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#719 Dimitris Xygalatas - Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living

The Dissenter

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The Importance of Fire-Walking Rituals

Anthropologists use heart rate monitors to study fire-walking rituals in Spain. The temperature at the ritual is close to 800 degrees Celsius, which is enough to melt aluminum. People will carry a family member on their back or somebody else close to them and walk barefooted. There's this astonishing level of synchrony between people's heart rates irrespective of what they're doing.

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