One of my friends said that fire-walkers are just normal people that walk across hot coals. She said the ash provides insulation for your foot as long as you keep moving, and to prove her point, went and stepped across the fire. Her foot was fine, but I'm pretty sure the people that do it as a sort of metaphysical thing don't rely on ash for insulation. Anyone know? Tried?
from what I've heard, it's a mixture between the ash and also sweat on the bottom of your feet. Place your feet above the coals, and allow them to sweat first. Then as you step, the coals will evaporate the sweat and as long as you are walking, it won't burn you.
I've walked across hot coals several times. I agree with the idea that the ash provides thermal insulation. As soon as your foot touches a coal, the surface of the coal cools enough to make a layer of ash that keeps your skin from burning immediately. I think a little sweat could help too. But you need to keep walking because you can get a burn if you stand too long in one place. I had a few minor burns once but hardly even noticed them.
I've never dared trying it. I rely too much on my feet to risk my nice, tough callouses in that way. Perhaps I'd dare try with a firewalking instructor whom I really trusted, but not just like that...
I saw some thing about the people of the Eastern Orthodox church in Greece who do this annually for some reason, to honor a saint or something (even though the church disapproves). I don't think they are a barefooting type of people but I could be wrong. I do remember them showing people taking off their shoes. Anyways, they said that yeah, the ash and sweat helps. Also, since the coals are spread out they're cooler. But one has to wonder about the mind's ability to control pain and even burns. It's kind of a metaphysical proposition, but maybe their faith makes them invulnerable to the coals. I wonder if someone who believed they would be burned (either in the Greek church or anywhere) would be burned, while one who belives they won't get burned doesn't. http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9801/05/fire.walkers/
i've walked across the hot summer blacktop streets more than a few times. does this count? i usually have to end up running because the street is wider than a hot coal bed would be.
Though it is hard to walk on blacktop, I doubt it's hot as coals. Still, it can burn the feet, so it sort of counts. It seems pretty obvious that the faster you go the safer your feet are, but I've seen people walk slowly across coals and not get burned (when I say "ive seen people" i mean on tv).
I walked over hot coals several times. I didn't notice anything supernatural in it. The coals have low heat capacity and low heat conductivity, therefore, it takes some time before they can transfer sufficient amount of heat to the skin to burn it. As far as you are moving, the amount of heat transferred is pretty small. You just must feel when certain spots of the skin become too hot and shift the body weight to another spot. It takes some training, but then you can walk over hot coals pretty comfortable. On the other hand, if you try to walk over the hot coals with the shoes on, they will probably get burned, because in this case you don't feel when it's becoming too hot and when you need to lift the foot to let it cool down.
Yeah... actually, if you do a quick web search on this, there's a lot of scientific articles on the subject. I think rOb articulated pretty well. Even if there's plenty of explicable science behind it, I don't think that detracts from from the experience. In any case, I'm generally more impressed with people being able to walk on surfaces that others can't. For example, I've seen Kiwis bolt down a sharp gravel road while barefoot, climb spiny palm trees... etc...
