How the Media Burned Tony Robbins & Human Potential

The headlines are ringing out in droves. “30 PEOPLE BURNED IN FIREWALK AFTER TONY ROBBINS FORCES PARTICIPANTS TO WALK ON FIRE”.

Coverage is going wildly from coast to coast. Written, online, live newscasts. The amount of coverage you might expect from a tragedy of a grand scale.

There’s something remarkably unremarkable about the headline. It rings like every other headline out there. “Hundreds killed in attack”. “Two killed in murder suicide”. It is a headline, meant to instill a sense of dread at the outset, a constant bombardment of the darkside of humanity.

But these headlines and media coverage? They have nothing to do with burns. They have nothing to do with Tony Robbins and his fame. They have nothing to do with the 30 people. But they do have everything to do with the squelching of human potential.

I discovered firewalking a few years ago. It is something that has intrigued me for a long long time. Call me crazy, but there was something wildly exciting about putting mind over matter, and doing what many have done before me. A thing that often seems impossible. The whole notion of firewalking is that if your brain can handle the idea of walking on hot coals, and not get burned that all other obstacles are ultimately irrelevant. The goal is crushing the notion of possible vs. impossible. And fast.

Yet no matter how much you can shirk reality, a firewalk happens across things that are on fire.You are walking barefooted on hot coals. Coals that burn hotter than any appliance inside your home. And since it is fire? You’re likely to get burned. Because, well….you’re walking on hot coals.

An inherent risk of walking on fire? Burns. It IS fire after all. And no matter the firewalk, burns may happen.

And yet, thousands of humans that day walked on hot coals. Thousands of humans were not burned. Thousands of humans had the opportunity to face their fears, and walk the nearly 20 feet across a bed of coals. Human potential at it’s peak.

The focus of the headlines at Tony Robbins’ event? The 30 people that were burned. The thing utterly missing from the headlines? The truth.

What if the media portrayed the truth and presented the absolute picture of reality? What if our media supported the infinity of human potential, rather than sensationalizing the fear we have of the unknown and the unexplained? What if media supported our capacity for human infinity?

The headline would read: “6970 PEOPLE WALKED BAREFOOT ON HOT COALS WITHOUT BURNS, 30 WERE SEEN FOR MINOR INJURIES.”

And wouldn’t that be amazing?