FIRE DANCING IN GREECE (VITTORIA MANGANAS)

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Body:  December 1983
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 Dr. Vittoria Manganas*
 Athens, Greece
 All over the world there are some people who have the
 exceptional capacity to dance, walk or even stand unharmed
 on burning coals.    This feat must not be confused with shows
 organized as tourist attractions which can easily be spotted
 as frauds.            In Northern Greece there are a few small towns
 where Anastenarides, as fire dancers are called, gather
 every May 21 to dance on burning coals for three consecutive
 evenings.  Anastenarides live in nearby villages or cities
 and are feared,  admired and generally tolerated by their
 neighbors,           but excommunicated by the church as heretics.
 They are normal family people, mostly simple workers of low
 educational level.  They consider themselves healers of all
 the community.
 Before confronting the fire,  they prepare themselves
 all day long in the house of their leader,  dancing to the
 sound of monotonous, primitive and highly suggestive music.
 But the basic preparation takes years, and more specifically
 begins about a month before the celebration with strict
 adherence  to  moral  principles, moderate     food  intake
 (generally without meat) and abstinence from sex.       The
 ritual dancing takes place over burning coals spread over a
 circular area of about 4 to 8 meters, until all the coals
 are reduced to ashes: the temperature of the coals at the
 perimeter is 220?C, at the center it reaches 450?C [2,9].
 Following a close study of Anastenarides for two
 consecutive years, the following remarks are offered:
 - They are not in a state of hypnosis or trance since
 they are able to answer to the slightest external
 stimuli and generally are very irritable;
 Although they do not have the technical knowledge, they
 have achieved some kind of self-regulation, similar to
 * The paper was originally presented at the Symposium of
 Radiaesthesia and Bioenergotherapy in Warsaw, September 24-
 25, 1983.
 autogenic training,  that enables them to have greater
 control over body functions than usual;
 - They reinforce this before the fire dance by means of
 rituals,  special day-long dancing (always to the same
 music), and group dynamic techniques.   The latter are
 very interesting from the psychologist's point of view.
 In the preparatory stage,  they enact in a kind of
 psychodrama, all their personal and minority-group
 conflicts and problems,  reaching a highly charged
 emotional state in which anger is one of the strongest
 components.   Thus the fire to be conquered is the
 symbol of everything that is evil.  By triumphing over
 the fire with the help of Saints Constantine and Helen
 (celebrated on May 21) they reach a catharsis for
 themselves and for all the community.  This also means
 good health,  rich harvest and future protection from
 calamities.   The group offers the enhancement of self-
 suggestion and support in overcoming fear of the fire.
 - The crucial point is the absolute  faith in the
 possibility of doing it.   Greek, Philippinos,
 Mohammedans, and Indian fire dancers use different
 kinds of religious faiths to achieve the strength of
 absolute belief.
 In this context,  the firewalking experiments of the
 Soviet Valery Avdeyev are very important and enlightening.
 In a press interview he explained that he had trained
 himself in self-regulation techniques and was able to walk
 unharmed over a big bonfire, when the thought and the will
 to overcome it "consumed all" of him.  On another occasion,
 when he could not enter into the proper state of mind, he
 was burned [3].  We can see that the common points between
 the  Anastenarides  and  the  Soviet  firewalker are  the
 previously achieved capacity of some kind of self control
 and the absolute belief in being able to do it.
 Anasteriarides have been subjected to almost all current
 medical and psychiatric tests, even injections of endorphin
 antagonists,  without  conclusive  results  [1,2,4].   In this
 study hi;h-frequency photography was used  as  in previous
 psychiatric research, because of its potential for revealing
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 December 1983
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 bioenergetic states and changes in living organisms  [5,6].
 Kirlian photographs of hands and feet of Anastenarides
 (total 11 subjects) were taken during preparation, fire
 dancing  and  everyday life  (after 3               months)  on Kodak
 Ektachrome T slides 10x12 cm and 13x18 cm.  The images were
 compared with those of special states,              such as hypnosis,
 yogic meditation and autogenic training (AT), before and
 during these states. In all the above conditions, including
 fire dancing, an increase of the corona discharge can be
 observed, compared to the corresponding rest conditions, as
 is to be expected if the assumption that they all imply an
 increase of the bioenergy field is correct.   In the high-
 frequency images of the hands during fire dancing a pattern
 similar to those of intense emotional arousal is seen,
 different from the color and pattern of relaxation states
 (hypnosis, yoga, AT).  The Kirlian photos of the feet show a
 remarkable increase of the length and density of  the
 streamers and sparks of different colors.  This is not
 dependent on the mechanical act of dancing, since the same
 image was given while at rest.
 At this point I would like to express the hypothesis
 that in firewalking not only there is an increase of bio-
 energy as in other special states, but that a kind of bio-
 energetic protective shield is formed.  Victor Inyushin and
 Alexander Romen postulate that,  in special extreme condi-
 tions, man can display exceptional capacities by increasing
 (voluntarily or not) his amount of "biological plasma," as
 can be seen in a high-frequency field [7,8].  In the case of  -
 fire dancers,  the "bioplasma" protects from burns because
 the charged particles or free electrons that form it produce
 a state of superconductivity of the skin [9,10].
 What is remarkable is the fact that the soles of
 Anastenarides during fire dancing are paradoxically cool and
 dry. It is also well known that they never go into the fire
 unless they feel ready.  Some refer to this feeling of
 readiness as "the call" from the saint, others as a special
 feeling like being pushed, i.e., from the nearby wall or the
 floor.   Could it be that subliminal information about the
 completion of a protective energetic shield reaches the
 consciousness?
 This study is far from complete.  Fire dancing is
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 tangible proof that the range of psychophysical potential of
 man is much wider than officially believed.         It should be
 investigated with a scientific mind and all the means at our
 disposal.
 1. Ballis, T., Beaumanoir, A., & Xenakis, C.  "Anastenaria,"
 Hellenic Armed Force Medical Review, Vol. 13 (1979), p.
 2.
 2. Xenakis, C., Larbig, W., & Tsarouchas, E.  "Zur Psycho-
 physiologie  des  Feuerlaufers," Arch.                                                                                                      Psychiatr.
 Nervenkr.,  Vol. 223 (1977).
 3. Maisyuk, A. "Know Yourself," Psi Research, Vol. 2, No. 1
 (March 1983), pp. 106-109 [Translated from Tekhnika-
 Molodezhi, Moscow, No. 9, 1982].
 4. Xenakis, C., & Holtman, W.  "Zur Psychophysiologie des
 Feuerlaufers," Arch.  Psychiatr.  Nervenkr.,  Vol.  227
 (1979).
 5. Manganas, V., & Zachariades, N.  "Corona Discharge Photo-
 graphy in Psychiatry," Psychoenergetics:   The Journal of
 Psychophysical Systems, Vol. 4 (1982).
 6. Manganas, V., & Zachariades, N.  "Corona Discharge Photo-
 graphy as a Mean of Early Assessment in Psychiatry,"
 Proceedings of World  Congress  on  Medical  Physics,
 Hamburg (1982).
 7. Adamenko, V.G.  "Electrodynamics of Living Systems,"
 International Journal of Paraphysics, Vol. 4, No.   4
 (1970).
 8. Inyushin, V.M., & Chekurov, P.  Biostimulation Through
 Laser Radiation and Bioplasma (Alma-Ata   Kazakhstan,
 1975).
 9. Katkov,  A.   "Autosuggestion and Bioplasma," Inter-
 national Journal of Paraphysics,  Vol.  15,                                                                                    No-s.--17-2
 (1981), pp. 20-23.
 10. Romen, A.S.  Self-Suggestion and its Influence on the
 Human Organism, A.J. Lewis & V.F. Forsky, ,eds. (Armonk,
 NY:   M.E. Sharp,  1981).
 13-15 A. Metaxa St.
 106 81 Athens, Greece
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