Amazing Firewalk Celebration in India-Aug 2009
August 14, 2009
About 2,000 male devotees participated in the annual indian fire walking of 2009.
The preparation for the fire pit begins a before the fire walking with several rituals being carried out. At dawn of the fire walking day, special pooja is held in the Rukmani Sathyapama Sametha Sri Paarthasaarathy Thiraupathathevi Devasthanam and the Moola Thee or the First Fire is brought while the sun rises to the fire pit and kept there. As soon as this ritual is over, men rush to the logs of Tamarind wood, and bring them on their shoulders, and arrange them in the fire pit.
30 Tractor loads of Tamarind wood was brought for this years’ fire walking according to the President of the Rukmani Sathyapama Sametha Sri Paarthasaarathy Thiraupathathevi Devasthanam Shakthivel Malarchelvan. Many bottles of pure Ghee is poured into the pit and between the logs to spread the fire equally. Pure Ghee is poured till the fire is set to orange colour. The men keep watching the fire pit and adjust the firewood accordingly. With the sunset the men begin to take the unburnt logs away. Water is continuously poured on the men who are very close to the fire. Men began to make the bed of fire ready for walking. The bed of fire was ready at 8.30pm after many hours of hard work.
http://udappu09.blogspot.com/2009/08/sounds-of-udappu-aug-4-5-2009.html
Focus on the Best
August 6, 2009
from
Mastering Fear: The Ultimate Challenge
by Steven Bisyak & Michael McDermott
(pg 143-146)
A positive focus in your life can take many forms. For instance
- personal growth
- success
- high self-esteem
- enjoying life
- loving yourself and others more
- making more money
- getting all you want out of life
The quality of your experience in life is the direct result of where your focus is. When you focus only on “what if’s” and negative pictures of disasters in your future, it destroys your enjoyment of the moment. Letting go of fear means empowering yourself to have more fun in life. When you focus on the best, it allows you to take action. Fear cannot limit you.
It all you can think of is ”What would my mother say?” shift your focus. If you can’t think of one positive thing to focus on, find something in your field of vision and focus your mind on that. For instance, it could be a person, a tree, or a rock. It doesn’t matter.
The point is, if you’re paying 100% attention, you’re only capable of focusing your mind on one thing at a time. If you focus on something other than your fear or negativity, that fear ceases to exist for you the moment you shift your focus.
Unless something is in your mind, it doesn’t exist for you in that moment. It can’t be a part of your reality unless you consciously perceive it or call it to mind by remembering it.
Pay attention
To what you see
For what you perceive is your
RealityMichael McDermott
A monk was walking on a path in a jungle. Pretty soon a tiger started chasing him. The faster he ran, the faster the tiger ran. Soon the tiger joined two other tigers, who entered the chase. The monk ran over to the edge of a cliff and grabbed on to a vine. As he hung on to the vine, he saw below him three tigers waiting for him to fall. Just then, a rat came to the edge of the cliff and began chewing through the vine that the monk was holding on to.
In that moment. the monk glanced up and saw a small strawberry. Just before he fell from the cliff, he popped the strawberry into his mouth. He enjoyed that strawberry so much that he didn’t even mind falling off the cliff and being eaten by the tigers!
The moral of the story is: The monk had practiced meditation all his life. Because of this, he had the ability to pay 100% attention. By paying 100% attention to the experience of the strawberry in his mouth, everything else ceased to exist for him in that moment. When he popped the strawberry into his mouth, the tigers disappeared, and the fear vanished. He became one with the experience of eating the strawberry and everything else, in his perception, ceased to exist.
Focus is determination. When you break a brick, you realize it’s possible that you could pulverize your hand. So you accept that possibility. Then you focus your mind on the best. You visualize the brick breaking in half, and you see your hand going completely through It. You determine
the outcome by your focus. Believe in yourself 100%. You have to be 100% committed and you can’t just try. Nobody ever did anything by “trying. There’s a world of difference between trying and doing.
Focus is like a laser beam. When light is diffused, it has little power it’s very weak, like a fluorescent light. Focus those same light rays into a laser beam, and you can cut through the toughest diamond with that focused light! A laser beam is focused, and it can penetrate anything because the rays are focused. Your mind is like that. Intelligence, power, and ability are direct results of mental focus or concentration.
Concentration, focusing your mind and believing in yourself 100%, is the key to success, whether you’re breaking a brick or meeting a challenge on the job. Put emotion behind your focus. Bending rebar takes that kind of focus. When you’re standing with the sharp end of a rebar against your throat, you realize it could puncture your throat. It could puncture your windpipe and lacerate your spine. You could get a tracheotomy! It can be very scary.
Focusing is like flipping a switch in your mind. You focus on the center of the bar, think “bend,” and go for it. You have to give it 100% commitment or it just will not happen.
Focusing on the best helps you tremendously! It will give you the ability to accomplish whatever you want to in life! You can have successful relationships, make more money, and achieve success. Spend some time each day focusing on positive outcomes for all the problems that come up from time to time in your life. Focus on the best that can possibly happen and it probably will!
Life is a Firewalk
August 5, 2009
from
Mastering Fear: The Ultimate Challenge
by Steven Bisyak & Michael McDermott
pg 104-107
The firewalk has been a major tool in most of the dramatic transforrnations I’ve seen. One example that comes to mind is a young single woman who was living on welfare with her two toddlers. Her first firewalk was a jaunt across a 50-foot-long cinder bed of fiery embers. That’s pretty unusual for a first-time firewalk. Most firewalks are no longer than 12 feet-20 feet at the most. When I saw this lady walk over 50 feet of hot coals on her very first walk, I was impressed. “This is a pretty gutsy lady,” I thought.
As the months rolled by, she joined us for a number of other firewalks. She even attended the one in 1987 where we set the Guinness Book of World Records for the world’s hottest firewalk. That was her last firewalk. I recall her saying she intended to take the principles of the firewalk and apply those principles to all areas of her life.
She went back to school and graduated from college with a 4.0 grade point average! She’s no longer living on welfare. She’s now happily married. She and her husband have three kids. Her transformation was remarkable. She went from being on welfare to graduating from college with honors. She didn’t let fear limit her. She had the courage not only to think about walking on fire, she actually did it. Then she applied the principles she used to walk on fire to create the life of her dreams. She put more to life and she got more out of life.
With long-term exposure to the firewalk, you realize that the firewalk is only a metaphor. A metaphor is an analogy in which one idea or activity represents another, something that stands for something else. Firewalking represents your life. We “firewalk” every day of our lives by facing fear and meeting the challenges life has to offer.
I’ve heard people say, “No, I don’t want to do that.” Later they change their minds and attend a firewalking seminar. Sometimes you hear people say, “I have no desire to do that. You won’t get me to do that in a million years.” In a firewalking workshop, people learn how to master their states of mind. When the mind is conquered, the emotions are in check and you can walk on fire. You can use the same techniques to achieve anything you want
to achieve in life.
One of the biggest challenges I face is getting past people’s fears and prejudices. Firewalking produces RESULTS in people’s lives. Most people are so conditioned to fear the fire that they react when you bring up “firewalking.” They aren’t really listening because they’re reacting emotionally out of fear and old programming. The key to the whole thing is an open mind, allowing for the possibilities. Techniques that allow people to walk on fire directly apply to achievement in all areas of people’s lives. This book is an attempt to turn people on to the world of possibilities waiting for them at the firewalk.
The Fire of Transformation
The Same Fire That Burns the Wood
Hardens the Steel
… Step Into the Fire
Tony Robbins vs Live Powerfully Firewalk Experience
August 4, 2009
I’ve been firewalking for almost a decade now, and leading Firewalks for over 5 years.
I was reflecting the other day about the key differences between a Tony Robbins Firewalk and the ones I facilitate.
- Watch the fire burn for the entire event. The process of watching the fire be lit and then burn to coals is a powerful experience. The entire training is usually done around the fire.
- More hands on training and mentoring from the Firewalk facilitators and leader
- Focused training and breakthrough in a specific area of business, not just a generic breakthrough in fear
- Plenty of time to be with the experience and walk multiple times. Since our groups are almost always fewer than 100 people, you have plenty of space to process your experience before Firewalking, rather than getting your “20 seconds of fame”. And then you can walk as many tiemes as you want
Firewalking Intro: Ignite New Economy and Fulfill Dreams Now!!!
August 4, 2009
Power, Freedom, Abundance.
This is Julian Bergquist with Live Powerfully Training. We empower Entrepreneurs to ignite the New Economy and Fulfill their Dreams Now.
Firewalking has been a rite of passage in many cultures for hundreds of years to empower people, test their faith, and celebrate new beginnings. Now the firewalk is a tool to empower modern people with what we are dealing with in the 21st Century.
I am working with a group of business leaders who offer this experience to help entrepreneurs be unstopped by their fears and worries and have breakthrough after breakthrough in business and life.
The entrepreneur and solo-preneurs are the engines in this new economy and leading the way. Now is the time for people with passion and big dreams, to reach for them now…and enjoy the results of their creation.
Firewalk Video from May 1st
August 4, 2009
Here is video that Vincent J Kellsey posted from the Firewalk he led in San Diego May 1st, 2009.
Lots of fun, high energy.
Cheri Tree: “We are right here at the beach with the fire behind us that we are getting ready to walk on. This is awesome. It is hot, the back of us is already burning up over here.
Here is the bottom line…When you come to Quattro, we are going to burn your past, we are going to create possibility for your future. That is exactly what is going to happen here tonight.”
My 1st Firewalk Experience (losing my fire virginity)
April 24, 2009
I found an old email from when I firewalked the first time in 2000 with Michael McDermott. What I recall is my Life Coach at the time was going to fire me as a client because I had the same complaints after almost a year of working with her. She told me I had to go do a firewalk.
Below is the email I sent out to my friends the day after I Firewalked. Looking back this experience forever shaped the course of my life. The experience is invaluable.
—————————
By Julian D. Bergquist
August 20, 2000
Hi Friends,
I went to a firewalk last night in Redmond, WA. A What? Firewalk. You know, walk on red hot coals. Some of my friends and family said i was crazy and had lost it. There were about 25 people in attendance. Seven of us walked on the coals, the other eighteen were voyuers or just curious. I walked twice over a 6″ deep, 10 foot long bed of coals and did not get even the slightest of a burn. I was not in a trance or possessed by some spirit. I was scared shitless. I felt a huge wall of fear just before my feet stepped on the coals, but once i hit the fire the fear went away as i walked toward the end of the coals as quickly as possible, but without getting burned. I don’t have an explanation for why i didn’t get burned, but here is how the exiting event unfolded. At the end of this letter you will find more information about firewalking and several theories about what makes it possible. It isn’t as cooky as you might think. Also you can subscribe to my personal newsletter.
It was 6pm when I arrived at the outdoor retreat center in Redmond. I am wondering what the hell have i gotten myself into. All i know is that i am ready for some changes in my life. Maybe if i take drastic measures i will get drastic results. The firewalker instructor named Michael ( http://www.firewalking.net ) was burning some sage and sweet grass in a small little fire about the size a homeless person would burn under a bridge. There is a stack of of dozen small boards near the fire. I think that maybe this is the wood that will be used. No problem. Maybe enough wood for one quick step in the fire, in and out. Find out later these boards will be used for a board breaking warmup to prepare us for the coals.
After the sage and grass offerings burn down, Michael rakes out the coals to the side and asks if i will help him stack the wood. Off to the side by the black berry bushes is about a cord of wood. We begin stacking the wood 2 rails wide and about 5 feet high in a criss cross pattern. Other people show up and help with the wood stacking. Michael tells us that stacking the wood is helping us to get into the proper head space. When we are done we have a big ass pile of wood 10 feet long, 4 feet wide and 5 feet high. Enough wood to keep my house warm through the entire month of january with the front door wide open. I say that there is at least 100 split logs in the stack.
7pm rolls around and we begin. Michael lights the fire and begins dumpings about a gallon of kerosene on the fire. The fire is now flaming 10 feet in the air. For the next 15 minutes the flames grow to 20 feet in the air. I’m sitting 20 feet away mesmorized by the intense heat and beauty of the fire.
Finally the instruction begins. Everyone gets in a circle and shares our name and why we came. I say i want to learn to transform fear into a creative force in my life. I’m tired of living in fear. “I you have lost your marbles” i think to myself. “Can’t you come up with a better way to conquor fear.”
Michael talks about intention and that 100% focus on our intention is going to be the deciding factor that makes our walk a success. Michael picks up a 1 foot square board that is 1″ thick. He says that normally you need some martial arts training to break this with your hands, but he will teach us to do it in just a couple of minutes. He talks about visualization and seeing our hand and energy driving through the board and at least several inches beyond. A little discussion of technique (rotate hips, explode, pull other hand in to chest, etc) and we began. We write on the front of our board our fear and on the back what we want after we break throught the fear. I write “fear of failure” on the front and “success/psychic” on the back since i want to be financially successful and to develop my psychic abilities to help other people. I break my board with one explosive punch. My hand didn’t hurt even though i have a sore wrist and fingers from all the computer work i used to do. Adrenaline was pumping hard now.
Now off to the side of the fire Michael sets down a practice runway on the grass. He shows us the proper technique for walking the first time. Drive toward the goal 3 feet past the end of the fire. Get yourself in and the hell out of the fire. Michael talks about how he has been burned very bad and couldn’t walk for a month. Right now would not be the best time for a visit to the hospital. 100% focus and being in a high energy state is required. You can’t be lethargic or scattered. After we practice the walk we wait another 30 minutes for the coals to form. I stare at the coals wondering if firewalking for the first time is kind of like losing your virginity.
Michael uses a 8 foot long rake to form the coals in to a 10 foot runway about 2 feet wide and 6″ deep. We take our practice run one more time on the grass.
Now began the real things. Michael walks first. Then 5 other people. I’m last. My nerves are fried like i had hadn’t slept in 2 days or as though i was about to be introduced to a famous person i had always wanted to meet. I take a few steps forward but i just can’t go those past few steps to the coals. It felt like mount everrest was in front of me and would just not budge. I try several more times. I step back and tell the next guy he can go again. My knees were quaking like when i had to give an oral book report in 5 grade.
Thus starts the mind game. I think that i have this wonderful opportunity in front of me and i wonder if i can live with myself if it let it pass. What if my feet burn and i need skin grafts? (Fortunately before coming i had checked to make sure i had paid my insurance for the month.) What if what everyone told me is right, that i’m crazy for even trying? I told you so, i could hear them saying. Then i began thinking about the many opportunities i have let pass me by because of fear. Will i continue this cycle for the rest of my life? No! i tell myself. I want happiness and success. I want a career i will enjoy. I want to help people. I want to eliminate my debt and have plenty to enjoy.
I step up again to walk. My heart is racing, my energy is high, i’m scared. From 6 feet away the fire is hot. I look past the end of the fire and put all my concentration there. One of the guys who walked already walked up and tells me something encouraging. I think he said that i have created many illussion of fear and now is my opportunity to break through them. I don’t remember for sure what he said, but it was enough to assure me i could do it. I put my focus on the goal 3 feet past the end of the fire. This time i walked on coals.
I don’t remember feeling anything, i had one thing on my mind: get the hell to the other side. Three seconds later i was on grass. Ten minutes later i did it again. I was just as scared the second time i walked. I noticed my focus drifting toward my feet during the last step. When i got to the grass i kicked off any remaining embers. They felt tingley, but there were no burns at all. After the second walk i decide that i have had enough for the night. I don’t want to push my luck, my focus was beginning to diminish.
My world didn’t change drastically in those three seconds or in the hours to follow. But i have begin readying myself to move through some of fears in other areas of my life that are preventing me from enjoying life to the fullest. I learned a tremendous amout about focus and having a singleness of mind. I don’t think that firewalking is for most people, but i’m glad i did it. I think i will probably do it again sometime. The fire seems to have many lessons to teach.
The Obstacle Surgeon
April 13, 2009
Question: Why Do People Fail at their Goals?
Answer: Their actions are insufficient to overcome the obstacles they encounter.
These obstacles are two fold. I assert that either
1. They don’t know what needs to be done or how to do it. Basically, they lack the training, or
2. The have inner obstacles, resistances, indecision or limitations that prevent them from doing what is needed to make what they say a reality
I will not address #1 in this post.
I will assume that if you are reading this post you have a sufficient amount of understanding and insight to be successful if you just executed what you know.
The Obstacle Surgeon
I am not a “Sales Trainer” of the specific technique to use when selling to your clients and customers. You may be wondering then why you should listen to me.
I’m an expert at helping people identify the critical obstacles that prevent them from having what they want. I then help people remove these obstacles so they can create the results easily and quickly.
I specifically work with entrepreneurs, self-employeed professionals and sales people to empower them to be powerful leaders and successful in their field.
The Obstacle Surgeon
Simple Obstacle Removal Process
1. Identify what you want. In business, this is the next measurable goal or objective you will focus on
2. Ask yourself, “What is preventing me from fulfilling on this right now, easily and quickly”
3. Behind each of these issues there is a limiting belief, experience or conversation you have with yourself that prevents you being in action
4. You have 2 options:
a. Just Do It – Do what needs to be done anyway even if you have obstacles or don’t feel like doing it
b. Get Coached – work with a business coach who works with people in your field to help you remove these. This will help you more quickly and easily get your results
7 Reasons NOT to Firewalk
April 9, 2009
I usually answers the question of why people SHOULD consider attending a Firewalk training or ceremony (Top 7 Reasons People Firewalk). This time I will answer why people SHOULD NOT attend a Firewalk. If you are attracted or hold tightly to any of the following than maybe Firewalking is not for you.
Why NOT to Firewalk
1. Being Irresponsible: If you are not willing to take responsibility for the outcome of your life, don’t attend a Firewalk. Critical to firewalk is your willingness to accept responsibility for the outcome of your actions. Often there is a huge potential upside to a potential set of actions, but their is also a risk. If you cannot accept the risk, than don’t even bother doing it.
2. Thinking it Through: This usually turns into analysis paralysis. The most important opportunities that will make a difference in your life will probably require a quick decision. Powerful opportunities move quickly, and you want to be able to identify and commit to great opportunities when they cross your path before somebody else takes it first. If you feel more comfortable analyzing and thinking things through rather than taking action, then don’t attend a Firewalk.
3. Nothing is Sacred: The Firewalk is traditionally a rite of initiation to celebration and empower local and religious communities. If you don’t feel a pull toward the realm of the sacred and spiritual then don’t attend a Firewalk. Stay home and watch Myth Busters on TV.
4. Creature of Routine: If you are a creature of habit and don’t like to expand yourself and try new things, then definitely don’t attend a Firewalk. If you have been a creature of routine in the past, but would like to transform what is not working, then race to your next Firewalk in your area. Or even fly to one in another city as soon as possible.
5. Low Levels of Awareness: Do you love staying unaware of your full potential in life? Do you consider yourself a finite being? If you are content with the limits of who you currently know yourself to be, don’t go to a Firewalk. Firwalking expands your awareness of who you are and how you can live powerfully in life.
6. Complaining and Negativity: If you like to complain and dwell on obstacles and challenges in your life, rather than climb over them, around them or blast through them, whatever it takes, then stay at home or go chat over coffee with your friends about those crazy Firewalkers.
7. Commited to Fear and Worry: I doubt anyone will readily admit to this, but many, many people demonstrate their committment to this with their actions. If you stay in fear or worry more than a few days or weeks at the most, you are stuck. Living Powerfully is alway pushing the envelop, and fear will show up. But if you are still stopped about what you want because of fear and worry, it is time to get unstuck. But if you are really committed to staying small, then don’t attend a Firewalk.
Next Firewalk
Register here to get an announcement to the next Firewalk.
After the Firewalk…What Next?
May 29, 2005
The Laws of the Universe
by Michael McDermott (aka Kahuna Paka)
2005
Now that you’ve firewalked, what next?
“You do not get rich by doing certain things, you get rich by doing things in a certain way.” — Wallace D. Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich, 1903.
The firewalk is a powerful tool, giving you a reference point, an “anchor” which you can use at any time in your life to walk through any fear or doubt.
There are laws of the universe that are as certain and scientific in their effects as the law of gravity. The firewalk is a marvelous tool. However, it’s not enough to just use the firewalk to be able to face and walk through your doubt and fear. If you want to cause the creation of your vision rapidly you must become aware of, and consciously start using the laws of the universe along with the tool of the firewalk. This conscious use of the laws of the universe will launch you into a new dimension, a higher frequency of vibration, which will enable you to move forward in a Quantum Leap, causing the creation of whatever you want to create in your life.
How can you create your vision, now that you have the firewalk under your belt as an “anchor” to face and walk through your fear?
There are seven laws of energy that Bob Proctor talks about in “The Science of Getting Rich.” Every one of these laws is vitally important and these laws expand and expound upon the one great law, namely “Energy Is.”
The Law of Perpetual Transmutation
We are thinking beings. Consciousness is forever expanding. We are creative beings, which means that one thought leads to another and we can’t stop thinking. The creation of thought goes on in an endless cycle as automatically as breathing.
If the thoughts we think are negative and fearful, we get doubt and fear as a result, which causes a pulling back in our action, and the result is lack and limitation.
If the thoughts we think are positive, we get attuned to the law of FAITH, which helps us move forward in our lives. Living and taking action with full faith and purpose is a part of creating everything we want in life. But we must come to full knowledge and practice of the principles and laws of the universe to get to where we want to go.
How can we stay positive in a world that sometimes appears to be so negative?
The first step is to know what we want and begin to focus on it every day. I’m going to suggest that you write a goal down, perhaps on a 3 x 5 card. Carry it will you every day. Look at that card and read that card over many times every single day. That will help you stay focused on the vision of what you want to create in your life.
What we focus on expands. Spend time every day focusing on your dreams and your visions. Keep the bright promise of the fulfillment of your dreams and visions very strong and constant in your mind. It’s the conscious use of the law of cause and effect that will bring about the creation of whatever it is that you want. It must come to pass. Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow
Rich, said “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
Think about that. Now, ask yourself the question, what do I want? What do you really want? Make a decision right now, that you aren’t going to waste one more day creating things you don’t want in your life. Decide what you want. Make a decision to go for your dreams. Step boldly into a new dimension of thought and being. Make this a quantum leap. Go ahead and create your bright visions. And don’t be afraid to think and dream BIG.
I will get more into the 7 laws of the universe, and in particular the Law of Perpetual Transmutation in my next email.
Aloha,
Michael McDermott (aka Kahuna Paka)
You can download “The Science of Getting Rich” here…
