Original subtitles

The ability to survive freezing temperatures

through sheer force of will.

Ancient traditions

that protect the body from pain.

And extraordinary adventurers

who risk their lives to defy the limits.

How are certain individuals able to perform

incredible physical feats of strength, speed, or stamina

that most of us could never dream of doing?

Is it simply a combination of natural talent and training?

Or do some people tap into mysterious forces

when they achieve things that seem almost

superhuman?

Well, that is what we'll try and find out.

Central Iceland.

Here, not far from a massive glacier

where temperatures average just above freezing,

a man has decided to sit outside in the cold

for over an hour,

wearing only a pair of shorts.

His name is Wim Hof.

And although most people would die

if they attempted such a feat, he finds it quite relaxing.

Wim has made a great impression on the world

because of his extraordinary ability

to withstand freezing temperatures.

His exploits have earned him the nickname "The Iceman."

The most challenging

aspect of going into the cold

is your fear.

Control your fear

and let the body do what the body is capable of.

All the doctors said, "You are the Iceman.

"You are a freak of nature.

"You are an abnormality.

You are a superhuman."

But I'm as human as any person,

only I am challenging my body and mind

in nature.

Wim has performed a number of feats that, on the surface,

seem impossible,

such as climbing Mount Everest

wearing nothing but shorts and shoes,

and spending nearly two hours fully immersed in an ice bath.

But what motivated Wim to learn how to brave the cold,

in the first place?

As a young kid,

I was very interested in anything that was strange...

and stories and deeds of people

going into the unknown, so-called.

And when I was 17, I began to go in freezing temperatures.

And there I found a deep connection

with my body, with my god, with a depth.

And that is now 45 years ago.

And since then,

I have never skipped a day going into the cold.

In these ungodly, below-freezing temperatures,

your average person can freeze to death

in less than 30 minutes.

It's not an environment that's suitable for humans.

So with Wim Hof, his ability to withstand cold

is really extraordinary.

It just makes absolutely no sense.

For an ordinary person,

attempting these feats would result in almost certain death.

And yet Wim Hof doesn't just survive

in frigid temperatures, he seems to thrive in them.

But how?

Well, according to Wim Hof,

this ability doesn't come from his body

but rather from his mind.

If we follow the breath...

then the mind begins to cease.

I learned how to tap into my brain,

to have a much greater control

than doctors thought was possible.

When I go in a brain scan or in a fMRI,

and they put cold water upon my skin

with a skin temperature

measurement device,

I'm able to raise...

my skin temperature so much that the cold water

is making my skin temperature not going down.

That means that through the psychology,

I caused something physiologically.

Wim Hof's work is being

widely studied right now in academic settings...

and what's being found is that

he can get into a kind of transpersonal mental state

where the body is freed from perceived limitations,

making him more resilient

and capable of acts of greater stamina.

We're coming to a whole new realization

of the powers of the mind over the body.

Could Wim Hof's mind be able to regulate

his body's ability to withstand freezing temperatures?

Many experts believe it's possible.

And as evidence, they point to

an ancient Tibetan breathing technique known as "tummo,"

which, if done properly,

can raise a person's body temperature.

Tummo was first

described in the 11th century

and what it translates to is "inner fire."

And the practice is meditation guided breathing

where they literally imagine

that their spine is on fire and they can feel this flame

going from their deep inside

all the way to the top of their head.

And it's believed

that they can raise their core body temperature

and feel that heat

by practicing this meditation and breathing strategy.

Tummo gave them control

to be able to withstand elements and inner control

amidst this external chaos.

Through this meditative practice,

you're literally able to heat up your body

so you can withstand cold temperatures.

Harvard scientists were able to document Tibetan monks

doing their tummo meditation.

So here they are, stripped naked to the waist,

with sheets over them

in a very, very cold room

and the body heat that they're able to generate

literally makes steam come off the sheets.

It's as if they're covered in a hot, wet blanket,

but they're doing it internally.

It's a technique developed about a thousand years ago

among Tibetan monks in the Himalayas,

but it's a technique that anyone can use.

Anyone can be taught how to do this.

If tummo can unlock the mind's capacity

to control body temperature,

then it naturally begs the question,

what other incredible abilities do our minds possess?

Well, in the case of Wim Hof,

it appears that he has taken his mental powers

to the next level in order to actually heal his body.

15 years ago, Wim ran a half marathon barefoot in the snow.

After the half marathon,

one of the medics, um, examined his foot and said,

"Hey, this is, this is pretty bad."

And said, "He has irreparable damage:

third-degree frostbite."

And Wim just was so mad.

He just felt like he could do something to heal it.

So Wim was able to start healing his frostbitten foot

by doing his normal breathing exercises

that he had been doing for years

and focusing and visualizing his foot being healed.

And over a month and a half...

it did get better.

The skin healed completely.

The "irreparable damage,"

that he was not supposed to come back from, was gone.

Is it really possible

that Wim Hof is simply using his mind

to perform these superhuman feats?

While that idea may sound far-fetched,

Wim is just the latest in a long line of people

possessing such remarkable abilities.

The concepts that Wim Hof is using

go back to ancient yogic

practices within Vedic or Hindu tradition...

that are sometimes called siddhis.

For example, in yogic literature,

you will find records of

different yogis or meditators

who are able to lift enormous weights...

or go for extraordinary periods of time

without food, without water,

without breathing.

There are some yogic traditions

in which people are able to pierce the body

or lay on beds of nails

or walk across coals without experiencing pain

or without being disabled by injury.

Could the ability to suppress pain

or even to heal our bodies

be connected to our thoughts?

It's an exciting notion.

And it also makes you wonder

is it possible for anyone to unlock such powers?

I don't think everything Wim does

can be explained by science...

yet.

But he is superhuman,

in a way that he challenges us to

find that part in us, too.

We have a much more possible control

over our mind and body

than meets the eye.

We can learn to raise our capacity to endure

pain and to tackle biological stress.

And that is there for anybody.

Through your mind, you are able to go

further than you have ever been before.

So, if we all just figured out

how to unlock the power of our minds,

would there be no limit to what our bodies could do?

Well, what if I told you there are people out there

who can push themselves to run hundreds of miles

without stopping?

In this small town, in the heart of Marin County,

lives world-renowned ultramarathoner Dean Karnazes.

And by all accounts,

he was born to run.

My earliest childhood recollections

are running home from school when I was in kindergarten.

Uh, literally, I remember sitting in the classroom

just waiting for the bell to ring.

And as soon as that jingle went off,

I was out of there.

I felt like, when I was running,

I felt most alive, like, most complete.

It's hard to describe, but I just remember the way

the air used to feel on my skin

and the leaves changing color.

I just started relating to the world through running.

Dean's somewhat of an icon in the running community

in the sense that he can do things other people can't.

Dean's definitely a superman

in terms of being able to run long distances

repetitive days, back-to-back.

Among Dean's many

record-breaking running achievements

are completing 50 marathons in 50 consecutive days,

running 135 miles across Death Valley...

One of the hottest regions on Earth...

And accomplishing a 75-day, 3,000-mile run

across the entire United States.

But perhaps his most incredible achievement

occurred on October 12, 2005...

when Dean ran 350 miles without stopping.

I think I decided to run 350 miles nonstop out of curiosity.

I want wanted to see

how far I could push my body and my mind.

And I completed it.

It took me 80 hours and 44 minutes of continuous running.

Three days straight without stopping to eat or sleep.

Dean's feats are astounding,

and he's arguably the greatest athlete in the history

of what is called ultrarunning.

Ultrarunning is any distance running

that goes further than the marathon.

So it could be anything from 30 miles

all the way up to races

that are hundreds or even thousands of miles.

The six-day race was the precursor

to modern ultramarathon running.

It originated in the 1700s in England.

These athletes tried to cover

as much distance as they possibly could in six days.

So they would sleep as little as possible,

often only getting an hour or two of sleep during each day,

to try and cover as much distance as possible.

Early on, these athletes would run 400 and 500 miles.

But in 1888 George Littlewood set a new record

for the six-day challenge, covering 623 miles.

So that's over 100 miles a day of running or walking.

That was so good

that that record almost stood 100 years,

until Yiannis Kouros,

a Greek runner who was one of the best

ultrarunners in history, finally broke it.

So that gives you an indication of how good these athletes are.

But it's not just athletes

who choose to run such mind-boggling distances.

In fact, there's an entire community

that runs just as far as ultramarathoners do...

and they've been doing it for thousands of years.

Here in this harsh region of 10,000 foot plateaus,

far from modern civilization,

live a group of people known as the Rarámuri.

Descended from a prehistoric society

of foragers and hunters,

the Rarámuri still live in relatively primitive conditions.

But incredibly, they possess a unique ability to run

for hundreds of miles in a single day.

The name Rarámuri seems to be derived from

meaning "those who run fast."

So, not surprisingly, the Rarámuri are known

as exceptional long-distance runners,

far in excess of what most people think

people should be able to do.

They have running competitions and running rituals

that would put a lot of other long-distance runners to shame.

They don't have the modern accoutrements

or modern sneakers.

They tend to run in either sandals

or barefoot.

And they do this as a big part of their culture.

Since the dawn of mankind,

our ability to run for a long period of time

has given humans a great advantage...

especially when it came to hunting and searching for food.

Humans are one of the best long-distance runners

in the entire animal kingdom.

We could actually run down things like deer and antelope.

We're not as fast in the short run,

but in terms of long-distance running,

a human being could, theoretically,

run down just about any animal on Earth.

In ancient times,

running was not only used as a means of stalking prey.

It was also a method of long-range communication.

Running served a vital purpose for the Ancient Greeks.

They served as couriers or messengers.

They were essentially the ancient mail system

for the Greeks,

and it was vital for military strategy in particular.

In antiquity, the best way to convey messages,

especially matters of war,

matters of religion, and so forth,

was to send a "hemerodromos."

So that's the Greek word for a day runner.

It was a special class

of people specifically trained for this and specifically

equipped physiologically

not only to deliver a message in a timely fashion,

but to do it

over very rugged terrain,

over several hundred miles.

So, in that regard,

the extent to which the hemerodromos can perform

these amazing feats would suggest

that it requires a kind of superhuman ability.

In the case of Dean Karnazes,

his superhuman running ability

may be due to the fact that he is actually of Greek descent.

I think my ability to run long distances

is influenced, definitely, by my Greek heritage.

I'm 100% Greek

and Greece is the birthplace of long-distance running,

and I've known that for a long time.

I think I have the natural ability

to run long distances from my heritage.

But having the will to do it is another thing.

And I think I just have the will to do it.

Is the ability to run for days on end actually hereditary?

Well, even if that's true,

it doesn't explain another superhuman ability:

the ability to swim hundreds of feet underwater

without taking a single breath.

Lying within the coastal mountains

of this frigid landscape

is Lake Qorlortoq.

Covered beneath a million tons of ice,

its crystal blue waters hover at a hypothermia-inducing

33 degrees Fahrenheit.

One degree above freezing.

Wearing only a pair of swim trunks,

four-time world champion free diver Stig Severinsen

plunges into the icy water

in an attempt to set a new record

for the longest swim under ice.

Without an oxygen tank and unable to surface,

he risks unconsciousness and death

as he swims 250 feet underwater,

or nearly the length of a football field.

When most people

jump in ice-cold water...

they start gasping and they panic.

Within minutes,

you become icy cold to the core,

and your body can simply shut down.

I understand that people think it's crazy or wild

or stupid, even.

You know? Unbelievable.

But I love to challenge science.

I love to challenge the human physiology.

Human potential.

- That is great. - Wow.

Stig's swim beneath the ice

wasn't the first time he went to extremes.

In May of 2012, he also held his breath

for an astonishing 22 minutes.

But what would compel someone to push themselves to the limit,

risking death just to pull off a stunt?

Some of us

seem to be hardwired to push the limits.

Some of us seem to crave

excitement, intensity, euphoria.

There seem to be a certain fraction of people

in need of physical activities

or other kinds of activities that push the limits of

safety or human possibility or perseverance.

Now, it's a question as to whether

these people are seeking euphoria

or whether they're seeking some greater,

more visceral connection with themselves.

Humans have this drive and this need to seek novelty,

to see what's on the other side of the unknown.

And it's something that is incredibly dangerous,

but also makes us able to do insanely difficult things.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries,

a new breed of thrill seekers popularized

the public display of pushing the limits of human ability,

risking life and limb to perform death-defying feats

in pursuit of fame and fortune.

And the first of these daredevils

was a man named Sam Patch.

Sam Patch was the Evil Knievel

of the early 19th century.

They called him "the Jersey Jumper,"

"the Yankee Leaper."

He liked to jump off things.

Famously, they had a platform erected in Niagara Falls

so that he could jump into the water,

but from a really high level: 75 or 100 feet.

Unfortunately, it's risky business,

and in 1829, on Friday the 13th,

he either slipped or fell awkwardly

and didn't go in feet first as he normally did.

The audience of several thousand heard a splat,

and he was never seen from again.

But Sam Patch's tragic demise

did not deter other would-be daredevils.

Over the next century, countless more

followed in his footsteps,

increasing the danger with every attempt.

Including one who went to the next level

by taking to the skies.

Clem Sohn was an aerialist,

one of the first, maybe the first to build for himself

a kind of gliding suit.

He would jump out of airplanes

with the wings attached and a kind of tail structure.

One of his nicknames was "the Birdman."

He would glide for thousands of feet

and then eventually pull the ripcord

and parachute to safety,

and he did this on both sides of the Atlantic.

Unfortunately, outside of Paris in 1937,

in front of a crowd of as many as 100,000 people...

he glided through the air,

and then his first chute failed to open...

and then the second one, and he plunged to his death.

The practice of performing

thrill-seeking feats is alive and well today,

even if not all daredevils survive their attempts

to push the limits.

But why do so many human beings

feel the need to pursue incredible feats,

even if it means risking our lives?

Pushing boundaries and pushing limits

is part of our human nature.

You would think that would be counterintuitive.

Seeking pain seems like not the brightest thing to do

because we're going against our survival.

If you look at any animal in the animal kingdom,

none of them really do things that go against

survival instincts.

They just want to survive.

Human beings, on the other hand...

we will seek out things that put us

at immense risk and not for any external reward,

but really for the internal reward of doing it.

Seeking something difficult, something hard,

often makes people feel alive.

Is it possible that by risking death,

people can unlock the ability to perform superhuman feats?

Well, there's a famous story from American folklore

which suggests that might be true.

It's the tale of someone who defied the odds

in a competition that pitted man

against machine.

For centuries, mankind

has told stories about people

who have the ability to perform feats

that require extraordinary physical strength.

But why are we so fascinated

by these superhuman characters?

We love stories

about humans that push the boundaries of exceptionalism.

And history is full of this kind of folk hero...

who is stronger than any other human.

We have characters like Hercules who are half god.

That's the source of his strength.

There's someone like Samson, from the Bible,

whose hair gives him strength

beyond what a normal human might have.

And nowadays, we have superheroes:

Batman, Spiderman, characters who similarly are human,

but a little bit better than other humans.

All these stories

let us talk about the possibilities

of human endurance and human capability.

How far can we push ourselves?

How much faster and stronger can we be?

Here, at the foot of the Allegheny Mountains,

lies a decommissioned railroad tunnel

known as the Great Bend Tunnel.

According to folklore,

this was the site of a famous legend

from the 1870s

about a superhuman railroad worker

named John Henry.

The legend is that John Henry was six-six, 280 pounds,

muscular, solid, glistening.

You could see him half a mile away.

The legend has it that he was born in enslavement,

and he had all these goals for his family

coming out of enslavement.

And he says, "I want a good job.

I want to provide for my family."

And he saw the C&O railroad laying track

and John Henry shows up and says, "I'm your guy."

The fable has it that any man who signed up to work

would get 50 acres of land if they completed the railroad.

And sometimes this railroad

had to be completed through a mountain.

And so John Henry not simply laid rail, the railroad track,

but he had to drive a stake into the rock,

which creates enough space to then load dynamite.

John Henry was the best steel driver,

and then here comes a man with a steam drill.

The legend speaks of this race taking place

between John Henry and the machine.

As the story goes,

there was a competition between John Henry

and the machine to see which of them

could drill farthest into the side of the mountain

in a single day.

During the contest,

the strength of John Henry was reportedly so powerful,

that the blows from his twin sledgehammers

shook the mountain itself.

The story is that

the steam drill only went nine feet.

John Henry went 14.

And so John Henry is superhuman

and more supreme than the machine.

John Henry

beats the machine in this competition.

But he passes away:

he dies of a heart attack.

He dies from overexertion.

And what we have here

is John Henry begins to symbolize

this overpowering physique of a muscleman

and the ability to achieve

in the face of extreme odds.

The legend of John Henry represents this Black man,

this hero who did superhuman feats,

from the 19th century.

It overshadows the harshness of the Reconstruction period,

but it also shows us how

Black men who were able-bodied,

who had that spirit of

willing to do anything they needed to do

to provide for their families.

Most of us know about John Henry from a literary work.

Like so many folk heroes

from the same time period in American history,

Paul Bunyan, Joe Magarac, Pecos Bill,

they are all compatriots of John Henry in this

larger-than-life, super capable

American folk hero model.

And what they capture is the spirit of industry

that our nation so badly wanted to embody

and project to the rest of the world

at this point in history.

The legend of John Henry's battle against the steam drill

was first immortalized in an African American folk ballad,

and since then, the inspirational story

has also been celebrated numerous times

in magazines, plays, and books.

Another superhuman feat of John Henry

is that he was able to inspire so many.

And so whether it's inspiring

in terms of actually working on the railroad

or other industries, John Henry was a beacon of that.

Also, in terms of him losing his life,

that's a sacrifice

that those who came after him could appreciate,

as they strive to be as good as John Henry.

There also is an overlap,

certainly, with John Henry and superheroes.

In the early 1990s, Superman passed away,

and that set up a situation

for the comic book version of John Henry

to come in and save the day...

as the character of Steel

in order to save the citizens of Metropolis.

He builds a suit, encased in steel,

and carries, of all things... Would you believe it?

A sledgehammer.

And that speaks to kind of, like,

the reinterpretation of John Henry

within the framework of the superhero afro-futuristic

sci-fi version.

The idea that John Henry is a superhero,

standing firmly in that space of post-enslavement

and Reconstruction, is really phenomenal.

The legend of John Henry proves that human strength

is inherent in all of us.

Was John Henry's victory over the steam drill just a myth,

or did it actually happen?

Either way, the story suggests that people can perform

incredible feats when placed in dire circumstances.

Like in the case of two teenage girls

who saved their father from certain death

with a sudden burst of superhuman strength.

While clearing the grounds of his property,

Jeff Smith loops a chain around a tree stump...

and attaches the other end to his tractor.

But when he throws

the 3,000-pound vehicle into reverse, disaster strikes.

My boots were fairly muddy,

and my foot slipped off the clutch.

And the whole tractor just tipped flat back over on me.

Ah!

The steering wheel ended up burying into my chest

right about where my heart is,

and pinned me in between the tractor and the ground.

Pinned beneath 3,000 pounds of steel,

Jeff screams out in agony.

His anguished cries draw the attention

of his teenage daughters, Hannah and Haylee.

But with the nearest town 20 minutes away, there's no time

to wait for help to arrive.

While my dad was under the tractor, he was...

He couldn't breathe,

his oxygen was really low.

He kept going in and out of consciousness.

He was pale, his lips were kind of blue.

Me and my sister knew at that point

that we were the only ones

and the only chance that my dad had.

I was just like

so frozen and just so shocked.

And I go and I look at my dad.

He's just like, could not talk,

and his blood vessels in his eyes,

you could see them popping one by one.

And it was just horrible. I had no idea what to do.

So my sister says...

"Come help me lift it."

As their father gasps for breath,

the two sisters frantically grab the front

of the massive tractor,

set their heels into the ground,

and lift.

When we tried to lift it,

it did not move.

I was just done, and Hannah was just screaming,

"We have to do it again, we have to do it again."

And I just remember putting my hands up,

and I was just like,

"How?"

And she just said, "Count." And so we counted.

And I just remember thinking, like, "God, help me.

Give me the strength to do this."

And she said, "One, two, three" and we lifted it.

Together, the two teenage girls

managed to hoist the tractor one foot off the ground...

allowing their father enough room to wiggle out and escape.

My girls lifted a 3,000-pound tractor off me

and saved my life.

So, I mean, if my girls had not have

shown that kind of mysterious strength

of being able to lift that off my chest...

I don't think I would have lasted another five minutes.

What boggles my mind to this day,

which is almost ten years later, is that...

they were able to do it.

It's just, to be able to lift that much weight and...

and save my life is...

incredible.

It's insane to think that that was even a possibility.

How did two teenagers...

Each weighing no more than 125 pounds...

Find the strength to lift a massive tractor?

Scientists believe the source of their

superhuman strength may have actually been

a surge of adrenaline.

There's many stories that you hear about

of people doing superhuman feats of strength...

and this usually is driven by adrenaline.

Adrenaline is that hormone

that can tap into resources of strength that you might have

when you need it in that split second

to drive your whole body

to push to the limits

and do whatever is necessary.

You see it in battle.

You hear about it in an emergency.

Adrenaline can make the body do amazing things.

Scientists have been studying

the remarkable effects of adrenaline

since it was first discovered in 1901.

Jokichi Takamine was a Japanese chemist

who spent most of his career in the United States,

and he's the first person to identify,

purify, and eventually trademark adrenaline.

And he was able to isolate the naturally occurring hormone

adrenaline in sheep and oxen

and to withdraw it and to purify it.

Jokichi Takamine described

the whole idea of the adrenaline rush

as a harnessing of reservoirs

of power and a violent sort of

explosion of energy that occurs in people

who are in crisis situations.

Did a rush of adrenaline allow Hannah and Haylee Smith

to lift a 3,000-pound tractor?

It's a fascinating possibility,

and suggests that we all have untapped strength

that can be unlocked at a moment's notice.

I feel like that their love

granted them enough power to be able to do what they had to do.

But when it comes down to it,

I think everybody's got a little bit of

that kind of superhuman ability in them.

It's just a matter of tapping into it

and finding the right situation where it drives them to do it.

The idea that a shot of adrenaline

can give an ordinary person the ability to perform

remarkable feats is fascinating.

Believe it or not, there are scientists who are currently

trying to harness other kinds of natural powers

to turn us all into

superhumans.

At the University of Connecticut's

Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences,

there is a lab that is home to

dozens of genetically altered mice.

While these rodents might appear quite ordinary,

their DNA has actually been modified

to make them 30% stronger than normal mice.

Researchers have found ways to increase muscle mass,

muscle tissue

in ordinary mice to demonstrate

extraordinary endurance.

It's a kind of Mighty Mouse effect.

And so the question becomes whether this can be translated

to the human form.

The possibility that DNA manipulation

might enable people to enjoy heightened strength and stamina

is intriguing.

And in fact, humans have been searching for ways

to enhance our natural abilities

for thousands of years.

If you go back to the ancient Greeks,

the original Olympics,

there are historical records of them

working with wine potions

and various herbs

to give themselves performance enhancement.

And then, in terms of

modern use of performance-enhancing drugs,

it's the Cold War.

The Soviet Union had

a massive drug doping program

as part of its sports programs

in efforts to defeat the West in every level,

militarily as well as in sport.

So the urge to do that, to outcompete

everyone else on the playing field

has been with us for, uh, forever.

Since the early 1980s, the military has been interested

in researching the creation of super soldiers...

using exoskeletons

or robotic assists to limbs,

or using magnetic waves

to help people overcome the problems

of fatigue associated with sleep deprivation,

or increasing strength, increasing sight,

increasing the ability to see around corners,

see in the dark, see behind you,

to allow them to perform

incredible feats that are otherwise impossible.

Our desire always to improve ourselves

is at the source of so much of what we do.

At a very elementary level,

human beings want to distinguish themselves.

We want to do what others haven't done.

We're always restless, questing for something else,

pursuing something else,

and it's somewhat of a perverse need.

Will technology push human performance

beyond its natural limits?

Many scientists believe it's possible.

But the truth is that human beings already possess

extraordinary capabilities

that we are only beginning to understand.

I think,

in some cases,

people don't know that they have

these talents and capacities...

until they're put in the right situation

where they have to call on them.

And as we start understanding more about the science of genes,

we'll realize that there may be talents

and potentials that we can unlock

that we didn't otherwise know about.

Just when we think we know the limits of our mental

and physical capabilities,

another extraordinary person

comes along and performs

a superhuman feat that breaks the boundaries

of what is possible.

So, perhaps in the future,

mankind will unlock even more incredible abilities

that, for now, remain...

unexplained.

>>>>oakislandtk www.opensubtitles.org