31-year-old Australian Chayne Hultgren has set a world record by swallowing eighteen swords in one jaw-dropping gulp, reports The Mail.

Hultgren - who calls himself the Space Cowboy - slid the 2ft 4in blades down his throat in Sydney as onlookers held their breath and prepared to call for an ambulance.

But Hultgren proved he was a cut above the rest of the world's street entertainers by slowly slipping the swords, all bound together with a steel clasp, down his throat as he held his head back to create a straight channel into his lower body.

'It's amazing - I'm really happy,' said Hultgren, from Byron Bay, after withdrawing the blades. 'It's definitely one of my greatest achievements so far.'



Not that he's any beginner. He has been practising the dangerous art  since he was 16 when he started out by swallowing a garden hose.

'I waited a few years until I'd got it perfect and then I moved on to using stainless steel blades,' he explained.'It's not dangerous when you know how to do it, but it's not something that's recommended by my doctor.

'It's an educated risk. I don't just straight away grab 18 blades and shove them down my throat - you've got to practise a lot and build up to it.'So what is the secret?Constant training with the device that he started out with - a garden hose. And, of course, learning not to gag.

'I stretch my throat with hoses and use a few different techniques to basically enable me to do what, until now, has been impossible.



'For this feat today I've been training a lot, doing a lot of meditation. I've learned how to control my muscles and my internal organs.'

As a crowd beside Sydney harbour watched Hultgren slip the blades down his throat, there were gasps, 'oohs' and 'ahs' - then cheers when he withdrew them with a grin and a victorious clasp of his hands in the air.

'There you are,' he said. 'Still in one piece!'  

Hultren was already the world record holder after swallowing 17 swords two years ago. Despite the obvious risks as the sword passes from the mouth, down through the esophagus and towards the stomach - missing the heart by a  fraction of an inch - the art is practised around the world. There are at least 100 members - male and female - of the Sword Swallowers Association International.

The technique is believed to have started in India as early as 2000 BC, a time when it was used to demonstrate divine power.As the centuries rolled by, it became part of theatrical shows and was performed in circuses and fairgrounds.

Not surprisingly, sword swallowers have complained of what became known as 'sword throats' - a soreness that develops after frequent performances.  

But deaths are extremely rare. British radiologist Brian Witcombe reported in the British Medical Journal of November 2005 that a Canadian sword swallower died, but that was because he swallowed an umbrella - and, as Mr Witcombe noted, 'it is bad luck to open an umbrella inside.