A message fromTolly Burkan, founding father of the global firewalking movement.
After my first firewalk in 1977, I found I was able to attain virtually any goal. Since that fateful day, my life's been a wonderful adventure encompassing extreme sports like hang gliding and skydiving, as well as peak experiences connected with writing books and consciously creating the global firewalking movement.
I conceived the firewalking movement as a way for millions of ordinary people to have the personal empowerment of a firewalk experience. I was the only person in the entire world teaching firewalking classes from 1977 to 1984, and the demand for this service kept increasing. So, after being the first -- and only -- firewalking school in the world, in the early '80s, I began training firewalking instructors, founded the non-profit Firewalking Institute of Research and Education (originally Sundoor), established F.I.R.E. certification standards for teachers... creating, in effect, a snowball. When pushing a snowball downhill, there comes a point where you no longer have to do anything... the snowball just keeps going. After I taught firewalking to Peggy Dylan, Anthony Robbins and Michael Sky, who all later became popular authors in addition to leading firewalking seminars, the firewalking movement snowballed at a faster and faster pace. In Europe, I trained Rolf Beckman, whose firewalking classes can number a thousand people... increasing the momentum even more.
Today, because of all the firewalking classes now being offered on six continents, the snowball has become a virtual fireball... igniting the lives of over 3 million people worldwide... with no end in sight. Even beyond the 3 million who've firewalked themselves, 50 million viewers watched a firewalk prepared by a F.I.R.E. Certified instructor on the TV show Survivor.
Since no one before me had ever taught firewalking to ordinary people, I'm not sure if it was courage or stupidity that led me to take the awesome risk of selling firewalking classes to the general public while I was still only in my 20s. However, since no one else was using firewalking as a technique for personal growth, I simply decided that it was a service needing to be done. And now, 31 years later, Fortune 500 companies all over the globe, including such giants as Microsoft, Met-Life and Coca-Cola, regularly employ firewalking as a training tool and technique for personal growth.
My daughter Amber wanted to firewalk when she was only two years old. It wasn't until she turned four that I finally allowed her to do it. Risking considerable criticism, I let her walk across a 15 ft. coal-bed. I have no doubt this is one of the factors that helped make Amber who she is today. At age 18, she graduated with the second-highest academic average in her high school. When she was seven years old, she could bend a 3/8" thick steel bar. She earned a black belt in Karate at age 12. In May, 2007, Amber graduated from Berkeley (Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude) and has been accepted into the prestigious Coro Fellowship. I often think of her as "Ember" -- she burns so brightly.
I encourage you to firewalk. It's easy to join a class. There are almost 2,000 F.I.R.E. Certified instructors available internationally. Even though they all have unique and varied ways of teaching, you'll have your own personal and profound inner experience, which is simply the result of being touched by the fire.
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