It's all about breath: PTSD, sex... (video)

Stig Severinsen, TEDx Talk, 2019/2010; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

How to hold your breath for 20 minutes

(TEDx Denmark) Stig Åvall Severinsen was the first person to hold his breath for more than 20 minutes under water, a Guinness world record. He believes that controlling the breath [prana, chi, spiritus, "invisible lifeforce energy," "animating principle"] means controlling our lives.

Stig Severnisen, a Danish freediver and holder of multiple world records, leaves audiences breathless. When he is not training or setting new records, he runs a global business based on his revolutionary concept he calls "Breatheology," aimed at changing the world one breath at a time.

(TEDx Copenhagen) Years later Severnisen is holding his breath longer.

This time around he is not showing how we can breathe better, but what happens when he pushes his body closer to the edge of what is thought to be possible and then a bit beyond. What if we’re closer to this edge than we imagine and going further every single day? Severnisen is a world champion freediver, bestselling author, and holder of multiple world records—among these is the longest freedive under ice, and becoming the first person to ever hold his breath for more than 20 minutes.

COMMENTS

• (Julian Hubbard) Awesome story, a little uneven on the presentation, but it should not matter; this guy is the real deal. Stig Severinsen and Wim Hof should get together and compare notes.
• (Paxus) If you find this interesting, you'll also find Wim Hof's methods interesting.
• (Anders Hass) To the people who think Stig should have credited Wim Hof, I don't see why he should have. They are two different men with two different approaches. They are both pioneers that set new standards which challenge the existing science. While Wim is running a marathon in the desert without water and immersing himself in ice and climbing Mount Everest in shorts and tennis shoes while  fighting infections by breathing, Stig is freediving under ice in Speedos, holding his breath for over 22 minutes in -1 degrees C, slowing his heart rate using only his techniques [breath control called pranayama, diet control, yoga] and mind and even skipping heartbeats voluntarily.... Stig comes from the world of freediving, doing this for about 25 years, so I think he stands on his own merits.

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