Debunking the Fire-Walking Myth in Georgia

Retired physicist John Campbell, formerly of the University of Canterbury, is offering a fire-walking demonstration at the University of Georgia on 19 September. For Campbell, fire-walking is a matter of thermal conductivity, and not a matter of faith.

“I started doing this when charlatans were charging $200 to train you to control your mind such that you can walk over red hot charcoal and be fine, and that’s just bunkum because anyone can do it,” Campbell said.

“I’m a bit of a charlatan myself because I use science to explain how and why most anyone can do it.”

Campbell is founder of the Ask-A-Scientist program that has a weekly column in three New Zealand newspapers and has organised more than 50 fire-walks throughout the country. He has received several awards for his presentation of science to the public and is the author of Rutherford Scientist Supreme and producer of the documentary Rutherford, both based on the life of New Zealand-born “father of nuclear physics”, Ernest Rutherford.