putting that venom into my arm that
first time I was basically prepared to
die hi my name is Steve Ludwin and I
inject snake venom
I had that thought when I was young when
I was in my teens and I just had this
light bulb moment go off you are going
to do this and wait until you see what
happens in the future but it was
instinctual but yeah I knew it was
possible so I decided to attempt to
it was just a curiosity was home science
I wanted to see if it was possible that
you could become immune to snake venom I
had heard that it's possible I was
obsessed by snakes I didn't know what I
was doing there were no books on the
subject there was no obviously no
internet back then it was all guesswork
I was playing a game with death it's as
simple as that the pain that happened
immediately when the venom hit my
bloodstream it was incredible and it was
scary it was it was humbling I'm
surprised I went back for more a few
months later I tried it again a few
months later I tried it again and then I
was going weakly I proved to myself that
you can build up an immunity to the
snake venom because after about 4 to 5
years I started noticing that my body
was recovering quickly the bruising the
swelling everything was just recovering
so quickly
so in my mind I was a scientist at that
moment and I did an experiment and I
proved it to myself that I could build
up an immunity snake venom so that was
great to be honest with you it's called
self immunization what I do and it's
quite an easy process
I basically melt the snake which means
gently taking the snake behind his head
you know letting it deposit bite into
the glass I get the venom I take the
venom out then it's good to go i I do it
every two weeks now because I've been
doing it for so many years it's just
like you know just preparing a meal
when the venom goes into your
bloodstream into your body it is not a
pleasant sensation at all it feels like
somebody's just taking a sledgehammer
smashed it on your hand and then held a
flame under it the pain doesn't subside
at all you know what it is it's
evolution saying stay the away from
us we will cause you the world of pain
I've tripped out on pain before I've had
to look up at the Sun and hold my
snake-bitten hand and beg the Sun to
take the pain away like an ancient like
Egyptian you know it's that bad I
wouldn't recommend it to anyone it's not
a drug there's no sort of Jim Morris if
yeah and then ride the snake you know
there's none of that snake venom is pain
inducing and nobody should do it reason
I'm doing it is to build up antibodies
it's a single as that
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yeah the first time I tried it you know
I had no idea what was gonna happen so
as far as I was concerned putting that
venom into my arm that first time I was
basically prepared to die in a strange
way but I have this instinct that it was
going to be fine and that my future was
going to be bright with it so I had that
confidence and perhaps a little bit of
rock and roll helped me through this
well I'm just over 30 years now of
messing around with snake venom but it's
been just the craziest journey of you
know when I was in a touring rock band
you know gargling with rattlesnake venom
to to get rid of throat infections and
I've done so many experiments I have not
stopped just doing experiments
experiments and testing it on myself I
am going to be 52 years old in a few
months so I'm 51 you know there's lots
of arrows pointing that there are
anti-aging properties within snake venom
I've been making my own anti-venom cream
I am very interested in in the power of
snake venom I mean it's like look you
know there's anthropologists writing
books about you know snakes you know DNA
and the origin origin of knowledge
they're linked you know snakes are
everywhere snakes have been so important
the anthropologists now know that the
Egyptians were using snake venom like I
am medicinally well over 2,000 years ago
so I think there's a lot of secret
knowledge and history about the snake
and I want to uncover it
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yeah people have been messiah that's
quite funny because you know my blood is
projected to save people's lives in the
future basically I was on my own doing
these experiments while on my own but
since doing that vice documentary like
six years ago getting high injecting
snake venom I had people contact me from
all over the world and the best ones
that contacted me were a group of Danish
scientists working at the University of
Copenhagen who flew over and we talked
for months and we did contracts and so I
work with them they are basically
extracting my my blood and my bone
marrow and they are farming my
antibodies to create a new anti-venom
that's derived from human blood for the
first time in history I feel pretty good
about what's happened with my journey
with snake venom
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snakes are definitely my sort of you
know rogue that I'm going down now and
this project that I'm doing with the
Danish and Copenhagen is great but they
don't need me anymore I'm interested in
anti-aging and I'm interested in
strengthening the human immune system
using snake venom so that is my goal to
strengthen the human immune system and
to slow down the aging process everybody
wants that you know people been
searching for the Holy Grail you know
forever everyone wants it and I really
believe that well I certainly know where
to look for the Fountain of Youth I've
got my finger pointing at it
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