Joe Rogan: The Mind Can Protect Your Body from a Punch?

It's one of those things like the walking on coals thing. Absolutely, which I've done a number of times. I'm sure. But if you, as long, with coal, you know this then, that coals are not a very good conductive heat, which is why you don't cook on coals. You cook on metal. That's bullshit. Because, yes, I'll tell you why that's bullshit. My experience was, I, the first time I tried it, I was with a group of maybe 40 people, and it was a, the standard length of the firework was about 12 feet. It was a hot fire, it was mesquite. It was in my yard in Tucson, and the guy came in, it was early in the days of firewalking, and he had this long four-hour thing to get people ready. I was not in the right mental state when I did it, and my experience was it felt fucking hot. And when it got to the end of it, it condensed down to like a number of points that really burned, and I had blisters the next day. And most people that have walked that night, it looked like they were not in the right mental state. But I saw a few people who strolled across it that looked, they were in some interesting altered state. So I wanted to try it again. Next time I did it, I shouldn't have done it. I was with a guy who was a real jerk who thought himself as a, you know, he was a self-styled guru, small group. It was a shorter, maybe eight-foot cooler bed of coals, and I got significant burns from that. So like an annoying guru? Yeah, really annoying. So he was getting a bunch of spiritual stuff, and you're like, this guy's a jerk-off, and then you're getting annoyed, so you're out of your mindset. Right, and I burned my feet. So I said, I'm not going to do this again. And then a friend of mine was doing some intensive workshop with Tony Robbins in Phoenix. Oh, Christ. And it was going to end the last day. They were going to try to set a record for the longest firewalk done in America. So he wanted me to come up. So I went up there, I thought, I'm going to watch, I'm not going to do it. So it was a 40-foot bed of coals, and it was really hot. And he had like a troop of African drummers, and people were dancing and drumming, it was like midnight. And people were getting in line to walk. And I said, I'm not going to do this, not going to do it. I found myself going up there, and I was right there, and he taps me in the shoulder and says, you're ready. It felt like walking through crunchy croutons. There was no sensation of heat. I walked slowly. I kind of wiggled my feet in the things. And when I got to the end of it, I felt so high. It was like on acid. I had energy rushes through my body. I had nothing on my feet. So on a much shorter, cooler walk, those coals conducted just fine. And on this one, it's a mind-body thing. It's not about conductivity of the coals. Tony Robbins hitting you with some fugazi coals. Whatever. It was hot. I mean, you could barely get at the edge of the thing, man. The heat was amazing. Do you know that Tony Robbins won, what's really interesting is, recently they've developed this issue with people trying to take selfies while they're walking across the coals and burning their feet. It's become a significant issue because it didn't happen until within the last few years. I never heard of that. I think that would get you right out of the proper state. Yeah, there was a big article about it. That's pretty funny. There was a big article about these people really fucking their feet up. I think it's funny. Well deserved. Yeah, so you really think that you have the ability to mitigate the amount of effect that fire and hot coals have on your skin. I don't have any proof of this is my intuition. I think what happens if your mind is out of the way, you can absorb energy and let it flow through your body rather than getting blocked in the tissues where it causes damage. I've seen this in other situations as well. I think the problem is ordinarily our mind is in the way of that and does not let the body freely do that. I think that applies to things like getting hit really hard, heat. Getting hit really hard. What do you mean? Getting letting someone hit you as hard as they can with something that would cause damage and it doesn't. Oh, that's crazy. No, it's not. I've experienced it. Yeah, I'm sure you have, but are there other real scientific studies that show that? Nobody studied it. I'd love to study it. Nobody studied fire walking. The usual scientific explanation is that- It seems like we probably shouldn't talk about this until they do do studies because it seems so simple to do these studies and I'm not buying it for a second. I think if I hit somebody, it's going to fucking hurt. If you get Deontay Wilder to punch you, I don't give a fuck how much Tony Robbins talks you into the zone. Common experience. Drunks involved in car accidents don't get injured. Okay, but do you know why? Because they're totally relaxed. Yes, but that has nothing to do with some altered state of consciousness that's not allowing the injury to actually manifest itself. Well, I think their mind is out of the way and their body is totally relaxed. It's too, but it's the tension of falling. You hurt yourself. Because you're defending yourself. Right. Right. Your body is better off giving in to the impact. Well, I'm saying it's the same thing with fire. But it can't be. That's a different thing. Because you're not tense on the surface of your skin, which is causing the heat to burn your flesh. No, I think you're tense in your nervous system, which is not able to absorb that thermal energy. Listen, bro, we're going to do some studies. I'm going to burn you. I'm going to burn you and I'm going to kick you. Anytime we'll try it. I just don't buy it. I think certainly you can mitigate the sensation of pain. I don't believe that you can do anything about the actual physiological change to a hot piece of metal interacting with the tissue of your skin. I just think that the steak does not know it's being cooked. It's just getting cooked. You're going to get cooked. You are meat. I just don't buy that. I'll show you some of these studies on hypnosis. There's doctors right now going, yes, you tell them, Joe Rogan. This is nonsense. Well, I believe hypnosis. I do believe that, but I absolutely believe you can achieve different states of mind where you feel things differently. Your concentration, your relaxation is in a different state. Your mindset is in a different state. I do not believe that you can change the physiological nature of your body's ability to absorb punishment like a punch or a kick.