Fire Walking is an
old school way of showing
devotion or of attaining
knowledge of self. It is a
custom that has been found in such varied places as
India,
Spain, Hawaii (with
lava), The
Kalahari Desert,
Bulgaria and
Fiji.
Physicists has studied the phenomenon since the 1930s and have concluded that the
normal walk can easily be explained by the fact that
coal has a very
low heat capacity and that water on the feet or sweat creates a
steam layer which insulates the feet from the heat. Also, the high heat conduction ability of the body cools the feet and
injuries are avoided. This doesn't explain how some firewalkers stand in the middle of the coals at plus 1000
degrees for like 40 seconds though. Studies on fire walking have shown that the coals do lose heat rapidly and that after each person walks it does get cooler and cooler however these studies always fail to examine the extreme fire walking of people in places like the
Khalahari who like
eat fire and play checkers with the coals or the
shamans in Hawaii who don't use special wood and perfect conditions but walk over lava from a spitting
volcano.