When I recently noticed someone new following me on Twitter—a rep from a United Kingdom firewalking company—I laughed out loud. Cliched scenes of firewalking from the movies raced through my mind but then I thought, hmm, sounds kind of cool.
Well, turns out I’m not the only who finds this ancient spiritual act intriguing.
Firewalking, the act of walking over a bed of hot coals or embers barefoot, has been practiced in cultures throughout the world and dates back to Iron Age India, 1200 BC. The phenomenon has been used as a test of courage, strength or faith.
Today, there is a hot bed (couldn’t resist) of firewalking instructors guiding corporate clients through team-building and self-confidence building firewalking events for their employees.
Greg Peterson, an executive instructor for Dallas-based Firewalking Institute of Research and Education, said firewalking is an effective metaphor for reaching beyond a goal. The event can last from two to four hours and is ideal for sales teams, he said. It takes that long to get participants in the right state of mind.
Tolly Burkan, a self-proclaimed founding father of the modern day global firewalking movement and author of “Extreme Spirituality: Radical Approaches to Awakening,” touts firewalking can allow people to break through their self-limitations. When people are in intimidating situations, Burkan said in an interview with Michael Shermer of “Skeptic Magazine,” they will remember that they walked on fire, an experience giving people a sense of what is possible and the courage to attempt things they have not attempted before.
That feeling is exactly what corporations are attempting to nurture from their employees at team-building events. However, setting up an event is not cheap. Peterson said the average cost of a firewalking event for up to 100 participants through his company is $10,000.
I won’t delve into the arguments of why most people don’t get burned when walking on fire. Physicists say it is not “mind over matter,” but simply that the amount of time feet are in contact with the embers is not enough time to induce a burn combined with the belief that coal is not a good conductor of heat.
You can watch the debate play out with Shermer in his You Tube video on firewalking.
Meanwhile, I think we all have been tested in our own ways, large and small. A recent trip my family took to Six Flags Great America was grounds for two modest monumental triumphs. Kevin, my husband and partner here at EventWax, focused sharply for perhaps 30 minutes on how he was going to climb a rope ladder to win a prize (or, more accurately, beat the game designed to make you fail). For two tries for $5, he wiped out on the first attempt, but then conquered on the second. This, at a carnival attraction where we hadn’t seen a single success all day. Nonetheless, this was his small, big victory.
My small, big win? On that same day, I strapped myself in next to my daughter for a ride on the wooden roller coaster American Eagle—backwards. Yea, careening backwards down that 147-foot drop. I can’t say I completely enjoyed it, but I can say I did it.
If you want to raise some eyebrows and build triumphs at your next seminar, meeting or party consider these sources for firewalking:
Firewalking Institute of Research and Education
