Thing 359 Walk on Fire

Ammmm.... yeah. I just walked on fire. Eight hundred degrees hot burning wood embers. That photo behind there is a little dramatic, it wasn't burning like that when I walked across it. It was more like the third photo down. Go on, take a minute to scroll down and have a look see. I'll wait.

Still eight hundred degrees though. I went to the place knowing that I wanted to do it. You don't turn up at a fire-walk specifically not intending to walk. But I was waiting for the gimmick. The fake part that means that you're not really walking on fire. I was sure that bit was coming. It didn't. I was actually going to have to walk on fire. Actual fire.

Now if this was going to be the case, then some serious encouragement was needed. Duly provided by Brian Moore from Peak Potential. This guy is a motivational speaker. By the time we got around to walking on fire, we weren't nervous, hell, we were rearing to go and frankly, I think we scared ourselves a little with the intensity. More on that later.
The Barista took that photo after I'd gotten to the other side. It was awesome. He was actually the one who put me up to this. Into Arabica for a cup of coffee, sponsorship card for Special Olympics Ireland thrown into my hand, and an order to take part in the firewalk. The Barista is also the guy who using his neck, bent an 8mm diametre, six foot steel bar. With my help. I also used my neck to bend the steel bar.

I'm not kidding here guys. The whole point of the motivational speech was mind over matter. I'm entirely skeptical about these things so I tested the bar, it wasn't a fake, and it wasn't rigged, and I didn't use anything other than my neck to bend it. It was freaky. They'd psyched us up to the last. Positive thinking. It was a little freaky like I said. I got talked up to the point that I actually wanted to bend a steel bar with my neck. I wanted to put an 8mm bar into my throat and bend it without any help.
So after the talks, and the psyches up, and the positive thinking, and the encouragement, we walked out to that fourteen feet of burning hot coal embers, and if you'd tried to stop me I'd have pushed you out of the way. It was weird how intense we all were. There were eighty of us, ranging in all ages from about twenty to mid sixties.

I walked up to that burning pit, and when I was asked if I was ready I think I nearly shouted at the dude asking me. I walked, not too quickly, at a steady pace across the burning wood, looking straight ahead. It was room temperature at most. Honestly. I didn't feel a thing.

I bent a steel rod with my neck, and walked across burning wood embers without pain and without fear. I should have been afraid. Check out the disclaimer down below. I've to sign that in order to take part. It basically reads: If you get hurt walking on FIRE, and many people do get hurt WALKING ON FIRE, then it's not our fault because you agreed to WALK ON FIRE.

Alright, admittedly this blog is a little all over the place, mostly because I'm still kind of on a high from the walk. Tomorrow walking on normal ground is going to be boring.