his DNA that contains the blueprints of what we are tolook, talk, and act like.In chapter four, Raymo again brings up his childhood. He tells how he was forcedinto religion. The Church would not allow doubts to be spoken. For if it where to bequestioned the whole religious system may fall apart. The only sources of informationwere the nuns, priest, and all other authorities that were ‘chosen’ by God. From readingthe book, I believe that it was these authorities that caused Raymo to question religion,and in the end become a Skeptic.Next Raymo discusses the art of fire walking. He tells of the gurus that have agroup of 10-12 people pay about 50 dollars each to go to a seminar to learn how toharness their energy and walk on fire. The guru tells the people that they are about tobreak the laws of phyics. Now Raymo points out that it is only thanks to the phyiscs thatthese people do not burn their feet off. He explains how wood ash does not conduct heatvery well at all. He explains how the gurus dismiss this explaination, saying that is wastypical of a Skeptic to not believe in human powers of mind over matter. Also to explainthe scientific skepticism he uses another principle called Ockham’s razor, saying that “ifthe thermal properties of wood ash explain fire walking, then there’s no need to invokeauras and spirits.”(74) Raymo tells of how this made him later wish to write about firewalking, but in order to write about it, he felt it nessecary to walk on fire so that he couldwrite from experience. He did walk on fire, without the assitance of a guru (in fact he didit in his back yard), and was left with no burns or blisters. But he did not use the mindover matter theory that is used by the gurus; instead he used the mind over mind theory ofskeptics and scientists. ...
