Magician David Blaine breaks world record for holding one's breath
By TARA BURGHART | Associated Press | Apr 30, 08 10:17 AM CDT
Magician David Blaine set a new world record Wednesday for breath-holding: 17 minutes and 4 seconds.
The feat was broadcast live during "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and the studio audience cheered as divers pulled Blaine from a water-filled sphere.
He looked relaxed afterward and said the record was "a lifelong dream."
The previous record was 16 minutes and 32 seconds, set Feb. 10 by Switzerland's Peter Colat, according to Guinness World Records.
Before he entered the sphere, Blaine inhaled pure oxygen through a mask to saturate his blood with oxygen and flush out carbon dioxide.
Guinness says up to 30 minutes of so-called "oxygen hyperventilation" is allowed under their guidelines.
Previously, Blaine was buried alive for a week in a see-through coffin, spent more than a month suspended by the River Thames in London and was encased in a block of ice for 63 hours.
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