I also went to a Wim Hof seminar in San Francisco. Jesus the crowd was a faggy bunch, and I was laughing inside at the usual cognitive dissonance of all these cheesy liberals hemming and hawing over Wim like some kind of guru even as he blatantly sexually harrassed women on stage repeatedly. You could tell he's pulling some tail out of his newfound fame, and while some of the shit he was saying seemed to be pulled directly out of his ass, his energy and passion is intoxicating.
As for his methods, I'm a believer. This book here, "What Doesn't Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude, and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength," was a pretty convincing look at Wim's work that really sold me:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IIQQF2O/ref...TF8&btkr=1
The author makes his living writing about and debunking health and spiritual guru types who are making farfetched claims about whatever it is they're up to. He went to stay with Wim and learn his methods in hopes to prove him wrong - in the end he became a believer and followed Wim up Mount Kiliminjaro.
I can't remember the exact changes his body went through after a year of lightly maintaining the breathing practice and basic cold exposure after the expedition, as I haven't read the book in a while, but I do remember it was pretty mind blowing change for the amount of consistent effort he was putting in. I'll probably go read it again because it was a powerful enough anecdote that it got just about anyone's attention when I was describing Wim's work to them.
Anyhow, when I was back in the northernmost California mountains this last winter I was really starting to embrace the cold exposure, though I should have done the breathing more. Cryotherapy sessions (every single time I did a session, the attendants were amazed by how easily I took the blast of cold air), cold showers every morning, jumping in the river for swims, barefoot and shirtless hikes in the mountains, and jogging every frosty or rainy morning shirtless while gruff-looking old rednecks drove by gaping from inside their heavy jackets and knit caps, their heaters doubtlessly going full blast.
I didn't monitor what it did for me, healthwise, but all in all I can say it just makes me feel damn good to get out in the cold on a regular basis. I can't see how something that makes me that instantly, and naturally, high can't be having a big impact on my hormones and overall health. I know this is nothing more than a "feeling," but there it is regardless.
There are two other things I like about it that I rarely see discussed.
One, you just start to feel more capable and tough than other people. People gape at me and constantly tell me I'm crazy when I'm walking around in the cold frigid mountain air in a t-shirt while they're all bundled up, but the flip side is I can't help but see them as weaker than me...because, well, they are.
I don't know - I take a certain pride in being more resilient than the average man. Just as I take pride in being able to accomplish anything else in life that other folks can't.
And in a way, building up this physical resilience is an embrace of the ideas behind Stoic philosophy. I mean, I always find it ironic when men who are always espousing stoic philosophies, for example, shrug off cold exposure, claiming, "I'm just really sensitive to cold." With no self awareness in their excuses at all...
No, you're no more sensitive to cold than anyone else - it's not pleasant for anyone, at least at first. You're just weak and unconditioned in this regard and being a pussy about it.
All in all, I can wear jeans and a tshirt in the snow or the tropics and not whine or really feel uncomfortable at all, and other than that just being a practical skill to have, I feel it makes me just a little more of a man than a peer who's constantly bitching about the temperature and running back to the comfort and safety of an air conditioner or heater.
Two, what he's doing when he combines his breathing methods with the cold is a survival skill, if you think about it, especially if you ever spend time in extremely cold climes. There's great value in having the ability to withstand extremely low temperatures and perhaps even walk out of snow covered mountains in nothing but shoes and a pair of shorts should you ever end up in a sticky situation (not to mention his methods are also applicable to extremely hot environments).
In fact, I feel this skill should be taught to members of the military who might end up in cold places and perhaps anyone who lives in cold places at all where freezing to death is a real possibility.
I had plans to do a mountaineering expedition with Wim sometime this year, but since attending his workshop I've been more and more turned off by the "guru" vibe he keeps putting out on social media and the cultish behavior of his followers, so I'll probably give it a miss.
But I look forward to seeing where he and others take his findings in the future. I feel he's really stumbled upon something profound.
Beyond All Seas
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling
![[Image: VFAUvj3.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/VFAUvj3.jpg)
