David Blaine: I Nearly Died Doing This (How to Conquer Fear and Push Your Limits)

What’s a fear you want to overcome? How do you stay calm under pressure? What if the only limits you had were the ones you refused to break? Today, in this spellbinding episode, world-renowned illusionist, endurance artist, and master of the impossible, David Blaine, sits down for a deep and insightful conversation that goes far beyond magic. Known for his jaw-dropping stunts, being buried alive, standing encased in ice for days, and holding his breath underwater for over 17 minutes, David has captivated audiences worldwide. But behind the spectacle lies a profound philosophy of discipline, resilience, and the boundless potential of the human mind. Jay and David explore what drives someone to willingly push themselves to their absolute limits, both physically and mentally. David opens up about his mindset, revealing how he prepares for extreme feats that defy human expectations. He explains the power of visualization, breathwork, and sheer willpower in overcoming pain, fear, and doubt. But this conversation isn’t just about physical endurance, it’s about the mental and emotional strength required to navigate life’s greatest challenges. David shares personal stories of setbacks and perseverance, showing that even in moments of failure, there is wisdom to be gained. In this interview, you'll learn: How to Train Your Mind to Overcome Fear How to Build Unbreakable Mental Resilience How to Use Breathwork to Enhance Endurance How to Stay Calm Under Extreme Pressure How to Push Past Your Physical Limits How to Cultivate Childlike Curiosity for Creativity How to Reframe Failure as a Stepping Stone No matter what obstacles stand in your way, remember: you are stronger than you think, and capable of more than you realize. Believe in yourself, stay curious, and never stop challenging what’s possible. With Love and Gratitude, Jay Shetty Join over 750,000 people to receive my most transformative wisdom directly in your inbox every single week with my free newsletter. Subscribe here. Join Jay for his first ever, On Purpose Live Tour! Tickets are on sale now. Hope to see you there! What We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 01:41 The Subway Trick that Started It All 04:39 Lessons from the Above the Below 09:10 What Happens When You Don’t Feel Hunger 11:34 Pushing the Body Beyond Its Limit 17:25 The Capabilities of the Human Body 22:52 The Knife Stunt 26:25 The Bullet-Catch Trick 30:12 Break Free from Your Comfort Zone 32:27 Push the Boundaries of Your Growth 34:41 Some Stunts are Just Too Dangerous 41:46 Pushing Yourself Without Risking Your Life 45:04 Failure Leads to Continuous Learning 47:26 The Riskiest Illusion 49:29 Processing the Pain of Grief 53:32 Everything is About Perspective 57:14 Open Up Your Mind with Books 01:01:24 Every Person is Unique 01:03:06 The Bridge Jump, Anything is Possible 01:09:13 David on Final Five Episode Resources: David Blaine | Website David Blaine | YouTube David Blaine | Instagram David Blaine | Facebook David Blaine | X David Blaine Do Not Attempt See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jay Shetty?

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• 0:30Speaker 01

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• 1:00Jay Shetty?

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• 1:34Jay Shetty?

  Hey everyone, it's Jay Shetty and I'm thrilled to announce my podcast tour. For the first time ever, you can experience On Purpose in person. Join me in a city near you for meaningful, insightful conversations with surprise guests. It could be a celebrity, top wellness expert, or a CEO or business leader. We'll dive into experiences designed to experience growth, spark learning and build real connections. I can't wait to meet you. There are a limited number of VIP experiences for a private Q and A, intimate meditation, and a meet and greet with photos. Tickets are on sale now. Head to jayshetty.me forward slash tour and get yours today.

• 2:17Jay Shetty?

  The first time I ever saw you, you were suspended in this box in the middle of London. You were in it for 44 days.

• 2:24Speaker 02

  I was on the edge of irreversible organ failure. I do have effects that haven't recovered since, and that was 22 years ago.

• 2:33Speaker 03

  Is it over for his street magic and endurance stunts? I love the reactions you get doing these tricks.

• 2:40Jay Shetty?

  The human endurance part is what's so fascinating about it.

• 2:43Speaker 02

  You just went for 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.

• 2:54Jay Shetty?

  How do you get out of that?

• 2:55Speaker 02

  Oh, this series did that.

• 2:56Jay Shetty?

  What's the illusion that kept you up the most nights?

• 3:01Speaker 02

  Body is capable of doing things that science and doctors don't even imagine could be possible.

• 3:07Jay Shetty?

  Is there anything that you're actually scared of?

• 3:13Speaker 04

  The number one health and wellness podcast.

• 3:16Speaker 05

  Jay Shetty. Jay Shetty. The one, the only Jay Shetty.

• 3:22Jay Shetty?

  Hey, everyone. Welcome back to On Purpose. I am so excited for today because I'm getting to sit down with someone that I have loved and followed for the past two decades. This is someone that I grew up watching. When I was back in London, I'd be wanting to watch every show, everything he did. I was addicted, and I still am today. And this is one of those moments that I look back and I'm like, my 10-year-old self, my 15-year-old self would be high-fiving me so bad right now. So I'm so pumped. I'm sitting down with the world's most iconic illusionist, endurance artist and mentalist. From death-defying stunts to pushing the limits of human potential, he spent his career redefining what's possible. And his latest series, Do Not Attempt,

• 4:07Jay Shetty?

  premieres March 23 on National Geographic. Please welcome to the show David Blaine. David, I get to sit down with a lot of cool people, but when I heard you were coming on and we made this happen, honestly, I felt like a kid the whole time. You got captivated by a subway trick when you were like four years old. Like, that's what kind of introduced you into this world. What was that trick?

• 4:33Speaker 02

  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 that was one thing. 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 Monte 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, so they're almost for me meditative, like the way they feel in my hands.

• 5:15Speaker 02

  It's all, 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?

• 5:29Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 5:30Speaker 02

  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 of 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 journey. 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 processed early on.

• 6:05Jay Shetty?

  Yeah. When, when did your mother realize that this was a gift and not just a cute kid who could do some tricks?

• 6:11Speaker 02

  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 gift. No, but it's like, like everything I did, she was like,

• 6:21Jay Shetty?

  That's beautiful.

• 6:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:22Jay Shetty?

  That's really beautiful, man.

• 6:23Speaker 02

  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?

• 6:35Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, well, I'm having a moment now, because just before we went on, you showed me a video of your daughter performing. And I was thinking you were doing the same thing. Like, when I saw you were watching that video, you probably watched a million times. By the way, your daughter is so talented. Des is phenomenally talented. I can't wait to see her perform live. But you were looking at that video like it was the first time you'd seen it. And you were so proud as a proud dad to show it to me. I'm thinking you're like mirroring your mom's energy.

• 7:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's true.

• 7:02Jay Shetty?

  It's really special. It's amazing to see that. What does it feel like to you now when you're watching Des to perform and build her craft?

• 7:09Speaker 02

  I'm not watching her do anything. I'm like, mind blown. It's incredible, you know? So if she draws something, if she writes something, if she makes something, whatever she does, it's like.

• 7:22Jay Shetty?

  I was saying to you when you walked in today that the first time I ever saw you was in 2003. You were doing your act Above the Below. And you were suspended 30 feet up or something, maybe higher in this box in the middle of London. And you were in it for 44 days. You survived on like four and a half liters of water a day. And I think you lost like 60 pounds. And I used to come wave at you. But you don't remember me?

• 7:51Speaker 02

  I remember the good energy.

• 7:55Speaker 02

  That was something that changed my, 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. Because if, 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'd 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? But what are we going to do for dinner?

• 8:38Speaker 02

  And your day is consumed by the, but as soon as you remove all of that. Suddenly you have like all this 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 forty four days. And I knew that the only way that I would actually do it 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.

• 9:18Speaker 02

  The people I connected with, it was like I would get emotional with just by like looking at somebody, you know? Yeah. And and I could never do something like that again. So I think I was on the edge of irreversible organ failure or something. 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. It's it's like there are certain beats, there are certain things that happen.

• 10:02Speaker 02

  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. But and I don't recommend it, obviously, because I I do have effects that haven't recovered since. And that was what, two thousand and three? So it was twenty two years ago. But there's like twenty, around twenty eight days, it says that you suddenly have this pear taste in your mouth. And around day twenty eight, 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, could you tell, cause I didn't trust my team. I thought they were like involved in keeping me alive.

• 10:46Speaker 02

  So I was like, could you, is there, is that sweet? And you go, no, it's just water. But yeah.

• 10:52Jay Shetty?

  But you could taste it because of that pear taste in twenty eight days.

• 10:54Speaker 02

  That happens during starvation. And then, then the other thing, you lose the hunger first. Around a month, you get that pear taste, but then around like day thirty nine, I started to have really strange heart palpitations. And you start to feel like you're eating your body. That's where it starts to become, you, you start to become aware of that pain. But through that pain, you find this, this other thing that's like the most beautiful experience I, I've ever felt. So it's amazing that you were there for that.

• 11:27Jay Shetty?

  That's amazing. I mean, but hearing about it from the person who actually lived through it is pretty remarkable. And I wondered though, like, one thing I love about you, David, is that these are not just tricks or experiments. These are things that you research, you read, there's a story that inspires it. There's a experiment that happened years ago that inspires something you do. These are not just, you know, manufactured things. They're, they're really deep parts of things you're fascinated by. How did you start to come across stories, ideas, images that inspired these tricks? Where did that come from?

• 12:01Speaker 02

  Well, I started fasting, actually. I read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse when I was young. I think like eleven, twelve, thirty, around, around that time. And, and his character fasts, waits and, 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. 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, the stunt easy to do, actually. Cause if you have no food, it makes everything easier and you sleep easier.

• 12:46Speaker 02

  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.

• 12:56Jay Shetty?

  You were saying earlier that when you were in the box for. Forty-four days, it ruined your metabolism.

• 13:01Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 13:02Jay Shetty?

  How much did you study and know that that was gonna happen? Or how much was that a real shock and surprise to the system?

• 13:08Speaker 02

  I knew I was gonna do some damage, so I was prepared for that. I knew that when you push your body to that extreme, it's gonna take a toll. But there was, there's a lot of things I do that I know they're gonna take a toll and I kind of balance out the risk of it.

• 13:23Jay Shetty?

  When is it worth it and when is it not worth it?

• 13:25Speaker 02

  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 eleven days. So I was thinking, if you go, I think it's like eleven point five six or five, I don't remember, but that would be a million seconds. I got obsessed with this idea and I started messing around with it. 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 eleven days. And I thought I could pull it off and I started testing it.

• 14:08Speaker 02

  The tests were very difficult. 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, yes, I, that's not worth it.

• 14:27Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 14:28Speaker 02

  Losing your sight isn't worth it. So when I was in India and I was at the Erz Festival and the Sufi.

• 14:38Jay Shetty?

  The video you just showed me.

• 14:39Speaker 02

  Yeah. When they pull their eyes out, they pull their eyes out. It's very, very hard to watch. But I called my, my dear friend who's, who's a great optometrist. And I, and I, I just said, is there any, uh, how was, how does this make sense? He say, it could be done, but you, you may degenerate your vision. So I said, okay, I'm not gonna mess around with that. So there is like, can I pull this off? Or am I gonna do permanent damage? And it's, it's studying the past and finding experts and finding people that have done things. And then. 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.

• 15:24Speaker 02

  So I I'll do a test where I test something to like, you know, let me get to the halfway point. 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 gonna fast for forty four days, I'll do something like a twenty two day fast just to

• 15:42Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 15:42Speaker 02

  Just to understand if I can do it, you know?

• 15:45Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, I love how mathematical it is for you as well, though, like.

• 15:48Speaker 02

  Numbers play a key fact.

• 15:51Jay Shetty?

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• 16:34Jay Shetty?

  That's indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. This episode is brought to you by Mazda. The best habits are the ones we hardly notice, the ones that quietly shape the way we move through life, giving us the confidence to focus on what really matters. That's Mazda's approach to safety. Every Mazda is designed with proactive safety features that help keep you more aware, more connected and more engaged with your drive, so you can stay present behind the wheel. That commitment has earned Mazda recognition as Consumer Reports' safest new car brand. And as of July twenty twenty six, Mazda has won more twenty twenty six IIHS Top Safety Pick Plus awards than any other car brand.

• 17:18Jay Shetty?

  Visit www.iihs.org to learn more. A lot can happen when an accident doesn't. Mazda, more of what matters to you. Visit MazdaUSA.com to learn more. Consumer Reports does not endorse products or services. This episode is brought to you by Vinted. Value can be found anywhere, even in the clothes sitting untouched in our closets. That's where Vinted comes in. Vinted is a secondhand marketplace app where you can sell clothes you no longer want and get more value out of them. Whether you're running out of space, moving, or simply updating your wardrobe. Listing items is a quick and simple process and once something sells, Vinted creates a prepaid shipping label for you.

• 18:01Jay Shetty?

  And the best part, there are no seller fees, so you keep what you earn. It's a simple way to clear out your closet, be less wasteful, and maybe make some extra money along the way. Give your clothes a second life with Vinted. Download the Vinted app for free to start selling with no seller fees, so you keep every dollar you earn. Yeah, I love kind of diving into your mind right now because I love that process. There's a lot of... It's also how you transition, but going back to that video you just showed me. When everyone sees this in the new Nat Geo show, that is like, I mean, I had to look away multiple times. So if anyone doesn't know what's going on, it's like, this guy's like expanding his eye out, but then he's like nearly gouging it with like, what, like a steel rod or something?

• 18:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:46Jay Shetty?

  How do you even make sure that's disinfected?

• 18:48Speaker 02

  No, they don't.

• 18:49Jay Shetty?

  They don't, yeah.

• 18:50Speaker 02

  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.

• 18:59Jay Shetty?

  In India.

• 18:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He picked it up and pushed it right through his body. Yeah, it's crazy.

• 19:07Jay Shetty?

  And how are they doing that? Like, what did you learn from that experience of watching them? Like, if you had to look away?

• 19:13Speaker 02

  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 gonna 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. And I think therefore their body recovers at a really fast rate. Because the body's incredible. Body can do so many amazing things through evolution. We've developed these abilities to survive.

• 19:56Speaker 02

  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. I was surrounded by a great group of doctors and pulmonary experts and freedivers. And I was holding, I was, 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 times. I'm holding my breath at one point. I think it was once I, when I was like above eighteen minutes, right? And then all of a sudden, I'm pulled out of the water and it's twenty minutes and two seconds.

• 20:36Speaker 02

  And I was just completely at peace, 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 I, it, it was the opposite. I went, 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 like complete peace. And then I was like, why did you pull me out?

• 21:09Jay Shetty?

  But that's like a mind body disconnect, no? Like, isn't your mind at peace and your body's going into cardiac arrest? Like, is that?

• 21:17Speaker 02

  I don't think it was going into, I think it was going into survival mode.

• 21:21Jay Shetty?

  Right.

• 21:22Speaker 02

  There's a boy that blacked out under an icy river. He was trapped under the water and he was there for forty-five minutes not breathing. They pulled him out. He fully recovered, no brain damage, nothing. And it's, the body is capable of, of doing things that we don't even, science and doctors don't even imagine could be possible. And at the Earth Festival in India, they were all, everything that I saw, it was overwhelming. But it was still like, they were doing things that don't make any sense.

• 21:53Jay Shetty?

  And these are not tricks, that's your point. These are not, these are, like you're saying, it's been passed down for generations. These are not sleight of hand, this is not faking it, it's...

• 22:02Speaker 02

  It's hard to say. Right? You never know. But 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 wanted to know. You know, the guy pushes the thing through his neck and it comes out. 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? And we don't know. No. You don't have an answer. You didn't figure it out.

• 22:43Speaker 02

  No, but it's funny because that so I wanted to go to India first when we started shooting the series because the the first time I saw somebody combine magic with real human in endurance feats, other than pictures, voodoo and stuff like that, was a magician that 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. There it's a magic combined with doing something that most people wouldn't want to do.

• 23:23Speaker 02

  And when I saw it kind of changed my my theory on what could be possible. And I think I I've always had that curiosity of, you know, what the human body can endure, what what we could tolerate, what? So I think it it was some sort of a a trigger that like led me on this journey, which was not just as a magician, but what are people doing that? Yeah. And the magicians I like the most, like Harry Houdini, Ricky Jay. Ricky Jay wrote a book called Learned Pigs and Fireproof Fum, which is that kind of guidebook to all these people that were using their bodies to do crazy thing. Well, their minds and their bodies to do these unbelievable.

• 24:04Speaker 02

  Feats.

• 24:04Jay Shetty?

  Hmm. When did it turn for you from being magic tricks? I used to, I grew up watching you chuck cards at a car door and it's on the window of the inside of the, you know, the car or you talking about like, oh, you could guess who was calling your house, you know, when we all had landlines to then actually pushing your body to limits. Like, where was that switch for you?

• 24:29Speaker 02

  I always liked 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. I think it led me first into the Swami mantra, which led to the buried alive, which then led to me looking into all, all of 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.

• 25:12Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 25:12Speaker 02

  But there's no believability to that. I'd rather just jump into the boxes. 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.

• 25:24Jay Shetty?

  What would they say back?

• 25:25Speaker 02

  I mean, they wouldn't win the argument, but then afterwards they were like, all right, I get it.

• 25:32Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, it's, it's just the, the human endurance part is what's so fascinating about it because I feel like there's the great scene in the new show where you're like literally figuring out how to put a knife.

• 25:45Speaker 02

  Oh yeah, that was crazy.

• 25:46Jay Shetty?

  Walk us through that because you see the scan as well.

• 25:48Speaker 02

  You know, I had done nails in the nose and things like that or because you could hammer a nail, you know, back in. But then when I was in the Favela in Rio in Hosenia, this performer, Mista Lejirinho, took a serrated steak knife and he just shoved it in his nose, just pushed it all the way in. And it, how is that possible? We don't think of that as being, you know, it seems like you're gonna do something, you know, to your nervous system, something, right? He pushes it all the way in and pulls it out, does it a few times.

• 26:29Speaker 02

  And of course, I'm like, whoa, that's crazy. But obviously, my whole theory is like, if, if somebody can do it, it means nobody should do it. But it means there's a, an explanation. There's no, it's not a magic thing. It's like, there's an explanation. So it means it is possible. So I kind of trusted him and just went for it and just pushed the thing in.

• 26:55Jay Shetty?

  You didn't want to start with anything?

• 26:57Speaker 02

  No, no, I, 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 like, exact line, you know? But again, you're not, it doesn't make sense. But once again, you know, people have survived lots of crazy things.

• 27:32Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, yeah. How did you know how far back to not let it go? Like, you were that close on that scan?

• 27:37Speaker 02

  I don't know, I don't know.

• 27:38Jay Shetty?

  You just could sense it?

• 27:39Speaker 02

  I, yeah, and I trusted him, who has done this so many times. Yeah.

• 27:44Jay Shetty?

  God, I mean, when I see you do this stuff, I, the question I always ask myself when I'm watching you is like, is there anything that you're actually scared of?

• 27:52Speaker 02

  Just something happening to my daughter. But, but by the way, but 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, you know? Which is why the show is called Do Not Attempt.

• 28:08Jay Shetty?

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• 28:49Jay Shetty?

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• 29:31Jay Shetty?

  drinkjuni.com and make sure you use the code ONPURPOSE. Over history, are there lots of magicians, illusionists, people that have died trying to do crazy things? Like what are the?

• 29:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, there is actually. Funny enough, like 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. I'm not laughing. 12 of them died doing it as a trick.

• 30:12Jay Shetty?

  That's crazy. Yeah. What was difference about the guy that was actually doing it? What was he doing differently?

• 30:17Speaker 02

  He was catching the bullet in a metal cup in his mouth. I think one time it sliced to his cheek, but but nah, he he he pulled it off.

• 30:26Jay Shetty?

  Would you ever try the bullet catch?

• 30:27Speaker 02

  No, I did it.

• 30:28Jay Shetty?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, sorry. I have seen that.

• 30:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, I did it. I had my best friend. It's funny because I'm looking at don't shoot.

• 30:36Speaker 02

  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. 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 twenty two long bullet, and I pulled the string and caught it in that metal cup. Another thing nobody should ever do.

• 31:18Jay Shetty?

  So you're saying no one should, apart from you putting yourself at risk, ideally, nothing else should get hurt during a trick?

• 31:23Speaker 02

  Right, yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's right. And and I do tricks with frogs and things like that. I've never injured a frog. 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 gonna care for them. But yeah, so so my doctor's kids now have uh uh these giant frogs.

• 31:48Jay Shetty?

  That's been inside.

• 31:49Speaker 02

  And by the way, they try to 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? But there's some sort of, I don't know.

• 32:16Jay Shetty?

  Intelligence.

• 32:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 32:19Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, through scent or saliva or.

• 32:21Speaker 02

  Whatever it is, yeah, which is crazy.

• 32:24Jay Shetty?

  You are so right. We we really do downplay the intelligence, especially of animals.

• 32:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 32:29Jay Shetty?

  Uh but even humans, but but people around us, yeah, it's we don't recognize it and the body.

• 32:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 32:35Jay Shetty?

  And the body.

• 32:35Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 32:36Jay Shetty?

  Do you think it's interesting how the world's, we've focused on becoming more comfortable? What do you think that's doing to us?

• 32:41Speaker 02

  That's right. That's good. Cause I, I agree that, that being comfortable for me, I think is always the worst thing ever. When you're comfortable, you achieve nothing, you learn nothing, you do. 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? That, and that's probably what you experienced when you took yourself out of, out of your comfort zone and lived with this incredible monk is, is then suddenly you're living in the moment. You're living in this, this heightened sense of awareness that, and that's all from breaking the comfort zone.

• 33:17Jay Shetty?

  Yeah. And it's so interesting because you, you're so right. Like we just, we all naturally though, and that's what you were saying when you were talking about the guy earlier who nearly gouged his eye out. Something that you said, which is so subtle, but so powerful. You were like, but when he's doing it, his body's not repelling it. And that's why somehow it works out. And I was thinking about it that everything you do defies what we wanna do because we're looking for comfort. But it's like, how do you prep yourself to actually want discomfort? Like, how do we prepare our minds and brains to actually seek out discomfort? Because just as you said, it's actually better for us, even for survival, even for growth of

• 33:56Jay Shetty?

  the species, but we don't, we, we kind of go backwards into reclining, Netflix and chill. Like, that's the life. So like, how, how do you get out of that? What have you done to continuously?

• 34:08Speaker 02

  Well, this series did that. When they were asking me what I want to do, um, I said, here's the thing. So we're talking about lots of ideas. Doug, my magician friend that was here, he, he's one that found Deepak, you know, the, in India that did the most incredible stuff of, of, uh, mind blowing, just the way he is able to override his body with his mind. But, but basically when they were coming to me with this idea, the, the, 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 gonna go be a part of it. You know, I wanted it to be, I wanted it to be that, that.

• 34:52Speaker 02

  And I think that's a big thing that I like to do is put myself in major discomfort. So I can, so it wakes me up, you know, brings me to life.

• 35:00Jay Shetty?

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• 35:44Jay Shetty?

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• 36:28Jay Shetty?

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• 37:11Jay Shetty?

  Head to wayfair.com to shop all things home. That's W A Y F A I R dot com. Wayfair, every style, every home. How did you train yourself to get there and to do that? Because I I wanna help people almost who are sitting here going, you know what? I agree with David, like, I'm not gonna go and, you know, put a knife down my nose, which he's not encouraging either.

• 37:32Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 37:32Jay Shetty?

  But I wanna be able to push the boundaries in my own growth and my own life. How how did you kind of, you've gone to the full extreme of it. How do we kind of get to three out of ten?

• 37:43Speaker 02

  I think it starts with baby steps. I think you just go push yourself to do pub, speak in front of a classroom, public. You know, I was super intimidated by public speaking and I could do magic, but I wasn't, I was like, I'm not gonna speak. So, you know, I wanted my brother to go to the TED conference, so I agreed to like stand up and speak for the first time with no magic. Just, just do a talk and it was, it was horrific for me. It was like, it was, and and I didn't sleep for days on end before, but also months before. I was working on the notes, writing it down, putting all the thoughts on. And that part of it was already incredible because then you're like, it, but then I had to get up and do it.

• 38:21Speaker 02

  And that was really, that was like, it, but then as soon as you start and you, I put myself in the boiling, speaking at TED for your first time. I didn't go do little talks, I started there, right? So it's like by by doing that, suddenly I shocked the system. And now I went on a speaking tour for like a year. I would do dates in all different audiences. And what I would do is I would, I wouldn't thoroughly prepare. I would kind of just go out there and put myself in front of everybody. And and I I would say often it was uncomfortable and often it didn't work. And and often the audience didn't react, you know what I mean? It was like one of the, but eventually after doing it over and over and over and over and over, it really helped. And I really understood, it changed the way I thought about public speaking.

• 39:05Speaker 02

  But what it really did is it helped me when I was doing magic, because now I had like, now the magic was a a conversation. The point of breaking your comfort zone, it could be anything. It could be get up and do a talk. It could be, uh, you know, go out, uh, uh, uh, sit in the sauna, go in a steam room.

• 39:23Jay Shetty?

  Jump in a cold plunge.

• 39:24Speaker 02

  Yeah. So I think it's baby steps that can help you kind of figure out how to do so. But it could be, it's anything.

• 39:33Jay Shetty?

  I love how giving a TED Talk is harder for you than like.

• 39:36Speaker 02

  Way harder.

• 39:37Jay Shetty?

  I love that.

• 39:38Speaker 02

  It was way harder.

• 39:39Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 39:39Speaker 02

  Given the TED Talk for me was probably more difficult than holding my breath for the.

• 39:46Jay Shetty?

  Twenty minutes and twenty two seconds.

• 39:48Speaker 02

  Yeah. And that talk, by the way, is when you watch it down, it's, it's exactly the length of my actual breath hold.

• 39:54Jay Shetty?

  Did you do that on purpose?

• 39:56Speaker 02

  No, it just worked out that way. It's crazy.

• 39:57Jay Shetty?

  That's cool.

• 39:58Speaker 02

  Twenty oh two was the actual breath hold time. And the talk, when you time it out, was, I think it was almost twenty oh two.

• 40:05Jay Shetty?

  Wow. And that was harder.

• 40:06Speaker 02

  For me, the talk was more uncomfortable, more difficult than the breath hold.

• 40:10Jay Shetty?

  I mean, holding your breath for twenty minutes and two seconds is insanity.

• 40:14Speaker 02

  Well, now the record's twenty four minutes and three seconds.

• 40:17Jay Shetty?

  You're gonna go back?

• 40:18Speaker 02

  I don't think it's safe at this point. That's what you were saying. It's like, uh, you push yourself too far. You can, you can, you could do not just irreversible day. It might be like game over. And I'm paranoid about that stuff because one of my favorite magicians, Harry Houdini, he was punched in the stomach hypothetically, or he had a rupture, depending, whatever he had, he shouldn't have done his stage show. He was feeling ill. He was in lots of pain, but he didn't want to let the audience down. Went in the show, he did his whole show, got in the water tank. After the water tank, when he came out, he collapsed on the stage. They rushed him to a hospital and he died. So I, I do think there's a limit to what the body can endure and things go wrong very easily and you're not prepared for them.

• 41:04Speaker 02

  So there is a balance to all of that stuff.

• 41:06Jay Shetty?

  Well, you had that. Crazy fall at your Vegas show, right? A couple of years ago.

• 41:11Speaker 02

  Exactly. And I feel like I got lucky. I got, because just my arm, my shoulder went down to my armpit. That was terrible. But I mean, it could have been my neck, it could have been my back. So my Vegas show, I wanted to start by, I put a light, light truss all the way up and it was shaky and things. I wish, I thought it would be funny. And I climbed up and in the beginning, I think I was jumping like sixty eight feet, sixty eight feet and I put cardboard boxes down where the seats were and I would jump down into the boxes. But I was doing three shows per month, which is like the max that I could even tolerate. But my stunt guy, Jim Churchman, was helping put that together. He's like,

• 41:51Speaker 02

  we ought to be careful because it's about twenty Gs of force and you can't keep doing this over and over. You're getting, something's gonna go wrong. You know, for some reason, I figured I could pull it off and I kept increasing the height. Cause I started with the idea of like, okay, I'm gonna go up and then I would, I, I, then I would like be like, but wait, can I go? Like, I don't know. I just wanted to keep pushing it, right? So I don't know what the reason. I should have just been content there, but I'm never content. So I'm like, I have to higher, higher. And right when I got my head next to the ceiling, I jumped and it was after I was, you know, in, in Thailand and I had, no, a swarm of bees covering me and I was, I took a bunch of stung.

• 42:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, I was stung all over, a bunch of stings. I was stung all over the place. I had to go on, I, I think I had to take antibiotics. So I wasn't probably a hundred percent when I did that jump. I did the jump and um, I don't know what it was. I didn't land right or my body was slightly, and that happened. But then I'm, I think about it, I'm like, whoa, I was lucky because that could have been anything. But yeah, that, so that was the end of that in the show. It's never recovered properly, but that's, I mean, that, that's not a big, no, that's not like the, the box in London, which is, you know, major.

• 43:09Jay Shetty?

  You feel like you're still recovering from that.

• 43:11Speaker 02

  From the London thing? It messed me up, yeah.

• 43:14Jay Shetty?

  Irreversibly, you feel like?

• 43:16Speaker 02

  Probably on some level, yeah. The, there's other things I do that mess me up, like, I used to drink kerosene, which I would float on top of the water in my stomach. Terrible idea. Eating the glass is really bad because there's also chemicals in that glass and stuff like that. So aside from the enamel and everything going away on your teeth. So I never experienced hot and cold without such extreme. Ah, right. So and then there's tons of little injuries, but the ones that I'm most concerned with are are those ones. Now much more careful on some level because I have a daughter, so I don't want something. You know, you you think about life differently and how you're going to push yourself differently and what you can and can't do.

• 43:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, the the London box, I don't think I would ever do something like that again.

• 44:02Jay Shetty?

  Did it change from the moment you held your daughter, like when she was born, like?

• 44:06Speaker 02

  Not right when she was, but when she was born, it was like the most incredible moment of my life. But I still, when she was like one and a half, I still, I did a stunt. I was in, you know, a million volts of electricity and it went wrong. My leg swelled up from edema, ripped through the chain. I was getting shocked. I spit some electrolyte water out and it hit the coil and went inside and really messed me up. So at the end of that stunt, which was seventy three hours, I said, I'm not going to do any of these things anymore because I don't want something to go wrong. I have a daughter.

• 44:39Jay Shetty?

  But when I was saying, is there anything you're scared of? You just mentioned something happening to your daughter. That's like very real.

• 44:44Speaker 02

  When she is, she she stretches and she goes into splits and things like. When I'm watching her, it's it's so painful for me to.

• 44:54Jay Shetty?

  Imagine how she feels when you're putting a knife through your nose, then.

• 44:56Speaker 02

  I talked to her and I'm very careful. Yeah.

• 44:59Jay Shetty?

  How does she react when she sees this all that you're up to?

• 45:02Speaker 02

  Well, she's grown up with it, so she's, I think she's like, uh, even though it seems super crazy, I'm I'm I'm pretty, I have to really trust the person that's showing me, the teacher and, you know, the the learning curve for that series was short, but these are masters that have done the. Countless thousands of hours of work and some secrets were passed down to them, some they've developed on their own. It is a matter of trust. And then this series, I was very careful, even though it looks like there's so many crazy, you know, things that I'm trying or certain things like sitting with the black mambas.

• 45:44Speaker 02

  It was an enclosure this, this size of just like this space where and there were six black mambas in there. But the thing is, and I was with this man named Neville, a South African man that wants to show people that you don't need to, when you see a black mamba, because they, they, they, they end up in schools and they end up killing people. And it's because people react to them and they try to push them away that, and as soon as you do that, the black mamba reacts back. So he sits with the mambas at peace and he's showing everybody that if you encounter a black mamba, the best thing to do is to not be aggressive, not act in a way that makes

• 46:27Speaker 02

  it uncomfortable, just be at peace and just stay very calm. They're very instinctual, like most animals, like if you, if there's some people that go into a, into a house and there's cats that won't come out and the cats come out with some people and they go, go near them, right? And it's just because that person has this like energy, this like this stillness or whatever that makes the cat comfortable. And what his point is, is it's the same with the, with these feared black mambas. You just remain calm. So I trusted him. It was the scariest thing I've ever done in my lifetime.

• 47:05Jay Shetty?

  This is the one.

• 47:06Speaker 02

  Oh yeah, absolutely. Scariest thing I've ever done. And it doesn't look like it is. Like when you watch it, you won't understand that. In Africa, they call it the two-step. So you get one step and then the second step and you're done. But sitting there with them, even though I was like, I, I, I knew I had to just follow exactly what he said and I wa, I observed first, I watched him for a few days and I realized he, he knows what he's doing. He believes in everything that he's saying. And I sat with him in there. And then, and then when one started to come towards, you know, when it was close, he said, uh, 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.

• 47:52Speaker 02

  I think can I get out of here?

• 47:54Jay Shetty?

  Oh, go that way.

• 47:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, can I go? And he's like, no, 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.

• 48:05Jay Shetty?

  You got really close to it as well.

• 48:06Speaker 02

  It did get really close, but again, I trusted, I trusted him completely.

• 48:11Jay Shetty?

  How does someone like him build that skill without dying in the process?

• 48:16Speaker 02

  Well, he was bitten a few times, so he did go into a coma once. He had a snake injury, a snake related injury where he lost his legs, so he has one leg.

• 48:25Jay Shetty?

  And he still does it.

• 48:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, and he sits with them so so people will come and and see him and 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 to our house or wherever, you can just stay at peace, stay calm on some level. So he's protecting the people and the mambas.

• 48:52Jay Shetty?

  And there's no way of training a mamba, so.

• 48:55Speaker 02

  No, and these are wild, these are rescues. He keeps them and then releases them back, so, yeah, no, you, no.

• 49:01Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, that, I mean, just listening to that is, and to hear you say it's the hardest thing you've ever done.

• 49:08Speaker 02

  Not hard, but the scariest.

• 49:09Jay Shetty?

  Scariest.

• 49:10Speaker 02

  It wasn't hard, it was the opposite of hard, it's just all you have to do is just sit still.

• 49:14Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 49:15Speaker 02

  But you have to stay still and you have to be, you have to be at ease.

• 49:19Jay Shetty?

  Did you have to prepare that before you went in?

• 49:22Speaker 02

  Oh, I look like I'm about to like run to the bathroom the whole time.

• 49:27Jay Shetty?

  I think all of us would be, I think all of us would even get in there. There's, there's an interesting thing about animals in that way, isn't there? There's, um, my, my monk teacher who, who spent time in, when he traveled, would live in the forests and things like that back in the day. And he would always talk about how animals see whether you respect them or whether you fear them. And he would talk about that every time he saw an animal, it was like he'd have to bow down to the animal in his heart and mind. And and if he was to do that, then the animal would know that that wasn't a threat or there wasn't any fear. And then that would be what created a sense of peace, that if he could bow down and show respect.

• 50:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's that's exactly right.

• 50:06Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, we we think we have to dominate and like

• 50:08Speaker 02

  No.

• 50:08Jay Shetty?

  show them and then they'll run away, but.

• 50:10Speaker 02

  But it depends, some you have to.

• 50:12Jay Shetty?

  Right.

• 50:13Speaker 02

  So it 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 with a bun, 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. They're 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 would, it it may get a fight back. But if you're not looking, then.

• 50:44Jay Shetty?

  It's gonna go for you.

• 50:45Speaker 02

  Right, yeah.

• 50:46Jay Shetty?

  Wow. Think about them preserving energy.

• 50:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, 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 he was just like drinking his coffee. So, but yeah, he was amazing.

• 51:02Jay Shetty?

  Wow. And and has he got to a place of fearlessness? Like, would he say that? He feels fearless or no? He feels peace?

• 51:09Speaker 02

  No, I think, no, I think he respects and and loves these snakes. He thinks they're beautiful and incredible. So it's not, yeah, 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.

• 51:29Jay Shetty?

  I mean, even listening to you, though, there's such a respect for your craft and art, like, the number of times in this conversation, you've always already said, like, I trusted the teacher, I trusted Neville, trusted Deepak, like, there's such a respect for mentors and trust for teachers and guides and there's such a respect for the art and craft. It's not just, you know, as today, we kind of make everything today just feel like entertainment. And even when people have talents, it's kind of just like, oh, yeah, everyone's got talents now. But it's like, actually, for you, it's a respect and study of the craft.

• 52:01Speaker 02

  I think it's the same when you when you met the monk, you immediately felt. His, his knowledge and his, his faith and his beliefs and his discipline, his wisdom, right? And I think with the people I've met, all of them, I, I felt that. And as soon as I felt that, I was okay to, to, to try things. So I think it, lots of it has to do with just trusting the person and their abilities and their understanding of what they're doing.

• 52:30Jay Shetty?

  Hmm.

• 52:31Speaker 02

  And then, and then from that, it's a leap of faith.

• 52:34Jay Shetty?

  It's beautiful to think about what you do that way. Cause I think a lot of people can kind of project it as like, oh, well, David's figured it out, but it's actually like, no, you're willing to submit yourself and study and become a beginner again.

• 52:47Speaker 02

  Right.

• 52:48Jay Shetty?

  Like that beginner's mindset.

• 52:49Speaker 02

  That's right. And that's, that's the part that's like breaking the comfort zone is, 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, it's, that's okay. The failure is amazing. That when you're performing magic, it's the failures that you learn from, right? It's like you're performing a, 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, you're always, even if it's the same trick that, that you've

• 53:28Speaker 02

  worked on for, for me, 30 years, some of them 40, whatever it is, and I'm still changing, I'm still learning and, and, and that, that's for me, the exciting part of everything.

• 53:40Jay Shetty?

  Yeah. You're constantly going from becoming the expert, going back to the beginner, become an expert, that cycle doesn't stop.

• 53:46Speaker 02

  Right. And therefore you're never an expert, you know?

• 53:49Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, it's really cool. I love that. What, what's the illusion that's kept you up the most nights before you've done it? That you've had sleepless nights over as you prepare or get ready for it?

• 54:02Speaker 02

  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, that took me a long time to mentally prepare for. That one took me a long time.

• 54:20Jay Shetty?

  How many times had you been in the pen before you did that one? Was that in that time, that night?

• 54:24Speaker 02

  No, no, no, we, I took time on that one. I, I wasn't ready, so I, 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, I, that one was a pretty intense learning curve because, you know, they strike fast and

• 54:47Speaker 02

  yeah, if it gets you, you know. So that, that, I think of everything I've done, that, that might've been the most intimidating one. Probably.

• 54:56Jay Shetty?

  I think that's very legitimate, kissing a king cobra.

• 54:59Speaker 02

  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 and.

• 55:22Jay Shetty?

  Are you scared of dying?

• 55:24Speaker 02

  I'm not afraid of dying, but

• 55:28Speaker 02

  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, you want to live for as long as possible. But previous to having a daughter, I, I didn't even, I was like, yeah, just whatever. Now, because of my daughter, I wanna not either do something, it's like, oops.

• 55:54Jay Shetty?

  What was it like losing your mother so sorry for your loss?

• 55:57Speaker 02

  She got sick when I was 16 and she died when I was 20. She, she was a warrior through it and a peaceful warrior. When she died, I felt like. I felt like my body was like a tree and it was like the bran- one big branch of a tree or something and it went like that. It was like an immediate like broken. You know, it was like I never want to feel that type of pain again. It was, it was, it was like, literally like I felt like, like something broke in half. You know, so that was, that was a good, and I was so close to my mother. It was, she was my best friend.

• 56:38Speaker 02

  And she was my, my world. But then what started to happen was I started to find, 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 gonna be okay. It was when I was buried alive, 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. And 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. When I was in the box in London, forty-four

• 57:22Speaker 02

  days, day forty, I was having these terrible heart palpitations. Like, I mean, no, but I thought I was gonna die or something, right? And I, and I went in my head again, Bob, give me a sign. Like, you know, what should I do? And it, at that exact moment, you know, I could see the Tower Bridge over there. And this was day forty. I had to go to day forty-four. And there was a bunch of people yelling, you know, from, from the Tower Bridge. And I look over and I'm not even kidding. Right when I said that, they, they open up this banner that they made and it just said, God is love.

• 57:56Jay Shetty?

  And that, exactly. And that was her final words?

• 57:59Speaker 02

  Yes. 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, it's like her presence became so strong.

• 58:14Jay Shetty?

  That's so powerful.

• 58:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, that, that's.

• 58:17Jay Shetty?

  That's really special.

• 58:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 58:18Jay Shetty?

  Do you look for her in?

• 58:20Speaker 02

  I don't need to look for, she's everywhere. Yeah.

• 58:23Jay Shetty?

  Wow.

• 58:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's funny. Yeah, I didn't think of that, but yeah.

• 58:27Jay Shetty?

  I've had a couple of experiences recently. I was officiating a wedding, not last Christmas, the Christmas before, December before. And

• 58:38Jay Shetty?

  The couple that I'd introduced had met through meditations that I'd led for them. And so I was leading a meditation for their wedding ceremony because they had asked for it. And so me and the couple closed their eyes during that period. But the rest of the audience, I think some of them probably joined in. Some people don't want to join in, so they didn't join in. And it was amazing because we were in Tulum in Mexico and this, I had my eyes closed, so I didn't see it. But this huge blue butterfly flew from between the couple and then flew throughout the whole audience. And for those who had their eyes open saw it, and for most of us who had our eyes closed, we didn't see it.

• 59:21Jay Shetty?

  And then we found out later on that the lady who's getting married, she has a blue butterfly on her neck because it represents her father, who is passed on.

• 59:31Speaker 02

  That's amazing.

• 59:32Jay Shetty?

  And we didn't see it because we had our eyes closed in meditation, but

• 59:36Speaker 02

  That's amazing.

• 59:37Jay Shetty?

  Beautifully just, and it was just one butterfly, no one really saw it. And it's just, I love things like that when people have such a strong semblance to signs.

• 59:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, there's 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.

• 59:57Jay Shetty?

  Well, that's what I love about the way you think about it, because I think there's a lot of illusionists in the world who almost see illusion as a way of saying there are no, there is no mysticism in the world. There's a lot of illusionists who will say, oh yeah, because I can explain everything, it kind of proves that there is no

• 1:00:14Speaker 02

  Right.

• 1:00:15Jay Shetty?

  otherworldly, supernatural, or mystical, whatever language you want to use for it. But you seem to have somewhat of a

• 1:00:22Speaker 02

  Well, it's, yeah, I mean, it's more about like being open to it. So if you're open to it, you'll, you'll find it because that's what you're looking for, right? But if you're like nah, then you won't. And it's like, I feel like the, the better approach is to be open to it. So you could, you could experience these incredible things, you know?

• 1:00:42Jay Shetty?

  What's one of the most amazing things you've experienced by being open?

• 1:00:45Speaker 02

  No, I mean, just by being, just like, you know, watching my daughter just grow and, you know, that's the most amazing. And watching who she becomes and, and you said that, but yeah, when, when you need those signs. 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 of fervor? Because that's the only thing I really brought was no toothbrush, no, 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.

• 1:01:28Speaker 02

  Because your mind has so many things it can think about, create, do, wonder, dream, everything. So it's like, so, so those two things are the things that, 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. But, but those were two of the very strong prominent thoughts of, of what I learned and became very clear to me during that forty four day fast. It opened me up to so many thoughts and it was like this clarity that, that I, that I never get. Because there's very few distractions, no phone, no this, no that, no food, no, no distractions really.

• 1:02:09Speaker 02

  So you suddenly you become hyper aware, like you're, it's like a heightened sense of awareness and everything becomes intense and beautiful and which is probably what you were doing for the three years.

• 1:02:20Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, I mean, we were talking about it earlier, like you start realizing that the sky is not just blue. There's so many different variations that not every leaf you see is green. There's so many variations, but if you look on an average day, it's like, oh, the sky is blue. The trees are green, like we have this, we kind of have this almost veneer or this lens we put on everything, which makes it all the same. And you look at that in society too, where like you go down most city centers, every shop is the same. We see the same coffee shop everywhere. You see the same, like, you know, we homogenize everything in the world.

• 1:02:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:02:54Jay Shetty?

  And there's a sense of comfort. There's a sense of comfort when you see, I remember my friend was giving us a tour of Oxford. He was studying at Oxford University and he was going around and he was saying, "This is where Lord of the Rings was written and this is where Alice in Wonderland was written." He was giving me this and me and Mihim were like loving this and we were with someone and then we walked into the town centre and they were like, "Oh my God, there's an urban outfits here." It's like the clothes store and we were all like, "What is wrong with you?" But it's like for them, that was a sense of comfort.

• 1:03:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's funny.

• 1:03:25Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, and I was like, "But wait a minute, like this is where Alice in Wonderland was written."

• 1:03:28Speaker 02

  Everything is perspective.

• 1:03:30Jay Shetty?

  Everything is perspective.

• 1:03:31Speaker 02

  And that person may be just as excited about that as this person is about this, which is amazing.

• 1:03:37Jay Shetty?

  And it's so fascinating. It's like, yeah, who have you met or what have you done that has just shifted your perspective the most in the last few decades? Like, is this a person you met, a place you went to that just shifted?

• 1:03:50Speaker 02

  I mean, there's so many. It's just a, well, books, books are, that's like a big one, right? Just books, just, you know, I think like what books do to the mind is identical to what exercising does for the body. That's the main problem with the phones is it's really taken away 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 explore these incredible worlds that were meticulously done by these brilliant writers that studied psychology and philosophy and that outpouring of, of, of just, you know, knowledge.

• 1:04:32Speaker 02

  But so I think books would be the first thing that have like, that have like impacted.

• 1:04:39Jay Shetty?

  Any favorites, any ones that you recommend?

• 1:04:41Speaker 02

  So many, yeah. Cervantes, then his life story was incredible, Cervantes. He's fascinating. And then Don Quixote is like one of the most, I think, one of the most important books written in many ways. His story's 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, during the Inquisition, I guess, 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 was seized like they they took him captive and he was tortured and and beaten for years, right?

• 1:05:24Speaker 02

  He wasn't able to to really, he couldn't get out 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, you know, she can't afford this, I don't want to do this. They ended up putting him in jail for, I think, 12 years. 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 um, he he finished it when he came out.

• 1:06:05Speaker 02

  The book was published and it became like the number one book in Europe. But the book publisher, I don't think they ever really paid him. 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, they never gave him his his his his earnings. And he died completely broke. And the story of Don Quixote is about a guy that wants to make the world a better place, but it's not possible. You know, which is what his mission was.

• 1:06:44Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, but that's a great book.

• 1:06:49Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, thank you. How does that speak to you now? Like, how does his dilemma speak to you?

• 1:06:54Speaker 02

  I mean, it's related to to everything, right? Hope for the best and expect the worst is the theme of his book.

• 1:07:00Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a there's a beautiful statement that it reminds me of from F. Scott Fitzgerald, who said that. The sign of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time. So one should be able to look around and see that everything is hopeless, but still be determined to make a change.

• 1:07:22Speaker 02

  Still be hopeful.

• 1:07:23Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, exactly, like that ability to.

• 1:07:25Speaker 02

  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, 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.

• 1:07:49Jay Shetty?

  But that's literally what you do in a physical, tangible, mental way. Because everything about you knows that putting a blade close to your body cuts it, that being close to a black mamba like kills you like that. That is what you're, you're literally living that. Because I'm intrigued to know this because you're one of the most unrelatable people on the planet. Because you've done things that even if you explain them and even if we watch you do them, ninety-nine point nine percent of people, even more than that, that's even a low percentage, have no idea what it even feels like. How does that feel?

• 1:08:27Speaker 02

  I don't think of it like that, actually. I think everybody has their, their thing. Like, everybody has that thing that they're like, it's the same thing. It's just, it 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. And it's like, it's amazing to like, explore that, you know?

• 1:08:56Jay Shetty?

  I like that perspective. I like that perspective. Everyone has, everyone can feel that way if they want to, it's a choice.

• 1:09:02Speaker 02

  And they do.

• 1:09:03Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:04Speaker 02

  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, and my mother being the best mother ever, right? That, but that's hard, that's like, complete surrender, dedication and belief and, you know, that's.

• 1:09:23Jay Shetty?

  That's their special source.

• 1:09:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's their, that's their passion. That's what, that's what lights their fire. Yeah.

• 1:09:31Jay Shetty?

  You'd avoided a. You'd avoided fire for a while, like you'd avoided wanting to do that. You finally succeed with the bridge dive. I mean, how did that feel? Why were you avoiding it?

• 1:09:45Speaker 02

  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, she almost died doing that. There was, she was bleeding through her mouth and 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 loves fires. The same way Neville does with the Black Mambas.

• 1:10:28Speaker 02

  They helped me put together this, this idea of just, you know, doing something off of a bridge on fire and that, yeah. And it was, it was amazing.

• 1:10:37Jay Shetty?

  I mean, but you, you had a set amount of time that you had to like.

• 1:10:41Speaker 02

  It was quick.

• 1:10:41Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, it was quick.

• 1:10:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:10:43Jay Shetty?

  It was quick.

• 1:10:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:10:44Jay Shetty?

  Did it live up to your feeling of wanting to do something with fire?

• 1:10:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, do I want to do it again? Yeah, no, yes.

• 1:10:50Jay Shetty?

  Oh, you would, you'd do it again, yeah.

• 1:10:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, because you're always thinking like, oh, well, you know, it was bright out, it's 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 can do is my concept was if something can be done by one, it can be done by others, 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.

• 1:11:35Speaker 02

  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 it and then it relates to everybody because. 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, I want to do this. I want to build. A rocket. It's unlimited. So I think, and that's, that's the thing that I love about the search for. People that are doing things that to me.

• 1:12:18Speaker 02

  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.

• 1:12:30Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:30Speaker 02

  And we keep evolving to become better and better and better. So, so, so, yeah, so I think part of the. The search for these fascinating people or, or this love of, of, 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 and any, and, 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.

• 1:13:05Jay Shetty?

  I love that answer. Yeah, that's brilliant. That idea that. Every single person gets to kind of pass on the baton, right? Like the idea of like, I open up the door and now it's open and. I always, I always ask people, I'm like, find your monk. And what I mean by that is if I didn't meet this monk. The entire trajectory of my life wouldn't have shifted and changed. It was like meeting this one person.

• 1:13:26Speaker 02

  Right.

• 1:13:27Jay Shetty?

  Completely pivoted my whole life journey and whoever that is.

• 1:13:32Speaker 02

  And you were open to it. You understood that. That's right.

• 1:13:35Jay Shetty?

  And 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.

• 1:13:43Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 1:13:44Jay Shetty?

  It's pretty phenomenal. I love.

• 1:13:45Speaker 02

  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. That you that you want or that you dream of her. And 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 circus. Or I would read these things. 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. 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 just led, that was like the planting of the seed, right? So it's like, and and just all these fascinating characters throughout the history of magic.

• 1:14:30Speaker 02

  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. It's your creations, it's your visualization. And then it's like converting that into, through repetition, failure, practice, repeat, into whatever you, and and by the way, you shoot for this and then it may end up here. But you shot for, and so, you know, and it's a constant, you know, which is

• 1:15:09Speaker 02

  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?

• 1:15:24Jay Shetty?

  And it seems like that's why you'll never be done, because that's what drives you.

• 1:15:27Speaker 02

  And that's why we'll all never be done.

• 1:15:31Jay Shetty?

  David, you've been so generous with your time. I've loved every moment of this. You are truly one of the most fascinating people I've ever spoken to. And we we end on purpose with a final five, a fast five. These have to be answered in one word to one sentence maximum.

• 1:15:44Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:15:45Jay Shetty?

  So these are your, David Blaine, these are your final five. Question number one, what is the best life advice you've ever heard or received?

• 1:15:52Speaker 02

  I mean, I like always surround yourself with people that will inspire you and help you grow. That was a good one.

• 1:15:58Jay Shetty?

  Good advice. Question number two, what's the worst advice you've ever had or received?

• 1:16:03Speaker 02

  Don't go for your dream, don't, you're not gonna succeed, don't even bother. Worst advice.

• 1:16:09Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, I think a lot of people have had that.

• 1:16:11Speaker 02

  If you listen to the people that are, that they're gonna, you know, you cannot, you have to go for, you have to at least try. By the way, you may fail, but if you keep failing, eventually you're probably gonna do something. You'll get, you know, some version of what you wanna do, so.

• 1:16:29Jay Shetty?

  Yeah. If, if you wanted your life to leave behind three messages, what would they be?

• 1:16:35Speaker 02

  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 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?

• 1:17:09Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, yeah. I love, allow, I love that sentence, allow yourself to be amazed, because I think today, yeah, we don't allow ourselves, because we're kinda used to it. We don't even realize, even though we all make phones look bad, but this is actually phenomenal, that it exists, like it's amazing that it's possible, yeah. Allow yourself to be amazed is a, is a great line, I love that. Uh, question number four, when your mother left you with the words, "God is love," what does that mean to you today?

• 1:17:37Speaker 02

  It means love is God, God is love, like the feeling of love, the surrender, that is everything, that's, that, that's, that, that is what life is about, that, that's what life is.

• 1:17:48Jay Shetty?

  That's the ultimate.

• 1:17:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, the, the, the 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.

• 1:18:15Speaker 02

  Molecules and atoms and so I think where everything is connected and everything is one and I don't think there's a beginning or an ending and energy isn't either created nor destroyed. So it's always so that whole.

• 1:18:28Jay Shetty?

  Love that. Fifth and final question. If you could, we ask this to every guest who's ever been on the show. If you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be?

• 1:18:39Speaker 02

  Wow. So one law.

• 1:18:44Jay Shetty?

  It can be as tangible or intangible as you like.

• 1:18:46Speaker 02

  Yeah. So then it should be the law of love.

• 1:18:49Jay Shetty?

  Simple.

• 1:18:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, we'd like just that surrender that like, because that's there's no ego in that. There's no.

• 1:18:59Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, no ego is definitely a.

• 1:19:01Speaker 02

  But it's so hard to, you know, it's like we're so locked in all this stuff. Yeah, giving up just like surrender.

• 1:19:09Jay Shetty?

  When do you feel you have the least ego? When, when do you feel you experience no ego?

• 1:19:13Speaker 02

  When I'm with my daughters, it's like, that's like, everything disappears.

• 1:19:19Jay Shetty?

  David Blaine, thank you so much for your time, your energy. Everyone who's been listening and watching, make sure you go and watch the new show, David Blaine, Do Not Attempt. It's on Nat Geo. I can't wait for you to see it. It's phenomenal. You got to hear some of the stories here, out March 23 on National Geographic. David takes viewers on an incredible journey where he immerses himself in unique cultures and meeting extraordinary performers who inspire and share their rare skills and secrets. And of course, you can also see David at Las Vegas residency at the Encore Theatre and at the Wynn. I can't wait to go. I'm coming to see you live. I'm really looking forward to it and congratulations, my friend. And really wonderful getting to know you.

• 1:20:01Speaker 02

  Well, you too. Yeah, thank you.

• 1:20:03Jay Shetty?

  If you love this podcast, you'll love my episode with Lewis Hamilton. Lewis and I talk about why you should stop chasing society's definition of success and how to be more intentional with your goals. You don't want to miss it.

• 1:20:18Speaker 06

  Like, it's not about being perfect. It's about just every day, one step at a time, trying to be better, trying to do more. I'm learning a lot about myself. I had to break myself down in order to be able to be better.

• 1:20:29Speaker 07

  Now, more than ever, we need someone on our side. But Rob Whitman? Whitman's votes drove up costs, cut Medicaid, and risked 350,000 Virginians' health care to pay for tax breaks for himself and his donors. He's not on our side. Shannon Taylor will fight corruption, cut taxes, and bring down costs. This November, vote for Shannon Taylor. She's for us. Paid for by HMP, the House Majority PAC dot com. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.