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Tolly Burkan,
Originator of Modern
American Firewalking
Tolly Burkan is the Founder of the Firewalking Institute of Research and Education (F.I.R.E.) located in Northern California. It is currently the only Western institution researching firewalking and fire immunity. In 1977, Burkan was credited with introducing the world's first firewalking seminar, which resulted in a global firewalking movement. Since then, over 500,000 Americans have walked on glowing coals averaging over 1200 degrees Fahrenheit (650 degrees Celcius).
Tolly first became interested in firewalking during a career as a professional magician. During the Sixties, he performed a rather orthodox magic show in hotels and aboard cruise ships. Following a bout with depression and two suicide attempts in his early twenties, Tolly began studying the mind and its effect on everyday life. His research and travels brought him in contact with Masters of religion, psychology, medicine and paranormal phenomena. |
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In 1973 he met Ken Keyes, Jr., author of several best-selling books, including Handbook to Higher Consciousness and The Hundreth Monkey. Tolly says that Keyes is the man who most transformed his way of thinking and his approuach to life. Keyes, now in his seventies, was paralyzed from the neck down when he contracted polio at the age twenty seven.
Tolly learned from Keyes how to use the mind to create desired mental states. In 1977, a friend who was studying with a Tibetan monk, taught Tolly how to firewalk. A year later, he began teaching it a as a method of overcoming limiting beliefs, phobias and fears.
To date, Tolly and his Firewalking Seminar have been featured in over 3,000 newspapers and magazines, dozens of books and on all the national television networks in North America. He lectures at universities and conferences world-wide and has written a number of books including Dying To Live and Guiding Yourself Into A Spiritual Reality. Tolly's entire Firewalking Seminar is available on audio-tape and video-tape.
The Firewalking Institute
for Research and Education
The Firewalking Institute for Research and Education was founded in 1989 to research the phenomena of firewalking and fire immunity and to educate the general public and professional community. Relevant discoveries have been made in medicine and psychology. As F.I.R.E. has explored the nature of the mind/body connection, its discoveries in the field of psychoneuro-immunology has broadened F.I.R.E.'s work to include other areas of immunity beyond fire immunity and expanded to encompass research into all areas of stress and its effect on the immune system.
Additionally, F.I.R.E. provides the following services:
- Assisting media
- Firewalking Instructor Certification
- Referrals for Firewalking Seminars
- Corporate Firewalks
- Lecturers
- Resources by mailorder
For more information, contact:
F.I.R.E.
Box 584
Twain Harte, CA 95383
voice: 209/928-1100 or 800/218-0055
fax: 209/928-1500
You can read about Tolly Burkan in the following books:
DANCING WITH THE FIRE by Michael Sky
Bear & Company, 1989
DAVE BARRY'S GREATEST HITS by Dave Barry
Balantine Books, 1988
DISCOVERING THE SECRETS OF HAPPINESS by Ken Keyes, Jr.
Love Line Books, 1987
DYING TO LIVE by Tolly Burkan and Mark Bruce Rosin
Reunion Press, 1984
FIREWALK: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PHYSICAL IMMUNITY by Jonathan Sternfield
Berkshire House, 1992
FIREWALKING by Larissa Vilenskaya and Joan Steffy
The Bramble Company, 1992
FIREWALKING AND RELIGIOUS HEALING by Loring M. Danforth, Ph.D.
Princeton University Press, 1989
GILBERT ON GREATNESS by Rob Gilbert, Ph.D.
The Center For Sports Success, 1988
HARPER'S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MYSTICAL AND PARANORMAL EXPERIENCE by Rosemary Ellen Guiley
Harper Collins, 1991
HEALING STATES by Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D. and Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.
Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1987
INFINITY IN YOUR HANDS by William Houff
Melior Publications, 1989
MASTERING FEAR by Steven Bisyak and Michael McDermott
Latte Publishing, 1994
RETURN TO THE GARDEN by Shakti Gawain
New World Library, 1989
THE HEALING OF THE PLANET EARTH by Alan Cohen
Cohen Publishing, 1987
THE NEW AGE CATALOGUE by the Editors of Body, Mind And Spirit
Dolphin Doubleday, 1988
TOO MUCH IS NOT ENOUGH by Orson Bean
Lyle Stuart, Inc., 1988
Tolly Burkan's Firewalking Seminar can be ordered from Penny Price Media, 518/734-4208 in either an audio-tape format ($16.95) or video-tape format ($34.95).
Last updated: December 21, 1995
Questions or comments may be directed to:
margrave@heartfire.com
