I heard this unusual story in the dramatic days of the Battle of Stalingrad from the mouth of a major in the medical service. He spoke excitedly:
- After the next bombing of the city, when everything was on fire around, the soldiers saw a kid running along the smoking and smoldering beams of the destroyed house. He was three or four years old. He was barefoot and half dressed. The boy was dragged to me, I bent over his bare feet, confident that they were burned. There were no burn marks on the soles!
It struck me as incredible. The little legs were not defeated by fire. The war years almost erased this story from the major in my memory. Much later, many years later, I unexpectedly learned that the boy was none other than an artist and psychic, now widely known under the name of Valery Avdeev. Today, this is the only person in Russia who walks barefoot on hot coals, lies down with his bare back on broken glass of bottles, without getting any burns or injuries.
Nestenar dances
For the first time I saw walking on fire in Bulgaria in Golden Sands, where for numerous "visiting tourists," Nestenar Dances "was shown almost like an attraction. A huge fire was burning out in the open area. Several people were raking hot coals over a wide circle, about ten meters in diameter. The dancer was late.
Those working on the fire were nervous, despite the fact that the platform was burgundy glowing with the hidden light of incandescent ash and coals.
Promotional video:
Finally, blue, as I remember, Zhiguli rolled up to the luminous platform. A thin girl in high-heeled shoes jumped out of them, I remember these shoes well, as I looked at the legs that were about to touch the fire. The girl hastily disappeared behind the screen. A folklore orchestra began, consisting mainly of drums and numerous whistles. I remember the melody was sharp and tense. Repeated the same musical phrase.
The dancer appeared in national dress, barefoot. Unhurriedly, she stepped on the hot coals and just as leisurely made the first dance circle on the flame "slowly" … But, leaving the circle, the girl unexpectedly picked up the child that was standing next to the shocked mother-tourist, and again stepped onto the fire.
The child instantly fell silent, horror froze in the eyes of the mother.
- Do not be afraid, - the non-nurse said, everything will be all right. Together they made the second dance circle over the coals, giving way to the barefoot guy who continued dancing over the fire.
Shocked, I waited for the girl near the screen and escorted her to the car. She walked confidently in the same high-heeled shoes, worn on bare feet.
“I’m in a hurry, I have another session in a nearby hotel,” she said half-jokingly.
- How are you so? Several times during the evening "without burns"..
- I do not know. As soon as the music starts playing, it seems to me that the blood is leaving my legs, my feet are stiff, and I myself, as in a dream, fly over the crimson earth
Fire eaters
So I did not manage to unravel the secret of walking on fire that evening. Then I saw fire-walkers at a religious festival in Sri Lanka. Everything was different here. The triviality of the Bulgarian action was completely absent. The fire over the smoldering coals was brighter and, apparently, hotter … The orchestra sounded menacing and intimidatingly pumped up an agitated rhythm.
The leader of the holiday, who "blessed" those who walked on hot coals, seemed to me to be near the site with crimson coals in an unusual exalted state of either trance or half-oblivion.
The bare feet of the menacingly dancing men occasionally licked small tongues of flame. But the performance reached its climax when some of the dancers, and there were plenty of them, began to thrust tiny torches burning with an open flame into their mouths. I could not believe that this was possible without burns and injuries. But the program of the holiday surely lasted not a minute, but a good hour. There was no mass hypnosis.
But there was some general state of ascent and "stupidity" from the incredibleness of what he saw.
After all, these were not the "fire-eaters" whom I had seen more than once at bazaars abroad. Sri Lanka's "fire-eaters" thrust a burning torch into their mouths, and flames burst through their parsed lips, By this time I already knew that walking on fire is inherent in the peoples of many countries. It exists in some areas of Greece, France, Fiji Islands. It is also known among the Wawaho Indians in America.
English literary critic E. Stephenson describes his impressions of walking on red-hot stones in a trance state at a ceremony in a Tokyo temple.
“The stones were laid in a 90-foot trench (about 30 tents). The priest who led the ceremony forced me to prepare, took me to a nearby temple, where the priest sprinkled salt on my head. I felt an inner urge to walk over the hot stones. When I walked slowly along them, I felt only a slight tingling in my feet."
An employee of the British Museum, Dr. W. Brigham, accompanied by three local magicians, took a walk on the hot lava on Volcano Com. The companions told him to take off his shoes, for the protection of the god Kahuna did not extend to his boots. The doctor refused. One of the companions slowly walked barefoot along the hot lava.
Two others unexpectedly pushed the doctor and he, finding himself on the hot surface of the stream, was forced to run. After running about 30 meters to the opposite edge of the stream, he saw that his boots and socks were burned, three priests, who continued to walk barefoot on the lava, burst out laughing, pointing to the pieces of skin from the burning boots dragging behind the doctor. The doctor himself did not receive any burns.
Memory from Stalingrad childhood
However, let's return to our national magician Valery Avdeev. I met the artist a few years ago at his sessions, during which he demonstrated on stage a classical act of Indian yogis. His employee broke about ten bottles on the rug. Large pieces of glass and the worst thing - the sharp Gothic bottoms of the bottles stuck out of the glass mash. After several ritual movements, Avdeev threw off his Jiudoist's sports rags and slowly lay down with his bare back on the glass.
A board was placed on his chest, and the weighty assistant stood heavily on it, slightly jumping up and down. It seemed that everything - now blood will sprinkle from under the artist lying on the fragments.
And that's nothing - no scratches, no blood.
- Well, this one will easily go on fire, - I thought.
After the session, he asked the artist to tell how he first touched the fire.
- It was in the late seventies. I was suddenly seized by a burning desire to overcome my fear of fire. Either I remember the Stalingrad childhood …
I decided, whatever the consequences of my experiment, let them burn my legs, let me go to the hospital, but I will go … I will go! I must go!
We left the city. They lit a huge fire. They leveled the crimson coals onto a path ten meters long. I concentrated, believed in myself and walked barefoot all this distance. Having entered the desired state, I did not receive any burns.
Now I enter the same state during sessions with broken glass. You can't show fire on stage …
- And you always succeed? With fire …
- No. I remember they made a fire, leveled the path of fire. I adjust myself, I enter the state … I feel that something is not right. Okay, I went before. And so I walk, and my feet are on fire. I got severe burns, I was in the hospital …
Science shrugs its shoulders
So what's the deal? What is this, a biological secret or a physical process unknown to us? A piece of skin cut off from the leg of the "fire-walker", thrown on the same coals, immediately decays. Soviet scientist S. N. Popova explains this mysterious process as follows:
There is a concept of "thermal activity". It depends on the heat capacity, thermal conductivity of the material. The highest for metals is 10 thousand units. Porous coal has from 100 to 200 units. Human skin has 800 to 1500 units.
According to the formula existing in the theory of thermal conductivity, it is possible to calculate the change in the surface temperature of bodies when they come into contact. At a coal temperature of 600 ° C and above the aforementioned thermal activity of coal and skin, their contact will cause a second increase in skin temperature by only 35 ° C, i.e. the total temperature of a person's foot will be 72 ° C.
This, it would seem, confirms the experience of the German scientist F. Krieger from the Institute. Max Planck, who conducted an interesting experiment on an aboriginal "fire-walker" from Fiji.
The scientist covered the hot basalt on which the subject walked and the subject's feet with paint - a temperature indicator. The indicator showed the temperature of the stones 33 ° С, and the body temperature 83 ° С, no more.
But this is with a second contact. And dances on coals and stones last for minutes …
V. DMITRIEV. "Miracles and Adventures"