Fall Retreat Special Guest Tolly Burkan

Tolly Burkan began teaching in 1973. At that time, he presented "The Science of Happiness," invented by Ken Keyes, Jr. Tolly and Ken taught together and co-authored the bestselling book, How to Make Your Life Work, or Why Aren't You Happy? published by Simon & Schuster in 1976.

Tolly is most renowned, however, as the founder of the international Firewalking movement. Tolly’s approach to Firewalking resulted in a global phenomenon of over three million people attending Firewalking classes. Due to his pioneering strategies, firewalking seminars are now regularly offered on six continents.

Tolly built his reputation by consistently creating innovative, cutting-edge methods for developing human potential. In 1977 he created the world’s first Firewalking class and began teaching Firewalking to the general public. In the 1980s, he founded the Firewalking Institute of Research and Education, started working with large corporations and began training instructors. The '90s transformed his work into a mushrooming corporate trend. Even mainstream companies such as Microsoft, American Express and Met-Life began including Firewalking in their executive empowerment seminars.

In addition to being the first person to offer Firewalking in public seminars, Tolly was the first to offer public seminars teaching ordinary people to walk barefooted, unharmed, on shards of broken glass; the first to teach public classes that included metal bar bending; barehanded brick breaking; arrow snapping; and many other esoteric practices of heightened awareness and empowerment, usually reserved for a select few.

In 2008, Tolly retired from teaching Firewalking. Presently, he lectures and conducts private retreats at his home in the Sierra Mountains of northern California. Tolly has authored eight books that are available in 13 languages, and has been featured in over 50 books, hundreds of magazines and newspapers, and on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. He regularly appears on all major television networks and has been a guest on Donahue, Regis and Geraldo.

Tolly expresses that, “Knowing the secret behind Firewalking can improve your life! Even if you never do it yourself, knowing how it works can bring you better health and increased personal power. Why? Because Firewalking demonstrates how your thoughts impact everything else in your life. Thoughts change brain chemistry, and that results in an alteration of body chemistry as well. Firewalkers are instructed to pay close attention to their thoughts, since those very thoughts are the way in which we create our own realities. Positive thinkers literally live in a different chemical environment than negative thinkers. They impose less stress on their immune systems, and the result of that should be obvious. 
I have been researching Firewalking since 1977 and am considered to be the foremost authority on the subject. Because of this work, the United States now has the largest Firewalking culture in history.”