What's hot in Orem besides the outside temperature? The firewalk under the feet of a man who believes success is all a matter of personal control.
Joseph McClendon literally put his feet on the line for what he calls the science of "Succeleration" as he trod across hot coals Friday."The only thing you really need to fear is fear," said McClendon. "Our bodies respond to what we tell them to fear, whether it's fear of failure, fear of rejection or fear of success."
Californian McClendon lectures around the world on the ways and means to avoid letting fear enslave in a seminar series about "accelerating the successes" in our lives.
He is a UCLA instructor and the president and founder of the Succeleration Research Group.
Two of his seminar graduates, Hal and Beth Wilding, joined him in a rapid walk Friday in Orem after live coals were laid in a path on a sod strip in their back yard.
How does it work? Why don't the coals scorch their feet? "Probably the best way to explain it is to say the foot forms a kind of film that protects the skin from burning, based on what the mind tells the body," said Beth Wilding, watching the fire burn in the back yard of her home at 647 S. 800 East.
McClendon said it isn't just a mind over matter "trick" but a combination of being in peak physical and mental condition at the time of the challenge.
Immediately, the feet are hosed down because once the concentration breaks, the tissues are again at risk from coal fragments between the toes or clinging to the bottoms, said McClendon.