ESTUDIOS A TIEMPOS LARGOS

We want to put your mind at ease. You’re probably asking yourself, “I wanted to read a book about the cold and hard science.

So what’s all this about spirituality, yoga, duality, and ashrams?”

Don’t worry, all that will be explained in great detail in the coming chapters. But, now that science has embraced Hof’s method, it is important to know where his knowledge originated. You won’t need to go to India and sit on a cold mountain in some impossible yoga position.

Before we continue with the cold, we first must share the sad story of Wim’s wife, Olaya.

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Before Hof went to India for the second time, he returned to Amsterdam. He missed Olaya and they met each other again in the city. After two years apart, the love between them was as strong as ever. They got married. In 1983, they had a son, Enahm. The proud parents rented a house and two daughters followed, Isabelle (1985) and Laura (1986).

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But, Olaya found the cold climate of the Netherlands difficult.

Eventually, the family of five emigrated to the warm side of the Pyrenees. Wim found work teaching English, and they rented a farmhouse just outside Estella. They dreamed of setting up a center where creative individuals could come together and learn yoga, philosophy, or painting—and where you could walk for hours.

Hof was happy, but still restless and searching for new challenges.

This led him to do a lot of mountain-climbing. One day, he climbed a steep rock face with only a hemp rope, a small hammer and a few pitons. Olaya was furious that he was willing to risk his life climbing in that way, since they had three children. Hof had an uncontrollable urge to climb, but also felt responsible for his wife and children.

He decided to stop climbing, and to control his urge to climb, he developed a breathing technique that allowed him to stay underwater for more than six minutes. Every morning, he went to a nearby lake to meditate and practice staying underwater.

But the tension between Hof and his wife remained. One day, she disappeared and did not return for several months. Olaya suffered from attacks of rage and depression, and expressed her unhappiness by regularly threatening to take her own life. But she refused to seek treatment. The family returned to Amsterdam because the remote farmhouse no longer felt safe.

Back in Amsterdam, their youngest son Michael was born in 1998. Shortly after the birth, Olaya left again, without saying anything. Her depression was very difficult for her and it was a tough time for Hof, too.

When he contacted Olaya, he never knew what her mood would be in advance. Sometimes, she spent three or four months with Hof and their children, but then she would spend three or four months at

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her parents’ house. In the summer, Wim worked as a climbing trip group leader, and the family of six all stayed with Olaya’s parents in Pamplona.

Hof had a good relationship with Olaya’s Spanish family and friends. He learned about the culture and how to speak Basque.

He did his best to be a good father and son-in-law, but he still needed moments to challenge himself in silence, away from the daily routine. He saw that Olaya would sometimes sit and stare straight forward strangely, but he did not really respond to it. And she continued to refuse treatment for her increasingly severe depression. Sometimes, she would slap someone hard in the face for no reason. She loved her children, but announced that she wanted to divorce Wim. He did not know if she had said this “only” for attention. He felt powerless and started climbing again to keep from losing himself.

One day, when Hof was alone in the mountains, Olaya jumped from the eighth floor of her parents’ house in Pamplona.

Olaya was dead. Enahm, Isabelle, Laura, and Michael lost their mother, and Wim lost his wife. He felt guilty and the children were devastated.

Hof devoted himself to caring for his children, occasionally retreating to be alone with nature to re-charge his batteries. In those years, he was a well-known figure in the Vondelpark. With ropes and belay equipment, he showed young children how to climb the highest trees. The children learned that they could do more than they thought was possible. Hof enjoyed the natural surroundings, even in the heart of Amsterdam.

Later, Wim remarried and had another son.

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The children grew up and Hof looked for new challenges. His breathing techniques, yoga and cold training gave him enormous strength—and he liked to share it with others. The media got him in their sights. Encouraged by the attention and the effect it had on other people, Wim broke record after record. He took the longest bath in ice. He climbed snow-covered mountain peaks, wearing shorts. He ran a marathon in Lapland at -30°C (-22°F). He swam hundreds of meters under the ice.

These records earned him the nickname “The Iceman”.

His records were reported on television in Japan, Germany, Poland, Spain and many other countries. The BBC made a documentary about him, and millions of people watched his feats on the internet.

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Hof enjoyed the attention and the expanding potentialities of his body. But, something started to gnaw at him. Perhaps because he was getting older—or because of his five children. Or, maybe he was still coming to terms with Olaya’s suicide.

He felt the need to share his knowledge and the possibilities of his body with more people. Could other people do what he can do?

In 2007, the renowned Feinstein Institute in New York studied Hof. The results showed that he was able to control his autonomic nervous system. For Wim, the results were logical—after all, he had trained to do it for many years. But, the researchers thought he was a medical wonder.

From then on, Hof put himself at the disposal of science. His main aim was to show others that they could also train to do what he does.

It was the start of a very special time in Wim’s life. He attracted more and more attention and those who started using his method were wildly enthusiastic.

In 2010, Hof’s eldest son Enahm set up a company called Innerfire. The combination of breathing exercises and cold training had far-reaching effects on people over and over again. They started organizing workshops and trips, and the method was increasingly validated by science. In the Netherlands, more and more people learned to train others in the Wim Hof Method (WHM). In the near future, people will be able to learn the method, under supervision, in many places around the country.

Hof’s daughter, Isabelle and his son Michael now both work at Innerfire.

More and more people are using Wim’s techniques, including leading Dutch entertainer Theo Maassen, former Minister of Finance Gerrit Zalm, athletes, people with rheumatism and Crohn’s disease, psychiatrists, cardiologists and internists. Companies ask Hof to sit in ice baths with hundreds of managers at a time.

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At the same time, more researchers are now studying the WHM at the Radboud University Medical Centre, the Amsterdam Medical Centre, and at universities in Boston and New York.

Why is that?

What is the secret of Wim Hof’s method?

That is what we are going to tell you, starting with cold training.

e are addicted to temperatures around 20-21°C (68-71°F). In the summer, we switch on the air-conditioning in the car, and in the winter we set the central heating to about 20°C (68°F). Companies and shops do the same, so we spend much of our time in roughly the same temperatures. Double glazing, insulation, and concrete all help us to maintain the temperatures we like. In the winter, we wear coats, scarves, hats, gloves and thick socks to make it easier for our bodies. This feels comfortable and pleasant.

We have gotten used to it.

That is a pity. In the winter, we can actually use the cold, rather than continually protect ourselves from it. Exposure to cold has a favorable effect on our health and our moods. In some parts of Scandinavia, Russia, and China, ice-hole swimming is popular. The swimmers saw a hole in the ice and immerse themselves in water that is just above the freezing point.