rockin'robin
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2007
- Messages
- 24,418
- Reaction score
- 551
Walking Barefoot Across Super-Hot Coals and Sharp Glass to Reignite Your Life
If someone told you that walking barefoot over a hot bed of glowing embers could change your life in dramatic, positive ways, instead of making you the main course in a bizarre barbecue, would you do it?
Or could you muster the courage to stroll barefoot across sharp broken glass without needing so much as a Band-Aid at the other end?
A lot of people are walking the walk and, as a result, overcoming personal fears and limitations in their lives.
Firewalking has a long history in many cultures, where it was originally used as a test of faith and a rite of passage for young boys coming of age into manhood.
At the Firewalking Institute of Research and Education in Dallas, Charles Horton teaches people that they have the power to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles in their daily lives.
"The message that we teach in all of our seminars is really about things that you build up in your head as being really difficult; getting the job or the mate of your dreams, or starting your own business. Whatever it is that's holding you back from accomplishing what you want, and the firewalk is just a wonderful example of that."
What may appear frightening at first glance is a stunning event to witness (and to experience first-hand, as I recently discovered) as people walk over fire or broken glass or attempt other exercises that produce a stronger, fresh attitude.
I went to a firewalking event at the New Jersey home of Michael Agugliaro, an entrepreneur and martial arts instructor for the past 25 years. He cautions about the potential danger.
"There's inherent risks in everything," he says. "With firewalking, you can end up with a little blister, or you can end up being burned. It's all in your belief of what's going to happen when you go across it."
I must admit that standing there, facing the 8-foot-long fire pit -- composed of several layers of wooden logs that are doused with kerosene and set ablaze -- and staring at the hot, glowing embers, one of those little voices in my head urged me to just get into the car and quickly drive home.
Instead, I took that tentative step and, moments later, at the other end of the pit, with embers trailing from my naked feet, I felt exhilarated and, if you will, empowered. And that's the whole point.
"The only reason you believe, at first, that something like this is not possible, is because you had this belief programmed as a child," Agugliaro says. "Somewhere along the way, you were told, 'Don't touch that, it's hot.' The belief is something you've been programmed with -- just step outside that belief and then everything's possible."
Firewalking Is Introduced to the Public
Agugliaro's wife, Jennifer, has done a dozen firewalks and notices something about people who come at it with a skeptical point of view.
"I find it very common that those who come and really think it's a lot of baloney, get burned pretty bad -- their mind is not where it really needs to be, and I believe that just comes from a place of fear," she says.
Tolly Burkan, a former professional magician, was the first person to introduce firewalking to the public in the late 1970s and founded the Firewalking Institute of Research and Education.
When Burkan first learned how to create a firewalk, he was under the impression that it was all a trick, until he tried it a few times. "Immediately, I thought, you know, this has the potential to knock people out of the rut of conventional thinking," he says. "This is remarkable and potentially life-changing."
Burkan decided to take the idea of firewalking out of the circus, sideshow arena and make it more available to the public as a personal-growth tool.
"I was the first one, and I knew that the key was I had to present it to people in such a way that they would take that first step," he says
And, in recent years, through Burkan's efforts, firewalking has been included in executive empowerment seminars at companies such as Microsoft and American Express.
Medicine vs. Skepticism
Burkan was invited in the mid-1980s to the home of Dr. Andrew Weil -- the internationally recognized leader in integrative medicine and founder of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson-- to conduct a firewalking seminar.
"I was very distracted at that event, I didn't do it in the right state, and I ended up with minor burns," Weil says.
At a later firewalk, where the pit was 40-feet long and much hotter than his previous attempt, Weil had a different experience. "There was no sensation of heat, it just felt crunchy," he says. "I could've done it all night, it was amazing."
Weil, who has twice appeared on the cover of Time magazine, believes that the difference between getting burned and not was in his mental state. But he doesn't think it's mind over matter.
"I think it's a mind-body phenomenon, that in a certain state of consciousness, the body can conduct heat away from the surface and not be injured," he says. "I think it's very relevant to medical practice and healing."
All of the mind-body implication stokes the critical fire of the world's leading skeptical organization, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
"Anyone can walk on fire," says Joe Nickell, senior research fellow at the Amherst, N.Y.-based group and author of numerous books, including "Secrets of the Sideshows."
"There's nothing special about it except there are laws of physics and these have been very well tested out, and people who follow these laws will do OK, regardless of their mental attitude or their belief in psychic energy."
(More on this story)......
Firewalking: Mind Over Matter or Tool for Personal Growth, or Both? - ABC News
If someone told you that walking barefoot over a hot bed of glowing embers could change your life in dramatic, positive ways, instead of making you the main course in a bizarre barbecue, would you do it?
Or could you muster the courage to stroll barefoot across sharp broken glass without needing so much as a Band-Aid at the other end?
A lot of people are walking the walk and, as a result, overcoming personal fears and limitations in their lives.
Firewalking has a long history in many cultures, where it was originally used as a test of faith and a rite of passage for young boys coming of age into manhood.
At the Firewalking Institute of Research and Education in Dallas, Charles Horton teaches people that they have the power to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles in their daily lives.
"The message that we teach in all of our seminars is really about things that you build up in your head as being really difficult; getting the job or the mate of your dreams, or starting your own business. Whatever it is that's holding you back from accomplishing what you want, and the firewalk is just a wonderful example of that."
What may appear frightening at first glance is a stunning event to witness (and to experience first-hand, as I recently discovered) as people walk over fire or broken glass or attempt other exercises that produce a stronger, fresh attitude.
I went to a firewalking event at the New Jersey home of Michael Agugliaro, an entrepreneur and martial arts instructor for the past 25 years. He cautions about the potential danger.
"There's inherent risks in everything," he says. "With firewalking, you can end up with a little blister, or you can end up being burned. It's all in your belief of what's going to happen when you go across it."
I must admit that standing there, facing the 8-foot-long fire pit -- composed of several layers of wooden logs that are doused with kerosene and set ablaze -- and staring at the hot, glowing embers, one of those little voices in my head urged me to just get into the car and quickly drive home.
Instead, I took that tentative step and, moments later, at the other end of the pit, with embers trailing from my naked feet, I felt exhilarated and, if you will, empowered. And that's the whole point.
"The only reason you believe, at first, that something like this is not possible, is because you had this belief programmed as a child," Agugliaro says. "Somewhere along the way, you were told, 'Don't touch that, it's hot.' The belief is something you've been programmed with -- just step outside that belief and then everything's possible."
Firewalking Is Introduced to the Public
Agugliaro's wife, Jennifer, has done a dozen firewalks and notices something about people who come at it with a skeptical point of view.
"I find it very common that those who come and really think it's a lot of baloney, get burned pretty bad -- their mind is not where it really needs to be, and I believe that just comes from a place of fear," she says.
Tolly Burkan, a former professional magician, was the first person to introduce firewalking to the public in the late 1970s and founded the Firewalking Institute of Research and Education.
When Burkan first learned how to create a firewalk, he was under the impression that it was all a trick, until he tried it a few times. "Immediately, I thought, you know, this has the potential to knock people out of the rut of conventional thinking," he says. "This is remarkable and potentially life-changing."
Burkan decided to take the idea of firewalking out of the circus, sideshow arena and make it more available to the public as a personal-growth tool.
"I was the first one, and I knew that the key was I had to present it to people in such a way that they would take that first step," he says
And, in recent years, through Burkan's efforts, firewalking has been included in executive empowerment seminars at companies such as Microsoft and American Express.
Medicine vs. Skepticism
Burkan was invited in the mid-1980s to the home of Dr. Andrew Weil -- the internationally recognized leader in integrative medicine and founder of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson-- to conduct a firewalking seminar.
"I was very distracted at that event, I didn't do it in the right state, and I ended up with minor burns," Weil says.
At a later firewalk, where the pit was 40-feet long and much hotter than his previous attempt, Weil had a different experience. "There was no sensation of heat, it just felt crunchy," he says. "I could've done it all night, it was amazing."
Weil, who has twice appeared on the cover of Time magazine, believes that the difference between getting burned and not was in his mental state. But he doesn't think it's mind over matter.
"I think it's a mind-body phenomenon, that in a certain state of consciousness, the body can conduct heat away from the surface and not be injured," he says. "I think it's very relevant to medical practice and healing."
All of the mind-body implication stokes the critical fire of the world's leading skeptical organization, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
"Anyone can walk on fire," says Joe Nickell, senior research fellow at the Amherst, N.Y.-based group and author of numerous books, including "Secrets of the Sideshows."
"There's nothing special about it except there are laws of physics and these have been very well tested out, and people who follow these laws will do OK, regardless of their mental attitude or their belief in psychic energy."
(More on this story)......
Firewalking: Mind Over Matter or Tool for Personal Growth, or Both? - ABC News