Another Twist in The Tale

MY FIRE WALKING EXPERIENCE, WITH MY FRIEND JOHN.
We attended a very special fire walking experience at a village called Katama, which was quite
a few miles away from Sumudra hotel. Hundreds of participants took part in the evening,
John and I were side by side wearing a shirt and a Sarong, bare footed and we really walked
slowly and intently towards the fire which we had done many times previously and now I can
tell you all, as we walked previously towards the fire the heat was so vicious you had to stop
because you could feel your body would burn, so on this day, as the heat intensified as you
walked closer to the fire, we had planned to walk backwards crouching towards the fire.
Please believe me, the heat was scary and both of us could not stand the heat any more we
just ran away from the fire in pain and feeling failures because as we walked away we meet a
mass of people coming the opposite way towards the fire.
I've forgotten to tell you I'm sorry, but in all my 2 years in Ceylon, John and I, a few days before
the visit to the Fire Walk, we would meet our students at the hotel school for 2 hours in the
afternoon before we went to the Fire Walk, to discuss with some of the students who said
they had attended Fire Walks and were not troubled at all by it.
The more John and I asked questions, the main answer we always received was Mr Richeeees,
Mr Hunt, you must believe and say to yourself that you can and will walk over the fires, but
any doubt in your mind at all and you will be a failure. The main emphasis being, have faith.
At one of the Fire Walking ceremonies Valerie and I bumped into one of the board members
from the hotel school, Mr Nimerla de Silva who told us the following story. Although he was
not a fire walker he attended many, and the most impressive one he ever visited, which he
could still not explain, was the fact that he observed a woman in a sari, clutching a small baby
across her chest and as she reached the middle of the fire she stumbled and the baby fell onto
the red hot coals, she slowly bent down, picked the baby up, wrapped her in her arms and
continued to walk across the fire and left the fire as if nothing had happened, he could still
never forget seeing that and not having an answer why the baby never caught fire.
Opposite our Sumudra hotel the main road went to the city of Colombo about 5 miles away,
and the following I could not understand. Frequently at different times of the day we would
see an ox cart wobbling along the road with the cart covered with a cloth roof and inside you
could observe a man just wearing a sarong with butcher’s hooks, which had pierced the skin
on the back of his body.
Approximately 4 hooks supported him, being thrown from left to right on the uneven road,
not crying, not screaming but not looking happy at all and I remember no blood could be seen,
but his whole body was arched and it was mind boggling. Every time I tried to find out how it
was achieved without any notice of pain, or blood, the reply was always you have got to have
faith and belief.
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