It started out of curiosity while in my meditation conscious living mood about a year ago, but ended up something I exercise daily since it just feels good to me.

Most notably I noticed that my legs where no more chilly or sweaty with no reason and that my hands are not as cold all the time they where before. As for breathing I noticed that I am much more relaxed on the days I do it then I don't but can't attest to weather this is just some placebo effect or not.

And I notice that I feel much less fly like effects than previous years or if they appear they last no longer than half a day.

From the article:

ii) During the training, subjects voluntarily exposed themselves to cold in several ways: standing in the snow barefoot for up to 30 min and lying bare chested in the snow for 20 min; daily dipping/swimming in ice-cold water (0–1 °C) for up to several minutes (including complete submersions); and hiking up a snowy mountain (elevation: 1,590 m) bare chested, wearing nothing but shorts and shoes at temperatures ranging from −5 to −12 °C (wind chill: −12 to −27 °C).

Not exactly an awesome super power, but I have found that it's helpful for cooling the body when I'm excessively hot during particularly strenuous yoga asana practice (back when practicing around other people in hot rooms was a thing).

Note: In meditation practice piloerection is part of what is generally referred to as pīti.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaMjhwFE1Zw

While participants replaced the cold exposure element with a cold shower after they went home from the training, the techniques still took 2-3 hours per day. Also on the day of the data collection, they performed the techniques right before being exposed to E coli, so they had "advance warning" as it were.

Still very cool to see the immune system changes observed, since that's rare, but definitely requires a commitment to produce it in its current format.

Yoga's actual name is ashtanga yoga which means it has eight limbs[1]. Contrary to popular belief Yoga is not about just twisting your body into weird poses. That aspect is called ASANA and what Wim Hof claims as his discovery is called pranayama which is a fully developed science of breath control practices by Sadhus and monks for centuries.

YAMA – Moral disciplines

NIYAMA – Positive duties

ASANA – Posture

PRANAYAMA – Breathing techniques

PRATYAHARA – Control over senses

DHARANA – Focused concentration

DHYANA – Meditative absorption

SAMADHI – Enlightenment

I think there is strong bias going on here in the comments. Two of the comments mentioning yogic origins of this practice are dead. So I present 2 videos as an example. First video[2] was captured by Indian soldier in -45 degree temperatures of himalayan border. Second video[3] captures another sadhu who lives naked under snow without any protective gears

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtanga_(eight_limbs_of_yoga)

[1] https://youtu.be/8Xbi4Qrf9mE

[2] https://youtu.be/FcUdEkPa-2c

EDIT: Second video added.

EDIT 2: Major edit explaining yogic origins of this practice.

> In the intervention group, practicing the learned techniques resulted in intermittent respiratory alkalosis and hypoxia resulting in profoundly increased plasma epinephrine levels. In the intervention group, plasma levels of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 increased more rapidly after endotoxin administration, correlated strongly with preceding epinephrine levels, and were higher. Levels of proinflammatory mediators TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-8 were lower in the intervention group and correlated negatively with IL-10 levels. Finally, flu-like symptoms were lower in the intervention group.

Sounds like the research is promoting third eye meditation rather than measuring the contribution of each specific technique. Hyperventilation followed by breath holding is what free divers do. Immersion in ice cold water is extremely unpleasant and non-trivial for most people to do regularly. I wonder how the degree of inflammatory response using this technique compares to typical activities like strenuous exercise.

That's something to consider.

Furthermore we can apply `Why?` to the widely accepted belief in the axiom that our identity begins and ends at the thin layer of air that separates our flesh from the "outside" world. We can see that there is no reason for this belief other than that we have been caught up in the memeplex that we are separate individuals for so long.

What are the repercussions of that? Does that imply, for instance, bending spoons with our mind could be a thing? I mean, if our identity extends beyond this flesh and can be aligned with the will of the universe, then maybe that's a thing. Maybe that's a thought we can entertain.

It's becoming apparent that our consciousness can extend further than we previously believed. We can manipulate systems of our own bodies with our will that we previously thought were 100% in control of us.

When presented with a consensus belief in our limits of awareness and willpower, Wim Hof asks `Why?`, and is able to extend his control further.

I'm excited to see how far we will push our abilities as portals for the universe to see itself through.

It would be nice to know if the changes primarily stemmed from one of the interventions they explored. Could I achieve the same results with one of the three methods for example?

> These results could have important implications for the treatment of conditions associated with excessive or persistent inflammation, such as autoimmune diseases.

Because there are a lot of confounds in making causal inferences. I hope they will they do a larger N study..

Learning from the original source is always better and will yield way more benefits including 'psychic' abilities if you're that way inclined http://www.yogebooks.com/english/atkinson/1903sciencebreath....

I am on and off a long-term meditator (for about a year I was meditating as much as 2 hours a day). Some people don't achieve deeper states of calm and contentedness, in spite of meditating often (I've encountered this among serious practitioners of zen, for example; this happens to me sometimes, too) and I strongly suspect that lowering HRV would help.

Needless to say, Apple Watch Series 6 doesn't seem to have this feature and I assume that the accuracy was an issue as off the shelf pulse-oximeters which claim to measure both SpO2 and breath rate do a bad job at the latter.

[1]https://needgap.com/problems/155-make-me-breathe-properly-he...

I'd suggest to check out Anuloma-Viloma, Kapalbhati, and Bhastrika. All amazing Pranayama methods and breathing exercises.

Anuloma-Viloma is very easy and very powerful, helps reducing anxiety and stress levels.

...But I have retained the piloerection ability, which I can do on command within 2-5 seconds or so. There's also some weird sensations in my sinuses I can trigger... it feels like the tissues contracting or something, not sure what it actually is, but that's what it feels like. ...And I regularly cry now at sad things, like movies and stories and the like. I used to never cry. Not like I was holding it in, but like, it just didn't happen.

How quickly can you trigger it?

I've experienced something similar but it takes long time to arrive, at least 5-10 minutes, I wonder if with practice you found exactly the state that triggers it and you can do it instantly.

Also, have you felt it as in waves going up and down? or just located in same place ?

And lastly, does it have any health utility?

Feels odd but LSD is a good tool for this stuff.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-micturition_convulsion_sy...

One thing that compelled me to look into it was how little he seems to want money for his efforts. I mean, he makes money off of his name, but the iOS app for example is well made, helpful, and costs something like $2 CAD for advanced features. Admittedly the features are not exceptionally advanced, but I was expecting a higher price tag. It seemed like a reasonable ‘cover dev costs’ fee.

He’s on some podcasts of course, and you can get a decent sense for what he’s like. My creep meter doesn’t go off much with him, personally.

For what it’s worth, I’ve been using (and enjoying) wim hof techniques for a while and my assessment is definitely biased.

I'm curious why you called it a "science". It would be very interesting to see yoga developed with a scientific approach.

> Yet he presents it as if he "discovered" it. This is pure intellectual dishonesty.

You might want to contemplate your accusatory nature on this topic as part of your practice.

Wim Hof believes in the scientifically observable ability of the human body when it is put into a primed oxygenated state. Full stop. That's it.

Your comment only serves to muddy the water and confuse anyone who may be casually interested in WH.

If by "we" you mean the mainstream western world, then you are correct. However, the notion that consciousness extends, or can extend, further than our minds and bodies, has been known and practiced upon for thousands of years.

On a tangent, I've personally thought about the "infinite cycle of why" a lot and have come to the conclusion that: 1) like you point out, there is no final why, which technically means there is no "real why" for anything at all, only whatever we accept at the moment as the answer, and 2) we are addicted to using language/words - which are useful but imperfect and incomplete tools to communicate things that are impossible to fully describe with them, like feelings, experiences and consciousness, this leads to innumerable problems as inevitably pretty much every message uttered by anyone is distorted into an almost invisible game of telephone.