David Blaine's Record

Wow, You were right James, David Blaine really did hold his breath for over 17 minutes. I'm sorry to have doubted you. He trained really hard, slept in a hyperbaric chamber for weeks to build up his red blood cell count, and meditated to get his heart rate down to 38 bpm at rest. The record he broke was for pure O2 however, this is the trick. You breath pure O2 for several minutes before holding your breath. This allows you to hold for 2-3 times longer then you can normally. The record is for pure O2 breath holding though, and its damn impressive. He gave a Ted Talk about it.