FIRE IMMUNITY -
In our last issue, Mr Philip Haley made reference to a report made by a party of engineers on an exceptional instance of fire immunity. This account, published in an ASPR Journal, has not yet been located, but a second article on the same performance, in the Journal, has been sent us by Dr. Haley.
An Account of African Fire-Eaters
From Inter-
national Notes
of Harry Price.
Vol. xxii, No. 9
ASPR. Jour.
pp. 530-531.
A savage mchawl-moto, or fire magician who baked his own head in a hole filled with red-hot stones was one of a party of fire dancers who came to the camp in Tanganyika not long back... A huge pile of brush wood was set ablaze, and while it roared itself into a veritable inferno the Wakimbu departed to a near by forest in search of dawa, or magic medicine. They came back with handfuls of leaves which they chewed to a mash and then smeared over their naked bodies; then yelling like so many devils they leaped into the licking flames, sending up great clouds of sparks, thru which they could be seen flinging their flame-wrapped limbs in the wild contortions of a demoniac dance... Out of the red-black chasms of smoke and flame, one of the dancers would hurtle himself now and then, brandishing a blazing brand, rub himself vigorously all over with it, bite the red hot char from it, chew it, spit it out, and then leap back with a yell into the furnace.
Within ten minutes the fire was nearly trampled out, and the star turn was staged by the dancers digging a hole deep enough for a man to thrust his head and shoulders in, filling it with stones and piling the embers of the fire upon it with their hands. A wait of some minutes, enlivened by the chief magician running his hunting knife backward thru the muscles of his arm without drawing the merest speck of blood, and the embers were kicked off, revealing the stones red-hot in the pit. Throwing himself on the ground, the chief magician thrust in his head, while his companions piled up earth and char until his head and shoulders were completely buried.
So he baked, as the writer timed him for 27 minutes. Suddenly his body collapsed, and fearing the worst we dashed to him and pulled him out by the heels, as we thought, dead. We tried every camp restorative we had; the man lay inert; no pulse, no breath. Then suddenly he leaped up, yelling like a fiend, and broke into a wild dance with his friends, shrieking with laughter at our very evident alarm. Half an hour later this band of fire-magicians enrolled as porters to carry the writer's baggage 20 miles to the next camp, and not one of them showed a blister; the frizzly hair on their bullet heads was not even singed. How is it done? By the magic dawa of the forest, they say; but they will not divulge what leaves the dawa is made of; that is the Wakimbu's secret.
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The writer of the foregoing account also quotes William Hichens (in the Daily Mail) to the effect that two Johannesburg whites recently faced the fire-walking ordeal successfully "by walking thru a pit of [5] fire glowing with the red-hot embers of, ten tons of wood, It would now be of sporting interest to whether any European or even the most fanatical fire-walking Hindu could take on the famous Wakimbu fire-dancers of Tanganyika."
We also have, from Dr. Haley, an American Weekly page of 1936 (exact date not shown), and another from a 1930 issue. The first has an illustrated account of annual fire-walking by holy women of the Nestinari sect, in Bulgaria. The account is said to be that of an eye-witness. There is preliminary preparation by prayer and religious exercises; finally the 70-year-old Baba, chief of the band, announces that Saint Constantin is present. The apparition, visible to the women only, walks down the center of the pit with an invisible watering pot, cooling a path for the feet of those who follow him. The fire trench is 10 feet long and the fire is of great intensity.
The second of the two clips referred to is also a full page illustrated article, giving an account of the expedition headed by Arthur C. Pillsbury, a naturalist of Berkeley, California, to the island of Mbenga in the Fiji group, near Suva. Pillsbury seems to have made a most rigorous study and examination of the whole process. The pit was "a glowing surface of hot rocks, a gigantic brazier... bits of wood tossed onto the coals were quickly reduced to ash." There was no preparation of the feet; there was chanting and drum-beating, and the dancers "circles the pit at a slow job." There were no signs of burn on any of the dancers. The Chief asserted that nothing but faith was required, and offered to lead Pillsbury through unharmed; if the white man will take my hand and have great faith, he will be able to "walk the rocks without injury." And Pillsbury says, "I will stake my reputation that there was no trickery in this dance... I can give no logical explanation."
The attitude of the RR Editor toward these pyrological happenings is not different than toward other supernormal events. We should exercise much caution and critical reserve, but only in the honest interests of truth. Our most critical readers do not deny that cases of fire immunity exist, but confine their scepticism to particular cases, and to particular alleged supernormal explanations. We agree in principle. We accept the phenomenon, on occasion, because the weight of evidence is overwhelming. The purpose of these articles is not to 'prove' that fire immunity exists, but (1) to illustrate its nature and extent, (2) to bring together the items of, preparation, procedure, and explanation offered.
Usually, some measure of ritualistic preparation obtains, very often the protective power of some God or spirit is invoked; on other occasions it is said that only faith is necessary, in the power of the priest or magician. Sometimes the body is smeared with some mysterious preparation, but this is by no means the rule. No preparation of the feet seems to be recorded. The immunity sometimes seems to be transferable, as to white people. Usually, but not always, the white man is told that he must have faith. Hesitation and distraction of attention appear to cause failure. The feat can be performed by whites, under instruction... In view of these facts, Mr. Harry Price's remark that no special psychic condition or power is necessary, is not wrong, nor right, nor anything else than completely inane.
(Note: After the foregoing article was prepared, we received a further contribution on the same subject, from Dr. Charles Ryan. This contains original data, not accessible elsewhere, and we feel that it should be presented here, even though we must exclude other material to do so.)
Further Data and Comment on the Fire-Walking Problem,
by Dr. Charles J. Ryan, Contributing Editor of
the Theosophical Forum.
I would add my tribute to the fire-walking problem, as it seems to be one of the most vital means of uprooting crude materialism. Partly as a result of the more or less unconvincing exhibition of Kuda Bux, the belief that there is nothing abnormal or occult about such things has been intensified. It seems they can be "explained" by a little "psychology", a good deal of imagination, and gross exaggeration about the intensity of the heat! We are told that a few rapid steps across the short course of 9 to 12 feet can be done by anyone without serious harm, because there is not sufficient time for the heat to act.
I have filed a large number of reports of fire-walking in many lands (including the Durban one mentioned by Dr. Haley), and they are impossible to explain on the basis just mentioned. The only alternative to an occult interpretation is cold-blooded and abominable lying on the part of hundreds of people of good report, and in many cases of high and responsible position.
Before I report the particular case which has been told me by one of the fire-walkers himself, who was an intimate friend of mine and a man of high character holding an important professorship, let me refer to the account published by The Journal of the Polynesian Society, March, 1899, which is perhaps the most interesting record of fire-walking in the Pacific Islands, because of the standing of the reporter and principal white man who dared the fire. This courageous person was Colonel Gudgeon, the British Resident (diplomatic representative) at Baratonga, who walked over the hot stones without injury. He says that after the Tohunga and a disciple had walked over some twelve feet, four Europeans stepped out boldly, and the Tohunga said to Col. Gudgeon:
"I hand my mana to you. Lead your friends across."
"I got across unscathed" writes the Colonel, "and only one of the party was badly burned, and he, it is said, was spoken to, but like Lot's wife, looked behind him - a thing against all rules. I can hardly give you my sensation, but I can say this: that I knew quite well I was walking on red-hot stones and could feel the heat, yet I was not burned. I felt something resembling slight, electric shocks, both at the time and afterward, but that is all ... To show you the heat of the stones, quite half an hour afterward some one remarked to the priest that the stones would not be hot enough to cook the ti. His only answer was to throw his green branch on the oven, and in a quarter of a minute it was blazing ... The really funny thing is that, tho the stones were hot enough half an hour afterward to burn up green [7] branches of the ti, the very tender skin of my feet was not even hardened by the fire."
The remark about the Englishman who looked back and was burned is important, for there are other cases like it and it may be a clue. No preparation was applied to their feet, and Colonel Gudgeon remarks that he saw no explanation except -- mana!
Now for my friend's case, which has some interesting features. His name was Edward G. Stephenson, of a distinguished English family, and he was for many years Professor of English Literature, in succession to Lafcadio Hearn, at the Imperial Naval College, Japan, and more recently at the Theosophical College at Point Loma, California. He walked on an intensely heated surface of charcoal 90 feet long and 6 feet wide in the grounds of a temple in Tokio. He had been watching a preparatory ceremony attended by a large number of young, middle-aged and old Japanese people who were about to take the fire-walk. When they had walked slowly some distance over the glowing coals, he thought he would like to try also, and asked his friend, the priest, if he might do so. The priest said he must first be prepared, and took him into the temple, where a brief ceremony was performed, including the sprinkling of salt from some kind. of salt-shaker, but it was not rubbed on his feet. I was particular to ask details about the salt as there is a notion that it might protect the feet from burning! He explained that salt sprinkling is a part of various religious ceremonials in Japan. What does the Bible say about salt losing its savor?
During his leisurely walk over the heated charcoal, Professor Stephenson felt no heat but merely a light tingling sensation like weak electric shocks. (Compare this with Col. Gudgeon's similar statement). But when part way across he suddenly felt a sharp pain in one foot and thought that he would be burnt, but nothing more happened. When he examined his feet afterward he found a small cut where a sharp flint had pierced the flesh. His feet were unaffected by the fire and quite cool. Professor Stephenson was a profound student of Oriental life and philosophy, and was well acquainted with the most learned Japanese monks, priests, and scholars, and he was convinced that no ordinary explanation could cover his experience. The other accounts in my files support this view.
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Accounts of leisurely and deliberate walking across red-hot coals or stones should dispose once for all of the asinine notion that burns can be avoided by light and rapid skipping. "In even the most agile skip, the full weight of the body is supported, for an instant at least, by the foot; let the theorist try to press his hand on a live coal and remove it quickly enough to avoid a burn! The fire-walking itself is hardly more remarkable than the "explanations" invented by sceptics... In Stephenson's case, the only preparation seems to have been a "brief ceremony." With Col. Gudgeon and his three companions no preparation at all is noted, save that the Priest 'handed his mana' to the Colonel... Theories about means of protecting the feet amount to nothing, if the accounts of thrusting the entire body and the head into glowing coals are regarded as factual. Perhaps the time will come when we shall stop rejecting as trickery everything we are unable to understand, and set ourselves to learning instead - even if Wahimba and Kahuna and Tohunga have to be the teachers of us.