Fire Addiction and Brain Wave Entrainment

The process of brain wave entrainment is that type of mental therapy by which external cues (rhythms in visual or audio stimuli) synchronize internal functions (brain waves) to promote ... something.

That "something", scientists say, is related primarily to either mental focus and/or the regulation of certain chemicals responsible for feelings of satisfaction or relaxation. My guess is that brain wave synchronization, at its optimum, has the ability to regulate the processes by which dopamine, endorphins, and seratonin impact body responses.

That "something", the marketeers of brain wave "technologies" say, is related to how you perform: emotionally, mentally, financially, relationally, and sexually. Holey moley. I'm not even going down that path, for it's surely a windy trail leading to nowhere.

OK, so now on to Gear.

I believe that fire is a brainwave synchronization technology.

I have a friend who's a smokejumper. He says that his mental focus is so acute while he's in the midst of a wilderness fire that he's able to solve problems with absolute clarity while firefighting. He told me, "my brain is running a million miles an hour, and all of my life conflicts seem to flash before me, even though they have nothing to do with - and do not interfere with - the mental energy required to fight the fire I'm in." Once, he said, he came home from a fire and spent the next three days immersed in learning a new language. "I was travel-fluent by the end of the third day, and I'd never before taken a language class. My mother almost had a heart attack when I started speaking in Italian to her on the phone."

Similarly, I've found fire to be a wilderness elixir that all but removes anxiety from expeditioning.

I'm not the guy who first understood this relationship, mind you. People have know about it for like, probably as long as fire's been around.

And so, if you share a tent with me that contains a blazing titanium shepherd's stove inside (TitaniumGoat.com) and are wondering why my eyes are glazed over and I'm oblivious to the storms and bears raging around the tent, you'll know why.

My brain waves are synchronized, man!