Some may have heard of an eccentric Dutchman by the name of Wim Hof.  What’s so extraordinary about him is that he has “the ability to control the thermostat” in his head.  The idea behind that seems hard to believe, but it’s been documented on video for his daredevil feats that seem to defy normal human threshold.  But for Justin Rosales, a Penn State graduate, the ability to defy normal human standards became the catalyst the drove him onto a vision quest and eventually led him to publishing his story:

Becoming the Iceman — Pushing Past Perceived Limits

Even before getting a signed copy from Justin (be jealous, it was a dream come true) I went online to see what was in store.

Upon checking Amazon’s customer reviews for this book, I immediately felt prepared to take the challenge of “Becoming the Iceman” after I read the review of a very candid and apparently satisfied customer:

“This is no Hocus Pocus!!!!! It will set your life FREE!!!!”

Apparently, I was about to be set free.

After a few issues of making sure he had my correct address, I began to take my literary endeavor at understanding the struggles that the protagonist of this story had.

Justin had no clue how to control his body temperature using his mind alone when he first started, but he saved up money by working as a dishwasher and traveled around the world learning from his mentor, Wim Hof.

In the very beginning of the book, one learns quickly that Justin has always had an interest in psychology and mankind’s development, so with that comes the result of his desire to understand his own mental abilities and psyche. This includes more than just controlling his body temperature.  The actual form that this body heat producing ability comes from is based of “Tummo”, a Tibetan meditation that creates heat.  It’s apparently very soothing and blissful.  For Justin, the major underlying theme of his experiences is based on the simple premise of overcoming challenge.  For himself, it was learning from feeling cold temperatures that one can understand to control it.

Kind of a trippy thought.  He used the challenge he sought to overcome as the teacher to guide him.

He also tells of how he trained with friends, family and all sorts of foreign excursionists, all reflecting back to overcoming a challenge.  After combining his autobiographical experiences with the original Iceman and his personal background, the story takes shape and the completion of his goal was realized:  Anyone can do it and it doesn’t require anything more a person’s determination to endure through all capacities of pain and discomfort.

At the end of his book on page 307 he includes his personal method that others can try at their personal risk.  You can also check out Justin’s tutorial on Youtube, and if interested, you should also check out Wim Hof in action (dude the guy runs a half-marathon barefooted in -26 degrees Celsius weather).

He has several methods for acclimating to the cold and controlling one’s body temperature (i.e. cold showers, ice-water buckets, ice buckets, foot immersions, surface extremity exposure and more).

They all seemed a bit barbaric, but I think I might try these out so I don’t have to deal with having colder fingers than a skeleton.

Overall, Justin’s story was decent enough and very personal. You could tell that it was written from the heart.  The editing of the book is pretty bad, though, but according to Justin, the editorial process and writing of the book was rushed so that it was on shelves before winter, probably because this wouldn’t be the hottest seller during the summer (get it?).

The best part though was that besides being a Penn State student, Justin has a crazy story from beginning to end and, if anything, his unorthodox writing style adds a very “real” feeling to the the story, making it seem more like a journal than a book, despite how hard I would grind my teeth while reading it.

If you’re tired of wearing shoes to class, or you want to finally stand out for once and show off how long you can sit in the snow, take a look at Justin’s adventure in “Becoming the Iceman” for only $17  in paperback.

If I can get into this, maybe I’ll make a video response to see if it works!