The mind has incredible powers – it can create illusions out
of thin air and hear voices that don’t exist. It can modify the body’s response
to pain, disease and stress. It can eliminate symptoms simply through the power
of belief. The mind is powerful, but is it capable of regulating bodily
temperature? Wim Hof of the Netherlands, known to some as the Iceman, would
have us believe that it is.
When I first learned of Wim from my neighborhood YMCA
Zennie, I was quite skeptical. I remained unconvinced after skimming through
his recently released and quite disjointed book, Becoming the Iceman. But as I have researched the Web (and by the
Web I mean YouTube) and the medical literature, my skepticism has softened
greatly. More on that in a moment – but first – about the Iceman.
Wim Hof is fifty-two years old and, like many of us
middle-agers, he has flat and thinning hair and shorts that ride higher than
warranted. But unlike most others (middle-age or not) on the planet, he can
mute his body’s response to extremely cold temperature. If you don’t believe
me, pull up some of the videos – they are remarkable. But for those who might
be experiencing a Comcast moment without connectivity (I’m not the only one, am
I?), let me expound. The Iceman, whose stated profession is “world record
breaker,” has completed each of the following cold hard tricks: 1) stood fully
immersed in seven hundred pounds ice for one hour and forty-four minutes, 2)
hiked to the top of Mount
Kilimanjaro (19,340 feet) in
two days wearing only shorts, and 3) completed a full marathon in
similar attire in temperatures averaging about -4 degrees Farenheit.
I think we can all agree that these are feats that are not
for the average weekend warrior and may be unnecessarily masochistic. But, Wim
finds them therapeutic. “Cold is a warm friend,” he says. And yes, cold is nice
– in ice cream and popsicles – but how does someone stay emerged in ice for
almost two hours without damage? Scientists who have studied Wim’s response to
cold temperatures are amazed. Says one in a TED video “He is a physiological
mystery.” Incredibly, Wim can maintain a stable core body temperature for
nearly an hour while submerged in ice – a trick that you would absolutely not want to try at home. And,
his heart rate and breathing also stay stable – once again not the expected
response. So, something about the Iceman is different. Perhaps it is his
lifetime of acclimatization to cold temperatures or maybe it is because he is a
genetic freak. Or maybe, just maybe, it is because he is an alien from the
planet Neptune. Or, perhaps, as Wim asserts, it is because his mind has
mastered his body through meditation. Yes, Wim has a meditative technique, one
that is onerously documented in his book.
It’s called Tummo meditation, and it is an ancient practice
of Buddhist Monks. Thirty years ago, a study by Benson et al, published in Nature reported the bodily responses of
Indo-Tibetan Yogis practicing this technique – demonstrating remarkable changes
in the temperature of their fingers and toes (up to 17 degrees Farenheit) in a
cold environment. Later, the same team produced videos of Tibetian monks drying
frigid wet sheets with their own body heat. So, it seems possible to alter the
brain’s automatic nervous system (autonomic nervous system) through merely the
focus of the mind. How this works, from a physiology standpoint, remains a
mystery. We do know that it is not unprecedented in the animal kingdom – many
animals, including snails and bees, can regulate body temperature. This fact
suggests that an ancient area of the brain – such as the hypothalamus – is
involved.
Dr. Andrew Newberg, Director of Research at the Myrna Brind
Center of Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, and the author
of a study of cerebral blood flow during meditation, summarizes the science of
the question like so...
“…it is known that
meditation, including Tummo, can have profound effects on the autonomic nervous
system that regulates body metabolism, temperature, etc. So while I am
not sure if there has been any systematic study other than some old studies, it
is reasonable to postulate that people can regulate body temperature and
metabolism through meditation practices. Further, it is not just increased
metabolism, but sometimes a decreased metabolism that allows for a conservation
of energy in the body. This might allow the body to function at a broader range
of temperatures. However, a lot of this is speculation.”
And what also is
speculation is how the Iceman can effectively practice the Tummo technique
while in motion – such as when attempting to climb Mt. Everest in shorts (he
made it to almost 25,000 feet). What is not in doubt, however, is the power of
the mind and the wonderful irony that for many of us what often limits the
power of mind is its preference for the status quo. You might say that the
greatest impediment to the mind is the mind itself.
To watch Wim Hof in cold hard action, click here
