FIREWALKING

The firewalk is the perfect metaphor to encompass all aspects of life, the full spectrum from anguish to bliss. It is the perfect catalyst to raise fears and doubts as well as to challenge people's concepts about physical reality, what is possible and impossible." Tolly Burkan

The power in the healing experiences is the power to transform people so that they are more fulfilled in their personal lives and more successful in their professional lives. As a form of symbolic healing, as a vehicle for promoting personal and spiritual growth... walking on fire is a metaphor for performing miracles and accomplishing the impossible.” Loring Danforth, Firewalking and Religious Healing

Firewalking demonstrates the reality of using non-ordinary states of consciousness to modify the body's responses to ordinarily harmful external stimulation. If you don't have to get pain, redness and blisters on exposure to a certain range and type of heat, then you don't have to get infections on exposure to germs, allergies on exposure to allergens, or cancer on exposure to carcinogens. What an exciting and largely uncharted territory in which to discover powerful new techniques to bolster natural resistance to disease!” Andrew Weil, MD, Health and Healing

When we are focused we become transcendent, radiant creatures of light, beings brighter than fire. Engaging our radiance, the firewalk lightens and enlightens us, stretching our perceived limits toward potentials unimagined.” Jonathan Sternfield, Firewalk

It is not only fire that acquires new meaning for those who attend firewalking workshops. Because fire is a symbol for the self and for the lives people lead, the firewalk also enables people to experience themselves and their lives in a new way. They acquire a new sense of identity, a more powerful self that cannot be burned... The American Firewalking movement... provides people with an opportunity to experience fire as a symbol of transformation and healing and in this way develop a more positive self-image and greater sense of self." Loring Danforth, Firewalking and Religious Healing

You must push yourself beyond your limits. There are lots of things which you do now which would have seemed insane to you ten years ago. Those things themselves did not change, but your idea of yourself changed. What was impossible before is perfectly possible now.” Carlos Casteneda, Tales of Power

The supreme goal of alchemy is not turning a slab of lead into gold, or even transmuting sickness into health or fear into power. Alchemy aims high, seeking the very elixir of life. Such, I believe, is the real purpose of the firewalk. Perhaps it will teach us that we already have the elixir of life within us, and we need only use our precious share to make more.” Jonathan Sternfield, Firewalk

What I was left with was my own experience of it — an experience that I knew, from the moment I had walked across the coals, would change my entire life.” Tolly Burkan

I am still in awe of the transformation I am experiencing. For the first time in my life, I am at a loss for words to adequately describe my feelings.” Pat Schirrmacher (poet)

Firewalking and firehandling seem to be the nexus of fear and faith, of flesh and fire, a crossing point where varying blends of these elements yield astounding results. From the mouths of firewalkers, firehandlers and fire researchers, I've repeatedly heard that the common denominator is faith. But what exactly is this ethereal concept, faith, and how could it have such profound physiological impacts? Faith is a state of mind that undermines all our worldly beliefs. It can be confirmed neither by science nor by the human senses, but only through inner knowing. Yet with faith, we are elevated, connected to a vast potential where the forces of this world are robbed of their ordinary power and all things become possible. Firewalking, then, appears to be an expression of faith. From another perspective, it is an expression of mind over matter, an alteration of the properties of the human body through the action of psychology alone. Often mind over matter is considered to be an expression of the paranormal; however, there are countless examples of it in our daily lives. Every time we move our body, we use mind to direct matter. If we stop to examine it, the simple lifting of an arm is a miracle in itself.” Jonathan Sternfield, Firewalk

The act of walking on fire imparts lessons in walking through all of life — lessons in biology and psychology, in ecology and theology, in taking risks, in group dynamics, in singing, dancing and breathing, in the conscious creation of reality. Firewalking is a model for the positive experience and expression of the positive energies of fear... a metaphor for living and spontaneity, joy and excitement.” Michael Sky, Dancing with the Fire

The first time I walked, it changed my entire life. I can do more things now than I ever thought I could... I'm more outgoing — I used to be more shy and inward, but I'm not anymore. I recommend it to all my friends.” Meegan Kenney

I really feel a calmness, a kind of peacefulness and at the same time a sort of excitement at having accomplished something that part of me thought was impossible. All I know is I walked on fire. And it's a seemingly impossible thing to walk on fire and not be burned. And I've done it. So there are other things that are seemingly impossible in my life that I can do... and I'm doing them. It's changed my life dramatically.” Jonathan Sternfield, Firewalk

The fire within us is a fire of transformation... We have to try to use the fire as a mirror for the fire within ourselves. It's an open door. You can walk through the fire, and you can heal your relationships.” Ken Cadigan

Walking on fire is a profound transformational tool, and I highly recommend it to my patients. It is a way to shift them to the next level of body awareness in their healing process.” Dr. Arthur Fagenholtz

Once you go through the fire, all the pettiness you felt in life is an extreme waste of time. After walking, you're aware of more, you feel things more." Richard Reynolds

It's not a grand revelation. The sky doesn't open up. But it's basic: you feel more confident, you step forward. The basic state of mind you need to get into for this, which is a lot of concentration, I've applied to business, sales, martial arts — it's very, very applicable.” Jonathan Sternfield, Firewalk

Firewalking, I believe, is far more than a mystical stunt, far more than a religious ritual, a test of faith or a ceremony of empowerment. Firewalking, I have come to believe, is an evolutionary stimulant, a prod that we can consciously use to become more than we ever imagined ourselves to be. Even through word or picture, the prospect of walking on red-hot coals quickens us, kindling in us the light of untried possibility. By that light, we can begin to see our own nature more clearly and completely.” Jonathan Sternfield, Firewalk

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We recommend the following books on firewalking:

Firewalking: The Psychology of Physical Immunity by Jonathan Sternfield, Berkshire House

Firewalking and Religious Healing by Loring Danforth, Princeton University Press

Dancing with the Fire by Michael Sky, Bear & Co.

Stories of the Fire: Personal Growth Through Firewalking by Michael McDermott, www.firewalking99.com