“The average person breathes about 23,000 times a day, or 8.5 million times a year, something we do when we are born right up to when we die. But it’s something most us don’t pay any attention to. Every state we’re in – physical, emotional, psychological – has a corresponding breathing pattern. Through breathing, you can reverse those states,” he says.
When stressed, angry or anxious, Lai explains, our breathing tends to become short and shallow. When in a state of panic, we may begin to hyperventilate. According to the Wim Hof Method, when people are able to use the breathing patterns they exhibit in a relaxed state during high-stress situations, they can regain control and composure.
“For most people, the biggest benefit is to be able to operate efficiently under high stress levels and intense situations,” Lai says. He gives the example of the elite US Navy Seals, who he says use the technique in combat situations to stay calm, collected and able to make rational decisions.
Mastering meditation on a 10-day silent retreat in Taiwan
The claims for WHM go even further. “Through WHM, you can control your immune system, cardio, endocrine and other systems via your breathing,” Lai says.
Hof has been dubbed “The Iceman”, since WHM also involves exposure to extreme cold, such as swimming under ice and sitting in ice baths. This, he claims, helps build a more robust immune system and can heal chronic physical and psychological ailments, from diabetes to depression.
Hof’s wife, who suffered from schizophrenia, took her own life in 1995, prompting him to look for techniques that could help others with such issues.
The daredevil holds more than 20 world records, including the Guinness World Record for withstanding the longest time in an ice bath – just under two hours.
Lai’s sessions last up to four hours, and comprise theory, breathing exercises, and sometimes ice baths.
WHM theory states that exposure to cold is a safe way to introduce the body to stress. “If you can learn this breathing technique to relax in those intense moments, you start to expand your comfort zone and start to grow and be more productive in high-stress, high-intensity situations,” Lai says. This, he says, helps practitioners cultivate a stronger mindset.
How meditation can make Hong Kong healthier and happier
Proponents claim that ice exposure accelerates the body’s metabolism to use fat for fuel and heat. At the same time, the body goes into “fight or flight mode”, suppressing inflammation that normally sets in when a virus strikes, Lai says.
He compares the condition to that of hibernating animals that trigger “cold shock proteins”, and their associated benefits. Lai says cold shock proteins trigger an exit from hibernation and regrow brain matter; in humans, he says, the method can help Alzheimer’s sufferers as well as those with mental health problems.
While the claims for WHM may sound far-fetched, researchers have put them to the test. A study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2014 found that 12 participants trained in the method exhibited fewer flu-like symptoms when they were injected with a bacteria, E. coli, compared to the symptoms exhibited by a control group of 12 untrained participants.
Hof and WHM instructors such as Lai say this study and others prove that you can exert control over your sympathetic nervous system and immune system through breathing.
Lai says practising WHM breathed new life into him when he was working in the film business, producing a 3D horror film for three years from conception to post-production. He had left stockbroking to make a picture with a friend from the industry.
“I was looking for something different and more challenging and decided to drop everything and give it a go,” he says. “I was surrounded by the rich and famous. Like many people, I thought the ultimate goal in life was to make money to attain happiness. But I saw that many of these wealthy people were not content with their lives.”
“I realised that you can have all the material possessions and money in the world, but none can really give you true happiness or inner peace,” Lai says.
In 2016 Lai saw a documentary about Hof that piqued his interest. After learning more, he signed up for one of Hof’s retreats in Australia.
Hof led the classes, which involved taking daily ice baths and hiking in mountains wearing only shorts. He saw how the course affected many attendees, including some with depression, and sufferers of chronic autoimmune diseases and arthritis, who at the end of the course claimed they had been healed.
“That’s when I decided this was something that could not only help heal me, but others too,” Lai says. He became an evangelist for the technique, and went on to become one of the first WHM-certified instructors in Australia.
Ancient spiritual techniques that can help mental well-being today
Today, Lai is no longer at the mercy of the flu and colds that derailed him in the past. “I rarely get sick and if I do, I’m not bedridden. I can still function and do what I want, be it jiu-jitsu or anything else,” he says.
Lai has just returned from Mexico, where he attended an intensive “breath mastery” course led by Dan Brulé, who has trained celebrity life coach Tony Robbins, US Navy Seals, professional athletes and free divers.
Many of Lai’s claims appear to go beyond the realm of the merely physical or psychological. “Each of our cells carries impressions of emotions, traumas in most of us since we are born,” he says. “This technique helps access deep in those layers … and helps heal those layers and liberate us from conditioning or trauma.”
As outlandish as these assertions sound, Lai and Hof are far from the first to have made extraordinary claims about the power of breathing. Deep breathing techniques, from qi gong and tai chi to Tibetan Tummo meditation, have been followed in Asia for centuries. They are, in fact, the basis of both Hof’s and Brulé’s methods.
“These techniques have been around a long time, but they have got lost in today’s society,” Lai says.
Brulé has been on a quest since childhood to discover how breathing can help people. That led him to master meditation and breathing techniques from around the world. He learned from well-known breath experts, including the American founder of the worldwide Rebirthing Breathwork movement, Leonard Orr, and Indian yogi and spiritual teacher Haidakhan Babaji.
Likewise, Hof was drawn to Eastern practices from an early age, from martial arts to Hinduism. During his teens he would plunge into icy canals in The Netherlands to learn to cope with the cold by adjusting the way he inhaled and exhaled in extreme conditions.
“Wim Hof never claimed to have invented these techniques. He has used them to achieve several superhuman feats – including 26 world records – and willingly became a human guinea pig to let scientists test him and prove what these methods can do for the human mind and body,” says Lai.
Lai is holding a workshop in Hong Kong at IRIS: Your Escape on April 27. For more information visit Irishkg.com or Primalbw.com
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