Hey everyone, It's Jay Sheddy 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 Jysheddy dot me Forward Slash Tour and get yours today. The first time I ever saw you, if you were suspended miss box in the middle of London. You were in it for forty four days.
I was on the edge of irreversible organ failure. I do have effects that haven't recovered since, and that was twenty two years ago.
Over for a street magic and endurance stunt. I love the reactions you get doing these tricks. The human endurance pot is what's so fascinating about it.
You just went for it, took an X ray. The knife was on the edge of the nervousness. It was really at that like exact line, when you're out of your comfort zone, when you're breaking that, how do you get out of that? Well? This series did that.
What's the illusion that kept you up the most nights?
The body is capable of doing things that science and doctors don't even imagine could be possible.
Is there anything that you're actually scared of?
The Number one health and wellness.
Podcast Jetty Jay Sheddy Rely, 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 days, 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 ten year old self. My fifteen 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, premiers March twenty third 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, I honestly, I've felt like a kid the whole time. You got captivated by a subway trick when you were like four years old. That's what kind of introduced you into this world. What was that trick?
It also kept it was a bunch of things. Side 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 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 Monty guys. So I think it was like a constant, you know. For some reason, that's the stuff I was most attracted to. And I loved how cards fell, you know. So they're almost for me meditative, like the way they feel in my hands. It's 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. Yeah, and then when I realized I could make my mother, I could change her day by doing a simple magic trick, it was kind of like the beginning of my love for performing. And then I would only do it for her and her friends and they would all react, and that was one part of the 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.
Yeah, when did your mother realize that this was a gift and not just a cute kid who could do some tricks.
I could have done anything, and that was the you know what I mean, so it was like, oh, my son has a get no, but it's like everything I did.
She was like, that's beautiful.
Yeah.
Yeah.
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, 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 door is so talented. This it's 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 showed to me, and I'm thinking, you're like mirroring your mom's energy.
Yeah, it's true.
It's really special. It's amazing to see that. What does it feel like to you now when you're watching Decert perform and watching.
Her do anything, I'm like, mind blowing. It's incredible.
You know.
If she draws something, if she writes something, if she makes something, whatever she does, it's like.
I was saying to you, and you walked in today that the first time I ever saw you was in two thousand and three. You were doing your act above the below and you were suspended thirty feet up or something maybe higher in this box in the middle of London, and you were in it for forty four days. You survived on like four and a half liters of water a day, and I think you lost like sixty pounds and I just come wave at you, but you don't remember me.
I remember the good energy. That was something that changed everything about the way. I think that one messed up my metabolism, which is hence the side effects of it. But it was absolutely one of the most beautiful, compelling experiences. Aside from that, it was a stunt, and I did do it publicly because so I feel like if I didn't do this publicly, I could have never committed to
doing that type of a fast. And I was obsessed with fasting because every time I would fast, you become aware of everything around you that you normally ignore because we spend so much time thinking about, oh what am I going to have for breakfast? I'm not going for lunch. Who am I going to see? But what are we going to do for dinner? And your day is consumed by these 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 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 that people I connected with. It was like I would get emotional just by like looking at somebody, you know, 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 Yogi's I studied all these the hunger strikers, I read Bobby Sands, I read all of the books
about the people that pushed 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 like, there are certain beats, there are certain things that happen. In a few days, you'd lose your hunger. But it has to be pure water. It has to be nothing but water. If you have other things, you keep your metabolism going. And I don't recommend it obviously, because I do have
effects that haven't recovered since. And that was what two thousand and three, so it was twenty two years ago. But there's like around twenty eight days, it says that you suddenly have this pair 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? Because I didn't trust my team. I thought they were like involved
in keeping me a lot. So I was like, can you is there is that sweet? And they go no, it's just water, but you can taste it because of that paar taste in during starvation. And then then the other thing you lose, the hunger. First around a month you get that paar taste. But then around like day thirty nine, I start 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 start to become
aware of that pain. But through that pain you find this this other thing that's like the most beautiful experience that I've ever felt. So it's amazing we were there for that.
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. Then they're really deep lots 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?
Well, I started fasting. Actually, I read said Arthur by Hermas when I was young, I think like eleven twelve thirty around around that time, and his character fasts, waits and learns how to take control over his mind and body. And I was fascinating 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 stunt easy to do, actually, because if you have no food, it makes everything easier and you sleep easier. 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.
You were saying earlier that when you're in the box for forty four days it ruined your metabolism. How much did you study and know that that was going to happen or how much was that a real shock in surprise to the system.
I knew I was going to do some damage, so I was prepared for that. I knew that when you push your body to that extreme, it's going to take a toll. But there's a lot of things I do that I know they're going to take a toll, and I kind of balance out.
The risk of it when is it worth it and when is it not worth it.
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, so I don't remember, but that would be a million seconds. I got obsessed with this idea and I started messing around with it, and I met with doctor 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. 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 yeh, that's not worth it. Yeah, losing your
sight isn't worth it. So when I was in India and I was at the Ers festival and the Sufi the video, 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 optometier, and and I just said, is there any uh? How is how does this make sense? You say it could be done, but you made degenerate your vision. So I said, okay, I'm not going to mess around with that. So there is I Can I pull this off? Or
am I going to 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. 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 in a fast for forty four days, I'll do something like a twenty two day fast just to just to understand if I can do it, you know.
Yeah, I love how mathematically is for you as well.
Though, like numbers play key factor.
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 up, but then he's like nearly gouging it with like what like a steel rod or something. How to even make sure that's disinfect.
They know, they don't. They don't know 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 I'm a floor in India. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, he picked it up and pushed it right through his spot. Yeah, it's crazy, And how are they doing that?
Like what did you learn from that experience of watching them? Like if you had to look away.
What they're doing. I think it's passed down for generations, and I think they know exactly what they're doing. And part of it is accepting what you have to do, Like there's an acceptance to what they're going to do, like a faith right. They know that they can do these things. So when they push these things through their body, they're just completely at ease, and I think therefore their body recovers at a really fast rate because the body is incredible. The body can do so many amazing things.
Through evolution, we've developed these abilities to survive. So one that I wasn't prepared for. I was surrounded by doctors and I was trying to hold my breath for as long as possible. I had to lemetry on me and everything else. I was surround by a great group of doctors and pulmonary experts and free divers, and I was holding I was holding my breath underwater, and at one point I wasn't even aware of the time. I didn't there was no such thing as time, So I'm holding
my breath at one point. I think it was once I when I was like above eighteen minutes right, and then all of a sudden I'm pulled out of the water and it's twenty minutes and two seconds, 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 it was the opposite. I went. The body went into this strained 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?
But that's like a mind body disconnect. No, Like, isn't your mind at peace and your body's going into cardiac arress? Like? Is that?
I don't think it was going into I think it was going into survival mode. Right. 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 doing things that we don't even science and doctors don't even imagine could be possible. And at the Earth's 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.
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 slight of hand. This is not faking it.
It's 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? You know, the guy pushes the thing through his neck and it comes in. But then I looked carefully and there was no there was no hole. There's no blood, no hole, no nothing. So I so then I started thinking, like, whoa, so what how is that possible? Right?
We don't know. No, you don't have an answer, you don't figure it out.
No, but it's funny because I so I wanted to go to India first and we started shooting the series because the first time I saw somebody combine magic with real human in Durrance's feets other than pictures of Boudin and stuff like that, was a magician that ate a thread and then he pulled the threat out of a stomach. And when I saw that, I was like blown away. And he wouldn't show anybody else, but he pulled me into another He's like, I'll show you, and he showed
me and I was like whoa. And I thought it was crazy how he did it. It's a magic combined with doing something that most people wouldn't want to do. And when I saw it kind of changed my theory on what could be possible. And I think I've always had that curiosity of you know, what the human body can endure, what we could tolerate what? So I think it was some sort of a trigger that led me on this journey, which was not just as a magician,
but what are people doing that? Yeah, and the magicians I like the most, like Harry Houdini, Ricky J. Ricky J. Wrote a book called Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women, which is that kind of guidebook to all of these people that were using their bodies to do crazy things well their minds and their bodies to do these unbelievable fe.
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?
I always like things that I believe, right, So it's like I was always so if I'm watching a magician, I like, if I know that he put tons of work into one card move right. When I saw people that were doing things that were defied logic, which is what magic does, but then I knew that there was
an element of they are really doing that. I think it led me first into the Sawmi mantra, which led to the Buried Alive, which then led to me looking into all the other things I was excited about, or you know, but I would 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 in the pereum boxes? Yeah, but there's no believability to that I'd rather just jump into the box. Well then they're like, well,
you at least have to just disappear. I was like, but then that ruins the whole, Like then it's not a real thing. What would they say back, I mean, they wouldn't win the argument, But then afterwards they were like, all right, I get it.
Yeah, it's just the human endurance. Pot 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.
Oh yeah, that was great.
We'll cuss through that because you see the scan as well.
You know, I'd done nails and the nose and things like that because you could hammer and nails, you know, back in. But then when I was in the favellum Rio in Hosnia, this performer my still Leaves You took a serrated steak knife and he just shoved it in his nose, just pushed it all the way in. And how is that possible? We don't think of that as being you know, it seems like you're going to do something,
you know, to your nervousness. There's something right, he pushes it all the way in and pulls it out, does it a few times, and of course I'm like, WHOA, that's crazy. But obviously my whole theory is like, if somebody can do it, it means nobody should do it. But it means there's 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.
You didn't want to start with anything, no, no, no.
I watched him do it, and I trusted what he was saying, and I think I was nobody should do it. Actually is it's super super dangerous. Of course 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 nervousness. 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.
Yeah, how did you know how far back to not let it go like you were that close on that scat?
I don't know, I don't know I. Yeah, and I trusted him who has done this so many times. Yeah.
God, I mean when I see you do this stuff. The question I always ask myself when I'm watching you is like, is there anything that you're actually scared of?
Just something happening to my daughter. 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 people like, do not do these crazy things that you know, which is why this show is called exactly.
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make sure you use the code on purpose. Over history are there are lots of magicians, illusionist people that have died trying to do crazy things like what are they?
Yeah, there is actually funny enough, like the bullet catch killed twelve 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 and a little cup in his mouth and he did it hundreds of times and he was okay. But twelve magicians that were doing it is a trick, that were witching bullets out and stuff like that, twelve of them died. And I'm not laughing, but twelve of them died doing it as a trick.
That's crazy. Yeah, what was difference about the guy that was actually doing it? What was he doing differently?
He was catching the bullet and the metal cup in his mouth. I think one time it sliced to his cheek, but yeah, he pulled it off.
Would you ever try the bullet cat?
No? I did it?
Oh yeah, yoh, sorry, Yeah I did it.
I had my best friend. It's funny because I'm looking at don't shoot. So my best friend's a magician and I saw him shoot a cup far away with a baby 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 uncomfort. So I put a string 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.
So you were saying, no one should apart from you putting yourself at risk, Ideally nothing else should get hurt during the trip.
Right, Yeah, for sure, Yeah, that's right. 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's when they get too big. Then I give them to somebody that's gonna care for them. And yeah, so so my doctor's kids now have these giant frogs and by the way, they try to hold them, and the frogs won't let anybody. Nobody can pick them up.
And I hadn't seen the frog in like a year or something, and I came to his house and they were filming it and I put my hand in and I'm not kidding. The frog walked right onto my hand and I lifted it up and he just sat there. We underestimate these creatures, right, but there's some sort of I don't know, yeah, yeah, that was whatever it is, Yeah, which is crazy.
You are so right. We really do downplay the intelligence, especially of animals. Yeah, but even humans but yau, Yeah, we don't recognize it. And the body, Yeah, and the body, that's right. 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?
That's right, that's good because 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, And that's probably what you experienced when you took yourself out of your comfort zone and live with this incredible monk is then suddenly you're
living in the moment. You're living in this heightened sense of awareness and that's all from breaking the comfort zone.
Yeah, And it's so interesting because 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 want to 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 the species, But we don't. We kind of go backwards into reclining, Netflix and chill. That's the life. Yeah, how do you get out of that? What have you done to continuously? Well?
This series did that. When they were asking me what I wanted to do, I said, here's the thing. So we're talking about lots of ideas. Doug, my magician friend that was here, he's the one that found d Pak you know that in India, that did the most incredible stuff I've ever mind blowing, just the way he is able to override his body with his mind. But basically, when they were coming to me with this idea, oh,
this one, that one. I said, here's the thing only present to me, the ideas that when you tell me about them, it makes you uncomfortable just saying that we're going to go be a part of You know, I wanted it to be. I wanted to be that. And I think that's a big thing that I'd like to do is put myself in major discomfort so I can. So it wakes me up, you know, it brings me to life.
How did you train yourself to get then to do that? Because I want to help people most who was sitting here going you know what? I agree with David like, I'm not going to go and you know, put a knife down my nose, which he's not encouraging me either, But I want to be able to push the boundaries in my own growth, in my own life. How did you kind of you've gone to the full extreme of it. How do we kind of get to three out ten?
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 going to 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 Nomad, just just do a talk. And it was it was horrific for me.
It was like it was and I didn't sleep for days on end before it, 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, and that was really that was like. But then as soon as you start and 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 noises, 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 I would say often it was uncomfortable, and often it didn't work, 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. But what it really did is it helped me when I was doing magic because now I had like, now the magic was 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, sit in the sauna, go in the steam.
Room, jump in to Copeland.
Yeah. So I think it's baby steps that can help you kind of figure out how to do something, but it could be to anything.
I love how giving a TED talk is harder for.
You than like, way harder. I love that it was way harder. Given the TED talk for me was probably more difficult than holding my breath for.
The twenty minutes two seconds.
Yeah, and that talk, by the way, is when you watch it down, it's it's exactly the length of my actual breatholder two. No, it just worked out that way. It's crazy. Twenty oh two was the actual breath all the time, and the talk when you time it out was I think it was almost twenty oh two.
Well, and that was hard for me.
The talk was more uncomfortable, more difficult than the breath all.
I mean, holding your breath for twenty minutes and two seconds is insanity.
Well, now the record's twenty four minutes and three seconds.
You're going to go back.
I don't think it's safe at this point. That's what you were saying. It's like 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 punching his stomach hypothetically, or he had a ruptured to pen, 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 into a hospitle and he died. So 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. So there is a balance to all that stuff.
Well, you had that crazy fall at your Vegas show right like a couple of years.
Exactly, and I feel like I got lucky because just my arm, my shoulder went down to my armpit. That was terrible, but I mean it could have been my neck back. So my Vegas show I wanted to by I put a light light truss all the way up and it was shaky and things which I thought 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 Churchan, was helping put that together. He's like, we gotta be careful because it's about twenty jess a 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 because I started with the idea of like, Okay, I'm gonna go up and then I would 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 Thailand, and I had a swarm of bees covering me and I was took a bunch of stungs. I was stung all over a bunch of things. I was stung all over the place I had to go on. I think I had to take antibaque. So I wasn't probably one hundred percent when I did that jump. I did the jump, and I don't know what it was. I didn't land right or my body was like there
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 nuts, I mean, that's not a big no. That's not like the box in London, which is you know major.
You feel like you're still recovering from that.
From the London Then it messed me up.
Yeah, irreversibly, you feel like probably on some level.
Yeah, there's other things I do that messed me up. Like I used to drink kerosene, which I would float on top of the water and 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 those ones now much more careful on some level because I have a daughter, So I don't want something. You know, you think about life differently and how you're going to push yourself differently and what you can and can't do. Yeah, the London box.
I don't think I would ever do something like that again, did.
It change from the moment you held your do it like when she was born? Like?
Not right when she was When she was born 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 legs swelled up from a dima ripped through the chain. I was getting shocked. I spit some elect light 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.
But when I was saying is there anything you're scared of? You just mentioned something happening to your daughter that it's very real.
When she she stretches and she goes into splits and things that when I'm watching hers, it's so painful for me.
To while imagine how she feels when you're putting a knife through your nurse.
Then I talked to her and I'm very care Yeah.
How does she react when she sees this?
Well, she's grown up with it, so she's I think she's like, even though it seems super crazy, I'm pretty after really trust the person that's showing me, the teacher, and you know, 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. It was an enclosure this size of just like this space and there are six
black mambas in there. But the thing is, and I was with this man named Neville, South Africa, man that wants to show people that you don't need to when you see a black number because they end up in schools, they end up killing people, and it's because people react to them and they try to push them over there, and as soon as you do that, the black mamber
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 it uncome, just be at peace and just stay very calm. They're very
instinctual like most animals like 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 near them, right, And it's just because that person has thissch 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. This is the one, 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. And afrigat they call it the two step, so you get one step and the second step and you're done. But sitting there with them, even though I was like, I knew I had to just follow it exactly what he said, and I observed first, I watched him for a few days and I realized he knows what he's doing.
He believes in everything that he's saying. And I sat with him in there and then and then when one started to come towards you know, when it was close, he said, uh, you know, he said, don't worry if something goes wrong, I'll take the hit. And I was like, I think I'm ready to go. I think, can I get out of here?
Can I go?
And He's like, nope, because you can't leave until until it's what. You can't do any abrupt movement. So that was the craziest thing I've ever done in my life.
You've got really close to it as well, didn't get really.
Close, but again I trusted. I trusted him completely.
How does someone like him build that skill without dying in the process.
Well, he was bitting a few times, so he did go into a cooma once. He had a snake snake related injury where he lost his legs. He has one leg and he still does it. Yeah, and he sits with them, so people will come and see him and
know that if they've seen this. It kind of gets a 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 mama 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.
And there's no way of training a mamba, so no, yeah.
And these are wild, these are rescues. He keeps them and then releases them back.
So yeah, no, you know, yeah, I mean just listening to that and you say, it's the hardest thing, craziest you've ever done.
Not hard, but the scariest, scariest. It wasn't hard. It was the opposite of heart. It's just all you have to do is just sit still. Yeah, but you have to stay still and you have to be you have to be at ease.
Did you have to prepare that before you went in?
Oh, I look like I'm about to like run to the bathroom the whole time.
I think all of us, I think us would get in there. There's there's an interesting thing about animals in that way, isn't there. There's my mon teacher who spend 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, because yeah, we we think we have to dominate and like show them and then they'll run away.
But it depends some you have to so it varies some you have to show that you're not afraid and that you're strong and you're not going to be an easy target. Or they say with sharks, what you have to do is if you're with the bun, if you're around bull sharks and the usher whatever, you just look at them and keep looking because they don't want to challenge. They're so evolved, they don't want to have to waste any energy. They're so perfect they can serve energy in
the most efficient way. So if you're looking at it, it knows that it would it may get a fight back. But if you're not looking, then.
Right, yeah, wow, think about energy.
But he sits in there for hours and when I met him, he was just sitting with the forest cobra, another snake that could easily kill you, but he's just like drinking his coffee. So yeah, he was amazing.
Wow, And as he got to a place of fearlessness, Like would he say that he feels fearless or no, he feels no.
I think no. I think he respects and loves these snakes. He thinks they're beautiful and incredible. So it's not yet sure he's fearless with that specifically, Yeah, but I think it's more like he has a just such a deep respectful or like you said, like you know, bowing down to Yeah, it's that.
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.
I think it's the same when you met the monk, you immediately felt his knowledge and his faith and his beliefs and his discipline, his wisdom, right, And I think with the people I've met, all of them, I felt that and as soon as I felt that, I was okay to try things. So I think lots of it has to do it just trusting the person and their abilities and their understanding of what they're doing, and then and then from that it's a leap of faith.
It's beautiful to think about what you do that way, because 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, right, a mindset.
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. When you're performing magic, it's the failures that you learn from. Right. It's like you're performing a card trick and you fail, Well, that's where you learn and you're constantly learning. That's what's amazing about being a magicians. There's a constant learning curve
and it never stops. You're always actic singer, always, even if it's the same trick that you've worked on for for me thirty years, some of them forty, whatever it is, and I'm still changing, I'm still learning, and that that's for me the exciting part of everything.
Yeah, you're constantly going from becoming the expert, going back to the beginner, become an expert. That cycle doesn't.
Stop, right, and therefore you're never an expert, you know.
Yeah, it's really cool. I love that. What's the illusion that 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.
Probably kissing the King Kobra, just because I understood that the risk was it was you know, I understood the risk, So that one I was that took me a long time to mentally prepare for that one took me a long time.
How many times had you been in the pen before you did that one? Or was that in that time that night? No?
No, I know I took time on that one. I wasn't ready so I left came back months later. I tried to understand the behavior of the King Kobra. I met with my friends that had King Kobra's that undersea. I mean that one was a pretty intense learning curve because you know, they strike fast and yeah, if it gets you, you know, So that I think of everything I've done, that that might have been the most intimidating one.
Probably I think that's very legitimate kissing a King Kobra.
Yeah, because all of 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 Kobra, 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 are you scared of dying?
I'm not a r of dying, but I understand. You know, my mother died in my arm. Some I don't. And the last word she said to me is God is love. But since having a daughter, it's like you want to live for as long as possible. But previous to having a daughter, I didn't even I was like, yeah, just whatever now because of my daughter, I want to not either do something.
It's like, oo, what was it like losing your mother? So sorry for your lost.
She got sick when I was sixteen. She died when I was twenty. 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 trig 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. So that was that
was good. And I was so close to my mother was she was my best friend, she was 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 going to be okay.
It was when I was buried alive. It sounds crazy, but like you just the I think the energy is always there, right, So I was buried alive and I was like 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 days day forty, I was having these terrible heart palpitations, like I mean no, but I thought I was going to die or something, right, and I and I went in my head again. Bob gave me aside, like you know, what should I do? And at that exact moment, you know, I could see the tower Bridge over there, and this is 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 open up this banner that they made and it just said God is Love and exactly and that word 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's like her presence became so strong.
That's sowerful. Yeah, that's really special.
Yeah. Do you look for her and I don't need to? Yeah, well yeah, yeah, I didn't think of that, but yeah.
I've had a couple of experiences recently. I was officiating a wedding not last Christmas, the Christmas before December before, and the couple that I had introduced had met through meditations that I had led for them, and so I was leading a meditation for their wedding ceremony because they I'd 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 it, so they didn't
join it. And it was amazing because we were Interulom in Mexico and this I had my eyes closed, 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 sore, and for most of us who had our eyes closed, we didn't see it. 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 and we didn't see it because we had a rise towards meditation, but beautifully just and there's just one barfly. No one really saw it. And it's just I love things like that when people have such a strong semblance to signs.
Yeah, there are signs everywhere if you pay attention to them, if you look for them, if you're open to them, and it's easy to block off from all that stuff, but it's like, yeah, if you open to it, it's everywhere.
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 wh will say, oh, yeah, because I can explain everything. It kind of proves that there is no right other worldly, supernatural or mystic or whatever language you want to use for it.
But you seem to have somewhat of a well, it's yeah, I mean, it's more about like being open to it. So if you're open to it, you'll you'll find it because that's what you're looking for, right, But if you're like, then you won't. And it's like, I feel like the better approach is to be open to it so you can experience these incredible things.
You know, what's one of the most amazing things you've experienced by being open?
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 you say that, but yeah, 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 my journal when I was in the box of ourvideos. 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. Because people kept saying, are you bored in the box, I'm like, boredom? Is it choice? Like you choose to be bored because your mind has so many things that 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 bored him is a choice. And then there was a lot of numbers and mapping out like the amount of time and graphs and but those were two of the very strong prominent thoughts 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 distracts, no phone, no this, no that, no food, no distractions really, 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.
Yeah, we were talking about it earlier, Like you start realizing that this guy 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, this guy's 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. Yeah, and there's a sense of comfort. There's a sense of comfort when you see I remember my friend was given us a tour of Oxford. He was studying at Oxford University, and he was going around. 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 him were like loving this. And we were with someone and then we walked into the town center and they were like, oh my god, there's an urban outfits here. It's like the clothes store. And we're all like, what is wrong with you? But it's like for them, that was a sense of comfort. Yeah. I was like, wait a minute, like this is what Alice in Wonderland has written.
Everything is perspective and that person maybe just as excited about that as this person is about this, which is amazing and it's so fascinating.
It's like, yeah, who have you met or what have you done that is just shifted your perspective the most in the last few decades. Is this a person you met, a place you went to.
That just I mean there's so many it's just a well books books or that's like a big one, right, and just books just you know. I think like what books do to the mind is identical to what exercise and does for the body. That's the main problem with the phones is it's really taken away, Like my ability to just read a book has changed because I'm so
distracted by you know. So it's like but it's like just being able to like open up your mind and and explore these incredible worlds that were meticulously done by these brilliant writers. Is that studied psychology and philosophy and that outpouring of of of just you know, knowledge. But so I think books would be the first thing that have like that have like.
Impacted any favorites, anyone that you saw.
Cervantes then his life story was incredible. Servantes, 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 is incredible because he was the son of a surgeon. He grew up very poor Servantes, so he went to fight for his country and during during the Inquisition, I guess he was maimed on his left sides. He was paralyzed on his left side, he couldn't use his arm, and he was given the equivalent
of a purple heart. So on his way back, the boat was seized, like they took him captive, and he was tortured and beaten for years. Right, he wasn't able to really, he couldn't get out, and his brother finally raised enough money that he was by the way from the monasteries. Whether they 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 twelve years. While he was in prison, he wrote Don Quixote, which is this book about a guy that wants to save the world, to make the world a better place. But he finished it. When he came out. The book was published and it became like the number one book 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 Cardinio, which is that characteris edible, but that when he was basically when he came out, they never gave him his his his his earnings, and he died completely broken. The story of Don Quixote is a guy that wants to make the world a better place, but it's not possible, you know, which is what his
mission was. Yeah, well that's a great book.
Yeah, thank you. How does that speak to you now, Like, how does his dilemma speak?
I mean, it's related to everything right, hope for the best and expect the worst. It's the theme of his book.
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.
It to be hopeful.
Yeah, exactly like that ability to Yeah, it's.
Right to absorb to to truly, 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.
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 mamber like kills you. Like that that's
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, nine 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?
I don't think of it like that. Okay, 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 know, and it's like it's amazing to like explore that, you know.
I like that perspective. I like that perspective. Everyone has. Everyone can feel that way if they want to. It's they do.
Yeah, Like everybody has their thing that's unique to them. It might be that, and there's so many, you know, it's like it's like the skill that I respect on my mother being the best mother ever, right that, But that's hard. That's like complete surrender, dedication and belief.
And past you know, that's that's a special source.
Yeah, that's there. That's their passion, that's what that's what lights their fire.
Yeah, you avoided You avoided fire for a while, like you was wanting to do that. You finally succeed with the bridge dives. I mean, how did that feel? Why were you avoiding it?
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 Carina who had like walked over traversed a volcano and by the way, she she almost died doing that. 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 respect becks and love fires the same way Neville does with the Black Mambas. 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.
I mean, but you you had a set amount of time that you had to like, right quick, Yeah it was quick. Yeah, it was quick. Yeah. Did it live up to your feeling of wanting to do with fire?
Yeah? Do I want to do it the game? Yeah? No, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Because you're always thinking like, oh, well, you know it was bright out, it was a nighttime would have been you know, so yeah, you're always thinking about like, you know, that's not like the Box, which is one I can't ever do again. That's one that's like that's interesting.
So my the way that this show can was. 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, Oh, this guy ran a mile and four minutes, so that 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, and then it just snowballs and it affects people around. And I think that's what's interesting about the magicians that I love, is they create this fantasy land. Right, they do these things that seem impossible. But the ones that I like are really doing things that are actually possible, but we think it's not possible. And then it relates to everybody because 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 Geograph, they can be a photographer. So it's like 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 feel like it's as close to magic as possible because it
defies what we know to be possible. Well, I think it's what's amazing about humanity is we just keep improving, and we keep learning, and we keep evolving to become better and better and better. So so yeah, so I think part of the search for these fascinating people, or this love of magic, stems from that idea that everybody is basically the same, like there is nobody that's different things,
and you can apply that thinking to anything. And so I'm inspired by the people that do these things, not just magicians, but the people have been searching for throughout the world that just push the limits of what we would assume to be possible.
I love that answer. Yeah, that's brilliant, that idea that every single person gets to kind of pass on the batter, right, Like the idea of like I open up the door and now it's open. And 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 right completely pivoted my whole life journey. And whoever that is for me were open to it.
And I've understood that that's right, and.
We also need to be open to that. Like, who's that person who could just completely or perspective that could completely shift and change your trajectory? That's right, it's pretty phenomenal.
And it's not and anybody. And what's nice about that is then therefore it's like anything can inspire you to do, to do anything that you that you want or that you dream of her. And that's the stuff that once again, that's what I love about. When I studied these incredible performers, these magicians, these vaudavillions, these dime circus, I would read these things. I'd say, wait, how is this guy 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 to Deani because Whudini 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 let that was like the planting of the seed. Right.
So it's like and just all these fascinating characters throughout the history of magic, 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 that you shop and so you know, and it's a constant, you know, which is part of the thing that I love about all these types of feelings or or people or or inspirations, Like you found your your monk who led you into this whole your brain change you open the door, right.
And it seems like that's why you will never be done because that's what drives you.
And that's why we'll all never be done.
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 end on purpose with a final five of fast five. These have to be answered in one word to one sentence maximum. Okay, 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?
I mean, I like, always surround yourself with people that will inspire you and help you grow.
That was a good one good advice. Question number two, what's the worst advice you've ever heard or received?
Don't go for your dream? Don't you're not going to succeed. Don't even bother worst advice?
Yeah, I think a lot of people have had that.
If you listen to the people that are that, they're gonna 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 some thing. You'll get, you know, some version of what you want to do.
So, if you wanted your life to leave behind three messages, what would they be?
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 surrendered 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 Yeah what we were talking at, allow yourself to see the blue in the sky, you know.
Yeah, I love allow I love that. Allow yourself to be amazed because today, yeah, we don't allow ourselves because we're kind of used to it. We don't even realize even though we all make phones look bad, but this is actually phenomenal that exists. It's amazing that allow yourself to be amazed. A is a great line. I love that question number four. When your mother left you with the words God is love. What does that mean to you?
To 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.
That's the ultimate.
Yeah, 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 molecules and atoms.
So I think we're everything is connected, and everything is one, and I don't think there's a beginning or an andy, and energy isn't either created nor destroyed, so it's always it. So that whole.
Fifth and final question, if you could be asked this 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?
Wow? So one law.
It can be as tangible or intangible as you like it.
Yes, So then it should be the law of love.
Simple.
Yeah, I'd like just that surrender that like, because that's there's no ego in that, there's.
No no ego. Is definitely it, but it's so hard.
To you know, it's like we're so locked in all this stuff. But yeah, giving up just like surrender.
When do you feel you have the least ego? When do you feel you experience no ego?
When I'm with my daughter is it's like that's like everything disappears.
David Blaine, thank you so much for your time, your energy. Everyone who's been listening and watching, make sure you go and watch. Then you show David Blaine, do not attempt. It's on that geo. I can't wait for you to see it. It's phenomenal. You got to hear some of the stories here out March twenty third, 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 as Las Vegas residency at the Encore Theater and at the Win. 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 thank you. Really wonderful getting to know you for you too, Thank you If you love this podcast you 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 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.