• Welcome to the DeeperBlue.com Forums, the largest online community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing. To gain full access to the DeeperBlue.com Forums you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

    • Join over 47,943+ fellow diving enthusiasts from around the world on this forum
    • Participate in and browse from over 531,990+ posts.
    • Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
    • Post your own photos or view from 7,455+ user submitted images.
    • All this and much more...

    You can gain access to all this absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!

hypnosis

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 90 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

rddk

Active Member
Feb 25, 2010
184
16
33
Hi, i would like to ask you if anyone knows about studies or attempt to gain any help in freediving with the hypnosis. I had a friend that is a dentist and she did some operations withouth anestetics with the hypnosis, because some people are allergic to anestetics. In medicine hypnosis has been used in lot of things for examnple operations, or by the psicologist for help people to overcome traumas. I've seen a programe where they shows a person that wanna stop smoking been helped by hypnosis, infact, while he was in that state the doctor did a work on him to combine bad feelings with the cigarette smoking. So i was thinked that this method could be applied to freediving to improuve performance, has anyone already tried it, or knows studies about it? Thak you very much.
 
Hi Rddk,

You should contact Ulf Dextegen from Sweden, he does 9'11" statics without much or any physical training and he has made Hypnosis his key focus.

http://www.youtube.com/user/UlfDextegen

Read this Article on Sebastian Naslunds' website about Ulf Dexter:
Svenska rekord i fridykning - en kort historik över två av dem.

Google: Translation:
A static geek

For over three years, Ulf Dextegen been obsessed andhållning. It led to several Swedish record in the crotch "static andhållning", and later a bronze medal at a world championship and an overall victory in the pool championships where also the cross-swimming in a breath included. Here his story.

After almost 3.5 years with regular static training and racing, I have now decided to give me a much needed break ... if it's forever long we'll see ... I must get away from performance-spray to find a more playful attitude to freediving ... less depth gauge and timing to thereby better meet the inner experience of diving ...


So far is ...

... My best competition 8:43.

... My best time in training 9:11.

Since I started, I've done:

- 17 tävlingsdyk

- 126 träningsdyk

- 40 dives were between 8-9 minutes

- 4 dives that were 9 minutes or longer (9:00, 9:11, 9:02, 9:02).

Each evaluating the conditions were obviously a maxning!.

June 2006: Attended a course in diving when I was 46 years.

Jan2007: I start training static, got up at 6:01 with the strong LMC.

June 2007: My first 7a.

November 2007: My first approved competitions, Åland, 7:12.

Dec 2007: My first 8a.

Apr 2008: Changing technology and ends with warm-ups, now is the no-warm-up that counts!

Turns my first Swedish record, 7:57.

Nov 2008: New Swedish record, 8:17.

Jan 2009: New Swedish (and Nordic) record, 8:43.

March 2009: My first 9a

May 2009: Won the Championship in the pool, diving, 8:09 in the STA (GOLD), 165m in DYN (bronze), overall winner (GOLD).

August 2009: Bronze at World Championships, 8:29

May 2010: Runs for 9 + minutes of Pool Championship, I have a bad day: Red Card (DQSP at 8:02).

The first year did I have no idea how I would train. Everything was new and I groped my way. I started like most divers with warm-ups as I experimented freely with (number and length) before maxningen. I started competing and had three red cards before I managed to get my first white.

The second year I had a little more meat on the bones and decided to skip most of the "parameters" you can imagine turning on (eg yoga, get fitter, start eating better foods, exercising andhållning in different series, etc.) , and instead switch to no-warm-ups with direktmaxning and to fully rely on the mental techniques I have mastered (hypnosis, NLP, Reiki, Meditation TM). I wanted to see how long I could hold my breath with the help of mental strength (and little physical exercise) because I had plans to work with hypnosis in the future (as I do today, see HYPNOS, NLP, EFT ... samt ÖVERSÄTTNINGAR och IT-konsulting - Hem).

The advantage of the no-warm-ups is that the diving response starts earlier compared with warm-ups. For me start contractions now after only 1:30 to 2:30 (instead of the warm-ups when they first came after the 4:30 to 5:30 minutes). The body saves oxygen before allowing longer andhållningstider and oxygen falls at a slower curve.

The disadvantage of no-warm-ups are great to start diving response as mkt earlier. It may no longer that great beauty phase before contractions start. Blood pressure and carbon dioxide levels escalate much more rapidly, which results that you have to put up with "hell anxiety" for a long time. At the Karolinska Institute in 2009, we measured up to my blood pressure increases from 125/80 just before andhållningen started to rise to over 300 / 190 during the final period. My saturation (SaO2) fell simultaneously from 98% down to 38% but I was still quite clear in my head (an untrained person faints when the oxygen level falls below 60%).

To put up with "hell anxiety" I put myself into hypnosis (trance) that acts as "dental injection '. The anxiety is, of course there all the time but I am not aware of the equally strong. I begin my trance about 15 minutes before the Official Top when I sit and ujjay-breathing on the pool side. Immediately I go into the light trance and try to stay in that state, even when I then go into the water one minute before the OT, although I have to communicate with the outside world, and I close my eyes all the time. In OT, when the dive started, I immediately deepens the trance by counting me down from 25 down to 0, and for each digit drops me deeper and deeper into trance, and I have to catch down to 0 before contractions start. Obviously this is harder than when I breathe.

The deeper the trance, I get to the latter, I upload the hands of the edge. I lay there in a trance in order to manage to stand out against the anxiety I'm experiencing. As long as I can endure the increasing blood pressure and the increasing levels of carbon dioxide so I lie perfectly still, but will end I reach a point where I fall out of the trance. It is now when I put my hands up on the edge, and only then will I hear from my time coaching. A bad day, I upload the hands of already at 4:20, a bad day at 6:20, and a good day at 8 min. So far, I've never been to a 100% trance (the best maybe 70%?). My theory is that the day I get to 100% trance and I will put your hands at the earliest at 8:40, and when should I be able to hold out at least another minute. Wishful thinking?

The third year I got to my personal best 9:11 and I came up crystal clear with 15-30 seconds left to give (!).

This was also a World Cup year I focused really hard on because I was directly qualified for the World Cup as 2nd in the world rankings (for the second year in a row!). During the summer, I had trouble getting coaching and I got into a severe form slump. But just two weeks before the World Cup, I got a 9 and I went to Aarhus with confidence. But the World Cup is a big race and I almost missed the finals: In qualifying heat, I was not into my trance, partly because of "mental overcharging" and partly due to environmental interference. Pure militancy took me to 7:33 and I came up with as the penultimate man to the final.

As a finale the day after I had released on my own requirements to make up to 9 (because it was so bad the day before). So in the finals, I was set to flop, I had surely taken me to the finals at a World Cup, and perhaps because I got into the trance. I got up at 8:29, which resulted in a World Cup bronze (which should have been silver!).

Fourth Year däemot went really slow. I had a strong "backlash" in the aftermath of the World Cup. I trained on a regular basis but found it difficult to perform. There were many training sessions when I gave up already at 4-6 min. Not fun at all when I know that my actual minimum level is around 8:20 so training became more and more a burden instead of being pleasurable. It went really bad. At best, I made some 8's. But in the nick of time came off it, just two weeks before the Championship, I got to 9:02. I drew my bow too hard on SM: the gold was a child when I went to +9 minutes but comes up already at 8:02 with the LMC. I was helväck and do not remember what coach George said at the end except that I was alone in the water. Just a bad day or some other unknown factor that played to? Maybe I competed for a bit this year?

But, overall, the moral is that regular serious training produces results (those interested can look at my dykstatistik below)!

Can I hold my breath for more than nine minutes so can others!

I have succeeded despite extraordinary lungs and a (perhaps) for the old body, with far too poor condition and my unwillingness to live as an ascetic.

BUT, without help, I would never have come this far!

So a BIG WARM THANKS to above all Goran Ahlby (Master), Magnus Hedbys (Compadres) and Mark Dextegen (The boy) has been my main coaches.

Thanks to Sebastian Naslund and Peter Boivie as mentor and inspiration.

Nor should we forget Martin Wikstrom who coached me for two Swedish records, and Anders Larsson, who stood by my side at the World Championships bronze.

Fun facts, I have been holding their breath on television three times:

- Science Wonderland, Knowledge Channel (7:30).

- Eric O sandwich, Kanal 5 (6:30).

- Fact Chills, SVT 2 (8:24).

- TV4's Talent wanted me to set up in 2010, but I said no nicely :-)

- P1 Documentary will broadcast a half-hour documentary about me, Static Apnea, hypnosis, and on my participation at the World Championships in 2009, by David Rune, sometime in fall 2010.

- Ulf Dextegen, June 2010
 
Last edited:
That was a great article thanks Kars, and kudos to Ulf. Not many top athletes are able/willing to say so much, so openly.
Periods of "backlash" happen.... one year or longer... so just go with the flow Ulf!
 
I often use self-hypnosis and self-suggestion before competition dives. It can make a big difference, especially if I'm feeling nervous and not so relaxed.

However, it doesn't have that much impact on training dives, as I'm usually feeling pretty relaxed anyway.
 
Some years ago I experimented with a static apnea technique; as I neared the first contraction, with fully packed lungs (uncomfortable), I would exhale at least a liter or more of air through my mouth (this around 4'00"). With less air, I was able to perform the yogic technique which prevents the contractions; using a nose clip, you 'exhale' against the nose clip with infinitesimal force. Of course no air will go anywhere since you have the nose clip on. If the force of the exhale is small enough, the contractions absolutely stop and remain stopped. The heart rate plunges down to 18 beats per minute or less and oxygen consumption nearly stops. However, it produces a profoundly horrible feeling of suffocation. Nevertheless, using this technique I was able to gain about 45-50 seconds on the static time, despite *exhaling* one or two liters of air at 4'00" and then performing the technique for about 70-90 seconds, after which I couldn't withstand the suffocation and let the contractions happen normally.

If you could use hypnosis to allow yourself to 'withstand' the horrible suffocating feeling that this yogic technique creates, I think you could hold your breath for 12-15 minutes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kars
Putting up an 'exhale force' however minimal is still having a tension in - presumably- diaphragm. Holding that seems labouring. Maybe you should have a 'relieve' moment build in? Say after 30 sec, like you were breathing slowly.

This reminds me of mine most special static I ever did. A terrible itch in my throat was troubling my competition breath-hold from the start. I tried swallowing a bit of water, but it only got worse. It induced an involuntary swallowing reflex which I couldn't suppress. So after just 1'30" I was thinking about giving up. Than the idea came to retreat from the rest of the body, the swallowing reflex and focus on a spot in my mind/brain, the frontal lobe, the lower en part near the centre of the brain and see where I could get. The minutes flew by and I noticed that I did not NOT have any contractions! - usually they start at ~2' - 2'30". At 6' I was still doing very nice, and clear in my mind and was thinking, this is too easy! In the agreement with my coach to do no more than 6'45" and getting the NR back I followed Rik's counting down, I surfaced with ease. It was the most surprising static in my static history.

A former neighbouring women, from Indonesian decent told me she had a sort of breathing water routine, circulating water through mouth and nose when she did breath holds games with her brother. Her pb was 7'... <not verified by me though>

So I wonder what principles and techniques there are to be discovered in the future.
 
Why the exhale?

Need to exhale 1-2L of air, otherwise the technique is impossible. To apply a microscopic exhale pressure requires that the lungs not be full. Otherwise it can't be done. With no packing, by 4'00" the lungs would shrink enough to do the technique without any exhale. But with packing certainly the exhale is necessary.
 
Back from the first part of Apnea Academy freediving course instructor, we did 2 hours of static a day so i had a lot of time to pratice different things, i found my thing, i discovered that if i focus myself immediatly on the vasocostriction i feel at my hands and feet i fall down in a strange state wich is really near to sleeping mode, few times i fell like i felt asleep and had a sort of dream when i exit of this state cuz i had an involontary mouvement of my leeft arm i get a buit scared cuz i thinked i copuld have drown, but when i checked out i was ok i took a look at my watch and were passed 4 minutes like 3 seconds for me, than they gave the signal to exit for do the next exercise. After this experience i decieded to reply this type of training and i performed very good statics i did all the static training they told me very easily, than they gave us 1 attempt to do the max static we liked, i did 5.30 minutes really easily i enjoyed every single part of it, the best thing was that i even didn't suffer the need of breathing for even 1 second, i decided to surface cuz aftert i "waked up" i was at 5.28 and even if i was ok i gave up cuz if u took a samba or you didn't surface perfectly clear you get frozen and do not became an instructor, so since wasn't my target to do my max there and didn't want to have any risk of doing stupid things i surfaced. I'm really happy about this result cuz now i have 4 weeks before go to sharm and perform the second part of the course, in this time i wanna do so attempts in static and see how far i could go, i'm really sure that when i did 5.30 i still had lot of fuel to perform a 6++ static. In the same time i got in contact with a psichiatric that perform hypnosis and we're talking about making a static in this type of state. I'll give ya more info asap
 
DeeperBlue.com - The Worlds Largest Community Dedicated To Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing

ABOUT US

ISSN 1469-865X | Copyright © 1996 - 2026 DeeperBlue Global Media Limited.

DeeperBlue.com is an independent digital media platform dedicated to Scuba Diving, Freediving, Ocean Advocacy, and Dive Travel.

Since 1996, we’ve been informing, educating, and inspiring the global diving community through trusted news, features, and shared community experience.

ADVERT