There are a few people out there self-dosing with snake venom. The posted article is based on a study on the blood of one of these guys, Tim Friede, who has developed very effective antivenom in his blood after 20 years of self-dosing with a diverse array of snake venoms.
Vice did a few documentaries on Steve Ludwin, who is also self-immunizing. In one of these he answers questions about how he began and his motivation for doing what he does. In addition to producing anti-bodies he also believes that snake venoms have medicinal and anti-ageing properties - but these beliefs do not appear to be supported by any animal-based data as far as I can tell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcbqB0pFRPA
Self-dosing with snake venom is not something I would recommend. Generally a bad idea. But it is interesting to see the results and to learn about what motivates someone to do something like this.
someone else who did something like this lived to be over 100. maybe that's where the idea came from?