Testimonial: Finding Calm in the Impossible, My Journey Learning Sword Swallowing with Bill Berry

Kitten Marie Testimonial:

I initially contacted Bill Berry for some understanding of the art of sword swallowing in order to improve a burlesque act featuring a related skill. Bill was immediately there to bounce ideas with me. This initial reach-out led to a call and eventually an agreement to begin training with him.

When I left my first in-person sword-swallowing lesson with Bill, I remember feeling very excited… and also a little bit like I had found a solution to a problem that I wasn’t previously aware that I had. That lesson felt a little like therapy, but not in a way that I could easily explain at the time.

The problem, it turns out, is multi-fold. The solution, I have learned through my lessons with Bill, is the cultivation of a full-body discipline.

The variety of discipline that Bill promotes is not one of force, assertion, or relentless effort, but that of a yin-rooted, gentle commitment. This sort of quiet control has numerous benefits that reach far beyond the skills to which they are applied in his lessons and, like a true master, Bill is acutely aware of that.

Over the last year or so, Bill has shared his wisdom and techniques with me through his online resources, over the phone, and in our in-person lessons at his beautiful micro-farm home. I have had solo lessons with him and lessons shared with his other students in other disciplines. I have carefully watched him interact with several of these students and noticed how Bill is there for each one.

As someone who is relatively well-versed in the art of instruction, I believe Bill to be the best sort of teacher in that his instruction style is gentle, patient, and grounded in the equal footing of friendship. He does not condescend or push. He never shames or guilts.

Bill is there cheering you on when you make progress or, as in my case, when you lose a loved one and need to take a pause for a few months.

It is difficult to describe, or even fully comprehend, how completely Bill Berry manages to cultivate an atmosphere of serenity and comfort while simultaneously instructing one to tolerate the exact opposite.

During our most recent in-person lesson, I told him that when I am independently working on calming myself to begin practice at home, I often envision myself in his living room. Bill said that this is not the first time someone has said something like this and joked that the vibrant design choices in his space are not necessarily geared towards serenity.

I firmly believe that the deep feeling of pervasive calm has nothing to do with the decor or the space. It is the support, camaraderie, and guidance of a confident instructor.

It is simply that Bill is there.