“A first degree burn we call a kiss” was the answer from a spokesperson from a recent Tony Robbins motivational seminar, after the event reached the news due to the severe burns on people’s feet after a ‘motivational fire walk’ that is advertised to supposedly change people’s lives forever.
People are desperate to engineer changes to their lives as the constant pursuit of happiness has left many stuck in a life without a deeper purpose, and yet others are left struggling to achieve the very same futile purpose they started out to achieve – that albeit when reached – soon fades into purposelessness.
The world is full of promising healers, coachers, trainers, etc. who say they have found the ‘way to happiness’ but in truth, it is mainly about the way to capitalise, making big bucks off people who are desperately wanting change in their lives. From this place of desperation, people are willing to pay thousands of dollars to burn their feet (and other such bizarre practices) in the belief that this is bringing them the will to finally conquer life.
In 2007 I said yes to an invitation from my sisters after having observed some very profound changes in their lives. My older sister had changed from a spiritual new age fanatic who I could not keep a conversation with, or even share quality time with, into a true older sister who was now interested in people, building a connection with me, was very committed to life, earning money, and had a clear purpose in life.
My younger sister, with whom I shared years supporting to get her out of her depression, and who had chosen for the last years that alcohol was her best companion to get some fun out of life, suddenly stopped being depressed, stopped drinking and took an unprecedented pro-active attitude to life that was so surprising to me that I was curious enough to go to a Universal Medicine workshop with them, presented by a man called Serge Benhayon and held in Westbury in Somerset, England.
At that time I had a profound repulsion for anything related to new age, healing, holding hands, hugging and talking about problems, so I went there quite sceptical as, from my experience, there was either conventional medicine putting you on not always very efficient drugs, or all this alternative ‘bla-bla’ that from my point of view just served to make people feel better by sharing their misery.
However, what Serge Benhayon presented was nothing close to motivating, convincing, needing to conquer life, to beat life or manage it, but it was about living life from the truth of who we are.
Serge Benhayon simply presented that “everything is energy” and that “everything is because of energy” and that we can choose to live with the awareness of it or not. He also presented the difference between Soul and Spirit and how this impacts our daily living. He presented that we are not the result of evolution but the cause of evolution, and that we had decided to be less than who we truly are and that we are now evolving back to our true source.
I did not have to burn my feet by walking over hot coals, I did not have to hug strangers and share my misery, I did not get yelled at, have to repeat motivating mantras, follow some (or any) rules, do certain exercises or change my name.
I just was presented with the very liberating fact that I just had to be me. I realised that we don’t have to get anywhere, that we have already everything in us and that we just put so many layers on top of it that we don’t feel it.
But being me meant assuming responsibility… responsibility for my choices.
In 2009 I started to regularly attend Universal Medicine workshops twice a year when Serge Benhayon presented in the UK and I always felt deeply inspired as it was never self-centred and about me, but about my responsibility in life and how to clear my issues, and about how to live in full integrity.
The EPA (Esoteric Practitioners Association)* code of ethics by which trained Esoteric Practitioners work sets the standard for a practitioner’s commitment to a way of living and quality of being that is unheard of in the world today, and it has absolutely inspired me to live my life with the same level of integrity.
Contrary to anything presented today, the modalities of Universal Medicine are not self-serving!
So you cannot attend a Universal Medicine workshop and then find that you have the right tool, the manual or technique, for how to better your life. You are not solely there to learn skills and apply them, you are there to learn that life is about awareness and that all the tools are just there to support you to deepen your very own relationship with life. From this perspective you apply it to your daily life and truly live it, not as a dogma or a rule but as something that comes from your body, and your inner awareness that this is the way.
There is no end point to this growing awareness and therefore there is no ‘perfect’ technique to learn to get anywhere, only to understand that we are constantly evolving.
There is no manual, book, teaching or modality that can do all of this, or grow this awareness for you, and Universal Medicine does not make any false promises to solve it for you. Universal Medicine presents on the fact that everything is energy, that we are in the driver’s seat and that we have the power to choose the quality and awareness that we drive in.
For example: I chose to explore the benefits of a gluten and dairy free diet and it was quite astonishing how much healthier, lighter and more vital I felt. As time went on, feeling well with simple gluten and dairy free changes turned out to not work anymore and my body was asking for even more refinement. How did I come to this awareness? By being observant and applying self-love to my body – principles I learnt with Universal Medicine.
Suddenly I was bloated again, felt tired, and I was craving for sweet foods – now some fruit and not the usual ice cream, but nevertheless still craving sweet. So, what was going on then? Why was my energy low that I needed a pick-me-up? Was I looking for something to bring me excitement in my life, and if so, why wasn’t it already fulfilling enough?
You see, Serge Benhayon did not tell me ‘what’ to eat, he taught me how to listen to my own body, and with this I developed a relationship with my body and therefore with what suited me best to eat. I was not following a diet, as I did not try to achieve any goals like being healthy or slim, but held closely the importance to deepen my awareness and feel a certain quality in my body, in my daily life.
We are supposed to be the most evolved species on earth, but looking at current statistics we have to admit that we are killing ourselves by ignoring our bodies.
To make people walk over burning coals does not support them to build more awareness for their bodies: in fact, it has quite the opposite affect. Are we keen to celebrate a life-coach’s teachings that promote fire-walking, despite the risk of burning our feet, without reflecting upon whether those teachings are delivering the importance of taking responsibility for one’s life and choices?
Universal Medicine does not promise for people to become millionaires, resurrect them from the dead, become famous or make the best business ever, and nor does it offer the happy pill of spiritual enlightenment. Universal Medicine supports people to commit to daily life and has an impressive record of people who have lived for many years in depression, anxiousness, with chronic pain, in abusive relationships, struggling with substance abuse, unemployment, etc., who have transformed the mere existence of today’s ‘normalised’ silent suffering into fulfilling lives, fully engaged and committed to the communities in which they live, no matter what social and economic level they come from.
In the last 15 years Universal Medicine has presented more evidence of people living a healthier, more vital and joyful life than any modality, medicine, or lifestyle technique has ever achieved. And no fire-walk or burnt feet in sight!
Published with permission of my sisters.
* The EPA (Esoteric Practitioners Association) is the internal accreditation arm of Universal Medicine. It was instigated by Universal Medicine to monitor and accredit the modalities that were founded by Universal Medicine.
By Rachel Andras, MA Gender & Development, MA Social Education, Barcelona, Spain
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Rachel Andras is an entrepreneur, organizational change facilitator, youth and adult educator and writer, supporting people with body awareness and self-respect and confronts the many harmful ideals the media asserts about men and women.
Follow Rachel Andres on Twitter @r_randras |
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Serge Benhayon is a philosopher, teacher and author who regularly presents in the UK and Australia. You can learn more about Serge Benhayon at his personal website www.sergebenhayon.com
Follow Serge Benhayon on Twitter @SergeBenhayon or on Google+ +SergeBenhayon |
Related Reading:
Before and After
Everyday People in Livingness
Who is Serge Benhayon?
Universal Medicine, the EPA* and the esoteric modalities
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
We are not taught to listen to our bodies, we could say the opposite is true we are taught to disregard our bodies to rely on our minds to get us out of trouble. where as it is our bodies that speak louder than words.
Our bodies are like a wise best friend, and unfortunately many of us did not listen to the wisdom they shared.
I’d rather walk out of a hall with a greater understanding of responsibility I can take out into my life than to be wheeled out of the room due to burnt feet and a rah rah that lasted seconds.
These ‘fire walks’ very much depend on motivational rah rah, getting into a state of crazy stimulation, not a wise way to live your life, incredibly false, with definitely no settlement in your bodies.
Listening to our bodies as you have shared Rachel, certainly deepens the appreciation we have for the most Loving ways of living and to be appreciative brings the fire of God into our hearts, so that our essences or Soul feels this same fire in others, so we walk in fire not on fire.
I love how you describe the way you and your sisters were leading very different lives before choosing to regularly attend Universal Medicine workshops, Rachel. If we are open and willing, it doesn’t matter where we have been or what kind of life we have been living, Universal Medicine workshops offer the opportunity to look at where we are at and the choice to continue travelling down that same road or not.
I have a family member who met Serge Benhayon maybe two or three times, from those meetings years ago now they have changed their life around. They aligned to the same energy that Serge Benhayon aligns himself to and that is enough. We all know that alignment because we all come from the same energy.
There can be no greater offering than to be guided to live life from the “the truth of who we are.”
Serge Benhayon supports us to return to who we truly are, ‘He presented that we are not the result of evolution but the cause of evolution, and that we had decided to be less than who we truly are and that we are now evolving back to our true source.’
What Serge Benhayon presents is “about living life from the truth of who we are.” It is not a glamorous pitch but it achieves all the things and more to live a full, fruitful and purposeful life that all the motivational speakers, healers, etc. claim to offer but do not live up to their promises.
It is simply about returning to our essence, deep inside, who we are in truth, ‘I realised that we don’t have to get anywhere, that we have already everything in us and that we just put so many layers on top of it that we don’t feel it.’
We will never change the outcomes if we do not consider why we are seeing the symptoms we are, or if we are looking to a quick fix. That said, making space to look at the ‘why’ instead of the ‘what’, does not mean it needs to be dramatic or complicated either.
From what I’ve learned from my own explorations of Universal Medicine’s teachings is that if there’s any pain to the body through my actions then there’s something there to look at and more love to be brought into the picture. There’s no gain from pain, lack of love or mental drive disregarding the body.
What Universal Medicine presents isn’t a trick you learn then everything is hunky dory. They are tools that work with constant refinement.
So true, it is a constant conversation, no more, no less.
One does not have to walk on hot coals to fire up – all you need to do is commit to life in full.
Ha ha, very true, walking on hot coals does not and will not fire you up, and it does nothing to support you living true to yourself.
I don’t know what world this spokesperson inhabits, but certainly is not in mine, as in mine, a burn is a burn, always painful, often serious and definitely not a kiss in any shape of form. To minimise its effect as such is simply a very disregarding attitude to many who have paid money to experience something that is purported to change lives; the only thing I think will be changed will be the feet of the participants!
Obviously the vast majority do not have burnt feet, I did not see any people with burnt feet at these events, but the event is total false rah rah, you are totally outside yourself, not connected with your body in any true sense. The event generates a false lift, that then lets you down, but what the organisers want is to capitalise, big time, on getting you to do more of their ‘motivational events’. I thank God that I saw through the hype before being dragged further into the abyss.
Not everyone wants to be in ‘the driver’s seat’ and so there will be a supply to the demand of wanting to change without taking the responsibility about the choices we have made and make in our lives. Once we are in this driver’s seat ‘we have the power to choose the quality and awareness that we drive in.’ And boy oh boy what a joy it is to live in this way.
It seems most find it easier to believe in something like fire walking when someone has said this will help us deal with issues than taking responsibility for ourselves in our life. It does not make sense that burning our feet will actually heal us but our drive to not take responsibility for what we are choosing in life is so big that we rather follow and play dumb.
Simple, and beautiful what Serge Benhayon presents, shares, and lives, ‘what Serge Benhayon presented was nothing close to motivating, convincing, needing to conquer life, to beat life or manage it, but it was about living life from the truth of who we are.’
I hate that there is an energy that sits waiting like a vulture for those who are looking for something more in life. This energy appears to offer something different, yet it is more of the same and leaves many disillusioned and cynical. Trying to get to the truth can feel like an episode of Indiana Jones, navigating the obstacles. This is free will and we need to learn how to discern truth again as we naturally did as kids.
To feel what energy is running our bodies, ‘Serge Benhayon simply presented that “everything is energy” and that “everything is because of energy” and that we can choose to live with the awareness of it or not.’
What Universal Medicine offers is true empowerment, taking ownership, therefore responsibility for our own life, instead of looking out to shop for things to armor ourselves up with to be better than. Realising that we actually already have everything is such liberation.
Bringing back responsibility into our lives is so essential in the world we live in, ‘But being me meant assuming responsibility… responsibility for my choices.’
Instead of walking over fire Universal Medicine invites us to walk with Fire in our heart.
So much of what we do in life is about managing it, but to actually truly embrace life, to accept and know that our part is about living life from the truth of us, that is different and something that is truly life changing, and that is what Universal Medicine presents, an understanding of life, of us, and it supports us to develop a relationship with our bodies and in that way we can truly be us and engage with life.
Walking over fire makes not a smidgen of logical sense. Yes it may seem to offer change but in what way is it truly benefiting or inspiring you to change the way you live your daily life?
ha ha, I agree, perhaps the point is there is no willingness to see how completely stuck you have become because it should be a shocking burning wake up call to the abuse you just inflicted on your own body and told yourself it didn’t hurt!
I did one of these fire walks years ago and it definitely did not change my life. In fact at the end of the event the members who were running it looked so checked out and spaced out it actually freaked me out and I never returned again.
Thanks for sharing Vicky as I don’t know anyone who has participated in one. I did have a moment or two – of madness, in retrospect – when I considered doing one, but thankfully common sense prevailed and I didn’t. Although it does show how desperate I was at that time, to ‘find myself’!
Great account of the true benefit of applying the principles of Universal Medicine. I cannot imagine walking on fire but thanks to Serge Benhayon I can imagine loving life full of the fire of the inner heart & soul.
How amazing that your sister turned around depression and had a commitment to life again, she is not the only one, I have seen many people do exactly the same. Amazing.
The presentations from Serge Benhayon are never about telling you what to do, they don’t demand you follow any teachings, they simply offer you many keys to living a true and vital life, and you are free to say no to the keys if that is the choice you make. I for one, took those keys in both hands and every day since celebrate that I did. It is so much more fun being in “the driver’s seat” of life than in the back seat being at the mercy of what may or may not come next.
The thing about accepting more energetic responsibility in to one’s life that I have found to be so beautiful, is the depths of love and joy that come thereafter.
I think I have been suffering from lack of appreciation and the normalising of relationships rather than celebrating them and honouring the deepth that is already being lived.
There are many presenters who promise a lot and convince you their courses will change your life, I have tried many and felt they were all charlatans or just in it for the money. Along comes Serge Benhayon and immediately I recognised this man is different, for a start he walks his talk and talks his walk, he is steady and consistent, and treats everyone equally with true love and support – and my life has truly changed and evolved since meeting him.
I totally agree with what you share Anna, having previously attended different new age courses, and being almost at the point of attending no more courses as I felt they had nothing to offer, and there was lack of integrity, and hypocrisy within these various establishments. To then attend a workshop by Serge Benhayon was refreshingly different, this was a man with the utmost integrity, love, and true care I had ever met in this life. This is a man who supports you to evolve, to return to your true magnificence.
We may survive a fire walk without any burns. We may be congratulated by others for what we have done. We may have ten pictures of us smiling and the burning coals. Yet, none of this truly helps to move freely. What it does, instead, is to lock you in a pattern of movement that is jailing you …again.
I can so relate to this blog as once I was searching for something missing in my life, a sense of fulfilment, a sense of belonging, a reason to life because as far as I was concerned, life sucked.
Many of the modalities, teachers or gurus I thought could assist me did the opposite to what I was searching for. It kind of fixed me for a short period, maybe even put a band aid but never reached the core of it – till I met Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon. Everything written in this blog describes the difference it has made to my life. Like you Rachel nothing stays stagnant, it is forever refining and the body is forever communicating. The question is are we prepared to listen to it?
Reading your piece again, after a few years’ interval, makes it so crystal clear why Universal Medicine is hated by some – universal medicine is not owned, not listed on the share market, can’t be traded, is not a commodity with futures and share options. It is ours, individually and personally, as nothing else is and this, they don’t want exposed – lest the goose that lays the golden eggs perish.
Presentations by Universal Medicine have helped me to appreciate much more how precious my and our bodies are, and how important it is to care for our body and being as a whole, something we always have the potential to deepen and learn more about… To see people being encouraged to damage their body (by walking on burning coals) in the name of ‘motivation’ or ‘wellbeing’ certainly rings alarm bells to me…
Yes Universal Medicine supports people to commit to life by re-connecting to their true essence and thus feel what their purpose is. For me it has transformed my life and my relationships as I no longer live shut down from others nursing my hurts and fighting this feeling that there must be more to life. There is a divine gloriousness about life and by taking responsibility for how I am in life, I am so much more available for whatever is required.
“However, what Serge Benhayon presented was nothing close to motivating, convincing, needing to conquer life, to beat life or manage it, but it was about living life” Absolutely Serge offers us an opportunity to understand truth and the responsibilities we have to ourselves and others, and from that my life has changed tremendously because I am far more aware of what is truth and what is not.
“it was about living life from the truth of who we are.” Universal Medicine presents and inspires a way of living that develops an awareness of the magnificence of the Universe of which we are all a part.
It is much more efficient to present a way of living that truly works to people without needing to have advertising and promises because it works, than proclaim and shout out that you can bring change even though there is no true change in sight for the people who have worked with you.
I love the fact that when you go to Universal Medicine workshops and courses, that there are no expectations for us to be anything other than ourselves.
Awesome Article Rachel. Such a clear explanation of what Universal Medicine is about.
It is interesting to ponder what keeps people investing in deepening their connection to themselves?…… when our aim is not self improvement but a return to who we truly are.
Could it be because ‘a better life’ is not it, there is so much more – there is truth and love, harmony and stillness. There is the universe, space and God. And no feet needed, let alone burning them to rally some force that will tell you that you now have the willpower to be successful and become a tycoon or a Don Juan, have enormous erectile prowess and amass a fortune.And all that before you even get out of bed; wait a moment, you don’t have to get out of bed anymore. There are underlings who do that for you. Just keep them engaged and fire-walking.
A brilliant account of the awesomeness that is Universal Medicine and what it brings to our lives. The most profound inspiration to be the real you – nothing more, nothing less.
There is much in life that encourages us to override or ignore what we sense or feel from our body but what I have come to realise and appreciate through Universal Medicine is the great, simple, practical and harmonious wisdom that we have access to in connection with our whole body. To encourage people to willingly burn themselves could only be motivational in the sense of motivating them to be more dis-connected from who they truly are in my eyes.
There almost feels like there is a degree of desperation in the agreement to “willingly burn” oneself in the quest to have a better life. In absolute contrast, Universal Medicine asks no one to put themselves in any form of danger to improve themselves, but simply offers a way of living that if chosen has, as far as I am concerned, the potential to change lives; making that choice has changed mine in many miraculous ways.
To be honest all the “excitement” and dramatic events/changes in life has never left me feeling more secure. The only security feeling I have truly discovered is one in intimacy, connection and relationship with my own body. From the foundation of this, I am being my own experiment in life, not knowing how it would look but this way feels true to me.
‘we are not the result of evolution but the cause of evolution, and that we had decided to be less than who we truly are and that we are now evolving back to our true source.’ … this is huge when you consider it, that in fact because we’ve walked away from who we are, there’s now evolution to get us back. So there’s no getting somewhere at all there’s only a return; and the beauty is it’s in us, all of us ready and waiting for us to activate it, and the body supports and guides us with this.
“killing ourselves by ignoring our bodies” This is exactly what we as a humanity are doing at present and then we have a group inspired by what is presented by Serge Benhayon that are turning this around. So we need to ask if all of those things that we are using have really worked? I know for me they have not. There are some aspects in my life that are requiring a great deal more honesty, but I am real with this and aware of where I am not going. This honesty and realness towards life has been because of Universal Medicine’s presentation.
I did a fire walk amongst other ‘abusive’ things many years ago – in an attempt to prove to myself that I could overcome my fear of pain and heights etc – that I could control my mind over matter. After a brief period of elation after each event it did nothing for me. Such a huge contrast with Universal Medicine which asks nothing of us but to feel deep within and to feel our body – what it wants. If I had stopped to ask my body back then it would have said ‘no way’ to any of the crazy things I did – at various spiritual courses.
“Universal Medicine supports people to commit to daily life and has an impressive record of people ……. who have transformed the mere existence of today’s ‘normalised’ silent suffering into fulfilling lives, fully engaged and committed to the communities in which they live, no matter what social and economic level they come from.” Yes so agree and I am one of them.
Well said Jane, so many people in life settle for things being ‘normal’ when in fact their health and well-being is suffering greatly, the quality of our life is certainly lowered when we accept this as being ok.
Wow to say ‘a first degree burn we call a ‘kiss’, goes to show you how abusive and harming these types of seminars can be. To show such little regard and true support for their participants is quite concerning, I was once a part of these seminars and hooked by it’s promises of a ‘better life’. Thanks goodness I saw through the illusion of what was presented and found my way to a true way to heal and truly evolve through Serge Benhayon and the Universal Medicine presentations.
No way is a first degree burn a kiss – first degree burns hurt and to have them on your feet would be incredibly uncomfortable… and inconvenient.
I can so relate to being desperate for a change, but not willing to commit. I was prepared to pay as much money as I could afford and try all kinds of things on offer, but was not prepared to take anything beyond the workshop/course proximity, I never made it about life, even though I was very keen to talk about it. Universal Medicine simply teaches us to look at our life with as much honesty as we can muster, and our relationship with food is just one example, it is all about life and us living it.
relate to purpose. There is another way: purpose comes from something very deep we have been able to connect to which we know is true. Both may lead to life lived on purpose but are not equivalent.
Radical and cruel techniques such as fire walking and all-night marathons only prove how desperate we humans are for something that makes sense and rings true; we just have a knack of looking for it in all the wrong places, blinded by despair and fuelled by hope.
I remember bungee jumping a few years ago and walking away saying I’d conquered my fear and changed my life – I hadn’t, I’d only made myself throw up and after the high life went back to normal. Giving ourselves 1st degree burns won’t change our lives, it’s how we live every day and how we live in every moment and all the hundreds of choices we make everyday that will change the overall outlook and direction of our lives.
What Serge teachers is so extraordinarily practical and yet the ultimate marriage of science philosophy and medicine, all in a package that is clear totally for humanity.