Firewalking From the Inside

BY

ARII-PEU TAMA-ITI

(CHARLES W. KENN)

<H2

Ordained and Initiate Firewalker

A report on four firewalking performances in Honolulu, and a critical study of them from the point of view of the initiate firewalker instead of that of the onlooker.


These tests and critical studies of fire-immunity were made in conjunction with similar studies and investigations being conducted by HUNA RESEARCH ASSOCIATES.

For further information address,

HUNA RESEARCH ASSOCIATES
c/o Max Freedom Long
P. O. Box 2867
Hollywood Station
Los Angeles 28, Calif.


INTRODUCTION

The publication of this report by Charles W. Kenn, marks the first really important step taken in years in the direction of understanding firewalking and related phenomena. 

His findings and conclusions are of such a nature that they open once more the entire question of fire immunity which was partly closed in the past decade by tests and reports which now appear much less than valid. 

Despite the reluctance of "science" to accept evidence of the verity of the materials of psychic science and its various branches, progress is being made toward fuller understanding.

On the part of the Huna Research Associates, I wish to congratulate Mr. Kenn on his outstanding work. For the first time, here is set before the public a full and careful report on firewalking from the point of view of the firewalker himself.

(Signed)

MAX FREEDOM LONG 


ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 1.

The master firewalker, Tu-nui Arii-peu and his young assistant, both from Huahini, with Charles W. Kenn.

 

Fig. 2.

Turning the hot stones over and leveling and firming them just before the firewalking.

Charles_Kenn_Fire_Walking_Pg1-Fig2_sm

 

Fig. 3.

Tur-nui Arii-peu leads the procession across the very hot stones. Insert shows him at the time of a later test, in native costume, pausing to recite an invocation after crossing the pit. He carries ti-plant wand on shoulder.

Charles_Kenn Firewalking on hot stone

Fig. 4.

The author of the report firewalks.

Charles_Kenn Firewalking

Fig. 5.

The firewalkers' contemplative expression may be seen here. Nearly all experienced a peculiar mental state during the walk.

Firewalker Firewalk on hot firewalking pit

Fig. 6.

Note the wrapt expression on the face of the lady just finishing her successful firewalk. Assistants stand anxiously by lest there be another accident or fall on the hot stones. 

Firewalking with locals

Fig. 7.

The successful firewalkers did not hurry. With short steps on the uneven surface and with an expression akin to that of sleep-walkers, they made the crossing. Heat was felt on hands and face, but not on the feet. Prickling was the only sensation in the feet unless something broke the spell and sharp pain was felt. Soles were cool to the touch after contact with the hot stones. Crossings took from 5 1/2 seconds to 8 seconds. The Chief took 9 seconds for his crossings.

Charles_Kenn Firewalking experience

 

Fig. 8.

After the firewalking. Child finds stone hot enough to burn fingers. Below her hand a wad of paper is beginning to char. At the far corner a stick is beginning to smoke as a young man watches. In heating the stones the green wood first covered the stones with soot. The stones later became red-hot and the soot was burned away. Some stones split when their hotter sides were turned up to the air before the performance. Immediately before a firewalk, a cracked stone, later walked on, registered a surface temperature of 620 degrees Centigrade on the hotter upturned side, and 598 degrees at the bottom of the crack.

Firewalking pit tempareture


FIREWALKING

FROM THE INSIDE

Up to this time we have had the results of firewalking tests placed before us by men of science and by travelers, but have never been given the firewalker's side of the story.

As the reports thus far available give no valid explanation of the phenomenon of fire-immunity in its several forms, it is apparent that it is high time for the persons who are able to do such things as firewalking, to be given their say in the matter.

The scientists are not entirely to blame: for the omission of acceptable information as to (1) the training of the firewalkers, (2) their beliefs and educational backgrounds, and (3) the rituals used as a preparation for the firewalk. The scientists failed to give needed information on these points, either because it seemed too unimportant to stress, or because they could not obtain it from the firewalkers such information often being held both sacred and secret, as in Polynesia.

The University of London Council for Psychical Investigation, when reporting on the tests made of Kuda Bux, wrote, "He (Kuda Bux) stated that any impurity in the fire (of wood and charcoal) such as cow dung, would inevitably burn him. He also offered to walk on red-hot stones, if we wished. …Kuda Bux stated that his immunity from burns was due to `faith'; that he had to ask a 'higher power' in India whether he might perform the feat. He also claimed that he could convey his immunity from burns to another person and take him over the fire without injury. …Before … the first walk, he stood in the end of the trench (filled with glowing coals ) on a wooden platform that had been placed there for that purpose, and, with left hand upraised, muttered a prayer from the Koran. He then carefully brushed away the ash from the embers, with his hand. He said he sometimes uses a fan. He then stepped on the fire, taking four steps, each foot being in contact with the embers twice … There was no sign of blistering … paper tossed on the fire blazed almost instantly."

The conclusion of the report was not greatly enlightening. It was, in part, "… it is possible … with chemically unprepared feet (not calloused) to take four rapid steps on (burning) charcoal at (a surface temperature of) 430 degrees Centigrade, without injury to feet." 

Later reports made on similar tests with Hussain, gave no additional information, but it was decided at that time that anyone could firewalk if he only had the courage, and walked steadily across the coals. This conclusion was reached after an Englishman who had these qualifications, performed a short firewalk better than Hussain. The flaw in the conclusion seemed to be that not everyone was able to qualify. However, the world was told to dismiss the idea that there might be an element of magic or of the supernatural in the firewalk.

An inspection of the mass of information available on the externals of other kinds of fire-immunity makes it clear to the layman that the famous reports in question are wanting in many respects, and that the conclusions reached are not at all final. In his book, THE SECRET SCIENCE BEHIND MIRACLES, Max Freedom Long has assembled evidence of a very striking nature which. bears on this point. Performers have, several times a day, held red-hot iron bars gripped tightly between their teeth while bending them up and down at the free ends. The enamel, of the teeth showed no cracking, but such heat applied as a test to newly extracted teeth cracked the enamel instantly. A blow-torch used for cutting steel was allowed to play on the throat of the same performer. He repeatedly chewed up live coals a half inch in diameter, and he drank boiling water so hot that it bubbled violently in the cup. In the records of spiritualistic phenomena, fire has been handled in similar ways, and D.D. Home held his bushy head in the flames in a fireplace without being scorched, also doing the same with flowers and fine fabric. He presented a blazing log to a woman observer and she held it in her arms with no injury to skin or clothing.

It is evident to the student who is looking for the answer to the secret of fire-immunity not simply for a negation of the phenomenon that the shortness of the time in which feet contact heated substances in the firewalk, is NOT THE COMPLETE EXPLANATI0N.

In making the tests about to be described; and while keeping in mind the findings and opinions of the scientists and their friends, my attention was directed primarily to the psychological side of the matter. Tests of temperature and of the length of time for feet to contact stones were secondary.

However, it is necessary to describe the externals first, to prove the genuineness of the demonstrations.

Firewalking and Firewalkers of the South Seas

May 1953

by

Wilmon Menard

Raiatea_Umuki Firewalker

The huge rocks of the firewalking pit glowed bright-red in the faint light of the South Pacific dawn. Now and then between me and the oven the coconut- oil smeared bodies of the fire-tenders passed briefly as they raked out the last of the log cinders and levelled the hot rocks. It was a tableau not unlike a scene in Dante’s Inferno. Little did I know then that I was to be one of the persons to cross that fiery expanse.

Word had reached me in Tahiti that an Umuti (Umu Ki or firewalk) was to be held on the Island of Raiatea, 135 miles distant, so I lost no time in boarding an interisland trading schooner to be on hand for the ceremony. I had arrived in time to observe every phase of the imminent firewalk. I had watched the digging of the firewalking pit, 30 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 4 feet deep; the gathering of the fagots and logs for the fuel; the rolling of the stones into a high mound, and the day-long heating. Now the actual fire ritual in this sacred coconut grove behind the village of Tevaitoa was about to start.

My interest in man’s strange experiments in fiery tortures was aroused several years ago when the late Robert Ripley, of "Believe it or not” fame, sponsored a firewalking Hindu-mystic, Kuda Bux by name, who strolled barefooted across two separate firewalking pits in a parking lot in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center. It is a matter of official record that three cords of oak and 500 pounds of charcoal burned for eight hours before Kuda Bux made the walk across the two separate ovens that a pyrometer registered at 1,220 F. Attending physicians peered and smelled at the soles of the firewalker’s feet, but found only one small burn, where a coal had stuck to his instep. Their nostrils detected no odor of burned flesh. I was one of the astounded spectators, and I was deeply impressed by the feat.

Now as I stood in the greying dawn in this sacred grove of Raiatea I thought of man’s superstitious dread and awe of fire, coupled with his instinctive, practical usages, that have resulted in so many fantastic fire ordeals. The American Indians during certain rites danced in the live coals of their campfires; devotees of the Sinsyn Shinto sect of Japan firewalk barefooted over glowing coals. In Hawaii in the early days the priests and priestesses of the Fire Goddess Pele strode across the molten lava on the broad bosom of Kilauea volcano. In darkest Africa, newborn children are held briefly over a flame. In India, cremation of the corpse is supposed to be the soul’s only passport to their particular firewalking pit.

The Chief Leads

Now the firewalk of Polynesia was to be performed before my eyes. Chief Terii-Pao, the young and hereditary firewalker of Raiatea, had suddenly called an Umuti, primarily, of course, to pay sacred homage to the two great goddesses of ancient days—Hina-nui-te’a’ara (Great-Grey-Of-The-Scented-

Herbs), who was the Goddess of the Moon, and Te-Vahine-Nui-Tahu-ra’i e(The Great Woman-Who-Set-Fire-To-The-Sky)—but also to earn a few francs with which to buy a bottle of rum and a few yards of calico cloth for his woman.

Terii-Pao suddenly stepped from his nearby coconut palm marae (temple), and his attendants, similarly garbed in native pareu and sacred Ti-leaves, followed. I could feel the crackling excitement that swept the clearing upon his appearance. The laughter, singing, and loud talking ceased instantly. All eyes were fixed upon the handsome chief—a splendid figure standing at the head of his assistants. He turned, caught my eye and smiled. Once we had sailed aboard a trading schooner to the pearl-diving atoll of Anaa in the Dangerous Archipelago; I had gifted him with a case of foodstuffs, so we were friends.

The many tourists who had voyaged on the interisland schooner from Papeete, Tahiti, surrounded Terii-Pao, and began a careful inspection of his feet. He submitted indulgently, grinning broadly at their thorough examination. I saw one of the tourists turn suddenly, walk to the edge of the firewalking pit, and look full into the center of the firewalking pit for a few seconds. With a groan he clapped his hands over his face and backed away. I could see that his neck and face were badly seared; his glazed eyes were streaming tears. Another tourist, with the aid of a long stick, dropped a handkerchief upon the rocks and it turned almost instantly to a grey powder. The firewalking pit was certainly hot! The tourists withdrew from Teril with baffled expressions.

Chief Terii, with head held high and with eyes uplifted to the opalescent sky, walked toward the end of the oven, a branch of Ti-leaves held in his hand. There he stopped, striking the rocks three times with the Ti-wand. He began to chant in Tahitian the ancient firewalking prayer. I, knowing the language, listened closely.

These were the words:

"O Being (Spirit) who enchants the oven, let it die out for a while! O dark earthworms! O light earthworms! Fresh water and salt water, heat of the firewalking ground, darkening of the firewalking pit, hold up the footsteps of the walkers and fan the heat of the bed. O cold host, let us linger in the midst of the firewalking pit. O Vahine-nui-tahu-ra’i, hold the fan and let us go into the firewalking pit for a little while!”

Then followed a measured cant of the ten first steps to be made upon the fiery oven. Finally, Terii’s loud exultant shout of: "O Vahine-nui-tahu-ra’i-e! All is covered!”

I shall never forget the great sigh and then the hush that followed the Chief's first step upon the firewalking pit. He hesitated a moment as if to be sure that the stones would not shift under his weight, and then with head held high he walked onto the glowing firewalking bed of rocks. The tourists gave a gasp of dismay; the natives sat stiffly, unmoving, as if hypnotized. I watched incredulously. This was no sham. A human being was walking onto an firewalking pit of rocks sufficient to roast one! Terii crossed the pit and then turned and retraced his steps. Upon his return, his assistants fanned in a straight line behind him. Again Terii struck the edge of the glowing rocks with his Ti-wand; then he and his followers marched with firm steps across the Umu (oven). I could see the heat waves rippling above their heads, but there was no odor of seared flesh, as one might expect. I stared fixedly until they had traversed the oven, expecting every second for one of them to leap with a scream of agony from the line. But each one passed across safely. The last firewalker stepped from the oven, and Terii raised his Ti-leaves, took his place at the head of the column and led them back across the fiery expanse. This was repeated three times.

With the third crossing, Terii raised his Ti-leaves and cried "Aura! Enough!" Then, unexpectedly, he turned quickly and proceeded to crawl across the 30- foot oven of rocks on his stomach!

At the far side he stood up, grinned and beckoned to the tourists to make their inspection. His body, as one of the tourists loudly verified, was not even warmed. I moved forward to examine his feet. They were not even marked by the crossing of the fiery furnace. The examination over, we withdrew with amazed faces.

I Try It

Terii then turned to the assembled natives and exhorted those who were afflicted with any physical or mental taints, in need of spiritual purification, or who wished to test their courage with fire, to firewalk behind him over the hot rocks. Passing close to me, he caught my eye again, grinned, and stopped. "Perhaps you would like to walk behind me across the Umu. You have lived long in our islands and understand our customs and ceremonies. But if you are afraid, it would be dangerous to attempt the firewalk."

It was his last remark that compelled me to kick off my sneekers, remove my socks and cry: "Haere outou! Let's go!"

A loud chorus of "Maitai! Good!" rose from the native onlookers. A comic among the tourists yelled: "You're going to be sorry, chum!"

I stepped into the column of fire walkers forming behind the Chief. Now my bravado was on the ebb. I was experiencing the first symptoms of fright, and I cursed the impulse that had made me accept Terii's invitation to walk behind him over the Umu. There was the customary taut feeling in my throat, and my stomach felt as if it had suddenly been invaded with crazed butterflies. My heart started to pound violently; my head ached, and I wanted very much to step out of line. I have always had an uncommon fear of fire, since the day in my childhood when I fell into a burning bonfire, and now that memory was intensified. The stalwart Tahua (priest) behind me gave me a light push. Terii had started toward the firewalking pit!

I clamped my teeth hard, inhaled deeply, and gave a belly-depth groan. Mechanically I started to walk, and I felt not unlike a somnambulist proceeding toward a portentous fate. My legs felt numb and leaden; my heart was now thudding with jarring impacts against my ribs. Then my bare feet touched something uneven and elevated. This is it, I told myself; you'd better step out of line before it s too late! Another firm shove on my shoulders, and in the next instant countless tiny electric shocks pricked the bottom of my feet. It was not unlike the sudden jabbing of the skin with sharp needles. Smothering heat waves shimmered before my steadfast gaze, compelling me at last to half-close my eyes. It was not unlike the sudden blast of heat that explodes from the widely flung doors of a huge blast-furnace. The heat of the oven all but suffocated me. My lungs became filled with superheated air, and I felt I would collapse if I did not breathe pure cool air quickly. As if from a great distance, through a long windswept tunnel, I heard the murmuring of the spectators. And as I walked I felt that I must surely present an abject figure treading behind Terii, if my physical aspect matched my mental unrest.

Then, suddenly, the tingling sensation on the bottom of my feet ceased, and I knew that I had crossed the oven. I glanced down at my feet. They were untouched! I had half-expected to see burn-blisters erupting between the toes and the flesh bursting under intense roasting. Every pore of my body filtered rivulets of sweat, and I could see that Chief Terli's broad back was glistening with globules of body moisture. Terii abruptly lifted his wand of Ti leaves, a recognized signal that the last in line had passed over the Umu, and now everyone was to right-about-face for the return transit. I knew that I could not undergo another firewalk upon the hot stones, so I stepped quickly out of line. Terii grinned and gave me an understanding slap on my shoulders. Then he led his followers back across the oven.

Quickly I was surrounded by the tourists, who lifted my feet and wiped away the dirt to search for burn marks. There were none! The natives shook my hand, and gave complimentary shouts of "Maitai-roa! Very good!"

White Man Looks to Science

Several white men have firewalked barefooted across the firewalking pit of Polynesia, among them Dr. William Craig and his brother, former British resident agents of the Cook Islands; they made a safe crossing. Some, voicing flippant or skeptical remarks, were horribly burned during an Umuti, necessitating hospitalization; others, believing in the strange ceremonies of the islands, have made the walk unscathed. The reasons for the different experiences I cannot explain.

Some assayers of human immunity to fire-burn have made interesting observations. A writer-traveler in Japan, John Hyde, noticed that the priests, before firewalking over their herb-strewn firewalking pits, rubbed the soles of their feet with salt. He experimented similarly, and after a walk across an firewalking pit, he remarked: "My confidence was not misplaced. In my feet I felt only a sensation of gentle warmth, but my ankles, to which no salt was applied, were scorched."

Wemyss Reid, in his Memoirs and Correspondence of Lyon Playfair, tells how Playfair induced the Victorian Prince of Wales, in a faith-test in science, to stir a pot of molten metal with his bare hand (after he had cleansed the hand with ammonia to rid it of any grease), and to ladle out a measure. The Prince dipped out some boiling lead without sustaining any burns. Playfair then concluded his observations on the royal person's act by saying: "It is a well-known scientific fact that the human hand, if perfectly cleansed, may be placed uninjured in lead boiling at white heat, the moisture of the skin protecting it under these conditions from any injury."

Some years ago, the astute magician and escape-artist, Harry Houdini, an avid debunker of performances of the so-called supernatural, blasted demonstrations of fire-eaters and firewalkers in his book Miracle Mongers and Their Methods (E. P. Dutton, 1920). He took particular exception to a "roasting alive" act performed by a young man inside a heated glass enclosure garbed only in bathing trunks, with a steak dangling from his arm. The idea was for the exhibitionist to remain inside the booth, exposed to a high register of heat until the steak was thoroughly cooked. Houdini pointed out that the young man protected his hair with a bathing cap and had smeared clay over his eyebrows, so that the hair would not retain the heat longer than skin cells. Houdini maintained that this, with the tempering effect of excreting perspiration, was the solution to this heat-torture act. However, the magician explained, if the man had stayed in the overheated enclosure beyond a certain period of time, his body would have become dehydrated and serious heat prostration would have resulted. Precise timing was the explanation of this trick, according to Houdini.

U. S. Air Force Makes Tests

A more recent experiment in heat and its effects on the human body was conducted a short time ago at the University of California in Los Angeles, and was supervised by Dr. Craig Taylor, physiologist and engineer, at the request of the U. S. Army Air Force Command.

The Air Corps wanted to know one very important thing: what were the potentialities concerning a jet-plane pilot's being roasted alive in a friction-heated cockpit? These supersonic crafts, powered by jet propulsion, need refrigeration systems to keep the cockpits comfortable and bearable. What would happen to the pilot or pilots, if the cooling equipment failed while the jet planes were in flight? Would the pilot collapse at the controls? Would he succumb to heat prostration? Would he have to bail out in the stratosphere, or would he be literally baked alive in the cockpit? Could he stay at the controls, enduring the terrific heat, until he was able to slow down the plane?

This was a big order, but Professor Taylor was determined to find out what would happen to a human in a jet plane in flight if the cooling system conked out. He made with the help of his assistants a testing furnace out of a huge steel cylinder, and provided a strong fan to suck in dry air across an outside battery of white-hot electric grids. The first human guinea-pigs remained in the hot-box until the heat passed the boiling-point of water (212° F.). These student volunteers in the heat experiment came out a little groggy and florid faced, but quite "uncooked."

Professor Taylor reserved the final and decisive tests for himself. His hands, feet, and neck were protected before being wheeled into the cylinder, the temperature of which in this supreme experiment upon entrance read 230° F. He remained in this overheated atmosphere for 15¼ minutes, until the heat climbed to 262° F. While he was in there, an egg fried on a metal frying-pan in front of him. The only uncomfortable effects he suffered were that his face became fiery red when the hot blasts of air hit it, and his nasal membranes contracted, but apart from these discomforts he experienced no dire physical or mental agonies.

His answer was simple and to the point: the human body's resistance to heat is its own cooling system which nature has so advantageously provided — perspiration and mucous secretions. He proved that the moisture evaporating from the skin provides part of the body with a layer of cool air. A "desert waterbag" hanging on the outside of a car in traveling keeps the water cool from its own evaporation of moisture through the porous canvas.

While inside the hot-box, Professor Taylor learned that at one time when the register of heat was at 236° F, the air three quarters of an inch from his nose was 226° F. The skin of the nose itself registered a safe 119.5° F. Air drawn into the nostrils was cooled down to 100° F., which certainly could not injure the lungs. The general temperature of his body rose only a couple of degrees.

But what the Professor did emphasize as a danger to jet pilots in overheated cockpits was the raised temperature of the blood being conveyed to the brain cells. This would give pilots of jet planes the surest indication of approaching heat prostration should the cooling equipment break down. He also pointed out that man's fear of heat is chiefly a mental torture. Humans, no matter if they are pilots in friction heated cockpits of jet planes or unfortunate victims trapped in burning buildings or ships, can overcome high registers of heat by rational, well-organized attitudes of self-preservation. Fright or overexcitement can raise the temperature of the blood many degrees.

The firewalkers of Raiatea, Japan, Fiji, India, and Africa have had no indoctrination as to the scientific principles of heat, and, therefore, it is quite understandable that they would look to a psychic or supernatural source to explain their safe firewalks across firewalking pits. Certainly, the Umuti of Raiatea is a remarkable feat. One must bear in mind that hot rocks and not hot air come into contact with the flesh of the participants. I think Professor Taylor would have to admit that Chief Terii's ceremony is quite different from the one he conducted.

And I have to remind myself that no scientist has completely explained to my entire satisfaction how I crossed the fiery pit at Raiatea without so much as a blistered toe.

Dancing With the Fire

The Skeptical Mind

by Michael Sky

 

When we are certain that a phenomenon such as firewalking does not happen, we are really saying: "My basic knowledge of how the universe works is so complete and so accurate that the cosmos holds no more surprises for me. I know all the real truths and the details will all fit them."

How sad … If only experience and life would not keep teaching us how little we know.

Sit down before fact like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.

Doubt is not ultimately transcended through beliefs. Doubt is a state of mind that is fundamentally without content. It is an expression of the contraction of the being. It is not cured with positive beliefs that are the opposite of doubt. It is cured by the release of this contraction so that there is a continuity between consciousness and forms and relations, and unobstructed continuity between the being and Reality altogether.

 

The first barrier which most people encounter on their way to the firewalk is something which I call the skeptical mind. The skeptical mind is that part of us which tends to doubt and distrust certain things, especially things which we have never experienced before, such as Firewalking. It is a 'show-me' attitude, which assumes that something is false until proven true, a predisposition of disbelief toward anything which would stretch us even slightly beyond our current convictions about the nature of things. Persisted in, it becomes a mentally, emotionally, and physically ingrained habit, a fixed posture of skepticism, from which it is impossible to even entertain notions such as Firewalking, much less to participate in and truly learn from such realities.

The skeptical mind is a total way of being in the world which is endemic to our culture, a highly valued trait within our scientific, medical, legal, media, business, and educational communities. All of us carry some degree of the skeptical edge in our lives, though for some it is much sharper than for others. It is a deeply rooted pattern of psycho-physical response, taught to us at an early age, and supported by virtually all of our cultural institutions.

Above all, the skeptical mind is viewed as absolutely essential to our survival in these modern times. This is a dog-eat-dog world after all, filled with harsh truths and hard realities, filled to the brim with shams and charlatans, rip-offs and scams, so many fictions masquerading as fact. Our survival depends upon our ability to separate the snake oil from the real thing, to discern the true from the false. Thus, we talk of healthy skepticism, of street-smarts, of hard-bitten cynicism, and of cold, relentless logic, all terms which suggest strength and intelligence to us. Asked to define the opposite of skepticism, we will usually come up with words such as naivety, romanticism, idealism, and innocence, all suggestive of weakness and stupidity.

In fact, the word skepticism means doubt, distrust, and disbelief, and its true opposites are faith, trust, and openness. The more we approach the circumstances of our lives with the attitudes of doubt, distrust, and disbelief, the more fully committed we become, mentally, emotionally, and physically, to the skeptical mind and the resulting posture of skepticism. The more fully we have adopted a posture of skepticism, the more difficult it becomes to approach anything in life with the attitude and posture of open faith and trust. This is especially true for new things, strange things, foreign things, unheard of things, 'too good to be true' things, and 'impossible' things. Eventually, a deeply ingrained posture of skepticism operates like a set of blinders which will effectively screen from one's awareness anything 'out of the ordinary.' It is then no longer a matter of doubting and distrusting such possibilities — the skeptical mind simply will not see them to begin with.

I must stress at this point that in using the term 'the skeptical mind' I am not implying that the mind is by nature skeptical. Quite to the contrary, I believe that the human mind is essentially open, trusting, and believing and that skepticism is a trait which most minds learn which then develops into an overall way of being in the world, a posture of skepticism, very much to the mind's detriment. Ultimately, skepticism is nothing but a bad habit, necessary in the way that bad habits are always necessary, but ultimately of no redeeming value to the human species.

To those who might argue that skepticism is vital to good science, I would answer that the very best scientists are children. During their first seven years, children are endlessly exploring, touching, tasting, and smelling life; testing, trying out, and learning, learning, learning, absorbing vast quantities of data. Their brains expand in great bursts of cellular growth, their eyes and ears wide open and accepting of everything. They steadily expand their understanding of the world, figuring out gravity and nourishment and human relationship, a breakthrough every hour, a Nobel prize worth of discovery every day — and they do it all, this prodigious learning, without the slightest trace of skepticism, without the slightest need for doubt, distrust, or disbelief. Rather, it is precisely the child's wide-eyed innocence and absolute believing which makes such learning possible.

Likewise, to those who would argue that a good, healthy dose of skepticism is necessary protection in this cruel-hearted world, helping us to 'wise up' and 'know better keeping us from buying all of the various Brooklyn Bridges that life offers, I would point out that it is informed intelligence that keeps us from such follies, not skepticism. It is quite possible to be wide-open and trusting of all that comes one's way and to still say no to those things which sound false or misleading. In fact, experienced con artists claim that the best marks are those who appear to be rigidly skeptical, as it is simply a matter of using their prejudices against them. A skeptical mind is invariably a closed mind, is invariably a crippled mind. Truly, skepticism is neither essential to the learning process nor essential to the intelligent negotiation of life, and is ultimately a serious hindrance to both. This has not, however, prevented the skeptical mind from becoming one of the most highly valued and firmly rooted traits of Western culture.

It has been through such a deeply rooted posture of skepticism that the Western world has always viewed the firewalk. To date there have been only a few scientific investigations of the firewalk, and what little literature there is on the subject is for the most part anecdotal in nature. There have been a small number of Western institutions that have gone off to various parts of the world to report on the subject, and they have always confirmed that it is in fact happening. Many such reports have included a theoretical explanation of the event, while on other occasions the investigators have admitted to being stymied by what they witnessed. Yet, despite the widely known and highly provocative nature of the firewalk, very little serious scientific investigation of the phenomenon has ever been pursued.

This is especially ironic since the scientific community has for so many years dismissed out of hand most, if not all, paranormal phenomena, such as the firewalk, for being anecdotal, unverifiable, and experimentally unrepeatable. Since the early 1980s there have been a number of firewalkers such as myself traveling about, in full public view, and essentially performing the same experiment over and over and over again, with the same basic results, while enthusiastically inviting full scientific scrutiny. Yet, as I say, the scientific community has for the most part been unwilling to approach the firewalk, unwilling to study it, and unwilling to learn from the data it presents.

Quite to the contrary, there has always been a rather studious avoidance of such a study. As Dr. Andrew Weil points out: "Hardly any physiologists or medical scientists have studied the phenomenon, and those who have written about it have mostly tried to make it appear unremarkable. Their aim is to defuse the challenge it poses to the materialistic conception of the human organism." Up until a few years ago the Western world, entrenched within its posture of skepticism, was content to simply say, "It's impossible; it's a trick, a sham; it can't be happening" and to let it go at that, enough said, no need for any further thought, just another instance of phenomenal flotsam from the uncivilized world. Over the years, however, the reports from well-respected observers have slowly gathered, saying that it is indeed happening, that the coals are very hot, the feet uncalloused and untreated, and that real people are really walking without burning. These reports, coupled with the recent well-publicized Firewalking in the United States, have made it impossible for the skeptics to simply deny the experience any longer. Yet this has not led, as one might have thought, to an eager rush to understand how it could be happening, but instead to the next defense of the skeptical mind: that of explaining it away.

'Explain-aways' begin to arise when the skeptical mind is finally willing to admit that firewalkers are in fact doing what they have always been claiming to do, that the coals are hot, and that the walking happens — for the most part without burning. Having acceded that much, the skeptical mind is usually not at all willing to then allow that this happens for the reasons that the firewalkers give: that it is a demonstration of some new evolutionary capacity of humankind, or of mind over matter, or of possession by God, or of connection to the spirit of the fire, or of any other such 'exotic' explanation. No, indeed not. At this point the skeptical mind says: "Enough is enough. While Firewalking may be fact, there must surely be, must surely be, some perfectly reasonable and totally physical explanation." That is, "Yes it is happening, but it is only something which looks difficult and really isn't, like an optical illusion, and here is an explanation. We've explained it away, and now back to serious matters." Unfortunately, as Dr. Weil puts it, the real appeal of all 'explain-aways' is that they avoid "any reference to the mind or the power of consciousness to modify physical reality."

I do not mean to suggest that science is some great and nasty monolith which has unfairly spurned the poor firewalk these many years. Rather, I am saying that science, in so thoroughly committing itself to the necessity of the posture of skepticism, has by definition greatly limited its field of enquiry and what is permitted to count as 'good science.' It has developed a knack for quickly explaining away any data which manage to slip through the perimeters of the current scientific paradigms. Harking back to Einstein's comment, "It was as if the earth was pulled out from under one," we can certainly understand the scientist's reluctance to allow human consciousness into the creative machinery of life; it does make for rather messy data!

The reigning 'explain-away' for years has been that Firewalking is a demonstration of something called the Leidenfrost effect. The Leidenfrost effect, named after the German scientist who first studied it, is what happens when you sprinkle water onto a very hot skillet, and, instead of immediately evaporating, it retains its shape and bounces around on the skillet for a few moments. This occurs when the heat is at just the right temperature to evaporate the bottom layer of the drop of water. The vapor then, in effect, becomes an insulating layer for the rest of the drop, protecting it from the heat. The bottom layer of water will continuously evaporate, while the rest of the drop above continues to feed water into it, until eventually the whole drop disappears. Extrapolating, rather extravagantly I think, from that piece of data, skeptics have reasoned that what happens at a firewalk is that participants get so nervous beforehand that their feet sweat and that, a la Leidenfrost, they are protected from the heat of the coals by a thin layer of insulating sweat.

Lately, a different 'explain-away' has been getting a lot of press. This argument draws a distinction between temperature and heat energy, pointing out that while two objects may be heated to the same temperature, they will contain different amounts of heat energy depending upon their differing masses, and that it is heat energy which causes burning, not temperature. As an example, imagine reaching into a hot oven to retrieve a baking pan. Though the air inside the oven and the baking pan are both heated to the same temperature, your hand will not be burned by the air because it is of such little mass that it holds very little heat energy. The pan, however, has a much higher mass, contains much more heat energy, and will burn you if you do not protect your hand. This theory continues by saying that burning embers contain very little mass in relation to the mass of human feet and thus cannot contain enough heat energy to do any damage.

A major refutation of these, and any other 'explain-aways' that the skeptical mind might come up with, comes from burn specialists. Those who have worked in hospital burn units for any appreciable length of time have invariably treated victims of similar fires, i.e., those who have stepped accidentally on campfires or upon stray barbeque coals, or have come into brief contact with fireplace logs. Such specialists are generally quite explicit about what ought to happen when a person steps on a fire of the sort that firewalkers use: instantaneous second- and/or third degree burning. This is expert testimony, coming from years of direct experience with different types of fire and its effect upon the human body. As I say, most of the doctors that I have spoken with have been quite clear that something extraordinary is happening at a firewalk.

I say 'most of the doctors' because I have known of a few burn specialists who have landed in the skeptic's camp, arguing that it is impossible to get badly burned at a firewalk. However, even the most sophisticated of arguments against the possibility of being burned by hot coals tends to break down when you talk to someone who has actually been burned, and has suffered greatly, from such an experience. I have had six campfire burn victims show up at my firewalks, each having once been very badly burned by a campfire. All of them successfully firewalked, and all were totally certain that the fire which had burned them earlier in life was much cooler, and their contact with it much shorter in duration. One was so impressed by his experience that he is now leading firewalks himself. Still, this is at best anecdotal evidence.

The main problem with any explanation of why 'you really can't get burned at a firewalk' is that people do in fact get burned at firewalks! As mentioned in the previous chapter, I have not come across a single reference to Firewalking anywhere that did not include some warning about the possibility of being burned. In other parts of the world, there are reports of people who have been crippled or fatally injured while Firewalking. While, to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever been so seriously burned in the United States, it is not at all uncommon for people to experience burning pain and to develop blisters as a result of Firewalking. I could safely say that all continuing firewalkers eventually get a nasty burn, and that at the end of any given firewalk there are at least a couple of walkers who are feeling pain. These are generally pretty benign affairs: a few sharply stinging spots on the bottoms of the feet, lasting for an hour or two, and then lingering as blisters on the sole of the foot for a few days, or at most a hobbled week or so. I know of several people who have gone to hospital emergency rooms in great pain after Firewalking, including three who were diagnosed by the receiving doctor as having severe second-degree bums, and of one man who spent a month on crutches after one of my firewalks. I have personally had a few rather long, painful nights myself, my foot in a bucket of cold water, when I wished very much that it was impossible to get burned at a firewalk!

But people do get burned, all the time. And while bums and blisters are a somewhat unpleasant aspect of firewalking that I often wish would go away, they do at the same time very clearly serve to validate the process. Having watched thousands of people go through the firewalk, and having followed up with many who were burned, and many more who were not, all that I have seen has led me to the very firm conclusion that burns are somehow caused from inside the person, rather than by the fire. Each time I lead a firewalk I use the same amount of the same kind of wood, and I burn it for the same length of time, raking it into a path of the same dimensions, meticulously preparing it in the same way. And yet, from firewalk to firewalk, from experiment to experiment, sometimes there are burns, and sometimes there are not. The fire has burned as a constant, unchanging stimulus. The only changing factor has been the psycho-emotional state of the individual walkers.

Even more compelling is the testimony of experienced walkers, such as myself. To have walked on fire a dozen or more times, to have had the experience on some nights of being able to do just about anything with the fire — dancing, slow dancing, standing still, laughing through it all and feeling no heat whatsoever — and then to stand in front of another fire and hear a voice inside screaming "not tonight!" and sure enough, with the first step forward, to experience a burst of heat and a piercing pain: having gone through this more than a few times, and swapped notes with others who have done likewise, I am firmly convinced that the primary cause of burning at a firewalk is the consciousness of the individual walker, in combination with the collective consciousness of the entire group involved.

The testimony of burn specialists, combined with the continuing experience of thousands and thousands of firewalkers, would seem to present a good case for the basic premise of firewalking: that a fire which would ordinarily burn does not, and that human consciousness is a primary causative factor for this phenomenon. Yet, even with such evidence, most skeptics, firmly committed as they are to a posture of doubt, distrust, and disbelief, will continue to generate 'explain-aways' I have watched the minds of some people, just minutes after firewalking, start sending up the disclaimers: "That fire didn't seem so hot," "It was only a few steps," "It was only a few seconds," "We walked so fast," "If everyone did it that must prove you can't get burned." This no longer surprises me, for it has been my experience that most if not all of us will have to wrestle through such moments of skepticism, such dark nights of the soul, while our minds scramble to invalidate the simple miracle of the firewalk.

Indeed, I find it difficult to even write the word 'miracle,' much less announce that I will be performing one with twenty other people next Friday night at 10 pm! Presumptuous, to say the least, with an unhealthy dose of hubris. And yet, looking the word 'miracle' up in the dictionary, I find it defined as "an event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a divine source." Which is exactly what a firewalk is.

Let's divide this definition into three parts. First, a firewalk is certainly an event in the physical world. These are real feet stepping onto real fire without really burning. It is most definitely not a case of mass hypnosis or shared hallucination or any such thing.

Second, it is an event which surpasses all known human or natural powers. The emphasis here is on the word 'known,' meaning that while firewalking is beyond our current understanding of human or natural powers, it is by no means unknowable. Very often the vehemence and, at times, the outright anger with which skeptics view events like firewalking stems from the mistaken belief that such paranormal phenomena discount the laws of nature, or that they deny the fact that we do live in an orderly universe which can be systematically studied and understood. The firewalk can seem like a very large slap in the face to those whose lives are devoted to such study, both contradicting and threatening their life works, that they will typically react by arguing vigorously against its possibility.

But firewalking is not, by any means or manner of reckoning, a refutation of the laws of physics or a denial that there is an underlying order to this universe which can be systematically understood. It is merely a firm reminder that there are still large gaps in our knowledge, that our minds must remain relentlessly open to new learnings, and that our understanding must be expected and permitted to grow. Simply consider the lessons that Copernicus, Galileo, Columbus, and Einstein brought to the world: each introduced radical new concepts that were contradictory to the known laws of nature in their time; each met with hostile skepticism; and each, ultimately, ushered in a fresh new wave of understanding which encompassed and went beyond all that was known before. In like manner, the firewalk is a teaching which goes against our current understanding and which promises to deliver several important insights into the workings of the world. It only remains for us to have the courage and the willingness to truly look, listen, and learn.

The third part of the definition of a miracle is that it is an event which is ascribed to a divine source. Looking further through the dictionary, we find that 'divine' is defined as 'God-like,' and 'God' is defined as 'the creator.' Given the basic premise of the firewalk, as introduced in Chapter 2 — that there is an ongoing co-creative process, or divine intelligence, which determines the way that the world is, the very fabric of reality, and the laws which govern it; that each of us is a vital and integral part of that process; and that all human beings are potentially co-creators of this world — then it follows that the firewalk may indeed be ascribed to a divine source, which is ourselves!

Harumph and pshaw, yikes and arrgh, the textbook skeptic reels away from this suggestion that we are divine, literally feels revulsion towards such a notion, turns red in the face, grits teeth and clenches fists, screams of pantheism and paganism, of witchcraft and heresy; or chuckles wryly at such misinformed romanticism, lightly dismissing the very idea as naive, primitive, and sadly innocent.

We have now arrived at the root of the skeptical mind, at the very source of all the skepticism that the world has ever known and experienced. For behind all of the doubting, all of the distrusting, and all of the disbelieving of the posture of skepticism, lies this essential doubt, this essential distrust, this essential disbelief in ourselves as co-creators, in our connection to the primary creative forces of this world. The basic denial of our true divine nature becomes a denial of all of life. The basic stance of skepticism taken toward our own true role as co-creators becomes an ingrained habit of skepticism which colors every other aspect of our lives.

Simply consider this: if our basic premise is correct — that we contribute to the creation of reality through our thoughts and feelings — and we disagree, saying that our thoughts do not have creative impact and that our feelings do not have creative impact, then it will follow, quite ironically, that our thoughts and feelings will not have creative power and we will be quite right in proclaiming our lack of divinity. This is the original self-fulfilling prophecy (actually it is a self-frustrating prophecy), the catch-22 of all catch-22s. The more fervently we argue against our co-creative powers, the more surely we empower that reality. The more clever and complete our proof that we are not divine by nature, the more evidence we will be able to find to support our lack of divinity. As Richard Bach puts it so concisely in Illusions: "Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they're yours." To which we might add: "The more clever and determined your argument, the more limited you will be." And then a corollary: "Argue for your greatness and that too shall be yours."

Of course, it is quite true that as we look out at the world we see very little evidence of such greatness, very little evidence of humankind's divine nature, very little evidence that human beings somehow contribute to the creation of the external world through the movement of their internal processes. We must constantly remember that arguing from past cases has little relevance during evolutionary leaps. Caterpillars cannot conceive of flying; apes cannot conceive of conceiving. Like a child-king, humanity has long lived with the promise of power while being too young, too immature, too unevolved, to truly fulfill that promise. We have had our many masters, our Christs and Buddhas, the evolutionary mutants, living examples of our true nature, breathing reminders of our ultimate potential, always demonstrating the possible while saying, "You can do this too." That we have as yet failed to realize our full potential can be an indictment of humanity or a promise for the future. I am inclined toward the latter view and feel that the firewalk's present-day arrival in the land of skepticism suggests that we may be ready at last to fully embrace our true nature.

Every firewalker is saying about himself or herself: There is an ongoing, co-creative process which determines the very fabric of reality and the laws which govern it and I, as a conscious human being, am an integral part of that process; there is a divine, creative energy pulsing through all of this universe and I, as a conscious, evolutionary human, am the living embodiment of that divine energy. As we, individually and collectively, begin to truly have faith (which equals belief without proof, the very opposite of skepticism) in this possibility; as we truly honor our own divinity; as we truly believe in the creative impact that we have upon our world; as we take full responsibility for our vital roles as co-creators; as we finally and completely lift the veils of skepticism and doubt to behold the magical child, the wondrous, ancient, and eternal soul, the higher self, the holy one, the Godhead, the Christ, as we look upon ourselves and say, "Yes, amen, I am that I AM, so be it!"; then, by reflection, we have also affirmed this for our entire world. We can then experience a co-creative energy which is flowing through each of us, through all people, linking all of humanity together as one, and deeply and profoundly connecting us to the living consciousness of this planet.

Thus is our age-old prophecy and dream of heaven on Earth, of one peaceful world, made manifest. One who experiences that all of life is divinely connected finds it impossible to ever knowingly harm another; finds oneself, indeed, compelled toward a life of good and harmonious thoughts, words, and deeds. It is the transformation of our entire planet, and it begins with each of us looking inside and saying, "Yes, I am divine, I am co-creator of this world; my every conscious momentmatters, deeply, fully, profoundly."

The skeptical mind will point to the world as it is, saying, "Read the papers, watch the six o'clock news, observe the hopelessness, the helplessness, the despair, the confusion, the stupid depravity of our race, Where is the divine, where are these promised Gods, what is this foolishness!?" This is like the scientist removing a fish from water to study it upon a laboratory table for several hours until it is proven that fish can't exist because the damn thing died! Likewise, in allowing and strongly investing in a deeply-ingrained and profoundly rooted atmosphere of skeptical doubt, distrust, and disbelief, we have created an environment which is poisonous to the human spirit, which is openly hostile to our divine nature, and which works totally against the realization of our greatest dreams and most inspired possibilities. Indeed, the term 'healthy skepticism' is an outright lie, and could not be further from the truth, for skepticism always poisons, always attacks, always belittles, always defeats. All skepticism is by nature and definition unhealthy, for it begins with the denial of the essential human spirit, a denial which tragically prevents that spirit from coming forth in the world. Far from protecting, such chronic skepticism stifles and suffocates the body, narrows the vision, depresses the mind, inhibits relationship, and argues feverishly, and oh so cleverly, against the very possibility of embodied spirit, against the very precious possibility that we are each co-creators of this life.

Still, it must be conceded that all of these words are bound to fall like so much water on the rock-hard logic of the skeptical mind. We will probably never manage to completely convince the skeptical mind of the essential goodness of humanity, nor of its essential divine nature, nor of its vast reservoirs of untapped creative potential. The forever self-defeating nature of the skeptical mind is such that it cannot see beyond the created limitations of its own presumptions. Thus, we could do happy cartwheels through the hottest of fires (and have), laughing all the while, and the skeptical mind will immediately explain it all away, without considering for even the briefest moment that it might be true, that there might be a very new and different way of looking at the world. And, if we were then to point out the explicitly suicidal nature of such arguments, the skeptical mind would only dig in deeper still, threatened and offended and ever more determined to put an end to such nonsense. "Argue for your limitations and they're yours," warned a reluctant messiah. Sadly, the skeptic argues on, bound and determined to be dead right.

There is the story of a monkey who saw a caged bird and reached through the bars of the cage to grab it, thinking of dinner. Once having grasped the bird, however, his hand became too large to remove through the narrow bars. Though freedom lay in simply releasing the bird, the monkey just could not let go of something which had once seemed so important, and thus eventually died, still clinging to the bird.

Let us not also perish while clinging to a vision of ourselves which is negative, limiting, and stuck in the past. Our greatest teachers have told us that entering into the new world will require the easy innocence and open faith of a child. The evolutionary leap and the leap of faith are one and the same: a courageous leap beyond the narrow bars of skepticism and into a new world of abiding trust and unshakable belief in the divine nature of humankind. It is a leap which each of us must take individually, deeply affirming our divine purpose, acknowledging responsibility for our role as conscious participants in the evolutionary process, and accepting and gladly exercising our ability to positively impact our world. Slowly but surely an atmosphere of openness, faith, trust, and belief will be created, an atmosphere which will affirm, nurture, and support the very best that we could become, the very best of all possible worlds.

Dancing with the Fire – Chapter 1a

Dancing with the Fire

by Michael Sky

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Table of Contents

FIRST STEPS
By consciously manipulating whether a particle, such as a protein molecule in a neural membrane, is a wave or not, I expect that we will be able to change our bodies at will. I expect that with that gain in sensitivity and consciousness
new messages will be received and our evolution will be speeded up so fast that it will make our heads spin. Perhaps we will be able to heal ourselves simply by thinking positively
about ourselves. Perhaps we will be able to regenerate new limbs, increase our intelligence, and even live for 500 years or more.
If we can learn to live together as a species, we will not just survive this world, we will create it as well as other worlds beyond our present dreams. The intelligence of the body quantum is absolutely unlimited.1
Fred Alan Wolf
Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said, “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”2
Lewis Carroll
I always knew that somehow, someday, I would walk on fire. I found myself thinking about firewalking from time to time,
6 • Dancing With the Fire
looking for `firewalk’ in the indexes of likely books, and trying to imagine what it must feel like to place my bare feet on a bed of glowing, red, hot embers and through whatever magic it entails, not to burn.
Living in Boston, I could only assume that my firewalking would have to wait until I traveled off to some exotic locale where such irrational activities passed for normal. Meanwhile, the same part of me that felt attracted to firewalking had also undertaken an exploration of unconventional healing practices. This eventually
led me to teaching about such things, which in turn led me to regularly telling small groups of people about firewalking and what I saw as its special lessons. I had come to view firewalking as a graphic example of how the mind and body might better interact, and as a way of inspiring the belief in and pursuit of human
potential. And, I suppose, talking about firewalking was a sensible alternative to actually doing it.
In early 1984, I was leading a weekend workshop and feeling
frustrated at the end of the first day. I thought to myself that if I could light a candle in the middle of my talk and hold my hand in the flame, unburning, this would prove my assertions and catalyze
the workshop experience. That evening a good friend called and asked if I had seen the latest issue of “New Age Journal,” for, believe it or not, someone out in California (where else?) was leading people through firewalks.
Over the next few days, I read that article a dozen times, my mind spinning around and around its implications, for this man named Tolly Burkan totally upset my theories and expectations.
Where I had always assumed that only the high adepts of advanced metaphysical practices could walk on fire, Tolly was taking groups of average Americans, unscreened and unprepared, and successfully leading them across the coals in just four hours. As far as I could glean from the article, his techniques were unbelievably
simple.
I sent away for more information. When I received his itinerary,
it included a flyer announcing his first firewalking instrucFirst
Steps • 7
tors’ training, upcoming in May. While the flyer listed as a prerequisite
that participants must already have walked on fire, I felt my calling, and applied anyway. They accepted me.
*******
Tolly Burkan and his wife Peggy Dylan wanted to teach us every aspect of successfully leading firewalks. Since their own approach had been to travel around from place to place, building fires wherever they could, our three-week training would consist primarily of ten public firewalks with a lot of traveling in between, so that we would get a taste of life on the road. Thus, although our group of ten students came together in Sacramento, we spent our initial two days journeying in a motorhome up to Seattle for our first firewalk. This two-day waiting period actually helped me, for I could see little difference between this group of people—all of whom had already walked on fire—and myself. I did not feel like their spiritual or psychological inferior, and I could thus reasonably
expect to do as well as they.
Alas, on the day of my first walk, all reason and logic abandoned
me. As the day wore on (firewalks always happen at night, which really means that they happen for an entire day) my body became uncharacteristically tense; a low level anxiety took over and gripped me. I was not hungry and I did not feel like talking. I kept thinking of the thousands of people who had already done this. I kept looking at my fellow trainees and seeing of our essential
sameness. My mind would be somewhat reassured, but my body grew tenser still.
Midday they showed us a brief news clip of Tolly walking across an amazingly hot-looking bed of coals, and my stomach lurched in protest. I felt as if I had just witnessed an accident victim sprawled bloody across the pavement. I continued to fast and I talked even less. In a notebook I wrote, “I feel like I’m in an airplane, about to parachute into enemy territory.”
8 • Dancing With the Fire
At this point, I felt twisted by a combination of fears. I worried that I would severely injure myself. Even worse, I might chicken out, a horrendous thought given the time, expense, and self-esteem I had committed to becoming an instructor. Or, worst of all, I might walk on fire, fail painfully, and limp home a crippled
and embarrassed wreck. As evening approached, I found my mind less able to issue up reassurance, and more focused on my fears. My body grew tenser still.
Finally, the workshop began. Fifty or so people gathered, mostly looking as if they had just been told they had four hours to live. Tolly had an intense, yet entertaining style. Working the crowd, he first terrified us with what could go wrong, and then exploded the tension with his wonderful sense of humor. After an hour or so, we went outside and together constructed a large pile of wood, kindling, and newspaper. Then we circled about it, holding hands, while Tolly doused it with a gallon of kerosene and set it aflame. In moments, the fire blasted us with such heat that everyone took two steps away from the scattering sparks and billowing smoke. Definitely not a summer-camp fire, nor even a homecoming bonfire. We beheld an inferno, and if it was designed
to frighten, it succeeded.
Back inside we went, and for the next two hours Tolly prepared
us for walking. I remember agreeing with most all that he said, while at the same time feeling concerned that I did not really hear anything new. Clearly, I had hoped for some powerful technique
or super meditation that would change me from “one who burns” into “one who doesn’t burn” but as time passed I felt distinctly
unchanged and increasingly vulnerable. Things gradually took on a surreal air. It felt as if we were all doing drugs together or, again, as if we were all in a plane behind enemy lines, lost in our separate thoughts, contemplating doom, barely breathing.
Finally, the time came. We returned to the fire, which had calmed somewhat into a large pile of glowing embers and smoldering
hunks of wood. We held hands, chanting softly as Tolly took a heavy metal rake and carefully spread the coals into a path
First Steps • 9
some twelve-feet long and six-feet wide. With each pass of the rake, sparks flew off in every direction and what little breath we had left became filled with smoke. The heat was still so intense that people moved away from rather than toward the fire, its red-orange glow pulsing, menacing, yet oddly inviting. My mind finally emptied and quieted; I surrendered to the singing and felt transfixed by the fire. My body trembled out of control, as if it were somehow freezing on this warm spring evening. I could feel through their hands the similar shaking of those on either side of me.
Tolly laid down the rake, stepped up to the fiery path, and, with just the briefest pause, walked quickly across the coals. I registered that he took six steps and that he seemed okay, when suddenly another person walked across, and then another. I noticed
my head shaking, side to side, as I watched feet sinking down into glowing, red, hot coals. People continued walking, one after another, and our singing steadily picked up, becoming
more excited, more vibrant. My mind went blank, while my feet, acting on their own, carried me slowly toward the top of the path. My trembling increased and I sang even louder. Suddenly, I was at the top of the path. Moments later I moved—seven quick steps—I had walked on fire!
I felt overwhelmed with joy and found myself applauding
each succeeding walker. The energy between us continued to rise, higher and higher, becoming more and more excited. It was all so beautifully stunning—the fire, the circle, the singing, the stars, the moon—and the wonderful feeling of grass beneath my happy feet. At last a strong shout of joy exploded through the group. Some people hugged, everyone laughed, and then slowly we all filtered back inside.
The funeral parlor had transformed into a circus. A tangible
wave of relief rippled through a room filled with happy chatter and excited giggles. We took some time for sharing our experiences, and miracle stories abounded. I became aware of a
10 • Dancing With the Fire
spot on my left foot that felt a little hot, just slightly painful. Some other walkers seemed distressed also, including a fellow trainee who would turn out to have several bad blisters.
Later, as I called home to assure my wife and friends that I had survived it, feet intact, I began to feel a little let down. Obviously
it had been a long, exhausting day. Somehow I had expected
more difficulty; it just seemed too easy. I mean, if anyone could do this, then. . . .
*******
My second walk came two nights later at the same location.
I collected the release forms that night as people entered the room, and felt myself tense slightly as a pretty young woman
named Kathy3 arrived, moving slowly on a pair of crutches. I would only find out later that Kathy was a social worker for handicapped rights, that she worked in her spare time on a suicide
hot-line, and that she had a bumper sticker shouting “Expect A Miracle,” but I could tell the moment I saw her that she was a determined and self-sufficient woman who was working hard to overcome the limitations in her life.
As I watched her throughout the evening, it became apparent
to me that Kathy had come to walk on fire. So I worried when, just before going out to the fire, her husband asked if people with cerebral palsy should firewalk and Tolly recommended against it. I sensed that Kathy did not take kindly to, nor listen to, people telling her what she could not do.
For myself, this second walk was much the same as the first, though slightly colored with the memory of pain. I felt the same tension throughout my body and the body of the group. The fire seemed just as hot, and the path Tolly raked out looked a tad longer. My mind was every bit as incredulous when the walking began, and I experienced the same sense of shifting to a magical, otherworldly reality. I did manage, however, to walk before most
First Steps • 11
everyone else, and thus felt double elation as I reached the other side, unburned.
At some point Kathy started moving toward the fire, walking
on her crutches really, her legs and feet stiffly dragging behind.
The electrical tension in the circle increased tenfold. Ever so slowly she moved, shuffling into and through the fire, so slowly that at times she seemed stationary, up to her ankles in glowing embers. Each step was a major victory, first carrying her into the heart of the fire, and then slowly carrying her out toward safety. Just at the end of the path she stopped, suddenly, and in the next moment she started screaming.
We carried her immediately from the fire and into the house, and later to a hospital, both feet severely burned, the skin already blistering and peeling. Somehow the firewalk continued, as one crazy person stepped forward in the midst of the terror and started the flow of walkers again. The mood afterwards was subdued, however, as we had little energy for celebration given what we had witnessed. I remember feeling torn. On the one hand, I felt finished with firewalking, and wanted never to take part in such a tragedy again. At the same time, I kept trying to believe that things do happen for good reason and that Kathy’s experience might become an important contribution to my understanding
of firewalking.
Kathy would later say that she had been doing fine, feeling neither pain nor the slightest heat, all of the way to that final step. Then she looked down, and the image of her feet buried in burning
embers overwhelmed her, causing her to think she was doing the impossible and to hear her lifelong admonishments: “You can’t. You’re unable to. You mustn’t.” At this point she began to burn. She asked that we not feel sorry for her or responsible for her actions, and she demonstrated her personal power by healing
in a fraction of the time that her doctors had predicted. She felt truly grateful for the whole experience and stressed that she had in fact walked on fire successfully for all but one step.
12 • Dancing With the Fire
A newspaper reporter present that night had timed the walkers
with a stopwatch. He said the average walker took between a second and a half to two seconds to get across the coals and that Kathy had been on them for a full seven seconds before she screamed. So she had indeed firewalked the equivalent of some fifty feet (at that time, a Guinness world record) without burning, and without even lifting her feet out of the fire. Through her extraordinary
courage, Kathy had demonstrated what I would come to see as the two primary lessons of firewalking: yes, we can walk through extreme heat without burning; and yes, the fire is hot, we can get burned, and whether we burn or not depends more on our state of mind than on how we walk.
I would experience many other “firsts” during the remainder
of my training. One night I had my first “cold” walk: I walked through the coals and not only did I not feel any heat, I actually felt cold—an incredible sensation—as if I were walking through snow. The next night I had my first real burn, a screeching pain that sent me to bed with my foot wrapped in a cold, wet towel, seriously debating the value of continued firewalking. I also parachuted
out of my first airplane, sat through my first sweat lodge (another ancient ritual), and rappelled down my first rock face, as Tolly and Peggy found different ways to lead us through the lessons of the firewalk. Most importantly to me, one night I chose to walk first—to offer the final words to the group, to prepare the coals, and then to initiate and model the experience by going first. That night went so well I felt confident that I could create firewalks on my own. I felt ready, and excited, to go home and get started.
*******
It began raining early in the morning of Memorial Day that year, and the rain kept up through most of the day. My wife Penny and I were living with two friends in a suburban neighborhood in Concord, just west of Boston. We planned to have the firewalk on
First Steps • 13
our front lawn. We called the local fire department and told them we were having a holiday cookout with an Hawaiian luau-style wood fire. I began to see the rain as a plus, as it would keep our neighbors indoors. I went to the supermarket and bought a case of charcoal lighter, if necessary to keep the fire going.
For the rest of the day we all just sat around the house, shut in by the rain, and quietly freaked out. Someone would stare into a book for ten minutes without registering a word. Or someone
would put water on to boil and then stand empty-headed before the tea cabinet trying to remember why. We paced a lot, moving from one room to another with no discernable purpose. We managed some courageous gallows humor, which sometimes worked a giggling release and other times only served to deepen the gloom.
Our good friend Jonathon just happened to show up that afternoon, in town for the holiday. Jonathon is an engineer and the most logical, rational, linear, left-brain I have ever known. When I told him our plans for the evening, he at first became excited, for he only heard the part about my demonstrating the walk. As I slowly made it clear to him that everyone might walk on fire, his eyes bugged out and he started looking for the exit. I asked if he would like to serve as firetender, staying outside and keeping the fire going for us while we were inside preparing to walk. He gladly said yes, happy that he could take part and witness
the walk without feeling compelled to do something so utterly
outrageous.
Evening finally arrived, as did my friends. Once again I found myself sitting in a roomful of people waiting to have root canals without anesthesia. However, this time there was no one present (myself included) who really knew that it would all work out. Fear feeds on fear. If you look to your old friend for reassurance
and instead see fear in his eyes, you will tend to feel frightened,
which he will spot in your eyes, further frightening him, which further frightens you, which further frightens him . . . and so it went.
14 • Dancing With the Fire
By this time I had come to understand two basic facts about people that almost always hold true at the start of a firewalk. First, we feel disinclined to intentionally move in the direction of pain, unless we have clear social approval, as, for instance, in the case of athletes or dancers. While we might understand and even applaud
the marathon runner’s contorted features and occasional shin splints, we consider it quite stupid to intentionally step on a fire and then suffer injury. Second, we have a deep, cellular, instinctive
relationship to fire and its burning nature: virtually every life-form on this planet knows better than to move in the direction
of fire, so again, anyone foolish enough to even consider such a practice probably deserves any resulting pain.
Yet my friends and I had our reasons, strong enough to carry
us forward in the presence of our doubts and fears, for there we were. Despite a clumsy and halting presentation on my part, the evening progressed and our moment with the fire approached. I told them to take a little break while I went outside to see how the fire had managed in the rain. I found Jonathon keeping his lonely vigil, umbrella overhead, and I took a rake and poked clinically through the fire, attempting to determine whether we had enough coals to do the walk. I felt suddenly blasted with the heat (the fire had done quite well in the rain), with the fire’s electric, glowing, orange burst of energy, and my stomach seized up with the undeniable
danger of our enterprise. I took a deep breath, put on a happy face, and went slowly back inside, attempting to emanate all-knowing reassurance. My friends later said that I was white with terror.
We proceeded out to the fire. The rain had lightened to a soft and cooling presence, and a wonderful blessing and balance for our undertaking. We formed a circle, holding hands, except for Jonathon, who stood dry and sensible beneath his umbrella. The singing began. I took the rake and began spreading the coals: all this earth is sacred, every step we take, all this life is sacred, every step we take. As the fiery carpet first spread out before them, I heard a tangible group gasp. Nothing I had said could
First Steps • 15
have prepared them for the intensity of the heat, for the explosion of sparks and smoke, for the solid red-orange sheet of pulsing embers. Minds boggled, bodies trembled, and our singing grew louder, viscerally driven.
I stood before the coals, thinking: “Either it works, or it doesn’t, here goes….” I walked across, no problem! I was then stunned to see one friend following immediately after, and then another, and another. Whereas the walks during my training had all progressed slowly, half of our group had walked in the first thirty seconds. Whether they had an extreme desire to walk on fire, or an extreme desire to be finished with walking on fire, they were all smiling, and in the space of a minute we had shifted from unthinking terror to exhilarating joy.
I looked over to Penny, who had not yet walked and who was visibly shaking. I had had a dream just before returning home in which Penny had stepped forward and burst into flames. I was hoping that wouldn’t happen. For her part, she had always steadfastly
maintained that firewalking was not her sort of thing at all, and that if her husband hadn’t had the temerity to land one in her own front yard she might have forever remained among the blissfully uninitiated. But there it was, and walk she did, smiling brightly all the way into my waiting arms.
We had by then reached the magical shift that most firewalks
achieve: the fire had become friendly and inviting, the singing
inspired, and the group intensely bonded, with a strong sense that anything was possible. As if to affirm it all and top it with a final encore, Jonathon stepped up to the fire, umbrella still raised overhead, and strolled across the coals with wonderful aplomb, the perfect ending to an unforgettable dance. We were well on our way to an adventure that, years later, continues to provide a wealth of such moments.

FIRST STEPS

By consciously manipulating whether a particle, such as a protein molecule in a neural membrane, is a wave or not, I expect that we will be able to change our bodies at will. I expect that with that gain in sensitivity and consciousness new messages will be received and our evolution will be speeded up so fast that it will make our heads spin. Perhaps we will be able to heal ourselves simply by thinking positively about ourselves. Perhaps we will be able to regenerate new limbs, increase our intelligence, and even live for 500 years or more. If we can learn to live together as a species, we will not just survive this world, we will create it as well as other worlds beyond our present dreams. The intelligence of the body quantum is absolutely unlimited.1

Fred Alan Wolf

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said, “one can’t believe impossible things.”

“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”2

Lewis Carroll

I always knew that somehow, someday, I would walk on fire. I found myself thinking about firewalking from time to time, looking for `firewalk’ in the indexes of likely books, and trying to imagine what it must feel like to place my bare feet on a bed of glowing, red, hot embers and through whatever magic it entails, not to burn.

Living in Boston, I could only assume that my firewalking would have to wait until I traveled off to some exotic locale where such irrational activities passed for normal. Meanwhile, the same part of me that felt attracted to firewalking had also undertaken an exploration of unconventional healing practices. This eventually led me to teaching about such things, which in turn led me to regularly telling small groups of people about firewalking and what I saw as its special lessons. I had come to view firewalking as a graphic example of how the mind and body might better interact, and as a way of inspiring the belief in and pursuit of human potential. And, I suppose, talking about firewalking was a sensible alternative to actually doing it.

In early 1984, I was leading a weekend workshop and feeling frustrated at the end of the first day. I thought to myself that if I could light a candle in the middle of my talk and hold my hand in the flame, unburning, this would prove my assertions and catalyze the workshop experience. That evening a good friend called and asked if I had seen the latest issue of “New Age Journal,” for, believe it or not, someone out in California (where else?) was leading people through firewalk.

Over the next few days, I read that article a dozen times, my mind spinning around and around its implications, for this man named Tolly Burkan totally upset my theories and expectations. Where I had always assumed that only the high adepts of advanced metaphysical practices could walk on fire, Tolly was taking groups of average Americans, unscreened and unprepared, and successfully leading them across the coals in just four hours. As far as I could glean from the article, his techniques were unbelievably simple.

I sent away for more information. When I received his itinerary, it included a flyer announcing his first firewalking instructors’ training, upcoming in May. While the flyer listed as a prerequisite that participants must already have walked on fire, I felt my calling, and applied anyway. They accepted me.

Dancing with the Fire – contents

Dancing with the Fire

by Michael Sky

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Table of Contents

1. First Steps: an introduction to and description of the firewalk; how I came to firewalking; initial lessons; the feeling of walking on fire.

2. The Co-creative Process: why people walk on fire; the nature of our relationship

to fire; our evolving capacity as co-creators of reality.

3. An Ancient Experiment: examples of the firewalking as an ancient and widely-spread practice; the firewalking in late twentieth-century America.

4. The Skeptical Mind: the problem with skepticism; the arguments against firewalking; the evidence for it; “unhealthy skepticism.”

5. The Power of Intention: accidental burn victims and the power of the human

will; intention as the first key to the co-creative process.

6. Walking on Placebos: Dr. Herbert Benson; meditation and belief; the placebo response; the circular nature of belief; debunking the debunkers.

7. The Body Electric: human bio-energy; the difficulties with classical science;

the nature and reality of energy; energy as the medium of protection.

8. The Challenge of Life: excitement and contraction; unresolved stress and tension; fear as the gift of bio-energy; saying yes to fear.

9. Boiling Energy: The Kalahari Kung; the positive excitement of bio-energy;

Table of Contents
1. First Steps: an introduction to and description of the firewalk; how I came to firewalking; initial lessons; the feeling of walking on fire.
2. The Co-creative Process: why people walk on fire; the nature of our relationship
to fire; our evolving capacity as co-creators of reality.
3. An Ancient Experiment: examples of the firewalk as an ancient and widely-spread practice; the firewalk in late twentieth-century America.
4. The Skeptical Mind: the problem with skepticism; the arguments against firewalking; the evidence for it; “unhealthy skepticism.”
5. The Power of Intention: accidental burn victims and the power of the human
will; intention as the first key to the co-creative process.
6. Walking on Placebos: Dr. Herbert Benson; meditation and belief; the placebo response; the circular nature of belief; debunking the debunkers.
7. The Body Electric: human bio-energy; the difficulties with classical science;
the nature and reality of energy; energy as the medium of protection.
8. The Challenge of Life: excitement and contraction; unresolved stress and tension; fear as the gift of bio-energy; saying yes to fear.
9. Boiling Energy: The Kalahari Kung; the positive excitement of bio-energy;

A Journey Through the Fire by Jim Jarvis

A Journey Through the Fire

by Jim Jarvis

Jim Jarvis, World Record Holder for Firewalking (Hotest & Longest at the time)

The year was 1963. I was returning from my Coast Guard duty post one evening just after sundown. I was firewalking on a trail through some woods. A young recruit was firewalking the opposite way up the trail. He was on his way to relieve me of my post at the guard tower. He carried a pistol. He heard me lumbering down the trail and he thought I was a bear. He couldn’t see me because the woods were dark. Terrified, he started shooting without warning. He fired a number of shots into the darkness in my direction.

A bullet ripped into my side, splittin`g me open below my ribs. The bullet plunged through my stomach and lodged in my spine. I stood up. I looked down at my body and I thought “Gee, that was a funny way to die.” I said my goodbyes to the world. There was no fear, no sense of pain, no terror, no anguish, just a sense of utter astonishment. I stood and stared at my body as if it were an empty glass.

“Goodbye, mom and dad. I love you,” I said. I turned around and WHHHOOOOOSHHHH, I traveled instantly out from the earth at stupendous speed through a tunnel of light. When I reached the far end of that tunnel Jesus was standing there. He welcomed me to heaven. He was smiling. He held his hand out to me as he welcomed me. His face radiated with an overwhelming brilliance. His eyes shined like the sun. I was awe-struck by his radiance and his magnificence. Words can’t describe the feelings I experienced in his presence. The doctors told my mother they didn’t think I would live. I was in a coma for four days. Miraculously, I came out of that coma and survived the shooting.

If you believe in Jesus your whole life, then you’ll meet him face to face some day after you pass out of this dimension. If you have some other spiritual teacher or guru who is your connection to God they will present themselves to you. You’ll know who they are. If you’re a Buddhist, Buddha will greet you. If you’re a Mohammedan, Mohammed will greet you. Whoever or whatever your connection to God is, that’s who will meet you. You’ll have no doubt in your mind.

When I was in the spirit, nothing needed to be said by verbal communication. All was communicated by telepathy. I don’t remember hearing a sound for as long as I was out of my body.

When you’re in the spirit, nothing is verbal. Nothing can be heard with your ears because everything is communicated by spirit vibrations. All my memories and impressions associated with my near-death experience are just beautiful. It was all love, painlessness and perfection. I had a feeling of being loved, protected and cared for in a safe place. Having an out-of-body experience like that made me realize there’s more to this universe than meets the eye.

“I went into a dreamlike state during which I left my fears behind me. I simply stepped into the fire. I was so ecstatic that I forgot all about wanting to kill myself.”

Immediately prior to being catapulted back into my body, I don’t recall being instructed to come back to earth to do anything specific. Some people who had near death experiences told me they came back from death to complete something in this life or because they had a specific mission or a job to do. After I had been in heaven for a period of time I saw other people up there, but none that I had known previously in my life on earth.

I saw only about 50 other people during the entire time I was in heaven. They were a mixture of ordinary people of varying ages, sizes and shapes. They were the same sorts of people you can see walking down any ordinary city street. When I awoke from my coma my grandmother asked me if I had seen grandpa up there. I replied, “No, grandma, I didn’t see him. I didn’t see anybody up there that I knew.”

I simply woke up and I was back. I was back in my body, back here on earth.

My near-death experience changed my perspective. The doctors figured I was a goner. They thought I was dead and they were quite surprised when they found out that I wasn’t. Being at the epicenter of a mystical experience like that had a mind-blowing impact on my life.

When I came back to earth I lost all the good feelings, the love, the serenity and the perfection I had in heaven. I was gripped and seized by monstrous fears when I came back into my body. I would hear an unexpected noise, be startled and fall down. Somebody would move their hand rapidly and I’d pass out from fear. I’ve realized as a result of firewalking that in most cases, my fear is self-inflicted. I can allow fear to run my life but if I do, it will ruin my life. Fear puts people into boxes with self-created walls and limitations. When fear rules a person, they end up with a narrow, frustrated life. The good news is that people can overcome their fears. Most of the things we fear are only what we conjure up in our own minds. Fear is essentially an illusion. Fear is the product of our own thoughts, which create a fear response in the body. Fear is not really real. It has no independent existence. It’s our own reaction to what’s going on around us.

Second Accident

I had a second accident which resulted in a near-death experience at the age of 33. My second accident was caused by spinal injuries I received when I was shot at the age of 21. At the age of 33, I had a car crash at over 100 mph which put me into a 28-day coma.

I was driving my car one day when I experienced post-stress brain syndrome seizure. I lost all control of my leg muscles. My legs locked in a spasm. My right leg extended, putting pressure on the accelerator pedal. I smashed into a bridge abutment doing in excess of 100 mph. It was a miracle that I survived the accident at all. My body whipped around inside the car so violently that I took out both the driver’s side window and the windshield with my head. My heart stopped three times. The doctors told my mother I would probably never come out of that coma. They said that if I ever did come out of it I would be a complete vegetable. When I finally did wake up they said it was a miracle. However, my memory was almost completely wiped out. I knew next to nothing. Almost every memory was gone. I spoke in syllables that were similar in sound to Chinese. I had to learn everything, including the English language over again from scratch. I didn’t recognize my wife, my children or my mother. I didn’t know anything. I was just like a 33-year old newborn baby.

I learned what children were, and I became aware of what the word “grandfather” meant. I was astounded to discover that I was a grandfather. I couldn’t remember ever being married or having children. I do remember being in a wheelchair. Then I learned to crawl, learned to walk and learned to eat again at the age of 33.

Recovering From a Near-Death Experience

Recovery was tremendously slow for me. After nearly a year, the doctors let me go home from the hospital. When I got out of the hospital, a nurse took care of me. It wasn’t long before we got married.

She soon found out that it wasn’t much fun being married to an hemiplegic. I was a cripple. In addition, I was very negative, and sometimes even violent. I was afraid of almost everything and everybody. She divorced me. I was crushed by that divorce. It was one more thing to add to my list of considerable physical, mental and spiritual woes. As the days rolled by, I seriously considered committing suicide. I hobbled down to the railroad tracks on my crutches and sat there for hours. I waited for the train to arrive so that I could jump out under the engine wheels and kiss the world goodbye. Trains ran infrequently at the time. Eventually, I got bored waiting for a train. I limped back home. In the blackest of depressions, I propped myself onto my crutches and shuffled up to a nearby bridge. I contemplated jumping off. Fear kicked in when I realized that the bridge was only 56′ high. I knew I would probably survive the jump. I was a failure at everything, including suicide. My mental confusion and disorientation were so great that I couldn’t even comprehend what a barking dog was. Somebody honked a car horn behind me. I was startled by sudden noises. I passed out from fear. I fell down a number of times and injured myself. I rode in a car one night and I noticed the headlights from an oncoming car. Terror struck me. I thought the oncoming car was coming through the windshield. I dove to the floor.

I couldn’t go outside the house for days on end. I was house-bound by fear. I was terrified that something in the outside world would get me. One day when the grip of fear loosened its hold on me slightly, I went to the store. A woman named Beverly talked to me about firewalking. She said that if I really wanted to change my life and overcome my fear I should learn to firewalk. Beverly said a firewalking instructor was coming to town soon. He could teach me to overcome my fear. After my coma, fear paralyzed me mentally, physically and spiritually. Fear can be a prison which is worse than any bondage that has ever been invented. Firewalking didn’t scare me. That seemed like a perfectly sensible way to overcome my fears. Anything short of death would be a great improvement over the fear-filled life I was living.

The firewalking seminar was held in Richland, Washington on the banks of the Columbia River, a beautiful setting. It was like a dream when I first firewalked. I went into a dreamlike state during which I left my fears behind me. I simply stepped into the fire. I firewalked four times the first night. I was so ecstatic that I forgot all about wanting to kill myself.

I looked down at the fire. I noticed a bright cherry red coal. It was just beautiful. I thought about picking it up. I passed it by and strolled on across the fire. After I’d walked over 100 times I actually stooped down to pick up a bright, glowing coal with my hand. When you’re in a state of unconditional faith, you’re one with the fire, one with the universe. I let go of many fears as a result of firewalking. I’ve continued firewalking and I still do every chance I get. This continuing experience of firewalking has changed my life. I’ve never gone back to my old fearful ways of living. I can’t imagine where I’d be without it. Probably in a nuthouse or dead. I’m sure that without the firewalk, eventually the train would have come and run me over or I would have jumped off a bridge. My number would have been up a long time ago.

The day after my first firewalk, my feet were ice cold until noon. I was emotionally charged up when I realized what I’d done. The next week, I knew I had to go down and show my grandmother and my sister firewalking. I felt that I had learned a great new trick.

I hitchhiked to Hillsboro, Oregon and built a great big fire. The fire was about 15′ long. You see, to impress grandma I thought I had to build an extra big fire. I stacked lumber up on end so that the flames shot high up into the air. That was a great experience for me. It was the first really positive thing I did after my accident. My relatives invited all their friends to come and watch me walk on fire. About 20 people showed up. Prior to walking on the coals I took my shoes off and showed them all my feet. I had one little blood blister on my right foot. Except for that, my feet were in perfect condition.

I walked the fire about 8 times that night. Afterwards, I went into the house, showered and scrubbed my feet good. Then I came out and showed them all my feet again. There were no water blisters. My feet were in the same condition as they were before I had firewalked. They couldn’t believe their eyes.

Every time I visit my clan in Oregon they want to see me firewalk again. I’ve done other demonstrations of the power of the mind for them. I’ve bent rebar with my neck and broken bricks with my bare hands. The firewalking transformed me. Before I firewalked, I was a poor, pathetic, wizened old man in a wheelchair. People needed to be very quiet and sedate around me. They didn’t dare make any fast movements around me because they might scare me. I was extremely irritable. Sometimes I reacted violently. They used to say, “Here comes poor crazy uncle Jim.” Now they say, “Oh, great! Uncle Jim is coming! We can have a firewalk! Let’s have a picnic and invite all of our friends to come and meet him.”

A fire tender is always needed at the firewalks. I volunteered to do that job. That gave me the opportunity to participate in many firewalking. I was surprised to discover that I inspired other people when I told them the story about my near-death experiences. I shared how the firewalk had liberated me from my fears. I told my story, and explained how the firewalk could help them overcome their fears. This sharing helped a lot in my recovery process. I felt I made a positive contribution to others. I was inspired and motivated by this big change in my life. I hitchhiked to Seattle to fire tend whenever I could.
Firewalking gave me a positive belief that I was capable of doing just about anything. This conviction carried over into every other aspect of my life. I have learned to use the same techniques I use in firewalking to deal with every fear that comes up for me. I always ask myself “What’s the worst thing that can happen? Am I willing to accept the risk?” If I’m willing to take the risk, then I ask “What’s the best thing that can happen?”

People can change negative behaviors caused by fear into positive behaviors such as love and excitement. Love and excitement create beneficial and positive results. Positive people are like magnets. They draw good things and good results to themselves. If people are positive, then other people want to be around them. Love is an extremely positive emotion.

Because of my accident, I only have 15 years of accumulated life experience in my memory banks. I lived nine of those years in total fear. I have been healed from that fear as a result of firewalking. I’ve been granted a reprieve from fear. I never have to go back to living a fearful life. I experience a high degree of spiritual growth today. Firewalking is helping me become the person I aspire to be.

Faith Healing

After my accident I was in a wheelchair for a couple of years. My doctor said I would never get out of that wheelchair. I was an hemiplegic. My left arm and left leg were so dead, you could drive nails right through them. I would never have known it. I had no feeling whatsoever in the left side of my face. When I smiled, the right side of my face would smile, but the left side was completely dead. Before the firewalk my mother asked me to go to a healer who healed by laying his hands on people. I was still in a wheelchair when I went to a faith healer by the name of Norm. I saw Norm twice a week over a period of twelve weeks. My physical body was healed greatly by his treatments. My spiritual body and my mental body were both in serious need of healing. I had brain damage. By the time I attended my first firewalking I was out of my wheelchair. I believe that was a result of the faith healing I experienced in my sessions with Norm.

When I went to see Norm I thought it was really strange that he laid hands on me. I felt tremendous heat coming through his hands. I found out later that was energy. It felt like he was snubbing cigarettes out on top of my head.
Those treatments were intense and painful. After going to the healer, I felt really great physically for the next 2-3 days. When I started feeling poorly again I told mama that I needed to go back for another visit with Norm. I saw Norm and then went home feeling marvelous for another 2-3 days. Then the pain would come back and I’d start hurting again.

After my 8th session with Norm, I got up out of my wheelchair and walked with the aid of crutches. At first, I could just barely walk across the room. Later, I improved to such an extent I could walk outside and sit on the porch. My healing progressed slowly. I developed the ability to walk down the block to the corner and back again. Then I realized I was already halfway around the block. Instead of going back the way I came, I decided to walk completely around the block.
One day I was sitting on the porch. I noticed an orange.
“Hey mom! Watch this!” I said.

I picked up the orange and threw it at a telephone pole in front of mama’s house. I threw the orange with my left arm which had been hopelessly paralyzed before my visits to Norm the faith healer. The orange hit the pole. That astounded all of us. During the next couple of years I went back to see Norm about every other month. I always experienced a benefit from having him lay hands on me. His treatments gave me lots of energy.

Norm taught me a lot about healing. We had many long and interesting discussions. He said I was probably the most dramatic case he ever had. That made me feel good. I started laying hands on other people. I healed a lady of hiccups. I worked on people with headaches. I laid hands on for healing whenever the opportunity arose.

It’s been a marvelous life. I believe in God. I don’t have any favorite set of doctrines. I respect all religions. I believe in people. I believe in the human race. I believe in the power of the mind. I believe in positive thinking. I enjoy sharing the reasons why I believe.

Achieving Two World Records for Firewalking

I have achieved two world records for firewalking. That includes the hottest fire and also the longest fire ever walked on by a human being. That achievement qualified me to talk to people about my experiences. Before I firewalked, I was extremely withdrawn and antisocial. I couldn’t even talk to small groups of people unless they were my close friends. I was afraid that somebody would contradict me. I couldn’t stand to hear anybody say “No, you’re wrong.” I had an enormous fear of criticism before I firewalked.
Firewalking changed my perspective and transformed my life. Before I firewalked, I was an hemiplegic in a wheelchair. I didn’t even want to live. Within 10 years I recovered from being a cripple. I walked twice on the hottest fire ever walked barefoot by a human being in the recorded history of the world (the digital readout at the time of my walk was 1,556ø). Three weeks later, I walked twice over the longest firewalk in the recorded history of the world. That fire was 120′ in length, with temperatures measuring over 1,000ø Fahrenheit.

A friend of mine came up with the idea of going for a world record for firewalking. I said, “Well sure, I’d like to fire tend. I guess I’ll probably walk on it.” The staff of the Guinness Book of World Records was notified as well as all the senior firewalkers in our community. There were about 22 of us at the time. All of the paperwork was completed and the event was very well organized. Scientists from the University of Washington were present to verify the temperatures with pyrometers. A doctor was present. Witnesses and spectators gathered there. I assisted with the preparation of the fire.

We had fans blasting air through the fire to get the temperature as high as possible. This created temperatures equal to a blast furnace. Aluminum engine blocks for automobiles are poured at only 1,100ø. This fire’s temperature was over 1,500ø. It takes a lot of work to get a fire up to a temperature that hot.
The previous world record temperature was 1,494ø. Our fire was an average of 52ø hotter than the previous world record. We burned a ton of wood, a cord of oak and a cord of cherry wood. We blew thousands of cubic yards of forced air through it. I noticed that the metal chairs over 20′ away from the fire were too hot to handle with my bare hands. Several people made the mistake of trying to touch those chairs and burned their hands.

I was accustomed to follow the first walker. About five seconds after the first person walked, I became the second person to walk on the world record hottest firewalk. A total of eleven people walked across that fire. I felt no heat on my first walk through the fire. I had felt extreme heat when I was raking the fire. But when I walked across it barefooted there was no sensation of heat at all. My theory is that when a person is in that focused mental state, their vibrations become the same frequency as those of the fire. I believe that’s one of the main reasons why firewalkers don’t burn their feet.

“Surrender to Faith or Surrender to Fear”

After I walked across that record-breaking fire the first time, I heard a voice as if it were from out of the sky saying, “Now let go and let God.” I was amazed to find myself walking a second time.

Nobody was hospitalized by walking that world record firewalk. A couple of people did get minor blisters.

Mental Preparation Before Firewalking

Before I firewalk, my mental preparation is pretty much the same each time. I bow my head and say the Lord’s Prayer. After I say “amen” I walk. Everybody seems to have a different way of preparing to walk on a fire. I know one firewalker who says “Haagen Daz, Haagen Daz” before he walks. Haagen Daz is ice cream. We have other firewalkers that use the phrase “cool moss.” My mind won’t take glowing red coals and turn them into cool moss. Firewalkers will use any number of techniques to achieve mental focus. A person should do what works best for them individually, and puts them into that state of mind.

People will tell you “This is how I do it.” They’ll go on and on about what works for them. People should use anything that brings them into a state of total faith and gets them safely across the coal bed.

I’m not a “religious” person. I consider myself to be a spiritual person. In my opinion, we all are. When I talk about the need for faith, it doesn’t mean that a person needs to be religious. The most important thing is for a person to have a positive attitude and walk the fire with humility. We’re all spirits having a human experience. It’s very important that we believe in ourselves. There’s no one set rule that seems to work for everybody all the time. Each individual needs to take advantage of whatever works for them and use it.

I’ve made my share of mistakes in the fire. The fire has taught me that ego can get you fried. The first time I firewalked in front of a television camera I looked at the camera and thought, “I wonder if they’re getting a good profile of me.” The result of that distraction was that I fried my feet. Another time was at my birthday party. I had a drink or two. I laughed and joked, saying “I hold the world record. I don’t need to focus. I’m too big for this stuff. I’ve got it all licked.” I walked onto that fire and pretty well cooked myself. Another time I looked out into a crowd of spectators and saw an attractive lady about my age.

I thought, “I wonder what that lady thinks of me.”

Again, I blistered. Since then, I’ve learned to put my ego on the back burner before I step into a fire. I have plenty of ego, but I know when to put it away. Ego no longer controls my life. Firewalking taught me the importance of keeping my ego in balance. Ego has its place, but it’s not at the firewalk.
To be in a proper state of mind to walk on fire a person should be calm, cool and collected. A person should have total faith. For a person in that positive state of mind, firewalking may be no different than walking across a lawn on a dewy morning. I can’t be angry at somebody and expect to walk on fire safely. I can’t be having words with my girlfriend, for instance, saying “You go fly a kite because I’m going over here and firewalk!” If I’m upset, I need to get into a calm, cool and collected state of mind or I have no business walking on fire.

Sometimes I’ve achieved that relaxed state of mind. Sometimes I’ve stopped and stood in the fire without getting burned. Other times, I’ve stooped down, picked up a hot glowing coal and ate it. I’ve covered my feet with hot, glowing coals. Sometimes I’ve picked them up and licked them as if they were ice cream cones. I don’t consider that to be bizarre. It appears strange to other people, but it’s made possible by a certain state of mind. Some people have somersaulted or cartwheeled across the fire. People have walked across on their hands. I usually talk as I stroll across. I like to praise the Lord when I walk on fire. That’s my favorite thing to do. I allow the Holy Spirit to take hold. There’s no telling what might become possible for a person. Let the Holy Spirit guide you. Be a demonstration of what God can do. When I’m in that space I feel like there are no limitations. It’s almost like a dream state to me. Everything in my life seems to go smoothly after I come off the fire. You couldn’t write a movie scene any more beautifully or perfectly. Those good feelings are the result of a positive, focused mind. When I’m out of focus, I can feel it. I realize it. Sometimes my attitude gets a little fuzzy and I’m out of focus. That reminds me of how smoothly things do go for me when I’m focused.

I’m not saying I never experience anger or that I never experience any number of positive or negative emotions. I allow myself to feel anger or upset sometimes just to remind me that there is a difference. The mind of God is limitless. There is a state of mind which is one with the flow of spirit. Sometimes I get out of that flow. Sometimes I get angry. I get cold and tired. I get upset with people. I allow myself to be upset for a limited period of time. When I get tired of being miserable, I can refocus again.

Why Continue to Firewalk?

People go jogging every day to keep their physical bodies in shape. I firewalk every chance I get. That helps me keep my mental focus. It keeps my spiritual body in shape. When I firewalk, it gives me a chance to demonstrate the possibilities to other people. Each one of us has a positive or a negative effect on the people around us. What I do can help other people overcome their fears. The bottom line is this: I do it strictly for myself. When I’m helping myself, it benefits others around me. Firewalking exercises my mental capacities. It gives me mental peace, and harmony with myself and others.

Breaking Bricks

There’s little difference between breaking a brick with your bare hand and walking on a fire. They’re both accomplished by mental focus. They’re just different types of mental focus. Some people claim that in order to break bricks they have to bring up violent thoughts. As a rule, I don’t entertain violent thoughts. I don’t want to impress my consciousness with the idea that violence has any real power in my life. When I focus on breaking a brick, I do it with love. That shows people the power of love and the potential of a focused mind. The mind is the most powerful tool in the universe. We need to program it rightly.

Breaking bricks is a process. It takes mental focus and commitment. It involves programming your own mental computer, your brain, for success. I break bricks to show people the power of being focused. When I’m alone I break bricks as an exercise to focus my own mind. I bend rebar to demonstrate to people the power and potential of their own minds. Jesus said “Anything I do, you can do also.” I enjoy teaching people how to do the things I can do. Undoubtedly, other people will be able to accomplish more than I can.

It’s impossible to demonstrate mind over matter exercises with an unfocused mind. Let me give you an example. Throw a steak on the grill. There’s no consciousness in that steak and it will naturally fry. Take a cadaver arm and try to break a brick with it. You can swing it and try smashing a brick with that arm. If you do, you’ll end up with a sack full of pulverized pulp, because there’s no consciousness in a cadaver. Put a piece of rebar against a cadaver’s throat and apply the same amount of pressure it takes for a conscious human being to bend the rebar. You’ll shove it right through the trachea and out through the back of the neck. There’s no consciousness in the cadaver to prevent the bar from piercing the throat. It takes focused consciousness to successfully do mind over matter exercises. Put a stick of rebar up to my throat and start pushing. If I’m not focused I’ll cough and gag on it. The bar won’t bend.

 

“After I walked across the world record hottest fire the first time, I heard a voice as if it were from out of the sky saying, ‘Now let go and let God.’ I was amazed to find myself walking a second time.”

If I’m not focused, the brick won’t break. My hand will hurt for a long time. If I’m not focused when I walk on fire, I believe I’m liable to get blistered.

Just Do It

Firewalking is a powerful tool for changing your life. Firewalking has been practiced for over 5,000 years in 60 different countries since people first discovered fire. Native Americans firewalked on this continent thousands of years ago. Fire can be frightening. In spite of that, people eventually learned to use the fire as a tool. Then they learned to walk on it. Firewalking is practiced for a variety of reasons in different countries and cultures around the world. In the last few years, firewalking has been practiced in the United States to help people realize their personal power.

The main benefit of firewalking is overcoming fear. Everybody has unreal fears. There is only one power in the universe, the power of love. The power of love can go into a shadow. The mind can create an illusion that manifests as the power of fear. Even such a simple act as paying your electric bill can be an expression of either love or fear. Most people love the light, and they love what electricity does. It would be hard to live without it. If the bill isn’t paid, the power gets turned off. People are motivated by love or fear in such a simple matter as paying the light bill. We do everything from a motivation of either love or fear. If you want to overcome fear and change that emotion to love then I encourage you to learn to firewalk. Learn to focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want. Each individual has a right to choose the power of love or the power of fear.

In my opinion, we’ve just scratched the surface of the potential of the firewalk. Firewalking creates many positive changes in ourselves and in the world around us. This is just the beginning. I believe we’ll see much more in the future. Firewalking gave me back my life. I want to pass that on to others.

“The mind is the most powerful tool
in the universe”

“I wanted to be a good sport. So I removed my shoes and socks. I watched a few people walking across that fire. Suddenly it hit me that I could do that, too. There was just no reason not to do it. It was as if I had heard a voice saying ‘Go for it. There’s nothing stopping you but your fear.’ I walked up to the fire and strolled across it.”

Jim Jarvis is available for firewalking demonstrations & seminars.
He can be reached at: ***

Dancing With the Fire – The Skeptical Mind

The Skeptical Mind

by Michael Sky

When we are certain that a phenomenon such as firewalking does not happen, we are really saying: “My basic knowledge of how the universe works is so complete and so accurate that the cosmos holds no more surprises for me. I know all the real truths and the details will all fit them.”

How sad … If only experience and life would not keep teaching us how little we know.

Sit down before fact like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.

Doubt is not ultimately transcended through beliefs. Doubt is a state of mind that is fundamentally without content. It is an expression of the contraction of the being. It is not cured with positive beliefs that are the opposite of doubt. It is cured by the release of this contraction so that there is a continuity between consciousness and forms and relations, and unobstructed continuity between the being and Reality altogether.

The first barrier which most people encounter on their way to the firewalk is something which I call the skeptical mind. The skeptical mind is that part of us which tends to doubt and distrust certain things, especially things which we have never experienced before, such as Firewalking. It is a ‘show-me’ attitude, which assumes that something is false until proven true, a predisposition of disbelief toward anything which would stretch us even slightly beyond our current convictions about the nature of things. Persisted in, it becomes a mentally, emotionally, and physically ingrained habit, a fixed posture of skepticism, from which it is impossible to even entertain notions such as Firewalk, much less to participate in and truly learn from such realities.

The skeptical mind is a total way of being in the world which is endemic to our culture, a highly valued trait within our scientific, medical, legal, media, business, and educational communities. All of us carry some degree of the skeptical edge in our lives, though for some it is much sharper than for others. It is a deeply rooted pattern of psycho-physical response, taught to us at an early age, and supported by virtually all of our cultural institutions.

Above all, the skeptical mind is viewed as absolutely essential to our survival in these modern times. This is a dog-eat-dog world after all, filled with harsh truths and hard realities, filled to the brim with shams and charlatans, rip-offs and scams, so many fictions masquerading as fact. Our survival depends upon our ability to separate the snake oil from the real thing, to discern the true from the false. Thus, we talk of healthy skepticism, of street-smarts, of hard-bitten cynicism, and of cold, relentless logic, all terms which suggest strength and intelligence to us. Asked to define the opposite of skepticism, we will usually come up with words such as naivety, romanticism, idealism, and innocence, all suggestive of weakness and stupidity.

In fact, the word skepticism means doubt, distrust, and disbelief, and its true opposites are faith, trust, and openness. The more we approach the circumstances of our lives with the attitudes of doubt, distrust, and disbelief, the more fully committed we become, mentally, emotionally, and physically, to the skeptical mind and the resulting posture of skepticism. The more fully we have adopted a posture of skepticism, the more difficult it becomes to approach anything in life with the attitude and posture of open faith and trust. This is especially true for new things, strange things, foreign things, unheard of things, ‘too good to be true’ things, and ‘impossible’ things. Eventually, a deeply ingrained posture of skepticism operates like a set of blinders which will effectively screen from one’s awareness anything ‘out of the ordinary.’ It is then no longer a matter of doubting and distrusting such possibilities — the skeptical mind simply will not see them to begin with.

I must stress at this point that in using the term ‘the skeptical mind’ I am not implying that the mind is by nature skeptical. Quite to the contrary, I believe that the human mind is essentially open, trusting, and believing and that skepticism is a trait which most minds learn which then develops into an overall way of being in the world, a posture of skepticism, very much to the mind’s detriment. Ultimately, skepticism is nothing but a bad habit, necessary in the way that bad habits are always necessary, but ultimately of no redeeming value to the human species.

To those who might argue that skepticism is vital to good science, I would answer that the very best scientists are children. During their first seven years, children are endlessly exploring, touching, tasting, and smelling life; testing, trying out, and learning, learning, learning, absorbing vast quantities of data. Their brains expand in great bursts of cellular growth, their eyes and ears wide open and accepting of everything. They steadily expand their understanding of the world, figuring out gravity and nourishment and human relationship, a breakthrough every hour, a Nobel prize worth of discovery every day — and they do it all, this prodigious learning, without the slightest trace of skepticism, without the slightest need for doubt, distrust, or disbelief. Rather, it is precisely the child’s wide-eyed innocence and absolute believing which makes such learning possible.

Likewise, to those who would argue that a good, healthy dose of skepticism is necessary protection in this cruel-hearted world, helping us to ‘wise up’ and ‘know better keeping us from buying all of the various Brooklyn Bridges that life offers, I would point out that it is informed intelligence that keeps us from such follies, not skepticism. It is quite possible to be wide-open and trusting of all that comes one’s way and to still say no to those things which sound false or misleading. In fact, experienced con artists claim that the best marks are those who appear to be rigidly skeptical, as it is simply a matter of using their prejudices against them. A skeptical mind is invariably a closed mind, is invariably a crippled mind. Truly, skepticism is neither essential to the learning process nor essential to the intelligent negotiation of life, and is ultimately a serious hindrance to both. This has not, however, prevented the skeptical mind from becoming one of the most highly valued and firmly rooted traits of Western culture.

It has been through such a deeply rooted posture of skepticism that the Western world has always viewed the firewalk. To date there have been only a few scientific investigations of the firewalk, and what little literature there is on the subject is for the most part anecdotal in nature. There have been a small number of Western institutions that have gone off to various parts of the world to report on the subject, and they have always confirmed that it is in fact happening. Many such reports have included a theoretical explanation of the event, while on other occasions the investigators have admitted to being stymied by what they witnessed. Yet, despite the widely known and highly provocative nature of the firewalk, very little serious scientific investigation of the phenomenon has ever been pursued.

This is especially ironic since the scientific community has for so many years dismissed out of hand most, if not all, paranormal phenomena, such as the firewalk, for being anecdotal, unverifiable, and experimentally unrepeatable. Since the early 1980s there have been a number of firewalkers such as myself traveling about, in full public view, and essentially performing the same experiment over and over and over again, with the same basic results, while enthusiastically inviting full scientific scrutiny. Yet, as I say, the scientific community has for the most part been unwilling to approach the firewalk, unwilling to study it, and unwilling to learn from the data it presents.

Quite to the contrary, there has always been a rather studious avoidance of such a study. As Dr. Andrew Weil points out: “Hardly any physiologists or medical scientists have studied the phenomenon, and those who have written about it have mostly tried to make it appear unremarkable. Their aim is to defuse the challenge it poses to the materialistic conception of the human organism.” Up until a few years ago the Western world, entrenched within its posture of skepticism, was content to simply say, “It’s impossible; it’s a trick, a sham; it can’t be happening” and to let it go at that, enough said, no need for any further thought, just another instance of phenomenal flotsam from the uncivilized world. Over the years, however, the reports from well-respected observers have slowly gathered, saying that it is indeed happening, that the coals are very hot, the feet uncalloused and untreated, and that real people are really walking without burning. These reports, coupled with the recent well-publicized Firewalking in the United States, have made it impossible for the skeptics to simply deny the experience any longer. Yet this has not led, as one might have thought, to an eager rush to understand how it could be happening, but instead to the next defense of the skeptical mind: that of explaining it away.

‘Explain-aways’ begin to arise when the skeptical mind is finally willing to admit that firewalkers are in fact doing what they have always been claiming to do, that the coals are hot, and that the walking happens — for the most part without burning. Having acceded that much, the skeptical mind is usually not at all willing to then allow that this happens for the reasons that the firewalkers give: that it is a demonstration of some new evolutionary capacity of humankind, or of mind over matter, or of possession by God, or of connection to the spirit of the fire, or of any other such ‘exotic’ explanation. No, indeed not. At this point the skeptical mind says: “Enough is enough. While Firewalk may be fact, there must surely be, must surely be, some perfectly reasonable and totally physical explanation.” That is, “Yes it is happening, but it is only something which looks difficult and really isn’t, like an optical illusion, and here is an explanation. We’ve explained it away, and now back to serious matters.” Unfortunately, as Dr. Weil puts it, the real appeal of all ‘explain-aways’ is that they avoid “any reference to the mind or the power of consciousness to modify physical reality.”

I do not mean to suggest that science is some great and nasty monolith which has unfairly spurned the poor firewalk these many years. Rather, I am saying that science, in so thoroughly committing itself to the necessity of the posture of skepticism, has by definition greatly limited its field of enquiry and what is permitted to count as ‘good science.’ It has developed a knack for quickly explaining away any data which manage to slip through the perimeters of the current scientific paradigms. Harking back to Einstein’s comment, “It was as if the earth was pulled out from under one,” we can certainly understand the scientist’s reluctance to allow human consciousness into the creative machinery of life; it does make for rather messy data!

The reigning ‘explain-away’ for years has been that Firewalk is a demonstration of something called the Leidenfrost effect. The Leidenfrost effect, named after the German scientist who first studied it, is what happens when you sprinkle water onto a very hot skillet, and, instead of immediately evaporating, it retains its shape and bounces around on the skillet for a few moments. This occurs when the heat is at just the right temperature to evaporate the bottom layer of the drop of water. The vapor then, in effect, becomes an insulating layer for the rest of the drop, protecting it from the heat. The bottom layer of water will continuously evaporate, while the rest of the drop above continues to feed water into it, until eventually the whole drop disappears. Extrapolating, rather extravagantly I think, from that piece of data, skeptics have reasoned that what happens at a firewalk is that participants get so nervous beforehand that their feet sweat and that, a la Leidenfrost, they are protected from the heat of the coals by a thin layer of insulating sweat.

Lately, a different ‘explain-away’ has been getting a lot of press. This argument draws a distinction between temperature and heat energy, pointing out that while two objects may be heated to the same temperature, they will contain different amounts of heat energy depending upon their differing masses, and that it is heat energy which causes burning, not temperature. As an example, imagine reaching into a hot oven to retrieve a baking pan. Though the air inside the oven and the baking pan are both heated to the same temperature, your hand will not be burned by the air because it is of such little mass that it holds very little heat energy. The pan, however, has a much higher mass, contains much more heat energy, and will burn you if you do not protect your hand. This theory continues by saying that burning embers contain very little mass in relation to the mass of human feet and thus cannot contain enough heat energy to do any damage.

A major refutation of these, and any other ‘explain-aways’ that the skeptical mind might come up with, comes from burn specialists. Those who have worked in hospital burn units for any appreciable length of time have invariably treated victims of similar fires, i.e., those who have stepped accidentally on campfires or upon stray barbeque coals, or have come into brief contact with fireplace logs. Such specialists are generally quite explicit about what ought to happen when a person steps on a fire of the sort that firewalkers use: instantaneous second- and/or third degree burning. This is expert testimony, coming from years of direct experience with different types of fire and its effect upon the human body. As I say, most of the doctors that I have spoken with have been quite clear that something extraordinary is happening at a firewalk.

I say ‘most of the doctors’ because I have known of a few burn specialists who have landed in the skeptic’s camp, arguing that it is impossible to get badly burned at a firewalk. However, even the most sophisticated of arguments against the possibility of being burned by hot coals tends to break down when you talk to someone who has actually been burned, and has suffered greatly, from such an experience. I have had six campfire burn victims show up at my firewalks, each having once been very badly burned by a campfire. All of them successfully firewalked, and all were totally certain that the fire which had burned them earlier in life was much cooler, and their contact with it much shorter in duration. One was so impressed by his experience that he is now leading firewalk himself. Still, this is at best anecdotal evidence.

The main problem with any explanation of why ‘you really can’t get burned at a firewalk’ is that people do in fact get burned at firewalk! As mentioned in the previous chapter, I have not come across a single reference to Firewalking anywhere that did not include some warning about the possibility of being burned. In other parts of the world, there are reports of people who have been crippled or fatally injured while Firewalking. While, to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever been so seriously burned in the United States, it is not at all uncommon for people to experience burning pain and to develop blisters as a result of Firewalking. I could safely say that all continuing firewalkers eventually get a nasty burn, and that at the end of any given firewalk there are at least a couple of walkers who are feeling pain. These are generally pretty benign affairs: a few sharply stinging spots on the bottoms of the feet, lasting for an hour or two, and then lingering as blisters on the sole of the foot for a few days, or at most a hobbled week or so. I know of several people who have gone to hospital emergency rooms in great pain after Firewalking, including three who were diagnosed by the receiving doctor as having severe second-degree bums, and of one man who spent a month on crutches after one of my firewalks. I have personally had a few rather long, painful nights myself, my foot in a bucket of cold water, when I wished very much that it was impossible to get burned at a firewalk!

But people do get burned, all the time. And while bums and blisters are a somewhat unpleasant aspect of firewalking that I often wish would go away, they do at the same time very clearly serve to validate the process. Having watched thousands of people go through the firewalk, and having followed up with many who were burned, and many more who were not, all that I have seen has led me to the very firm conclusion that burns are somehow caused from inside the person, rather than by the fire. Each time I lead a firewalk I use the same amount of the same kind of wood, and I burn it for the same length of time, raking it into a path of the same dimensions, meticulously preparing it in the same way. And yet, from firewalk to firewalk, from experiment to experiment, sometimes there are burns, and sometimes there are not. The fire has burned as a constant, unchanging stimulus. The only changing factor has been the psycho-emotional state of the individual walkers.

Even more compelling is the testimony of experienced walkers, such as myself. To have walked on fire a dozen or more times, to have had the experience on some nights of being able to do just about anything with the fire — dancing, slow dancing, standing still, laughing through it all and feeling no heat whatsoever — and then to stand in front of another fire and hear a voice inside screaming “not tonight!” and sure enough, with the first step forward, to experience a burst of heat and a piercing pain: having gone through this more than a few times, and swapped notes with others who have done likewise, I am firmly convinced that the primary cause of burning at a firewalk is the consciousness of the individual walker, in combination with the collective consciousness of the entire group involved.

The testimony of burn specialists, combined with the continuing experience of thousands and thousands of firewalkers, would seem to present a good case for the basic premise of firewalking: that a fire which would ordinarily burn does not, and that human consciousness is a primary causative factor for this phenomenon. Yet, even with such evidence, most skeptics, firmly committed as they are to a posture of doubt, distrust, and disbelief, will continue to generate ‘explain-aways’ I have watched the minds of some people, just minutes after firewalking, start sending up the disclaimers: “That fire didn’t seem so hot,” “It was only a few steps,” “It was only a few seconds,” “We walked so fast,” “If everyone did it that must prove you can’t get burned.” This no longer surprises me, for it has been my experience that most if not all of us will have to wrestle through such moments of skepticism, such dark nights of the soul, while our minds scramble to invalidate the simple miracle of the firewalk.

Indeed, I find it difficult to even write the word ‘miracle,’ much less announce that I will be performing one with twenty other people next Friday night at 10 pm! Presumptuous, to say the least, with an unhealthy dose of hubris. And yet, looking the word ‘miracle’ up in the dictionary, I find it defined as “an event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a divine source.” Which is exactly what a firewalk is.

Let’s divide this definition into three parts. First, a firewalk is certainly an event in the physical world. These are real feet stepping onto real fire without really burning. It is most definitely not a case of mass hypnosis or shared hallucination or any such thing.

Second, it is an event which surpasses all known human or natural powers. The emphasis here is on the word ‘known,’ meaning that while firewalking is beyond our current understanding of human or natural powers, it is by no means unknowable. Very often the vehemence and, at times, the outright anger with which skeptics view events like firewalking stems from the mistaken belief that such paranormal phenomena discount the laws of nature, or that they deny the fact that we do live in an orderly universe which can be systematically studied and understood. The firewalk can seem like a very large slap in the face to those whose lives are devoted to such study, both contradicting and threatening their life works, that they will typically react by arguing vigorously against its possibility.

But firewalking is not, by any means or manner of reckoning, a refutation of the laws of physics or a denial that there is an underlying order to this universe which can be systematically understood. It is merely a firm reminder that there are still large gaps in our knowledge, that our minds must remain relentlessly open to new learnings, and that our understanding must be expected and permitted to grow. Simply consider the lessons that Copernicus, Galileo, Columbus, and Einstein brought to the world: each introduced radical new concepts that were contradictory to the known laws of nature in their time; each met with hostile skepticism; and each, ultimately, ushered in a fresh new wave of understanding which encompassed and went beyond all that was known before. In like manner, the firewalk is a teaching which goes against our current understanding and which promises to deliver several important insights into the workings of the world. It only remains for us to have the courage and the willingness to truly look, listen, and learn.

The third part of the definition of a miracle is that it is an event which is ascribed to a divine source. Looking further through the dictionary, we find that ‘divine’ is defined as ‘God-like,’ and ‘God’ is defined as ‘the creator.’ Given the basic premise of the firewalk, as introduced in Chapter 2 — that there is an ongoing co-creative process, or divine intelligence, which determines the way that the world is, the very fabric of reality, and the laws which govern it; that each of us is a vital and integral part of that process; and that all human beings are potentially co-creators of this world — then it follows that the firewalk may indeed be ascribed to a divine source, which is ourselves!

Harumph and pshaw, yikes and arrgh, the textbook skeptic reels away from this suggestion that we are divine, literally feels revulsion towards such a notion, turns red in the face, grits teeth and clenches fists, screams of pantheism and paganism, of witchcraft and heresy; or chuckles wryly at such misinformed romanticism, lightly dismissing the very idea as naive, primitive, and sadly innocent.

We have now arrived at the root of the skeptical mind, at the very source of all the skepticism that the world has ever known and experienced. For behind all of the doubting, all of the distrusting, and all of the disbelieving of the posture of skepticism, lies this essential doubt, this essential distrust, this essential disbelief in ourselves as co-creators, in our connection to the primary creative forces of this world. The basic denial of our true divine nature becomes a denial of all of life. The basic stance of skepticism taken toward our own true role as co-creators becomes an ingrained habit of skepticism which colors every other aspect of our lives.

Simply consider this: if our basic premise is correct — that we contribute to the creation of reality through our thoughts and feelings — and we disagree, saying that our thoughts do not have creative impact and that our feelings do not have creative impact, then it will follow, quite ironically, that our thoughts and feelings will not have creative power and we will be quite right in proclaiming our lack of divinity. This is the original self-fulfilling prophecy (actually it is a self-frustrating prophecy), the catch-22 of all catch-22s. The more fervently we argue against our co-creative powers, the more surely we empower that reality. The more clever and complete our proof that we are not divine by nature, the more evidence we will be able to find to support our lack of divinity. As Richard Bach puts it so concisely in Illusions: “Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they’re yours.” To which we might add: “The more clever and determined your argument, the more limited you will be.” And then a corollary: “Argue for your greatness and that too shall be yours.”

Of course, it is quite true that as we look out at the world we see very little evidence of such greatness, very little evidence of humankind’s divine nature, very little evidence that human beings somehow contribute to the creation of the external world through the movement of their internal processes. We must constantly remember that arguing from past cases has little relevance during evolutionary leaps. Caterpillars cannot conceive of flying; apes cannot conceive of conceiving. Like a child-king, humanity has long lived with the promise of power while being too young, too immature, too unevolved, to truly fulfill that promise. We have had our many masters, our Christs and Buddhas, the evolutionary mutants, living examples of our true nature, breathing reminders of our ultimate potential, always demonstrating the possible while saying, “You can do this too.” That we have as yet failed to realize our full potential can be an indictment of humanity or a promise for the future. I am inclined toward the latter view and feel that the firewalk’s present-day arrival in the land of skepticism suggests that we may be ready at last to fully embrace our true nature.

Every firewalker is saying about himself or herself: There is an ongoing, co-creative process which determines the very fabric of reality and the laws which govern it and I, as a conscious human being, am an integral part of that process; there is a divine, creative energy pulsing through all of this universe and I, as a conscious, evolutionary human, am the living embodiment of that divine energy. As we, individually and collectively, begin to truly have faith (which equals belief without proof, the very opposite of skepticism) in this possibility; as we truly honor our own divinity; as we truly believe in the creative impact that we have upon our world; as we take full responsibility for our vital roles as co-creators; as we finally and completely lift the veils of skepticism and doubt to behold the magical child, the wondrous, ancient, and eternal soul, the higher self, the holy one, the Godhead, the Christ, as we look upon ourselves and say, “Yes, amen, I am that I AM, so be it!”; then, by reflection, we have also affirmed this for our entire world. We can then experience a co-creative energy which is flowing through each of us, through all people, linking all of humanity together as one, and deeply and profoundly connecting us to the living consciousness of this planet.

Thus is our age-old prophecy and dream of heaven on Earth, of one peaceful world, made manifest. One who experiences that all of life is divinely connected finds it impossible to ever knowingly harm another; finds oneself, indeed, compelled toward a life of good and harmonious thoughts, words, and deeds. It is the transformation of our entire planet, and it begins with each of us looking inside and saying, “Yes, I am divine, I am co-creator of this world; my every conscious moment matters, deeply, fully, profoundly.”

The skeptical mind will point to the world as it is, saying, “Read the papers, watch the six o’clock news, observe the hopelessness, the helplessness, the despair, the confusion, the stupid depravity of our race, Where is the divine, where are these promised Gods, what is this foolishness!?” This is like the scientist removing a fish from water to study it upon a laboratory table for several hours until it is proven that fish can’t exist because the damn thing died! Likewise, in allowing and strongly investing in a deeply-ingrained and profoundly rooted atmosphere of skeptical doubt, distrust, and disbelief, we have created an environment which is poisonous to the human spirit, which is openly hostile to our divine nature, and which works totally against the realization of our greatest dreams and most inspired possibilities. Indeed, the term ‘healthy skepticism’ is an outright lie, and could not be further from the truth, for skepticism always poisons, always attacks, always belittles, always defeats. All skepticism is by nature and definition unhealthy, for it begins with the denial of the essential human spirit, a denial which tragically prevents that spirit from coming forth in the world. Far from protecting, such chronic skepticism stifles and suffocates the body, narrows the vision, depresses the mind, inhibits relationship, and argues feverishly, and oh so cleverly, against the very possibility of embodied spirit, against the very precious possibility that we are each co-creators of this life.

Still, it must be conceded that all of these words are bound to fall like so much water on the rock-hard logic of the skeptical mind. We will probably never manage to completely convince the skeptical mind of the essential goodness of humanity, nor of its essential divine nature, nor of its vast reservoirs of untapped creative potential. The forever self-defeating nature of the skeptical mind is such that it cannot see beyond the created limitations of its own presumptions. Thus, we could do happy cartwheels through the hottest of fires (and have), laughing all the while, and the skeptical mind will immediately explain it all away, without considering for even the briefest moment that it might be true, that there might be a very new and different way of looking at the world. And, if we were then to point out the explicitly suicidal nature of such arguments, the skeptical mind would only dig in deeper still, threatened and offended and ever more determined to put an end to such nonsense. “Argue for your limitations and they’re yours,” warned a reluctant messiah. Sadly, the skeptic argues on, bound and determined to be dead right.

There is the story of a monkey who saw a caged bird and reached through the bars of the cage to grab it, thinking of dinner. Once having grasped the bird, however, his hand became too large to remove through the narrow bars. Though freedom lay in simply releasing the bird, the monkey just could not let go of something which had once seemed so important, and thus eventually died, still clinging to the bird.

Let us not also perish while clinging to a vision of ourselves which is negative, limiting, and stuck in the past. Our greatest teachers have told us that entering into the new world will require the easy innocence and open faith of a child. The evolutionary leap and the leap of faith are one and the same: a courageous leap beyond the narrow bars of skepticism and into a new world of abiding trust and unshakable belief in the divine nature of humankind. It is a leap which each of us must take individually, deeply affirming our divine purpose, acknowledging responsibility for our role as conscious participants in the evolutionary process, and accepting and gladly exercising our ability to positively impact our world. Slowly but surely an atmosphere of openness, faith, trust, and belief will be created, an atmosphere which will affirm, nurture, and support the very best that we could become, the very best of all possible worlds.

Firewalking Cartoon and 1986 Firewalk Flyer

I just got this flyer of firewalking from someone who attended Steve Bisyak’s Firewalk in 1986.  Bisyak was one of the original Firewalkers from the 1980′s that made Firewalking popular in the West.

Check out the Firewalking Cartoon on the flyer.

Firewalk Cartoon - At the Swamis' Picnic

Firewalk Cartoon – At the Swamis’ Picnic

At the Swamis’ Picnic

“So Waddya think?”

“Stupid coals still aren’t hot enough!”

Steve Bisyak Workshop Flyer

A Seminar for Overcoming Fear and Limiting Beliefs

“There is nothing to fear but fear itself.” Does this well know phrase apply to any area of your life?  Have you ever not taken action in your life because you were afraid or unsure of the outcome of your decision?

Many people let fear stand in the way of following through on ideas which, if allowed to flourish and grow to maturity, could benefit themselves and others. Many people allow fear to influence their decisions to such an extent that they seldom accomplish what they truly desire. Stop for just a moment and consider what our world would be like today if fear had been allowed dominance in the minds and hearts of the great scientists, inventors, creators and artists of the past. We all have the potential to create and to discover; to advance our minds and abilities in limitless ways!  That potential is our power, but if we deny our inherent power, what’s left is fear!

This seminar, presented by Mr. Steven Bisyak, National Firewalking Instructor, will give you the tools necessary to form a relationship with fear in which you are in control. The four-hour workshop includes demonstrations, exercise and sharing in which you will gain a sense of knowing and understanding your true potential. The evening will climax with an optional demonstration of firewalking in which you will witness the Bisyaks walk barefooted over 1500 degree hot coals and be given the opportunity to walk also, if you so choose. The firewalk itself is purely voluntary, and those who do not walk learn just as much as those who do.

Firewalking in Los Angeles (LA)

Firewalks in Los Angeles (LA) are usually hard to locate. But if you are willing to drive 90 minutes to North San Diego County you can attend one almost every month. No need to stay over, it can be an afternoon and evening outing and home before midnight. And from Orange County it is even closer.

The Firewalking Experience consistently helps people be free of obstacles and have a successful mindset and be powerful to create what they want in life.

Please add yourself to the Firewalking invite list and we will let you know when the next one is.

Breakthrough with Tony Robbins

Tony Robbins recently announced his reality show of firewalking called “Breakthrough with Tony Robbins“.  He even has a fanpage on Facebook for it.

The breakthrough finalee was recorded last month. I’m looking forward to seeing the show when it comes out.

From the marketing, the participants’ breakthroughs appear to be across the board in many areas of life. For Reality TV this will appeal to the general audience.

Though the elements to create a breakthrough are the same for almost any situation, we create  Breakthroughs just for Entrepreneurs. We can make a bigger difference tailoring the experience to the unique set of issue that entrepreneurs face in their business and life. Raising capital, maintaining a sales force, running operations, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle under pressure are just a few of the issues entrepreneurs face.

Our Firewalking Experience is a little bit different than Tony Robbins, too. You can read about the differences here.

In addition to the Firewalking Experience, you can read about our other Breakthroughs for Entreprenuers on LivePowerfully.com