Dan Meyer

Dare to do the impossible

From an early age, Dan Meyer has been fascinated with performing impossible feats.  After witnessing Indian fakirs performing sword swallowing and fire-eating while serving as a missionary in India, Meyer’s interest was revived.  
Upon hearing in 1998 that there were less than a dozen sword swallowers left around the world, Meyer began to search out the last few remaining sword swallowers in the 4,000-year-old art.  After three years of research and study, Meyer founded the Sword Swallowers Association International, creating a network for the remaining performers. Over the next two years, Meyer coauthored the first ever medical study on sword swallowing published in the prestigious British Medical Journal that won him the 2007 Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine at Harvard.

“What I enjoy about sword swallowing is that it demonstrates how incredible the human body really is,” Meyer explains. “My hope is that I can inspire others to think beyond the obvious, to challenge them to stretch beyond their limitations, to dream bigger than they thought possible, and dare to do the impossible in their lives.”