Traditional approach to healing ripe for change

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 are 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 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, a 27-year-old, 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" 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 at 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
bestwoed 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 imposters 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."