Bali Healers, Assumptions & Coincidences on Your Path 1

There are two Balinese healers in this town (Ubud), one is famous due to Elizabeth Gilbert’s best selling book, “Eat, Pray, Love.”  Last year the workshop leaders went to him but they all had basically the same diagnosis, “You are strong beautiful woman.”  Our young Balinese River Rafting Guide (we met earlier in the day) said that the famous Healer lies in order to quickly move through the long lines of waiting tourists. He recommended we go to the other healer who is very good.

Our Balinese River Rafting guide (now turned interpreter) took us to the Healer’s family area of several buildings, surrounded with beautiful tropical plants and at least a dozen birds in cages.  The Healer was sitting on a stone floor porch smoking a cigarette with another man.  Our rafting guide/interpreter said something to him and he went and put on a white sarong (long skirt).

He showed us his little room lined with weird looking jars of things and a large gaudy shrine wall dedicated to the spirits.  It smelled of strong incense and some other sweet odor.  Our rafting guide/interpreter explained that the process was to go in one at a time after we had checked out the room as a group.

Laura was first, after about 20 minutes she came out with a dazed look.  Either she was in shock or in a deep state of peace; on second look it was more like shock. She had messed up hair that was half wet, some grains of rice stuck to the middle of her forehead and in the center of her collar bone.

Jan was next, after five minutes the Healer came running out and went to another building.  We peaked in and saw Jan sitting with our interpreter using tissues to wipe away tears from her eyes that were squeezed shut.  The healer went back in and then came out and leisurely smoked a cigarette. Through the door we could see she was lying on her back; was she meditating and was he taking a smoke break in the middle of her treatment?

While Jan was being “healed”, Laura told us that he had her take off her shirt and bra and took something out of one of those jars and massaged it all over her (not on her breasts but all around them). She had no idea what he was doing and there was no explanation of her illness.  She was thinking that if it went any further she could start screaming since we were right outside the door. Was it coincidence that she was the best endowed of all of us?

Jan came out of the little room walking slowly, squinting with very red eyes and carrying a pack of cigarettes turned like a little table in front of her as if they were an offering to the Spirits.  She explained that he treated her eyes with an herbal concoction but he had not asked if she was wearing contacts.  She had painfully removed them and the only place to set them down was on the cigarette pack. She said she was still in a lot of pain, “it feels as if someone is gouging my eyes out with a pick.” But, he said he was healing her eyes and macular degeneration runs in her family.  Both her Mother and Grandmother were blind at fairly young ages.

Despite all this, I had no hesitation in jumping up for my turn.  He did some chanting, lit incense on the shrine and waved it around a bit then had me sit cross-legged facing the shrine.  He covered me with what looked like a large black and white checked table cloth but felt heavy and rough like a burlap sack you would throw over someone for kidnapping. He left the little room and I sat there trying to keep my mind still; breath in and out, in and out.  “Is he out there having a cigarette? Am I going to have to take off any clothes?” After what seemed like days but was probably five minutes he came back in and had me take three drinks of holy water in my hands and then splash the last handful over my head (my hair was already a mess from the rafting).  Finally I ate a few grains of the holy rice and then he pasted a few to my forehead and the middle of my collar bones.  The young interpreter explained that he found nothing wrong with me and that the cover was a cloak to protect me from any future spirits of bad health and the rice is also to ward off bad spirits.

Genie was the final patient and she was treated to a bit of a message and he cracked her back which she said felt great.  He told her that she “thinks too much” and had stress stored in her shoulders and neck. Coincidentally, the healer from her visit to Bali last year told her the same thing.

It was not until we were all done that Laura heard the interpretation of her ailment.  He said she was treated for her feet.  She looked down and exclaimed, “The large blisters on my toes are completely gone!!  They were there when we walked here and have been a problem on my feet for months!”  She was happy with the outcome but still a little suspicious of the half-naked method.

The complete disappearance of those blisters was a bit eerie for all of us (cue the twilight zone music).  Jan’s eyes are fine and he said the initial pain is normal, only time will tell if she has escaped her relative’s blindness.  Genie is continuing to work on her over thinking. I trusted my gut that it was ok to go in there and was thrilled with my clean bill of health.

Many of the coincidences and assumptions you encounter on your path may be questions to consider or guide posts for where you need to be; pay attention to them, trust your gut and follow your internalGPS!

Have you had any eerie coincidences or unconventional healing on your path?  Please share in a comment.

Note: The names of my colleagues have been changed to protect their innocence; all gave me permission to share their stories.

Unfortunately still no photos from my camera due to technical problems; big thanks to “Jan” for providing these photos.