Comments on: Firewalk Mishap

By: Tom Nielsen

Tom Nielsen — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 11:35:07 +0000

Just a small correction. It seems that you either made a typo, or read from the wrong row in the table you linked to.

You wrote the thermal conductivity of “wood, oak” to be 0.07. The table says 0.17.

0.07 is the thermal conductivity of “wool, felt”.

Still a tiny value though.

By: BillyJoe7

BillyJoe7 — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 21:01:38 +0000

etatro,

No, I’ve never done that. Have you?
Is it better to walk barefoot over hot coals or wear a pair of wet socks while doing so? I dont know. I’ve never tried it nor have I heard of anyone else who has done the comparison.

By: etatro

etatro — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 14:48:27 +0000

Billy – Have you ever pulled something hot out of the oven using oven mitts that had gotten wet? It burns. You want dry feet like you want dry oven mitts.

By: BillyJoe7

BillyJoe7 — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 21:11:25 +0000

I don’t suppose anyone has conducted a test of dry vs moist vs wet feet?

By: Steven Novella

Steven Novella — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 16:45:55 +0000

As I said – I heard a physicist give that as the explanation, but did not find it very compelling myself. The coals sticking to moist feet point seems plausible also.

I think the low thermal conductance and the insulating ash are the real major factors here.

By: BillyJoe7

BillyJoe7 — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 12:12:19 +0000

phidauex,

I’m pretty sure Joctrel just made a typo.
He clearly meant to say 1st degree burn, not 3rd degree burn.

But I see you disagree with Steven Novella about the moisture on the feet.
Steven: “perspiration on the bottom of the feet…evaporates and causes a bit of an insulating barrier”
phidauer: “Burns occur..when coals stick to your feet (if your feet are wet)”

By: beddoe

beddoe — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 12:02:09 +0000

What I find the most facinating thing of all is that after the first 5 or 6 people got burnt – maybe just maybe, the others might have thought “Hang on this may just be a bad idea”

By the time you have 20 people rolling around holding their smoking, blackened and blistered feet you have to ask why person number 21 thought it was still a good idea!!

Maybe they felt left out and thought “I’ve paid all this money to Tony Robbins – I’m going to get something out of this – even if it is burnt feet”

By: eean

eean — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 11:03:33 +0000

@phidauex “why the woo?” is often what I think regarding these sorts of stories. Or like acupuncture – it could be just a weird form of massage but they have to make it about chakras.

By: Fourier

Fourier — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 08:36:37 +0000

I have quite a bit of knowledge of Robbins’ material (attended two live events, crewed in two). I went in as a scientist, though without much understanding of psychology. I realised that most of it was superficial at best, false at worst (and the annoying woo element really irritated me) but I still got a lot out of it. It was an interesting process learning about the real science (or not) behind his claims over the subsequent years and I’ve discarded most of the beliefs I picked up from those events since then.

However, the fire walk has stuck with me. Even the first time I did it I knew the science behind it and I didn’t buy any of the woo stuff – but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good exercise. Even though I knew all the science, it’s still difficult to step out onto burning red coals barefoot. It was a good exercise in training myself to trust in science and not intuition. I suspect I wasn’t the only person in the room who interpreted it that way. I’ve applied that mindset later on in life to getting over fears (“Ignore your emotions – the science knows best”).

By: DOYLE

DOYLE — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 19:40:44 +0000

If you want to measure the efficacy of any motivational speaker,guru,messiah or visionary,simply inventory the product stream that follows.And just like any cash cow,notice the sequels,revisions and hybrid products that keep coming in as new and improved.Motivational shit 2.0