David Blaine: Well Hung? We’ll Know Wednesday

After his much-blogged about press conference yesterday, we all know that David Blaine plans to hang upside down, 50 feet above Donald Trump’s Wollman Rink in Central Park, for 60 straight hours next week. This afternoon, the Press sat down with Blaine to find out how he’ll get through this latest stunt.

First, let’s clarify the essential problem with hanging upside-down (a not-uncommon form of torture). The human circulatory system has evolved specifically for a head-up posture. Blood is pumped from the heart to the extremities, but there is no pumping mechanism for its return, so this drainage relies on gravity (for the organs above the heart) and muscle contraction. If you’ve ever been on a 12-hour flight, you know you have to take frequent walks to keep the blood from pooling in your feet. The veins in the legs have one-way valves to facilitate this process.

The presence of these valves, and the lack of such valves in his head, will mean that Blaine’s body is working against his survival. To keep the blood pressure in his head from causing blindness, aneurysm or loss of consciousness, Blaine will have to be moving and exercising his body for the entire 60 hours. He must not sleep.

To combat the opposite danger, blood-starved feet, he’ll be able to unlock his boots one at a time and swing his legs around. Otherwise, he would permanently lose dominion over his feet.

Blaine stopped eating a week ago—upside-down bowel movements would be a fiasco— and he’s been doing sit-ups and pull-ups for the past month. In case of an emergency, he’ll need the strength to unhook himself even when his body’s resources are depleted. He just got an EKG reading, Blaine told me, and apparently his doctor said his heart is at “beyond-perfect functionality.”

Psychologically, one would assume, his biggest risk is panic, madness. Sleeplessness aside, his sensory experience will progress from severe discomfort to severe pain. Blaine’s plan here is remarkably simple, and it’s the technique he always uses during these types of stunts. He calculates that there will be 216,000 seconds in 60 hours, and he plans to count down every one.