They are running maybe 25 minutes over time when Wim Hof comes bounding on to the stage, dressed in summer beach shorts and loose cotton shirt, with that unmistakable look of a man who has never seen inside a hair salon in his life.
In between his opening splits-leg stretch (a mildly extreme exercise by his standard) and rousing rendition of The Wild Rover to finish (he’s an old fan of The Dubliners) he has the spellbound attention of all in attendance at Dublin’s Convention Centre, at one point taking their breath away for exactly 60 seconds after a round of his Wim Hof breathing method.
He is the closing talk among the many laudable names on day one of the Pendulum Summit, the leadership and self-empowerment event, and although running late no one has left early. They play a short introductory video to explain why Wim Hof is better known as The Iceman, although the sense is no one among the 2,000 prime seats doesn’t know exactly who is.
On stage in the seat beside him is Mandy Hickson, the former RAF fighter pilot, there to tease out some questions, as if that was somehow required.
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“Is it cold enough in Dublin?” she starts.
“Actually I hate the cold,” he says, already high-charged. “Just don’t tell anyone!”
Not much longer into the conversation Hickson gets up as is if to leave, surrendering in jest to Hof’s unwavering improvisation and utter spontaneity, repeatedly wrapped up in his own wonderful self-deprecation.
Because there are surely few here who don’t already appreciate that Hof knows exactly what he’s talking about, the Dutch extreme athlete claiming 21 world records, almost all related to some sort of cold exposure. Including the longest ice bath (1 hour, 52 minutes and 42 seconds), and running to 23,600 feet altitude at Mount Everest, wearing nothing but shorts and shoes.
What he’s clearly more open to talking about here is not what he’s done, but rather why he still does it; why he’s still so keen to get his message across to as many people as possible.
“Now about 100 million people or more are following me, and why is that?” he asks.
“I do something that we are born with, and this is survival, to be in control of your own survival. To be in control of your autonomous nervous system, the flight-or-flight reflex, the deep adrenal axis. Thought of not to be voluntary controlled, in humans.
“And that we are born to be on control of our happiness, health, and strength, and I show that through science. So no speculation.”
He says the power of breathing, not just his method, “is able to decrease the registration of stress inside the brain 10-fold”, and that in one study, he was able to raise twice as much adrenaline as a person going on their first bungee jump.
“And that amount of adrenaline is very able to bring down inflammation, and infection, and infection is disease. And we are all born with that [ability].”
He reflects too on the immediate experience of his first arrival into Dublin earlier on Wednesday morning.
“I’m 65 now, in April, and will be 65 minutes in ice water to celebrate. Cool party, nice cherry on top! But that is not the thing. The thing is that I am able to pass it on to people. In comparative studies, and it’s no longer me who is the circus artist, showing ‘oh, I’m so strong ... of course I can deal with cold.’
“No! Like this morning, coming her on the aeroplane, from the Netherlands, just before embarking I come across a family, and the mother says to me, ‘last year I lost my daughter to anaphylactic shock, allergy’ ... unbearable. And her little sister, they both went into the cold, that’s the way they are able to shut up the emotional agony of themselves, get control of it. It was hard going.
“Then I’m coming down here, on the bus to this place, and a guy says to me, ‘my brother is doing your method, he was alcoholic 20 years, didn’t know what to do, now he is not drinking any more, and he advocates what you are doing ... healing people everywhere’. So, that’s why I’m doing this, you see?
He speaks too about the difficult birth, along with his identical twin, who never took to the cold in any similar way: “That was the start of the journey, to prove that I just do what anyone can do ... That it is simple. Your nervous control is within your reach now. It’s your choice.”
And with that Hickson apologies that they are running out of time.
“Running out of time? I’m only warming up ... I am the Iceman!”
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