Traditional approach to healing ripe for change

David Kennedy, Contributor, Jakarta, d_kenn@yahoo.com

It's early Sunday morning at a nondescript hotel near Blok M in South Jakarta, and an anxious group of women is waiting to see Jeng (Mrs.) Asih Marlyna. The corridor is ill-lit and some hyperactive kids jump around, while their mothers look on wearily.

Some have traveled from far after seeing the Central Javanese faith healer profiled on television, others have seen her advertisement in a mystical magazine. All have come in the hope of a solution to varied personal and family problems. A poster stuck to the wall offers treatments for a plethora of afflictions, ranging from gynecological complaints to beauty treatments, and even for the tricky issue of roving husbands.

Dozens of women come here each weekend and more travel to Jeng Asih's clinic in Pati, Central Java, on weekdays, paying anything from Rp 200,000 to Rp 2 million for her services.

"I came yesterday but there were about 30 or 40 people waiting," said Linda, a 26-year-old woman whose husband has been "looking weird" recently.

"I think my husband has another woman. I've read the magazines and he shows all the signs: he's been stolen by another woman. I just want Ibu Asih to bring him back to me."

Another woman has relationship problems which require a more specific physical treatment. Yanti, 27, has a new boyfriend who she plans to marry. However, she does not want him to know that she is not a virgin.

"I've come for the vagina tightening treatment I saw advertised in a magazine," she said.

The treatment she refers to involves massage and the consumption and application of water which has been imbued with magic by Jeng Asih.

Jeng Asih claims to have inherited supernatural abilities from her family and from studying the Javanese Ilmu Wali Songo (the knowledge of the propagators) with various teachers in order to develop the healing powers said to have been passed on from the Sufi teachers who originally brought Islam to Indonesia. Following studies in psychology and French and a stint teaching in a high school, she decided to put her powers to use, setting up her own clinic.

"I detect the person's problems through massage and then I give them the special water that contains magic and prayers. Then they drink the water or pour it on their body," she explained after giving a demonstration in which she prayed, placed two fingers on her forehead while deep in concentration and prodded my shoulder (which was aching) a bit.

Grateful that I had not complained about the shape of my nose, the traditional Javanese healer described susuk, the well-known traditional method for lengthening a nose, improving beauty or charming the object of affection.

"You do it by inserting a piece of gold or diamond under the skin," she explained.

Jeng Asih claims that her special beauty product -- a liquid bestowed with prayers and magic -- is recognized by the Ministry of Health, a claim which the ministry denies. Currently, the only alternative health therapy formally recognized by the government is acupuncture.

However, the official approach to alternative health therapies and paranormal healing in this country is a complex one, made more so by the decentralization of health care to local administrations.

There are more than 208,000 alternative health therapists in Indonesia according to the Ministry of Health but, with the exception of acupuncturist, none of these therapists is licensed, nor have they been inspected by the ministry. Despite this fact, many healers use a registration number from local authorities to suggest that their methods are endorsed by the Ministry of Health.

This, some would argue, allows many unscrupulous impostors to operate throughout the country, often employing far more invasive, semisurgical techniques than those used by Jeng Asih.

"People must be very careful when they go for treatments publicized on TV. They can be misleading, and the safety or effectiveness of those alternative health treatments hasn't been proven," said Dr. Agnes Maureen Loupatty, head of the traditional health standardization section under the ministry's Directorate General of Community Health.

It begs the question why such services are allowed to be on offer and widely publicized in the media in the first place. Only this week, the danger of unscrupulous advertising claims was highlighted in a letter to a daily newspaper from a woman who claimed to be suffering from severe skin infections after being injected in the face by a famous "beauty maestro" she had seen on television.

The reason for this seemingly tolerant approach to potentially dangerous practices is, practitioners say, tied to local culture -- which has embraced paranormal healing and beauty therapies for centuries and blended ancient teachings into religious practices. Another contributing factor is that for the majority of people here, access to medical doctors and hospitals is financially difficult, if not impossible.

However, the growth in popularity of alternative health and beauty treatments from abroad over the last decade and the continued openness of people from all social classes to pay for paranormal healing has led to pressure on the sector to become more professional.

Sumarsono Wuryadi, a reiki master at Sanjiwani holistic health care center near Cikini Railway Station in Central Jakarta, specializes in paranormal healing methods, mainly originating from overseas, and organizes seminars to teach them. The center offers a wide range of therapies, considered to be complementary treatments rather than complete replacement for medical care.

Although he practiced traditional Javanese healing before turning to reiki, Sumarsono, who is also vice chairman of the Indonesian Communication Forum for Paranormal and Alternative Healers, believes the image of the traditional healer is ripe for change.

"The weakness of the old Javanese healing techniques is that they lack any system or methodology, unlike reiki or acupuncture. This gives them a magical and mystical appearance but their effect is just average really. I think that with time they will have to become more open," he said.

"Alternative treatment clinics often give the image of being mystical, to make people believe they can do anything -- that way they encourage them to hand over whatever money the paranormal asks for," said Sumarsono.

"My aim is to use the rational approach, to make my patients smarter about their health, not to make them stupid."