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David Blaine: How I held my breath for 17 minutes - https://www.ted.com/talks/david_blaine_how_i_held_my_breath_for_17_min https://www.ted.com/talks/david_blain

David Blaine: How I held my breath for 17 minutes - https://www.ted.com/talks/david_blaine_how_i_held_my_breath_for_17_min https://www.ted.com/talks/david_blaine_how_i_held_my_breath_...

junto 11y ago
I don't know why, but reading that video transcript makes me feel a bit physically sick. The thought of deliberately holding ones breath for so long goes against every basic natural instinct I have. An extraordinary achievement.
- YeGoblynQueenne 11y ago
  Indeed extraordinary, especially considering that the static apnea world record is 11 min 35 sec. To clarify: I'm totally calling bullshit on his claim. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freediving#AIDA_recognized_world_records https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freediving#AIDA_recognized_wor...
  - jimothyhalpert7 11y ago
    I'm very glad someone brought this up. The whole talk is kind of weird. David is extremely nervous, drinking all the time, and then (spontaneously) bursts into tears in the end. One comment read that he was 'high', and, while there's no way (or point) to verify this, it describes his abnormal nervousness pretty well. Adding to this the fact that this achievement hasn't been verified, leads to a very strange TED Talk. So, I started wondering, whether a deliberately bad TED talk can be considered a good magic trick...?
  - underbluewaters 11y ago
    That's the record for static apnea on regular air. After breathing up with pure o2, you can push the limits quite a bit more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_apnea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_apnea
    - YeGoblynQueenne 11y ago
      The accreditation for _most_ of the records with the pure oxygen is from Guinness. I'm really not at all convinced by that. The highest record with pure oxygen that's recognised by AIDA is at 16:32. That's half a minute under what Blaine claims. So, still, not convinced.
- soci 11y ago
  The catalan Aleix Segura is the current static apnea World Champion. He won the title last June in a competition in Belgrad with an astonishing apnea time of 10min 07sec A month ago he went for the pure show and broke the Guiness Record by using pure oxygen. Breathold time: 24min 03sec. A video of that perfomance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L89kY5ewgqU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L89kY5ewgqU For an apnea aficionado like me it's a pleasure listening Aleix talk about trainings, chemistry, physics or dietetics. A shame he has not made any talks for the great public because this guy has a lot information to share. Is quite strange that no general media has ever approached him yet. At least not as far as I know.
  - agumonkey 11y ago
    Not a good place to die suddenly. I max out at 1min20. (edit: 2min00 woo)

David Blaine: How I held my breath for 17 minutes - https://www.ted.com/talks/david_blaine_how_i_held_my_breath_for_17_min https://www.ted.com/talks/david_blaine_how_i_held_my_breath_...

junto 11y ago

I don't know why, but reading that video transcript makes me feel a bit physically sick. The thought of deliberately holding ones breath for so long goes against every basic natural instinct I have. An extraordinary achievement.

YeGoblynQueenne 11y ago
Indeed extraordinary, especially considering that the static apnea world record is 11 min 35 sec. To clarify: I'm totally calling bullshit on his claim. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freediving#AIDA_recognized_world_records https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freediving#AIDA_recognized_wor...
- jimothyhalpert7 11y ago
  I'm very glad someone brought this up. The whole talk is kind of weird. David is extremely nervous, drinking all the time, and then (spontaneously) bursts into tears in the end. One comment read that he was 'high', and, while there's no way (or point) to verify this, it describes his abnormal nervousness pretty well. Adding to this the fact that this achievement hasn't been verified, leads to a very strange TED Talk. So, I started wondering, whether a deliberately bad TED talk can be considered a good magic trick...?
- underbluewaters 11y ago
  That's the record for static apnea on regular air. After breathing up with pure o2, you can push the limits quite a bit more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_apnea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_apnea
  - YeGoblynQueenne 11y ago
    The accreditation for _most_ of the records with the pure oxygen is from Guinness. I'm really not at all convinced by that. The highest record with pure oxygen that's recognised by AIDA is at 16:32. That's half a minute under what Blaine claims. So, still, not convinced.
soci 11y ago
The catalan Aleix Segura is the current static apnea World Champion. He won the title last June in a competition in Belgrad with an astonishing apnea time of 10min 07sec A month ago he went for the pure show and broke the Guiness Record by using pure oxygen. Breathold time: 24min 03sec. A video of that perfomance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L89kY5ewgqU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L89kY5ewgqU For an apnea aficionado like me it's a pleasure listening Aleix talk about trainings, chemistry, physics or dietetics. A shame he has not made any talks for the great public because this guy has a lot information to share. Is quite strange that no general media has ever approached him yet. At least not as far as I know.
- agumonkey 11y ago
  Not a good place to die suddenly. I max out at 1min20. (edit: 2min00 woo)