Hotel professor gives firewalking lessons
Hotel professor gives firewalking lessons
Twelve spiritual adventurers stand barefoot before a burning bed of red-hot coals in the back field of Ithaca's Foundation of Light, a center for meditation and study. The eight-foot-long cherrywood blaze roars in front of them, illuminating the pitch-black July night. Though the embers burn at an intense 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit, the daring dozen is ready to become firewalkers—facing the flames one step at a time.
The aspiring firewalkers are students in a personal strength and teambuilding workshop led by the Hotel school's Tony Simons. An associate professor of organizational behavior, Simons has been firewalking for six years and has instructed others in the ritual for about a year, incorporating it into his workshops to help people overcome personal and professional fears. "Crossing over the coals serves as a metaphor for the many challenges—or personal firewalks—that people face in their lives," says Simons, whose own record is crossing a twelve-foot-long firepit 111 times.
At the workshop, Simons reassures attendees that firewalking is a relatively safe activity. Blisters, which he calls "fire kisses," are the most common result of missteps on the coals. "After a person has mentally prepared himself to walk, all he needs to do is maintain a light, even stride, as if walking across the sidewalk," he tells them.
After three hours of team-building activities like trust falls, breaking boards with their fists, and shattering arrow shafts with their necks, the group is ready to put the evening's lessons into practice. One by one, they march out of the building and up to the firepit—and each treads across the glowing coals unscathed. "Firewalking is an education for me," Simons says. "Each firewalk is different. And when people ask, 'What do you do in your free time?' it's fun to respond with, 'I help people conquer fear.'"
— Nicholas St. Fleur '13