mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz) (03/07/85)
In article <319@boulder.UUCP> root@boulder.UUCP (Sylvan Ruud) writes: > > I would like EVERYONE to learn about the most powerful four days you > WILL ever SPEND in your entire life! > I have recently completed a four day seminar in Denver which is > called THE MIND REVOLUTION: Three steps to personal power. One of the MANY Oh boy! Another pop-psychobabble get-em-rolling seminar like EST and all the others. :-) Sarcasm aside, I have no opinion on their value. > THINGS we learned was how to walk on 1600-2000 degree (F) HOT coals IN OUR > BARE FEET! The POSSIBILITIES and OPTIONS that this one act releases in an > individual are absolutely awesome! To put the POWER and WORTH of this Wow, I can't think of how many times I've needed to walk on hot coals! :-) There is a short article in the March issue of Science 85 on how fire-walking works, prompted by this fad. Essentially, there are a few physical reasons why: coals have a very low specific heat and are very poor conductors of heat, and moisture in the skin vaporizes which provides an insulating layer of steam and dry skin which also conducts heat poorly. It was pointed out that a real test of mental powers would be to walk across aluminum heated as hot. -- Mike Huybensz ...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh
ptc@cybvax0.UUCP (Peter Crames) (03/07/85)
> In article <319@boulder.UUCP> root@boulder.UUCP (Sylvan Ruud) writes: > > > > I would like EVERYONE to learn about the most powerful four days you > > WILL ever SPEND in your entire life! > > I have recently completed a four day seminar in Denver which is > > called THE MIND REVOLUTION: Three steps to personal power. One of the MANY > > Oh boy! Another pop-psychobabble get-em-rolling seminar like EST and all > the others. :-) Sarcasm aside, I have no opinion on their value. > > Mike Huybensz ...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh I've never been to an EST seminar, but I read a book about it. The climax of the seminar is when they tell you that you are a machine. However, they say that you control the machine, whereas I believe that God controls the machine. Peter Crames ...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!ptc
jlg@lanl.ARPA (03/09/85)
> > THINGS we learned was how to walk on 1600-2000 degree (F) HOT coals IN OUR > > BARE FEET! The POSSIBILITIES and OPTIONS that this one act releases in an > > individual are absolutely awesome! To put the POWER and WORTH of this > > Wow, I can't think of how many times I've needed to walk on hot coals! :-) > There is a short article in the March issue of Science 85 on how fire-walking > works, prompted by this fad. Essentially, there are a few physical reasons > why: coals have a very low specific heat and are very poor conductors of > heat, and moisture in the skin vaporizes which provides an insulating layer > of steam and dry skin which also conducts heat poorly. It was pointed out > that a real test of mental powers would be to walk across aluminum heated > as hot. Not at all. The same boundary layer occurs. The Scientific American article some years back recommended heating the backs of shovels for this experiment. The author of the article had walked across 12 (I think) shovels heated to 1500 degrees F. Be careful if you try this though, the boundary layer is not properly effective at LOWER temperatures (<1100 degrees). At higher temperatures, the boundary layer is not effective either, but you'll melt your shovels if you go too high anyway. J. Giles