn't have a whole lot of science to back it up, but he was a practitioner and, and swore by this. And so, so I started incorporating that into my daily routine and, and, and so, yeah, it, it, it,

It was not easy. It was never easy. It was always hard, but I had this determination and I always felt amazing afterward. Exactly. And that's what it is. It realigns the body. You know what happens on cell level. When you go into the cold, you expose yourself to a hormetic stressor, a hormetic stressor, self -inflicted acute stressful exercise. Yes.

And that, it gets into the bone marrow so deep. And there, what it does, it ignites white and red blood cells. It ignites immune cells, therefore. It recycles damaged cells. It ignites stem cells. And it destroys cancer cells. And the cold, know it also causes this surge of adrenaline and dopamine.

Why is as much adrenaline comes with these breathing exercises and going into the cold? Why is as much as a person who goes for the first time in fear into a bungee jump? This is a comparison of scientific results, blood results. They compare people go into their first bungee jump, taking the blood.

and people doing these breathing exercises and going into the cold, take the blood, then compare it under a microscope and they saw a spike of adrenaline, twice as much in the people going into the cold and doing these breathing exercises. Then a person who goes in fear, they were selected to have fear, as the fear is the igniter of adrenaline, twice as much.

Christopher Wark (14:59.593)
as those people in fear going for their first punch jump. So when that happens, the body resets in the depth, in the depth of the deepest, to the trauma, the biochemistry of traumatic experiences, of disease itself. Any pathogen will be destroyed because the body is built

to reset itself to its utmost of capacity functionality. That is adrenaline, it's logical. When there are tigers, lions, or avalanches, you gotta be the best of yourself. So that's why there is adrenaline. And we lost it by alienating, by going into comfort zone behavior all this time. We never challenged ourselves. And so,

Our body, bodies actually inside biochemically is full of biochemical residue that is obstructing our neurological flow and that in long term will cause disease. It's logical. It's like garbage, garbage rots. If we have garbage inside and we don't cleanse, that's what adrenaline does. It cleanses it, it resets the body.

on biochemical deep level. And that's what the cold bath does. And that's what the fasting does it as well. So fasting, I eat once a day. I feel amazing. And when I eat, Chris, I have a party with myself. Yeah. Yeah. You enjoy it. Yeah. yeah.

100 ,000%. Man, there's nothing more than having one meal and the rest of the day I feel like electric, like on fire, light. I feel light. It's amazing. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. Intermittent fasting, no sugar, no sugar. Bloody sugar of the industry is crazy. We are built in the West.

Christopher Wark (17:23.863)
who have sugar only after the harvest of fruits in the trees. The rest of the year, it's different foods. Now we've got after harvest time every day. It's crazy. They messed up with our biology, our physiology. Logically, we get disrupted. And there is the cancer. There's the autoimmune diseases. There is the acidification.

of our bodies. Logically, we become sick. guys listening like Chris and me, sickness does not need to be if you go along by the rules of nature itself. You are nature. Go back to nature. You are beautiful, strong, happy, healthy, and strong. We all are built to be that.

Well, living in harmony with nature was, it was an idea that, you know, occurred to me when I was trying to get well as I was constantly thinking, how can I live more in harmony with nature? And, and when you start to think that way, when you evaluate what you're doing based on that criteria, you start to see, this food is not natural, you know, these lifestyle habits are not very natural. Like I we've gotten so far away from, from

living in harmony, even just staying up too late, not going to bed after the sun goes down, our work habits, electricity, media, all of these things. All our habits, all what we took on is an abstracted idea of our inner nature works. Actually, there is no inner nature. There is only to be in tune and harmony with nature, because we are nature.

There is no inner and outer nature. There is no dualism. There is flow or there is a no -go. And the no -go is being done by alienating and eating abstract food, which is not natural. So alienating from nature and abstract food from nature is no food. It's chemicals, it's chemistries, shit, it's additives and numbers and...

Christopher Wark (19:46.591)
It's oxidating our bodies and our brains. It's logical law. So your angle of what you just said is very enlightening. yeah, wow, yeah, that's a way to look at it. Amazing. And of course you have been successful. So your route is the way to go. Nobody has the wisdom until you live it. That's right. That's right.

The most powerful lessons are usually through our own mistakes or adversity. That's where wisdom comes from, you know. You can learn from others, but most of us have to make our own mistakes. learn of governments no more, because they are all money driven. It is time that the people start to wake up within themselves and become beautiful human beings as they are built to be.

And anything that makes them not able to be in control over their health, happiness and strength is bullshit. It should not be there. It should be evicted out of here, out of the temple. Here's divinity to be and love to spread and health and strong and happy. So I want to talk practically about the simple. And this is what I love about you, by the way.

is that you're teaching things that are so simple. Obviously there's a lot of philosophizing and you can be very esoteric, but you are teaching things that are very simple, breathing, proper breathing, exposure to the cold and really mindset and having this, this commitment, determination, confidence. And so just practically, because I know a lot of people in my audience are, they're afraid of cold.

Right. They're afraid of it. They're afraid of cold showers. They're afraid of getting into a cold pool or an ice bath. And I know that fear. I understand it. And, and so I want to hopefully inspire people and give them confidence to just start. Right. To start even starting small with cold exposure. and so we've kind of talked about what happens, but

Christopher Wark (22:04.033)
You get this surge of dopamine and adrenaline. So it really makes you feel good. First of all, and I mean, everybody likes to feel good. That's important. But then as you said, you're, you're, you are causing hormetic stress, which is a good stress. a, activates these survival mechanisms in your body that is, that it's really taking you out of a position of frailty and vulnerability and weakness.

and it's strengthening you, right, to your core when you expose yourself to the cold. The real comfort is strength. The real comfort is making the immune system strong. The real comfort is dopamine. Dopamine is the good field hormones. It gets up by 250 % after an ice bath. That is like cocaine.

But now you get high on your own supply. You don't need things from the outside to feel high, to feel great, to feel strong. The cold water is not saying, you gotta go in here, then you'll feel so good. No, I say, you go to the stress, then the stress will not come to you. And with that, I say, people who are doing chemo, people who are into cancer,

and being debilitated. That is the time you should go to strengthen voluntarily, consciously, your immune system. And you can boost it with 10 times more white and red cells and kill cancer cells by going into ice bath. It is so simple. You know why? Because Mother Nature made us to have no cancer.

But we alienated from nature and then cancer sets in as if, hey, this living organism needs to go. Then cancer comes. It's like in trees as well. Trees can go down when they are debilitated. It's sort of cancerous and they get down. They go back to the cycle of matter, to dust again, to grow again somewhere else because it didn't function.

Christopher Wark (24:27.425)
We need to learn to function well. And nature knows well. We are wellness on its own, but we need to get back. And the cold water is merciless, but righteous. It brings you always back to who you are and what you are. And mind about that, listener and viewer, that the cold.

is able to give you back what is most beautiful, your health, your happiness, and your strength. It will reset you in the depth. It will blast your thinking, your doubt. It will blast your wrong feeling and your weakness. And it will bring you the way you are. And that is being happy and strong and healthy. That is our true nature. I wouldn't even say inner nature.

That is the nature that correlates, that resonates with the nature outside. And then we see, like Chris was telling us just now, that then we look at our homes and our comfort zone behavior and our cars and our food and see if that is natural. So for never to go into the same mistake, to alienate with our harmonious

alliance with nature outside, making us strong, happy and healthy. Because trees, they grow strong, happy and healthy if we don't put poison in the ground. They just grow to the skies and they are beautiful. We should be strong and learn of the trees. Just root well and grow to the sky and give shadows to those who need and cover and inhabit.

a lot of lively and lovely creatures inside. That's life. That's us. I love it. So I want to, I want to say this, you know, there is something that happens when you first accomplish a cold therapy session. The first time you do it, whether it's just flipping the shower from hot to cold.

Christopher Wark (26:50.989)
And getting your breath under control and enduring it for 15 seconds or 30 seconds or more, or getting into an ice bath for a minute or two or three minutes. When you get out, you feel, not only do you get the surge of adrenaline and dopamine and you feel great, but I think there's something beyond that. gives you this increased confidence that like, I can do something.

I just did something that was really hard and it changes you. mean, it really, changed me for sure. It gave me a, I just a new level of confidence and determination and, and, and willpower that I didn't have before. Now I want to ask you about breath work and breathing, because this is another big thing that you teach. That's so important. What is the point? What is, what is deep breathing?

and breath holding due for the Breath holding after alkalizing the body through deep, repetitious breathing like 30 times, 40 times, deeply in, letting go, deeply in, letting go, deeply in, letting go, in, go. You know, you go deeper, deeper and deeper.

it changes the blood chemistry. So we live in a conditioned body. And sometimes it's good to revise that, to go to the bottom, to like we revise our cars too sometimes. So when we got traumas, when we got things hidden inside the body, stored up, we should be able to go to the mechanic and say, hey, there is something wrong.

It's there, but it needs to get out. Can you get it out? Now, auto means self in Greek. Auto, that's us. We are like a car. We are like a vehicle. And sometimes we need to be able to go into the depths of ourselves and reinstall, reset our bodies in the depth. And if any, any, anything is wrong, we will find it through going past

Christopher Wark (29:13.683)
our conditioned pulmonary mechanisms that go so deep in the lungs. There is also the DMT, a lot of DMT, dimethyltryptamine. What is that for? Not for tripping around and there'd be a high, no, it's for releasing trauma, traumatic experiences and anything that is disturbing, which

is stored up biochemically in the body. For that we have DMT. For that we need to go into the depth of our pulmonary system or the breathing. Fully in, letting go. Fully in, letting go. 30, 40 times you will feel that you go past the conditioned patterns of the breathing. And then you suddenly all over you are

energizing, charging up the nervous system. And the nervous system is connected to the vascular system, which is about 70 ,000 kilometers in each and every one of us. And it goes to the skin. It goes to the capillaries, the arteries, and the veins. That is about 70 ,000 miles in every person. And it contains all the little muscles.

It's called the endothelium around the veins and arteries and the capillaries, little muscles. What happens when we go into this deep breathing, you exercise all the millions of little muscles, the endothelium. And then we make our vascular system suddenly alive and we charge it up with alkalinity. And then it opens up.

Alkalinity pH up, opens up the body. Suddenly you are there. You caused yourself to be there. And suddenly your mind now comes in the mind that is a neurotransmitter. Your mind, your will is electrical. It's a neurotransmitter. Neurosignal is able by nature, by natural law, to connect with anything that happens inside the body and make

Christopher Wark (31:40.961)
the right difference to release what should not be there because you feel it. It's only logic. It's only logic, but it was unknown. So what happens when you do these breathing techniques, when you do this, then suddenly it comes in play a new kind of neurological network, which we never heard of in psychiatry, which is called the interoception.

Interoception is neurological network number eight. You got the six sense, the six sense, seven sense, and the eight sense. The eight sense is interoception. And that you can only reach well if you alkalize the whole of body through this breathing, then the neuro signal is able to connect. And naturally opens up

Our ability to control the central nervous system also thought of inaccessible voluntarily. It was considered, it's like, but now we showed, I showed it recently, look it up with a study I did in Detroit. In Detroit with Professor Divakar and Professor Otomuzik on the cannabinoid receptors.

which enhances the neuronal transmission for neurotransmitters to go past. When they are too low, then depression, then there is no pressure, then there's no neurotransmitter transmission, and then you get depressed. It's logical. So we had no idea how to fix it naturally, but now we have, and that's where the breathing comes in. We bring in, Chris, back

the light, the electricity through the neurology of neurotransmitters, through our neurosignal, doing the breathing and being able to reset like an electrician, our bodies to be feeling light, to be the light and to flow. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's amazing. obviously you're amazing beings. but we have to remind the people and you did it in your way.

Christopher Wark (34:05.789)
I'm doing it my way. We come together and it's like common sense. We understand each other because we are not words. We did it. We broke the chains and we say freedom is who we are and what we are is the ability to have confidence in our own bodies to heal or to repair anything that is happening inside our bodies. That gives us

absolute confidence. Confidence is confidere with belief, with faith, not in the doctors, in yourself, in your innate capacity to heal. It was always there. Whoever did this, that we are separated of our positive usage of our neurological networks, doesn't matter. We bring the light, we bring

the love through awareness. That's why this podcast very powerful. I agree. and you know, when you, when you talk about deep breathing, 30 to 40 deep breaths, you're also hyper oxygenating, right? You're, this is an oxygen therapy as well. are, you're significantly increasing the oxygen in your body during this time.

And then what you, what you suggest and encourage. And by the way, I did, I did my, my breathing and my cold plunge this morning, because I knew I was going to, I knew I was going to be seeing you. So I was like, I got to make sure I do it today. I have a pool. I, and the pool is 48 degrees. So it's perfect to plunge in. and so,

Okay. So obviously there's that benefit of increasing the oxygen, alkalizing your blood and the studies that you talked about where there's actually neurological changes or changes in neural networks in your brain. That's fascinating from doing this. Now you also recommend a breath hold. So doing 30 to 40 deep breaths. then once you decide where to stop, whether it's at 40 or 35 or whatever, then you fully exhale and then you hold.

Christopher Wark (36:23.063)
for as long as comfortable. it may many people would be surprised to know that you can easily hold your breath for two to three minutes at the end of one of these cycles. And I've seen that every time I do it. You know, it's after after exhalation, after exhalation. That's right. Exhale everything and then you just don't breathe for as long as comfortable. And so what's the value of that part of the practice? Because that's

That's more like hypoxia, right? You're using the oxygen, you've super oxygenated, your body's using it, you don't require breath, but eventually you deplete it. Has there been research on that particular practice? Yeah, there is once again, it's inducing hormetic stress, but you do it completely innocent. could completely without any danger, you do it on a sofa.

You do it on on bet or a yoga mat never in a car never in a pool because he can faint sometimes What happens in these breathing exercises you go past your condition? a controlled state of being because nobody likes to feel shit like no good But nobody knows how to take away this shit You have to go past your control because you don't control the ship

So you have to go past. How you do that? Through this. Through this, you are able to go past the conditioned state. What happens? After one and a half minutes, doing this breathing, and this breathing is based on carbon dioxide being blown off. And carbon dioxide is a part of the breathing trigger. When carbon dioxide is too much inside, then you want to breathe.

That's the trigger. Now you blow off the carbon dioxide. It goes down, down, down, down, down. You don't feel the need of breathing. And what happens, oxygen goes lower. But what happens now, when that happens in the deep brain, the deepest part of the brain suddenly begins to be activated, which normally never is activated. Now there is danger.

Christopher Wark (38:49.345)
then twice as much adrenaline comes in. Then the serotonin, the dopamine, the cleanses, the recycling damaged cells, the immune system suddenly spikes and the cancer cells die. So we have that ability to manipulate our biochemistry by which we are able to activate these deep mechanisms.

that enables us to re -regulate our bodies to the deepest. And the holes, they are quite amazing. I got a person who came here who wants to make documentaries, ex -CEO of ESPN, no, 68, and he felt I can at the most do...

You see this operation which I had just now and I can't do 20 push -ups now. It will not work. I made him do 50 push -ups. Why? Because I showed him how to manipulate his body and take away the soreness and make his alkalinity go way up in the muscle tissue, which nobody understands how that works.

There should be a lot of studies done because it shows that people are suddenly able to go without breathing 50 pushups. A person who's 68 and just had an operation cannot do 20 pushups or very difficult. And suddenly he almost triples it. He was just astounded, silent. And that's what you should be. You should be astounded and silent from within. That is the inner power.

this hamster should stop and you should feel human, just like that, unconditional. So I had him on the couch here and doing this breathing, 68, and after three rounds, he was two and a half minutes without breathing after exhalation. He said, when I was a young kid, I loved to do sports, but I couldn't do more than one and a half minutes. And now I'm...

Christopher Wark (41:11.053)
68 and I thought I was going weaker. I'm going to die. And that that's what they all tell. I'm doing more than I was a young kid and that in one afternoon. So don't tell me nobody guys that breathing is just yeah, but I already breathe. No.

You don't know how to manipulate your biochemistry, your immune system, cardiovascular system, lymphatic system, your immune system in the depth to the bone, to the bone marrow, up to the level of your ancestral, genetical codes. We are unable to tap into that. That is what the breathing is doing. Yeah, and I think it's important that

Really, there are very few techniques besides the breathing and getting into cold that really calm your mind, right? That calm your mind and put you in touch with your body in a way that nothing else really does. mean, there's no distractions. Like when you were doing this, it's impossible to be distracted, right? Your focus is about mortgage.

when you are in icy water. Try to think of a hamburger or anything like that when you are in icy water. It's nothing, not even thinking about sex or whatever fantasies there are, you're not thinking because you go to the deepest part of your brain, the survival part, which is not thinking. But because of the comfort zone behavior,

We are always in the thinking mode. While we don't live our full brains, which is deep like meditation, like the monks, like deep mystical feelings, they come from the depth of the brain, but it's not alive. When you go into the icy water, you stop thinking. You are, you're forced to stop thinking. It just says, you shut up. I got to survive.

Christopher Wark (43:29.259)
And then at a certain moment, you are so at peace. And when you do these breathing exercises, the same thing happens. Only it's not freezing water anymore. You feel peace when you go after exhalation, no breathing. Breathing is like oxygen. Oxygen is like fuel to the fire of thoughts. Now it stops and you feel just being, unconditional being. Amazing.

It is amazing. And I've found those practices to be more meditative than actual meditation, because if you just sit and meditate, is, does wander, right? It wanders a lot and you have to constantly bring it back. Yeah. Yeah. No, exactly. that, that hypocrite cycle of I'm meditating, and suddenly there comes a cloud of this and that, and that you can't, if I say, don't think about pink elephants.

You see the pain coming and they are a full race coming. You can't stop that. What is that? You know, and now we did a study with more than 500 people and very soon it's going to be published. It needs to be a peer reviewed studies. Can't say too much where it took place and all, but the thing is it has been compared to meditation and this works just better. This gives people

real peace and real power. And that's what it is. So I want to talk about studies while we still have a few minutes left. Will you talk briefly about the E. coli experiment? Yes. E. coli experiment that was in 2012. They asked me after seeing me going for 18 minutes into the ice, they took the blood while I was in the ice.

And then they took that blood ex vivo, so without me, into a laboratory and they exposed it to E. coli bacteria. And normally in the blood serum, there is a very violent reaction of the immune cells caused by the E. coli bacteria inserted. In my case, 0%. And they had never seen that before.

Christopher Wark (45:56.525)
And then they asked me, Wim, can you come to the hospital and be exposed to get an injection with our lives, like directly into the veins? Because we did that with 16 ,000 people and all these people became sick. That is the way they try to find out how we can alter our immune systems.

And they never had seen a person making the E. coli bacteria having no reaction. It's like not becoming sick. Well, there is a deadly bacteria inside. So I took it and they said, yeah, in one half hour it will be on at the height. One half hour later, because I did my breathing, I didn't feel anything.

And then they looked inside the blood, blood doesn't lie. And then they saw that my adrenaline before it spiked through the E. coli bacteria in the immune system, before it spiked, because the adrenaline comes then too, because the E. coli bacteria is dangerous. Before it spiked, I already had prepared with a double dose of adrenaline.

inside me so the E. coli bacteria never had a chance. That's amazing. Now, did you, were you breathing? did you do the breathing before they injected you or after or both? Okay. The bacteria comes in now. Okay. Now I'm going to start to, because it's growing. The bacteria has got to multiply, multiply, multiply. Okay. Okay. I start to. And so

We went even, but I was just before the bacteria always. So no disease, nothing. And it just went down. that breathing, it just enhanced your immune system and empowered your immune system, strengthened it, boosted it, whatever you want to say, right? Yes, instantly. Like within a quarter of hour. That's what they thought. Isn't that amazing? That should have won the Nobel prize for that university.

Christopher Wark (48:18.061)
It should have. But wait, the story continues because then you trained other people to do this same experiment, did you not? Yes. After 60 ,000 people who became sick, suddenly 12 people I trained, 100 % score, nobody's sick. So you people, you trained them for four days. Four days of training. You trained them for four days and then they were injected with the E. coli bacteria and had no reaction.

train anybody that means you too listener this is love love is power to have confidence that you are able to control your own happiness strength and health that's what i teach in one day and one day i'll bring you back to your own nature the way mother nature built you to be happy strong and healthy it's all there and if you alienated a whole lot we got a big

super shuttle to bring you back with the speed of light. Just get that confidence back into yourself and start a journey to heal yourself. It's there. It took me four days, but now in one afternoon, I get people who've never been in an ice bath. If they are well motivated, even when they are 80 years with conditions, then in one afternoon,

they will be able to go for five, six, seven minutes into an ice bed. There was a vice documentary about you that was done years ago that I saw. That was really one of the, when I first learned about you was through this vice documentary and they, they show that E. coli experiment. And that to me, that was mind blowing because as you know, with cancer,

The key to survival, to healing, to preventing cancer is in the immune system. so proving that you could actually through your own efforts, you can improve the function, strengthen the function of your immune system against viruses, parasites, pathogens, bacteria, cancer cells, all of the above is so remarkable. And again, this is something that costs nothing, right? It costs nothing to get in a cold shower. It costs nothing to do.

Christopher Wark (50:38.953)
specific breathing exercises that you teach. And by the way, you have an app, there's a Wim Hof method app. So if anybody, can read your book and learn how they can get down, download this app that will walk them through the breathing exercises. I actually prefer to do the breathing exercises in silence, but I have some really good friends that are really excited about this interview who love to use your app. And so,

So yeah, it's just to each their own, right? The main thing is just learn how to do it and do it safely. Again, I just lay on a yoga mat on my back. You know, don't do it in a pool, as you said. Don't do it while you're driving. No free diving and not in the car. Yeah, and don't do it standing up. You go past your conditioned state and that's what you want. Because you had no control, then you get control into the depths past your normal control.

And that's the whole idea. We are built to heal ourselves. And if something is wrong, we are built to be able to get there and to make the difference. That's the logic of nature. Yeah. Yeah. Well, are there any other studies or research that has been done since your book was published, which it came out in 2020, I believe. Is there any other exciting, exciting learnings or findings related to cold exposure?

that you want to talk about? Yes. The last study was published in January. Detroit Wayne State University Professor Divakar Professor of Music. it's a landmark study. That means we have gone into the unknown and found out that we are able to activate

the cannabinoid 1 receptor, which is the indication that you are into the central nervous system at will and having control over it so much that you are able to enhance the neuronal transmission inside our body just at will.

Christopher Wark (53:00.513)
by which depression is a lack of neuronal transmission. Imagine. So this is a landmark study. what is exciting about it is the first time done. And it only took moderate training of the subjects. It is not that you need to go into the extremes like the Iceman or the Wise Man or the Rice Man or the Life Man or the Superman or Batman. No.

feeling superb is the way you are built. And now we found out that we have other networks within ourselves which we never use. Logically, we are suffering from having no control in many situations. But if we gain control and connect with our innate systems the way nature gave it us,

then we are able to go into the depth of ourselves and to cleanse our souls of impurities. There it is. So that is the latest study with Detroit Wayne State University. And it's very promising, they say this, they want bigger studies now. And because we got a battle depression, as if not, it is the darkness and the hopelessness

in people and give them absolute confidence. And confidence is nothing more than to live in the right connection with your own body, mind and soul. Once you got that, nobody wants to feel unhappy. Nobody wants to feel weak. Nobody wants to feel like sick. We want to be happy, strong and healthy. Imagine if we have our control, the most valuable

assets in life is happiness, strength and health. And that's love. And that's what we share that we radiate all. I'd love to know what is going on in your mind when you are in ice for an hour or, know, an hour and 53 minutes, I think is your personal record in Isaac. What is the, what is the self talk? Are you talking to yourself at any time during these long

Christopher Wark (55:25.767)
I am exercising my interoceptive focus. Interoceptive focus is this. And lately the study showed interoception that is talking to, that is signaling to your body, readjusting to your body. You are talking to, you're communicating with your body by feeling. You feel. But you're not thinking, hands warm up. You're not thinking those thoughts. It's not part of it.

Thinking is pathetic there. It is just your feelings. Feel that you are able and miss the greatest of stress to make the absolute difference. But you have to learn to feel and to connect with that system in us. That is called interoceptive focus. That's what I do. Yes. That can only be learned through practice. It's not something

Listen, Chris, we just finished a study in Detroit and it showed that people with just moderate training were able to activate that interoception naturally. it doesn't take sometimes I just show, I'm a show off. I did a Guinness World Records.

wow, he is number one in the world 26 times, different disciplines and all. He can sit there so long in the ice, but that is not what we need to be in control over our happiness, and health. And to be better than somebody else doesn't necessarily mean you are the best of yourself. And the best of yourself is being happy, strong and healthy. Rest, I always say, hey,

Just be happy, who was it? One of the big guys of Uber, Tim Ferriss. Tim Ferriss asked me, what is what you do? What is the philosophy? And I just came up at that moment, hey, it is to be happy, strong and healthy. The rest is bullshit. So let's not indulge anymore into bullshit. I cannot do it. I feel so sick.

Christopher Wark (57:49.663)
No, keep on tuning with your nature, the way mother nature meant it to be. And then you will become happy, strong and healthy. That is confidence that connects the right way with your body, the way body is built to be, to maintain and to have control over happiness, which is hormonal, the health, which is the immune system, and strength is the energy systems. And we are in control of that.

all. We are built to have a neuropsychic connection with all the nervous systems inside controlling the body, the mind, spirituality.

Well, we're almost out of time. So a couple of quick questions. What's the longest you've held your breath? You know, sometimes it's crazy, but physiologically anybody can do it. When you are alkaline enough, you could go like in a sleeping state, maybe for an hour. Because you are not moving. You're not doing anything.

And if you're alkaline enough, it's called Kevalakumbaka. These are all yogic techniques, but sometimes they are just unconsciously. So where is the limit and how far we can go? It's much further. Look at animal world, how much they can hold their breath. How much is a fish able to his breath underwater? Very long.

but very short on land. And what we can do is use our consciousness. And with our consciousness, if we go to the embryonal state in the womb of the mother, we go through all these stages of animals. We go through the reptile, the mammals, the simple mammals, to the monkey, and then to the human, to the brain.

Christopher Wark (01:00:01.621)
That's the way we look. That's why in Kung Fu, they have these, the crane, the this, the that. Like they can imitate that because it's consciousness. Using consciousness in physical exercise. That's where we are able to go beyond what we perceive as possible like a mammal. That is our consciousness. And with that consciousness I've been showing, I can go to the death zone in chores.

on Mount Everest or go with a 76 year old person who is motivated, suffering from a disease of Lyme, never have climbed a mountain and go with him climbing a mountain which is being done five to seven days and then only 40 % summit in fully dressed because it's really cold up there.

And it's less than half the oxygen and oxygen you need to combust energy, to stay warm. That person, 76 years old, just being motivated and breathing well was able to do it in its short, in 31 hours. It's amazing. The disease of Lyme, it's gone. It's going to the depth. Well, you've seen, I know you've seen a lot of people,

reverse chronic diseases. But I hear it everywhere. It's, it's, it's encouraging and it's exciting. And I love that this, that what you teach is so accessible, to everyone. doesn't require, it doesn't cost any money to do these things. And so I want to make sure people know how to learn more from you. Of course they can get your book highly recommended. I love the book. was excellent.

You have an app that teaches breath work. You also have courses and programs on Wimhoffmethod .com where people can learn from you. And you even do in -person training several times a year where they can come and work with people can come work with you directly, which sounds like a lot of fun. yeah. I I love fun. Fun. I mean, I got, there is the joke.

Christopher Wark (01:02:23.859)
And it's because I'm working with neurologists. I work with neurologists and they tell me this joke in Germany. In Germany, I work with their neurologists, top neurologists. And they told me, hey, yeah, yeah, we have been examining Mr. Biden's brain. These top neurologists tell me, and we were like having fun together.

They said, OK, Mr. Biden, you after due examination and very meticulous research on your brain, neuroscience, we have come to the conclusion that you have two parts in the brain. There is a left part and a right part of the brain and the left part. Nothing is right. And in the right part, nothing is left.

This is a joke. This is a joke. I think this counts for every person on the planet who thinks they are presidents and governing over people. People should learn to govern over themselves. We are presidents within ourselves. We are even able to take over to be king and queen through the control over the corona radiata, which is part of the nervous system inside

the brain. was a New York State health care man, number one, Kevin Tracy, a part of the board of Nobel Prize winners who told me that my study had shown that in the brain we are activating the corona radiata, which is nothing more than the radiant crown. We are kings and queens all, and we only will feel victorious when we through

defeat of life become victorious. And that's why you are and that's why I am and that's what we pass on to all people. So a lot of fun. make a lot of music. I love music. I sing good. I just made an album. I paint. I'm very creative. I love it. And I love to have a lot of fun with a lot of people. I love them all.

Christopher Wark (01:04:51.799)
Well, thank you for helping people reclaim their power. And I just appreciate the work that you do so much. It's an honor to have spent an hour with you and I'm thankful for you and I wish you health and happiness and continued success and influence. And this has been really, really fun. I hope you have a great day. And likewise, Chris, likewise, the respect is mutual and we keep on going. Let's keep going.

We are the future.

Breathwork makes you feel until you do it. There's no way to know how ice baths make you feel until you do it. And the cool thing is, that now we have ongoing research proving that, that these therapies do much more than just make you feel good for a little while after you do them, right? That they're changing your body on a physiological level. They're strengthening your immune system.

improving your cardiovascular system, improving neural networks, the function of your brain. I mean, it's really incredible. And we're really just now on the front end of this research, but all the research that's coming out is just proving more and more benefits to doing these things. And like I said already, these are things that you can do for yourself that cost you nothing.

They don't cost you anything. Just a little bit of time and a little bit of, you know, a little bit of courage in terms of getting in the cold or flipping the shower to cold. And I'm excited to hear your feedback and as you incorporate these things. So thanks for watching. See you on the next one.