Many people believe that walking on coals is the lot of fakirs. For this, they say, a special training is needed, and possibly the treatment of the feet with special solutions. In this article, we will reveal the secret of carbon walking, as well as talk about its spiritual and physical benefits.

First of all, it is worth learning the main thing - no special tricks are used in gliding. Running on burning coals are ordinary people who are no different from those you can meet on the street or at work. To run through the coals, you do not need to have any special gift. And what you need?

Let's take a closer look at the process of carbonization.

What is fire energy?

All four elements are present in man. Water - fluidity, the ability to be flexible. Air - lightness, the ability not to become attached, to calmly relate to the events of one's life. Earth is stability, the ability to "stand firmly on your feet" and endure life's hardships. Fire is the energy of a breakthrough, courage and decisiveness of action. If all four elements in a person are in balance, then he himself is in harmony. It is expressed both by success in society and good health as well as personal happiness. In our seminars and trips-seminars, we pay great attention to dedication to all four elements. In particular, charcoal walking is considered by us as a ritual that can give a person a charge of fire energy. As a result, a kind of “breakthrough” occurs in a person’s life: new ideas come to mind, he begins to introduce innovations into business, and most importantly, he has something that many lack, the will to change his life for the better.

How to prepare for carbon walking?

In our seminars, preparation for walking is a ritual. Firewood is stacked in a house, then the instructor sets it on fire, and then everyone comes up and breathes life into the fire. When the fire becomes stable, people sit around and watch it, merging with the flames with their attention. After, when the flame rises a meter or more, we get up and dance a ritual dance. His movements are very simple - you need to repeat the bends of the flame, as if becoming fire for a while. After the firewood burns out, the ritual comes to an end. The instructor rolls out a track 3-5 meters long and you can start running on coals.

Walking on coals - scary or not?

Perhaps this will console you, dear reader, for the first time running over coals is scary for almost everyone. Yet our mind is very strict in protecting its comfort zone and does not allow a person to go beyond it. Fear is normal, what it is is not a problem. You don't have to follow him, that's all. The ritual that we perform before walking on coals helps to realize a piece of fire in ourselves. When this succeeds, fear disappears, and a person calmly walks over coals in which potatoes can be baked. This is a great achievement - to defeat the fear that is present in us at the gene level. Victory over fears of this level is the result of some two-week personal growth trainings. The confidence that you gain from this victory can be used in society to overcome difficulties that previously frightened you.

But what about burns? Doesn't it happen?

Our Club has been holding seminars for more than 10 years. These are dozens, and maybe hundreds, of coal walks. If this number is multiplied by the number of people in groups, and then by three (after all, you need to run over the coals as many as three times), the figure is breathtaking. Imagine if all these people got burned varying degrees gravity, then a huge stream of clients would pour into the burn centers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. However, none of this happens. Or are all the people who attended our seminars in cahoots? Of course not. Every fifteenth, if not twentieth, participant in the seminar suffers from burns. At the same time, the burn itself is a small dot that does not interfere with walking or swimming in the sea. But using the acupuncture foot atlas, which our instructor carries with him, it is possible, by examining the burnt area, to understand which organs and systems in the human body it is responsible for. A burn shows that this area needs special attention, often people at our seminars healed internal organs with “fire” through the feet.

Like hiking in the mountains of Crimea, it is an unforgettable adventure! No matter how much you collect information about coal walking, you will not learn how to walk on coals. As in the case of yoga: no matter how theoretically you prepare, in order to correctly perform asanas, you need practice.

So, onward to adventure!

Walking on hot coals is an ancient yoga practice that suddenly became popular among the most ordinary people. By uniting, not fakirs and not conjurers, but the simplest clerks, managers and accountants get an extreme experience of carbon walking. Our correspondent also went over the coals and at the same time found out who needed it and why.

Conscious choice

If you want to learn how to walk on hot coals, finding teachers is not a problem. IN in social networks there are plenty of those. Everywhere a session of carbon walking costs about the same - 2 thousand rubles. Almost everyone promises amazing results: unity with nature, cleansing the body with the elements of fire, activating energy centers and even disease diagnosis. internal organs according to the results of the examination of the foot.

Space gurus, fifth-generation shamans, hypnologists and other esotericists did not inspire confidence in me, so I chose simply sane young people as mentors - the authors of the Heroes. Conscious choice". They kindly offered not only to walk on the coals, but also to break away in general in the full program: bend spoons, walk around broken glass, lie down on the nails. I refused spoons and nails.

On X-Day, I had a bright, but insidious thought: you can do a lot of cool things with healthy legs, like ice skating, swimming in the pool, or going to sales. And yes, to walk. And fried is uncomfortable. However, it was too late to refuse.

Mysticism and physics

Waking up on the appointed day, I looked at my feet for a long time. They were terribly sorry. Maybe put something on? At that moment, coach Sergei Korolev called:

“You don’t need to rub your feet with anything!” Dress so that your trousers can be rolled up. And don't worry. The main thing is to have legs, the rest is trifles.

Coal walking training took place not on the street, but in the Dance House in the Sokol metro area, where on weekdays children are taught folk dances, and on weekends uncles and aunts gather for various seminars. In the big hall, my “colleagues” rested on the mats after the next practice (they had already passed the glass and knives, only fire remained) and tuned in to the last stage - in order, and not in general in life. Meanwhile, Sergei proceeded to the theoretical part.

“The temperature of the coals is about 700 degrees, but a person is not burned,” he explained. - This is not mysticism, but physics. First, you need to move quickly over the coals. Remember how you move the ember from hand to hand. If you delay it, you can get burned. Secondly, you need to step with the whole sole, then oxygen is not supplied and there is not enough power for combustion. It's like you put out the coals with your feet.

If walking on coals is pure physics, why bother learning it at all? The secret of calving, according to Korolev, lies in the technique: if you put your foot in the wrong place, you will get burned. To learn how to walk hot, you need to work out the “fiery” step and overcome the feeling of fear that prevents you from clearly following the instructions of the coach.

We practiced the firewalker's gait on the floor. First, Sergei showed how to walk: put the sole strictly horizontally, move the legs quickly enough, but not running. The people diligently, lacking only protruding tongues, repeated the gait after the coach.

"I am not afraid of anything!"

“The coals are ready, let’s go to the yard,” the organizers commanded.

Everyone rushed to the exit, I alone stood in the middle of the hall and begged: “Let's walk along the parquet floor, huh?”

In the yard, Sergei turned a flaming heap of coals with a shovel. It seemed to me that I didn’t just hit cool, but went straight to hell: Sergey - hell, “colleagues” in training are imps in anticipation of their childish fun, and I am an unfortunate sinner. And I'm done.

“You can fry shish kebabs on such coals,” the guy standing next to him pointed out in a businesslike manner. And he began to chant along with everyone: - I'm not afraid of anything! I'm confident!

I wasn't sure of myself and I was afraid.

“No need,” they whispered from behind. - I have already walked several times: no burns, the sensations are amazing. Why do you think the soldiers shout "Hurrah"? Because we have the fifth chakra in our throat...

Listening to the whisper about the chakras, I did not notice how an unfamiliar comforter took me under white arms and led me to the fiery path. Also on autopilot, I took off my boots and socks, rolled up my trousers and out of turn, taking advantage of my official position, raised my foot over the coals. It was hot, loud, fun all around. There was no more fear - on the contrary, I wanted to go. And I walked. First, on hot coals, which seemed a little warm after the cold earth, then on rubber mats with ice water. Then by dirty snow I ran to my shoes and, when I put on my shoes, I kept shouting: “I'm not afraid of anything!” The organizers warned us not to forget the chants even after the race, because the rest still had to run and they also needed a fighting spirit.

I screamed and screamed, and again I wanted to go to the coals, then to the water and again to the coals ... At such a moment you realize that you can not only walk on coals, but in general a lot of things.

Everyone wants to be special

I thought about the legs the least, but in vain. Probably, a small coal stuck to the foot, it burned the top layer of the skin. The organizers gave peroxide, iodine and plaster.

No one else needed a first aid kit. After the training, people wiped their feet with wet wipes and shared their fresh impressions.

I ran three times! - Veronica admired herself, who half an hour ago looked at the flaming path with eyes round with horror.

“And I wanted to have a good free weekend,” said her friend Alexei. - Fun, in the company interesting people. I do not regret!

Alexei, as it turned out, came not only for fun, but in the hope of meeting a girl. Apparently, a really hot thing was required. However, everyone has different goals. For example, for some reason it is believed that walking on coals helps in business.

By the way, Sergey Korolev, the organizer of carbon walking sessions, has been in business since school - he started by drawing Disney characters at school and selling them to classmates. When his peers went to college, he went his own way and soon had his own furniture factory. Korolev took up extreme practices three years ago. Says that modern people, who spend all day at the computer, and then at home on the couch, want to be special, have superpowers and are willing to pay for the opportunity to feel like heroes.

I feel like I'm a hero too. I go to the subway, I already shout to myself: “I'm not afraid of anything!” The next morning, a burned leg will remind you of itself, but it will be tomorrow.

/ tips for a firewalker

For the first time walking on coals should be under the guidance of an experienced trainer. The more training he did, the better.

Before the session, you should not do a pedicure - the rougher the skin on the feet, the safer.

Never drink for courage. Alcohol affects the processes of thermoregulation and the activity of the nervous system.

/by secret

Thick corns - a guarantee of safety

Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Vladislav Mikhalevich, Deputy Director of the Institute of General Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences:

- Perhaps the secret of walking on coals is in thick calluses: the dead layer of the epidermis protects living cells. And the feet must be dry so that the heat does not pass. Surely the material from which the coals are prepared plays a role. At different breeds trees thermal conductivity is different.

Walking on coals: miracle or quackery?

Scientists have been unable to unravel the mystery of fire-walking (or fire-walking) for several centuries now, a phenomenon that, according to ancient sources, was known in many parts of Central and South Asia as early as the 5th century BC, and in subsequent centuries spread to the Mediterranean countries. In the tribal cults of America and the Pacific islands, as experts note, nestinar rituals developed by themselves.

Without explaining the nature of this phenomenon in any way, Western scientists still cannot but recognize the existence of rituals during which men, women and even children can walk painlessly over scalding stones and burning heat. Because many of the researchers observed nestinarstvo with their own eyes.

So, in 1901, Professor of the Smithsonian Institution S.P. Langley was present at the walking on the fire of the priests in Tahiti. When one of the stones was rolled out of the brazier to check how hot it was, it turned out that it could boil water for more than twenty minutes, from which the professor concluded that its temperature was over 1200 degrees Fahrenheit.

In 1922, a French bishop in Mysore, India, was present at the Nestina walks of an Islamic mystic outside the palace of the local Maharaja. What shocked him the most was the ability of the fakir to transfer his incombustible power to others, for before his eyes the entire orchestra of the maharaja marched in columns of three through the flames - barefoot, without receiving any damage.

And in the magazine "Tru" for March 1950, G.B. Wright described the ceremony of walking on hot rocks through a 25-foot-long hole he saw on the island of Viti Levu. In his opinion, people walking on stones were in a state of ecstasy, which suppressed pain However, when he examined their feet before and immediately after the ceremony, it turned out that they responded normally to the prick of a needle or the touch of a burning cigarette.

In addition, in the book "Miracle Hunters" George Sandwit described in detail how the Indians living on the Fiji Islands walked on hot coals. By the way, once after another performance, Sandwit returned to his hotel with a bank employee who was present at the performance. Recognizing that the fire was real, because a piece of paper thrown into the pit immediately flared up, the bank clerk expressed the firm opinion that walking on coals should be prohibited, as contrary to modern science.

By the way, walking on coals is usually arranged, however, there is amazing evidence that some unique people took walks on red-hot plowshares and even on boiling lava.

It is understandable that scientists and doctors are still making desperate efforts to find reasonable explanations for this bizarre phenomenon. Some of them refuse to believe in "supernatural nonsense" at all and believe that the answer lies in a mass hallucination.

The author of the book "Fifty Years of Physical Research" Harry Pryson believed that the secret of the trick lies in the short contact of the soles of the feet with hot coals and the low thermal conductivity of the burning tree.

And in 1935, at the initiative of the University of London, one of the first experiments with walking on fire was carried out. The experiment involved a young Muslim man from India, Kuda Bax, who walked through a 20-foot-wide coal pit four times without getting burned. The tested young Kashmiri did not use any oil or lotion to protect his feet: on the contrary, they were washed and dried by a doctor before the actual experience.

The records of this experiment contain a number of conflicting opinions expressed by the experts present at the time. One doctor publicly declared that this trick could be repeated by anyone, because, despite appearance, the temperature in the pit was no higher than the temperature of tea (in fact, a physicist present right there confirmed that the temperature in the center of the flame was 1400 degrees Celsius - higher than that at which steel melts). By the way, when the doctor himself was asked to walk over the coals, he avoided it.

Since that experiment, a host of theories have been put forward trying to explain the phenomenon. Some researchers believe that firewalking is a gymnastic trick: they say that the soles of walkers on coals never come into contact with fire for a time sufficient to damage them. Others believe that it's all about sweat on the feet, which itself produces cooling, creating a protective layer between the nestinar's skin and the surface on which he walks. However, all these theories remain unproven.

When a group of German scientists from the University of Tübingen tried to join the Greek nestinars in their firewalking at the annual St. Constantine festival in Landgadhas, they were forced to leave the line quickly with third-degree burns.

D. Pierce in his work "Crack in the Cosmic Egg" made a fantastic assumption that walking on coals is a classic example of creating some new reality, in which the fire does not burn as usual. As long as this reality persists, everything goes as it should, but there are cases of terrible injuries of those whose faith suddenly broke, and they again found themselves in that world where the fire burns.

There are also several other interesting versions. One of them says that the phenomenon may be related to the peculiarity of our skin: the temperature change on its surface occurs almost instantly, and then the temperature does not change for several seconds (a so-called temperature jump forms on the surface of the skin). This circumstance, according to scientists, may allow the dancer on hot coals not to rush - he feels the same temperature effect both after half a second and after three seconds, so some dancers allow themselves to stand motionless on hot coals for several seconds or walk as if not in a hurry.

But the American anthropologist S. Kane believes that the abilities of walking on coals are a classic example of the predominance of the power of self-hypnosis over nervous irritable processes, in which a substance known as "bradykinin" is involved. Firewalkers probably know how to suppress its activity with an effort of will. At the same time, there is a compression of the blood vessels in the legs, which causes a reduction in blood circulation, in other words, the thermal activity of the skin decreases. In general, according to many modern scientists, the ability to walk on fire is a fusion of physical laws and human abilities.

It is also interesting that the art of walking on fire is known on all continents of the globe. And everywhere immunity to fire is achieved using a variety of methods.

The Indians, for example, important element ritual is a state of trance or religious ecstasy. But many others walked on the coals in a completely normal state. Some Nestirans require complex training, including singing, dancing, sexual abstinence, while others can walk on coals "just like that."

The practice of close communication with fire is becoming more and more popular every year. The benefits of firewalking extend beyond physical health, but also ignites a person from the inside. It develops in him the desire to act and the will to win.

I've been walking on coals for several years. And the number of those who walked with me is more than 300. But I still cannot understand why, when in contact with coals, the temperature of which ranges from 600 to 1200 degrees, the legs are not burned.

There are several theories on this:

Another reality

One of the theories is based on the notion of another reality that is created by a shaman, dervish or sorcerer, and in which ordinary physical laws do not apply, in particular, fire in this reality does not have "burningness". Everything goes well as long as this reality persists, however, in the history of walking on fire, there are cases of monstrous victims and terrible injuries of those whose faith suddenly broke, and they again found themselves in that world where the fire burns. The magical state in which a person becomes immune to fire appears to be created by the person directing the fire-walking ceremony.

Tantum possumus, quantum scimus -

We can do as much as we know.

"By fire like dry land" - Nestina world history

It turns out that walking on hot coals is just as natural for a person as on ordinary earth - the ancient art of walking on burning coals becomes last years common occupation, it can often be seen on television. Already in several major cities There are centers in Russia where everyone, after special training, can take the risk of walking on a carpet of sparkling coals.

The well-known folklorist Andrew Lang was one of the first to note that the art of walking on fire is known on all continents of the globe. He collected many examples showing that it is common in various countries of the world. Walking on fire was already known in the times of Plato, Virgil and Strabo. Mircea Eliade attributed his appearance to the time of the birth of shamanism. He described shamans lolo tribe who walked on red-hot plowshares, and compared this rite with the medieval Christian rite of "testing by the judgment of God."

The art of walking on fire various forms many peoples own, ranging from the Wawaho Indians dancing on coals in North America to the Indians. In the East, for example, demonstrations of superhuman abilities are quite common among Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims. Hindu temple festivals are known with activities of this kind. Coal-burning is known even to Christian Europeans, there is a lot of evidence of immunity to fire in the era of the birth of Christianity.

According to reliable chronicles, when about 155 AD. e. St. Polycarp of Smyrna was tied to a stake for burning at the stake, the flames curved around him, and he remained unharmed until a soldier pierced him with a spear. As you know, among the Protestants there were also people who mastered this art.

In the XVIII century. in France during the Huguenot uprising, the leader of the Camisars, Clari, was sentenced to be burned at the stake. Despite the fact that the flames engulfed him from all sides, he remained unharmed. When the fire went out, not only on him, but also on his dress, there was no damage. General of the army of Camisars Jean Cavalier and other eyewitnesses of this event, who were later sent to England, confirmed this.

Marie Saonet, who lived in Paris in the 1850s, suffered from seizures of St. Medara, received the nickname fireproof. Wrapped in a sheet, she could lie over the fire for a long time, leaning her head and legs on the chairs. She could put her feet in stockings and shoes into a brazier with coals and keep them there until the stockings burned to the ground. In this regard, the question arises why the stockings and shoes burned down, but the sheet did not. By the way, this is not the only such example.

Such phenomena of mass walking on fire occur quite regularly in India, China (mainly in Tibet), Japan, the Philippines, Fiji, Mauritania, Polynesia, North America and a number of European countries.

Roots noted that when he worked for Fiji Islands, then five times he witnessed mass walking on hot stones, and not once did any of those walking get burned. Residents of the island of Mabinga, part of the Fiji archipelago, clear a flat area several meters in diameter, fill it with cobblestones the size of a soccer ball, cover it with firewood and brushwood and set it on fire. The fire burns all night. When the hot stones begin to crumble and burst like soap bubbles, a piercing signal is heard, announcing that it is time for the dancers to take the stage.

Participants of the ritual spend the night in a separate hut, where outsiders are not allowed to enter. There they have a leisurely conversation with the "spirit of fire". And, having received an invitation to go out, they put on special clothes made from fresh leaves of various plants.

Without a shadow of fear and doubt, without looking around, they enter the very heart of the smoldering fire and, shifting from foot to foot, repeat the words of the sacred hymn. After a while, the tribesmen begin to throw green leaves on the hot stones. Everything is shrouded in clouds of smoke, sounds like the hiss of snakes are heard. This is the signal for the start of the main action - the brave conquerors of fire join hands and begin to make such steps on hot stones that take the breath away from the audience.

At the end of the ritual dance, the stones are poured with a special drink made from the leaves and fruits of exotic plants and covered with earth. Until the next disco.

The explorer of the mysteries of Polynesian magic, Englishman Max Freedom Long, in 1917 visited in Hawaii, where he met Dr. Brigham, who lived on the island for more than 40 years and had friends among the kahun - local sorcerers. Brigham once told the history of his walking on hot lava, which Long remembered and told about it in his book, published in 1949 . Long also describes walking on hot rocks on one of islands of the Tahiti archipelago with the participation of one European.

Roman Mithraists. There are testimonies of tortures for the glory of Mithra, of mystical burnings. There are traces of the cult of Mithra during the time of Emperor Constantine the Great, who preferred Christianity to paganism, who assembled the Council of Nicaea, but left "dies solis" - "the day of the Sun" as a public holiday.

Thracian heritage. Worshiping the god of the sun - Sabazius - the Thracians celebrated the day of the summer solstice, burned ritual bonfires, jumped over them and danced in ecstasy among the bonfires - perhaps even on coals ...

Persian fire worshipers. The cult of Mithra spread throughout the Roman Empire from Asia Minor, and Manichaeism came from there. Both for that, and for another cult fiery cleansing ceremonies were characteristic.

The art of walking on hot coals is still world famous. In Bulgaria, where nestinar people walk "on fire like dry land."

Origin of the word "nestinar" considered Greek. Philologists elevate it to "estia", hearth. In this case, this art was brought to Bulgaria by the Greeks, who founded the colonies of Ahtopol and Vasiliko. Perhaps this is a Mediterranean cult that came here either from Southern Cappadocia, where fire-worshipping priestesses praised Artemis-Perasia, or from Etruria, where, in honor of the ancient Italian deity Veiovis, the priests trampled flaming logs with their bare feet ...

By the 19th century, a nestina ritual took place in Bulgaria, which was held on May 21, when the Christian feast of Saints Constantine and Helena is celebrated. According to tradition, a fire made of dry wood, prepared in advance, is kindled in the village squares. While the fire is burning, people go around all the houses in the village, cleansing them of sins and thereby driving away diseases. After that, everyone goes to the square to the fire, goes around it several times, uttering funny exclamations of "wa-wa-wa." Then lay out the smoldering coals in a large circle.

When the firewood of a large fire burns out, the attendant levels the coals so that they form a circle of about five meters in diameter, benches for spectators are placed in a semicircle around this luminous arena. At an invisible signal, the musicians switch to a mournful monotonous melody and ... mysterious fire dancers appear - "nestinars". Dancing to the sounds of special drums, falling into a kind of trance, they begin to move around the circle of coals, shining with a bright, living fiery light. Snakes of pink flame run through the small firebrands, sweat comes out on the faces of the spectators, sitting just three meters from the fire. And then the first of the nestinars steps into the fire. While one performs his pirouettes, the others, without stopping for a moment, move around the fire, knocking down the firebrands scattered by the dance of the soloist back into the circle with their bare feet. Then one by one they pass over the coals. Finally, all together in a single impulse enter the arena, slowly walk through it, join hands and leave the circle, disappearing into the darkness ...

It is hard to believe that under the feet of the dancers there is a red-hot brazier, only stars of small coals sticking to the feet and flaring up in the air clearly prove this.

It is believed that the spirit of St. Constantine can inhabit the nestinars, dancing desperately on coals, and they can prophesy, read in souls, communicate with the dead ...

Sometimes during the dance, the future of the village is predicted. Bulgarians believe that more girls dances on the coals, the more fruitful the year will be. The same holiday, and also with dancing on coals, is celebrated in Greece.

Greece. Every year on the feast of St. Constantine on May 21, in a small area called Langada, not far from Tressaloniki in Greece, in a small chapel, a small group of anasthenares and a rather large crowd of people - curious and visiting - gather to watch the unusual ceremony of the feast of St. Constantine, leading its origin from time immemorial.

Suddenly, everything in the chapel is quiet, the head of the Anastenares slowly opens the censer and pours burning coals onto his bare hands… He holds them still for a while and then carefully and slowly transfers them to the censer. Then he raises his palms up so that all the parishioners are convinced that the spirit of St. Constantine is among them and performed a miracle, protecting the hands of the anastenares from burns.

The faces of the parishioners shine with joy, because now they know that this year the feast of St. Constantine will also be held in his invisible presence, with his protection and help. And with the enthusiasm of those around, with the general singing of prayers, the entire crowd of believers leaves the chapel and descends to the main square, which a huge amount of burnt wood has turned into a continuous field of burning coals.

Crowds of people, curious people, journalists, doctors and tourists have been standing around the square for a long time. Everyone is looking forward to the arrival of the procession.

Walking ahead of everyone, slightly dancing, is the head of the anastenares with the icon of St. Constantine and a lit candle in his hands. Slowly and calmly, he ascends barefoot to the burning coals of the fire, steps with his bare feet on hot coals and slowly crosses to the other side of the burning field. He is followed by other associates, also slowly stepping barefoot on hot coals, holding icons and candles in their hands. Sometimes a flame breaks out from the middle of burning coals, instantly hiding the person passing from those present, and neither his clothes nor his hair catch fire from the fire.

There are also women and girls in wide skirts, young people. Some feel the pleasure of staying for a while among the hot coals or, having crossed to the other side of the coal carpet, again return to its very inferno. Everyone stays there pretty for a long time to show what perfection he has reached and how great is the power sent down by St. Constantine, protecting him from fire. This stay can be quite long. The stay of an anstenares in the middle of a fire for more than 30 minutes is officially registered.

In 1952, a commission of Greek doctors, chaired by Dr. Tanagra and Professor Panahristadoulou, was present at this walking on burning coals and then carefully examined the legs of the Anastenares who participated in this procession. Not the slightest trace of burns was found either immediately, after passing through the fire, or after a few days later. Staying among the flames also did not entail any burns on the body, nor charring of the dress, hair, mustache or eyelashes.

All these phenomena were recorded by scientists and doctors who were present at the passage of the procession through the fire, and many photographs of the procession were taken and in different stages stay of its participants among hot coals.

A similar process of walking on fire also occurs in other parts of Greece: in Marolevki, in Melikia and St. Helena, a small village in the Seres district. And if the processions in these places are slightly different from the fire-walking in Langand, then the general impression remains the same.

In Japan Thousands of Buddhists gather every year for the Takao Mountain Festival to walk the fire from the heart. At the festival, worshipers pray for the safety of the family, body and soul, and then follow the priest (yamabushi) over burning coals. Spectators can also participate in barefoot walking after the fire has been extinguished. By the time the fever subsides, they walk on slightly warm ground and don't worry about burning their feet.

The practice of walking on hot coals, dating back 3,000 years, originated in India, where ascetics thus achieved inner purification. Now this procedure is very popular in Japan, where tens of thousands of people annually gather for events like this. There are different opinions about the process itself. "Walking on fire is the purification and rebirth of man" Yamabushi leader Gisei Kato said. In turn, David Wyllie, professor of physics at the University of Pittsburgh, argues: "There is nothing supernatural in this, and anyone can walk on coals after practicing for a few minutes. The main thing is to correctly calculate the thermal conductivity of the materials at hand." The scientist knows what he is talking about, because he holds the record for walking on coals at a distance of 50 m.

A lot of Europeans was present at such processions, and they also managed not only to film them, but also to conduct a thorough examination of the feet of the participants in this walk through the fire at the end of the procession. This is evidenced, for example, by the missionary priest Father Yvon, who was in the country of Bil in 1938, in the Sayan region, in India, and was present at the procession of walking through the fire, arranged on the occasion of the Holi holiday.

This missionary had the opportunity to examine the legs of the participants after the process and make sure there were no burns.

The famous American professor Rhine, founder of the Department of Parapsychology at Duke University, while he and his wife were in Japan in 1937, was also present at the fire-walking ceremony and even had the opportunity to personally take part in it, walking on hot coals without the slightest harm to himself. Similar cases of Europeans and Americans walking on fire have been recorded more than once, and when they took part in such processions, their organizers usually demanded that they give themselves under the unconditional guidance of Buddhist clergy, who indicated to them exactly the moment when they had to pass through the fire without fear. The slightest deviation from these instructions threatened the European with burns and even death.

Among the numerous superhuman abilities, it is especially difficult for our mind to cope with fire resistance. Ancient sources show that the practice of walking on fire (or fire-walking) was something quite legitimized in many parts Central and South Asia in the 5th century BC . In subsequent centuries, it spread to the Mediterranean countries, and in tribal cults of America And pacific islands nestinar rituals developed on their own.

In 1901, Smithsonian Institution professor S.P. Langley was lucky enough to personally observe how they were engaged in walking on fire priests in Tahiti. When one of the stones was rolled out of the brazier to check how hot it was, it turned out that it could boil water for more than twenty minutes, from which the professor concluded that its temperature was over 1200 degrees Fahrenheit.

In 1922 the French bishop in Mysore, India, He was present at the Nestina walks of the Islamic mystic at the palace of the local Maharaja. The musicians of the Maharaja's brass band were also forced to go through the flames. They were so excited by their success that they repeated the walk, trumpeting and banging cymbals, a sight not seen every day. According to the bishop, the rising flames licked the instruments and faces, but their boots, uniforms and even notes remained intact.

British psychologist Harry Price announced that he intends to conduct a broad study of this phenomenon, the news aroused increased interest. At the beginning of September in the garden of a member of the Society psychic research Alex Dribell built a gigantic brazier made up of seven tons of oak logs, a ton of kindling wood, ten gallons of paraffin wax, a fair amount of coal, and fifty copies of The Times. The subject of Price's research was a young Indian from the province of Kashmir named Kuda Bux, who, according to rumors, regularly performed similar feats in his country. Filmed for posterity, under the gaze of a whole crowd of respectable pundits from the University of London, the barefoot Kuda Bux calmly and fearlessly walked the entire length of the site full of heat and flame several times. A physicist present confirmed that the temperature at the center of the flame was 1,400 degrees Celsius—higher than that at which steel would melt—and a thoughtful examination of the Hindu's legs by three medics revealed no sign of burn blisters. When the two researchers themselves put their feet to the very edge of the brazier, where it is colder, they were forced to pull them back immediately, instantly acquiring bleeding blisters.

In California (USA) Since 1980, a non-profit institute for the study and training of firewalking has been operating. Tolly Burkan, the head of the institute, organized in the 70s an international firewalking movement, in which more than two million people have already learned the art of firewalking.

Walking on coals becomes a kind of training for businessmen, athletes and those who just want to test their willpower. Even one of the US presidents successfully walked over the coals.

In Soviet Union the artist Valery Avdeev mastered the art of walking on fire. He also believes that a special mood, a state of uplift, self-confidence, which he acquires in the process of mental preparation for walking on coals, are of primary importance. The memories of eyewitnesses have been preserved that during the years of the Great Patriotic War in Stalingrad, after one of the bombings, people saw a crying three-year-old child walking along the smoldering beams of a destroyed house. When he was brought to the doctor, he was surprised to note that there were no burn marks on the child's body. This child was Valery Avdeev. Perhaps the individuality of the psyche of V. Avdeev manifested itself even in childhood: under the influence of a strong nervous shock, the thermal activity of the skin spontaneously changed in the child.

In the late 70s V. Avdeev decided to master the art of walking on fire. As the artist recalls, he was seized by a great desire to overcome the fear of fire: “I decided: whatever the consequences of my experiment, let my legs burn, let me go to the hospital, but I’ll go ... I’ll go! I must!”. To obtain coals, a fire was kindled, then the coals were leveled in the form of a path 10 meters long. And Valery Avdeev went this distance.

In Rus' From time immemorial, fire has also had a special relationship. Fire was attributed to purifying and healing properties. On all holidays associated with the winter and summer solstices, with the days of the spring and autumn solstices, ritual bonfires were lit on the street. The fire in the hearth was a symbol of happiness and wealth (it is not for nothing that Russians call burning coals "rich", "rich"). In ancient times, when there were no matches or flint in the villages, and the fire was maintained by leaving smoldering coals in the oven, which had to be fanned in the morning, the peasants were reluctant to lend coals or a burning brand, believing that luck could leave their homes with them and prosperity. It was considered especially dangerous to give someone a fire at the beginning of plowing, sowing, harvesting, on the birthdays of children and the appearance of livestock offspring.

Everyone knows how our ancestors celebrated the holidays of Ivan Kupala and the god of thunder Perun: young people jumped over the fire, ran over the coals, young spouses also joined them on the second day of the wedding in order to secure wealth and offspring, to achieve joy and health in life .

The main feature of the Kupala night is cleansing bonfires. They danced around them, jumped over them: whoever is more successful and taller will be happier. "The fire cleanses from all filth of the flesh and spirit," wrote one of the ethnographers of the 19th century, "and the whole Russian peasantry jumps over Ivan Kupala." In some places, livestock was driven through the Kupala fire to protect it from pestilence. In Kupala bonfires, mothers burned shirts taken from sick children so that the diseases themselves would burn along with this linen. Youth, teenagers, children, having jumped over the fires, made noisy funny Games, brawls, racing. Be sure to play in the burners.

Russia. Heads of leading Russian electronic distribution firms gathered in 2001 near Kaluga and on the coal path they were convinced of the strength of their strong-willed qualities.

Our ancestors, and even some contemporaries in various parts of the world, do not know any theories there, they just do it according to national tradition. Thus, people intensively purify themselves, anneal all unnecessary energies.

After studying the works of Shemshuk, she came very interesting information. Think about it: Rusichi have always been a very powerful nation, why? There are many factors, of course, but I would like to draw your attention to the fact that on religious holidays all of Russia ran over the coals on the same day: the holiday of Ivan Kupala, God Perun - the Thunderer. In this practice, our ancestors annealed karmic attachments.

There are many versions claiming to unravel the phenomenon of firewalking. None of them fully explains it. Comprehensive studies with the participation of biologists, physiologists, doctors, psychologists are still far from complete.

The masters themselves say that they simply do not think about fiery heat, do not believe in fire and burns. Indeed, the faces of the dancers are calm and serene, a calm force peeps through the masks of impenetrability, which is in no way connected with overcoming pain ... But no one has yet explained how they achieve this, how the fiery circle appears in their imagination and what their burning legs feel.

When you yourself become a witness to something that you always considered impossible, you begin to doubt that you know at least something about this world and about yourself.

"Sprinkle salt on your head" - myths about walking on coals

Although firewalking has been known since ancient times, there is still no generally accepted explanation for this phenomenon. Most people do not even have a definite point of view on this phenomenon. Below are the coal-walking myths we have collected:

• This is a lie. A special ointment (oil, lotion) is used to protect the skin from burns. British scientists who attended a demonstration of walking on coals in Carshalton, Surrey, were amazed and stunned by the logical inconsistencies that arose from the whole experiment. To be sure, the young Kashmiri put to the test was not trickster and deceiver, he did not use oil or lotion to protect your feet. On the contrary, they were washed and dried by the doctor just before the experiment.
• It's just dyed foam. People are driven into a trance, they say that these are coals and they walk on them.
• Sprinkle your head with salt. Literary critic E.G. Stephenson, who was present at a Shinto shrine in Tokyo for a ceremony of walking on red-hot stones laid in a pit 90 feet long, wrote that he was tempted to walk over them. presiding over the ceremony the priest made him prepare and took him to a neighboring temple, where another the priest sprinkled salt on his head. When he walked slowly over the hot stones, he felt only a slight tingling in his feet. Stephenson drew attention to one interesting detail: when he walked, he suddenly felt in one foot sharp pain. Later, he discovered a small cut, apparently made with a sharp stone.
• Gymnastic trick. Nestinarity is gymnastic trick, and not something supernatural, believing that the soles of walking on coals are simply never come into contact with fire long enough to damage them.
• It's just a trick (trick), in fact, the coals do not burn at all. One doctor publicly stated that it's just a trick and it anyone can repeat, because, despite appearances, the temperature in the pit where charcoaling took place was no higher than the temperature of tea (in fact, a physicist present there confirmed that the temperature in the center of the flame was 1400 degrees Celsius - higher than that at which melting steel). By the way, when the doctor himself was asked to walk over the coals, he avoided it.
• These people have rough skin on the soles of their feet, and their feet are covered with extraordinarily thick skin to protect them from the heat. The researchers were also keenly interested in the fact that, despite all the many previous fire walks, Kuda Bux's feet were not particularly rough or covered with unusually thick skin to protect against heat. IN this case all signs of divine ecstasy or any other special mental state that is usually so noticeable in participants in religious ceremonies around the world were absent.
• It's all about in sweat on my feet- supposedly he himself produces cooling, creating a protective layer between the skin of the nestinar and the surface on which he walks. However, all these theories, no matter how good they are in an abstract form, remain completely unproven in practice. And when a group of German scientists from the University of Tübingen tried to join the Greek nestinars in their firewalking at the annual festival in honor of St. Constantine in Landgadhas, they had to quickly leave the ranks with third-degree burns.
• unknown salts. They talk about some unknown salts, with which the anastenaris supposedly soak the soles of their feet before the procession. These ointments, these salts, cause the formation of vapor cushions that (supposedly) protect the epidermis from burns. But not a single scientist has yet found the formula of this ointment, which has such a wonderfully fabulous effect on living tissue, and not one of them has been able to prove the correctness of their theories by experience.
• Mass hallucination. However, many who have never seen anything like it themselves refuse to believe that such a thing is possible, and instead believe that the root of the whole mystery lies in the mass hallucination.
• The fruit of the imagination of an impressionable witness to the incident. As for the cases of people passing through flames, then, most likely, they were the fruit of the imagination of an impressionable witness to the incident. In any case, a short contact with open fire is possible, for example, during ritual jumps over a fire among various peoples. But there are no reliable, from the point of view of science, facts of a long stay of people in flames.
• A state of trance or religious ecstasy, complex preparation, singing, dancing, sexual abstinence, touched by a magician or priest. Among the Indians, an important element of the ritual is a state of trance or religious ecstasy. But many others walked on the coals in a completely normal state. For some strangers complex preparation is required, including singing, dancing, sexual abstinence (!!!), while others can walk on coals "just".
• The personal power of the coal walker, capable of pacifying the fire. The only possible conclusion was that the man walking on the coals has some personal force to subdue the fire and his influence, by his calm attitude towards him, gives him confidence for a leisurely walk through a fire of unimaginable heat.
• Rapid healing. Damaged tissues heal so quickly that no traces remain at all (a similar phenomenon is sometimes observed among dervishes, residents of the island of Bali and other initiates who master the art of piercing their bodies.
• Magic, shamanism, sorcery. When some researchers asked familiar people the question: "What do you think about the explanation of the possibility of walking on fire", - they received answers like: this is magic, shamanism, witchcraft.
• Faith must be strong enough for this kind of feat, a strange faith for us.
• God's protection. Max Freedom Langer described in detail how his mentor was an employee of the British museum dr U.T. Brigham, accompanied by three kahunas - local magicians - took a walk along the red-hot lava on the Kona volcano. The magicians told him to take off his shoes, for God Kahuna's protection did not extend to his boots but he refused. Brigham watched as one of his companions slowly walked along the lava flow, at which time two others suddenly pushed him, and he, finding himself on hot lava, was forced to run to the opposite edge of the stream. While he ran 150 feet over it, his boots and socks burned off. The three kahunas, who continued to walk barefoot on the lava, burst out laughing, showing pieces of burning skin dragging behind him.

The fact remains that the art of walking on fire is known on all continents of the globe. Every year, many people, in many countries of the world, ritually or through a variety of ways, put their feet on the red coals and travel through the hot ash. Therefore, in our century, academics and doctors have to make desperate efforts to find reasonable explanations for this bizarre phenomenon. Modern scientists are trying to explain the ability to walk on fire by physical laws and the special abilities of a person.

Theories of modern scientific minds

Walking on fire is stubbornly held out of the comprehension of 20th-century scientists. It is contrary to all known medical laws and seems to occur in the area beyond the threshold of pain sensitivity and the like. Records of experiments often feature a range of conflicting opinions expressed by the experts present. We have collected attempts to explain what is happening with modern scientific minds.

Here are the main theories that have arisen throughout the history of the study of the phenomenon.

Brief touch

In September 1935, when the British psychologist Harry Pryson announced that he intended to conduct a broad study of this phenomenon, the news aroused great interest. After doing some research, Price eventually came to the conclusion that anyone can walk on fire, the secret of the trick is short contact of the soles of the feet with hot coals and low thermal conductivity of the burning tree.

Theory of low thermal conductivity of coal

There is another physical theory based on the idea of ​​low thermal conductivity of coal. We encounter this kind of mechanism when we take a hot cake out of a red-hot oven with our hands and do not burn ourselves, although the air inside the oven has the same temperature as the metal pan. If we touch the baking sheet even for a second, we will immediately get burned. The reason for this is that air is a poor conductor of heat, while metal is a very good one. Physicists suggested that coal is a poor conductor of heat, so a person walking quickly through a fire does not have time to get much heat and therefore does not get burned, regardless of the temperature of the coal.

In 1994, the physicist Bernard Leykind visited the Firewalking Research Institute and tried to effectively illustrate this theory. He tied two sirloin steaks to his feet and walked along the charcoal deck. The Discovery TV Channel filmed this demonstration for later television broadcast. The steaks looked almost untouched by the fire. Then he put the metal grill on the coals and when it turned red he put the same steaks on the grill. The metal instantly fried the meat. He considered this quite convincing evidence that the mental state of a person has nothing to do with firewalking. He emphasized that it would be impossible for a person to walk on red-hot metal without getting burned. As soon as he said that, several Institute employees walked over the grill without any injuries. The grill was so hot that the weight of the people passing by caused the soft metal to bend and mark footprints. Now this grill with imprinted traces is stored as evidence disproving the theory of low thermal conductivity of coal.

However, this experience did not convince Leykind. Then he was offered to blindfold, move him in different directions around the coals so that he would not be able to prepare for the moment of the actual beginning of walking on hot coals. He refused. He also refused to walk on a red-hot metal grill, because on some level he already understood that he was dealing with a complex phenomenon that could not be explained by the thermal conductivity of coal and elementary physics. However, he then insisted for a number of years that walking on coals was safe because of the low thermal conductivity of coal, although it was not at the right temperature. Finally, on May 9, 2000, Leykind signed a statement in which he noted that "any claim that the temperature of the coal is not important is simply absurd" and added "In my opinion, firewalking is an extraordinarily dangerous or even extremely dangerous occupation."

Special types of stones

The American scientist Robert Macmillan, who for many years studied the phenomenon of calving, believed that the answer lies in the stones used by the natives. In his opinion, the conquerors of fire walk only on special rocks that cool instantly on the outside, while remaining hot inside. However, upon verification, it turned out that this version is absolutely unfounded.

Temperature jump of the skin

The phenomenon may be related to the peculiarity of our skin: the change in temperature on its surface occurs almost instantly, and then within a few seconds the temperature does not change ( a so-called temperature jump forms on the surface of the skin).

This circumstance, according to scientists, may allow the dancer on hot coals not to rush - he feels the same temperature effect and after half a second, and after three seconds, so some dancers allow themselves to stand on hot coals for a few seconds motionless or walk as if slowly.

Vapor cushion theory

One of the first physical theories to explain the phenomenon of firewalking was a theory based on the Leidenfrost effect. Several physicists have suggested that the moisture on the sole of the foot during the evaporation process creates a kind of vapor barrier that prevents actual contact with coal. This effect is encountered by everyone who checks the readiness of a hot iron for ironing clothes by briefly touching it with a wet finger. Leidenfrost was the first to describe this phenomenon in detail. The Leidenfrost effect is also observed when drops of water fall on a very hot pan and do not evaporate instantly, but dance long time along it on the resulting vapor cushion, which appears due to intense evaporation at the moment the drop approaches the hot surface.

Physicist Jearl Walker was so convinced of the correctness of this theory that he really believed that it was impossible to get burned while walking on coals and once simply walked on a coal deck without prior preparation. However, he immediately received severe burns, which turned out to be so serious that they forever killed his faith in this theory.

Some new reality

The theory is based on the notion of another reality, which is created by a shaman, dervish or sorcerer, and in which ordinary physical laws do not apply, in particular, fire in this reality does not have "burningness".

Pierce believes that walking on coals is a classic example of the creation of some kind of new reality (albeit only temporary and on a local scale), in which the fire does not burn as usual.

Everything goes well as long as this reality persists, however, in the history of walking on fire, there are cases of monstrous victims and terrible injuries of those whose faith suddenly broke, and they again found themselves in that world where the fire burns. The magical state in which a person becomes immune to fire appears to be created by the person directing the fire-walking ceremony.

The predominance of the power of suggestion over nervous and excitatory processes. Release of the substance "bradykinin"

American famous anthropologist Stephen Cain believes that the ability of walkers on coals is a classic example the predominance of the power of self-hypnosis over nervous irritable processes, which involves a substance known as "bradykinin".

In his opinion, during many hours of meditation and self-hypnosis, the participants in the ritual set themselves up for positive, and therefore do not feel pain. During the ceremony, the blood vessels in the legs are compressed, which causes a reduction in blood exchange, in other words, the thermal activity of the skin decreases. In other words, the daredevil's vascular system "shrinks", which leads to a reduction in blood flow and suppression of the activity of a substance known as bradykinin. It is its deficiency, as Kane suggests, that makes a person less susceptible to external stimuli.

preset

Preliminary tuning increases the thermal activity of the skin to the required value (1500 units). Trying to repeat his successful experience of climbing, the artist Valery Avdeev "did not enter the desired state" and ... received burns. Possibly as a result of prior psychological mood the thermal activity of the skin increases to the required value (1500 units). If this does not happen, then the person is burned.

From conversations with firewalkers, it became known that before taking part in the next ritual dance on coals, they tune in in a special way. A person repeats phrases for several hours in a row, the meaning of which boils down to the fact that everything will be fine, avoiding definitions with a “not” particle: “it doesn’t hurt”, “it’s not scary”. Then he proceeds to create visual images: now he imagines cool moss, now a fast mountain river washing his feet. Modern scientists have come to the conclusion that such an attitude before the ritual is a kind of self-hypnosis, thanks to which left hemisphere the brain becomes immune to external stimuli and blocks the feeling of anxiety and fear.

A state of ecstasy that overwhelms pain

This is how an outside observer describes the ritual of walking on coals in honor of the god of fire Agni, which he observed in the town of Kataragama in Sri Lanka. "At about twelve o'clock the fire was lit. The priest threw a few handfuls of incense into the fire and sprinkled it with holy water. An excitement ran through the rows of spectators, a cry was heard:" Haro-Hara! three wide.The group, who decided to subject themselves to voluntary torture, prayed to the fire god Agni, asking them to strengthen them and give them the strength to endure the test.

Smelchakov was led by an experienced firewalker Muttukuda. He moved slowly and sedately. The others followed him, some at a run, some at a slow pace. Aborigines fell ankle-deep into hot coals. Their eyes, fixed on one point, shone with a fanatical brilliance, their lips were covered with foam, their bodies were shiny with sweat. Religious ecstasy was the inner force that dulled the participants in the ritual action of the feeling of pain. The only surprising thing was the fact that the soles of their feet were completely unaffected by the flames."

Wright described the ceremony of walking on hot rocks through a 25-foot-long hole he saw on the island of Viti Levu. In his opinion, the people walking on the stones were in a state of ecstasy that suppressed pain, however, when he examined their feet before and immediately after the ceremony, it turned out that they reacted normally to the prick of a needle or the touch of a burning cigarette.

According to Dr. White, who adheres to the widely held view, the walker is in an exalted state in which pain sensations are suppressed, as, for example, during hypnosis sessions.

The influence of the leader (priest, shaman, trainer) conducting the ceremony

Rosita Forbes described how, in Suriname, the descendants of African slaves, mixed with the local population, danced in the fire under the guidance of a virgin priestess. During the dance, the priestess was in a state of trance. If she suddenly came out of it, then the dancers would lose their immunity to fire.

What most shocked the eyewitness was the ability of the fakir to transfer his non-combustible power to others - the ceremony manager was one Muslim who conveyed immunity to fire to everyone who had to go through the flame, and he himself never approached the fire. Some went into the fire voluntarily, others he literally pushed, and, as the bishop wrote, the expression of horror on their faces was replaced by an amazed smile. Before the eyes of the astonished crowd, the entire orchestra of the Maharaja marched in columns of three through the flames - barefoot, without receiving any damage.

The magical state in which a person becomes immune to fire appears to be created by the person directing the fire-walking ceremony. The Muslim fell to the ground and began to writhe in pain as soon as the Maharaja closed the ceremony. The bishop was told that this Muslim took all the burns on himself.

Although the pit was so hot that the skin on his face was peeling off, his leather boots were completely undamaged by the fire. The shaman who organized this demonstration (walking on hot stones) claimed that he possessed fire control magic, the power of which extended to shoes.

Almost any person is able to move into the desired state, especially if there is a shaman teacher nearby - a special person who knows how to influence our consciousness, shifting our "assembly point". How does the shaman convey this state to the student? My mind got acquainted with the physics of the phenomenon, it knows that it can be quite safe, but my body does not accept this knowledge, and I will not walk the fire on my own for the first time, but will wait for the shaman. And he will help me change in minutes, without math and even without words. This is truly a miracle that physics cannot explain.

The spiritual principle that subjugates matter

Research prof. Rhine in America, de Cressac in France, etc., about the influence of the spiritual power of thought on matter, led them to an interesting statement.

Spiritual strength, willpower man, the spiritual principle of everything spiritualized in the world is that incredible force that can completely subjugate matter and be the basis of those phenomena that our modern materialistic science will never be able to explain. Advanced human thought should direct its efforts towards the knowledge of the deep truths of the spiritual foundations of the world and man, as their indisputable spokesman.

Burkan's theory: thought in matter

Burkan bases his theory of thought in matter on two experiments.

First is a simple demonstration known from school. The teacher fills a paper cup with water and puts it on the fire. The water boils, but the glass remains intact. The reason is that the temperature of the water cannot exceed 100°C because it turns into steam, and since the paper is in contact with water, it also does not get hotter than 100°C. In order to set fire to paper, it must be heated much above 100? C.

Another experiment was conducted by the US government at the time of the beginning of space flight research. When a spacecraft re-enters the atmosphere, the friction against the air heats it up to a very high temperature. high temperature. It was necessary to find out whether the crew could function if it became very hot inside. To simulate this situation, a special thermal chamber was created. Volunteers entered the chamber and the temperature rose. It was found that although even an egg became boiled in this atmosphere, the human body was not damaged. Even the air temperature in the nose was much lower than in the chamber.

According to Burkan, the reason why Dr. Lakend's steaks were fried on hot metal and the legs remained unharmed is that human legs are connected to a living, conscious being that is something more than inert matter. The human body has a self-cooling mechanism. Respiration, evaporation, and circulation all play their part in this process and are all connected to the brain, which apparently influences thought. Watch a person chewing a lemon or play with sexual fantasies - and you will instantly see how a thought can change the electrochemical state of the brain and then the central nervous system will transmit these changes to the systems and elements of your body.

When a firewalker's thinking is in the appropriate state, the blood flowing in his body is like water in a paper cup. The blood temperature is 37?C. As it flows through the soles of the feet, it continuously cools the tissues and prevents them from "flashpoint" in the same way that water maintains a temperature of 100 degrees. When a person walks on 1200 degree coals without being burned, he is able to do so because the body has the ability to cool and protect itself to some extent.

When a person's mental state is not set to reach its maximum potential, the capillaries are constricted and do not allow blood to flow freely through the tissues of the sole of the foot. In this case, the blood will not be able to remove heat from the sole and will not be able to maintain a temperature sufficient to protect against a burn. The result may be blistering or charring of the skin. Of the 2,000,000 firewalkers by 2000, only 50 were burned because they could not maintain the correct mental state and were "squeezed".

At the Burkan Institute, the criterion of readiness for firewalking is the degree of relaxation of the body, and until the body relaxes, the participant has no right to enter the coal path. The body is an excellent reflection of the mental state. If the body is tense, it means that there are thought processes going on in it that will affect the physical defense mechanisms. Thus, firewalking becomes an exercise in testing the connection between body and mentality.

High temperature protection with thin film cooled on one side by liquid

You can check the efficiency of cooling a thin film with a liquid in simple experience. Take two plastic bags and a gas torch or turbocharged lighter - it makes a very hot torch. Inflate one bag with air, pour water into the second. Bring the flame to the first bag - in a second a melted hole will form in it. The second package can be heated for a very long time - it does not melt. You can take a hot soldering iron instead of a gas flame - the effect will be the same. After prolonged heating with a soldering iron, clouding of the polyethylene surface will be noticeable, and the thicker the material, the more noticeable the damage. If you make it so that the water flows along the surface, the heat resistance will increase even more.

This experiment simulates the main features of the phenomenon of firewalking - the possibility of protection from high temperatures with the help of a thin film cooled on one side by a liquid.

The figure shows a diagram of the structure of the skin.

You can select a thin layer of the epidermis and the main layer of the skin. The epidermis is also divided into a superficial layer of permanently keratinizing epithelium and a germ layer. The skin is penetrated by a network of capillaries, while the most small capillaries are located in the germ layer, the density of the capillary network is maximum here and the blood supply to the tissue is also maximum.

With such a skin structure, the cooling system can work as follows. Upon contact with a hot surface, a thin surface layer of the skin provides heat transfer to the capillary system of the germ layer. Due to its small thickness and high degree of blood filling, this process occurs very quickly and efficiently, preventing the stratum corneum from overheating (as in the film experiment). The heated blood then cools in the main layer of the skin, which as a result begins to heat up, but much more slowly than the epidermis. The main layer of the skin can be cooled mainly by diffusion in the interstitial fluid and lymph, which is a much slower process compared to heat transfer by the bloodstream.

To check the plausibility of the considered model of the cooling system, we will carry out some quantitative estimates. Need assessment:

• is the blood flow in the epidermis able to provide the necessary heat removal so that the temperature of the upper layer of the skin does not exceed allowable value(about 45-50 degrees);
• How does the rate of heating of the main layer of the skin correlate with the time of real contact of the skin with the hot surface. Let the capillaries provide blood flow to the epidermal layer at a certain speed wb. The blood heats up and its temperature increases by some amount ? T. Amount of heat Q b, which the blood will transfer in time t per unit area of ​​the skin surface, is

Q b = c p w t ? T, (1),

where p, cb are the density and specific heat capacity of blood.

During the same time, the amount of heat per unit area of ​​the hot surface with temperature Tf will be transferred to the amount of heat Q f equal to

Qf = 1 (T f— Tb) t/?, (2)

where is 1? is the average coefficient of thermal conductivity and the thickness of the epidermis layer between the hot surface and the capillary layer, Tb is the blood temperature.

In order for the blood to cool the epidermis, the outflow of heat must be no less than the inflow, that is Q b> Q f.

Let's estimate the speed. According to the thermal parameter, blood is close to water (cb = 4200 J/kg/deg., p = 1000 kg/m3), its usual temperature is Tb = 37°C. Let's take the maximum allowable short-term increase in blood temperature?T = 5?C (up to 42?C). We will take the thermal conductivity coefficient of the epidermis the same as for industrial dry skin (0.15 W/m/deg.), its thickness is 0.15 mm (3-4 hair thicknesses). For the record surface temperature Tf = 1200°C, we obtain the minimum blood velocity value of 5.5 cm/s. This velocity value is an order of magnitude less than the velocity of blood in the aorta and approximately corresponds to the available information on the maximum current velocity in the capillaries.

The scheme of the structure of the skin

In reality, the average thermal conductivity can be several times less, and then the minimum blood velocity can also be less.

The fact is that the surface of the skin is not smooth, but has microscopic tubercles. Therefore, even a flat heater will contact the skin only at certain points, and on a large part of the surface there will be an air gap. The coefficient of thermal conductivity of air is 0.025 W/m/deg. (6 times less than the value taken above). The average coefficient of thermal conductivity will be between these extreme values, depending on the ratio of the thickness of the layers. The presence of a layer with low thermal conductivity (high thermal resistance) provides a sharp temperature jump on it, as a result of which the possibility of destruction of the most superficial layers of the stratum corneum is reduced. So our simplest estimates show that circulatory system is quite capable of effectively cooling the surface of the skin.

Let us now estimate the heating time constant of the main skin layer. We will consider the skin as a flat plate of thickness h, with a thermal conductivity coefficient of 10, specific heat capacity c0 and density p placed between the epidermis and internal tissues. For such a one-dimensional model, the solution of the heat equation is known.

In terms of thermal parameters, the inner layers of the skin are close to water (p = 1000 kg/m3, c0 = 4200 J/kg/deg., 10 = 0.6 W/m/deg.), then with a skin thickness of 1.0-1.5 mm we obtain from (3) t = 0.8-1.5 s. This means that the time of contact with the hot surface should be on the order of 1 second, while the skin temperature will reach 1-1/e = 63% of the epidermal temperature. The duration of contact of the foot with the surface is determined by the pace of walking. At a walking speed of 3 km/h and a step width of 0.5 m, the contact time of the foot with the ground is 0.5 s, which is less than the calculated time constant. The time constant of the skin cooling process seems to be slightly larger than t due to the presence of a less thermally conductive fatty subcutaneous layer, but is about the same order of magnitude. The cooling process is also facilitated by walking itself, during which the pressure on the skin changes dramatically and this leads to additional movement of blood and other fluids. Therefore, the firewalker should walk at a pace no slower than about one step per second, and not walk too long, or take breaks so that the slow mechanism of cooling through the lungs and perspiration has time to work.

So, estimates show that walking on fire does not require the presence of any unusual physical conditions in the body. The main condition is that blood should freely flow to the surface of the skin, like water to a film in a plastic bag in the described experiment. In this case, the skin should be dry, thin enough and not have poorly cooled anatomical defects.

Very fast movement

The English physicist Harry Pryson hypothesized that when walking on hot stones, people move so fast that they simply do not have time to properly feel the heat and get burned. However, representatives of some tribes not only dance on stones for several minutes, but also stand in one place for a long time.

Anesthetic

Following Macmillan, the Australian magazine "Walk About" suggested that before stepping on hot stones, the natives lubricate the soles with a powerful anesthetic and therefore do not feel pain. However, an anesthetic can relieve pain for a while, but it cannot protect the skin from burns. In addition, the conquerors of fire not only walk on hot coals, but also apply them to various parts bodies, some even bite off pieces of burning wood.

Dr. Karger's experiment - he can not explain the phenomenon of angle walking from the point of view of science

The well-known German physicist, employee of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics Friedbert Karger considered Dr. Kane's arguments not entirely convincing and in 1974 he personally went to Mabinga Island to see the strange ritual with his own eyes and explain the phenomenon of carbonization from the point of view of physics.

To begin with, Karger and his medical assistants carefully examined the dancers who were to demonstrate their art in the morning. However, no change skin their feet were not found. And the doctors themselves envied the psycho-emotional state of the "extremals".

Before the start of the ceremony, Karger applied a layer of indicator paint to the feet of the dancers, which changes color when a certain temperature is reached. Thanks to this, the scientist proved the incredible - the temperature of the stones on which the natives danced reached 330 degrees Celsius. The feet of the islanders did not suffer at all. Moreover, their temperature at the time of the dance did not exceed eighty-three degrees.

Immediately after the ritual, Karger placed a piece of hardened skin, cut from the sole of an aboriginal dancer, on one of the hot stones, and it charred almost instantly. After that, the physicist admitted that he was not able to explain the phenomenon of coalition from the point of view of science.

conclusions

All of the above theories only confirm that walking on a hot surface without damage is a normal reaction. healthy body, and only our erroneous psychological attitudes and the fear that follows them make us give the command nervous system convulsively squeeze blood vessels and block the correct action of the body.

As Burken says, "new firewalkers are amazed when they discover that they themselves are such amazing beings. Firewalkers discover that, being just people, there is nothing simple about them. Our thoughts are a new fortress, and firewalking is simply the beginning of the process of discovering oneself. Drawing "thought into matter" really inspires and gives new hope to people with serious illnesses, as well as to those who are looking to overcome the limitations imposed by the old faith: sellers, students, athletes - you can continue the list and include yourself!

It takes a certain amount of credulity for scientists who hear about such ceremonies for the first time to admit that men, women, and even children can walk painlessly over scalding stones and searing heat. Only spiritual or psychological reasons it is impossible to explain the ability to walk on fire. It is obvious that here we are talking about some physical phenomenon that has not yet been understood and has not found its explanation.

The cases described above and throughout the book below are so numerous that they are worth a close look, and even better try for yourself. Let's try to understand this issue using the methodology offered to your attention below.

Andrew Lang. Forge and crucible.

surston G. Physical manifestations of mysticism. 1952

Olivier Leroy Salamander People. 1931

Gaddis. Mysterious fire and light.

Dingualla E.D. "Amazing cases with people." 1947

Korni B.G. "Notes on Doubtful". 1914

Adaridi B. "Russian Thought", N 584, 08/28/1953

Leroy V. "People of the Salamander".

Long M.F. The Secret Science Behind Miracles - 1949. (Translation: Long M.F. The Magic of Miracles. Kyiv: Nika-Center, 1998).

Tolly Burkan. Firewalking Institute of Research and Education

Popova S.H. "Walking on coals - complete immunity." 1988.

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Perun (Belarusian - Pyarun, lit. - Perknas, Latvian - Prkons) - in East Slavic mythology, God commanding thunder and lightning, patron of warriors and princely squads (God of war), giver male power, one of the main gods Slavic pantheon. The god of thunder and lightning, like heavenly fire, is mentioned in the annals in the agreements of the Rus and Slavs with the Romans.