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What is the secret of the fake ears of the east?

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What gives them the power to defy the pain of hooks and spikes?

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How can people walk unharmed on red hot coals?

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Why do so few suffer agonizing burns?

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In the west, these Californians are hoping to walk on fire.

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They believe the power of the mind will keep them safe.

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But is faith enough?

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Is there more they should know before they take their first step onto the fire?

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Mysteries from the files of Arthur C. Clarke, scientist, writer and visionary, the scientist

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who invented the communication satellite, the writer of 2010, and now in retreat in

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Sri Lanka, the visionary who ponders the riddles of this and other worlds.

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This is Katharangama, perhaps the holiest place in Sri Lanka, and one of the great shrines

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of the world.

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It's sacred to Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists.

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And throughout the year, pilgrims come to make offerings at the temple.

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And to bathe in the manic ganga.

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For two weeks every August, Katharangama is an extraordinary sight, thronged with crowds

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of pilgrims, undergoing painful ordeals to atone for past misdeeds.

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Some walk here from miles on shoes of nails.

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Others pierce their flesh with hooks and spikes.

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The crowds come from all over Sri Lanka to honour Scanda, the Katharangama god.

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Those who make the pilgrimage of pain believe that the greater their suffering, the more

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the god will look on them with favour.

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To onlookers, these feats of faith look unbearably painful.

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But strangely, the pilgrims who perform them don't really seem to be in agony.

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Their convinced Scanda protects them with a supernatural power.

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Putting such miracles under the microscope is the speciality of physiology professor

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Carlo Fonseca.

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He studied the strangest of all the Katharangama rituals, hook-hanging.

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Many people believe that this is in fact miracle, because on the face of it there are several

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fantastic things about the whole procedure.

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But I have looked into this rather carefully and I am quite convinced that it can be explained

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in terms of physics and physiology.

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At the Colombo Medical Faculty, this volunteer hook-hanger has been helping Fonseca's investigations.

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The experiment is strictly supervised by the doctors.

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Each hook is sterilised to keep infection at bay.

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For hook-hanging is dangerous.

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Fonseca first set out to discover why the hooks cause so little bleeding.

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He found that the trick is to pinch up the hangers' skin.

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If you watch how they actually do it, the skin and the underlying tissues are pinched up.

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Pinching up tissues obliterates the blood vessels in the region.

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The hook is inserted and tension is maintained on the hook by means of a string, so that

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it remains pinched up.

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But why don't the hooks tear the hangers back?

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Fonseca realised that the number of hooks was crucial.

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There must be enough to spread the load.

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Hook-hangers use at least six hooks.

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And these six hooks are so placed that there is an even distribution of the weight.

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This young man, he is about 120 pounds in weight.

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So each hook has a strain of 120 divided by 6.

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That's 20 pounds.

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And such a strain, normal, healthy human tissue can bear without snapping.

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On the other hand, if any devotee hangs by one hook, undoubtedly the hook will tear through

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the flesh and he will plummet to the ground.

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Yet this does not fully explain why the hooks cause so little pain.

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Fonseca concluded that mental attitude is the key, that for devotees ecstasy is a powerful

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anaesthetic, but that this experiment shows religious belief is not necessary.

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For this man's happy to hang about and smoke, putting his faith in science instead of the

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supernatural.

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But Caliph Fonseca, his calm behaviour proves the point.

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This is a manifestation of his lack of faith in religious ritual.

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He needs no divine aid of any kind to do this.

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This is entirely of his own steam.

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So effective is the pinching up procedure that even when the hooks are taken out, the

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wounds do not bleed.

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And Fonseca believes the same elementary principles of physics and physiology protect even the

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devotees at Caterugama.

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The climax of the festival is a fire walk on the final day.

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To a mere spectator, it's amazing to see the pilgrims walking on red hot coals with their

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bare feet.

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There's no doubt that they do walk on fire.

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Why don't they get burnt?

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Why do they feel no pain?

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At Caterugama, dozens of pilgrims brave the fire pit.

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They believe the heat will purge their sins.

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The temperature of the coals measured by skeptical scientists reaches 800 degrees centigrade,

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yet men and women stroll across them without blisters or burns.

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The Caterugama fire walk is one of many that take place throughout the world.

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Each May at Langadas in Greece, the villagers celebrate the festival of St. Constantine

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and St. Catherine with a night of fire walking.

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In Japan, the Yamabushi regularly lead the faithful over searing cinders.

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At San Pedro Manrique, Spain, there's a fire walk on St. John's Eve.

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In 1969, the villagers were joined by a visiting American, John Harmon McElroy.

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We were the kind of coals that are pulsing white on the edges.

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It wasn't orgy, it was white hot.

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The instructions we had were very simple.

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They brushed their feet clean of twigs or anything else that was flammable before they

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stepped up on the coals.

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They put their feet down very flat and very hard and they kept moving.

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We followed those simple instructions.

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My friend and I had what was for me the most exhilarating experience I think that I've

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ever had in my life.

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In the South Pacific, islanders amble regularly over roasting rocks.

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And on Bora Bora, curiosity impelled a surgeon to risk his skin, Dr. Gerald Fegan.

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It was a pretty formidable looking thing.

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It was just a long bed of incandescent red rocks.

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Anyway, I found myself leaning down, taking off my shoes and socks, and walking over to

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the front of the fire walk.

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And one of the natives took my hand.

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And it felt so hot when you got close to it that you felt you were being fried.

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And yet when you walked on it, your feet and your knees, up to your knees, felt cold.

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I have no explanation for it at all.

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I can explain a lot of medical things, but not that.

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But one American group claims it can explain the fire walking mystery.

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At the Insights Center on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica, the answer costs only $100.

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A fire walk is the climax of a seminar designed to boost people's confidence and help them

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conquer their fears.

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Instructor Tony Robbins believes positive thinking is all that's needed.

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I've taken 3,500 people across the coals in the last eight months alone, everything from

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a seven-year-old boy to a 78-year-old man.

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In that time, I've also seen people who had burned, and they all had equal thickness of

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skin.

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They all had equal supposed perspiration.

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The difference was, when that person's thinking was, how are they thinking and what were their

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belief systems?

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So this process teaches them how to align their beliefs to get whatever they want out

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of their life.

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And the fire walk is just a symbol, a practical example of what they can do.

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The students spend four hours psyching themselves up to face the fire.

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One technique is to shout cool moss to convince themselves their feet won't burn.

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One, two, three.

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The fire is almost ready, and so are the fire walkers.

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All they need is belief.

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As I take the first step, my body will do whatever it takes to protect itself.

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As I take the first step, my body will do whatever it takes to protect itself.

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Take a look at the coals.

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Aren't they pretty?

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Look at the coals right now, and as you look at them, make your fist.

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Breathing like you would, what will you say?

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That's right.

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I can do it.

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That's right, you can.

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Come forward.

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Come forward.

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Here's your own pace.

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Cool moss, cool moss, cool moss, cool moss, cool moss, cool moss.

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I just think I can do it.

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Oh, man!

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Come on, come on, come on!

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All right, take a deep breath.

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Cool moss, cool moss, cool moss, cool moss.

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Great!

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Oh, wow.

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Yeah!

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Ah!

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Oh, my God.

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I did it.

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I ever, it's fantastic.

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I've never done anything like it in my life.

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Oh.

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Ah.

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At the medical faculty in Colombo,

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a series of experiments has convinced Professor Fonseca

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that there's more to fire walking than positive thinking.

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There is a lot of clap, trap, and mumbo-jumbo

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associated with this phenomenon.

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I have looked into this very carefully.

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And as of now, I am quite convinced

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that the whole phenomenon is explicable in terms

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of quite elementary physics and physiology.

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Well, of course, we're not the first to do this kind of experiment.

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Many other doctors and scientists

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have tried this and come up with a rather wide range of clues

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to the fire walking mystery.

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Harry Price was one of the first.

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In 1935, he organized this fire walk at Carshelton in Surrey.

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He burned eight tons of oak and pine in a 25-foot trench.

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After several hours, the logs were burning fiercely.

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The heat was intense.

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Carshmiri Kudabucks was the subject of the experiment.

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He'd done the fire walk many times.

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The doctor confirmed that Bucks' feet showed no signs

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of special preparation.

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An amateur quickly came to grief,

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but Kudabucks survived both walks unsinged.

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Harry Price did remarkably well

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and learned a great deal from his experiments.

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His main conclusions were,

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fasting and trances were completely unnecessary.

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And he was able to do the same.

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Finally, he noticed that the walkers' feet

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never stayed in contact with the coals

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for more than half a second.

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One theory is that fire walkers wet their feet,

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which would cool them and help to quench the fire.

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But there may be more to it than that,

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as this experiment may demonstrate.

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I have a hot plate here.

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It's fairly warm.

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I'm going to spread it out.

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I'm going to spread it out.

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I'm going to spread it out.

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I'm going to spread it out.

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Every other one of these 왔ome plates

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ready to설aose pat forget the hot plate here.

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It's fairly warm,

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and I'm going to sprinkle a little water onto it

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and you see the drops—

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quickly spread out and evaporate.

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But if this plate is really hot,

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something quite different happens.

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Now the hot plate is really hot, almost glowing.

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I'm going to sprinkle some water up.

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forms a little bead and skitters around like a tiny hovercraft,

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floating on a cushion of steam,

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which protects it from the heat of the hot plate.

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And it could survive for many seconds,

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sometimes as long as a minute.

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This is called the Leidenfrost effect.

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An American scientist, Dr. Gerald Walker of Ohio,

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thinks that this explains the firework and phenomenon,

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and has put the matter to the test personally.

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I've got two layers of socks on my feet

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and some cellophane inside the socks.

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I'm trying to trap the sweat inside my feet,

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and I'm hoping that the sweat, boy,

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this whole area is really hot.

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I'm hoping that the sweat will do two things for me.

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Part of the sweat will help quench part of the coals

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that I touch when I walk across these hot coals,

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and I'll get a little bit of dead ash.

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And I hope some of the other sweat

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might give me some Leidenfrost effect,

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where I get a little bit of vapor layer

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between the hot coals and my skin.

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I'm gonna sit down.

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Even the chair is extremely hot.

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But I'm very quickly gonna take off my shoes and socks,

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and this piece of cellophane, and walk right across.

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I've gotta do it very quickly,

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so that the kind of a little breeze through the area

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doesn't evaporate all the sweat off my feet,

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before I have a chance to get across the coals.

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And boy, am I scared.

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I just hope that there's enough protection,

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Leidenfrost effect, and a little bit quenching of the fire

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to make this work.

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I'm gonna do this very quickly.

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Both layers, cellophane, and here we go.

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A little bit of heat in a few places,

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but no massive damage at all.

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Leidenfrost effect helped protect my feet,

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a little bit of vapor layer,

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and probably quenched a little bit of the fire

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as I went across.

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I don't have thick calluses to protect my feet,

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just a kind of tender little skin there,

248
00:18:41,680 --> 00:18:45,020
and those physics have protected my feet.

249
00:18:45,020 --> 00:18:47,520
But boy, howdy, don't do this for yourself,

250
00:18:47,520 --> 00:18:49,380
because this is extremely dangerous.

251
00:18:49,380 --> 00:18:51,620
You can do massive damage to yourself,

252
00:18:51,620 --> 00:18:54,860
and it's just not worth that kind of damage to your feet.

253
00:18:54,860 --> 00:18:57,860
But that's the Leidenfrost effect in action.

254
00:19:00,360 --> 00:19:03,600
If wet feet are the key to fire walking,

255
00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:06,160
what about the sad case of Methodist minister,

256
00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:07,860
Erlich Robinson?

257
00:19:07,860 --> 00:19:10,600
Here in Sri Lanka, in 1952,

258
00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:12,640
he carefully soaked his feet,

259
00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:14,740
then jumped on the coals.

260
00:19:14,740 --> 00:19:16,600
He was badly burned.

261
00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:19,200
It was like animals tearing at my feet, he said.

262
00:19:21,180 --> 00:19:23,140
The state of the fire walker's feet

263
00:19:23,140 --> 00:19:25,320
may be part of the answer.

264
00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:27,220
Karl von Seker has been finding out

265
00:19:27,220 --> 00:19:29,280
how long they can withstand the heat

266
00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:30,820
from an electric light bulb.

267
00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:38,600
He's invented this apparatus to study their souls.

268
00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:42,600
I take the foot of the fire walker,

269
00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:45,600
and I place it,

270
00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:48,600
and switch the light on.

271
00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:51,600
Simultaneously, I start the stopwatch.

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I have good evidence,

273
00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:56,600
obtained mainly by using this apparatus,

274
00:19:56,600 --> 00:20:02,600
that rough, thick, cold,

275
00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:07,600
wet, and dirty souls

276
00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:11,600
are much more resistant to heat

277
00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:15,600
than souls with the opposite characteristics.

278
00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:19,600
He kept it for as long as 85 seconds.

279
00:20:19,600 --> 00:20:23,600
That is because he is a habitually unshot person,

280
00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:28,600
and his souls are quite thick.

281
00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:31,600
You have to feel them to actually believe

282
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how thick they are.

283
00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:35,600
A soft foot,

284
00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:41,600
this boy, he's 15 years old.

285
00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:43,600
He belongs to the younger generation,

286
00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:48,600
and so they are usually shod all the time,

287
00:20:48,600 --> 00:20:51,600
and the feet are quite soft.

288
00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:53,600
Keep his foot on,

289
00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:55,600
heat source,

290
00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:57,600
start this.

291
00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:03,600
Well, that was only five seconds.

292
00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:05,600
So if he does fire walking,

293
00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:10,600
he'll have to traverse the fire pretty fast.

294
00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:12,600
In West Germany,

295
00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:14,600
yet another theory is being tested.

296
00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:16,600
It springs from new discoveries

297
00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:19,600
about the workings of the brain.

298
00:21:19,600 --> 00:21:22,600
Oh, oh, oh, oh, now there's the other side.

299
00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:24,600
That was bad.

300
00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:26,600
That's great.

301
00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:31,600
The experimenters come from the University of Tübingen.

302
00:21:31,600 --> 00:21:36,600
All they get for their pains is a slice of apostrudel.

303
00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:40,600
The man in charge is an expert on pain,

304
00:21:40,600 --> 00:21:42,600
Dr. Wolfgang Labeck.

305
00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:45,600
He wired up an Indian fake ear to an EEG machine

306
00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:47,600
to study his brain waves,

307
00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:50,600
transfixed by spikes through chest, throat and tongue.

308
00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:53,600
He produced special slow waves called theta rhythms,

309
00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:55,600
usually found only in deep sleep.

310
00:21:55,600 --> 00:21:59,600
So can fake ears put their brains to sleep to kill pain,

311
00:21:59,600 --> 00:22:02,600
and can fire walkers do the same?

312
00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:05,600
Now we will see a view as an untrained person

313
00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:07,600
will develop the same rhythms,

314
00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:10,600
which are connected with not feeling pain,

315
00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:16,600
because I have the theory that these slowing of the EEG

316
00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:20,600
will mean that the pain perception would be reduced.

317
00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:23,600
Dr. Miltener is wired up to the EEG,

318
00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:25,600
and when he walks on the fire,

319
00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:29,600
any theta rhythms will be recorded via his radio transmitter.

320
00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:34,600
I hope I can control the pain impulses,

321
00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:38,600
and the heat impulses I will show you.

322
00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:40,600
I will show you.

323
00:22:40,600 --> 00:22:42,600
Ah.

324
00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:08,600
Next morning, at his lab in the University of Tübingen,

325
00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:13,600
Dr. Labeck analyses the recordings, searching for theta rhythms.

326
00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:19,600
Let us see if we can find some theta rhythm.

327
00:23:21,600 --> 00:23:24,600
Here is the developing theta rhythm,

328
00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:26,600
is mixed up with alpha,

329
00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:29,600
but it's the beginning, theta activity.

330
00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:33,600
So what we have learned from our experiment last day

331
00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:38,600
is that they are even untrained person can develop theta rhythm

332
00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:43,600
so that they can switch off their pain perception in fire walking.

333
00:23:47,600 --> 00:23:50,600
In Colombo, the fire is ready at last.

334
00:23:56,600 --> 00:23:59,600
But first, to show they have no supernatural protection,

335
00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:02,600
the walkers deliberately flaunt local religious laws,

336
00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:05,600
downing liquor and chewing pork.

337
00:24:13,600 --> 00:24:17,600
Instead, they have learned to put their faith in science.

338
00:24:17,600 --> 00:24:19,600
They accept that a combination of factors

339
00:24:19,600 --> 00:24:22,600
will take them safely through the fire.

340
00:24:25,600 --> 00:24:27,600
Right.

341
00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:29,600
Speed across the coals,

342
00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:31,600
the rough skin on the soles of their feet,

343
00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:36,600
sweat and the mysterious theta rhythms that seem to banish pain.

344
00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:42,600
Even the professor practices what he preaches.

345
00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:44,600
Hello.

346
00:24:57,600 --> 00:25:00,600
I don't pretend we have all the answers,

347
00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:02,600
but I'm sure we have most of them.

348
00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:05,600
There's nothing supernatural involved in fire walking.

349
00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:09,600
Well, if I'm such an authority on fire walking,

350
00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:11,600
am I good to try it myself?

351
00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:14,600
In the immortal words of Eliza Duttle,

352
00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:16,600
not likely.

353
00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:19,600
I'm content to leave it to the real experts,

354
00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:21,600
and so should you.

355
00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:38,600
Next week, Messages From the Dead.

356
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:08,600
You