Tolly Burkan, also known as Bruce Burkan, (born May 17, 1948 in New York City) is a firewalker and former magician.[1][2] He is part of the Human Potential Movement.[1] He is also the founder of the Firewalking Institute of Research and Education.[3]

Tolly Burkan
Burkan in 2005
BornMay 17, 1948
New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation(s)Firewalker
Magician
Websitetollyburkan.com

Biography

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During the 1970s, Burkan created a firewalking class and began teaching firewalking to the general public.[4] In the 1980s, he started working with large corporations and began training instructors.[5]

Burkan's disappearance from Asbury Park, New Jersey and his subsequent reappearance two months later, after a memorial service, was the subject of national news in 1967.[6][7] Although he would explain in his book Dying to Live and in news stories years later [8] that he had run away from home for two months, the incident would continue to be cited in pseudoscience books as "still unexplained" and evidence of alien abduction [9] or teleportation [10]

Bibliography

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  • Extreme Spirituality
  • Let It Be Easy
  • Dying to Live: From Despair and Death to Freedom and Joy
  • Guiding Yourself Into a Spiritual Reality[11]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Firewalking hot trend in Southern California - UPI Archives". UPI.
  2. ^ Vilenskaya, Steffy, Larissa, Joan (December 1991). Firewalking: A New Look at an Old Enigma (First ed.). Bramble Co. pp. 253. ISBN 0962618438.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ "Rare feat". Tampa Bay Times.
  4. ^ HEALING STATES by Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D. and Stanley Krippner, Ph.D. Simon & Schuster 1987
  5. ^ "ANCIENT ART IS A HOT EXPERIENCE - WALKING ON FIRE", Miami Herald, February 14, 1997.
  6. ^ "Missing 2 Months, 'Dead' Jersey Boy Returns to Family", New York Times, October 25, 1967
  7. ^ "19-Year-Old Bruce Burkan 'Returns From The Dead'", AP report in Jackson (TN) Sun, October 26, 1967, p2
  8. ^ "From Misery To Near-Death To A Glimpse of Happiness", by Joan Barbato, Morristown (NJ) Daily Record, March 13, 1975, p17
  9. ^ Our Haunted Planet, by John A. Keel (Galde Press, 1999) p181
  10. ^ "Teleportation... The Ultimate Trip", by George Cunningham-Tee, in Pittsburgh Press Sunday Magazine, November 20, 1983
  11. ^ "In the Easy Chair with Mike Merner". Westerly Sun. July 29, 2018.

Further reading

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  • Carey, Art (1 May 2002). "A guru's guide to fire walking and forgiving". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. D01.
  • Beth Ann Drier, "The Curious Hot Foot It to a New Fad," Los Angeles Times, 11 April 1984, pt. 1, 1.
  • Chipello, Christopher (18 April 1989). "If Past-Life Trauma Has Got You Down, Firewalk May Help". Wall Street Journal. pp. A1–A2.
  • USA Today 4-2-90 Page 1, Section D
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