Reflexology cures a wide variety of illnesses

Reflexology cures a wide variety of illnesses

JAKARTA (JP): Edo grimaced as Sahibi Mudasir massaged his left foot. Edo shook his head, closed his eyes and then opened his mouth. Nothing came out.

Mudasir was massaging the young man's foot to cure him of myopia. No ordinary masseur. He is a reflexologist.

"In the beginning you will feel a lot of pain, but after you come here several times, you get used to it," Mudasir assured, digging his fingers into his patient's left foot.

"This is the center of the nerve that affects your right eye," he explained as Edo yelped.

"The one that affects the left eye is on the right foot."

According to Mudasir, the pressure will activate nerves and improve the patient's vision.

"This will reactivate the organs which are not active," he said.

Several books have been published about the popular massage therapy. In Body Reflexology, Healing at Your Fingertips, Milfred Carter and Tammy Weber explain that the body is like an electrical system with many "on" and "off" switches.

They say there are main circuits to every organ, gland and nerve, with circuit breakers in the hands, feet and other body parts.

The pressure sends a healing force to all parts of the body by opening up closed electrical lines that have shut off the universal life force.

The treatment works on many of Mudasir's patients, like Ahmad, an office worker, who said the massage cured his shortsightedness. But not all patients are satisfied.

Sari, a teenager, complained that there was no improvement in her sight even though she had been massaged several times. But she admitted that unlike Ahmad, she did not see Mudasir regularly.

"You have to be persistent," Mudasir insisted.

Patients are required to visit once a week.

Mudasir said he had cured people of cancer, cataracts, polio, digestion problems and had even healed paralyzed children.

"But based on my experience, I can't cure patients with serious liver problems who need blood washing," he said, without explaining why.

His patients include a high-ranking army officer, some doctors and several foreigners.

One of the doctors, a diabetic, came to Mudasir because he did not want to take synthetic drugs.

"The doctor said that the chemicals were poison," Mudasir said.

The 56-year-old reflexologist only gives patients suffering from serious diseases like cancer or diabetes traditional medicine. He concocts some of the medicine himself.

Mudasir learned the art of reflexology in 1985 from his now retired elder brother Amir Mudasir.

Mudasir used to be a physics teacher at a junior high school until the schoolwarden came to him asking for money to help cure his mother's swollen and red feet.

"I didn't have any money and I couldn't take her to my brother because she was really ill," he said. "I thought it would be good if I could massage her."

So Mudasir took a crash course in massage from his brother that afternoon and practiced on the schoolwarden's mother. He didn't even know the name of the disease, but she recovered the day after his massage.

The news spread throughout the school and he then became the school's "doctor".

Two years later, after curing a student of polio, Mudasir became determined to be a professional reflexologist. He retired in 1992 and began practicing reflexology full-time.

Before leaving his school he taught the craft to a few colleagues. Although three teachers were interested in reflexology, only one was successful, he said.

One of his relatives, a doctor, also tried to learn reflexology, but failed.

"Special talent is required," he vouched, adding that he would share his skill with anyone who really wants to learn about the therapy.

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