Here is the poem they read at his memorial.

THE FINAL FLIGHT Don’t grieve for me, for now i’m free, i’m following the path god laid for me. I took his hand when I heard his call, I turned my back and left it all. I could not stay another day, to laugh, to love, to work, to play. Tasks left undone must stay that way. I’ve found that peace at the end of the day. If my parting has left a void, then fill it with remembered joy. A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss, Ah, yes,these things too I will miss. Be not burdened with times of sorrow, I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow. My life’s been full, I savored much, good friends, good times, a loved one’touch. Perhaps my time seemed all to breif, Don’t lengthen it now with undue greif. Lift up your heart and share with me, God wanted me now, He set me free.

AUTHER: UNKNOWN

The People of San Diego will have the same opportunity to walk on a bed of hot coals this March 21st, 2010.

Date: Sunday March 21st, 2010

Time:

Gathering/Potluck: 5-6pm
Firewalk Ceremony: 6-9:30pm

Location:

Vista, CA

Do you remember the excitement and anticipation 10 years ago at the dawning of the new millennium 2000? Are you satisfied with where you are now and what you have accomplished in that time. Don’t give up on your dreams; get back on track for the next decade.

January 9th, 2010 could be the first day of the next 10 years of your life.

“Relaunch your business and life with the power, focus, leadership and resources required to create the dream and success you want for your life!”

The Firewalk Experience will help break through the obstacles that have you stuck and tolerating the way things are. This new found freedom will empower you to accomplish what was previously stuck and create what was once out of reach

Whether you believe in New Years Resolutions or not, this event will empower whatever you want to accomplish now.

The Firewalk Experience

(THIS FIREWALK IS NOW PAST)

Date: Sat, January 9th, 2010
Time: 4-8pm
Location: Vista, CA

Costs: $100

Note to the Firewalker’s Club: If you have firewalked with me before, please contact me for reduced rate to Firewalk again.

Facilitators: Julian Bergquist

Inspiration to Attend Firewalk

7 Reasons why People Firewalk

Watch the Firewalk Video

Firewalking Cartoon from 1986 – “Swamis at the Picnic”

Entrepreneurs, Face Your Fears (Slideshow)

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, 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 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.

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 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;

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 walking on a trail through some woods. A young recruit was walking 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 firewalk 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 firewalks. 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 firewalk 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: ***

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 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.

Check out the Firewalking Cartoon on the flyer.

Firewalk Cartoon - At the Swamis' Picnic

At the Swamis’ Picnic

“So Waddya think?”

“Stupid coals still aren’t hot enough!”

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.

The Firewalk 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 Firewalk invite list and we will let you know when the next one is.

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

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