David Blaine
Appearances
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
No, they don't. They don't, yeah. No, because I pushed an ice pick through my arm And I put it on the, I don't know, there wasn't even a table. I just put it on, I think on the floor.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He picked it up and pushed it right through his body. Yeah, it was crazy.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
What they're doing, I think it's passed down for generations. And I think they know exactly what they're doing. And part of it is accepting what you have to do. Like there's an acceptance to what they're going to do. Like a faith, right? They know that they can do these things. So when they push these things through their body, they're just completely at ease.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And I think therefore their body recovers at a really fast rate.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Because the body's incredible. The body can do so many amazing things through evolution, right? We've developed these abilities to survive. So one that I wasn't prepared for, I was surrounded by doctors, and I was trying to hold my breath for as long as possible. I had telemetry on me and everything else.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I was surrounded by a great group of doctors and pulmonary experts and freedivers, and I was holding my breath underwater. And at one point I wasn't even aware of the time. I didn't, there was no such thing as time. So I'm holding my breath at one point. I think it was once I, when I was like above 18 minutes. Right.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And then all of a sudden I'm pulled out of the water and it's 20 minutes and two seconds. And I was just completely at peace with, But they pulled me up because my heart rate had dropped to eight beats per minute. And in their minds, I'm going to go into cardiac arrest and they're not going to be able to recover me. But it was the opposite.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
The body went into this strange survival mode, I guess, and it does everything it can to conserve all of your energy, shuts the brain down because the brain uses oxygen. And again, I was at complete peace. And then I was like, why did you pull me out? Yeah.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I was on the edge of irreversible organ failure. I do have effects that haven't recovered since, and that was 22 years ago.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I don't think it was going into it. I think it was going into survival mode. There's a boy that blacked out under an icy river. He was trapped under the water and he was there for 45 minutes not breathing. They pulled him out. He fully recovered, no brain damage, nothing. And the body is capable of doing things that we don't even, science and doctors don't even imagine could be possible.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And at the Earth Festival in India, everything that I saw, it was overwhelming, but it was still like they were doing things that don't make any sense.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
This is not faking it. It's hard to say, right? You never know. But what I was seeing was it was as real as it gets. But then there was one thing that didn't make sense. There was one thing that I started to think, well, what's the magic, you know? So... Who knows? What is that thing? I want to know. You know, the guy pushes the thing through his neck and it comes out.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
But then I looked carefully and there was no, there was no hole. There was no blood, no hole, no nothing. So I, so then I started thinking like, well, so what, how is that possible? Right?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
You didn't figure it out. No, but it's funny because that, so I wanted to go to India first when we started shooting the series because the first time I saw somebody combine magic with real human endurance feats other than pictures of Boudin and stuff like that was a magician that,
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
ate a thread and then he pulled the thread out of his stomach and when i saw that i was like blown away yeah it's crazy and he wouldn't show anybody else but he he pulled me into another he's like i'll show you and he showed me and i was like whoa and i thought it was crazy how he did it it's a magic combined with doing something that most people wouldn't want to do and when i saw
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
it kind of changed my theory on what could be possible. And I think I've always had that curiosity of what the human body can endure, what we could tolerate. So I think it was some sort of a trigger that led me on this journey, which was not just as a magician, but what are people doing that? And the magicians I like the most, like Harry Houdini, Ricky Jay,
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Ricky Jay wrote a book called Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women, which is that kind of guidebook to all of these people that were using their bodies to do crazy things. Well, their minds and their bodies to do these unbelievable feats.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
You just went for it. It took an x-ray. The knife was on the edge of the nervous system. It was really at that, like, exact line. When you're out of your comfort zone, when you're breaking that... How do you get out of that?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
For you. I always like things that I believe, right? So it's like I was always... So if I'm watching a magician, I like if I know that he put tons of work into one card move, right? When I saw people that were doing things that were defied logic, which is what magic does, but then I knew that there was an element of they are really doing that.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I think it led me first into the Swami mantra, which led to the Buried Alive, which then led to me...
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
looking into all all the other things I was excited about or you know but but I would fight with magicians they would be like you can't what's the magic in it like what's the point you have to disappear from the pole and appear in boxes yeah but there's no believability to that I'd rather just jump into the box well then they're like well you at least have to just disappear I was like but then that ruins the whole like then it's not a real thing what would they say back
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I mean, they wouldn't win the argument, but then afterwards they were like, all right, I get it.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Oh yeah, that was crazy.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
You know, I had done nails in the nose and things like that because you could hammer a nail, you know, back in. But then when I was in the favela in Rio, in Rocinha, this performer, Maestro Legirinho, took a serrated steak knife and he just shoved it in his nose, just pushed it all the way in. And how is that possible? We don't think of that as being, you know, it seems like
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
You're going to do something to your nervous system, something, right? He pushes it all the way in and pulls it out, does it a few times. And of course, I'm like, whoa, that's crazy. But obviously, my whole theory is if somebody can do it, it means nobody should do it. But it means there's an explanation. It's not a magic thing. It's like there's an explanation. So it means it is possible.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
So I kind of trusted him and just went for it and just pushed the thing in.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
No, no, no. I watched him do it, and I trusted what he was saying. And I think I was, nobody should do it, actually. It's super, super dangerous, of course. But anyway, I did it. But then I wanted to see it. So I took an x-ray. And then when we took the x-ray, we saw that the knife was on the edge of the nervous system. So it was really at that exact line.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
The body is capable of doing things that science and doctors don't even imagine could be possible.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
But again, you're not, it doesn't make sense. But once again, people have survived lots of crazy things.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I don't know, I don't know. You just could sense it? Yeah, and I trusted him who has done this so many times.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Just something happening to my daughter. But by the way, these things, when magicians or anybody are telling me, oh, well, I say do the card tricks because that's the best stuff. That's what people like. Do not do these crazy things, which is why this show is called Do Not Attempt.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Yeah, there is actually. Funny enough, the bullet catch killed 12 magicians, but they were doing it as a trick. And the guy that was doing it for real wasn't a magician. He was just catching bullets in a little cup in his mouth. And he did it hundreds of times and he was okay. But 12 magicians that were doing it as a trick that were switching bullets out and stuff like that, 12 of them died.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I'm not laughing, but 12 of them died doing it as a trick.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
He was catching the bullet in a metal cup in his mouth. I think one time it sliced through his cheek, but he pulled it off.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
No, I did it.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I did it. I had my best friend. It's funny because I'm looking at don't shoot. So my best friend's a magician and I saw him shoot a cup far away with a BB gun. I was like, will you do the bullet catch with me? And somehow I convinced him to do it.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
because he didn't want somebody else to mess up and he knew he would get the mark so he did it i caught the bullet that was kind of crazy but then i wanted to do it again but i didn't want to have anybody shoot me because i didn't want to make anybody that uncomfortable so i put a string on a on the trigger of a rifle, a .22 long bullet, and I pulled the string and caught it in that metal cup.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Another thing nobody should ever do.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's right. And I do tricks with frogs and things like that. I've never injured a frog. I, they're my daughter's pet frogs. I've kept them for years. They've been with us. And then I give them to somebody that when they get too big, then I give them to somebody that's going to care for them. But yeah, so, so my doctor's kids now have, uh, uh, these giant.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And by the way, they try to hold them and the frogs won't let anybody, nobody can pick them up. And I hadn't seen the frog in like a year or something. And I came to his house and they were filming it. And I put my hand in and I'm not kidding. The frog walked right onto my hand and I lifted it up and he just sat there. We underestimate these creatures, right?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
But there's some sort of, I don't know, bizarre. Yeah, yeah. Through scent or saliva. Whatever it is, yeah, which is crazy.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Yeah.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
That's right. That's good. Because I agree that being comfortable for me, I think is always the worst thing ever. When you're comfortable... You achieve nothing. You learn nothing. So it's like when you're out of your comfort zone, when you're breaking that, it's like that's when everything becomes intense and we're alive, right?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And that's probably what you experienced when you took yourself out of your comfort zone and lived with this incredible monk is then suddenly you're living in the moment. You're living in this heightened sense of awareness. And that's all from breaking the comfort zone.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
When they were asking me what I wanted to do, I said, here's the thing. So we're talking about lots of ideas. Doug, my magician friend that was here, he's the one that found Deepak in India that did the most incredible stuff I've ever... Mind-blowing just the way he is able to override his body with his mind.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
But basically, when they were coming to me with this idea, oh, this one, that one, I said, here's the thing. Only... present to me the ideas that when you tell me about them, it makes you uncomfortable just saying that we're going to go be a part, you know, I wanted it to be, I wanted it to be that, that.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And I think that's a big thing that I'd like to do is put myself in major discomfort so I can, so it wakes me up, you know, brings me to life.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
It was a bunch of things. So I had a friend that... One of his relatives gave him a trick called Scotch and Soda, which is just, it's like a half dollar changes with the English. But anyway, so he couldn't figure out how to do it. And immediately I understood it and I was able to do it and present as a trick. So that was one thing.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Another thing was seeing the guys in Coney Island that would do sword sawing or rope tricks, things like that. Then people that were in the subways, I would watch the three card Monty guys. So I think it was like a constant, you know, for some reason, that's the stuff I was most attracted to. And I loved how cards felt, you know?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And I realized he knows what he's doing. He believes in everything that he's saying. And I sat with him in there. And then when one started to come towards, when it was close, he said, don't worry. If something goes wrong, I'll take the hit. And I was like, um, I think I'm ready to go. I think, can I get out of here?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And he was like, nope, because you can't leave until, until it's a, what you can't do any abrupt movement. So that was the craziest thing I've ever done in my life. You got really close to it as well. It did get really close. But again, I trusted, I trusted him completely.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Well, he was bitten a few times. So he did go into a coma once. He had a snake-related injury where he lost his leg. So he has one leg.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Yeah, and he sits with them so people will come and see him and know that if they've seen this, it kind of gets the point across. Like if you see a guy sitting in a small room like this with a bunch of black mambas, you realize, okay, so if a black mamba does come into our school or into our house or wherever, you can just stay at peace, stay calm on some level.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
So he's protecting the people and the mambas.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And these are wild. These are rescues. He keeps them and then releases them back. So, yeah, no.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
So they're almost, for me, meditative, like the way they feel in my hands. I think even before I even knew what to do with them, I would almost just like meditate because I was holding them. So it was really interesting. Almost like a digital fixation. I just became, I guess, like a security blanket almost, you know?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Not hard, but the scariest. Scariest. It wasn't hard. It was the opposite of hard. It's just all you have to do is just sit still.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
But you have to stay still. And you have to be at ease. Yeah.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
But it depends. Some you have to, so it varies. Some you have to show that you're not afraid and that you're strong and you're not going to be an easy target. Or they say with sharks, what you have to do is if you're around bull sharks in the ocean or whatever, you just look at them and keep looking because they don't want to challenge you.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
They're so evolved, they don't want to have to waste any energy. They're so perfect. They conserve energy in the most efficient way. So if you're looking at it, it knows that it may get a fight back. But if you're not looking, then...
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Yeah.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
But he sits in there for hours. And when I met him, he was just sitting with a forest cobra, another snake that could easily kill you. But he was just like drinking his coffee. So yeah, he was amazing. Wow.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
and and has he got to a place of fearlessness like would he say that he feels fearless or no he feels no i think no i think he respects and and loves these snakes he thinks they're beautiful and incredible so it's not yet sure he's fearless with that specifically yeah but i think it's more like he has a uh just such a deep respect for like you said like you know bowing down to yeah it's that
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I think it's the same when you met the monk. You immediately felt his knowledge and his faith and his beliefs and his discipline, his wisdom, right? And I think with the people I've met, all of them, I felt that. And as soon as I felt that, I was okay to try things. So I think lots of it has to do with just... trusting the person and their abilities and their understanding of what they're doing.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And then when I realized I could make my mother, I could change her day by doing a simple magic trick. It was kind of like the beginning of my love for performing. And then I would only do it for her and her friends, and they would all react. And that was one part of the...
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And then from that, it's a leap of faith.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
That's right. And that's the part that's like breaking the comfort zone is trying something you haven't done, trying something new. Pushing yourself in a way that you're uncomfortable and working diligently and loving failure, right? The failure is like, that's okay. The failure is amazing. When you're performing magic, it's the failures that you learn from.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
It's like you're performing a card trick, and you fail. Well, that's where you learn, and you're constantly learning. That's what's amazing about being a magician is there's a constant learning curve, and it never stops. You're always practicing. Even if it's the same trick that you've worked on for, for me, 30 years, some of them, 40, whatever it is, and I'm still changing.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I'm still learning, and that's, for me, the exciting part of everything.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Right. And therefore you're never an expert, you know?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Probably kissing the King Cobra. Just because I understood that the risk was, it was, you know, I understood the risk. So that one I was, that took me a long time to mentally prepare for. That one took me a long time.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
No, no, no. I took time on that one. I wasn't ready. So I left, came back months later. I tried to understand the behavior of the king cobra. I met with my friends that had king cobras that understood. I mean, that one was a pretty intense learning curve because, you know, they strike fast. And if it gets you, you know...
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
So I think if everything had done that, that might have been the most intimidating one. Probably.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
But yeah, it is seeing little performances, seeing a book of Harry Houdini and seeing him chained to the side of a building, watching him dangle over the edge of a building. So yeah, it's a collective, but it all happens.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Yeah, because all the stunts, all the other things that I've done, there was no real immediate risk of death. Yes, something could go wrong, but there's not a... this is a lights out situation where with the King Cobra, I understood the risk was great. So I wanted to know that I had the ability to get out of the way and that I could understand its movements and its timing. Are you scared of dying?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I'm not afraid of dying, but I understand, you know, my mother died in my arms. So I don't, And the last word she said to me is God is love. But since having a daughter, it's like you want to live for as long as possible. But previous to having a daughter, I didn't even, I was like, yeah, just whatever. Now, because of my daughter, I want to not do something. It's like, oops.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
She got sick when I was 16 and she died when I was 20. She was a warrior through it and a peaceful warrior. When she died, I felt like my body was like a tree and it was like one big branch of a tree or something and it went like that. It was like an immediate like broken thing. It was like I never want to feel that type of pain again. It was literally like I felt like something broke in half.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And I was so close to my mother. She was my best friend. She was my world. But then what started to happen was I started to... fine. There was like messages, by the way, whenever I did stunts, I'm not even kidding. She would always like, I would get a sign from her and those signs would make me know I was going to be okay. It was when I was buried alive.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
It sounds crazy, but like you just, I think the energy is, is always there. Right. So I was buried alive and I was like, um, It was all cloudy. I was like, mom, can you give me a sign? And right when I said it, I'm not even kidding. It was like the clouds opened and the sun came through. It was like an immediate thing.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
When I was in the box in London, 44 days, day 40, I was having these terrible heart palpitations. Like, I mean, no, but I thought I was going to die or something, right? And I went in my head again, Bob, give me a sign. Like, you know, what should I do? And at that exact moment, you know, I could see the tower bridge over there. And this was day 40. I had to go to day 44.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And there was a bunch of people yelling, you know, from the tower bridge. And I look over, and I'm not even kidding. Right when I said that, they open up this banner that they made, and it just said, God is love.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
processed early on yeah when when did your mother realize that this was a gift and not just a cute kid who could do some tricks i could have done anything and that that was the you know what i mean so it wasn't like oh my son has a good no but it's like like everything i did she was like
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
so it was like, it's like the energy is just there. And she, so, so basically when she wasn't there, she was, she's even more, you know, it's like her presence became so strong.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Yeah.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Yeah.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Yeah, there are signs everywhere if you pay attention to them, if you look for them, if you're open to them. And it's easy to block off from all that stuff, but it's like, yeah, if you open to it, it's everywhere.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
But you seem to have somewhat of a... Well, it's, yeah, I mean, it's more about like being open to it. So if you're open to it, you'll find it because that's what you're looking for, right? But if you're like, nah, then you won't. It's And it's like, I feel like the better approach is to be open to it so you could experience these incredible things, you know?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
No, I mean, just by being open, just like, you know, watching my daughter just grow and, you know, that's the most amazing. And watching who she becomes and you said that. But yeah, when you need those signs, right? If you're open to it, they'll be there. And if you're close to it, you'll never see them because you're like, nah. You know what I kept writing in my journal when I was in the box?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
So it's not like I had any special gift. I didn't, but I had a mother that believed that I had, you know what I mean? So she encouraged it just by being so excited. And so, you know.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Because that's the only thing I really brought was no toothbrush, nothing. But I had a journal and a couple of pens. And I kept writing, everything is perspective. Everything is how you decide to see it. Because people kept saying, are you bored in the box? I'm like, boredom is a choice. Like, you choose to be bored.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Because your mind has so many things it can think about, create, do, wonder, dream, everything. So it's like, so those two things are the things that are all over that journal. Everything is perspective and boredom is a choice. And then there was a lot of numbers and mapping out like the amount of time and graphs.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
But those were two of the very strong, prominent thoughts of what I learned and became very clear to me. During that 44-day fast, it opened me up to so many thoughts. And it was like this clarity that I never get because there's very few distractions. No phone, no this, no that, no food, no distractions really. So suddenly you become hyper-aware.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
It's like a heightened sense of awareness and everything becomes intense and beautiful and beautiful. which is probably what you were doing for the three years.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
It's just a, well, books, books are, that's like a big one, right? Just books, just, you know, I think like books, what books do to the mind is identical to what exercise and does for the body. That's the main problem with the phones is it's really taken away.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Like my ability to just read a book has changed because I'm so distracted by, you know, so it's like, but it's like just being able to like open up your mind and, and, and explore these incredible worlds that we're meticulously done by these brilliant writers that studied psychology and philosophy and that outpouring of just, you know, knowledge.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
So I think books would be the first thing that have, like, that have impacted me the most.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
So many, yeah. Cervantes, and his life story was incredible. Cervantes, he's fascinating. And then Don Quixote is one of the most, I think, one of the most important books written in many ways. His story is incredible because he was the son of a surgeon. He grew up very poor, Cervantes. So he went to fight for his country, and during the Inquisition, I guess-
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
He was maimed on his left side, so he was paralyzed on his left side. He couldn't use his arm, and he was given the equivalent of a Purple Heart. So on his way back, the boat was seized. They took him captive, and he was tortured and beaten for years, right? He wasn't able to really... He couldn't get out.
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David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And his brother finally raised enough money that he was, by the way, from the monastery, his brother raised enough money. When he came out, they gave him a job as a tax collector. And he didn't want to do that. He didn't want to collect taxes because he thought, like, if I'm doing this to a mother of six and she can't afford this, I don't want to do this.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
They ended up putting him in jail for, I think, 12 years. Wow. While he was in prison, he wrote Don Quixote, which is this book about a guy that wants to save the world and make the world a better place. But he finished it when he came out. The book was published and it became like the number one book. book in Europe, but the book publisher, I don't think they ever really paid him.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
So this, this book that became like the Shakespeare even wrote an entire play about one character in the book called Cardenio, which is that character is incredible. But the, when he was basically, when he came out, um, They never gave him his earnings. And he died completely broke.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And the story of Don Quixote is about a guy that wants to make the world a better place, but it's not possible, which is what his mission was. Yeah.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Yeah, but that's a great book.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I mean, it's related to everything, right? Hope for the best and expect the worst is the theme of his book.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Like that ability to... Yeah, that's right. To absorb two different... Yeah, because the brain's not meant to be malleable. So it's like you think one way and it's very hard to unthink that. It's very hard to change the direction of what you accept and what you like. But you're right.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
That sign of intelligence is the ability to grow and learn and scrap previous ideas and change the way you think and continue to break everything that you think you know.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I don't think of it like that, actually. I think everybody has their thing. Like everybody has that thing that they're like, it's the same thing. It's just, it speaks differently. Yeah. And it just speaks differently. Yeah. So I think everybody, like if you look into every single person, there's like, you can find, you know, it's like things that you can't understand or you never...
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I'm not watching her do anything. I'm like mind blown. It's incredible. If she draws something, if she writes something, if she makes something, whatever she does, it's like whoosh.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
and it's like it's amazing to like explore that you know i like that perspective i like that perspective everyone has everyone can feel that way if they want to it's a choice they do yeah like everybody has their thing that's unique to them it might be that and there's so many you know it's like it's like the skill that i respect on my mother being the best mother ever right that
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
But that's like complete surrender, dedication and belief. That's their special source. Yeah, that's their passion. That's what lights their fire.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
It just never came together properly. Like, it just never... The idea was planted in my head, but it never really came to... It never came together properly. But then when I went to Brazil and I met these incredible, you know, high divers, the Karina who had, like, walked over, traversed a volcano. And by the way, she almost died doing that. She was...
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Bleeding through her mouth or no, she couldn't even breathe. But when you look at the images of her walking across a volcano lake, it's whoa. But anyway, so there was a man, Andre, who's this fire genius that just respects and love fires in the same way. Neville does with the black Mambas.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
They helped me put together this, this idea of just, you know, doing something off of a bridge on fire and that, yeah. And that was, it was amazing.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Because you're always thinking like, oh, well, you know, it was bright out. It was a nighttime would have been, you know, so yeah, you're always thinking about like, you know, that's not like the box, which is one I can't ever do again. That's one that's like, that's interesting. So my, the way that this show came to was my concept was if something can be done by one, it can be done by others.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Right. And I think that's part of what happens is like somebody does something and somebody else, or, oh, this guy ran a mile in four minutes. So now I can break it. And then it's almost like a continual, like part that I love is one thing leads to another. You push somebody, the idea opens up, the idea opens up that you can do anything or you can do something you didn't think was possible.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And then it just snowballs and it affects people around. And I think that's what's interesting about the magicians that I love is they create this fantasy land, right? They do these things that seem impossible, but the ones that I like are really doing things that are actually possible, but we think it's not possible. And then it relates to everybody because it's,
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Anybody that wants to do, oh, I want to write a book. They can write a book, right? You just have to believe in, oh, I want to direct a movie. They can direct a movie. I want to be a photographer for National Geographic. They can be a photographer. So it's like, I want to do this. I want to build a rocket. It's unlimited.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
So I think, and that's the thing that I love about the search for people that are doing things that, to me, fascinate.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
feel like it's as close to magic as possible because it defies what we know to be possible it's what i think it's what's amazing about humanity is we just keep improving and we keep learning and yeah and we keep evolving to become better and better and better so so yeah so i think part of the
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
The search for these fascinating people or this love of magic stems from that idea that everybody is basically the same. Like there is nobody that's different than everybody. And you can apply that thinking to anything.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And so I'm inspired by the people that do these things, not just magicians, but the people I've been searching for throughout the world that just push the limits of what we would assume to be possible.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
whoever that is for you were open to it and understood that that's right we all just need to be open to that like who's that person who could just completely or perspective that could completely shift and change your trajectory that's right it's pretty phenomenal i love and it's not and anybody and what's nice about that is then therefore it's like anything can inspire you to do to do anything that you that you want or that you dream of or
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And that's the stuff that, once again, that's what I love about when I studied these incredible performers, these magicians, these vaudevillians, these dime circuses. I would read these things and I'd say, wait, how is this guy a human aquarium? Like, does that make sense? But he couldn't. Houdini wrote about Mac Norton, the human aquarium.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
But I'm like, but wait, he couldn't have fooled Houdini because Houdini is a magician. He's looking for the trick. And if Houdini's saying the guy's really doing it, it has to be real. So that was like the planting of the seed, right? And just all these fascinating characters throughout the history of magic.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And there's like these surreal images of these posters that these magicians created that when you look at them, it's like this... It's like this fantastical, mystical, magical world. So it's like, and that's what I think great books do is they open up your mind. They open up your thinking to this, like to this, to this, it's like not just beauty. It's, it's, it's your imagination.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
It's your creations. It's your visualization. And then it's like converting that into through repetition, failure, practice, repeat, repetition.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
into whatever you and and by the way you shoot for this and then it may end up here but that you've shot for and so you know and it's a constant you know which is part of the thing that i love about all of these types of feelings or or people or or inspirations like you found your your monk who led you into this whole your brain changed you opened the door right
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And that's why we'll all never be done.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I remember the good energy. That was something that changed everything about the way I think, that one. Messed up my metabolism, which is hence the side effects of it. But... It was absolutely one of the most beautiful, compelling experiences. Aside from that it was a stunt and I did do it publicly.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I mean, I like always surround yourself with people that will inspire you and help you grow. That was a good one.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Don't go for your dream. You're not going to succeed. Don't even bother. Worst advice.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
If you listen to the people that are going to, no, you cannot. You have to go for it. You have to at least try. By the way, you may fail. But if you keep failing, eventually you're probably going to do something. You'll get some version of what you want to do.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
That you can find magic everywhere. You know, the connections between... There's like the way I feel with my daughter, finding that connection, that surrender, that love is... That's the most beautiful thing that I...
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
have ever experienced and then one more thing i guess it goes to the first thing which is just to try to always experience that feeling of wonder like always be amazed allow yourself to be amazed you know allow yourself to to yeah what we were talking about allow yourself to see the blue in the sky you know yeah yeah i love allow i love that saying allow yourself to be amazed because i
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
It means love is God, God is love. Like the feeling of love, the surrender, that is everything. That is what life is about. That's what life is.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Yeah. giving into that feeling which we're all very guarded you know i'm super guarded and like you said as a magician i'm super skeptical but at the same time i still do believe there's so much that we don't know that we don't understand and we're all connected to this one we're we're all part of this one connection we're all connected we're all made of the same molecules and atoms and material.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
So I think we're, everything is connected and everything is one. And I don't think there's a beginning or an end and energy isn't either created nor destroyed. So it's always, so that whole, uh, fifth and final question.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Wow. So one law, a law.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Yeah. So then it should be the law of love.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Yeah. I mean, like just that surrender that like, uh, because that's, there's no ego in that. There's no.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
But it's so hard to, you know, it's like, we're so locked in all this stuff, but yeah, giving up just like surrender. Yeah.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
When I'm with my daughters. It's like that's like everything disappears.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
So I feel like if I didn't do this publicly, I could have never committed to doing that type of a fast. And I was obsessed with fasting because every time I would fast... You become aware of everything around you that you normally ignore. Because we spend so much time thinking about, oh, what am I going to have for breakfast? What am I going to have for lunch? Who am I going to see?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
What are we going to do for dinner? And your day is consumed by the... But as soon as you remove all of that, suddenly you have all this...
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David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
brain activity and it's incredible that's one of the the best things for me about fasting is that and every stunt that I'd done was up to that point was I fasted just so I wouldn't have to use a toilet right so for me the fasting was one of the things that I was most excited about so I decided to make it into a stunt 44 days and I knew that the only way that I would actually do it
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
is if I publicly committed to it. But so even though it was difficult and I was suffering, it was one of the most beautiful experiences. The people I connected with, it was like I would get emotional just by looking at somebody. And I could never do something like that again. So I think I was on the edge of irreversible, organ failure or something.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I think I did go on the threshold, but it's funny because I studied, I studied monks. I studied yogis. I studied all of these, the hunger strikers. I read, you know, Bobby Sands. I read all of the books about the people that push themselves to the edge. And some were doing it as a protest. Some were doing it for enlightenment, but all the Things that I read about it were kind of similar.
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David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
It's like there are certain beats. There are certain things that happen. In a few days, you lose your hunger. But it has to be pure water. It has to be nothing but water. If you have other things, you keep your metabolism going. And I don't recommend it, obviously, because I do have effects that haven't recovered since. And that was, what, 2003. So it was 22 years ago.
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David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
But there's like around 28 days, it says... that you suddenly have this pear taste in your mouth. And around day 28, I started to think that they were putting sugar in my water. So I would pour the water out to people walking by. And I would say, could you check? Could you tell? Because I didn't trust my team. I thought they were involved in keeping me alive. So I was like, is that sweet?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And they go, no, it's just water.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
It happens during starvation. And then the other thing, you lose the hunger first. Around a month, you get that pear taste. But then around like day 39, I started to have really strange heart palpitations. Wow. And you start to feel like you're eating your body. That's where it starts to become, you start to become aware of that pain.
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David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
But through that pain, you find this other thing that's like the most beautiful experience that I've ever felt. So it's amazing that you were there for that.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Well, I started fasting, actually. I read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse when I was young. I think like 11, 12, 13, around that time. And his character fasts, waits, and learns how to take control over his mind and body. And I was fascinated with that principle. And then I would just try to test myself with simple things, you know, enduring the cold, holding my breath, things like that.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
But I think it started earlier and then I connected to it with that. And then fasting was, I wanted to bury myself alive. That was a pivotal part that made the stunt easy to do, actually. Because if you have no food, it makes everything easier. You sleep easier.
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David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Once you ignore the hunger, once you lose that, then your ability to focus, I guess you switch into a different survival mode or something.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I knew I was going to do some damage. So I was prepared for that. I knew that when you push your body to that extreme, it's going to take a toll. But there's a lot of things I do that I know they're going to take a toll and I kind of balance out the risk of it.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Now I'm different because I have a daughter, right? So now I'm more careful about the risk. But I was obsessed with the idea of staying awake for, I think, the world record was 11 days. So I was thinking, if you go, I think it's like 11.56 or 5 seconds. But that would be a million seconds. I got obsessed with this idea. And I started messing around with it.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
I met with Dr. Dement, who's like the number one sleep expert at the time up at Stanford. He was there when the record was done at 11 days. And I thought I could pull it off, and I started testing it. The tests were very difficult.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And then as I started to really research it and speak to people and look into it, it seemed like there is something that you could do to your mind where you don't recover. So you could tweak your brain and have it not recover. So I, yeah, so that's not worth it. Losing your sight isn't worth it. So when I was in India and I was at the URSS festival and the Sufi... The video you just showed me.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Yeah. When they pull their eyes out, it's very, very hard to watch. But I called my dear friend, who's a great optometrist, and I just said, how does this make sense? He said, it could be done, but you may degenerate your vision. So I said, OK, I'm not going to mess around with that. So there is like, can I pull this off or am I going to do permanent damage?
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David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
And it's studying the past and finding experts and finding people that have done things and then making a decision. Or I guess it's more like a feeling. And then the other thing that I like to do is I use like numeric, like I use numbers. So I'll do a test where I test something to like... you know, let me get to the halfway point.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
If I could do the halfway point, then I can estimate how much more can I tolerate. So that's kind of like, if I'm in a fast for 44 days, I'll do something like a 22 day fast just to, just to understand if I can do it, you know?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)
Numbers play a key factor.