Original subtitles

SNYDER: It was apparent that there was something different about him.

It's really violent. I mean, it was scary.

I'm kind of an adrenaline junkie.

PASTRANA: Such surreal moment.

CHUNG: Most people, it's gonna cut them open.

ANNOUNCER: This could go even worse.

MAN: Oh!

CAMPBELL: 100 years ago, Robert Ripley went on a quest

to the farthest reaches of the globe

in search of the extraordinary and unusual.

Today, the adventure continues,

searching for the world's most bizarre,

astonishing secrets...

♪♪

...on "Ripley's Believe It or Not!"

♪♪

Sometimes, fate can be cruel.

In the blink of an eye,

life can be altered beyond belief.

I'm Bruce Campbell, and these are the stories of people

who overcome adversity like you wouldn't believe.

Our first story is one of tragedy and triumph.

But what you're about to see might be hard to watch.

♪♪

ROD: Just put yourself in our shoes.

How would you feel if somebody you know and love

and care for doing something no one

in the world has ever done before?

Your gut response is, "Absolutely not."

This is the biggest rick in the world of action sports.

Oh, his stunts are really crazy, I think.

[ Laughs ]

♪♪

Canada is my hometown crowd.

For this first attempt in Canada, it's huge,

and my family is gonna be here and my friends are here.

Couldn't really ask for a better first time.

Will you please welcome Bruce Cook!

♪♪

CAMPBELL: From a young age, Bruce Cook was determined to make a name

for himself riding a motorcycle.

It's never just riding down the road

or just riding down the hayfield.

It's, "Okay, what more can we do with this thing?"

♪♪

BRUCE: It was usually building bike jumps

or some sort of contraption.

There was definitely some sketch stuff.

Probably spent as much time on the ground as I did in the air.

It was really important to us to go back up and hit it again.

To overcome getting knocked down was an awesome feeling.

I think in a way it's what I've become addicted to.

CAMPBELL: As Bruce's skills improved, he got an invite

that would change his life --

training with X Games gold medalist

Travis Pastrana at his home in Maryland.

Pastrana's backyard is a motor cross playground with one toy

Bruce had never seen before --

a ramp that helps a rider flip forward.

♪♪

It's a extremely intimidating ramp.

♪♪

It's just hitting your back tire

and throwing you into a front flip,

and for the most part, you're along for the ride.

It's really violent.

Yes!

Within a week of Bruce Cook being at the house,

he had bypassed front flips.

He was like, "Ah, it's simple.

This ramp, no problem the first time.

I came out perfect on a front flip,"

and two, three weeks in, double fronts.

♪♪

WOMAN: Oh, much better!

CAMPBELL: Pastrana is the co-founder of a wildly-popular

touring show called Nitro Circus.

ANNOUNCER: Are you ready?!

Please welcome Travis Pastrana!

CAMPBELL: For Travis and his partners,

Bruce's ability to land a double front flip,

something never attempted under the bright lights of a track,

was performance gold.

Believe it or not, after only a month of training,

Bruce was ready to attempt the stunt at a Nitro Circus event

in Hamilton, Ontario in January of 2014.

BRUCE: Before Hamilton, there was the normal nerves and butterflies,

but this is the first time

seeing it in front of a landing ramp,

throwing lights and pyro and smoke and 20,000,

30,000 people and it looks a lot different.

Will you please welcome from Kelowna, BC,

Bruce Cook!

PASTRANA: Such a surreal moment.

This is so much bigger than anything he's ever done.

No one even did a front flip at the show,

and Bruce is going for a double.

-This could go either way. -Oh!

I was nervous. I was just really, really nervous.

I think everybody was nervous.

ANNOUNCER: This is gonna be insane.

It has never been attempted anywhere in the world.

♪♪

♪♪

Ladies, gentlemen, he's getting checked right now.

He is getting checked.

Everyone ran over to him, and I just stood there.

I didn't want to go see.

I didn't want to hear what was possibly wrong.

Realizing you can't feel your legs for the first time,

that's a terrifying feeling.

You can feel right where the break is and everything's numb,

and it's just like a hot liquid going down your spine,

and definitely the scariest moment in my life.

CAMPBELL: The crash bent Bruce's torso so far backwards

it broke his T11 vertebrae and severed his spinal cord,

paralyzing him from the waist down.

He will never walk again.

LEANNE: At that point, everything was new.

We really didn't know what it meant for him and for us.

CAMPBELL: The doctors tell him it could take up to a year

just to get around the house again.

But within three months,

Bruce is already planning his comeback.

BRUCE: Every time I've broken anything,

it's basically asking the doctor,

"What can I do to get back on the bike faster?"

And this time was no different.

He was home three months after his crash, looking at the bike.

Yeah, right off the bat, my dad did his classic kind of laugh

and shake his head and just, "No, no," type thing.

Yeah, I was apprehensive as hell.

I was -- I go, "How are you gonna get onto this thing?"

While he was shaking his head and saying no,

he was lifting me onto the bike.

CAMPBELL: Just sitting on a motorcycle

is a big accomplishment for Bruce,

but he won't stop until he can find a way

to actually ride again.

BRUCE: My goal was to be under a year to be back on the bike.

VAN VUGT: And shortly after Bruce's accident,

already had got thinking about how to modify his bike

for him to ride it.

I think Billy knew all along that it was coming.

Bruce couldn't have done it without Billy's support

on the modifications on the bike.

Just one of those moments where you don't know

how it's gonna go once when I push off from the box van.

I might go 10 feet and fall over.

I might go 100 feet and fall over.

Within a few minutes, I was just ripping around

and doing wheelies.

VAN VUGT: First time I got to ride again with Bruce

was one of the best days when I remember thinking,

like, "My friend is back.

Like, he's back."

CAMPBELL: 21 months after breaking his back,

Bruce Cook may still be paralyzed,

but he is not sitting still.

Believe it or not.

ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Nitro Circus live!

PASTRANA: Every person that knew Bruce

knew that eventually a flip was coming.

Just down the road in Hamilton, Bruce Cook

did his utmost to put his name in the record books.

Will you please welcome back for the first time

in almost two years Bruce Cook!

♪♪

Yeah, just the last time it had happened was the crash.

You know, at that moment, that last corner,

five seconds later, everything changed.

Everyone, everyone in the building, make some noise!

ANNOUNCER: You want to talk about a comeback?

Here it is!

[ Cheers and applause ]

BRUCE: The last place I want something to go wrong

is in front of my family.

It happened once.

I didn't want that to happen again.

Just full throttle and pull back.

♪♪

ANNOUNCER: He did it! He did it!

Bruce Cook did it!

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪♪

BRUCE: It's easy to say "can't."

It's easy to just give up,

but you're gonna get a lot more out of it

if you just push through and overcome the odds.

♪♪

Bruce Cook proves that with enough determination,

a person can beat the odds to soar again.

In Las Vegas, there's a man

facing a different kind of threat,

a spinning vortex that could end his life in seconds.

Would you please welcome our headliner tonight,

escape artist Rick Maisel, ladies and gentlemen.

I'm Rick Maisel.

I'm a professional magician and escape artist.

CAMPBELL: Escape artists are always looking for tricky situations.

I'm kind of an adrenaline junkie.

So, this is the best job for me.

♪♪

My first original escape

was hanging beneath a hot-air balloon,

hanging before the International Balloon Fiesta

in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

And I'm also the current world record holder

for the upside-down strait-jacket escape.

CAMPBELL: And after five decades of chasing danger,

he has found one of the most perilous traps yet.

♪♪

In 1937, the first domestic washing machine

made it's appearance in homes across America.

But climb inside and this mundane appliance can kill.

Just ask Rick Maisel.

MAISEL: I'm the only person in the world

that can escape from handcuffs and leg irons

in a commercial spinning washing machine,

completely full of soap and water.

No one else has survived without serious injury or death.

CAMPBELL: Believe it or not.

Come on, let him out. Let him out.

♪♪

Rick Maisel is an escape artist

who's been at it for over 50 years,

but after today, he could be all washed up.

♪♪

Kind of got the idea watching video footage of fraternity

brothers that would get in the dryers

and go for a spin, and I thought, "Wow.

If somebody was to try that in a washing machine,

that would be a neat twist

to Houdini's underwater escapes."

I've been interested in magic, actually,

since I was seven years old.

My dad would help write the routines for my act.

I would come out on the stage and I'd go,

"One day, I gave my father a bath.

Every since, I've been sponging off him."

[ Laughter ]

CAMPBELL: Rick quickly progressed,

taking a trick made famous by Harry Houdini

and pushing it to the extreme.

I performed a Houdini milk-can escape,

and in addition to the padlocks on the can,

we also arc weld it.

First time, actually, that I performed it

for a national television appearance.

♪♪

I was underwater for about two minutes and 50 seconds.

It was about a minute longer than I was planning.

I started using my head as a battering ram and both my fists.

And after about a minute, I had an out-of-body experience.

♪♪

I had, actually, asked God to let me get my emergency crew

in to kind of help me.

But at that point I pushed up on the can and it broke free.

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪♪

Whew! Thank you.

CAMPBELL: Rick challenged Houdini's legacy once nearly paid the price,

but the risk of death will never stop him.

Today, he'll put his own spin on another classic Houdini escape.

Being inside a running washing machine is dangerous enough.

These are real locks. No handcuffs.

Rick gets in with his hands and feet bound

by five different sets of shackles.

He does everything genuine. He does everything real.

He doesn't use gimmick cuffs.

He's doing the real deal, and it's dangerous.

It's scary.

AMBERLYNN: Not only is this stunt dangerous

because he's in a washing machine,

there's water, he's circulating,

but the cuffs as he's picking them

are not projectiles in the washing machine,

banging him, hitting him, causing injury.

And I have to escape before the deadly spin cycle.

It could kill me in three to five seconds.

CAMPBELL: The forces exerted inside a washing machine

during this spin cycle are equal to 77 Gs,

or 77 times the force of the Earth's gravity.

Astronauts only experience 3 Gs during a rocket launch.

6 Gs can cause a normal person to pass out, and 20 Gs --

20 Gs will kill you.

Rick only has two minutes before the washing machine

enters the deadly spin cycle

and his blood is literally pulled out of his body

by the centrifugal force.

STOCK: This stunt could easily go wrong.

If Rick were to to pass out

while he's inside the washing machine,

he'd have no way to signal us to open the door.

No one should try this at home, not kids or adults.

As I'm crawling into the washing machine,

I'm just kind of going through the routines

that I know in my mind I need to do to survive.

I have extensive training

in transcendental meditation self-hypnosis.

I use that, actually, to slow my heart rate down

so that I require less oxygen in my blood

when I'm pulling escapes.

Go!

When the washing machine gets turned on...

We have a timer going. Get the water in.

I'm immediately feeling the G forces of the machine,

and it doesn't, like, slowly start going 50 RPMs.

It immediately starts turning at that speed.

CAMPBELL: Rick has just two minutes before the machine

enters the spin cycle.

30 seconds.

If he passes out due to the spinning or lack of oxygen,

he won't be able to signal for his release.

45 seconds.

That's his hand.

Uh...

Is he okay?

Ryan, should we call it?Give it a minute.

I don't think he's signaling yet.

He's still working on the cuffs.

Is he moving?

1:20. 1:20., Rick.

That's it. Let him out.

[ Grunts ]

-Awesome. -Yeah.

Yeah!

Whoo!

You got it.

STOCK: Rick isn't your average performer.

I think in the future, people will be copying Rick.

There's no limits to my imagination

on where I think my escapes can lead.

And I'd still like to do an escape in space

if given the opportunity.

♪♪

Rick Maisel's career is based on the thrill of eluding death.

He battles the odds on stage.

' There are other people that gamble

with their mortality at the dinner table.

Mom, please pass the poison.

♪♪

In the United States, the puffer fish is an aquarium oddity.

Here in Tokyo, though, where it's known as fugu,

one bit of this delicacy

could be the last thing you'll ever taste.

Believe it or not.

♪♪

My name is Yutaka Sasaki.

I'm a Japanese chef who specializes in fugu cuisine.

Yes.

CAMPBELL: Now Chef Sasaki is passing on his fugu knowledge to his son,

but one slip of the knife

could leave their dinners paralyzed or worse.

♪♪

♪♪

Fugu is on the menu at some of the finest restaurants in Japan

and goes for upwards of $200 a plate.

Enthusiasts observe the texture as gummy,

the taste flavorless,

and it sometimes leaves behind a tingle in your mouth,

hints of the poison it is said.

Only licensed chefs are allowed to serve it to the public.

Yutaka Sasaki is one of them.

I simply fell in love with that indescribable,

devilish taste.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: Yutaka's fascination with fugu is in his blood.

His family's restaurant,

Torafugutei in Tokyo's Asakusa district

has been serving puffer fish for generations.

Still, with every morsel of fugu comes a very real danger.

♪♪

The poison in fugu is called tetrodotoxin.

It's a clear substance that's mixed into the flesh.

CAMPBELL: This neurotoxin, said to be 1,000 times deadlier

than cyanide,

is concentrated in the skin, liver, and ovaries.

Altogether, the toxic bits of just one fish

are enough to kill 30 grown men.

Even a trace amount can leave a diner permanently paralyzed.

You get numbness in the limbs, language impairment,

difficult breathing, and finally, heart failure.

There is no antidote.

And even now, an average of 50 people a year

are poisoned by fugu.

In fact, the deadly delicacy accounts

for over half of all food poisoning deaths in Japan.

If someone were to die, that would be a huge scandal.

Each day, I approach my work with some nervousness.

And there's not much I can do

if the product isn't good to start with.

♪♪

[ Indistinct conversations ]

♪♪

CAMPBELL: Yutaka has been taking his son Minoru to Tokyo's world-famous

tsukiji fish market for decades.

It's the only place they can find fugu

that meets their rigorous standards.

Selection of the proper fish is key to safety.

Fugu is valued for its delicate cheek meat and

for the way a roast fin flavors a glass of sake.

But the biggest price i sonly found in males.

This is the testicles of the fugu.

The testicles are the milt.

Right now, the most sought-after ingredient in the world

is this milt, isn't it?

The milt is an exotic treat,

a supposed aphrodisiac that is eaten raw or lightly grilled.

♪♪

Customers who can afford to eat

Yutaka's fugu have complete faith

in his skill and experience.

They must trust with their lives.

But every fugu master must eventually step down

and give way to his apprentice.

The time has come for Minoru's debut, and the heat is on.

♪♪

In Japan, chefs must undergo a three-year apprenticeship

if they want to serve the world's

second most-dangerous fish.

But for decades, Yutaka Sasaki has been training his son

Minoru to prepare fugu fish without killing anybody.

♪♪

Fugu chefs have to be perfect every time.

Neurotoxin in the fish's skin and organs is invisible,

tasteless, and poisonous, and they must not contaminant

the non-toxic meat on the muscles.

There is zero margin for error.

Yes, it's colorless and transparent.

This part takes the most skill.

You can't afford to mess up or make any mistakes here.

♪♪

Minoru has been learning his father's fugu secrets for years,

but can Yutaka's skill and trust be passed on?

You have to trust whomever is preparing it

because it does have poison.

I trust this shop more than anywhere else.

Some people say that their love of fugu is deep in their bones.

That is fascinating, that even though this fish

is extremely poisonous,

it's loved so much, which is strange.

CAMPBELL: It's time for the ultimate test of faith as the fugu is served.

♪♪

♪♪

Minoru's fugu is a hit.

It's delicious, addictive, and nobody died.

The restaurant now has two fugu chefs, father and son.

Japanese people trust in our chefs in this way,

and the flavor, it was so delicious

that I was deeply moved.

Yes, I want to eat all of it.

♪♪

Some of us willingly skirt the edge of life and death,

but others don't have a choice.

In suburban Michigan,

a young man's body is reaching proportions

so unimaginable, it may be hazardous to his health.

♪♪

SNYDER: I knew Broc since he was born.

I was in the room with my sister when she had him.

It was very exciting.

♪♪

♪♪

CAMPBELL: Most parents swear their kid grows like weeds,

but with Broc Brown, that was not an exaggeration.

It was apparent that there was something different

about him very early on.

He came out and he was larger than most,

and he continued to grow very excessively.

Broc does live in a world where everything is too small for him.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: The average adult male in the United States

is 5'9 1/2".

Broc Brown soared past that height when he was five.

When he was in junior high, he was about 6 foot tall.

And in high school, he was 7 foot tall.

I'm 21, and I'm 7'8".

♪♪

CAMPBELL: Broc's towering frame makes him one of the tallest people alive,

and he's still growing.

Just over a foot more and he'll become America's tallest human,

a title still held by Broc's idol, Robert Wadlow.

♪♪

It was Robert Ripley who first discovered Wadlow in the 1930s

and introduced the giant boy to the world.

Ripley spent years documenting Wadlow's existence,

immortalizing each fascinating detail of life

as an American giant.

And to this day, the world's tallest man.

I'm Robert Wadlow, 12 years old, and weigh 240 pounds,

and about 7 feet tall.

These boys around me are about same age as I am,

and they go to the same grade.

CAMPBELL: As an adult, he reached a stunning 8 feet, 11 inches

and weighed almost 500 pounds.

So, what's causing this excessive growth in Broc?

We had him in the doctor's quite often

trying to figure out, you know, why he was growing so fast.

Broc had a bone density test done,

and that's what they had suspected.

It was Sotos Syndrome.

CAMPBELL: Sotos' Syndrome, or cerebral gigantism,

is a rare disorder caused by a genetic mutation.

Though it affects 1 in 15,000 people,

barely anyone ever has reached Broc's towering height.

My friends at school thought it was really cool

that I was so tall.

Like, "Whoa."

CAMPBELL: But it's not always easy to fit in.

♪♪

Finding clothes and furniture

are just a few of the challenges of gigantism.

There are a whole host of other health concerns

associated with this condition,

like deformed bone and heart failure,

which is why an enormous body can lead to a short life.

SNYDER: We were a little worried because we didn't know

whether or not it would affect him in his life span.

CAMPBELL: Robert Wadlow died in 1940 when he was just 22 years old.

Does that mean Broc's young life will also be cut short?

♪♪

I push myself. I master myself.

That takes a lot of mental strength.

♪♪

In case you haven't noticed, this is Robert Wadlow,

the tallest man who ever lived -- 8'11".

And just do you know, Broc Brown

is only one foot shorter and he's still growing.

♪♪

Well, we're very pleased to have you here as our guest.

[ Indistinct talking.

CAMPBELL: But behind the smile, Wadlow is suffering.

By the time he was full grown,

Wadlow had little feeling in his legs

and needed braces to walk.

Michigan's Broc Brown also lives with constant achiness,

as his body tries to keep up with his bone growth,

and long walks leave him in pain.

Knowing that Wadlow only made it to age 22,

Broc and his family feared his own life would be cut short.

♪♪

But in 2005, Aunt Stacy and her nephew

got the news they were hoping for.

SNYDER: We've been told that Sotos' Syndrome

will not affect his life span,

that he should live a normal life.

He's always hungry. You can't fill him up.

♪♪

I don't know how I'm doing it, but I'm doing it.

He still growing a little bit.

I have to measure him in increments.

We're glad to see that he's slowed down.

CAMPBELL: He may never catch Robert Wadlow,

but he's still living large.

I am happy that I am this tall.

I feel pretty often that I can help people out if they need it.

♪♪

Broc dodged a bullet.

His life won't be cut short.

In London, England, there's a man

who isn't trying to escape danger at all.

In fact, he injects it right into his bloodstream.

About 5.4 million people are bitten by snakes each year,

resulting in more than 100,000 deaths.

Countless more are maimed

from the toxic effect of reptile venom.

But for one man, this deadly substance is what he lives for.

I think I've had like 23 different species

of snakes in my lifetime.

I had a cocktail of venom.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: For the last 30 years, 52-year-old

Steve Ludwin has been injecting dangerous amounts

of snake venom, convinced that the toxic cocktail

is the key to the fountain of youth.

Believe it or not.

♪♪

When I was, like, 10 years old,

my father took me down to the Miami Serpentarium.

You could go watch this guy called Bill Haast milk cobras.

NARRATOR: The object now is to move the cobra to an open position

where Bill will attempt to grasp him just behind the narrow hood.

He was the first Westerner

to start injecting himself with snake venom.

CAMPBELL: Haast injected so much venom over his career,

it was said he developed

an immunity to the toxic substance,

but more than that, it may have extended his life.

He died of natural causes at the age of 100.

My years of doing this has possibly slowed

the aging process down.

I think he was onto something.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: In 1987, Steve moved to London where he found the perfect place

to pursue his passion for poison.

LUDWIN: My first job in London

was working in a place called The Bavarium.

Particularly, the imported venomous reptiles and scorpions

and spiders for universities and stuff like that.

CAMPBELL: With unlimited access to the objects of his fascination,

Steve began to milk snakes

and inject their venom just like his idol, Bill Haast.

The first time I started, it was like late 1988.

I just took a small amount and got it into my blood

and just felt it, you know, burning immediately

and then kind of swelled up, and I got scared,

and I just had incredibly discoloration and bruising.

It was definitely playing around with death.

CAMPBELL: But Steve kept on injecting.

The more I tried it, you know,

the more confident I got with it,

and I could see with my own eyes that something was happening.

I would take it and for a good, like, eight hours,

I felt charged.

I was, like, ready to go.

It seemed to really sort of give me some kind of energy.

It wasn't there without it.

CAMPBELL: But the charge does come at a steep process.

I've had many accidents.

I have some scars all over my body.

I've cobra venoms that have ate into my leg.

I could see the bones in my leg.

It just rotted the flesh.

It's really dangerous.

People would look at my arms, and my arms would like --

you know, something like a zombie

or something out of "Evil Dead."

Yeah, but see, that was fake.

Now, folks, I shouldn't have to tell you this.

What Steve is about to do should not be attempted

by anyone watching at home under any circumstance.

Thank you.

♪♪

I don't feel pain.

I'm the best Shaolin Temple warrior monk on the planet

[ Grunting ]

[ Laughs ]

♪♪

There's a guy who's been injecting snake venom

for over three decades.

Uh, just so we're clear, every time he does this,

he's playing dice with the grim reaper.

♪♪

Steve is going to demonstrate his method for milking

with a Pope's tree viper,

one of the deadliest snakes in Asia.

One bite can introduce massive quantities of neurotoxin,

causing paralysis and even death.

You have to get the venom, so that's, you know,

milking the snake, which you have to get the snake

behind its head very carefully.

And then present the snake to the little glass,

and it deposits the venom.

♪♪

Once I've milked the snake

and put the snake safely back in its cage,

I basically get a syringe

and I draw the venom up in the syringe.

♪♪

I just put the venom onto my skin, the raw venom,

and then I'll just poke it through.

So you're just getting like, a small amount.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: Steve believes after all these years,

he's found a pathway to the fountain of youth.

It's just been guarded by vipers.

LUDWIN: I have this theory that by injecting this snake venom,

it's exercising my immune system.

I don't get colds or flu.

I just don't get ill like other people do.

I had some doctors doing tests on me.

When I was, like, 42 years old,

I scored as, like, a 28-year-old.

They were baffled.

I've altered my body, and there's the possibility

that it actually slows down the aging process.

CAMPBELL: Though that theory hasn't been studied yet,

Steve is participating in some cutting-edge research

to see if his blood has changed enough

to eliminate deaths by snake bite.

LUDWIN: I'm working with a group of scientists,

and they're doing this project where they are basically

farming my antibodies that I've developed

in the hopes of making a new anti venom from my blood.

To be involved in a project

that is hopefully gonna save lives,

you know, it's a great job.

♪♪

From a killer fang to a deadly spear,

there's a clear path to survival --

discipline, focus, and a good sense of humor.

♪♪

My name is Shi Yan Ming.

I'm the best Shaolin Temple warrior monk on the planet.

There's speed.

There's flexibility.

Like puzzle, I have all the pieces.

From many years of practicing and training, I don't feel pain.

CAMPBELL: Today, Yan Ming is gonna need everything he's learned

when he goes up against the tip of this 9-foot spear.

♪♪

Most monks are known for living peaceful, quiet lives.

In the Shaolin tradition, it's a different story.

Based in the mountains of central China,

this is where kung fu was born some 1,500 years ago,

and where Shifu's difficult childhood began.

When I was an infant, I almost died.

CAMPBELL: As a last resort,

Yan Ming's parents brought him to the Shaolin Temple.

The monks nourished him back to health,

raised him for 20 years,

and trained him to be a kung fu master, or Shifu.

♪♪

♪♪

in 1992, disenchanted with parts of the Shaolin's traditions,

Yan Ming defected from China

and brought Shaolin kung fu to the United States.

Two years later in 1994,

he opened his own temple in New York City.

YAN MING: Every day, we train.

Sharper your life, sharper your blade.

♪♪

I push myself.

I master myself.

CAMPBELL: This is the superhuman discipline

that Yan Ming is famous for.

♪♪

But will it stand up to the ultimate challenge?

♪♪

That takes a lot of mental strength.

CHUNG: They're super sharp.

Most people, it's gonna cut them open.

You have to bend the spear and be able to take the pain.

♪♪

Master Shi Yan Ming has spent decades

practicing the ancient martial art of Shaolin kung fu.

Huh? Did I fool you just a little bit?

♪♪

Yan Ming will place a spear on the super sternal

notch on his neck, just below the spot

a surgeon would cut to perform a tracheotomy.

He's attempting to bend the spear

by concentrating all his power on this single point.

it takes as little as five pounds of pressure

per square inch to crush a wind pipe.

One slip and he'll be dead in a matter of minutes.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Ah!

From childhood illness, Yan Ming has pushed himself

beyond the normal limits of human physiology.

I try to use my precious lifetime

to share the philosophy of martial arts.

Make yourself strong and you can help yourself.

And that way you can help others.

♪♪

The will to overcome obstacles,

the tenacity to endure the worst circumstances,

the strength to drive through any barrier --

okay, you get the point, but this is what transforms

everyday people into true survivors.

♪♪