Wim Hof - Breathe, Motherf***er

Foreign.

Team.

Welcome back to the Man Talk Show. And oh, boy, do we have a big one for you today. Obviously, if you have read the title of my guest today, you probably know that I'm excited. This is one of those interviews that as two someone who runs a show and runs a podcast, this is one of those things that I've been looking forward to for a very, very long time. There are some people in my life that have had a very big impact on me, and Wim Hof is one of those men. So joining me today is Wim Hof, also known as the Iceman. He is a Dutch extreme athlete noted for his ability to withstand low temperatures. He held a Guinness World record for swimming under ice and prolonged full body contact with ice, and holds a record for a barefoot half marathon on ice and snow. And he attributes these feats, these things that he does to his Wim Hof method, which is a combination of frequent cold exposure, breathing techniques and meditation. He has been subjected to several medical assessments and scientific research projects. And he is also the New York Times bestselling author of the book what Doesn't Kill Us. So this episode is going to be a mixture. We are going to talk a little bit about Wim Hof's personal life. We actually talk about how he became the Iceman, what actually pushed him into this. And Wim shares very openly and in a very real way about the loss of his wife and raising his children on his own. We talk about how cold immersion and getting into cold water and cold immersion therapy, it was really a saving grace for him. We also talk about breath work and the power of the breath and the combination of using the breath and using meditative practices to regulate our body and our nervous system. This is a really, really fun interview. Please share this with somebody that you know will enjoy it. This is one of those man it forward moments because this is a phenomenal podcast and this is an incredible human being. And I have more exciting interviews coming down the pipe. And without any further delay, please welcome the legend Mr. Wim Hof.

Lift off.

Lift off. Here we are with the Wim Hof. How you doing?

Yeah, I'm doing great, actually. And that is because today I received positive critics about my BBC series I just did with eight celebrities so called in Great Britain on BBC One primetime for one hour, six times, like a series, and showing that the cold and the and the breathing are able to retrieve deep trauma and to give one a much deeper control over their physiology of mind and body. Which is if I have to man Up. That is what makes me manning up.

I bet. Yeah. I mean it. I love. We were. Before we even hit record. You were almost like rapping about man talks. I was like, oh, shit, we got to record this.

Yeah, man, it's you. Hey, you, man talk. We are humans. And as we are humans, we are like the men. And the men and women, they are different. I'm so sorry. I'm not a giraffe, you know, I'm not a giraffe. I'm a man.

Yeah.

And a woman. I respect her so much. But they are different than a man. So I'm talking to you, man. And when men come together.

This is what I experienced. And with men, I go straight. Hey, man, see what we can. How we can inspire each other. Wouldn't that be a great challenge to inspire each other? Not. Not just talking about women and the normal stuff. No. How can we change the world? Because we are men, and men are people who rise at the moment when something is wrong. Hey, we rise. And how do we do that? By giving inspiration, new ideas, how to solve a problem, how to go new ways. And this is. This is the way I talk to you, man.

I love it. I love it. Well, I feel like that's a huge part of what we'll be talking about today, right? How do we, as men, challenge ourselves? You know, I think your work has brought a tremendous amount of change, transformation, challenge to a lot. To a lot of men, to a lot of women. And I know that you've done a good amount of work with men. I've seen you lead a few experiences, and that's predominantly what I do. But before we get too far, before we get too deep, deep into the weeds, I have to ask the question, which is tell us a story about a defining moment in your life. And I know that you have many, so I'm excited to hear what you have to say.

Yeah, man. If you just drown, you are into drowning, but you don't drown. I was under ice. I lost sight under the ice, swimming. And then I swam on because there was no way to get out. There was a meter thick layer of ice upon me.

You don't think. You just go. You try to find the hole, you get out. And I could not. So I swam, I swam, I swam. I was into survival, but I never felt the agony of drowning. I never felt claustrophobic or the cold or being there in this anxiety, this fear. I was not until I found myself like five minutes under the ice and being at the end of my energy. Yet My consciousness was still there. I felt asleep. And as I felt asleep, somebody grabbed me by the ankle back to the 50 meter hole, which is about 60 yards. And he brought me there and there I took one gasp of air. And in that moment, in that moment, I lost the concept of fear of death itself. Straight on, so near it comes like realizations, great realizations. They come like a flash.

Sounds like a powerful, like a near death experience. Well, it is a near death experience, you know, and for those that have gone through that, they're a profound, a profound experience. But I'm curious because so much of your work, so much of what you teach, so much of what you talk about is really about how do we cognitively, consciously, physically confront fear, which is this huge, huge monstrosity within, especially within our modern culture, you know, I mean, we've become inundated and just immersed in fear. So can you talk just a little bit about your journey with that and then how the breath helps us to confront this beast that infringes on our freedom as, as human beings?

Yeah, it is such a complex, complicated, hidden, not worked out, not accessible mechanism, psychic mechanism. Fear. How to approach fear. So when I suffered the death of my wife, she suicided in 95 because of schizophrenia. And she kissed her kids goodbye before jumping from eight stories. Talking fear, talking fear. This. She was so terrorized within her mind, she was stronger than the fear of dying.

Such powers exist in our mind. And to me, at that moment, when I found out, of course the other day I found out and I went, I saw actually peace in her face. I saw peace in her face when I saw her dead body. Because she had been tormented by this schizophrenic, this manic depression, this mental disorder for years already. But actually, in society we suffer from fears from what we have no control over. And I had no control over at that moment in my life over fear or over her mental disorder. I had none. And then because I was so deeply heartbroken and being there alone with four kids, no money, I had to go to that deep area because I was so connected to her neurologically. I was one with her inside. And now the other one, the other half was gone. This task, one open, it's physical. So only when I went into the icy water, I would be able to bring down this agony, this emotional agony, this being torn away. Because then at that moment you find yourself in a position where you get into the deepest of your brain, the survival brain in the adrenal axis, which is more than we can think of. It is being. There are no thoughts in survival. There are no thoughts in a reptile. And our reptilian part of our brain, which is the brain stem, is able to deal with fear. Food, flight, fuck, freeze. All those things, all those things who have no names yet have enormous impact upon us. And we have no control. And now I found a way to tap through the fear, through freezing cold into that part which has no fear, which has a solution to the fear, which is control of the mind, of the reptilian mind. And now it's here. And we made it simple. It's there. I made just now the six series, 12 series with the BBC and they are coming out and it's called Freeze the Fear. And it is an absolute doorway into that part which was inaccessible. That's why we suffer in our society so much of fear. Let me tell you, that terrorist, we got him.

I love just sort of the fierceness with that because I feel like we are in many ways being confronted by that fear in daily life. And it seems to be encroaching on a lot of people's lives, just their ability to operate, think normally. And I appreciate you sharing the story about your wife. I think a lot of people who have family members and loved ones that go through mental disease and really struggle to deal with those types of symptoms, I think it's challenging because like you said, you're so connected to that person. And when you lose them or you can't help them or you can't save them, whether they're an alcoholic or an addict or they have bipolar disorder or whatever it is, there is this kind of helplessness that the people surrounding that person can get caught in. And you know, I think having gone through, I mean, I've been doing breathwork now for over a decade and I've done a ton of your work and the, the cold immersion therapy and I mean it's, it's fucking powerful. It's crazy. You know, it's really potent. So can you just give us a glimpse into. Because what I really hear you saying is this is scientific, but it's also deeply spiritual on some level. You know, I think I hear mirrors and tethers of like Buddhism in there and, and, and just some of these sort of non dual principles. And so I don't know if that's intentional or not, but talk to me a little bit about how do we begin to use the breath to move into our body to confront our fears? What does that look like? What's actually happening physically in the body?

So fear Comes through dualism. Dualism is being separated of the rest of your body or separated actually of the rest of your own brain.

Fear is a sign, is a signal, and it says, hey, you have no control. What if this happened? Or that? Because I can see beyond time, what is going to happen in the future and you will not be ready. This is what it says. And then fear comes. It always wants to teach you. It wants to guide you to that place in the brain which is processing the fear. That could be related to deep trauma, that could be related to past trauma, of your genetical past. Yet it is in the gene expressions, in the cell, present. And it connects with those cells and with the cells, to the brain cells. And then it gets into a physical form, into the brain stem. Unprocessed trauma expressed by gene expressions in the DNA from the past. So is that spiritual?

Because we are spirits, we are light. We are light now. And as we are in the light now, we are able to process what these genetical past, our ancestors could not. We are now able to do that. They are now spirits. But we are a spirit in the light. The light is the nervous system. It's the neurology. And that neurology is present in us. And we can shine and shed light into our DNA. So if we go to the breathing, the breathing is able to go and change the biochemistry in the depth, in the genes, in the telomeres, into the DNA. Now it comes. I am doing new research, and they found that when you do these breathing techniques, you deeply contract the vascular system.

Say 70, 75,000 miles of vascular channels, capillaries, arteries and veins. They are all in everybody the same length or something about a couple of thousand here, more or less over there, who cares? It's a lot. And all that is inside and in those vascular channels, they accompanied by little muscles, primitive muscles, millions of them. And as we go into the cold or into deep breathing, they will contract fiercely deeply. And as we do this deep breathing, we bring down the carbon dioxide, and then we bring down with that the breathing reflex, the breathing trigger. So after doing 40 of these deep breaths, you don't need to breathe for say, one minute or two minutes or three minutes. And that is a signal to the deepest part of the brain. When you don't breathe such a long time, the deep brainstem, the reptilian brain, it triggers. It says it's not breathing anymore. We need to shoot out adrenaline. It spikes twice as much as somebody who is going into a bungee jump. Competitive studies, blood proof in fear. So People in fear doing a bungee jump. They've measured the adrenaline in the blood just before going. And then people doing these breathing techniques. They had twice as much adrenaline. That is huge. That is 1 after 12 minute what happens. They had never seen that before in heart films, ecgs. It was not grams that were kilos. Amazing what happened because they saw five times more blood flushing into the brain and the heart. Five times more. That is like boosting with five times more blood flow. That's a brainstem reflex of survival to preserve the organs, the liver, the lungs, the heart and the brain. And that is able to boost the electrical system of the heart in people with deprived heart condition through long term slow blood flow. That is hundreds of millions of people at least because killer number one in our society, cardiovascular related diseases. Yeah, that is one. But then on top, on top, Connor. And this is when men rise, when real men rise, is when they shed light into the deepest and free those captivated spirits. Every trauma.

Happened here in this life or in former lives. Genetically, they have a cardiovascular imprint that is a cardiovascular imprint beyond your understanding. It happens when trauma happens and that has a storage capacity. So every trauma has a cardiovascular imprint. Now when you do this, breathing exercises, you go into extreme contraction of the vascular system. The 75,000 kilometers, millions of little muscles and then extreme opening. That is like shaking off the cardiovascular imprint or the trauma. We found it. And so now people need to do this. If they have psychiatric problems, mental problems, mental disorders of any kind, you better do this. And very eloquently. I will then tell the people in beautiful English. It is breathe.

Yeah, yeah, it's. I mean, it's so, it's so funny because it's so simple and I think it's the simplicity of it is confronting for people, you know, that the breath that we take for granted, that we don't think about, that's automatic, that's just sort of happening throughout the day, can wield such power somatically within our body, within our minds, within our, within our, you know, connecting us to our spirit. And so, yes, I mean it's, it's really potent. So, so I love the idea that, you know, we store that anxiousness, anxiety, depression, trauma, etc. In the body. That there's an imprint within that part of our body and that this is a release for that part. Right, Because I think what you're really saying is in some ways this helps us to confront the breath, can help us to confront the unconscious physiological or somatic fears that we don't Even know are there, but are constantly holding us back. Is that roughly accurate?

It is accurate. It's absolutely direct. If you cleanse yourself of the chemical residue coming from trauma and. Or stress, this is the way to cleanse yourself off that deep biochemical residue or the shit. The batsheit. Get the batsheit out and you feel clean. You feel in the hair. And now beautifully, you see the depth of the water. Like the ripples of the. On the surface are gone. You suddenly see the depth of the water that is pure spirituality, is pure Zen. That is actually the way we. We are.

And so I have. I mean, I have so many questions and I'm just. I'm so excited that you're here. So, you know, I remember back in the day, my. So in my previous career, I was an opera singer. I sang classical music and.

Exactly. You nailed it. I love it. And so up until that point, I never really paid attention to my breath. But then all of a sudden when I started singing, it was all about the breath. And I started to realize how constricted I was and how anxious I was. And I started to realize how connected my nervous system and my breath actually were. And so I'm hoping that maybe you can just give a little bit more context for the listener of what's. What role does the breath play in being able to help us regulate our nervous system right from this high stress, high anxiety, to depression, to a more sort of balanced sense of homeostasis. How does that actually function?

Yes, the heart rate variability. If you have to do something very difficult and you tense up because of your own expectations, your own mindset make you tense up. Oh, it's coming. It's coming because it has a real influence. The neurology of the mindset is real. But then if you tense up, you tend to block your flow, your being in the moment. And this is where people don't know what to do. And then I say, just do these little breath holds.

Now. Hold it for 20 seconds. You do that. This. I mean, I'm not going to do it 20 seconds, but it is clear. 3. Three deep breaths and then hold after the exhalation for 20 seconds. Anybody can do. It's amazing. And you do that 10 times in a row. You completely broke the neurology, which is dependent on the breath, but you completely broke the neurology, which has been caused by your expectations, the neurology. I have to go maybe a little bit deeper, but this works anytime. Anytime you are in front of something very difficult or you got a Solicit for a work, new work, job interview or a big speech on stage or whatever. It doesn't matter. It always works that if you detent yourself through doing this breathing, you actually break the cycle in which you got in through your willful intent, which knows how to prepare. But then it ignites a deep state of anxiety. What if? What if? What if? Yeah, it's like a fight of the mind. And that creates all kinds of. Yeah, Confusion. Confusion in your. In your being at that moment. And this tensed therefore, because you got to be on top of that. But you do this and simply you break all the neurology caused by this. You will break it in the meantime. And I'm here with this and my cats. I got two bangles here and they are really getting into my leg. Oh, they already caused blood here, here and here.

You know they're going after you. Yeah, yeah.

Because they see me talking here, I must be on fire. And they can feel. You can't. You can't lie to cats. Cats, no, they feel. So once again, I did a study in Detroit and it showed that only by using my intention, the willful intent, I could stop cold water of making my skin temperature going down. That is the power of your will. Imagine when that is in conflict, then it creates all kinds of blockages, anxiety. And this is what we experience because we do not have real control over our mind. Only then it takes experience and awe. But to have a universal, deeper control over the physiology at will. For that you do the breathing. Because then you get back into the moment and you resume. And then there is no shit, There is no chemical residue at that moment present, because you clean, cleanse it. We showed in university studies how to become alkaline. Doing this breathing techniques in very fast. And then it stayed all day bloodproof. Ola. It stayed all day in inside the body. The right alkalinity, the right PH levels. And that when the PH levels are right, your body listens to your will. Because your will is neurology. And neurology needs to travel in an alkaline environment. And not soreness. But soreness is created when you get into stress and it converts into chemical residue, blocking your performance.

This is one of the things that I wanted to dig into with you because I. You know, I've heard you talk before extensively about inflammation, the impacts on the body, how it can impact our hrv. And this notion of positive stress. Right. I think it's correlated with Hormesis. I'm not 100 sure. I could, I could be, yes. Mislabeling that, but. No, but this notion that positive stress is going to help balance the body. So can you just tell a little bit about why it's so important for your body to have a natural alkaline state? Just a little bit more of that and how breathing helps to balance the PH within the body? Because that's wildly fascinating.

Yes. And it goes very swift.

So whenever you have a difficult situation, do the breathing and go into acute hormesis. I call it a self inflicted acute stressful exercise. A hormetic exercise with other words. And that is.

20 seconds without breathing alkalizes the blood because brings down the carbon dioxide. PH levels go up. 20 seconds. No breathing causes hormesis. That is acute self inflicted stressful exercise that optimizes the performance ability of our bodies and mind. It's all in so very shortcut. Just do this breathing and do it. Anytime you are standing in front of something very difficult, you do this, it's going to work. And it doesn't matter what kind of challenge you are up against. It's always the breath that brings you back into the moment that is able to cleanse your chemical residue to be in the flow. Because flow is our natural state.

Yeah. I mean I feel like most people, and this is a generalized statement, but I feel like most people are so inundated with the negative stress in their life. Right. The stress that they don't want, that there's no sort of. They don't. They lack a sense of control internally. Right. Because it's like, well fuck, I can't control anything. I have all this stress, all these bills and mortgage to pay. The kids are doing this. You know, there's all of these things that we can't control. And I think what's potent about what you're saying is. But there are things that we can control that we can influence within ourselves that are going to equip us to face that external stress. Right. And so having this positive stress within the body is important. So is this where the cold immersion and the cold therapy comes in? How did you. Maybe I'll just back up what puts you on this path because I know you did a bunch of yoga and tai chi and boxing and stuff like, I mean, I know you tried a bunch of different things, but what puts you on the path of breath and cold? Because breath is a very sort of spiritual practice. So were you searching for something and how did you come across this combination of breath and cold?

Yes, When I was 17, I found the cold at the age of 17 I was already quite a philosopher, debater into my thinking brain I was thinking so much.

So that day I found frozen over lake very attractive to go in. I did that and I never left it. And this is 46 years ago and that's what it is. So 46 winters I've been practicing going into the cold. Because there is no other stressor that teaches you so well to control the stress mechanisms of our body. And from the cold comes the breath. Because logically when you go into the cold and you breathe deeper, you are able to stay longer in the icy cold stress because you still change part direct your biochemistry by breathing deeply.

I change the body at becoming a ph level goes up and then the adaptive power is stronger, is more swift. Because in the end it's the neurology that needs to change. It needs to direct the hormonal secretions. All the mechanisms in the body are driven by the signals of the neurology. And they go best in an alkaline environment. How.

So? Always keep your cool and stay within the breath. And then your body goes with the speed of light because that's what is electricity. Neurology is the light. So you better stay in the light and not in the darkness of the being sore. Not being able to get out of a situation because you are sore, because you are blocked. Creating fear because the next time you don't know, I'm not going to go back into that is what your subconscious then is telling you. But you have to learn to go into the subconscious, to go into the brainstem, to go into the fear, to process it all through breathing. Sorry. So simple and there it is. So breathing is able to tap into the deepest of our fears, of the now, of this life, of this life experience traumas or the past lives. Creating a fear where you don't want to go anymore in your subconscious. That's why you avoid while you should go straight on like rise man.

And confront yourself, go face your fear. You do not need to be an adrenaline junkie to face your fear. But know that your fears are are telling you something. And you have the capacity to enter into it and to process it. And the way is breathing.

I was going to say it almost like some of this for the people that haven't done breath work before, but have done psychedelics might sound somewhat similar. You know, the confrontation with fear, the experiences in the body that manifest, right. The tingling sensation in the body, the confrontation with the subconscious and the unconscious, the meeting of past trauma. So do you find, have you found any sort of Corollaries or connections between psychedelics and the work that happens there. And breath work. It's more of a random question. Maybe you don't have any sort of connection, but I thought I'd dive in.

No, I have great connections because When I was 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, I did psychedelic journeys with drugs. They are unknown. You only can find them in literature from the min. Middle Ages, like Atropa belladonna, like stramonium, Devil's wheat. Much stronger than anything. And I took it without really knowing what I was doing. But I took on the challenge and, you know, I took it like in the park, in a. In a herbarium, like wheat, where they cultivate herbs. There I took them and then I found myself naked, waking up other day in my. In my apartment. You know, I don't know how I. I must have gone, but I went all this journey and journey inside. I was completely in a subconscious. I remember things like. I saw dead people. I saw dead Germans and people and strange things. I saw. So the coral. I think I must have awakened something very deep within there. And the rest of my life was. I did not need any drugs to get to the depth of myself because it was already awakened. And. And now I see all these people taking ayahuasca, ibogaine, psychedelics, mushrooms, mdma. They do the breathing and they say it's an or similar or it helps them to process the drugs in a spiritual journey, to find themselves, to open up, to awaken deeper physiology, because we are not schooled in that deeper physiology because the society sucks. Serving a system that is not serving the planet nor our spirituality. So we got to find it ourselves. And I did it by doing it that way. No, there are great benefits by taking psychedelics the right way. Absolutely. Especially with very hard, traumatic blockages inside to break through. Otherwise these people don't get through. It's too big, it's too accumulated too much. It's like atrophied.

Well, it takes over almost all of their identity both consciously and unconsciously.

Right.

It becomes such a huge part of the ego and the identity that there's. It's almost almost. It's almost incomprehensible that they could, you know, move past it in a way where they're not that. Right. Where that's. Where that's not occupying so much real estate within the city of their mind.

Yes, exactly. And so these breathing exercises we teach and eyes together, they are very potent, very powerful. But if it is not all together sufficient, then I would say take some Exogenous drugs. Exogenous. That means not endogenous. Exogenous. But for most of the people, the endogenous drugs inside ourselves, that is the opioids, the cannabinoids, the dopamines, the adrenalines, they are all inside. But if it is too difficult, sometimes I say, hey, use a little bit of something else. Like. Like crutches. If you got some crutches. Yeah, yeah. It's. You're not going to walk all life with crutches. At a certain moment you don't need them anymore. You are healed. It's not to take drugs, it's to use drugs. To not need drugs no more for healing.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's interesting I asked the question partially because I've. I mean, I've done a good amount of experimentation with psychedelics. And I remember going down to Costa Rica and having an experience down there where the beginning and the end, there was a long transformational breath work that was done at the very beginning, at the very end. And then four, I think it was, yeah, four ayahuasca ceremonies. And the breathwork sessions were much more powerful for me than the ayahuasca ceremonies. And I've just found that to almost always be the case that breath work, and this is personally for me, breath work has always been one of the most powerful and potent access points to my unconscious, to my somatic and physiological experience. And so I was curious about that. And then I guess to dovetail off of that. Is there a release that can come through breathwork of like DMT or the cannabinoid system within the body?

Oh, yeah, no, absolutely. We are the first one to show in scientific brain scans, in scientific research how to enter into the endocannabinoid system. And that is the periaqueductal gray hemisphere. That is where the cannabinoids and the opioids are being produced. And what do you need for healing? You need opioids and you need cannabinoids. Healing actually is a pleasant experience. It's not like, oh, it's painful and now you have to go through. No, it's a great experience. It's the awakening of your power to enter into the deepest of your brain, to become one with the omnipotent power of the mind or the limitless power of the mind. It's all there. That is the healing. All about the healing. The one who becomes a healer becomes holy from being half and unconscious. It becomes conscious, it becomes connected with the deepest part of the brain. And once you become in Connection with the deepest part of the brain consciously. Then wherever you cannot go, where is it where you cannot go anymore. You get hundred percent control over the brain. Not 16, according to science, hundred. And that's what we showed all also. So I tell every man to rise to his beautiful mind, his deep potential, because you got it and it's not far away. It's right within you and it's accessible. And we know the tools. We are passing it on with this podcast. Another podcast with an interview with a film. I'm doing a Hollywood film now. I'm doing the BBC series. I do scientific research. It's because it's time to become timeless. It's time to become one with the soul, with the full potential of who and what we are consciously. And it's all there. And we don't need drugs from the outside anymore as much. It is the breath work, as you say. It is the breath that connects us with the deep spirit between the mind, the invisible mind and body. And it has now become physical. This is what I've been showing in Detroit as well, is what the professors say. Wim Hof has found the secret of placebo. And placebo is no longer some suggestive power. No, it's you who takes it on consciously. I am in control over my body and my mind. It's nothing more than logical. It's time that we connect with the deepest part of our brain and thus take over all the brain. With that our subconscious and realize, bring up and make conscious what was subconscious. And with that, the full splendor of our soul emanating there from and radiate every day and give directions to those who are still in the dark, who are still in the fear because they have no control. And that's why we are here talking like this. That's why we went searching into the journeys as you speak, in Costa Rica and me in the Netherlands. Doesn't matter. This is all the same planet. We are here with an absolute purpose and we can share the tools for everybody to discover their own beautiful mind.

I love it. I feel like that just needed a moment of silence almost, you know, to just let that really sink in, because it is powerful, you know, I feel like what you're advocating for is that confrontation of fear and the liberation of our own constraints, you know, the constraints that we have because of family, trauma, society, culture, the shitty systems that we have, you know, that we operate in oftentimes, whether it's education or whatever, and to confront it. And it was interesting because I put out, I Let a lot of the men. I run this online group with a ton of guys from all over the world. And I said, hey, I'm interviewing Wim Hof. And one of the main questions that came back was this question about what happens when they're actually doing the breath work. So a lot of people, as they're doing breath work, they feel or they feel this tremendous sort of surge of energy in the body, maybe these C shapes or sites. And it's funny because so many people start to ask, why am I feeling this way? And what am I seeing? You know, which was a very interesting thing. So many people have questions about why am I feeling these certain, you know, heat in the face or tingling in the hands or the shapes like I see these shapes. And one of the main questions is, why am I afraid to fully let go? And why do I feel like if I let go, I'll disappear completely? And so I'm wondering if you can just speak to some of that commentary, because that seemed to be very popular with a lot of the men that I asked.

Yeah, no, I know.

The physical science is simple. You alkalize the blood so much that your PH levels go up, by which the neurology of our body, the neuro signals, they go berserk. They go berserk. They go everywhere where they could not go before, because now the PH levels are so favorable. They go everywhere and they are searching where is the blockage? Where is the eye stream on? And you just better get a hold of me because I'm the light. I go through you. So what is your decision? Where do you want to go? What is your intention? Who are you? It's all there. And then any question, any intention will be met at that moment. That is one, two people who have fear of disappearing. Amen. We, with this breathing technique, we are going to the past conditioned mind, past the consciousness. You will not lose yourself, but you will go past the conditioning. And if you are too much into controlling, then you will be washed away. You just have to go with the flow because it wants to go where you have not been and where you should have been, because that's you. You go to the inner child. You go to your sensitivity. You go to your hidden traumas, your fears. It's the inner child you go to. So let it go and feel the love for going over there because you are retrieving the inner child, the one who has been suppressed. Oh, I cannot. Oh, put on her face attitude a shield and petrify it for the rest of your life. No. Find your inner child. Find your sensitivity. Find your soul. Driven by love. Love is stronger than fear. Go for it.

So good. I think the thing that stood out to me there the most is like what you are being confronted by is that you're moving away from the prefrontal cortex, clinging to the rational mind. You know, because we've, I mean, in our, especially in western culture, we've over indexed the rational. You know, we've pedestaled it, we've turned it into this God. And I think part of what you, you know, we've deified it. And part of what you're talking about is like you connect with a different form of intelligence within you that is bigger, larger, more powerful than the rational mind. Is that. Am I paraphrasing correctly or what would you. What would you alter, Connor?

What? I would alter and say my subconsciousness, my subconscious mind is working for me. I don't need to control the subconscious mind. I don't need to control intuition and instinct. I don't need to be controlling from a petty mind the greatness of the mind. I let it go. I let it fly. I'm not in politics. I'm not right wing, I'm not left wing. I'm both doings. I'm flying. I go in life, it takes its own direction. I just follow and I am obedient therein. I bow humbly every day to its greatness. And then, then suddenly the greatness comes to you. And now, Connor, I am going to change the world. It's not me. It's happening. And that is the greatness. If you put out your intention and you wait and you pray and you are humble, it comes back and it will manifest the unlimited power of the mind is a servant. But let the servant do and not be controlled by our little pettiness of one and one is two. New York is a big Apple town and you know all these petty little facts. Come on, let it go. When you are in love, you don't think. You let it go, you follow. So follow the love of life and you will become the greatest of what inconceivably great within. And it's all. It's all. It's a mechanism. It's a physical mechanism. So right now I'm reaching about 100 million people. Wow. I think I want to go for billions of people and with that, go far over the critical point and change people by giving them tools to find autonomy, everybody within themselves and make it simple like we do and talk about it right now. We are man, we Rise. And we bring timelessness. We bring happiness, Strength and happiness. That is prosperity. Because we are man. You man.

Well, I feel like we came full circle. I want to honor your time today. We only have a few minutes left, but I feel like I could talk with you all day. Honestly, before I ask you the final question, I just want to acknowledge you for the impact that you've had. You know, I know so many people in my life, so many people who have been touched by your work, whose lives have radically and unequivocally changed. And I'm sure that you hear it all the time, but I would be remiss, I would really be beside myself if I didn't tell you how deeply your work has impacted me and the people in my life. You know, there's. In Vancouver, British Columbia, there's friends that I know that go, you know, almost every single day and sit in the, you know, glacier runoff lakes and rivers.

And I go out here to the lake right after it unfroze and the cold showers. And I mean, I love it. And so, just honestly, deeply, from the bottom of my heart, I wanted to say thank you. The last question is a little bit more around how fear manifests in the body, because I know that you've talked a lot about inflammation. I know you've talked a lot about this sort of physical component. Is inflammation connected to our fear? Is it a response to us living in this sort of constrained and confined way? Is that a part of it?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Fear is physical. Inflammation is physical. It's only a reaction on something that should not be there. But there the question is, can we get rid of it? Yes. Therefore, you do the breathing. If you do profound breathing in a day that you have to perform a lot, you better do it profoundly because then you cleanse yourself. Just Recently, I did 12 programs, 12 episodes in eight days. And I breathed like crazy in the morning. But I was clean every day. And 200 people's production I could. And I was in the. In the center of it all. I had to perform, you know, like, no, I'm not a TV presenter or something. I'm just being myself. But having shot all kinds of questions and cut and go from the top and do this and do that, and then have very intimate conversations and deep connections with people who have to face their fears and all to be the big daddy, to be the big guru or the big teacher or whatever, the missionary or whatever. They come up and it has become very successful. It's the breathing. It's the breathing. Always it doesn't matter the way fear manifests or is interrelated psychosomatically to inflammation. Fear is unprocessed trauma. You can get rid of it. And if fear still exists inside is influencing into the biochemistry. And that can deregulate our immune system through the inflammation. Inflammation is nothing more than a deregulated immune system caused by biochemical stress. And that is caused by fear. Fear is physical. So to de abstract the thing fear, that is the best to understand what is fear. And then fear can be dealt with. The physical counterpart of what fear is, which is a biochemical residue, needs to be processed. It's done by breathing.

So if you had every man in the world, this is. I want to close it down. If you had every man in the world sitting in front of you, what would you tell them?

Breathe, motherfuckers.

Just do it. It's the greatest.

Oh man, I love it. Well, Wim, thank you so much, brother. I appreciate you. And we'll have the links to all your work in the show. Notes for everyone out there. Check out Wim's work. Go follow along. Get your breath on. Get your ass into the cold water. Thank you so much for joining. Until next time, this is Connor Beaton signing off.

It.