Concentration and technique are the fakir’s weapons to lie down on beds of nails and walk over hot coals without burning your feet. The term fakir means poor in Arabic and identifies Islamic Indians who wander through towns practicing “miracles”, such as levitation and extreme resistance to pain – taking the opportunity to earn some change, of course. It is important, however, not to confuse fakirs with sadhus, Hindu Indians who pierce the body with skewers in public displays. Both sadhus and fakirs attribute the ability to resist pain to mind control through meditation, but in the most famous demonstrations of fakirs there are a few little tricks that we reveal to you.
Consulting – Cláudio Furukawa, physicist at USP, and Sandra Bose, from the blog https://www.indiagestao.blogspot.com
Came out of the skewer…
The more nails in the bed, the easier it is to bear the pain.
HARD MATTRESS
The base of the bed is a wooden plank. The nails have a blunt point and are about 12 centimeters long to support the weight of the body without bending. With the nails very close to each other, the contact surface between the “mattress” and the fakir increases.
NAILED ON THE BED
The laws of physics dictate that the smaller the surface on which a body rests, the greater the pressure exerted. That is, climbing on a nail would likely pierce the fakir’s skin. With many nails, the weight is distributed and the pressure on each nail becomes small.
LIGHT SLEEP
To distribute the weight among all the nails, the entry into the bed has to be strategic. The secret is to lay down the whole body at once, gently – no sitting down or supporting your hands beforehand. The reduced weight of the fakirs also makes performing less painful.
…fell into the embers
Intense heat is slowly transferred to the foot
HOT TRACK
The trail, formed by pieces of incandescent wood, has a maximum length of 5 meters – so the fakir does not spend a lot of time walking in the embers. In addition, the steps are light, avoiding prolonged contact between the heat source and the feet.
BREAKING OUT IN A COLD SWEAT
As with the bed of nails, the fakir’s body also helps. The thicker the sole of the foot, for example, the harder it is to burn. In addition, the sweat generated by the hot breath also delays the transfer of heat from the ember to the foot, as the water absorbs the heat from the ember.
INSULATING LAYER
The ash that covers the trail is made of carbon, which is not a good conductor of heat. This takes the heat from the burning wood to transfer to the surface, saving the foot from burns. Also, ash cools quickly in contact with colder bodies.