Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 17/01) - Earth, wind, water, fire -- these are the elements of the Earth, all essential to our existence. Fire, as with the other three, has been revered and honoured long before any of us came along, throughout time and across cultures. But what about walking on fire?

Walking through red-hot coals -- a practice as old as the reverence of fire itself -- arouses, these days, skepticism and cynical laughter.

Some people react by wanting to watch. It's the car wreck syndrome. "How absolutely bizarre, I want to see," they say. At the other end of the scale, there are those who insist feet are insensitive. Of course you can walk on hot coals, your feet are hard and calloused, they say. Or they're convinced wet feet or sweaty feet can't feel the heat.

Fact: the red coals from a fire sit at an average temperature of 1,200 Fahrenheit.

As the visiting and practised firewalker Dan Brule said during his workshop, "It's a real fire. The molten metal poured for the engine block in your car is 1,100 Fahrenheit."

Yet, despite the heat, Yellowknife can now claim over a dozen firewalkers. Yes, over a dozen of your fellow citizens walked across hot coals on Tuesday evening at Sombe K'e Healing Lodge.

Why?

Prior to the five-hour experience, culminating for most in a so-called impossible walk, a few of these would-be firewalkers agreed to answer the question.

One of two mothers present with her son, Margo Hopkins, said that if she could walk across fire, then she could do anything.

"In all honesty, when the moment comes, I'll decide," she added frankly.

Her son, Dylan Schick, accompanied her because it was his mom's birthday gift to him. Happy 20th!

Wendy White-Cserepy said she'd been practicing Kundalini yoga for 20 years.

"It's something I wanted to try," she said, as she watched Brule build up the wood for the pyre.

"I thought I'd have to go to India. But hey! I can do it here."

Glenna Cayen said it was time to step out of the box.

"I'd always heard about them, but I never thought it would be in my face. I'll decide in the moment. I'll go through the workshop part first."

She quoted Brule: "Dan has said all it is, is going against your fear."

Terry Roberts said, "I like trying new things. I've already asked if there's been any casualties. Dan said no. That's good enough for me. It's not very often you get to fire walk in Yellowknife. Lots of my friends think I'm totally nuts."

Harold Cook, who runs Sombe K'e, insisted he was simply observing.

"I've seen it done before, at the Calgary Stampede by Fiji firewalkers."

Bob and Sandy Dowdall were also there to watch. They thought it would be interesting to see in real life something they'd only seen on TV. Bob seemed especially interested in witnessing "mind over matter."

It turned out there would be no watching, not even for Yellowknifer's reporter and photographer. Brule insisted that everyone had to participate, whether or not they ended up stepping out onto the fire.

Faced with the glowing red coal, some who said they'd walk, didn't. Some who said they wouldn't did.

One woman, fresh off the plane from Ottawa, expressed her dismay at being there during the several hours of talk and exploration prior to the walk itself. But she decided fate had brought her to that moment, and the ecstasy evident on her face after the walk most fully demonstrated the transformative possibilities of firewalking. An hour earlier, her choked-back tears made it impossible for her to speak.

Postscript: Firewalking should not be attempted alone. The workshop prior to the actual walk leads a participant through an essential passage, where the mind and the emotions combine to create the possibility of a walk through fire.