The activity of walking on hot coals, rocks or cinders without burning the soles of one's feet. In some cultures [e.g., India], firwalking is part of a religious ritual and is associated with mystical powers. In America, firewalking is part of New Age religion, i.e., self-empowering motivational activity.
Tony Robbins of the Robbins Research Institute in Los Angeles popularized firewalking as an activity which demonstrates it is possible for people to do things which seem impossible to them; the firewalk is a technique for turning fear into power. Robbins doesn't consider the power of the mind to overcome fear of getting burnt as paranormal, however. Overcoming this fear is presented as a step in restructuring one's mind, almost as if this trial by fire was some sort of initiation into an esoteric and very special group of risk-takers. To the timid and those who feel powerless amongst all the dynamic firebrands around them, such a feat as walking on hot coals must seem a significant event.
Robbins may have popularized firewalking but Tolly Burkan, founder of The Firewalking Institute for Research and Education, claims he was the first to introduce the practice to North America. According to Burkan, firewalking is "a method of overcoming limiting beliefs, phobias and fears." It may even be useful for those who have phobaphobia (fear of phobias) or fearaphobia (phobia of fears).
Walking across hot coals without getting burned does seem impossible to many people, but in fact it is no more impossible than putting your hand in a hot oven without getting burned. As long as you keep your hand in the air and don't touch the oven, its metal racks or any ceramic or metal pots, you won't get burned even if the oven is extremely hot. Or, if you do touch the oven, metal racks or pots, and are wearing insulating gloves or using "hot pads," you won't get burned. Why? Because "the air has a low heat capacity and a poor thermal conductivity...." while "our bodies have a relatively high heat capacity...."[Leikind and McCarthy, p. 188] And an insulator will insulate! Thus, even if the coals are very hot (1,000 to 1,200 degrees), a person with "normal" soles won't get burned as long as he or she doesn't take too long to walk across the coals and as long as the coals used do not have a very high heat capacity. Volcanic rock and certain wood embers will work just fine. In fact, instead of a person's feet burning, the coals will actually be cooled off when one steps on them because of the relatively higher heat capacity of our feet.
Also, "both hardwood and charcoal are good thermal insulators.... Wood is just as good an insulator even when on fire, and charcoal is almost four times better as an insulator than is dry hardwood. Further, the ash that is left after the charcoal has burnt is just as poor a conductor as was the hardwood or charcoal." [Willey]
Some people do get burned walking across hot coals, not because they lack faith or willpower, but because their soles are thin, they don't move quickly enough, they spend too much time on the coals, the coals are too hot or because the coals are of a kind with a relatively high heat capacity. But even very hot coals with a high heat capacity can be walked over without getting burned if one's feet are insulated, e.g., with a liquid such as sweat or water. (Think of how you can wet your finger and touch a hot iron without getting burned.) Again, one must move with sufficient speed or get burned.
Should a person be elated at overcoming the fear of firewalking and successfully walking through the fire pit without getting too severely burned? No. The fear is due to ignorance and the elation will surely turn to bitterness when the firewalker finds out that what they have accomplished can be done by just about anyone. On the other hand, those who are depressed because they could not produce the "courage" to walk the coals might take some consolation in the fact that with a little knowledge courage isn't needed.
Robbins has moved beyond the firewalk, but others have turned the activity into an end itself. Several of them even advertise on the World Wide Web. They should not be hard to find, for those who are interested in spending a few bucks to overcome their fears and phobias.
reader comments
Come visit my site. I just can not write off my experiences to low coal thermal conductivity. As you can see I present firewalks on real fire and not just coals, and as you can see, my participants don't look like they are having a bad time.
Can you even acknowledge that there might be a life force that could
possibly protect you?
Ilmar Saar
response: All I can see is that you plan to make a lot of money raking people over the coals.
30 Jun 1996
Dear Bob (or would you prefer Mr. Carroll?),
This dictionary is clearly a bastion of logic, and I love it. One complaint, however--the ability to firewalk is not due, as you write, to the ability of coals to transfer heat to the human foot. The coals in my grill seem to do that just fine to a porterhouse! It's actually due to what's called the Leidenfaust (or something like that) effect. It's the same reason that if you lick your finger, you can extinguish a candle flame with your fingers without getting burnt. What happens is that the intense heat evaporates instantly the sweat on your feet, creating a layer of water vapor. Even though it is extremely thin, water vapor conducts heat very poorly, and so your feet are protected (as long as you don't stop for a hot dog!). In short, all the heat goes to evaporating the sweat and so doesn't give you third-degree burns. Those who are burned just don't have sweaty-enough feet (isn't that ironic? Being punished for having NONSMELLY feet?). This is standard physical thought (See Jearl Walker--he's a physicist with. . .Princeton? I think?)
Anyway, get your facts straight.
--Tyson C Burghardt
reply: Our disagreement is not about facts, but about the explanation of facts. The liquid insulation explanation is mentioned in my entry but I don't think it is as good an explanation as the conductivity theory. However, it is true that sweat or liquid can briefly insulate the foot while prancing over hot embers. Some firewalkers systematically dip their feet in water before their incendiary strolls. Sweat and water may help make the firewalk less dangerous, but I don't think they explain how anyone can walk on coals. On the other hand, some firewalkers dry their feet before firewalking and dip their feet in water after the firewalk. That makes more sense to me. A dry foot may be less likely to pick up any loose embers and a wet foot will extinguish any embers that might be clinging to a foot.
16 Jul 1996
Dear Sir,
I was interested in your article about fire walking. The trick is
simple, I have performed this act serveral times:
a) The feet must be dry,
b) The feet must be cold
The latter is achieved by walking through a creek, water at the beach or (very effective) cooling ones legs in ice for about five minutes.
A simple example is as follows:
a) Cool your thumb and index finger on a cold glass of ice water.
b) Wipe the fingers dry and hold a (red hot) burning cigarette between
thumb and index finger, on any finger which you cooled down.
You will be able to hold the hot cigarette between your fingers for an impressive period of time, without burning yourself.
Again, the trick is: Feet, legs, hands or fingers must be cold and
dry!
--H. D. Krebs
reply: thanks for the cool tip.
further reading
FIREWALKING Myth vs. Physics by David Willey
Bill Latura's Page on Firewalking This is the same Bill Latura who is responsible for the fine Left Hemishere Page.
"An Investigation of Firewalking," Bernard J. Leikind and William J. McCarthy, in The Hundreth Monkey and Other Paradigms of the Paranormal,ed. Kendrick Frazier (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1991).