How the f@#$

[DSM4Life]

Can you hold your breath for 17 mins !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YH8i...feature=bzb302

[shifty_git]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dAiEeebBWk

[jaydub]

no way...

[ChuckLee]

fvking superhuman

[spywizard]

Now, that was good..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dAiEeebBWk

[nameuser]

David Blane is a professional illusionist, don't know how he does it. The brain dies if it doesn't have oxygen for more than 10 minutes.

[Kale]

David Blane is a professional illusionist, don't know how he does it. The brain dies if it doesn't have oxygen for more than 10 minutes.

Think its more like 5 mins. But if there is some way he can induce suspended animation then who knows how long is possible

[MATTMAN01]

Don't see how its possible,surely oxygen in blood needs to be renewed way before then.

[jaydub]

i dunno man... if you slow his whole body down so it's not needing or using as much oxygen... and if his heart is still beating it might be possible

[MATTMAN01]

Imagine the rush after that first breath!

[SaSqUaDgE]

holy crap i can barely hold my breathe for 30 seconds

[MATTMAN01]

holy crap i can barely hold my breathe for 30 seconds

It's the fur balls sasq

[Schmidty]

David Blane is a professional illusionist, don't know how he does it. The brain dies if it doesn't have oxygen for more than 10 minutes.

I wouldnt say that is always true. I would guess if u were say meditating or n deep relaxation u could go longer...

[pumpd4lif]

David Blane is a professional illusionist, don't know how he does it. The brain dies if it doesn't have oxygen for more than 10 minutes.

There are 2 different kinds of records.The one david blane went for they are aloud to inhale pure oxygen for up to 30 min,before his attempt.So the blood becomes saturated with oxygen thats y that record is so high.The other record without inhaling oxygen before ur attempt the record is like 8 min.

[Panzerfaust]

Complete BS!

[SMCengineer]

He's called an illusionist for a reason.

[SMCengineer]

This one is way better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxu_MQSTTY

[DSM4Life]

He's called an illusionist for a reason.

Hater.

[StoneGRMI]

This one is way better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxu_MQSTTY

haha i was gonna post that too. Here are the other parts to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTqsV3q7rRU&feature=user

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHbYTm8U1v8&feature=user

[WEBB]

how is it fake....someone please tell me how he could fake it...it is possible, with pure oxygen andd a heart rate that slow....its not like he stopped having oxygen so his brain is fine...well as fine as it can be i guess....

[SMCengineer]

^^If I knew how to do it I would tell you, but rest assured, it's an illusion.

[Beefkake31]

But I don't know if Oprah would allow him to break a world record by cheating like that. I mean her whole crew would have to be in on it. I don't know I'm 50/50 on this don't know if it's real or not yet.

[firmechicano831]

that shit is fake. The record is like 4 min the most.

[WEBB]

what about those people that do those real deep dives...are those fake as well...they employ the same idea...pure oxygen to saturate your blood and also slowed heart rates....

also i think this is a cooler record
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6tlw...eature=related

or this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbNlq...eature=related

[novastepp]

it isn't the oxygen, it's his CO2 level that would kill him. His tissues and organs are still producing the toxic gas at normal levels. That is the reason you need to breathe when holding your breath for long periods of time; the CO2. oxygen saturation works to a point in keeping you conscious, but he could have multi-system organ failure if he isn't monitored closely.

[WEBB]

true but if all or most of his blood is saturated with o2 then his co2 production would be at a minimum and tissue loss would be too...also if he has no brain tissue to loose then wtf is the problem,

[SMCengineer]

I don't know why, but I thought that t-shirt record was funny as hell.

[WEBB]

i know me too....thats a real record...takes skill, talent, precision, and planning...hahhaa

[SMCengineer]

^^and lots of free time.

[novastepp]

true but if all or most of his blood is saturated with o2 then his co2 production would be at a minimum and tissue loss would be too...also if he has no brain tissue to loose then wtf is the problem,

he would still be producing CO2 normally. due to what I believe is the Haldane effect, his blood would then be able to hold greater amounts of CO2 and not oxygen. So essentially his blood would be filled with CO2 and immediately after he started breathing again, he would probably have major problems getting oxygen to his tissues since his blood would be saturated with CO2.

as far as the brain tissue goes, that is exactly why I think it may be real

[WEBB]

well the problem isnt that he is killing himself and brain cells, thats a given, but he is doing it...somehow.....and until someone can tell he how he would fake it i am gonna think its real...

[DSM4Life]

How David Blaine Held His Breath

For most non-medical people, the term "apnea" is most familiar when coupled with the word "sleep," and refers to a dangerous condition in which people inadvertently stop breathing while asleep. But the word literally means a temporary cessation of breathing and it is practiced (on purpose) around the world by an international community of extreme athletes — a brotherhood that now includes magician and stuntman David Blaine. On the set of The Oprah Winfrey Show on April 30, Blaine broke the world record by holding his breath for 17 minutes and 4 seconds — proving that just how temporary apnea can be is a question of training, endurance and will.
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An average person in good health can hold their breath for about two minutes, but with even small amounts of practice it is possible to increase that time dramatically. "The body can be trained," explains Dr. Ralph Potkin, a pulmonary specialist who worked with Blaine in the weeks leading up to his recent feat.

When you deprive your body of oxygen, it is only a matter of time before your carbon dioxide levels build, triggering a reflex that will cause your breathing muscles — including the diaphragm and the muscles between the ribs — to spasm. The pain of these spasms is what causes most people to gulp for breath after just a couple of minutes. When holding your breath underwater, however, you have a bit of mammalian evolution on your side. When humans are submerged in cold water, our bodies instinctively prepare to conserve oxygen, much in the way that dolphins' and whales' bodies do when they dive. "Heart rate drops, blood pressure goes up and circulation gets redistributed," Potkin says. The body's focus becomes getting the oxygenated blood primarily to the vital organs — the brain and the heart — and not the extremities or abdomen.

This reflex can help us conserve the oxygen we do have, but it doesn't do much for the painful muscle spasms. Overcoming those is a matter of concentration and meditation. "This is one of those Zen sports," Potkin explains.

Suppressing the powerful pain impulse too successfully can prove deadly: subjects can continue holding their breath up to the point that their brains shut down from lack of oxygen. If you're 100 feet under water — or even three feet underwater in a pool — it's not a good time to pass out. In order to break the world record, Blaine had to hold his breath without fainting. (Had he continued until he'd depleted his brain's oxygen, however, Potkin is convinced he could have gone for another full minute.)

That of course, is down to months of rigorous training, including practicing a technique called glossopharyngeal insufflation, or lung packing. In order to maximize the amount of air taken into the lungs before apnea, Blaine, among other divers, inhaled until his lungs were filled to their physiological capacity, and then forced additional air into the lungs by swallowing, hard. Using this technique, Blaine was able to cram another quart's worth of air into his already full lungs, Potkin estimates. (He also fasted before before the actual record breaking act, in order to have more room for his lungs to expand without bumping up against a full stomach.) In a study of five elite free divers, who descend to scuba-diving depths without the aid of equipment, Potkin found that the lung packing was "associated with deeper dives and longer holding times."

Of course, another factor associated with longer holding times is the consumption of pure oxygen beforehand. The world record for holding your breath after inhaling pure oxygen is now Blaine's — 17 minutes and 4 seconds. The record without the pure oxygen, which Blaine failed to break during an attempt last year in Manhattan's Lincoln Center, is 8 minutes and 58 seconds.

With or without pure oxygen, holding your breath is a difficult and dangerous pasttime even for elite athletes. When not done carefully, it can lead to drowning, or to potential tissue damage in the heart, brains or lungs. Preliminary results from Potkin's research into apnea's long-term effects show some abnormal brain scans among young, extreme free divers. There's still much to learn about the phenomenon; as a medical student, Potkin recalls, he was told that no one could hold his breath for more than five minutes without suffering brain damage. Now, he wants to see if the technique can be used for medical purposes — and he's hoping Blaine's latest stunt provides the impetus for a greater scientific understanding of how to hold one's breath.

ref http://www.time.com/time/health/arti...736834,00.html

[Flagg]

Why does David Blaine keep attempting to do these boring stunts. Last time it was sitting in a glass container for 3 weeks with no food. Though it was funny when LOADED magazine tempted him by dangling a cheeseburger from a helecopter. He should go back to doing magic and card tricks, far more entertaining.

[WEBB]

ya this isnt magic or illusion...its a stunt....he's still a homo imo.....but thanks DSM for the explanation....

[Prada]

ya this isnt magic or illusion...its a stunt....he's still a homo imo.....but thanks DSM for the explanation....

Very eloquently said.

[WEBB]

i am good with the words stuff...lol

[Bojangles69]

That doesn't even cover potentional medications he could have taken that are pretty simple to get your hands on. Like betablockers, take enough of those and you drop your heart rate/blood pressure so your heart requires less oxygen.

Makes you able to sprint for 4 hours w/out getting winded, but of course your legs feel like they want to fall off.
So than you add some codiene to the mix, depresses you CNS more, numb your legs (or in context of the article your diaphragm spasms) and makes the job a lot easier.

Not saying David Blaine is a drug addict, just other variables to be aware of.