Never one for perilous adventures, I resolved to consider walking on hot coals on the promise that the experience might ignite the courage to lead a more fulfilling life. That was the lure of the four-day emotional boot camp that is the Tony Robbins weekend seminar, called ''Unleash the Power Within.''

With slight skepticism and no real commitment, I decided to drag myself out to the hinterland of London's docklands and take a bite. I could always spit it out.

Taking a risk: One of the best known of a breed of self-help teachers called life coaches, Robbins uses the firewalk as a metaphor for getting out of the ''comfort zone'' - taking risks and gaining a new grasp of what's possible.

The point of the weekend, Robbins says, is to start to discover what you really want, identify what's getting in the way - fear - and to begin attacking those obstacles. It's about confronting self-limiting beliefs and patterns and shattering their hold by engaging the body, focusing the mind and using the right words.

''Where do you have to be on a scale of certainty from zero to 10 to walk successfully across fire?'' Robbins asks the crowd. ''Ten,'' we shout back in unison.

''You have to be a 20. You push yourself to 20 so that 10 feels like relaxing by contrast. . . . If you feel strong, say yes. Say yes, say yes,'' he commands.

''Yes, yes, yes,'' the crowd yells, punching their fists in the air.

''Squeeze your fist and feel it when you say yes. Now double the intensity. Say yes.''

The experience never felt more like joining a cult than at that moment, when virtually the entire crowd of 12,000 people formed a fist with their hand, and jerked their arm down across their flank in a move of pure certainty while shouting, emphatically, ''Yes!''

Is all this hype necessary, I asked myself? If I don't get with the program, will I burn myself?

Scientific explanation: Robert Sheridan, chief of burn surgery at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston and co-director of the adult burn unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, says he has never seen a patient come in after firewalking.

''I doubt that you can take a bunch of lay people and suddenly make them mystically able to do this, so there must be some physical reason why this doesn't happen,'' said Sheridan, who has treated burn patients for more than 15 years.

According to experts, firewalking can be explained by science and most believe that no matter what state of mind you are in, the coals will not burn your feet as long as you keep moving forward.

When people do get burned, it's not because they lack faith or willpower, it's because the coalbed is too hot, they lingered too long on the coals or the soles of their feet weren't thick enough, scientists say.

It isn't that the coals aren't hot. The bed is packed with wood chips heated to temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees, but the heat doesn't escape the coals very efficiently, experts say.

''It's got absolutely nothing to do with your mind,'' said physicist David Willey, a recreational firewalker. ''It's just the fact that wood is a lousy conductor of heat, so is ash and so is dead skin on the bottom of your feet.''

According to pain specialist Thalia Segal, the body's processing of pain is also probably involved. Natural pain-relieving chemicals probably are released in the body during the psyching-up process, said Segal, an anesthesiologist and pain specialist at the New York University Pain Management Center.

''You may have already augmented your body's endorphins so that you had your own natural pain reliever,'' she said.

Burning thoughts: In the hour or so leading up to the firewalk, I was definitely energized - chiefly by my panic in figuring out how I was going to do this.

As I bend down to untie my laces I'm suddenly grateful I had a pedicure last week. At least when I turn up at the burn unit, my feet will be pretty. Then I thought, ''What if the pedicurist sanded too much off the bottom of my feet, making them more likely than normal to melt?''

But isn't nail polish flammable? Quick, ask somebody if they've got any remover. But nail polish remover is also flammable. Probably best to leave it.

Rolling up the cuffs of my jeans, I took the hand of my firewalking buddy Terry McElhinney and let him lead me into the dark night. Bongo drums beat in the distance, mixed with rhythmic clapping.

I was staring straight ahead at Terry's back, my hand trying to wriggle out of his, when all of a sudden we were in the line for the coals. Then the glowing bed was before me. There was no more time to hyperventilate and indulge my panic.

Suddenly, I was walking - no, sauntering - across the coals, cool as can be. There was no heat, no drums, no sight of Terry.

The shock of the cold water hosing down my feet snapped me out of my reverie and there was Terry, a broad smile across his face and his arms wide open.

''You did it,'' he said.

"Mind over matter": For days afterward, I was brainwashed, luxuriating in the achievement and not caring how it was possible that I did it. But I soon returned to my old ways and pursued the scientific explanation.

''The mind over matter part - which is not to be neglected - is the idea that you are willing to take the risk to do this,'' said psychologist Alan Hilfer.

But does walking on fire free you from all your fears and change your life? Usually, no, the experts say.

Even Robbins acknowledges that while it can change some people's lives, for others it's merely a good pub story.

Willey agreed the long-term benefits of firewalking are limited for most people. ''That's part of what they are selling. This great group feeling and if I can do this, I can change my life. It might make you realize that you can go to your boss and ask for a raise and give you confidence to do that, but you are not going to cure your own liver cancer.''