Wim Hof's Meditation

[LeirTheFox]

So, I saw that there's a lot of good stuff on this forum, and, after downloading some ebooks, I thought it would be good to retribute back somehow.

So, here is my first "donation" to TTB library of awesomeness:

http://www.highexistence.com/the-wim-hof-method-revealed-how-to-consciously-control-your-immune-system/

It's the meditation technique that Wim Hof practice and teach in his workshops. As I mentioned some time ago, it's a mix of pranayama and tummo, but in a different manner (somewhat simpler imo).

The main focus of this method is to stimulate and strenghten the immunologic system. I am applying this meditation for two months (I'm still a beginner), and I feel some good improvements, not to mention a slow, but ever-growing resistance to colder temperatures.

He also has a book on this subject, called "Becoming the Iceman." I'd like to tell more about it, but I haven't readied it, so I think I'll just leave the torrent link where I found the ebook Link Removed here.

Hope it serves to anybody.

Namaste,

Edited June 17, 2013 by viator
Link to copyrighted work.

[LeirTheFox]

Thank you for sharing the first link. I removed the second one because it linked to a copyrighted work, which is against board policies. We do appreciate the spirit of giving back though.

 

Sorry, Viator, I wasn't aware of the board policies. Thanks for the correction!

[Flolfolil]

hah, you beat me to it. i was about to question whether or not that book was freely distributed.

 

It is pretty easy to find online with a quick google search though

[soaring crane]

thank you! What's the title of the book? I'll buy it just to support the guy.

 

I've been into cold showers and ice baths for years. They are without a doubt the quickest way to strengthen the immune system (German priest/therapist Sebastian Kneipp made them popular, along with other 'water cures', in the the 19th century and his methods are still very popular here).

[LeirTheFox]

thank you! What's the title of the book? I'll buy it just to support the guy.

 

I've been into cold showers and ice baths for years. They are without a doubt the quickest way to strengthen the immune system (German priest/therapist Sebastian Kneipp made them popular, along with other 'water cures', in the the 19th century and his methods are still very popular here).

 

The Book is called "Becoming The Iceman" (I think that there's no harm on directing to the website, right? ) and you can buy it here: http://becomingtheiceman.com/

 

As Flolfolil said, it's not hard to find it online (as most of the ebooks nowadays), but I admire your support. I'd buy it too, but I do not have credit cards right now to exchange currency.

[xor]

[soaring crane]

Ordered it!

[voidisyinyang]

http://innersoundqigong.blogspot.com/2015/07/we-got-healing-power-re-visiting-wim.html

 

VICE news did a feature story on Wim Hof - posted on youtube .

 

I did a couple blog posts on Wim Hof - the latest one last night.

 

He's got a training school now and one advanced student who joined Wim for a world record session of tummo.

[voidisyinyang]

http://thedaobums.com/topic/33079-its-cold-out-there-what-are-your-thoughts-on-tummo/

 

So Zoom says the secret of tummo is not visualization but direct contact with Earth to get the yin qi energy in the body. Fascinating.

 

He cites the Secret of INner Bliss book.

[voidisyinyang]

http://thedaobums.com/topic/31216-best-hard-evidence-for-real-abilities/

 

science studying showing magnetic field 1000 times stronger from qigong master. Another thread.

[Green Tiger]

 

Here's the video from Vice.  Good stuff. 

[Grok]

I practiced wims breathing technique (as presented on high existence) for a few months a couple years back. Good stuff. I eventually worked it into doing the breathing technique with different chi kung standing postures. Had good results. I phased it out to pursue other practices not because I was unhappy with results.

 

I still take ice cold showers daily.

 

Thanks for the vid from vice I have to check that out!

 

-grok

 

edit: I wanted to add I took away a lot from the short time I devoted towards his techniques that I was able to apply to my endurance training. 

Edited July 22, 2015 by Grok

[Seth Ananda]

http://thedaobums.com/topic/33079-its-cold-out-there-what-are-your-thoughts-on-tummo/

 

So Zoom says the secret of tummo is not visualization but direct contact with Earth to get the yin qi energy in the body. Fascinating.

 

He cites the Secret of INner Bliss book.

 

I find this to. {I'll call it inner heat practice rather than Tummo, because Tummo also relates to a host of other things beside heat}

Its kind of annoying actually.  The only real success I can get with inner heat practice is via full lotus, outside, with at least weeks or months of non ejaculation.

Sure I can get a lot of heat in my LDT, but to get it to a point where it flows through and around my body and counteracts cold, I pretty much must be doing lotus position, at least a lot, to get things started. 

It feels like it draws up so much earth energy via the perineum. 

[voidisyinyang]

To gather the wind in the central channel, there are the practices of tummo or energy fire.

Visualize the right and left channels inserted into the central channel below the navel. At

the navel there is the red letter RAM. Slowly draw up the downward-voiding energy

from the lower orifices. By drawing it up, it causes the RAM at the navel to become very

hot and to flare. There are different stages of the practice: building up the fire, and

causing the fire to flare. Draw the downward-voiding air up to the navel and draw the

upward-going air down to the navel. Hold the breath as long as you can without forcing.

Breathe out through the nose, keeping the mouth closed. By the consequent flaring of the

RAM, think that all the dregs in the channels in the body get burned and cleared away.

When the dregs of the constituent energy drops are burned off, imagine that the clarified

part of the constituent energy drops which remain when the dregs are burned off come up

and dissolve in the central channel. The clarified portion of the constituent energy drops

through the body dissolves in the three main channels: right, left and central channels.

 

and

 

 

So, you visualize the

central channel and try to activate the critical points of the central channel to dissolve the

winds, thereby doing the tummo practices.

However, before doing that, first you practice the common path or renunciation,

bodhichitta, and the right view

 

and

 

 

When you can cause the winds to enter, abide, and dissolve in the central channel through

the practice of tummo, there are nine mixings to practice.

 

H.E. Serkong Rinpoche's Vajrayogini Commentary (Pomaia, Italy 1980)

 

pdf link

[voidisyinyang]

https://thetummoexperiment.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/preliminary-practices/

 

tummo experiment blog

 

 

Also it should be said that Tummo is not one thing. It is a bunch of techniques that generally include the Vase Breath (you can find instructions on-line), and some exercises called Trul Khor and Tsa Lung, some of which can be seen in Lama Surya Das’ Tibetan Enery Yoga video, in the Yantra Yoga videos in Namkhai Norbu’s school, or in Wangyal Rinpoche’s Awakening the Sacred Body (see links below).

 

and

 

 

In Tummo however it is not a pulling in, but a pressing down of the lower abdomen, while pulling up of the pelvic floor (Mulabandha). This has the effect of “bottling up”
prana and apana, allowing them to remain together and mix. The Six Yogas refer to this as the “Mystic Kiss”.

As this is done the hands are in Varja Fist mudra – the thumb touching the ring finger inside the palm and other fingers folded over into a fist. This mudra has the effect of “restraining” the energies to the lower part of the body, and also contribute to keeping the energies inside the body – contributing to the accumulation of warmth.

Visualizations are more important that one might think at first. Specifically the AH sound, mentally chanted repeatedly, or visualizing it symbol, has the property of again directing the energies to the lower abdomen. The science of mantra is a very powerful tool of Tantra. It activates certain energies or redirects energy, prana or consciousness into particular areas of the body (or even outside of the body).

So again, the energy of the AH vibrates the energy already compressed in the abdomen by the pressing down of the abdomen and pulling up of the pelvic floor and it is this vibration that mixes the apana and prana together in a kind of fusion- this process creates a kind of fluid which I supposed is what they refer to as the bindu.

The next step, which is a forceful exhalation then pushes all of that to the back of the spine and upwards into the central channel – hence the name “shooting up”.

[voidisyinyang]

http://www.eltonyoga.com/vajrayogini/on-the-buddhist-trail-in-dharamsala-6/ Tibetan Nun who mastered tummo in India

[voidisyinyang]

http://vajrarecitation.blogspot.com/2013_09_01_archive.html

 

another set of tummo instructions from tibetan monk

[thelerner]

I'm not certain, but with Wim Hof, did the tummo practice come first or did he have his almost freakish ability at the beginning?  And developed his tummo system so others could get closer to his natural ability? 

[forestofclarity]

Wim Hof doesn't really do tummo. His techniques, as far as I can tell, come from his personal experiences with the cold. He has developed it to a freakish ability, but he has also trained people to become immune to viruses following his technique in a very short period of time. 

[Green Tiger]

Wim Hof doesn't really do tummo. His techniques, as far as I can tell, come from his personal experiences with the cold. He has developed it to a freakish ability, but he has also trained people to become immune to viruses following his technique in a very short period of time. 

 

Yeah, he was trained by the cold, not by monks.  He learned to breathe in the cold, he learned to exercise in the cold, and he learned to shut his mind off in the cold.

 

He says he read 'many books' but maintains that 'real knowledge is within you'.  He discovered his method by exposing himself to the cold and finding the deeper connections within his own body. 

 

You don't get real power with any method that can be written in a book, IMO, you get real power by breaking yourself against extreme adversity and finding out what you're really made of.

[Green Tiger]

 

Here's a recent Ted talk where he discusses how he started his training.

Edited July 23, 2015 by Green Tiger

[voidisyinyang]

Yeah, he was trained by the cold, not by monks.  He learned to breathe in the cold, he learned to exercise in the cold, and he learned to shut his mind off in the cold.

 

He says he read 'many books' but maintains that 'real knowledge is within you'.  He discovered his method by exposing himself to the cold and finding the deeper connections within his own body. 

 

You don't get real power with any method that can be written in a book, IMO, you get real power by breaking yourself against extreme adversity and finding out what you're really made of.

 

Actually in my research yesterday on tummo I found a book source giving the exact same - and I mean EXACT SAME instructions that Wim Hof gives. Yeah this is the source: http://tantrakriyayogadanceoflightening.blogspot.com/2014/11/hello-everyone-namaste-and-many-thanks.html

 

The Vase Breathing of tummo was told as 24 breaths very fast reverse breathing - the hyperventilation stage. Wim Hof says 30.

 

Then the instruction was to feel the energy blockages in the body and send the warmth to those areas.

 

Then retain the breath for 2 minutes and visualize the red heat in the lower body.

 

I was going to post that book link but the book was a secondary source on indian yoga, the original source of tummo.

 

I'm just saying that Wim Hof did get his training from reading tummo books. He just then did the training on his own based on the instructions he read.

 

It's no different than someone reading a cooking book recipe and then doing it yourself - or a DIY home repair job.

 

 

 

As Saul Martinez's book Tantra Kriya Yoga, The Dance of Lightning explains: 

 

"The Sanskrit word Agni means flame, or inner fire. Traditionally, you visualise a blue flame, the size of a thumbnail. This is situated at the base of the navel and is made to grow, by means of the respiration known as Agnisara Pranayama. This practise of Agni corresponds to the Tun-mo of Tibetan Tantra. " 

 

Sitting in Vajrasana, join the soles of the feet and open the knees. Stretch the arms forwards, placing the palms of the hands on the knees. Open your mouth and poke out your tongue. (For those who know it, this is Simhasana, the asana of the lion). Immediately start to practise rapid abdominal respiration, generating a sound like panting. Do this twenty-five times. In Buddhism, this practise is called g-tummo or “vase breathing”.

 

After each round of 25 breaths, pause briefly to note the sensation being generated in your body. If, each time, a pleasant sensation of ever greater warmth spreads through the nadis,  you are on the right track. All you need now is for the master to orally transmit to you the appropriate mantras so that you can discover the wonder of Tummo for yourself.

Edited July 23, 2015 by Innersoundqigong

[voidisyinyang]

For example, in the Palyul Nyingma, Tummo is the second segment of Ngondro--

after the one month retreat, and Thogal is the third and final segment of Ngondro.

Also, Lama Yeshe, founder of FPMT (a Gelugpa organization) gave Tummo teachings

to any student who had received a Highest Yoga Tantra empowerment-- esp. Chakrasamvara.

That was a rather un-traditional move on his part, but he thought it was appropriate

to the times and the students he had.

 

Now in the Bonpo, which this Lama represents,I'm told that Dzogchen is taught and practiced

early on in one's training. So I do not know if this is common practice for them, but it should

be possible for a beginner to get some experience of Tummo. Maybe not a stable or profound

realization, but something that might inspire one to complete the whole path.

 

http://tibetanbuddhism.tribe.net/thread/b0865a2b-59db-4ecc-b87c-e732d354e20b

 

and

 

 

Tulku lama lobsang teaches very harsh tummo. There are gentler techniques. He's also propositioned many women for sex during his retreats - including me. Do not go to Tulku lama lobsang's retreats if you are a woman. You can learn better techniques elsewhere. Very very very important to research any teacher who teaches tummy. There is a very real possibility of life-threatening reactions using the wrong type of tummy. This man obviously feels very entitled to sex with his female students.

Edited July 23, 2015 by Innersoundqigong

[voidisyinyang]

http://www.dharmadata.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=160&catid=36&Itemid=135〈=en

 

Harvard's Herbert Benson's follow up study on tummo in 2001 in France after his 1981 study in India

[voidisyinyang]

Meditation, a wakeful hypometabolic state of parasympathetic dominance, is compared with other hypometabolic conditions, such as sleep, hypnosis, and the torpor of hibernation.

 

that's vagus nerve.

 

http://physiologyonline.physiology.org/content/13/3/149

 

 

In other words, sympathetic control in the presence of parasympathetic dominance is the fundamental principle underlying what has been reported in advanced practitioners as the voluntary control of internal states.

 

This is corroborated by studies of individual practitioners who have been meditating for decades and who have gained phenomenal control over normally involuntary bodily processes. Tibetan monks studied in their natural environment in a Himalayan monastery practicing G Tum-mo yoga have been shown to first enter any one of several states of quiet meditation, after which they are able to generate such body heat that they can dry wet sheets on their back in freezing weather (1).

 

and

 

 

Similarly, CO₂ cessation in forearm muscles of advanced meditators has been attributed to a shift toward increased fatty acid utilization and beta oxidation by muscle tissue in the hypometabolic condition. Researchers have also noted a rapid decrease of whole blood and red cell glycolysis rate in advanced meditators, a process that appears similar to glycolytic changes seen in lower organisms going into and coming out of hibernation.

Edited July 23, 2015 by Innersoundqigong