THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG

Is Wim Hof, known as The Iceman, superhuman, or an ordinary man who's discovered the mind and body are capable of more than we thought possible?

- Lisa Abdellah

WIM HOF, A SHAGGY-HAIRED 63-YEAR-OLD DUTCH GRANDFATHER, is sitting in the driver's seat of a car when he answers my video call. He looks ordinary enough. Yet he's done what no one else has. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he claimed 26 World Records, including the fastest half-marathon barefoot on ice and the furthest swim under the ice.

He attributes his achievements to a method he's developed that combines breathing, gradual cold exposure, and mind-set, easy-to-learn techniques he says anyone can use to control their immune, hormonal, and energy systems. That's profound because it involves changing the body's neurochemistry, voluntarily influencing systems usually considered autonomous. It implies we've always had the potential to heal anxiety, trauma, depression, and diseases without preventative medicine.

He enthuses: 'We're alienated from nature, especially in the Western world, but there is no dualism. We're only making that up in our brains, and we live in stress because we're not in harmony with our inner and outer nature. The cold is merciless but righteous, bringing us back to being hardwired for connection?

Hof's been the subject of countless documentaries, podcasts, news articles and books, counts Oprah Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow and Matt Damon among his fans, and The Handmaid's Tale star Joseph Fiennes will play him in a forthcoming biopic, The Iceman.

'My breathing app has been downloaded, like, 50 million times. And that's not because I'm a great seller; this shit works! It's simple and scientifically endorsed. That's why people are practising it all over the world, he says.

Why do so many people follow Hof's method, and does it actually work?