Fire Walk With Me

Last Updated (Wednesday, 24 December 2008 11:49) Written by Raymond Nakamura

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I know a guy named Thomas who spent big bucks to firewalk with Tony Robbins. I don't know if I'd have the nerve to do that. Spend the money, that is. 

I'm not saying that walking on hot coals (they don't actually walk through fire) is not dangerous or that doing it doesn't take guts (and I am definitely not suggesting you try it). But not burning seems to be more physics than metaphysics.

Thomas said that before firewalking, they did chanting and breathing exercises which, they were told, would create an "energy field" that would prevent them from getting burned.

I once went to a talk by science education pioneer  Jearl Walker (I didn't have to pay). He described how he walked on coals as a demonstration. He suggested it was the result of the Leidenfrost effect in which the moisture on your skin vaporizes at high heat, forming a protective barrier.

Competing Explanations

Apparently, however, some firewalkers prefer to keep their feet dry to make sure embers don't stick. Nowadays, the most widely used scientific explanation seems to be that the hot coals have a low heat capacity and are poor conductors. If you walk quickly over a short distance, then your feet are not exposed to enough heat to get burned.

Bernard Leikind demonstrated the conduction hypothesis by walking over the coals wearing slabs of raw meat. They did not get burned.

Tolly Burkan, the first major popularizer of firewalker and trainer of Tony Robbins, claims his people could stand on a metal grill the same temperature as the coals without getting burned, which he says refutes the conduction hypothesis. The tricky thing is that the temperatures of these situations changes over time and is usually not well controlled.

Feet to the Fire

Richard Wiseman, who has studied all kinds of aspects of human psychology set up a test. If the scientific explanation were correct, he explained, you would not be able to walk very far. If the mental energy field model were correct, it shouldn't matter how far you walk. So he set up a relatively long firewalk with some volunteer firewalkers.

The results apparently refute the mental energy field model. It did seem a little cruel and maybe a little funny to see the avowed firewalker burn his feet.

This does not, however, mean the the conductivity model is necessarily correct or complete. I think being able to boil water in a paper cup has something to do with this.

Going the Extra Metre

I saw a video of the Guinness World Record for firewalking 100 metres by Scott Bell, which seems to defy the conduction argument. It was done in China and the segment is in Mandarin, so I don't know what they were talking about. 

But one thing I noticed was the way he raked the coals, so the burning ones were to one side, so pictures often look like they are actually walking through the fire.

Thomas said about eight hundred people did firewalking at the event he was at and none of them got burned.

Like I said, I'm not suggesting anyone try this. Accidents do happen. Australian managers of KFC were on some kind of team building experience which involved firewalking and many burned their feet. I don't know if the actual intention was to develop empathy for the chicken they served. 

Jearl Walker himself burned the bottoms of his feet. He suggested, I think tongue in cheek, that he wasn't carrying a physics textbook to demonstrate his belief in physics. 

The Whole Truth?

I haven't seen an explanation for what went wrong. A number of different variables could come into play. I think it's an intriguing example of the interaction between hypothesis and reality. It reminded me of the two kinds of mistakes you can make when trying to understand how the world works:

1. accepting something false (perhaps like believing you have an energy field protecting you); 

2. rejecting something true (Perhaps like believing that thought has no effect on physiology).

As a general agnostic, I am not willing to have my beliefs raked over the coals to figure out all that is going on. 

What do you think is happening?

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