NoEgo – WeGo
and
The Opponent is Oneself
Photo: Wim Hof with the Kenya Garden of Eden Project, July 2018, WHM-Blog
Many people are bemoaning ‘the system’ we are living in today, many people are blaming that system for a lot of failures, many people are not happy with many things….
If there were a guy who tells you that you yourself are the problem, and that it takes three things to get that problem right and no more, and that the time it takes is 20 min. to four days and no longer – then, at least your initial reaction is likely to be: f’ off bull-shitter…!
This Wim Hof, this Giraffe-Hero par excellence, comes across as easy, modest and relaxed as what he has done and is doing is difficult, groundbreaking and unheard of.
His life story is indeed one of modesty, hard work, singularity, tragic, determination and achievement; it is fascinating and outstanding. Details you find in the most recent book of his, The Wim Hof Method, which is an appeal, a clarion call to action as much as it is autobiography and even detailed introduction into the method he has developed.
The red thread in Wim’s life has been love of nature – particularly as well as in its very widest sense – and a deep curiosity about her multifold and indeed mysterious dimensions. This set him apart from an early age on. It even made him a vegetarian from the age of thirteen while, at the same time, he started to get up 3.30 in the morning to deliver newspapers on his old bike in wind and weather, rain and snow, up and down; the family was poor but Wim didn’t mind. This early morning exercise lasted for 5 years and the atmosphere at daybreak or just before, with nobody around apart from the waking birds, made the boy’s love for nature even greater – while the pedaling exercise every morning made him stronger than professional cyclists even at that time.
And then of course, there was the fascination with the cold, already as a toddler it was there. So as a teenager he started to go into the ice-cold water of the park near home during winter. The cold made him gasp – and the gasp made him realize his breath – yes, and off he took to harmonize the two. And how do you do this? By controlling your shivering with a controlled breath – and how do you do that? By focusing your mind. – These became the three pillars of a systematic scrutiny of nature and mind, the world and us within it for the young man: Cold, Breath, Focus of Mind=Meditation.
The boy realized, that by accepting the cold and regulating his breath, his body not only somehow adapted to the cold, but the intensity of the controlling effort by his mind brought about an inner heat that strong, that it was offsetting the freezing cold from the outside. This realization, that the mind could somehow make the body adapt to what, from the outside, looked completely unadaptable, intensified Wim’ curiosity who started to read and learn what he could lie his hands on: the Vedas, Milarepa, Gurdjeff, Aurobindo….. He practiced Yoga for hours, day and night. …. And he continued to go into the cold. And he realized that he could make the cold, this “Noble Force”, his teacher and friend. And that brought him extraordinary discoveries: the practice he had developed enabled him to do all things which are key for a strong, healthy and happy life: Immunity from Sickness, Balanced Emotion and a Confidence and Courage to tackle the most difficult and unheard of athletic feasts in freezing ice….
So far so good, stunning, mind boggling…. But what makes Wim really great? It is his love of ALL, more than himself, and the determination to bring the method to all and everybody. To achieve THAT in our neo-scientific materialistic world he had to deliver scientific proof of his two core claims, namely,
- That he can control his immune and hormone systems at will and thus trigger bodily reactions hitherto held to be inaccessible to the conscious mind and thus defeating chronicle as well as certain acute ailments;
- That anybody can replicate what he is doing within a matter of weeks if he or she follows the method.
And he is doing just that since well over a decade: making himself the new guinea pig of scientific tests and delivering the scientific evidence that his claims hold up. – The history of modern medicine needs to be rewritten on the basis of the experimental results obtained. The scientific community can do nothing but to accept the peer reviewed articles describing the results in some of the most reputed medical periodicals. The majority is not enthusiastically drawing the consequences (yet?) – no wonder, with these experiments a new paradigm is being established – and if it gains ground that will be the end of some of the things known as BIG in today’s consumerist society….
For those who want to read on we quote a page from the end of Wim’s autobiography WHM under the following link.
Basel, March 2021, KTAP
