Try to KILL yourself

What are these guys thinking?

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.

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.

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

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.

His record has been broken BTW.

Yes it is possible to hold your breath pretty long.

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.

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