An experienced teacher and shamanic practitioner (with an expertise for Sweat Lodge Ceremonies) Maarten Elout is also Personal Assistant to Peggy Dylan, founder of SUNDOOR, the International Firewalking School.

We’re on our way to San Francisco International airport. It’s 5.30AM on a Saturday morning in early July. It’s still dark and traffic is basically non-existent at this hour, save for some truckers heading to the bay area to drop off their cargo. This stretch of our journey is like one straight line through the flattest part of California being Dutch and quite used to these kinds of horizontal
views the valley bores me. My being thrives in the mountains, or at the ocean, preferably both at the same time.

We’re catching a direct flight to London on our way to the No Mind Festival in Angsbacka, Sweden, where Peggy annually leads a group of approximately 350 spiritually oriented ‘Vikings’ in a firewalk. The last couple of months we have spent on many new endeavours in our roasting office here in Sonora California. It’s not even high summer yet and the temperatures are ‘pushing
the hundreds’ as they say here in a thick cowboy accent that makes you think you just fell through a hole in the universe and landed in the middle of the gold rush. I never got to bed last night. Being a late night person I usually start working when everybody else clocks off. Both Peggy and her husband Steve are early risers and tend to have most of their office work done by noon. I
on the other hand don’t get going until the afternoon, peaking in creative bursts in the evening and well past midnight. Jokingly we’ve said that the Sundoor office can be reached 24/7, which is not far from the truth when I’m around. On a couple of occasions I even met Peggy on the stairs leading up to the office; me on my way down to bed, she on her way up to the office to start her day. A little mad but it seems to work well for everybody. But here I am drifting off again, what have I been up to? Well, this last night before we head over to Europe for a summer filled with workshops and lectures, I’ve been attempting to send out our second periodic emailing of this year, but unfortunately the ISP is giving me a hard time and has decided that we’re spamming, aarrrggghhh. And then there’s the brochures that need to be mailed out from Holland to organizers in the rest of Europe. And oh, we need a simple flyer to hand out with Peggy’s new book that’s just been published in Swedish. I shouldn’t forget to take the rest of the certificates with me and our official seal, and yes I would love a cup of coffee with that. What’s that? Are the slideshows ready? I’m pretty sure I’ve put them on my usb-stick yes, and what about the numbers for our workshops in Scotland, do we need to put extra effort into those? Did I finish the changes on our web sites yet and do I have any mock up designs for our new flyer we
can take a look at? And while I’m at it why don’t I contact some printers in the area and abroad and get price quotes from them. Did so-and-so call back about the corporate firewalk in New Mexico by the way? And do we have enough instructors at the festival in Sweden to tend all four firewalking fires? Why don’t I call our contact and find out. How about the Germans, have you
heard back from them yet?

I guess you get the picture. As personal assistant to the originator of the firewalking movement in the West it does get rather busy. But I love it! I love the work we do inside and outside of the workshops. I love to design brochures, web sites, plan, communicate and organize. And I also love to tend fires, pour water for our training’s sweat lodges, share my knowledge (and hopefully a little wisdom) and sit with someone in a breathing session

Maarten Elout studied Japanese Language and Culture, majoring in Buddhism at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands (1990-1995). He continues his personal Shingon Buddhist practice ever since his visit to Japan in 1994 where he conducted the traditional Buddhist pilgrimage of Kobodaishi Kukai on foot along the 88 temple circuit on the island of Shikoku. His personal practice has come to include various shamanic tools and rituals as well.

He has qualifications in: Neuro Emotional Integration (NEI-coach - 1995), Integrated Natural Therapies and Energetic Geo Reflex Analysis (INTEGRA-practitioner level I - 1996), SUNDOOR Breathwork (practitioner - 2000), Reiki (practitioner level I & II - 2004/2005), and Medical Qigong (practitioner level I - 2005). Furthermore he is certified as an Advanced SUNDOOR Firewalk Instructor (1999) and SUNDOOR Master (2000). Maarten spent three and a half years (2005-2009) of his apprenticeship with practical mystic Peggy Dylan as a driving force within The international Firewalking School, travelling to all worldwide workshops and events as SUNDOOR Trainer and her personal assistant.  

His career spans from General Manager in the hospitality business to Workshop Facilitator in personal growth and spiritual development. In 2009 he launched Spirit Lodge Academy: a three year course in sweat lodge teachings and ceremonial leadership.

For more information, visit:  www.maartenelout.com