Dr Kweethai's Firewalking

Dr Kweethai Neill has been on fire…literally. A chance encounter with firewalking at the 2011 Dallas Hypnosis Convention piqued her curiosity. It is not a parlor trick. The coals burn at 1200°, and walkers lacking sufficient commitment and concentration can get seriously burned. The allure is to overcome perceived boundaries and personal limitations.

In that first encounter everyone thought they were attending a dinner and demonstration. It turns out they were afforded the opportunity to walk on fire themselves.

Firewalking is common in Dr Kweethai's native Malaysia, but girls are not traditionally allowed to participate. So, given the opportunity, she jumped in... with both feet so to speak.

She was then the first volunteer to walk on broken glass.

Dr Kweethai is a Clinical Hypnotherapist, but walking on fire or glass—or any of a variety of other similar challenges—does not require hypnosis. Anyone can be taught pretty quickly how to get into the necessary mental state. Whether or not someone walks remains their choice.

Dr Kweethai subsequently submitted to an intensive four days of physical and psychological challenges; such as breaking boards and bricks with bare hands; to complete Firewalking Instructor Training. Though she learned how to conduct firewalks, she found the other challenges analogous to her work in hypnotherapy.

"Each activity was a metaphor for breaking through limiting beliefs, and that is essential to the change my clients desire." she explains. Much of her iChange Therapy process is based on breaking down limiting beliefs that inhibit change.

"Firewalking opened me to new challenges," exudes Dr Kweethai, "but it is also an example of walking my talk. Clients come to me seeking change in their lives. A picture of me standing on hot coals is evidence of the power of the mind to overcome virtually any fear."

Credits

Firewalking pictures by Kevin Lynam, Masterworks Photography