Some years ago, my wife and I were invited to do a fire walk. We built a BIG fire – over 8 feet tall and 20 feet across we stacked the wood – then burned it down to a 15 foot round bed of hot coals. It was so hot in fact that we burned our faces from several feet back.

Sure it’s possible to walk on coals – lots of people have done it before and not gotten so much as an ouch of a burn. But I had not done it before – and even after the first person walked across – and even though we knew scientifically and spiritually that it was possible – the HEAT and FIRE coupled with our own past experiences with fire – I had been burned badly on my feet in a fire in the garage in our old house – confronted us with the real possibility of serious injury.

FIRE BURNS FLESH!!! My body knows it – which is why I don’t put my hand on the hot stove on purpose. My body knows about heat and knows how to react to it – mostly by AVOIDING IT.

I don’t care how much you believe you can do it – when you stand at the precipice and your face and arms are burning from the heat – you are face to face with one of the greatest inbred fears of animal-kind – the fear of fire – ala Frankenstein’s monster. All animals are afraid of fire – including humans. Fire is TERRIFYING.

What would it take to make me step from the cool grass onto the superheated hot coals?

In my case, it was curiosity. I was SO driven by curiosity that I walked right across – the second person across after the host. I’d have been first if we did not honor the host with being first.

Curiosity => Motivation => Firewalk

I’ve seen and heard “experts” who complain that a firewalk is no big deal because physics will take care of you. Others have written that it’s some kind of mystical spiritual power that protects the walker. I don’t care what “power” or physical law makes walking on fire possible. That’s not the point of the walk. The point is to overcome your fear. And I will tell you from personal experience, that first step is FULL of doubt and apprehension – FEAR. There is a REASON firefighters wear protective clothing – you don’t find them going barefooted into a burning building…

So, what did I learn from walking on fire:

• Not everything I fear is insurmountable
• When I’m face-to-face with deathly fear, I’m on the precipice – just a few steps across the coals away from success
• As I was burned slightly on the first crossing, after the third crossing, I realized that I would be okay even though I was burned the first time
• Until my foot touched the coals, it was just theory
• The hotter the coals, the better the walk across them
• I (and my body) am more powerful than I once believed
• My fear kept my feet safe from burning – fear can be my friend and ally

Courage is when you feel the fear and do it anyway. Courage? It didn’t seem like it to me at the time. We just DID WHAT HAD TO BE DONE. But it WAS courageous because we felt the fear and did it anyway.

I satisfied my curiosity.

The very next year, I rappelled out of a helicopter for the first time. My fear of heights kicked in BIG TIME. Still, I made it down the 100 foot rope to the ground with no trouble at all. And just to really face my fear of heights, I did the rappel Australian – facing toward the ground – fast. It was terrifying – and exhilarating. I did it three more times that day. The third time was FUN!

At age 13, my son rappelled for the first time – down a 60 foot wall. It was terrifying for him – the scratch marks at the top bare witness. Humans fear falling – and will avoid it ferociously. Once he got through the terror, he was like a kid with a new toy – you could not keep him off the wall. Suddenly, his fear had become his friend. And he was fundamentally different after that experience.

It’s a myth that you must face your fears to overcome them. Rapid Eye Technology (RET), Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), hypnosis, and a number of other techniques and processes have eliminated the need to re-experience terror in order to overcome it – and I can tell you from my own experience, IT WORKS. I am convinced that I would not have been able to walk on the fire or bail out of a helicopter on a rope without resolving the fears that would have kept me from even trying.

Terror is just an action away from FUN. Those who experience the terror, take action, and discover the fun on the other side, are changed by the experience. Those who GET what happened are transformed.

TRANSFORMATION creates a fundamentally different person. Of course, those who were attached to the old person may feel differently about the new one – maybe even leave them. It’s one of the risks of transformation.

And then there is the story of how we faced the terror of excommunication from our religion – which meant facing our fear of eternal oblivion – and became different people as a result. Lost friends? Some maybe. Worth it. You bet!!