How David Blaine Held His Breath For 17 Minutes

By Friday January 22, 2010





33 Comments
  1. Olo Baggins of Bywater says:
    1/22/2010 at 4:30 pm

    The Greatest Secrets vid:

    That looks way too clunky for Blaine. I can’t find that Blaine’s stunt on YouTube, curious how it compares.

    Reply
  2. chuck says:
    1/22/2010 at 4:59 pm

    Neat video here showing an “invisible bottle” illusion:

    I can imagine using a similar method (on a larger scale) to conceal a transparent breathing tube which would let him breathe.

    Blaine has succeeded in the most stunning magic trick of all: making $money while speaking in the most boring monotone imaginable.

    Reply
  3. pedro says:
    1/22/2010 at 5:01 pm

    #18 The TED people seem to think he’s valuable. Great concept of what valuable is they have over there.

    Reply
  4. Ebo Boxwad says:
    1/22/2010 at 6:31 pm

    Blaine is an amazing performer, that almost single-handedly brought a new style of magic to the public. Or, maybe you pine for the Doug Henning style to come back into vogue.

    His record has been broken BTW.

    Yes it is possible to hold your breath pretty long.

    Reply
  5. qb says:
    1/22/2010 at 6:49 pm

    From TED: All things are Moleeds

    Reply
  6. totalmarketing says:
    1/22/2010 at 7:15 pm

    He really did it.

    Blaine is continuing the age-old tradition of the fakirs of India who push themselves beyond known limits, achieving a form of transcendence.

    The fakir path is a spiritual path–transcendence through extremis.

    This is common among yogis, tantrics and fakirs in India.

    Yogis in Indai have been buried underground for weeks (and longer) at a time. They go further than Blaine and put themselves into samadhi, or a kind of suspended animation–a much more still and restful state than Blaine did in 17 minutes. No breathing at all… This level requires very advanced knowledge and a guru to teach you.

    Reply
  7. Animby says:
    1/22/2010 at 7:17 pm

    I’ve always found watching Blaine to be a painfully boring experience.

    Listening to him speak for 30 minutes? I’d rather be waterboarded.

    Reply
  8. charmingbob says:
    1/22/2010 at 9:15 pm

    I think Chris Rock said it best about David Blaine:

    Are we so desperate for entertainment, that we fall for a trickless magician? Saw a lady in half. Pull a rabbit out of a hat. Do something. What’s his last trick? I’m in a box and I aint going to eat. I’m in a box and I aint going to eat. That aint no trick. That’s called living in the projects.

    Reply
  9. Common_Sense says:
    1/22/2010 at 9:27 pm

    You guys who don’t believe he did this are under the impression that this is a superhuman feat. A lot of what he does is trickery, but this is one of those things he does where he just pushes the limits.

    Remember, he’s not holding his breath that long like you or I do at the pool. He’s got the record for “oxygen-assisted static apnea”, where you pump yourself full of pure O2 before-hand. There are several documented cases of people going near this mark, which he actually outlines if you suffer through his sleep-inducing speech. There is a reason that the record for NOT using that method is half as long.

    It sounds impressive, but remember this. A human like Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordan, or Ussain Bolt are rare — but there are thousands and thousands of people every year trying to become that guy, and sooner or later you hit someone with a high VO2 max, pain tolerance, mental toughness, etc — all in one body. If that many people were trying to break this record as their life-long dream, some idiot would have gone 20 minutes by now.

    I’m not taking away from what he’s done, but when you look objectively at it, this is not so hard to believe.

    Reply
  10. lens42 says:
    1/23/2010 at 1:03 am

    IT’S A MAGIC TRICK FOR CRISSAKES! I don’t how he did, but I don’t know Penn and Teller catch bullets in their teeth either.

    Reply
  11. pedro says:
    1/23/2010 at 7:26 am

    #25 No, thanks. I’ll never lose time with another TED video in my life.

    Reply
  12. qb says:
    1/23/2010 at 8:23 am

    pedro, aw come on. I dare you. I double dare you. I double dog dare you.

    Reply
  13. Guilherme says:
    1/26/2010 at 9:16 am

    TED – Ideas worth spreading

    Try to KILL yourself

    What are these guys thinking?

    Reply

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