Firewalking, next to prayer is one of the oldest transformational
tools the world has ever known. In native cultures, the shamans
and medicine men were called upon to walk on hot coals, rocks
or lava to purify the community. Surprisingly, firewalking
made its way into every single culture on the planet. Even
middle ages Christianity embraced the mysteries of firewalking.
Most often used as ritual purification, healing and worship,
firewalking is still being used today as a local custom in
such varied places as India, Spain, Bulgaria and Fiji.
The Catholic Church canonized St. Francis of Paola in 1519
in part because of his incredible ability to handle fire. In
front of church officials, St. Francis reached into a burning
fire and grabbed a handful of red-hot logs. He also stepped
into burning kilns, helping blacksmiths by handling red-hot
pieces of iron.
Firewalking in Africa, especially among the !Kung tribe of
the Kalahari Desert, has been used in powerful healing ceremonies
since their tribal beginnings. The !Kung are master firewalkers
and part of their ceremonies include rolling on the fire.
The
Kahunas of the Hawaiian Islands are also famous for their affinity
with fire. These island medicine-men walk over molten
lava.
Several North American Indian tribes were known to have
great fire handling capabilities. On the Indonesian Island
of Bali
young girls walk on fire because the Balinese believe the gods
to be "children of the people" so children perform
their ritual trance-dances. In India, Tibet, Sri Lanka, China,
Japan and Argentina people walk across fire as part of their
cultural heritage. In Sumatra, spirit mediums fill their mouths
with burning coals. Dervishes in Egypt and Algeria reportedly
swallow hot coals.
Firewalking is not a "hot new sport" but
rather a tradition as rich in ritual and culture as the history
of the
world. The opportunity to firewalk in modern times, especially
in Western Culture, is a relatively new phenomenon. Firewalking
was brought to a Western audience as recently as 1982, when
Peggy Dylan and Tolly Burkan began instructing firewalking
based on the Tibetan Buddhist model.
Stan Giles trained and
qualified with Peggy Dylan—the
mother of contemporary firewalking—who founded the SUNDOOR
Foundation for Transpersonal Education and Spiritual Leadership
Training. SUNDOOR is approved by the Robbins Research Foundation. |
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