WEBVTT - Fire Walk With Me 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:14.000 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:16.240 My name is Robert Lamb. My name is Julie Tuglas, 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:21.759 Julie Weird, long overdude for How Stuff Works. Like podcast 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:27.000 teams retreat, you know, like a like motivator where we 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:29.600 all go out and like living in the woods for 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:33.559 a weekend and we trust fall and oh trust Fall 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:39.479 is the best man. Yeah, roll around like earthworms getting 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:43.440 into each other's personal space. Yes, yeah. And then and 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:45.320 then of course, when the when the sun goes down, 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:51.120 we're gonna spread out the hot coals, right, little fire walking, right, 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:55.520 we are going to face the the beast within. And 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:58.400 we're gonna do a barefoot too, that's the thing, not 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:01.279 with shoes on. But we're gonna we're gonna lay out 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:04.600 the hot coals and we're gonna just march down that 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:09.640 that that that road of hot embers. And then on 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.399 the other end, we're gonna emerge victorious and full of 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:17.000 energy and life four third degree burns whatever comes first, right, yeah, 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:19.920 and then I will never fear the xerox machine again 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:23.160 or running out of coffee. I'll come out on the 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:25.240 other end, a better person. All of this will Yeah, 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:27.320 that's the plan, so that you know. Of course, we 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:33.199 were inspired today to talk about firewalking because of this retreat. Yeah, yeah, 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:35.560 the retreat that it hasn't actually been planned yet, but 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:37.440 I think we should. We should, we should. Yeah, nobody's 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:40.240 actually ever uttered a word about it. Yeah, but yeah, 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:43.440 it's gonna have to think it happened yet. Um, I 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:47.400 could probably talk a little about about firewalking to prepare 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:50.280 us and also to prepare our listeners for when we 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:55.520 return from it. And you're either harribly burned and or motivated. Okay, yeah, 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:59.440 let's lay it up. Okay, So firewalking. Chances are you've 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.600 you've seen this somewhere. You've you either have friends who 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:05.480 have done it, either as part of their new age 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:10.640 hippie lifestyle or they're they're deeply rooted religious beliefs, or 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:13.880 just as part of you know, a weekend retreat, or 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:15.519 maybe they just saw it in the office. There is 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:19.000 an episode of the Office where the dunder Mifflin employees 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:21.400 all go on one of these and and of course 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:26.000 somebody getting burned. But but maybe for you, it's just 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:29.200 a Monday, right Monday. Maybe that's how you kick. Maybe 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:31.000 that's you're coffee in the morning, a little firewalking. It 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:34.800 takes a bit to to set it up. But but 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:37.840 people have been doing this for for ages. It's it's 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.200 really an old practice and it's and it's it's really 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:45.880 fascinating to think of it, not just in terms of 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:48.120 how we're doing it now. And certainly we're gonna get 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:50.600 into the science of firewalking, don't worry about but but 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:52.360 first we want to really sort of take you through 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.960 some of the historic h and cultural examples of firewalking 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:00.880 how and and sort of the mindset that these various 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:04.480 people from various cultures have when they first throw off 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:07.320 the flip flops and start off across the cold. Yeah, 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:09.799 and also wanted to mention that the earliest known reference 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:14.000 to it is in an Indian text from about So again, 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:15.920 this has been practiced for a long time, and we 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:18.440 have seen it in different religions like Hinduism as well 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:22.760 as Buddhist and Native American communities and Christian communities and 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.120 New Age communities and completely as as well explore to 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.960 uh non religious more deals as well. Yeah, because it 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.320 turns out to be an incredible metaphor that we can 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:36.320 really delve into on the spiritual side. Yeah, I mean, 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.600 at the heart of it, the basic idea is I 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:42.400 am a human, I'm made out of flesh. My flesh 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:47.280 is susceptible to pain. Here is fire and like one 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:51.720 of the earliest lessons humans learned was fire bad, right 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:56.360 or fire really good? But fireplus bare feet probably bad. Um. 0:03:56.400 --> 0:03:59.240 But we do have a very primal relationship to fire, right. Yeah, 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:04.480 fires the power we can make food edible, we can 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:08.200 we can create light against the terrors of the darkness 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:13.160 and uh and and shadow puppets. Yeah, there's there's literally 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:15.600 there's there's almost no end to what we can do 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:18.240 with fire. Uh. So early on, you know, we get 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:21.080 this idea of a fire as a test. Can we 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.359 withstand fire? And if we can, then it says something 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:29.240 about our bodies, it says something about our spirit. Um. Uh. 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:31.960 There's you know there you look in the Bible, the 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:35.240 Old Testament, there's the you know, the story of of 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:37.359 the three the three brothers who are thrown into the 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:42.480 fiery furnace Shadrack mishak in a bindigo uh, Daniel three uh. 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:44.919 And then in recent times you have the story of 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:47.720 g Gordon Lydia on trial and holding the cigarette lighter 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:51.840 underneath his palm. Um. You know, the fire as a 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:54.560 test for the flesh and for the spirit. Uh. It's 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:57.680 it's a it's a pretty pretty simple but a but 0:04:57.760 --> 0:05:02.080 a very resonant idea. So Hinduism, like you said, this 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:04.839 is where we see the oldest examples of it and 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:08.360 uh and to this day in Southern India as well 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:12.720 as places like um, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, any countries 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:15.800 with a large South Indian population. Uh, there is a 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:21.160 festival every year called the Smithy Festival. And this is uh, 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:23.440 this is is pretty neat the roots of this uh 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:28.360 lie in the the Mahabarata, the Hindu epic, which we've 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:32.240 occasionally has come up on this this podcast. UM refresher 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:36.840 on that story. You have the five Pandava brothers uh. 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:39.240 And they are all married to the same woman. Uh. 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:44.120 And her name is Drayo Patti and Um they end 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:47.040 up losing her in a game of chance to their cousins, 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:52.440 the Kava brothers okay and p versus the Kara. Yeah, 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.560 they're there are five Pandava and there are like one 0:05:55.640 --> 0:06:00.080 hundred of the Carava brothers. And and this is the 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:05.279 big war of the Mahabarata. These uh, these two opposing 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:08.000 forces their kin and they have to do battle with 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.960 one another, and all all sorts of various adventures and 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:14.919 and skirmishes are a part of the tale. But in 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:17.880 this one a particular event. Uh, like you say, the 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:20.800 five the five brothers, they have this this one wife 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:24.560 and her name is draw your Potty and uh. And 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:28.599 after draw your Potty has has been m kidnapped or 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:32.120 or obtained for her by the way. Yeah, Well, first 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:34.600 of all, they decide they're gonna embarrass her by making 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.840 her strip before the court and uh. And and so 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.880 they go to poor clothes off and she prays to Krishna, 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:44.800 and Krishna gives her limitless clothes. So she's like, you know, 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:50.560 it's like a scarf out of out of a magician's pocket. Yeah, 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:54.320 and uh and then she but then she gets really serious. 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:57.160 She plugged. First, she pledges to prove her chastity by 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:00.080 walking across burning coals, and she does that and she 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:04.839 emerges unscathed. And then she also swears that she won't 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:08.120 like redo her hair until she is washed it in 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:10.120 the blood of her enemies. So it's there's a lot 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:12.960 of that too in the Mahabara, like, especially with the 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:20.720 female characters making like really uh passionate proclamations about revenge. 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:23.080 Nobody says that anymore. Yeah, I am I gonna do 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:25.200 my hair anymore until I've washed it in the blood 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:27.320 of my enemies. You just don't hear that in salons 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:30.400 that much. Yeah. For for English speaking audiences, which of 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:34.120 course is our audience that we have Indian listeners and 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.200 as well, but if you're English speaker, highly recommend Peter 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:41.680 Brooks Mahabar to To To. It's a it's a stage adaptation, 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:44.320 British stage adaptation that they also did a film version 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:48.360 of evidence. Really long and really cool. But anyway, I 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:52.920 digress um. So they have this festival every year and 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:55.600 it's a it's a celebration uh and and kind of 0:07:55.600 --> 0:08:00.040 a reenactment of this particular moment uh and Uh what 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:03.200 you do as you you walk barefoot across this length 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:06.320 of coals and then you step through a second pit 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:09.640 that's filled with milk and if you emerge unscathed, and 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:14.160 it's a it's a you're proving your spiritual and physical purity, okay, 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:16.760 and the milk is there to soothe any burns. Right, 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:20.200 this is what milk is good for. Yeah, and then uh, 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:25.760 there are various other uh firewalking festivals that reach back 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:28.440 through time. This is not quite firewalking, but it does 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:30.480 tie in. Um. If you go back to and look 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:34.600 at ancient Anglo Saxon and Teutonic practices of ordeals, you 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:38.199 see some of this now, the ordeals. Um, this was 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:41.400 kind of this is kind of a barbaric um way 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:45.400 of of of dealing with disputes and uh and charges 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:49.200 uh of of wrongdoing in a society. The idea was, 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:52.560 all right, you may or may not have murdered this guy, 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.000 You may or may not be a witch. You know, 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:59.040 whatever the dispute is. We all the ideas. We all 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:03.920 believe in a very a powerful and very personally invested God. 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:06.880 So let's let him decide, let's let him weigh in. 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:10.160 He doesn't have anything better to do. So so where 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:14.920 was the test? Well, there there were various ordeals that 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:17.320 the most famous, of course, would be the trial, the 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:19.880 ordeal of combat. And this would be like, all right, well, 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:23.280 you two guys fight, and surely God will make sure 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.760 that the right one of you wins and the other 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:29.360 guy dies Uh, there were There was an ordeal of water, 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.120 which which would throw a witch into some cold water 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:34.440 and see what happened. You know, if she if she floats, 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:36.600 she's good. If she sinks, no, it's the other way around. 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:40.880 If she if she floats, then then she's a witch. 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:44.199 If she thinks she's good to go right. Um. Then 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:45.959 there were number of other ones who were that were 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:49.120 even stranger, Like there's the ordeal of the of the Buyer, 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:52.120 in which a suspected murder was made to touch the 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.840 corpse and if blood flowed out of the corpse, he's guilty. 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.520 There's there were a couple of choking ordeals, which sounds 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:01.960 kind of cruel when I say it that way, but 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:04.760 it would come down to, here's a piece of of 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:09.200 blessed um bread. Here's the holy communion wafer. Uh take this, 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:11.440 eat it. And by the way, if you're guilty, this 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:15.160 is gonn You're gonna choke on it. And because and 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:17.440 and again that's like here, take this is holy if 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:19.520 you're if you're guilty, God's gonna make sure it gets 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:21.840 lodged in there and chokes you up. Then there's the 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:24.080 ordeal of the Cross, which also sounds like it's gonna 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:27.560 be really brutal and grim. But it involves the accuser 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:30.560 and the accused standing before a crucifix. First person to 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:36.400 move is guilty. So so, but anyway that the then 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:38.640 there's also to get to the point here the ordeal 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:40.800 of fire, and the ordeal of fire was generally for 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:43.440 persons of high rank. And some of these would involve 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:47.360 carrying a red hot iron in your hand. Others would 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:52.080 involve walking barefoot uh and or blindfolded over red hot 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:55.280 plow shares. And if there are no wounds after three days, 0:10:55.559 --> 0:11:02.320 you're innocent, okay. And then uh. For for another more 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:08.679 uplifting example of of Christian use of firewalking, you have 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.760 to go to Greece. There is a Christian firewalking ritual 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:15.200 performed in northern Greece. Now this is present day, this 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:17.320 is present day, and this still goes on. If you're 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:20.200 if you're of Greek descent, you may have you know, 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:22.520 this may be part of your heritage. Uh and certainly 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:24.120 if you're traveling to Greece you may be able to 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:28.280 witness this. Uh. And it's a festival called Anniston Area 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:30.959 and it's uh it has to do with St. Constantine 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:32.920 and The idea here is this is that St. Constantine 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:35.880 protects the firewalkers from him being burned because of their 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:39.040 faith and devotion to him and to God. That's right, 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.760 that's that's their faith that allows him to do what 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:44.760 seems like the impossible, which seems like a miracle to 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:49.920 walk across fire right. Um, and uh, Lauren dan Forth 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:54.360 isn't an anthropologist at Bates College in Lewistown or Lewiston, Maine, 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:57.680 and he actually has studied this quite a bit. Um. 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:02.240 We should also talk about another doesn't day uh practice 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:04.640 of this and this is by Tony Robbins. And some 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:06.640 of you may even remember that this was in the 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:10.680 news this summer. Uh, because Tony Robbins also uses fire 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:16.239 walking as an experiential metaphor for creating breakthroughs and overcoming 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:18.800 our fears. Now, keep in mind, though, that Tony Robbins 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:21.480 isn't saying that this is a religious experience. Again, He's 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:24.920 just using it as a metaphor for trying to figure 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:26.679 out whatever it is in your life that you need 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:30.000 to vanquish. And um, but he I mean, but it's 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:34.000 it's worth known than he is capturing the same psychology 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:38.120 and the same idea. He's still it's just not necessarily 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:41.400 wrapped in religious wrapping paper, right, and he's been doing 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:43.840 it for three decades, but it just kind of got 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:47.160 a lot of notice again this summer because um there 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:51.640 were six thousand participants in this this work. The lanes 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:57.720 they had twelve twol lanes and UM lanes fifty six 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:00.640 lanes covering Happy Earth twelve lane to actually have hot 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:03.000 coals manasuring ten feet long by two and a half 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:06.520 feet wide, and this rusted on grass and they don't 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:09.200 know how many people actually went through, but about two 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:13.920 dozen people actually sustained second and third degree injuries. They 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:16.439 were burned. Now we'll talk a little bit more about 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:21.959 the actual um uh fire itself, but it is thought 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:24.439 that perhaps there were hot spots there and that some 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:29.000 people were uh doing it wrong. Yeah, I'm just said 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:30.679 that in air quotes, doing it wrong, And we'll talk 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:31.960 a little bit more about that, but I mean, it 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:33.800 is worth worth pointing out though that it was just 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:36.480 a couple of dozen out of thousands, which well, yeah, 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:38.200 we don't we don't have to have an exact number 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:41.760 of how many people actually participated in the firewalking, but yeah, 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.040 but that it was thousands, and certainly if you get 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:48.640 thousands of football players, not football players, thousands of football 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:51.360 fans in one place at one time, several of them 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:53.080 are going to catch on fire. I just had this 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:56.200 vision of them training and instead of the tires that 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:58.440 they go through, you know, maybe it's tires on on 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:02.600 top of these these little lanes of fire. Well, there's 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:05.560 a lot of motivation and um in team sports and 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:07.240 in any kind of sporting endeavor. So I mean, I 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:09.200 could see I could see a football team going through 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:12.600 some some firewalking and chanting. Right, And this is what 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:15.640 we're talking about psychology here. That's right, because it's not 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:17.959 just like, all right, hey you, we think you might 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:20.720 be guilty. Um, so I'm gonna let God decide. March 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:23.240 across these hot plowshares. It's not like, oh I wonder 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:26.000 if I'm pure of spirit and heart, let me walk 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:29.200 across these coals, or or or oh okay, Tony Robin 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:31.680 might have a point. I'm gonna get my feet into 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:33.840 some fire here. Now, you you've gotta there's a lot 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:36.840 of psyching yourself out. There's preparing yourself mentally for this. 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:39.680 Be that in the form of prayer, Be that in 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:42.560 the form of listening to Tony Robbins or or what 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:45.640 have you. But but there's definitely a period of preparation. 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:48.640 This is kind of interesting. Um. This is from an 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:54.720 article that anthropologist Jane Sansum wrote about about that since 0:14:54.720 --> 0:15:01.280 aia UM festival in northern Greece. Um she pointed out 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:05.640 that back in the nineteen seventies there was a neurolog 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:08.960 just by the name of Christos Xenakis and that he 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:12.400 was from the Max Plant Institute in Germany. And he, uh, 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:14.880 he studied what was going He was very interesting what 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:19.080 was going on in the minds of the firewalkers, all right, 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.280 so uh they you know, he ended up like bringing 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:24.240 out the e c g s, you know, looking at 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:28.800 what's going on with mental activity and and he found 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:31.040 the found that it was interesting that they were that 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:33.640 they would they would enter this this trance right before 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:38.280 they would engage in it. And he found that they're 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:41.600 e c g s were normal during were normal when 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:44.320 they were walking, but during the preparation period they had 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:48.400 low voltage. That was characteristic, he said, of a of 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:51.480 a dreamlike state. Okay, so there's a little bit of 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.280 electricity going on as opposed to a lot. Yeah, So, 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:58.280 I mean his findings were that, again, neural activity was 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:00.480 normal when they were actually walking across the holes, but 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:02.760 in that period beforehand, that's where they were, they were 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.640 entering this the steep state of concentration. Well, and again, 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:08.600 most firewalking is done with a group, and if you've 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:11.960 seen firewalking demonstrations before, there's a lot of chanting going on. 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:14.760 We've talked about this before in terms of group psychology, 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:18.000 that it can be really affected this chanting because what 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:20.360 happens is that if everybody's chanting the same thing over 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:23.160 and over again, you've got this the same neurons firing 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.120 at the same time when everybody's sinking up on a 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:29.320 neural level. Yeah, everybody's sinking up. And this sometimes leads 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:31.840 to those feelings of bephor you that you see in 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:36.160 religious experiences or even a concert. You know, music, a concert. 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:37.760 You got to go to a church and you see 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:39.680 a whole bunch of people singing together. You go to 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:42.360 a temple and you see a bunch of people chanting together. 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:44.560 It's it's the same thing. It's it's not as much 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:47.240 about I mean, I guess on on one level, it's 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:50.480 about like lifting your praise to a deity or what 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:54.160 have you. But on another level, it's about a community 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:57.800 that it shares something right more or less, sinking their 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:01.280 minds together, just like one big vulcan mind. Now. Well, 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.439 and everybody's priming themselves for the same thing, right, for 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:08.400 the same end, which is to harness their personal power. Um. 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:11.840 Sometimes it is through a deity, or sometimes it's just 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:15.679 through you know, tapping into this personal power. Tolly Berkin, 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:17.840 I wanted to bring him up. He's he is the 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:21.679 founder of the Firewalking Institute of Research and Education and 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.480 Twain Heart, California. He's been doing this since the nineteen 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:30.280 eighties as a self improvement thing. UM. He uses fireworking 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:34.399 in his seminars and UM. His idea is that if 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:37.160 you vanquished your fears, you doing impossible, and then anything 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:39.720 is possible. Right, you can ask for that race because 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.960 you have walked through fire. So he claims that in 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:45.919 order to firewalk successfully, you must first convince yourself so 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:48.720 that your body, and he says this in a video 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:53.159 for Skeptic Magazine becomes um. Well, actually it's in a 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.919 different physiological state that protects you from being burned. And 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:58.639 this is a quote he says, when you are in 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:01.159 the right state of mind, the blood flows through the 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:03.800 soles of your feet and takes the temperature away from 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:06.679 your tissue, and that's why you're not burned. Okay, So 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:13.160 that seems um and not necessarily rooted in science. It's 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:16.520 an interesting explanation. Yeah, well, yeah, there are there are 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:22.280 a number of less science two outright non science explanations 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:24.919 for what's going on. I ran across one from actually 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:29.159 from a Greek psychiatrist by the name of Vittoria Manganus 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.960 who and who was apparently he looked into the whole 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:36.080 Greek fire walking thing as well, but he was using 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:40.520 stuff like like Carolan photography and and and making the 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:42.960 argument that you know, the oh, well, the the auras 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:46.760 of the person a person's are changes in this superiod 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.000 prior to the fire walking, and that that energy are 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:53.879 protects you. Which granted, that's that's that's that's all well 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:56.919 and good, but it it it largely exists outside of 0:18:57.080 --> 0:18:59.840 a real scientific understanding of what's going on, but it 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:03.560 would bolster you cyclically, right, uh, And certainly, I mean 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:07.959 it comes down to the idea of doing something the impossible, 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:10.400 whether or not that is impossible. I'm clearly it's possible. 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:13.160 People do it, but you look at it like something 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:15.320 in your mind sets that's those are hot coals. I 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:17.879 should not walk on that bare foot, or it's kind 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:20.520 of like a I mean, a simpler example would be 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:23.320 the bed of nails. Like, like we know that a 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:25.119 bed of nails. You can lay on a bed of nails. 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:27.280 You can't lay on a bed of one nail, but 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:29.200 if there's a whole bed of them, you can lay 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:32.040 down and they won't pierce your skin. But still there's 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:34.200 something about the nails that if you if you don't 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:36.760 know what's up, you might think, oh, that's steadily to slay. 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:40.119 That is impossible, while the the actual laying on a 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:42.520 bed of nails is very possible and very doable, just 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:46.800 as firewalking is. And before we talk about why that 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:49.400 is and get into the mechanics of of what happens 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:52.440 um with actual fire and your feet touching it, let's 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:57.120 talk about preparing this bed of fire. Yes, um, usually 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:00.600 it's wood or volcanic rock. There's a rain into these 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:02.880 ten ft by two foot lanes. Yeah, Now it's worth 0:20:02.920 --> 0:20:06.280 that you do find firewalking rituals that involve hot stones. 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:09.560 I can believe that in the Fiji Islands they do 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:13.600 that variation of it, and certainly Christian ordeals involved hot 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:16.200 plow shares, But Tony Robbins is probably not going to 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:20.879 pull those out at a at a at an end event. No, no, no. 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:22.960 But for the most part, yeah, it's it's burning wood 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:25.680 and stuff down into coal yea, and the fires lit. 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:27.720 And then when it does burn down into the embers, 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:30.440 the ashes are scattered. And this is really important because 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:34.440 now you have ash that's being scattered over these these coals, 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:37.480 these hot coals, um. And you will actually see sometimes 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:41.760 that when they spread the fire and um, they sort 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:45.040 of arrange it accordingly that the flames will be at 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:47.680 the perimeter. So if you're at a certain sight line, 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:50.920 it looks like someone is literally walking through fire, when 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:53.439 in fact it's just at the edges and there's the 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:57.880 coals in the middle part flanked by fire, flanked by fire. Yeah, 0:20:57.960 --> 0:20:59.639 but if you just happen to be a casual observer 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:02.960 walking body might say, wow, they're actually walking through fire. 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:07.920 But it does create that illusion, and the fire itself, 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:11.359 the coals are not really ready until they reach the 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:14.639 temperature or they cool down to between one thousand and 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:19.880 two thousand degrees fahrenheit. So it's mostly what I've seen 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:22.160 in the research is that it's more on the one 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:26.000 thousand end rather than the two thousand end. And firewalking 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:27.640 is done at night so that you see the glow 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:30.520 of embers right now. And again, this doesn't apply to 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:34.280 every instance of firewalking. Some rituals are done in the daylight. 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:36.240 But for but for the most part, you're gonna find 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:38.560 firewalking done at night when it looks the prettiest. I mean, 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:40.840 because that's partly it's about looking at it and it's 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:43.840 looking intimidating, and it's gonna look more intimidating at night, 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:45.400 and it's gonna and it's gonna be the pure more 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:47.119 magical at night. You know, you don't wanna have a 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:48.880 camp fire in the middle of day, and nobody wants 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:50.840 to sit around and poke sticks around in that. Yeah, 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:53.840 there's nothing cathartic about that, right. All right, let's take 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:55.440 a quick break and when we get back, we'll talk 0:21:55.480 --> 0:22:03.159 about the actual mechanics of the fire itself. All right, 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:07.040 we're back talking about firewalking and specifically what's going on 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:10.160 in the fire itself. That's right, All right, let's talk 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:13.679