FIREWALKING: A PARADOXICAL PHENOMENON

(Đi trên than đỏ bị phỏng nặng và phép lạ by hoatam on 09 May 2009, 08:34, translated by Horangi)

Firewalking has existed for thousands of years as religious ceremonies in Japan, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, the Fiji islands… In Japan, The fire-walking festival is one of the traditional events held at Mt Takao. The Guinness Book of World Records has the picture of Vernon E. Craig safely walking on a long trek of burning charcoal at 1183 ° F (639.4 ° C) on July 3, 1075.

Legend has it that guru Tkhipvat was a saint to the Lao people with many supernatural powers, such as piercing the skin with a sword without pain, walking on fire and water. He was known to have entered a burning house to rescue two babies. He died at the age of 120. Tens of thousands of people attended his funeral.

In India, Hindu mystics walks on burning charcoal naturally. One of them, Kuda Bux, of Kashmir India (1906 -1981) was mentioned in ” People with strange powers” published in 1978. In England he performed walking on a ditch 12 inches (.3m) deep, 3 feet wide (.9 m) and 25 feet (7.6 m) long filled with cardboard, wood and 10 gallons (37.8 liters)of paraffin oil and set on fire. He also performed in the US on August 2, 1938, walking on burning coal which was measured at 1400 degrees F (760 degrees C) at Rockefeller square as if on the beach, his feet remaining cool to touch afterward. The demonstration was shown on Robert Ripley Believe It or Not, distributed on VHS.
In another performance he surprised his audience with his ability to read with his head and eyes covered. While blindfolded he could read fine prints from a long distance or thread a needle.
In Fiji, people walk on burning charcoals in religious ceremonies. On December 15, 1972, at the Korolevu Beach Hotel, MaiKeli Masi, 11 years old boy performed walking back and forth on red hot charcoals at 400 degrees natural.
Someone told me that he witnessed a Chinese mystic who lived in a small district in Vietnam, performing a successful exorcism by cutting his own tongue with a knife and spit the blood onto the possessed. He also performed fire walking in Ancestors worship ceremonies.
In Canada, On June 15, 2005, Amanda Dennison walked 220 feet (67 meters) on the burning coal, and on November 28, 2006,Scott Bell broke that record with 328 feet length (100 meters) at Wuxin, China.

The paradoxical proof that firewalking is a miraculous phenomenon
Recently, Travel Channel (US TV) has a documentary show about a black American (I forgot his name) who has traveled to Indonesia, Thailan, Vietnam, India to research mystical phenomena. In India, he attended a religious ceremony and saw Hindu mystics drink a yantra’s ash and chant the mantras, their body then started to sway in a trance-like manner as they began to walk up ladders of sharpened knives and across beds of broken glasses.
They invited him to join them but he refused thinking that his feet do not have thick skin on the soles of his feet like that of the Hindu people who go barefoot a lot. However, he soon changed his mind and agreed to do the fire walking. They gave him the yantra’s ash to drink and the mantra to recite. Some people walking in front of him made it through the burning beds quickly and some withdrew from it. When came his turn, he made a few steps and fell unconscious. He was taken to the emergency hospital via the ambulance.
The Doctors saw that his feet were seriously burned. They bandaged his wound and he remained in the hospital for further treatment. The next morning the doctors checked his feet and were astounded as his feet had completely healed without a trace and he was walking normally without any discomfort to the doctor’s amazement.

Comments:
In the realm of modern physics, the concept of firewalking is often attributed to physical factors such as the poor heat conductivity of burning charcoal, the body’s natural mechanisms to divert heat, the potential use of protective lotions, and even the ability of the mind to regulate body temperature. As a result, scientists tend to classify firewalking as purely a physical phenomenon.

However, a particular instance depicted in the aforementioned show challenges this notion. Despite taking precautions such as consuming ashes and reciting mantras, a researcher sustained serious burns while attempting firewalking. Yet, remarkably, his feet were later found to be completely healed in the presence of doctors. This intriguing sequence of events underscores a paradoxical approach taken by the Spirits to demonstrate the mystical nature of firewalking.

Interestingly, had the Spirits shielded the researcher’s feet during the firewalking, skeptics might have dismissed the event as purely physical. Instead, by allowing the burns to occur before effecting miraculous healing, the Spirits showcased both the intensity of the heat and the efficacy of the spiritual practices involved. This deliberate demonstration serves as compelling evidence of firewalking as a mystical phenomenon, offering a unique perspective that transcends mere physical explanations.

(revised 2/23/24)