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Beyond Biofeedback – Drs Elmer and Alyce Green

The demonstration with burning made us somewhat uneasy, but Jack reassured us. That particular demonstration, he said, was relatively insignificant, even if he was burned. More serious, he said, was the demonstration he had made a few years earlier at a meeting of the Los Angeles County Medical Association, arranged by psychiatrist Dr. Kurt Fantl, who had become acquainted with Jack shortly after Jack arrived in the United States.

At a Council Grove Conference Kurt told me that he had arranged for Jack to demonstrate a variety of physiological controls for his medical colleagues. The demonstrations were so startling, however, that his colleagues boycotted him-quit sending him patients-and he had a strenuous time for a few years following Jack's visit.

Jack told us that one of the things he demonstrated on that occasion was "fire control.” He put his two hands into a brazier of burning coals held by two medical students with asbestos gloves, picked up a double handful of fire, and carried it around, showing the coals to the doctors; then he put the coals on a newspaper, which burst into flames. Dr. Fantl said that Jack's hands appeared afterward to be normal, not even hot, and with no indication of having been subjected to high temperature.