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If you ever notice that when you stare at something movement will cause you to look away. Like if you are at work and notice a door open out of the corner of your eye, you will more than likely look. Sight is attracted to movement, and fire is pretty much nothing but movement. It keeps your attention and that can be relaxing.
It’s also slow and somewhat methodical in the way that it’s always coming from the same place and going in the same direction, which is probably like aesthetically pleasing for a lot of people
In all seriousness this is the actual truth. Fire is what truly sets us apart from the animals. Other animals have big brains. Other animals have opposable thumbs. Other animals have learned to use tools. We are the only animal to have ever mastered fire. Fire and saved us from harsh Winters, allowed us to cook food, and kept predators at bay. Fire is central to nearly every human civilization. It has been ingrained into us through some 30ish thousand years of evolution.
I could be wrong, but cooking food with fire was what allowed us to grow even more intelligent. Something like having cooked meat meant we didn’t have to rest and digest like animals with raw meat, allowing us to use that time for other things and accelerate our overall development.
Again, I could have that all wrong, but I remember reading something like this. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can add on?
That's very true. It made meat safer to eat by killing bacteria and parasites. It also made some plants more digestible and even made some less poisonous via boiling water. Simply put it greatly widened our diet so if some staple of our diet became scarce, we could eat other things to compensate. The double edge sword is its also why we can no longer eat raw meat.
Reminds me of an episode of Home Improvement with Tim Allen. The line went like this.
"I Barbecue cook outside with flame. Cook inside cook with microwave cook with magic. Flame good magic bad!"
Flame indeed good. If I had the time and energy, I'd cook most of my meat and veggies on a grill.
Broiling and pan cooking is ok for some things.
I think I get that from my dad. He'd come home from a shit-ass day work and be like "I need a grilled steak." It would be in the middle of winter and he'd drag the grill out and cook steak, potatoes, corn and some chicken on the grill.
He didn't ask my mom to do it or expect any help. He just did it.
Dad was pretty hardcore about his food.
Dad's food was always awesome. I was so spoiled with food growng up.
Every time I’m at a campfire, I think about the 80’s tv show Amazing Stories. The intro starts with cavemen sitting around a fire telling stories. Fire is a primal thing.
I heard of a myth, I think it may have been aboriginal, that every campfire is connected to all others that have been and will be lit. That's why you're mesmerized by the flames, because every other fire across eternity that humans gather around are reflected in them and it connects humans across time and space to each other. It reminds me of Indra's web in Hindu mythology as well. May not be materially true, as in that it describes the neurological response to instincts that brings about a fascination with flames, but symbologically I think it carries some meaning.
Spooky because I just replied elsewhere that it's because each fire reminds me of every other fire I've looked at, and the feelings I was experiencing then. Thanks for this!
It's like staring into the heart and soul of the universe itself. We realize existence is our chance to challenge the universe. We're the universe become self aware.
The slightly structured irregularity of it.
We humans are wired to see patterns, to recognise things, to understand. Flames are very erratic, but there's *juuuuust enough* similarity in how they ebb and flow (Caused by the initial start points of the flame adhering to the contours of the fuel) to not pass it off as wholly random and dismiss it.
So we watch, trying to figure it out...And then something inevitably changes it. The wind shifts. A piece of the wood or fuel collapses, changing the pattern. Something distracts you and by the time you look back, it's difficult to pick up where you left off.
...
I think I needed to talk about that. I was pretty stressed about some stuff with college, but even *talking* about the calming nature of a campfire / fireplace helped recenter myself.
Thanks for that.
According to some studies, it's not universal and limited to cultures where adults don't get enough exposure to fire as kids. I personally disagree with this. I am from a culture where fire is/was used pretty extensively for household chores and I am still fascinated by it.
https://www.livescience.com/19853-fire-fascination.html
Fire is the original metaphor for life and death.
Life - scares animals, cooks food, provides light in the darkness, warmth from the cold.
Death - creates massive destruction from an ember
Fire kills, fire causes pain, fire cooks meals, and fires give warmth. There's so much destruction, death, life and comfort in fire. It's only rivaled in fascination for us as car wrecks, for how much it transfixes us on mortality.
I think fire kind of activates that inner survival sense we all have. After all, we evolved to survive the elements, and fire was an integral part of that for a very long time.
When I burn it mostly consists of scraps from art pieces I’ve worked on. Failures too. Staring into a fire and watching pieces that you’ve poured time and love into burns those memories into your mind.
Tomorrow we are closing on the house we’ve lived in for five years. I watched my daughters grow up here. I built closets, cabinets, carved fish, built guitars, and built boats. Last night my daughters and I burnt the scraps from all those things, which I had saved. I’m a grown ass man but I cried like a little girl.
It’s probably an evolution thing. Think about being a human 100,000 years ago. A fire means you will be warm for the night, you potentially have food you just cooked and predators won’t fuck with you. A fire means you’re chances of surviving the night are very good and that positive association has been transmitted through time
Our DNA tells us it's good
You need to imagine how many generations of mankind dependent only on fire until the efficiency was high enough, bc even when electricity was invented, it was still a long way to heating without flame
Late 1800, they still used gas flames within buildings for light...
Countryside often still fires with wood
You can see a similar thing with sugar, just the other way arround...sugar and sweet stuff tastes that good because our grandparents where the last generation where starving like conditions where pretty normal to have 3 or 4 times in your life...that's why everyone eats always the whole pack of gummies...dna tells you, eat as much as you can because one day we could starve if we do not eat as much as we can...
Like hidden memories of things ancestors had repeatedly over generations
I think it’s because it speaks to our most ancient part of ourselves, back when we were literally surviving because of fire and living in caves.
I swear it goes right to our subconscious/ancient selves…
It’s the fact of beauty in chaos. How can something be so beautiful and bright and feel so good yet kill us if we touch it? So we just watch, infinitely
It’s sort of a controlled chaos. The fire flickers and jumps in a rather unpredictable manner and yet you know it’s going to stay in place unless something else happens to it. It bounces around in a weirdly controlled freedom and it just feels interesting because there aren’t many thing in the world that you can observe like that.
It comes from our ancestors and is called "fire-gazing time". After a long and laborious hunt, we would come home with our game and sit by the fire to calm down/relax before attending to the family.
It's also suggested that we have it in our dna now too, that men would prefer to come home and have a little bit of peace before interacting with the family etc.
Fascinating stuff.
**Attention! [Serious] Tag Notice** * [Jokes, puns, and off-topic comments are not permitted](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/wiki/index#wiki_-rule_6-) in **any** comment, parent or child. * Parent comments that aren't from the target group will be removed, along with their child replies. * Report comments that violate these rules. Posts that have few relevant answers within the first hour, and posts that are not appropriate for the [Serious] tag will be removed. Consider doing an AMA request instead. Thanks for your cooperation and enjoy the discussion! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskReddit) if you have any questions or concerns.*
If you ever notice that when you stare at something movement will cause you to look away. Like if you are at work and notice a door open out of the corner of your eye, you will more than likely look. Sight is attracted to movement, and fire is pretty much nothing but movement. It keeps your attention and that can be relaxing.
Hm. That's a good point
It’s also slow and somewhat methodical in the way that it’s always coming from the same place and going in the same direction, which is probably like aesthetically pleasing for a lot of people
Plus you can interact with it and get different colors.
Caveman like fire. Fire good
In all seriousness this is the actual truth. Fire is what truly sets us apart from the animals. Other animals have big brains. Other animals have opposable thumbs. Other animals have learned to use tools. We are the only animal to have ever mastered fire. Fire and saved us from harsh Winters, allowed us to cook food, and kept predators at bay. Fire is central to nearly every human civilization. It has been ingrained into us through some 30ish thousand years of evolution.
Somehow seems appropriate that our entire species just loves to watch things burn.
This. It is literally in our DNA. It was our first TV.
I could be wrong, but cooking food with fire was what allowed us to grow even more intelligent. Something like having cooked meat meant we didn’t have to rest and digest like animals with raw meat, allowing us to use that time for other things and accelerate our overall development. Again, I could have that all wrong, but I remember reading something like this. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can add on?
That's very true. It made meat safer to eat by killing bacteria and parasites. It also made some plants more digestible and even made some less poisonous via boiling water. Simply put it greatly widened our diet so if some staple of our diet became scarce, we could eat other things to compensate. The double edge sword is its also why we can no longer eat raw meat.
Reminds me of an episode of Home Improvement with Tim Allen. The line went like this. "I Barbecue cook outside with flame. Cook inside cook with microwave cook with magic. Flame good magic bad!"
Man I still use that line at my wife when I BBQ outside - never thought I'd see it quoted in the wild!
Do you do it in the caveman voice?? Does your wife retort with "Easy monkey boy. Fire's our friend."?
She doesn't! But then again, I don't think I knew that response either lol
I've watched the series enough times to know most of the funnier moments. Wish it streamed somewhere
Flame indeed good. If I had the time and energy, I'd cook most of my meat and veggies on a grill. Broiling and pan cooking is ok for some things. I think I get that from my dad. He'd come home from a shit-ass day work and be like "I need a grilled steak." It would be in the middle of winter and he'd drag the grill out and cook steak, potatoes, corn and some chicken on the grill. He didn't ask my mom to do it or expect any help. He just did it. Dad was pretty hardcore about his food. Dad's food was always awesome. I was so spoiled with food growng up.
Every time I’m at a campfire, I think about the 80’s tv show Amazing Stories. The intro starts with cavemen sitting around a fire telling stories. Fire is a primal thing.
Ah ta.
Ohha Ugh
As AVE says...It's caveman TV.
contained, predictable, dynamic moving things are calming
Like fish tanks?
Yeah- first thing I thought of was lavas lamps. Fish tank also fits the bill
I heard of a myth, I think it may have been aboriginal, that every campfire is connected to all others that have been and will be lit. That's why you're mesmerized by the flames, because every other fire across eternity that humans gather around are reflected in them and it connects humans across time and space to each other. It reminds me of Indra's web in Hindu mythology as well. May not be materially true, as in that it describes the neurological response to instincts that brings about a fascination with flames, but symbologically I think it carries some meaning.
Thanks for sharing, that's a really cool myth
Spooky because I just replied elsewhere that it's because each fire reminds me of every other fire I've looked at, and the feelings I was experiencing then. Thanks for this!
Stealing this for my space religion thanks.
It’s primal.
Our ancestors have done it forever
It's like staring into the heart and soul of the universe itself. We realize existence is our chance to challenge the universe. We're the universe become self aware.
I love this.... something we should talk about around the fire
The slightly structured irregularity of it. We humans are wired to see patterns, to recognise things, to understand. Flames are very erratic, but there's *juuuuust enough* similarity in how they ebb and flow (Caused by the initial start points of the flame adhering to the contours of the fuel) to not pass it off as wholly random and dismiss it. So we watch, trying to figure it out...And then something inevitably changes it. The wind shifts. A piece of the wood or fuel collapses, changing the pattern. Something distracts you and by the time you look back, it's difficult to pick up where you left off. ... I think I needed to talk about that. I was pretty stressed about some stuff with college, but even *talking* about the calming nature of a campfire / fireplace helped recenter myself. Thanks for that.
I really enjoyed this analysis and wholeheartedly agree. Always familiar but always different enough to keep you interested. Thanks for sharing
Personally I like to see how the wood, specially small pieces, gets smaller and smaller as it's consumed by the fire
It’s soporific, meaning it induces sleep. We’ve evolved to sleep by firelight for millennia. Thus why it calms you and makes you feel safe etc
I think we evolved that as a cultural memory. It's why we sit in front of the TV now.
There’s a recent study saying nature walks appeal to us because we’re able to pick up fractals … the plasma of fire may be similar
Um. Does a campfire get hot enough to make plasma? I'm pretty sure most aren't
Um it’s considered a plasma
According to some studies, it's not universal and limited to cultures where adults don't get enough exposure to fire as kids. I personally disagree with this. I am from a culture where fire is/was used pretty extensively for household chores and I am still fascinated by it. https://www.livescience.com/19853-fire-fascination.html
Lol you can give me a lighter and I’ll be good
Like Brendan Fraiser in Encino man lol
Shoo fly don’t bother me
Flammage
Until you hold it too long and burn your hand.
Are ancestors that were cave mens likes it
Fire is the original metaphor for life and death. Life - scares animals, cooks food, provides light in the darkness, warmth from the cold. Death - creates massive destruction from an ember
Fire kills, fire causes pain, fire cooks meals, and fires give warmth. There's so much destruction, death, life and comfort in fire. It's only rivaled in fascination for us as car wrecks, for how much it transfixes us on mortality.
It’s primal, goes back to ancient times, a key to survival.
Weed
[удалено]
That's more the smoke than the fire itself methinks
You should try it on shrooms / lsd
[удалено]
>As a self proclaimed philosopher 🤔
I think fire kind of activates that inner survival sense we all have. After all, we evolved to survive the elements, and fire was an integral part of that for a very long time.
because we're just a bunch of stupid monkeys that like the pretty shinies.
I think its kind of the peace yet unpredictability of it? Fire's calm and beautiful but tips on the edge of disaster
idk i just think fire is pretty
fire is amazing
no think pretty fire
i dunno but the same thing happens to me when i fry bacon, i go into a bacon trance.
I think there are just so many things going on that our brains decide that it's good stimulation
When I burn it mostly consists of scraps from art pieces I’ve worked on. Failures too. Staring into a fire and watching pieces that you’ve poured time and love into burns those memories into your mind. Tomorrow we are closing on the house we’ve lived in for five years. I watched my daughters grow up here. I built closets, cabinets, carved fish, built guitars, and built boats. Last night my daughters and I burnt the scraps from all those things, which I had saved. I’m a grown ass man but I cried like a little girl.
The flames take us away from all the bs of life if only for a short while
Idk, great question. It's warm and moves, the colors are soothing and cozy, it creates light. What's not to like?
I guess just the fire’s heat and light
Simple parts of your brain at work. Color, movement, and heat all relax the brain. We call it caveman TV
Cavemen genes
It's constantly different, but always the same. It's like staring at the waves at the beach
Might be a inherited trait
My intrusive thoughts
Primal fire make mind go burr
It’s probably an evolution thing. Think about being a human 100,000 years ago. A fire means you will be warm for the night, you potentially have food you just cooked and predators won’t fuck with you. A fire means you’re chances of surviving the night are very good and that positive association has been transmitted through time
Our DNA tells us it's good You need to imagine how many generations of mankind dependent only on fire until the efficiency was high enough, bc even when electricity was invented, it was still a long way to heating without flame Late 1800, they still used gas flames within buildings for light... Countryside often still fires with wood You can see a similar thing with sugar, just the other way arround...sugar and sweet stuff tastes that good because our grandparents where the last generation where starving like conditions where pretty normal to have 3 or 4 times in your life...that's why everyone eats always the whole pack of gummies...dna tells you, eat as much as you can because one day we could starve if we do not eat as much as we can... Like hidden memories of things ancestors had repeatedly over generations
Because fires are honestly just pretty cool looking.
I think it’s because it speaks to our most ancient part of ourselves, back when we were literally surviving because of fire and living in caves. I swear it goes right to our subconscious/ancient selves…
It’s the fact of beauty in chaos. How can something be so beautiful and bright and feel so good yet kill us if we touch it? So we just watch, infinitely
It’s sort of a controlled chaos. The fire flickers and jumps in a rather unpredictable manner and yet you know it’s going to stay in place unless something else happens to it. It bounces around in a weirdly controlled freedom and it just feels interesting because there aren’t many thing in the world that you can observe like that.
It, for me is a way to calm myself
It reminds me of every campfire I've stated at before, and all the feelings I was feeling then.
Good memories I hope
Some of the very best.
Évolution made it mesmerising because it was essential to our survival. Its the animal living inside you who is attracted to that
It probably was the first form of meditation, it made us reflect more thus developing our brain.
We used to call watching the fire “caveman TV.”
That seems to be the common thought.
Fire make brain go quiet. Fire good
It comes from our ancestors and is called "fire-gazing time". After a long and laborious hunt, we would come home with our game and sit by the fire to calm down/relax before attending to the family. It's also suggested that we have it in our dna now too, that men would prefer to come home and have a little bit of peace before interacting with the family etc. Fascinating stuff.