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Vision Cafe
Firewalking: Igniting the New Economy
and Fulfilling Dreams Now!
by Julian D. Bergquist
I attended my first firewalk in July 2000 after my life coach had said that she would fire me as a client if I didn’t shift my self-imposed limitations. After many months of complaining every week about my job, girlfriend, difficulties of starting a business and the constant rainy weather in Seattle, she’d had enough and said I must find the next firewalk—and do it now, or else!
A firewalk is just what it sounds like: walking upon a thin bed of hot coals (usually eight to 12 feet long) that have been raked after a large bonfire.
That fateful night, in the moment right before firewalking, I remember being scared, feeling that climbing Mt. Everest would probably be easier and safer. But I wanted to create a new future of progress toward my goals and dreams.
After successfully walking on coals, everything I thought possible expanded and the confusion in my life shattered. The experience transformed my world and within six months, I had left an empty relationship, moved to California and started my business. My life was in motion.
The firewalking ceremony has been a rite of passage and community ritual for hundreds of years. You can still find it in Polynesian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and Native cultures around the globe. In Polynesian rituals, the fire purifies a person before receiving a sacred family tattoo. In Coptic Christianity and many other cultures, it is a test of the depth of one’s faith. In most traditions, the community comes together to let go of the past and create a new beginning, honor the divine, and connect with the elements.
Firewalking offers a tangible transformation through the fire element. Firewalkers purify their intentions and create the power to accomplish the purpose and dream of their lives. They also experience a deeper awareness and compassion for other people.
The firewalk is synergistic, bringing all of the elements together: the wood from the Earth, the water in the wood, the fire combusting with air and wood to transform into energy and release into the air. All that remains on the ground is a tiny handful of ash (earth).
Right now, we are using the firewalk experience as a tool to help people be free, abundant and powerful to generate success in the new economy. Because small business owners and “solopreneurs” are the engine of the new economy, applying the firewalk experience to sales, marketing and leadership helps them fulfill their dreams, generating a new economic future for themselves and the people they touch.
Walking on coals brings everything that matters together in a fusion of power and soul. The mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of oneself come together, creating the model for living moment by moment.
Experience a firewalk in San Diego, CA, September 19, 5 p.m. – 9 p.m. Visit www.SDFirewalk.com or call 619.573.6638. Julian D. Bergquist is an ordained Huna Firewalking Priest, workshop leader and coach. He is passionate about facilitating breakthroughs that result in improved communication in business, intimate relationships and with oneself.
The Five Elements and Emotional Healing
by Master Mingtong Gu
Humanity is facing its greatest challenge: environmentally, sociologically and spiritually. To transform the difficulties that we face, we must transform our inner being. One way to do that is through an ancient alchemy to turn fearful, negative emotions into healthy, positive ones.
First, stop: Stop the story associated with the negative emotion. Second, feel: Feel the energy in your organs and body beyond any learned concept. Third, transform: Use the techniques shared here to transform the emotion from a victim of the past to a creator of now.
Wisdom Healing Qigong describes interactions and relationships between phenomena as the Five Elements Theory, which includes fire, earth, wood/space, water and metal/air. These five elements are associated with organs in the body. Fire is related to the heart; Earth to the pancreas; wood/space to the liver; water to the kidneys; and metal/air to the lungs. Additionally, each organ is related to certain positive and negative emotions. For example, the heart (fire) is related to joy and love as well as grief and depression. The digestive system (pancreas/earth) is related to centeredness and worry. The respiratory system (lungs/metal) is associated with grief and deep knowing. The regenerative and cellular reproduction system (kidneys/water) is related to mindfulness and being overly fearful. Anger and courage are connected with the body’s purification system (liver/wood).
By associating the emotions with corresponding organs and the five elements, we can begin to utilize the properties of transformative healing through sound, movement and visualization. The organs are made of physical, emotional and spiritual energy. Our emotions are the energetic experience of the five organs while the psychological emotions (such as the concept of happiness or fear) are only the mind/brain interpretation of the deeper emotional experience within the organs (emotion = energy in motion within organs).
Movement of our shoulders, arms, hands and legs connects us with our organs and the brain energy. Wisdom Healing Qigong provides us with movements that activate the energy or chi fields within and outside of our personal chi fields. One such movement is the Wallsquatt. With gentle forward and downward movements and backward and upward movements, the Wallsquatt enhances body alignment, strengthens the spine, and releases negative and repressed emotions to harmonize energy within the body.
Wisdom Healing Qigong teaches us ancient sounds that correspond to each organ for the healing of that particular organ. For example, one sound for the heart, Kai Shin literally means happiness. Other ancient sounds are associated with the kidneys, the pancreas, the purification system and the respiratory system.
By practicing movements, visualizations and sounds from the Five Elements Theory, we can heal our emotions. We can move out of fear and hate and into gentleness and kindness. When we transform our own energy with the ancient technology of inner alchemy, we transform the energy field of all humanity and the Earth.
Master Mingtong Gu is the founder of the Chi Healing Center and Wisdom Healing Foundation. He will offer a “Healer Within” Workshop, August 29-30 at the University of California, San Diego and a healing retreat in China, September 24 – October 15. Visit www.chicenter.com or call 707.347.6489. Attend the next Vision Salon where Federico Garcia, a registered volunteer instructor at the San Diego Cancer Research Institute, will discuss Wisdom Healing Qigong: August 12, 6 p.m. at Nature’s Express, 2949 Fifth Ave, San Diego, CA. Contact salon@visionmagazine.com or call 619.294.2393.