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Has anyone else ever heard of "Talking the fire out"?

• Ever since I was little I have always heard of people that can take a burn and "talk the fire out". I don't know, I mean I know it sounds crazy, and believe me, it is crazy. I have been kinda researching it, and I believe it originated in the Appalachian Mountains, something like that would come from there! But anyways, I live in North Carolina, and people from surrounding states have heard of it also, like Georgia (even though South Carolina separates it from us) , maybe Tennessee, and Virginia for quick examples. So if you're from other parts of the United States and never have heard of it, don't be too surprised because it probably isn't practiced at all there. And even where i live, it is only heard of very little, and practiced even less. So has anyone heard of this?

• Answer:

  Yes, I've heard of it. I once even believed it worked. Then I did some experimentation and determined it only works if the subject knows what you're doing, and believes it helps them. When they don't know, it doesn't work. This is called the placebo effect. It's quite a common belief in the American South, where ignorance tends to be all the fashion. (By the way, I still know the charm used: "There came an angel from the East, bringing frost and fire. In frost, out fire, in the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost, amen." Repeat three times, while passing one's hand across the burned part and out and away from the body, so as to "talk the fire" out of the body.)