The time is around 9pm on a Thursday and 7,000 people are chanting ‘YES! YES! YES!’ in a pitch-black car park in London’s Docklands. It’s been raining and the ground is damp, but we are all in our bare feet, which are going numb on the cold, hard concrete. Undeterred, we keep going. There’s a drum pounding in the distance and we keep step with its beat. Marianne Power attended Robbins’ Unleash The Power Within seminarwhich claims to ‘discover how to identify what it is you really want' The mood is tribal. I feel as if we’re on our way to a ritual killing. Maybe our own. We’ve already signed waivers warning us that what we are about to take part in could result in ‘physical or emotional injury, paralysis, death . . .’ and we’ve spent the past half-an-hour being told what we need to do to avoid hospitalisation. I feel sick with anticipation, but there’s no way out — the huge crowd keeps pushing me forward. Then, the chanting stops and a hush fills the air. We are faced with our fate. It glimmers grey and red in the darkness: lanes of burning hot coals, which we are to walk over. Yes, actually walk over — with our bare feet. We have spent the past two hours preparing for this moment — being whipped into something called ‘peak state’, a place where you are so mentally strong that you can do anything. The idea is that, once you overcome the fear of walking on coals of between 1,200 and 2,000 Fahrenheit, you can ‘conquer the other fires of your life with ease’. But I don’t conquer anything with ease. It’s not in my nature. ‘Am I really doing this?’ is all I can think. But yes, I am. For the past year, I’ve been on a self-improvement mission. Fed up with a life spent worrying, single and broke, I’ve set myself a bizarre challenge to live by the rules of a different self-help guru each month. Marianne (pictured) has set herself a bizarre challenge to live by the rules of a different self-help guru each month and this month she chose that of Anthony Robbins . And, when it comes to the self-improvement world, Anthony Robbins is the king. Everyone from world leaders — Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev — to athletes such as Serena Williams and actors including Hugh Jackman seek his counsel. He even helped Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher. His IS a classic rags-to-riches story. Determined to transcend his poor childhood, he became obsessed with self-improvement. He’d listen to motivational tapes on his way to his job as a janitor, before going on to give motivational talks himself. Fast forward to today and he is a bestselling author and hugely successful business man, whose net worth is in the region of half a billion dollars. He charges $1 million to coach private clients — which is why the rest of us have to settle for listening to him in a concert hall. Anthony Robbins (pictured in the 1990s) charges $1 million to coach private clients and is the 'king' of the self-improvement world . According to his website, Robbins’ Unleash The Power Within seminar would help me ‘discover how to identify what it is you really want, break through any barriers that might be holding you back, increase your energy and mental clarity, and infuse passion into your life’. Big promises. But the fortysomething woman next to me in the queue to get in promises that he can deliver. She has been three times before, she tells me. ‘When you walk over those coals, something changes,’ she says, her eyes wide. ‘I can’t explain it, but it’s just amazing.’ She has all the fervour of a fanatic. Two physiotherapists from Windsor join in our conversation — they’ve been sent here by their boss. ‘He went last year and got a lot out of it,’ they say. ‘He was on a high for weeks.’ And ‘high’ is the perfect word for the atmosphere. As we file into the arena, there’s chaos as people rush to get good seats — but no one sits in them. They’re too busy dancing along with the music blasting from the speakers. It’s like being at a One Direction concert. After half-an-hour, Tony walks on stage and the screaming goes off the scale. People can hardly contain themselves in the presence of the 6 ft 7 in mountain of a man. With his Hollywood tan, white teeth and lantern jaw, he looks like something that a Mills & Boon writer would dream up. And just to add to the effect, his chiselled face is blown up to God-like proportions on massive screens behind him. It takes minutes for the applause to die down enough for him to speak — but when he starts, he doesn’t stop. His basic message is that anything is possible if we just get our minds and bodies into what he calls the peak state. He says we are all defined by our limiting beliefs and that if we get rid of these then ‘the impossible just gets done’. He is the King of the Catchphrase: ‘It’s impossible to love yourself when you’re not being yourself’; ‘Change your story, change your life . . .’ These nuggets come out of his mouth from 1pm to 9pm. He doesn’t take a tea break and neither do we. It’s extraordinary — I’ve never seen anything like it. Just the sheer energy of him. I find myself thinking that he is the living embodiment of human potential, then I realise I’m swooning. Even world leaders like Nelson Mandela (left) and Bill Clinton (right) have sought the advice and counsel of Anthony Robbins . I turn to the Norwegian man next to me and say: ‘I think I’m in love . . .’ He smiles and says: ‘Me, too.’ We are all under his spell and will do anything he says, including hugging and high-fiving strangers, and punching our fists in the air while yelling: ‘Yes, yes, yes!’ It’s just so un-English. There are moments when I look around at the collective madness and feel as if I’ve become part of a cult, but I have to make a decision: get embarrassed or go with it. I go with it. As the day goes on, we examine our ‘limiting beliefs’. I identify mine as being bad with money and always getting sick. And then he asks us to visualise what life would be like if we got rid of these limiting beliefs. I imagine being healthy, energetic and productive, someone who just gets things done without always worrying about the things that can go wrong. I imagine my bank account being in the black and owning a property. To build on this vision, we’re taught how to get into a peak state by thinking of the best moment of our lives, the moment we felt strongest and most at peace. I think of times with loved ones and professional achievements that I’m proud of. Each time we do we are told to ‘make a move’, so every time we make that move in the future, these memories will come back. I pump my fist in the air, again and again and again. I can’t believe I’m doing it — it’s so not me. I feel as if I’m in the film Rocky. And then the time comes to walk on fire. We’re told to take off our shoes and socks and march out of the conference centre to the 8 ft lines of coal in the car park. Robbins is said to have also helped well-known face including Princess Diana (left) and former prime minister, Margaret Thatcher (right) A part of me wants to run away, but a bigger part of me knows that I can do this. Then I’m standing in front of the coals and two men are instructing me to shout: ‘YES!’ I do. They say ‘Make your move!’ and I pump my fist in the air. Then, I go for it. I put my foot on the coals and after that I remember nothing — until my last step, when I could feel heat. I have half-a-second of panic when I realise what I’m doing — but, by then, my feet are on the cold square of grass put at the end of the fire and my feet are being hosed down by helpers. It’s done. I’ve walked across a bed of hot coals. Two weeks later, I still cannot answer those questions, but I find myself having the same thoughts as the woman I met in the queue at the start of that day. That strange moment of collective hysteria, when we walked over hot coals, has changed something within me. If I can walk on fire without barbecuing my feet, what else can I do? I’m very keen to find out. To follow Marianne’s self-help journey, go to helpmeblog.net .
Marianne Power decided to live by a different self-help guru each month . Marianne attended Robbins’ Unleash The Power Within seminar . Robbins has counselled Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela and more .