Firewalking ceremony

Friday the 13Th of March 2009, a date to put in your diaries, a date the undercover sceptic will put his science where his mouth is and participate in a fire walking ceremony.

Now many people know of the fire walking ceremony through self-help motivational guru's such as Anthony Robbins, known as Banana hands in the hit film Shallow Hal, starring Jack Black & Gwyneth Paltrow. Participating in one of Anthony Robbins Fire walks can easily set you back over a thousand pounds for the experience.

However as a sceptic I find the supposed motivational power of a self-help Guru to enable an ordinary person dragged off the street to suddenly be able to walk a stretch of burning hot coals and not receive third degree burns, stretches credulity to snapping point.

So I did a little checking and came up with the following points of contention:

Factors that prevent burning!

Factors that act together to prevent the foot from burning:

Water has a very high specific heat capacity (4.18 kJ/K kg), whereas coals (and lava) have a very low one. Therefore the foot's temperature tends to change less than the coal's.

Water also has a high thermal conductivity, and on top of that, the blood in the foot will carry away the heat and spread it. On the other hand, coal has a poor thermal conductivity, so the hotter body consists only of the parts of the coal which is close to the foot.

When the coal cools down, its temperature sinks below the flash point, so it stops burning, and no new heat is generated.

The coals are often covered with ash, which is a very good insulator, as it is often used to insulate ice boxes.

The coals are a very uneven surface, and the actual surface area of foot touching the coals is very small.

Fire walkers do not spend very much time on the coals, and they keep moving.
Calluses on the feet may offer an additional level of protection, even if only from pain, however most people do not have calluses that would make any significant difference.

Risks when doing fire walking improperly!

There are risks when doing fire walking improperly:

People have burned their feet when they remained in the fire for too long, enabling the thermal conductivity of the coals to catch up.

It is more likely to be burned when running through the coals as the action stirs the coals, giving them more oxygen.

Foreign objects in the coals may result in burns. Metal is especially dangerous since it has a high thermal conductivity.

Coals which have not burned long enough can burn feet more quickly. Coals contain water, which increases their heat capacity as well as their thermal conductivity. The water must be evaporated already when the fire walk starts.

Wet feet can cause coals to cling to them, increasing the exposure time.
Therefore, even if fire walking is explained with simple physics, there are still hazards. Notably in 2002, twenty managers of the KFC fast food chain in Australia received treatment for burns caused by fire walking. However, this exercise in fire walking was practiced over timber, a more efficient heat conductor than charcoal.

By the way walking on fire is not a new invention by the great Anthony Robbins: Walking on fire has existed for a few thousand of years with records dating back to 1200 B.C. Cultures across the globe, from Greece to China, used fire walking for rites of healing, initiation, and faith. Fire walking became popular in America during the 1970s when author Tolly Burkan began a campaign to demystify the practice. He offered evening fire walking courses that were open to anyone in the general public. The demand for fire walking classes became so great that in 1984 Burkan began training instructors. Recently, in the United States, fire walking is used by businesses to build teamwork and as a so-called alternative health remedy.

So from my point of view fire walking can be explained away by basic physics, however there is still a major psychological fear to overcome. A person can know and have faith in the science behind the Theatre but thousands of years of base adrenal Fight or Flight syndrome still has to be conquered before you can set foot on those coals.

Here is a more in depth review, http://skepdic.com/firewalk.html with a video clip of Michael Shermer participating in a fire walking ceremony.

Wish me luck guys, not that I have anything to be worried about being Friday the 13Th I still do not believe Jason Voorhees is realistically going to come bursting out of the shadows chasing me ..... GULP!

Regards,

Undercover Sceptic.