Reprinted from The Baltic INDEPENDENT, February 3 - 9, 1995

Estonia hot on the heels of Ilmar Saar

Four meters of flaming red-hot coals block his path. He feels the scorching heat as smoke curls up past his nostrils. Then to Leigh Sprague's amazement, he casually walks through this inferno... BAREFOOT?

"AS YOU stand before the coals, you feel a membrane of fear between you and the fire. If you can just step through this barrier... if you can take that first step, you can walk on fire and not burn!", says Estonian-American Ilmar Saar.

"When belief is coupled with intention and action, one can even accomplish that which should otherwise be impossible. We are co-creators of our realities and our perceptions of reality are subjective as well as objective."

Sound crazy? Maybe. But Saar wants you to try it. In fact, he finds firewalking so rewarding, he came to Estonia from the US to give people the opportunity to experience this ancient rite-of-passage.

The process can change your life," he said. "We are spiritual beings having a human experience and being so, posses within ourselves, under all circumstances, the power to transform the quality of our lives!"

The fundamental of firewalking, according to Saar, is to get into a "state". This vague concept has to do with a psychological/physiological phenomena in which the body will protect itself from injury, even to extreme stimuli, such as the fire which is at approximately 800 degrees Celsius.

He believes the body generates an energy or Life-Field to protect itself and any objects within close range (such as clothes, hair, socks, etc.).

Is it real? Is there some trick involved? When confronted with skepticism he grew defensive.

"Do you want to try it?" he demanded. "Let's go right now."

There is no doubt that Saar uses real coals and that the coals are hot.

"If you should accidentally walk on even the smallest of embers momentarily, it will produce a nasty burn. Firewalking primarily has to do with your beliefs," Saar said. "There is no logical way to explain this phenomena using physics as we know it."

Jens Moustgaard, manager of the popular Tallinn Restaurant Eeslitall and participant in a New Year's eve firewalk at the nightclub, thinks he has a simpler explanation.

"I think the trick is how long your feet are down," he said. "It's in the rhythm and how you walk. If you are too afraid, you might stop in the middle and burn your feet. But if you keep moving you don't burn."

At the Eeslitall event, approximately a dozen barefoot men and women trekked across the coals.

Before walking, participants were instructed to imagine obstacles in their lives and picture their desired outcome on the other side of the fire. They were also asked to recite a "mantra" before walking.

"The fire is the metaphor for the trails of life which prevent you from having what you want," Saar said. "If you really want something, you can achieve it.

What prompted these people to do it? Was it the desire to reach a new spiritual state? Moustgaard attributed his decision to peer pressure and alcohol.

"A male is male," he said, pounding on his chest like Tarzan. "He sees one man do it, he feels he must do it too." A friend of his, he said, drank a shot of alcohol for courage before he walked and had another afterward as a reward. But one of his employees, a Muslim teetotaler, walked across three times without stopping in-between passes.

Moustgaard said it was a positive experience. "It gives you the feeling, 'Hey, I can do it,'" he said. "It is a thing you think is impossible. And then you do it. It gives you self confidence."

I asked the obvious question, Did it hurt? "No, it didn't," he said. "But you could feel it was warm. Afterwards my feet felt a little ticklish."

One of Moustgaard's friends, a drunken Finnish man, burned his foot and got a blister. Saar has mixed feelings about the New Year's eve Firewalk, in part because of the same drunken Finn. "He could barely stand up," Saar said. "At the time I didn't think he was in state, but he was very determined. I wouldn't normally let someone in his condition walk. But if he hadn't been in state, he would have been in the hospital. Just goes to show, God loves a drunk."

But they met again by chance on Raekoja plats later that night. "He came up to me and thanked me," said Saar. "He said it was an incredible experience. At first I did not recognize him until I noticed that he was not wearing any socks".

Saar also burned himself. "I was paying so much attention to the Finn that I accidentally walked on a stray ember and was burned immediately. I didn't let on, but I could feel it all night."

In fact Saar burns himself about half the times he walks over the coals, although, he said "the blister is usually no more than pea size, generally on the left foot and disappears overnight."

He attributes his burns to complacency. "A person who firewalks a lot has a better chance of getting burned than the first timer," he said. "The times when I was burned were the times I was cocky and overconfident." Saar has participated in scores of firewalks.

He went on his first at the urging of his then girlfriend in 1984. "I thought, firewalking, hmm. Why not?" he said. "I really respected this woman and her recommendations." The first experience was so overwhelming that he blacked out while walking over the coals and doesn't remember a thing. "I was scared to death."

In fact, Saar said he hasn't fully conquered his fear of walking over hot coals. But something scared Saar even more than firewalking. "My greatest fear," he said "was public speaking." He plans to give more firewalks in Estonia, including he wants to do a demonstration on Raekoja Plats on May 1 during the celebrations and follow it up with a large seminar a week later.