Jean-pierre Beaudoin offering trial by fire

Jean-pierre Beaudoin is certain that anyone can walk across hot coals without getting hurt, so long as they’re in the right frame of mind. On November 19, in Lennoxville’s Centennial Theatre, he’s going to try to prove it.

“I’m not a guru,” Beaudoin said, sharing that his claims result in a lot of raised eyebrows. “I don’t force anyone to do anything.”

For the local rock and roll producer turned life coach and motivational speaker, the fire walking is just one small part of a much larger mission of teaching people the power of their own subconscious mind. Over the course of a five-hour seminar, Beaudoin said he plans to help people learn how to master their emotions and fears in order to hone their goals and focus their lives.

Beaudoin traces his interest in what he calls “the beautiful state” back to a life changing event in 2013.

“I had a major wakeup call in the form of open heart surgery,” the speaker shared, explaining that he spent nearly nine hours with his chest open on the operating table. “I almost died, and after that I changed a lot of things in my head.”

Falling back on a long-term interest in the power of the human mind, Beaudoin reoriented his “rock and roll life” to be focused on learning how to help others

Beaudoin’s fire walking approach is directly inspired by experiences with well-known American Life Coach Tony Robbins, despite the fact that the latter personality’s fire walks have gained increasing media attention for hospitalizing people with burn injuries.

The Sherbrooke speaker, however, said that he keeps a very careful eye on those who choose to cross the coals.

“If somebody in the crowd says to me he’s convinced he’s going to burn himself, well don’t walk. It will happen,” Beaudoin said. “If they really believe that they can walk across the bed of coals without getting hurt, it works.”

Beaudoin claims to have successfully brought more than 1000 people in Quebec to the point of being able to cross a ten to twelve foot bed of hot coals without any injuries so far. Among those he proudly mentioned an 11 year old boy and a woman in her eighties, both of whom recently engaged in the activity in Gatineau.

“What I want to do is teach people the tools and theories to control their fears and emotions and then put them to use that night,” he said. “I make people realize that a lot of time what we think is impossible is actually really easy and doable, you just have to get out of your comfort zone.

Beaudoin called the fire walk a metaphor for life, explaining that once someone has brought themselves to the point of walking barefoot over hot coals, every other challenge seems less frightening.

“You’re literally taking the first steps to overcoming your fear,” the speaker said. “You cannot, in 20 years, look back and think, did I walk on fire? People really remember.”

Though what Beaudoin is offering is a five hour self-help seminar, he strongly emphasized that the experience would not be one of sitting and being talked at the whole time. In order to get people to “the beautiful state” the life coach said that he plans out an interactive and dynamic schedule that gets people up and engaged in the process of boosting their self confidence.

“You get what you want from it,” he said, repeating that participants decide their own level of involvement. “I’m teaching things and you grab what you want; if it helps you grow, that does it for me. I’m trying to be the best version of myself.”

For Beaudoin, the goal is to get people out of their comfort zones and trying new things in the name of personal growth.

Registration for the activity costs $197. The event itself begins at 6pm and goes into the night.

“It seems really weird for some people, but it’s a really simple thing” Beaudoin said. “There are a lot of people out there looking for something. This is not the thing that is going to save your life, but to come and learn and try to go is still important.” More information about Beaudoin is available at http://jpbeaudoin.com/en/