The health benefits of the cold - Porfiry Ivanov (Порфирий Иванов) – week #2

As I already told you in one of my previous articles, I was always interested and open to new ways to become really healthy. There was a day I decided to check YouTube on ice swimming and ways to strengthen my immune system. That day I came across a very interesting personality, namely Porfiry Ivanov.

There are numerous “so-called” experts, which each year graduate from medical universities obtaining certificates which allow them to heal others. Most of the knowledge they are taught is not worth a penny. It is because they learn about diseases, and know very little to nothing about health.

Health is net something which can be taught in a book, learned by heart and written down on a piece of paper to pass yet another exam. Health has to be lived, exercised, practiced.

I am making the assumption that more than 95% of medical students choose their major because of chances to get wealthy, to learn a profession, out of interest and for status. But only a minority is choosing it in order to heal and help others. Because this medicine does not heal, what it eventually does is fighting the symptoms of a disease, not the cause.

The view of medicine is very narrow-minded, everything what does not fit in their system is generally rejected, at best greeted with highest skepticism. Natural medicine does not care. And here we go.

It is more or less known to everybody, that strengthening exercises are good for our health, though mostly unpopular, because they require us to leave the comfort-zone, to be regular and disciplined. It is very pleasant to take a warm bath or shower, but not that pleasant to take a cold shower or ice bath. At least not in the beginning :) When you continue, you learn a lot about yourself.

I heard about these cold showers before, but could not decide myself for them. I was not willing to leave my comfort-zone, not because of laziness, but because I was not fully aware of their benefits. Once you hear some examples, stories, get some inspiration it will be always much easier.

Out of interest I typed in Russian “ice swimmer” on YouTube. I quickly found Porfiry Ivanov, who was called the “God of ice swimmers”. I watched two documentaries about him and found it very inspiring.

Porfiry Ivanov was born in 1898 on the territory of today’s Eastern Ukraine, formerly part of the Soviet Union, near the city Luhansk. It is area of coal mines and other heavy industry, so after he finished four classes, he started to take different jobs, was working as a coal miner and was even in the army for a short period of time.
He had a very bad reputation in his village, known as the first burglar in the village, as a drinker, street-fighter, rogue. Nothing looked like he would become famous in the future.

The turning point of his life was his sickness, which was in his early thirties. He had reportedly cancer in his leg. He was suffering so much that he felt no joy to live any longer. As he did not want to hang himself, he decided to freeze to death.
He went outside, barely wearing anything. He was not able to endure it until death and went back home. He continued doing so for the next few days. What he found out was that he was freezing indeed, but started to feel better and better. After ten days the disease was gone!

He used this experience to create a big movement. He started to wear less and less clothes, and at the end was always wearing shorts and walked throughout the year barefooted.

He had a vision of a person walking up a mountain barely dressed through snow. According to his notes, on 25 April 1933 he had the idea that all cause of disease of disease and death was due to breakaway from nature – according to him the need for food, clothes and shelter create a dependent, dying life. He felt to be “the Chosen One, a God on Earth”. His principles called him teacher. His other nicknames were: God of the Earth, Teacher of the Nation, Winner of Nature. After he discovered himself to own healing powers, he started to heal others and gained more and more fame. In the peak of his popularity there were trains coming to the village full of people seeking the Master. People were leaving there families to live close to Porfiry Ivanov to follow his teachings and unify with nature.

Porfiry Ivanov said that his system led to immortality. Although he lived quite long, he passed away at the age of 85. It was a shock to his followers, who thought he would never die.

**The rules of his system were written down in 1982 and consist of following 12 recommendations: **

1. Take a bath twice a day in natural, cold water. Do it where you want, in a lake, river, bathroom. Use a bucket to pour water over yourself. It depends on your conditions.
2. Before or after you douse, go out barefoot to walk on grass or snow in winter for at least 1-2 minutes. Take a breath through your mouth and wish all people on this planet health.
3. Do not drink alcohol nor smoke.
4. Try once a week to withhold from food and water. Do it from Friday evening to Sunday noon. If you can’t do it that long, do it for a whole day instead.
5. Go out on Sunday noon into the nature barefooted, take a few breaths and think as written above. It is your holiday.
6. Love the surrounding nature. Do not spit around you. Get used to it, it is your health.
7. Greet other people always and everywhere, especially older people. If you want to be healthy, wish health to others.
8. Help others in need however you can. Help sick and poor. Do it with joy.
9. Fight greed, laziness, complacency, hypocrisy and pride. Believe people and love them.
10. Free your head from thoughts about sickness and death.
11. It is good to read, but action is what is needed.
12. Share your experience with others, but do not brag about it and stay humble.

Porfiry Ivanov had a lot of followers. It shows what people value always most: their health. They are willing to take the harder way. Some people went so far, that they left their families to live near their Master.

There is a lot of critics associated with the person Porfiry Ivanov. Critics point out that the movement had little to do with health, but was rather a religious cult. He played himself a God. Before healing someone, Porfiry Ivanov demanded to ask him to heal. That rule was also no exception for his wife. The “God on Earth” taught to be humble. But he was living in the richest house in the whole village and was even later able to buy himself a car, which was affordable to the smallest group of people at that time in the Soviet Union. Some people said he was mentally ill, as he spent 12 years of his life in psychiatric facilities. The fact is that he was absolutely unique and was living in a repressive state. A lot of his visits in psychiatric facilities were due to repressive measures of the police. The critics claim that he was highly unpopular in his village. I could imagine that, as the villagers lost their ambient and peaceful life. The village turned almost to a place of pilgrimage. Some critics go that far to say, he was not a healthy man at all. I was not living at all during his times, however this is complete nonsense. A lot of documentaries were describing himself as an extremely vital and healthy man. You can judge it yourself by watching his pictures and documentaries. Another critic is that his notes were very hard to read. They were full of repetitions and did not remind anybody with a crystalline mind. I cannot judge that, I read the “Detka” (name of his system) in original, but that was some time ago. Anyway, I think it is exaggerated.

Another interesting fact is that Porfiry Ivanov had always long hair, because hair according to him antennas to the universe, mirror of our souls. Long hair does better receive signals. I heard that theory also from elsewhere, and will share it with you when I get more knowledgeable on this.

I do not see Porfiry Ivanov as my “God of the Earth”, “Teacher of the Nation”, and inner of Nature”. But he definitely was an inspiration to me. He pushed me further to explore new things, to seek even more health. He was a person of firm beliefs and did an awful lot to people who were struggling to live an honorable life and gave them hope and health. He deserves a lot of credit. No one is perfect, no one can unify all people. He had an utopia in his mind and was living it fully.

You must admit he made it very far starting from the first burglar and rogue in his village. :-)