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: ©tA^DR96-O0792ROOO7OO86OOO2-5
PSI
RESEARCH
December
1983
Approved For^e£|<|£§^9/
FIRE DANCING
IN GREECE
Dr. Vittorta 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
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
to
8 meters,
until
all
the
coals
are reduced
to ashes:
the
temperature
of
the
coals
at
the
perimeter
is 22(PC ,
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.
Approved For Release 2003/09/
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
tcinds
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.
Anastenarides
liave been subjected
to almost all current
medical
and
psychiatric
tests,
even injections
of endorphin
antagonists,
without
conclusive
results
[1,2,4],
In
this
study
high-frequency
photography
was
used
as
in
previous
psychiatric
research,
because of
its potential for revealing
: CIA-RDP96-00792R000700860002-5