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David Blaine’s Ascension proves that creative endurance has no limits

David Blaine’s endurance has pushed the boundaries of possibilities to a whole new level.

He’s been buried alive for seven days (1999), frozen for six hours (2000), spent 44 days without food encased in a suspended glass box, and has been electrified with 1 million bolts for 73 hours. 

Now, after years of ongoing efforts, he will ascend into the sky using  52 helium-filled balloons and fly over the Page, Arizona desert.

His first stunt since 2012. 


David Blaine’s Ascension

After eight years, Blaine is bringing magic back to real life. This time, manifesting himself as the little boy in the famous 1956 short film “Le Ballon Rouge” (“The Red Balloon”). Once again proving that creativity and imagination have no limits. 

Flying is perhaps the biggest aspiration of any magician. Thus, it’s been David Blaine’s challenge of a lifetime. Today, the magician/illusionist took flight piloting a cluster of 52 helium-filled balloons over Arizona’s desert.

His team expects he could fly as high as 18,000 feet (about 3.4 miles), where oxygen levels are about half those at sea level.  All while going live on YouTube. 

Blaine has put together an exceptional team of experts; Luke Aikins, lead of the project and Sky Diving expert; Jim Sumway, flying expert; Art Thompson, aerospace engineer and Marques Brownlee, tech expert and YouTuber. 

The project was initially set to happen in New York, over the Hudson River. Due to weather inconvenience, it changed last minute to Arizona — the perfect place for flying with balloons, apparently. 

Being the first time ever that Blaine would go above a few hundred feet with balloons only, the risk is real. According to Aikins, things to consider are: temperature, reaching high levels lowers the atmospheric temperature which could potentially compromise movement.

The lack of oxygen. And, of course, landing. It would be the first time that Blaine lands in such a landscape. Ascending with no parachute and strapping it on once he’s up in the upwards of 20,000 ft up in the sky. 


David Blaine’s creative endurance is inspirational

Blaine has dedicated his life to break life limitations.

In 1999, when he debuted his career as an illusionist and magician, he was buried underground in a plexiglass coffin underneath a three-ton water-filled tank for seven days and nights. 

His second stunt, and probably the most difficult challenge of his career, was in 2000. He when encased in a massive block of ice in times square. For 63 hours, 42 minutes, and 15 seconds he suffered from sleep deprivation and battled cold temperatures. 

He continued defeating science with Vertigo (2002), Above the Below (2003), Drowned Alive (2006) and, at some point, he even caught bullets with his mouth.

For 13 long years, Blaine never ceased to amaze the world, proving possible what was once considered impossible.

And, although sometimes magic seems to be the only explanation for his survival, it’s rather his creative endurance that has made this man limitless. Training and research can only take you so far in pushing science away from its preconceived boundaries.

It is rather a masterful mentality of problem-solving skills that have allowed David to prove that living a creative life means living with no limits. 


When it comes to creative endurance David Blaine puts in the hours