NAFPS Forum
Odds and Ends => Etcetera => Topic started by: debbieredbear on July 23, 2012, 10:53:16 pm
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http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_21125630 (http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_21125630)
Sigh...
San Jose: 21 people treated for burns after firewalk at Tony Robbins appearance - San Jose Mercury News
A San Jose fire captain said 21 people were treated for burns and three people hospitalized after the firewalk during the Tony Robbins appearance Thursday night at the San Jose Convention Center.
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http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_21125630 (http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_21125630)
Sigh...
San Jose: 21 people treated for burns after firewalk at Tony Robbins appearance - San Jose Mercury News
A San Jose fire captain said 21 people were treated for burns and three people hospitalized after the firewalk during the Tony Robbins appearance Thursday night at the San Jose Convention Center.
I see in the comment section that about 99% of the posters think the whole thing is a bunch of hokum. LOL
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I saw that too. LOL! Oh, and gee, what a surprose. Oprah was involved in this earlier in the year.
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Back in the early 80s for a brief time I helped out with firewalking events in Santa Fe, NM. My job was to put out flyers and to maintain the large stack of wood as it burned down to coals. The guy who ran the show had been trained by Tolly Burkan (Burkan taught Tony Robbins among many others).
I'd just moved out of a run down hot springs Rebirthing resort in Northern California run by Leonard Orr. Took me a few years to get free of all the nuage and cultic stuff I was lost in, but I eventually did.
Local fire departments were always notified before hand, but that doesn't mean we ever had proper medic stand by available, some firewalks were done in remote areas where medical help would have been slow to reach.
Part of this guy's rap was to talk about how other cultures use firewalking, including Eastern Orthodox Christians in some parts of Greece, as a way to convince people that this all was authentic, special, holy, and universal. Yet at the same time USA firewalking is presented as something modern, streamlined, without all the cultural trappings. So this attracts people who want a magic pill, a one shot boost, something fast and shocking to change their lives.
Plus something to boast about afterwards.
I remember even back then vaguely being disturbed by his emphasis on claiming that supposedly firewalking would eliminate all fear in the walker forever after. Now fortunately I know that healthy fear is an important survival skill, something to pay attention to and heed, instead of march through right into obvious danger.
Firewalking appropriates cultures, is an example of screwed up nuage b.s., and can be dangerous.
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In 1899 and again in 1900, Papa Ita from Tahiti came to Honolulu to demonstrate fire walking. After his demonstration, hundreds of people walked through the coals, "and only those who did not believe got burned" according to the daily newspaper. I have read articles on similar events in the South Pacfici in the mid-19th century. So it has been going on, not as a sacred practice but as a tourist attraction, for more than 150 years.
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In 1899 and again in 1900, Papa Ita from Tahiti came to Honolulu to demonstrate fire walking. After his demonstration, hundreds of people walked through the coals, "and only those who did not believe got burned" according to the daily newspaper. I have read articles on similar events in the South Pacfici in the mid-19th century. So it has been going on, not as a sacred practice but as a tourist attraction, for more than 150 years.
This is really valuable to know. In the 80s firewalking here mainland was sold as a new modern streamlined form of a sacred practice (now used as psychological boost and motivation, life change), no mention of it ever being done in past as a tourist attraction.
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Here's an example of the sort of reporting from the turn of the century. Note that it is portrayed as a sacred ceremony by a priest but it is done with dozens of white observers who then walk through themselves -- clearly not a sacred ceremony. http://books.google.com/books?id=CAQdAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA539&lpg=PA539&dq=papa+ita+tahiti+firewalking&source=bl&ots=T1LWWrqFwu&sig=JuxajDqyUQ2n5PkbiydUcSXqWgY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=3IEXUJzICOPL0QHp8YDYAw&ved=0CFAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=papa%20ita%20tahiti%20firewalking&f=false
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KFC bosses aren't chicken, but they sure are tender http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/02/27/1014704967158.html (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/02/27/1014704967158.html)
2002 Australia
Among 20 taken to Hunter Valley hospitals yesterday for treatment to a range of burns to their feet was Roger Eaton, the chief executive officer for Tricon Restaurants Australia, which owns the Australian franchise rights to KFC.
The mass burning took place on the last day of a management development conference for 180 KFC executives and managers at the Horizons golf resort at Salamander Bay, Port Stephens, north of Newcastle.
In all, 11 ambulances responded to the emergency at 1.40pm when the resort reported about 30 people suffering burns to their feet as a result of a fire-walking exercise over the ashes of burnt timber.
But an ambulance spokesman said of those injured, most of whom were aged 20 to 30, seven received serious burns which required treatment at Newcastle's John Hunter Hospital.
I see elsewhere that other firewalker proponents claim that this only went bad because (according to them) the wrong type of wood was used.
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Another news report about the 2012 Tony Robbins event shown in the OP:
https://www.livescience.com/21835-firewalking-hot-coals.html
Similar Tony Robbins event in 2016:
https://gizmodo.com/40-people-got-burned-firewalking-in-texas-for-the-dumbe-1782559421
What science says:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewalking
https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/circus-arts/firewalking.htm
https://www.pitt.edu/~dwilley/Fire/FireTxt/fire.html [Firewalking Myth vs Physics]
https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/04/10/3472165.htm [Why firewalking is a fraud]
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/9/why-fire-walking-doesnt-burn-science-or-spirituality/
https://www.scienceabc.com/humans/how-do-some-people-firewalk.html
Now just a few of those who have commercialised firewalking on a grand scale:
https://firewalkhq.com/
http://www.firewalking.com/
https://globalfirewalkingassociation.com/
There are many, many more out there.