Some called the phenomenon of walking on fire quackery, others prayerfully attributed it to higher powers that help their chosen people demonstrate the phenomenon for some divine purposes. However, the ceremonial walking on fire, in which neither bare feet nor a fire blazing with heat, the heat of which was maintained for many hours by volunteers who put tree trunks into the fire, was not able to be forged. They were looking for a dirty trick in the procedure of the ritual being held.
It suggested the use of some means that helped the subjects to avoid injury and even death. But only the rite itself, which took place in front of everyone in India, and in Bulgaria, and in Indonesia, and on the island of Sri Lanka, convinced that there are amazing phenomena among people that can withstand merciless fire.
The first modern firewalking tests were carried out in 1935 by Harry Price of the University of London's Council for Psychic Research. The Indian fakir Kuda Buks demonstrated to journalists and scientists walking barefoot on hot coals, the surface temperature of which reached 430 degrees Celsius. It was just such an example, which confirmed an amazing possibility, that prompted many researchers to search for a clue and explanation of this phenomenon. Buks suggested that everyone who watched the experience learn to walk in a dangerous way, but among those present there was not a single risk-lover.
In 1950, Dr. Harry B. Wright of Philadelphia observed a similar fire walking ceremony held annually by the inhabitants of Mbergga, one of the smaller islands of Fiji. Before the walk began, the researcher carefully examined the participants' feet, and also looked around the entire edge around the fiery pit through which the participants had to pass. He, of course, hoped to find a remedy to protect their feet from exposure to temperatures, but he could find nothing reprehensible. Having examined all those who had experienced the effects of fire, the scientist not only did not find any burns on them, but did not even notice the impression of heat or smoke rising from a real carpet with burning coals. Their feet were normal, responding to external stimuli normally, and their owners were simply cheerful from a successful experience.
In the 19th century, Lord Eidar described his presence during an amazing experiment of walking over coals. It was conducted by the medium D. Howman, who not only walked on the coals, but touched them with his hands, stirred the coals and snatched them out of the burning tank, demonstrating his insensitivity to what was happening.
In different parts of the globe, we had to meet people opposing the fiery heat, and, oddly enough, among the black and yellow people from time to time there were white people who, having overcome their natural fear, entrusted fate to rules and rituals and passed the test, walking on the burning earth, lava, sand, stones and everything erupted from the very center of the planet. This was exactly what Dr. Long was, brought by fate to Hawaii and carried away by local folklore.
In Hawaiian myths, there are often legends about the volcano goddess Pele, who visited the aborigines in the guise of an old woman, helping sorcerers in their ancient ritual magic. During the eruption of the Napopo volcano, the white explorer called for help from three of his acquaintances Magovkahuans, who promised to show him the rite of walking on fire. However, by the beginning of the eruption, only one of the sorcerers arrived and immediately proceeded to drunkenness and gluttony. It was during the many hours of libation from the mouth of the volcano, following the smoke and flame, blazing lava flowed.
It turned out that the sorcerer was a brave man, and the whole group with him at the head went to the top of the volcano at night, after a strong drink. The upward journey was difficult, because the path ran over pieces of basalt and boulders of lava frozen from the previous eruption. The participants in the ceremony finally reached a crevice, from which in several places fountains of lava escaped and, falling, turned into a boiling pool, from which a stream of lava flowed down the slope. Hot lava flowed between the slag heaps. The hikers descended near the hot stream, looking for a place where small lava lakes formed on a gentle slope.
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The magician chose one of those places where the heat emanating from the hot lava was simply unbearable, but the surface of the stream, slowly cooling down, changed color from bright red and orange to purple. While waiting for the stream to thicken enough to support the weight of a man, the cajuan, who had brought numerous plants with him, set about preparing the ritual. The natives who came with the cahuana took off their sandals and wrapped their feet with three sheets of tee, which are used in Polynesia for many rituals. They advised their white friend to do the same, but he, frightened by the intense heat, tied the leaves over his boots. The magician warned the white man that the goddess Pele does not protect the shoes, but she will protect the feet from burns.
After everyone got ready for the ceremony, the kahuans began to sing a strange incantation song addressed to the spirits and the goddess of fire. The lyrics were incomprehensible. This spell was passed by magicians from generation to generation: it contained numerous praises of the gods and a separate deity. Everything that happened later, Dr. Long described in a very figurative way: “It was decided that the senior cajuan would go first, then me, and the others after me. Without a shadow of hesitation, the elder cajuan moved swiftly through the monstrously hot magma. I watched him with my mouth open, and when he was almost on the other side, at a distance of about 150 feet from us, someone pushed me sharply, and I had only one choice: either to fall facedown into the hot mass, or to catch the rhythm running.
I still don’t know what kind of devil possessed me, but I really ran. The heat was unimaginable. I held my breath and my consciousness seemed to stop functioning. I was young then and could compete with the best of the best for 100 yards. Did I run then? I flew. I broke all records, but after the first steps, the soles of the boots began to melt. The skin on them twisted and curled, squeezing my feet like shackles. The seams parted, and at some point I was left without one sole, and the other dragged, holding on to a small piece of leather at the heel. This dragging sole almost led me to death. I stumbled and slowed down over and over again. Finally, after a few, it seemed to me, minutes, I was in a safe place.
I looked at my feet and saw that my socks were burning on the twisted remnants of my boots. I tried to stamp on the smoldering fire and out of the corner of my eye watched the cajuanas writhing with laughter, who pointed to the heel and the smoking sole of my left boot, lying on the lava and burnt to the ground … I had an intense sensation of heat on my face and body, but in my legs I felt almost nothing …"
Not only was the researcher convinced of the existence of the magic of the Polynesian Cahuanas, but he realized that this magic equally affects people of different religions, which means that it has a universal effect on a person.
Biblical history professor John G. Hill showed in 1935 at the Los Angeles Public Library a film he made on an island adjacent to Tahiti, where Aboriginal people demonstrated the art of walking on fire. The demonstration made such an impression that many noted this fact in notes and diaries. The aborigines dug a large ditch and filled it with stones and logs. Below for many hours a fire burned, heating the stones red-hot, and the natives read prayers dedicated to the goddess Naina.
The participants in the ritual moved in procession around the ditch, and each of them ran seven times over the coals and hot stones across the ditch. Identically with the first case, stones and coals were fumigated with the leaves of the tee plant. However, the film captured an episode when one of the natives was forced to step on the red-hot stones. This man was badly burned, and the participants in the procession attributed to him some guilt and even a crime, punished in such a cruel way.
And yet the most exotic details are known from the ritual of walking in Burma. Adherents of the cult of Agni perform a ceremony on the temple site to initiate candidates to a certain degree of knowledge, which is impossible without ritual. Candidates study the sacred texts, prepare for years, and only when the priests of the temple find their preparation sufficient are they admitted to the fire walking ceremony, after which they are allowed to further study the sacred texts.
First of all, before the ceremony, candidates should focus on thoughts about the meaning of the fire-spirit in the life of mankind. Most likely, it is at this moment that some kind of spiritual concentration occurs, forcing the subjects to disconnect from the perception of reality. The title of "initiate" and the position of a priest, a saint, so inspire candidates that they think only of the upcoming achievement. The most surprising thing is that the Burmese are absolutely sure of the existence of such a ritual only among them.
In the square in front of the temple, a long, tall structure was built of smoldering charcoal, emitting intense heat. The burning shaft was 50 paces long and five wide. A team of men flattened the shaft to the level of a coal-covered area. The burning platform layer was about 10 inches thick. Candidates followed the priests out of the temple gates, many of whom were already in adulthood.
They concentrated on one end of the coal platform, while the priests with the whips on the opposite, at the water ditch dug right at their feet. The trial was opened by the eldest candidate, who, folding his hands in palms and raising his eyes to the sky, walked resolutely over the hot coals. Waves of heat rising from the ground created the effect of quivering air.
Directly from the coal seam, one had to jump into a ditch with water, and immediately one of the six priests hit the subject on the shoulders with a whip. The second and third priests were repeating the procedure just performed. Only after it was it allowed to look at the state of the feet. The test lasted a long time, because several dozen people took part in it. The priests beat the candidates who ran over the coals more severely, and were generous to those who walked with dignity through the blazing space.
It happened that the subject lost his will, began to rush on the coals and fell dead. Such a body was dragged away with hooks, and the ritual continued even without interruption. Each candidate had to walk the fiery platform alone, while the audience watched each time with unrelenting interest and in complete silence.
The test by fire is one of the most mysterious phenomena of the 20th century, which the scientists and naturalists who saw it cannot explain, attributing these phenomena to ancient pagan magic, which obeyed only true admirers of the primary elements, the pagan elements of the world - water, earth, fire.
