Explaining David Blaine’s 17 minutes
by friver ~ May 3rd, 2008. Filed under: Strange People News.
So here’s what he did:
On the set of the Oprah Winfrey Show, Blaine immersed himself into a sphere-shaped tank of water after inhaling pure oxygen. He then stayed underwater holding his breath for a recordbreaking 17 minutes and four seconds.
And here’s how he did it:
Training, willpower, and good hard science.
Mental training to go into self-induced temporary sleep apnea (a near-death state where you stop breathing) has been practiced by ascetics since ancient times. Blaine is merely the highest paid practitioner.
Blaine also learned “lung packing”–a deep diving technique where you literally force more air into you lungs by swallowing hard. More air = longer breath holding.
And finally there’s good old willpower–suppressing the urge to surface and suck in some fresh air. What Blaine did wasn’t magic or illusion, it was science in action.
