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I'd heard of the Burger
King employees who got burnt on a fire-walking exercise but, when I saw a
chance to take part in a fire-walk myself, I was keen to find out more.
Fire-walking has been performed
all over the world for centuries. It has in recent decades become popular both
with New Age followers and as corporate "team-building exercises".
The scientific
explanations for the general lack of burning include the low conductivity
of the wood embers/coals used and the "Leidenfrost effect" (wet or
sweaty feet generate an insulating layer of water vapour).
The rational explanations, however, didn't make the prospect of walking across
something red and fiery any less daunting. Reading about 30
fire-walkers burning their feet about a week before the event didn't fill
me with confidence either.
I'd been to a couple of Skeptics in
the Pub events and thought this would be something skeptics might be
interested in. I got in touch with the organiser of "Skeptics in the
Pub", Nick Pullar
, and Nick in the
end decided to join in himself!
The event was in aid of Haven House, a children's hospice which
cares for terminally-ill children. The fire-walk itself was led by "serial
record breaker" Terry Cole who is a
generally amazing person.
What about
the experience itself? Well, it took place on Saturday 9th March, in the
evening. My brother, Prosenjit, had come along to take part too and I'd managed
to persuade some friends and family to spectate. Things started off with Terry
showing off some of his tricks. He placed two outward-facing chopsticks at the
base of his neck, just above the ribs and then by pushing the point into him,
snapped them into pieces. His final show was to have a broomstick broken over
his forearm.
Next, we
psyched ourselves up - this included going through the motions of doing the
fire-walk successfully, and telling ourselves that we were BIG, STRONG and
MAGNIFICENT. Then came some breathing exercises. Another person in charge of
the fire-walk was Andy Johnson. He was a relief from the pure testosterone of
Terry Cole and also claimed to be a natural healer.
His
information sheet states that "It[healing] is not a mystical
process" but "simply the exchange of the vital animating force (Chi,
Ki, Prana, etc) between living beings". This was clearly something that
Nick disagreed with. My personal opinion was divided. In terms of preparing for
a fire-walk, hearing stories about "Chi" was simply more inspiring
than explanations of low conductivity. On the other hand, the healer's leaflet
made claims of "positive results" with "cancers" and I'd
read of people being diagnosed with cancer only after it was too late because
they'd been using solely alternative medicine. On balance I'd say that, as a
motivational idea, "Chi" is great - but making any stronger claim
than that is misleading and dangerous.
Sadly the
walk was only 8-9 feet long and not the 20ft I'd been telling my friends - 20
feet was deemed too far for novices. I think a lot of people made up the
difference by walking more than once - I walked it twice, my brother five times
and Nick walked as many times as it took to get his photo just right! And yes,
it wasn't hot - it only felt warm.
I'd recommend
fire-walking to anyone - it was brilliant being able to do something that
looked amazing and hear interesting, harmless stories at the same. (You can
expect to see some photos soon).
[The Skeptic] [Archive]
[Shirley Ghostman] [Feb
2002 review] [Charity Firewalk] [Ex-Skeptic's
letter] [Nick's Firewalk] [Taverne
Debate]
Partha Lal
Last
modified: Wed Mar 13 01:50:26 GMT
2002