Wim ‘The Iceman’ Hof Interview

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Part I

Wim Hof: Imagine the cell. We are composed of cells, you know. Trillions of cell. But, eh, we take one cell out of there. We take one cell, which is like, the same as all the other cells

Frank Ocean: Mhm.

Wim Hof: The thing with the cells is, there is an inner and outside world. There's a protective shield, outside world of thе cell. And then therе is the inner world. If the protective shield is not working well, then all kinds of stuff can get into the cell. And that means stress. That means it's because of oxidative stress and inflammation in our daily lives and bacterial, eh, stress, eh, viral stress, biological stress, emotional stress, mental stress, it's all stress. Cell biological stress. And it gets into our cells, and now, our protective shield around the cell has been, like jeopardized. Our lifestyle, there's too much comfort. We seek too much comfort. There's no stimulation. There is no exposure to the elements of nature. It's all protected through houses, cars, through clothes. All the time, everything is, like, covered. Covered and de-stimulated. And because of our physiology from millions of years ago, was exposed to the elements of natures. So our physiology actually is built to be stimulated. To endure. And to activate inner mechanisms that are able to endure and to neutralize the impact of environmental stress. Yet, now, because of our comfort zone behavior, we live without stress, but stress is now coming in in different ways than the environmental stress. Eh, which is in our mind. And that is emotional, mental stress, daily stress, congestions, we have to do this, we have to do that. We ignite our bodies to do work, work, work, work, work. While our body actually is not prepared to take on so much stress. We become feeble, we become, eh, you know, burnt out, inflammatory diseases.

2014, I showed to be able to get a bacteria injected, which normally makes you very sick— it's a controlled experiment. It's called the endotoxin experiment. And sixteen times when people prior to me, they all became sick when injected with that bacteria, from uh, between three to six hours. Then I came, and within fifteen minutes, I had it within my control. And then they said "No, but you are the Iceman, you climb Mount Everest in your shorts, the, the Kilimanjaro in record times— in shorts. And the, uh, beyond the polar circle you run marathons, and you even run them barefoot in mid-winter, eh, eh, beyond the arctic circle. And in the desert and you hang by one finger in the air, and in mid-winter and you stand for two hours in the ice", all those miraculous records, and the superhuman, and all that— no. I have been testing my body in environmental stress, outside in nature, activated, therefore, deeper mechanisms inside. And they work the way nature meant them to be. And now we found a way to bio-hack into the body and give people an autonomy, a sense of autonomy. All of the immune system, vascular system, lymphatic system, endocrine system. All the systems. 'Cause that's the way we are built, but we forgot. We lost the connection because of comfort zone behavior, too much. And it is very nice, I love [?] hours and I love comfort. But at a certain moment, I really had enough of it all. I need to go, or I want to go, really hard, to the cold water, swim, and be in deep meditation. Deep connection. And deeply letting go my mind. And letting the body take over. And it results in such a graceful being. Being powerful, being there, beyond a thought, just in the here and now. And that's sanity. That's meditation.

Part II

Wim Hof: I showed it in an experiment. Where they poured cold water upon my skin. And my skin temperature did not go change, because I did not want it to go down. You see what I mean?

Frank Ocean: Right.

Wim Hof: That is the connection with the stress mechanisms in the body. And just by the power of thought, which is neurology, you ignite and activate neurology in the rest of the body to be able to endure physical stress at command of the will.

Frank Ocean: Hm.

Wim Hof: And that is where our future will go. If there is one thing I want to do in this world. It's too relieve the unnecessary, terrible stress of people who are suffering from mental disorders. In short, we are capable, just by the power of will, we are connect well through environmental stressful exercise. That means hormesis. That's the new exercise going to be. Hormetic exercising. To connect—

Frank Ocean: What was that word?

Wim Hof: Hormesis is like, acute, self-inflicted stress. Like fasting could be, or going into the cold, or doing breathing exercises. Where you do retention, so you stop breathing at a certain moment. That is very stressful for the body while you feel completely in control. Acute stress, self inflicted. And that is consciously done. And anybody can do that. Hey, it's a tool. And a tool is for you. It's your choice. It is not a dark man behind. There is no dark man behind. And there is no long exercising practices needed. Within a half-hour you can see it and feel it for yourself. And then you use it whenever you are in stress and you are a victim of the stress. To take control of the stress. And to make it go away.

Part III

Wim Hof: I lost my wife in '95, through a suicide. She kissed her four kids goodbye, just before jumping from eight stories down. There I was.

Frank Ocean: Mm.

Wim Hof: I was working at a time in the mountains, I was a mountain guide. To get some money and she was with the family, the Spanish family. And was there in the mountains, and she did that. Half past one in the morning. And what is that? It's like, was left behind with four kids, a broken heart, and it's irrational. It's eating you alive. You can not not think about it. You can not not indulge into it. It's, uh, it's real. And now I know how it works. But at the time, eh, but the only time I could find relief, stop the thinking, was going into ice water. Ice water and breathing exercise. Deep breathing exercise.

Frank Ocean: Mm.

Wim Hof: And now I know the deep breathing exercises and the cold, both able to change expressions in ourself. And through these exercises. The hormesis, the hormetic exercising of breathing plus the cold. We are also able to tap into the deepest of our brain at will.

Frank Ocean: Mm.

Wim Hof: That's exactly where emotions reside. Grief reside. You ask me the purpose of grief? If there is any, there is absolutely great purpose. But back then I was very, eh, very powerless in what was happening. It was all a process. She was going down, the hole of psychiatry could not help her. And nobody actually could help her. She was a beautiful person, very vital, very alive. And then a shadow came in, and became bigger and bigger and bigger, and nobody— and not me. I could not stop it and I did not see it coming as well.

Frank Ocean: Yeah.

Wim Hof: That's what I had to deal with. Something unknown, and even unknown in psychiatry. So there I was, at that moment, I could only stop my mind, when you go into the cold water, you don't think, you just survive.

Frank Ocean: Right.

Wim Hof: You are just there, but that gave me a break of this loop. And that, that yield to me because the loop is eating you alive. It wants you actually to break the loop, but I could not. But the cold water did it. Cold water gave me that relief. And the breathing exercises, they were able to tap into that area of emotions in the depth of the brain. I did that for years, for years on my own, because I had nobody around me. I had very little money. I had to take care of four children alone. But I was becoming quite vital and happy. And without thought I was taken care—, I created a new nest. The purpose of life was there. Okay, she was not there, but I gotta live for two, and I had the energy of two, and it— (Oh)

Part IV

Wim Hof: Nature has the capacity, not only to heal, but also take on the purpose of those who left. It becomes subconscious, it is deeply within and it's there. Your brother's still there. He is here, and he is here around us. Like my mother is around me, she is gone, out of her body. But in metaphysical sense, their energies are never gone. The soul is never gone.

Frank Ocean: Hm.

Wim Hof: That we are not schooled in that, that we do not understand, I know. I have experienced it. And of course, the whole world was not built to use natural methods to make people—, to heal people. To get to their [?], to their purpose, to their core, to the sanity. No, make pills, make medicines, make dependency, make therapies, make hospitals, make whole infrastructures of dependency and slave the people to get money. It's wrong what is happening, but I put that aside. I just come here with a positive message. That the purpose of those who have gone and their lives is never gone. That we are able to realize, to make [?] first, there is a purpose for anything. We only need to learn to tap in deeply enough. They talk about the unlimited power of the mind. And yet we cannot handle our mind to become happy, strong and healthy. Hey, what's the matter? We are able to shoot people to the moon, to Mars, but not to become happy, strong and healthy here, and know our purpose? Hey man, let's go back, let's go back. 'Cause we lost something. And that what we are lost, it is found. Nothing is needed. You are perfect the way you are. But not if it is systematically schooled to become this, that, that, you have to do this, and dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut. Restrictive narrowing consciousness creating.

Frank Ocean: Hm.

Wim Hof: Blocks, building blocks that serves a system that serves only a couple of people. And they are not even happy. So, we have to go away from that. The future paradigm, and I'm showing this, and very simple techniques, and it sounds like— whatever, you know like I'm talking like, "Wow, he's talking so far out, man". No, I'm talking into the DNA, I'm talking about inflammatory markers, I'm talking about the depth of our brain being accessible. And all scientifically endorsed. It's all there. But it began with the belief, that war, abuse of humanity, and cruelty to animals, pollution, exploitation of this Earth, and keep on going with negativity, that that is normal? I think it is sick. And I'm going to do something about it. Every day I go swimming outside, I say "I gotta die once a day". When I go into the cold, you just gotta let go of these thoughts, and indulging, and all, just let it go. Because you're gonna go in the cold, and the cold— and your thoughts, they produce nothing more than a certain degree of inflammation into your body.

Frank Ocean: Hahaha.

Wim Hof: Let go. Let the body do what the body is capable of. And feel that it is alive. And that's what I do. If you look at the way the people see their differences. They don't see the solve. They don't see happiness, strength, and health to being owned by every individual. No, they see differences. They say "You are an American, I am a Dutch guy".

Part V

Wim Hof: And then you got Japanese, and you got Australian, so you got the Russians, [?]. Political, racial, vegetarianism [?]. People who eat meat. Thousands of differences. That's where they got lost in, in their mind. And until the body and happiness and just mere unconditional love, feeling it, and being it, is not done. We have to keep on cleansing. Cleansing. And it's nice to cleanse. Because when you feel yourself clean— and that's what I feel, afterwards. I feel I'm just there. And I'm most grateful, just to be there, and not to be clouded by all kind of thoughts.

Listen, there is no dark man being with this. This is no religion, but you should be divine, feeling divinity within yourself. And if it is not, cleanse yourself. I got some tools man, you go into the cold— which is very good to tackle cardiovascular, or related diseases, conditions. Killer number one in our western society, it is. Well, to tackle it? A cold shower a day keeps the doctor away. How simple is it? So that's what I tell people, in this, almost funny way, I want to bring something very important. That we are not really alive, in our right condition. In our vascular system, cardiovascular system. It's our heart and a hundred twenty five thousand kilometers, which is about seventy thousand miles, of vascular channels, vessels.

Frank Ocean: Mm.

Wim Hof: Like capillaries, arteries or veins. It's all inside. If the skin is ripped off, you see all the vascular channels, It's just red, red, color red. And it's where the fluid, the life force is. And it goes through. And what do we do? We cover it up. While all the thermal receptors, pain receptors and temperature receptors end up in the skin. They are connected, they need stimulation. Then the millions of little muscles in the vascular system are going to be stimulated. And they help the blood flow go through every minute.

Frank Ocean: Mm.

Wim Hof: What happens if you take a cold shower? Your heart rate goes down. If you take regularly a cold shower. Then the heart rate goes down with twenty to thirty beats a minute, twenty four hours a day. That means stress is gone. Then the vascular system with the millions of little muscles, primitive muscles, they are stimulated. They become strong. They help the blood flow. And thus, it reaches all the cells so much better. And a lot more nutrients, oxygen, and vitamins reach out. You get a lot more energy. So, a lot more energy and a lot less stress. That's what your body is. You know that our feet, we put our laces and the chkk, ow, ah, suffocate them all the day long.

Frank Ocean: Ahaha, ha.

Wim Hof: And we think it's normal. And we walk around like dandies. "Look, look how I constrict my body and let it not breathe, beautiful eh? Beautiful, eh?". You know, sometimes, we just need to let it go. At least once a day. Be naked. Be like the way nature meant it to be. And let environmental stress touch you a little. Let the omnipresence, the cosmos, the universe touch you, and be there, grateful for what you are and what you experience. When it's not in the books, it's in nature. Nature has answers for anything. Only, we have to reconnect with nature. We are not in harmony with nature. We don't give a fuck about the ocean, it's full of plastics, and it keeps on going, and we keep on polluting, we keep on exploiting, the greed is keeping on going. Dang man, if that is the nature— it's wrong.

Anybody who lived before me I know. Like my fathers, my grandfathers, my nephews, whoever was gone, my wife. All those, I live for them. I live for them. My wife was—

"Hey, it's Frank Ocean".

"I'm just having a very nice conversation with a very nice man".

I bless your life, I love you, I bless you.

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