Wim Hof Method Dangers: 30 Documented Incidents and What They Share

/// AUDIO TRANSMISSION · EN

Listen to this transmission · 2-host podcast version

0:00 / 13:41

/// AUDIO TRANSMISSION · ES

Listen to this transmission · 2-host podcast version

0:00 / 15:54

Yes — the Wim Hof Method has caused documented deaths. At least 33 fatalities have been linked to the WHM breathing protocol practiced in or near water (Carney 2025). The mechanism is shallow-water blackout: voluntary hyperventilation drives blood CO₂ from 40 mmHg to as low as 17–20 mmHg, eliminating the breath-trigger signal. Practitioners lose consciousness underwater without warning. The dry-land breathing protocol, practiced by a healthy adult without contraindications, carries a different risk profile.

TL;DR — What 33 documented deaths share

• At least 33 deaths linked to the Wim Hof Method (Carney, July 2025), all involving WHM breathing combined with water exposure.
• The mechanism: shallow-water blackout. Hyperventilation drops PaCO₂ from 40 mmHg to 17–20 mmHg, suppressing the urge to breathe. Loss of consciousness underwater follows without warning.
• The dry-land breathing science is real. Kox 2014 PNAS — 12 men, modulated immune response — stands. The breathwork-on-a-mat protocol does not carry the same drowning risk.
• Hard rule: never practice WHM breathing in or near water, before swimming, or before any breath-hold.
• The California civil case (Metzger v. Innerfire, $67M) was dismissed July 2024 on evidentiary grounds — not on a finding that the method is safe.

---

We praised the 2014 Radboud paper in our previous transmission. The science is real. Twelve ordinary men. Four days of training. They modulated, on command, what medical textbooks call the "involuntary" immune response. That paper stands. The peer-reviewed record behind the Wim Hof Method is not in dispute.

The application has killed people.

Scott Carney spent a decade as Wim Hof's most prominent scientific advocate. He wrote What Doesn't Kill Us (2017), became a certified WHM instructor, trained thousands of practitioners. In 2023 he began publishing a different story. By July 2025, Carney had documented at least 33 deaths linked to the practice and written: "Since I first met Hof in 2013 he has become increasingly erratic and even dangerous." That sentence came from a man who spent ten years trying to prove the opposite.

This transmission is about what those 33 deaths share. The mechanism is not mysterious. It is published in the diving-medicine literature, well understood by physiologists, and completely avoidable — if practitioners know it exists.

Most don't. The discourse failed them. Here's the discourse, fixed.

How does the Wim Hof Method actually cause drowning?

The WHM breathing protocol — 30–40 cycles of deep, rhythmic hyperventilation followed by a breath-hold — has a documented physiological consequence that is completely separate from its immune-modulating effects. Hyperventilation strips carbon dioxide from the blood faster than the body replaces it. Blood CO₂ (measured as PaCO₂) drops from its resting level of roughly 40 mmHg to as low as 17–20 mmHg after a full WHM round.

"Hyperventilation before breath-holding lowers the arterial partial pressure of CO₂ and delays the re-emergence of the stimulus to breathe."

Here is the problem. The brain's signal to breathe is not triggered by falling oxygen — it is triggered by rising CO₂. You do not feel yourself running out of oxygen. You feel the urge to breathe only when CO₂ climbs above a threshold of approximately 45–60 mmHg. Hyperventilation starts you far below that threshold. A practitioner who hyperventilates, then holds their breath underwater, extends the breath-hold well past the point where their oxygen supply can sustain consciousness — and has no warning before they black out.

"Loss of consciousness may ensue without forewarning because the respiratory stimulus from hypoxaemia is weak."

This is shallow-water blackout. It is well described in the freediving literature. It does not discriminate by fitness level, swimming ability, or prior experience with the method. The drownings documented among WHM practitioners have occurred in trained athletes, former soldiers, healthy adults, and teenagers. The common factor is not inexperience. It is the combination of voluntary hyperventilation with submersion.

The cold component adds a second layer of risk. Mike Tipton, Professor of Human and Applied Physiology at the University of Portsmouth, reviewed the physiological chain in The Lancet (2003): cold shock produces an immediate gasp reflex and uncontrolled hyperventilation, a powerful cardiorespiratory response that — if the airway is underwater at the moment of triggering — accelerates aspiration and drowning.

"A fall in skin temperature elicits a powerful cardiorespiratory response, termed 'cold shock,' comprising an initial gasp, hypertension, and hyperventilation despite a profound hypocapnia."

Datta and Tipton detailed the neural pathways for this response in the Journal of Applied Physiology (2006), documenting that cold-shock respiratory responses override both conscious and autonomic respiratory controls — they happen before the practitioner can suppress them.

"The respiratory responses to skin cooling override both conscious and other autonomic respiratory controls and may act as a precursor to drowning."

WHM breathing followed by cold-water submersion layers two independent drowning mechanisms. Either one alone is dangerous. Together they are, in Tipton's words, "about the most dangerous thing you can do when you go into cold water."

What do the 33 documented Wim Hof Method deaths share?

The documented incidents fall into a consistent pattern across geography and demographics. Scott Carney, working from police reports, coroner records, and family accounts, catalogued 13 drownings in his initial June 2023 investigation, updated to 21 deaths and 18 injuries by January 2024, and at least 33 deaths by July 2025.

"Since I first met Hof in 2013 he has become increasingly erratic and even dangerous."

Several documented cases illustrate the shared mechanism:

Andrew Encinas, 27, Labor Day 2019. A social media entrepreneur practicing at a backyard pool party. He told family he wanted to do his Wim Hof method in the pool. Children at the party noticed he appeared to be sleeping in the shallow end. His brother found him in a "meditative position" underwater, hands clasped in front of his chest, unresponsive. No struggle. No call for help. He had lost consciousness before he could surface.

Christopher Kuyvenhoven, 23, January 2019. A former soldier, aspiring Navy SEAL candidate. Found unresponsive in a hot tub at Western Washington University. He had been practicing WHM breathing before the breath-hold. He was submerged for approximately 20 minutes before discovery. He did not survive.

Nova Xavier, July 17, 2023. Nova told his mother "Of course it's safe, mom. It's Wim Hof" when she raised concerns about the hyperventilation exercises. He had purchased Hof's Classic Course online for $100. At a community pool, his mother — Catherine Xavier — was timing his breath holds when he failed to resurface. He was already dead.

"A few minutes later she noticed that he hadn't come up for air. Her son was already dead."

Madelyn Rose Metzger, 17, August 2022, Long Beach, California. Found face-down in the family pool. Her father, Raphael Metzger, filed a $67 million civil suit against Wim Hof and Innerfire in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming negligent failure to warn about drowning risk. A California court dismissed the claim in July 2024, ruling insufficient evidence established the girl was performing WHM breathing in the pool at the time — not that the breathing exercises cannot cause drowning, but that causation in this specific case could not be proven to the court's standard.

The Dutch newspaper Het Parool reported the deaths of four practitioners in 2016. Relatives described losing family members to drowning in swimming pools after breathing sessions. Enahm Hof, Wim's son and Innerfire CEO, responded at the time: "Pretty silly — but then you shouldn't do the exercises under water."

"Pretty silly — but then you shouldn't do the exercises under water." — Enahm Hof, Innerfire CEO, responding to four 2016 drowning deaths reported by Het Parool.

The response — the deaths are the practitioners' fault for not knowing the rule — lands differently when the rule was absent from the official course materials at the time of the deaths.

What has Wim Hof said about the deaths?

Wim Hof's public position has evolved. The core statement from Innerfire is now consistent: the official website warns against practicing breathing exercises in or near water. Safety warnings are present in current certified-instructor training materials.

Innerfire spokesperson Isabelle Hof stated in 2024: "Since we heard about people potentially drowning because of malpractice of the WHM breathing in water in 2015, we warn people."

"Since we heard about people potentially drowning because of malpractice of the WHM breathing in water in 2015, we warn people."

Two things are simultaneously true: Innerfire now issues these warnings. And in 2016, when Het Parool reported four deaths, those warnings were not embedded in the course materials practitioners were following. Nova Xavier's $100 online course in 2023 contained breathing demonstrations adjacent to water sequences. Carney's investigation documented that Hof himself, at live public events, conflated the breathwork and water-submersion elements without clear safety separation — an observation captured on video.

The Innerfire line — that these deaths resulted from "malpractice" by practitioners or unauthorized third-party instructors — requires a public to believe that people following Wim Hof's own online courses and video demonstrations were somehow outside the bounds of official instruction.

Has Wim Hof been sued for the deaths?

The Metzger case (Case No. 22LBCV01029, Los Angeles Superior Court) was the first WHM-linked drowning death to reach litigation in the United States. Filed August 2022, seeking $67 million. Dismissed July 2, 2024. An Order Granting Motion to Quash and Dismissing Action with Prejudice was entered January 23, 2025.

The legal standard for dismissal was not "the method is safe." It was "causation in this specific case was not proven beyond the court's threshold." Hof's attorney made this distinction explicitly: "The question is not whether or not Hof's breathing exercises can lead to drowning, but whether or not it could be proven that the girl was doing the exercises in the pool."

"The question is not whether or not Hof's breathing exercises can lead to drowning."

Raphael Metzger's attorney stated plans to appeal, calling the dismissal a ruling that allows "the spread of a threat to public health." Carney's investigation referenced additional civil claims from families of other deceased practitioners; none have proceeded to public trial as of publication.

In a separate Dutch proceeding, Innerfire filed a defamation claim against de volkskrant, which had reported allegations of domestic abuse involving Hof. A Dutch court dismissed Innerfire's defamation claim in July 2025 and ordered Innerfire to pay legal costs.

What are the safe rules for the Wim Hof Method?

This is what the evidence supports, stated without hedge.

The protocol that kills is specific: WHM breathing exercises — the hyperventilation rounds — performed before, during, or immediately adjacent to any water submersion. The risk is not the cold water alone. It is not the breathing alone, practiced on dry land. It is the combination.

The rules, derived from the physiology and from Innerfire's own current guidance:

1. Never practice WHM breathing in water. Not a pool. Not a bathtub. Not a lake, river, or ocean.
2. Never practice WHM breathing near water in a configuration where loss of consciousness would result in submersion.
3. Never practice WHM breathing before any underwater activity — not before swimming laps, not before diving, not before any breath-hold exercise in water.
4. Practice breathing rounds lying down on a solid surface — bed, floor, yoga mat. If you faint during the breathing rounds (this happens; it is documented), you will not fall from a height or roll into water.
5. Do not drive immediately after a session. The post-breathing state involves altered CO₂ levels and potential lightheadedness.
6. Hard contraindications: cardiovascular disease, uncontrolled hypertension, epilepsy or history of seizures, pregnancy, history of unexplained syncope, or any condition affecting respiratory control. Consult a physician before beginning.
7. Cold exposure (ice baths, cold showers) is a separate element. The cold-plunge physiology has its own risk profile — primarily cardiac, primarily in those with underlying conditions. Do not perform the breathing rounds immediately before entering cold water.

The rule set above is not excessive. It is the minimum that the physiology requires. Nova Xavier's mother purchased an official course. He followed the instructions. He died. The rules were either absent from what he was shown or not presented with the weight that 33 deaths demands.

What we can say. What we can't.

We can say: voluntary hyperventilation followed by breath-holding underwater produces a well-described physiological state — hypocapnia followed by hypoxic blackout — that causes loss of consciousness without warning. This is documented in the diving-medicine literature independently of any Wim Hof research.

We can say: at least 33 deaths have been linked by investigative reporting to WHM practice near or in water. The pattern is consistent across cases: no struggle, no cry for help, found in a meditative or relaxed position.

We can say: Innerfire added safety warnings to its materials after 2015 deaths. Those warnings were not present when practitioners who followed the 2015 and 2016 official materials drowned.

We can say: the California civil case against Innerfire was dismissed on evidentiary grounds, not on a finding that the method is safe.

We can say: the peer-reviewed immunological science from Radboud — the 2014 PNAS paper, the 2018 Wayne State fMRI study — remains valid and unrebutted. The breathwork practiced on a dry mat, by a healthy adult without contraindications, produces measurable physiological effects and does not carry the same risk profile.

We can't say: that Wim Hof personally caused any specific death. Courts have not found this. The investigation has not proven it.

We can't say: that the dry-land breathing protocol is without risk. Fainting is documented. Seizure-like activity has been reported in group settings. The contraindication list is real.

We can't say: that Innerfire knowingly suppressed safety information. We can say that it deleted a warning post from a widow on Facebook in 2016 — Enahm Hof later explained the post was "an attack without any evidence." The widow's husband was dead. The post was gone.

---

The discourse around this method has sorted itself into two camps: advocates who treat any criticism as an attack on the science, and critics who dismiss the science because the application has caused deaths. Both camps are wrong. The science — reviewed in full in our previous transmission — is documented. The deaths are documented. The mechanism connecting them is documented. For practitioners looking for breathwork-adjacent methods with a different risk profile, the vagus nerve stimulation protocols documented in peer-reviewed literature carry no shallow-water blackout risk.

If you practiced this method without knowing the rules — if you did the breathing rounds in a pool, in a bathtub, before a swim session — you have been failed by the discourse.

Here's the discourse, fixed. The question is what you do with it now.

FAQ

Is the Wim Hof Method dangerous?

For healthy adults without contraindications, the dry-land breathing protocol carries a different risk profile than the water-adjacent version. The danger is specific: WHM breathing performed in or near water causes shallow-water blackout — loss of consciousness without warning — because voluntary hyperventilation eliminates the CO₂ signal that triggers the urge to breathe. At least 33 documented deaths share this mechanism.

How many people have died from the Wim Hof Method?

Scott Carney, working from police reports, coroner records, and family accounts, documented at least 33 deaths by July 2025, all linked to WHM breathing combined with water exposure. The count grew from 13 drownings in June 2023 to 21 deaths and 18 injuries by January 2024, then to 33 fatalities by July 2025.

Can you do Wim Hof breathing in the bath?

No. A bathtub is water. The hard rule applies without exception: never practice WHM breathing rounds in water, near water where loss of consciousness would result in submersion, or before any swimming or underwater activity. The cases include practiced athletes and former soldiers — fitness level does not reduce the risk.

What are the safe rules for Wim Hof breathing?

Practice breathing rounds lying down on a solid surface — bed, floor, yoga mat. Never in or near water. Never before swimming or diving. Do not drive immediately after a session. Hard contraindications include cardiovascular disease, uncontrolled hypertension, epilepsy, history of seizures, pregnancy, and unexplained syncope. Cold exposure (ice baths, cold showers) is a separate element with its own risk profile.

Sources

• Kox, M., van Eijk, L. T., Zwaag, J., et al. (2014). Voluntary activation of the sympathetic nervous system and attenuation of the innate immune response in humans. PNAS 111(20). [Parent transmission: /research/practitioners/wim-hof-method]
• Tipton, M. (2003). Cold water immersion: sudden death and prolonged survival. The Lancet 362(9392).
• Datta, A., & Tipton, M. (2006). Respiratory responses to cold water immersion: neural pathways, interactions, and clinical consequences awake and asleep. Journal of Applied Physiology 100(6): 2057–2064.
• Bart, R. M., & Lau, H. (2023). Shallow Water Blackout. StatPearls. NCBI Bookshelf NBK554620.
• Kumar, K. R., & Ng, K. (2010). Don't hold your breath: anoxic convulsions from coupled hyperventilation–underwater breath-holding. Medical Journal of Australia 192(11).
• Carney, S. (2017). What Doesn't Kill Us. Rodale Books.
• Carney, S. (2023). The Rise and Fall of the Wim Hof Empire. scottcarney.com (updated January 2024).
• Carney, S. (2024). The Tragic Story of Nova and Wim Hof. Substack.
• Carney, S. (2025). The Sinister Truth About Wim Hof. Substack.
• DutchNews.nl (2024, July). Iceman Wim Hof cleared of causing death of American teenager.
• NL Times (2024, July). Iceman Wim Hofman not liable for American girl's drowning, court rules.
• Het Parool (2016). Reporting on four WHM-linked drowning deaths. Amsterdam.
• Live Science (2024). 'Gambling with your life': Experts weigh in on dangers of the Wim Hof method. (Quotes: Dr. Frank Pernett, University of Mid Sweden; Prof. Mike Tipton, University of Portsmouth; Isabelle Hof, Innerfire.)
• Underwater Hypoxic Blackout Prevention (UHBP). Footage released of fatality while practicing Wim Hof Method in pool.