Wayan has been busy for the past week driving a taxi for the local Bali Spirit Festival.

Not having Wayan to hang out with has given me the opportunity to meet lots of other people in Bali.

I’m convinced that Bali (and specifically the town of Ubud) is possibly the best place in the world to travel as a single person.

I’ve met so many people while simply walking down the street, at the many mouth-watering restaurants, and at the various accommodations I’ve stayed in.

For the record: I’m now at a humble, quiet room with a great view of the Sacred Monkey Forest after moving from Rooster/Frog Central and then to a quiet and gorgeous -but too isolated- villa).

Yes, there really are monkeys here and the hotel staff gave me a slingshot with my room key to protect me against the sometimes-aggressive beasts.

I’m not kidding.

But getting back to meeting people: I’m convinced that there is a magic here in Bali that, if one is open to it, will suck you in and leave you speechless and often feeling more amazed than maybe you’ve ever been in your entire life.

At least that’s been my experience.

When I was in Ubud in February (before I left to go to India) I went to a restaurant and had a Balinese guy approach me and asked me the typical questions Balinese people ask:

Where you from?

Where in America?

Do you like Bali?

etc, etc, etc.

I responded: America, California, I love, love, love Bali, etc., etc.

This particular guy then said something that reminded me of something Wayan would say to me:

“You’ve got a big smile on your face but your eyes are sad. Is everything okay?”

Wow.

I told him how I’d had food poisoning the night before and had been up most of the night.

He told me his name was Ketut and he knew of a Balinese healer who could help me. Did I want to see his healer?

I sized up this guy and checked my gut and my gut said yes.

Next thing I know we were on his motorbike zipping up the mountain.

We arrived at a typical Balinese compound with small houses all around. The healer’s wife said he was not there yet. My ‘taxi driver’ Ketut called the healer to see where he was.

I couldn’t understand what he said but Ketut’s eyes got wider and wider and he looked at me and smiled while speaking in Indonesian to the healer.

When Ketut got off the phone I asked what his healer had told him.

“He said that he left an hour ago because he knew an American needed him this afternoon.”

“Wait a minute, Ketut. An hour ago?  I just met you a half hour ago.”

“I know, my healer can see what comes ahead.”

What the hell?

His face shined with the truth and I can usually detect bull from a mile away but I just couldn’t believe that the healer had actually known that I’d be coming before I even knew I’d be coming.

That was just too weird.

I looked around and there were Balinese people who were obviously ahead of me in line for the healer. One woman had a split-open big toe that was the size of three normal big toes.

I looked at her and said, “Owie. You poor thing.”

She smiled shyly at me and pointed dejectedly at her oversized toe and frowned in pain.

The healer arrived a few minutes later. He said hello to me in Indonesian and gave me a little bow. I did the same back to him.

Then he called his assistant over, a Balinese woman about my age named Made (pronounced ‘Maw-day’), and turned his attention to the woman with the split toe while I watched and waited my turn.

He touched her legs below the knees and moved his hands around above (not on) her hurt toe, then he applied oil on her toe (“powerful oil, made by healer” Ketut told me). After the oil, he crushed green leaves in his hand and put them directly in her wound while the woman winced in pain. Made held her shoulders and massaged her while the healer worked on her toe.

After about thirty minutes he was finished with her and it was my turn.

“What is your problem?” Ketut interpreted what the healer asked me.

“I had food poisoning. I’ve also been feeling a little bit off emotionally since I ate the bad shrimp. I don’t know how to explain it, but I’m just not feeling quite myself.”

“You come in here to private room, Made will come too,” he said.

So all four of us went into his little healing room: me, Ketut, Made and the healer.

“This room for emotional ailments. We help the physical outside,” the healer told me.

After anointing me with holy oil and then holy water he began chanting. When he got quiet Made began singing a beautiful song. She lit incense and waved it around. And then she told the priest what she ‘saw’ was going on for me in my life and the priest told my interpreter and my interpreter told me.

It was a little cumbersome as far as communicating goes but I understood.

What was said to me was pretty personal otherwise I’d share it here.

Some of the things she said were so spot on they made me gasp with recognition.

After they finished with my ’emotional healing’ we went outside for my healing from food poisoning.

The healer crushed up a small shallot (onion) and mixed it with some oil and put the mixture it in my belly button with a Band-Aid to hold it all in. “You feel better in 15 minutes.”

He was wrong.

I felt better in about 1o minutes.

And when I used the onion in the belly button for one of my food poisoning bouts in India (when I could find a shallot and some oil), it worked for me then, too.

The healer told me he would like to teach me Kundalini Meditation. He told me it would help me to have more life energy. Would I like to learn?

“Yes, when I come back to Bali after India I would like to learn,” I told him.

And I will. Visiting this healer named Gusti to learn Kundalini Meditation is on my list of “Things to Do While in Bali”.

So when my new friend Heiner asked me if I’d like to see a Balinese healer I said yes without hesitation.

I met Heiner the night after I arrived in Bali for the second time in March.

I felt inexplicably drawn that night to go to Sari Organic, a restaurant that is a 20-minute walk through ricefields. I met Heiner at Sari Organic that night and we found out that we’d arrived from India on the same day and nearly the same time (8:10pm). We had lots to talk about (India, Bali, spirituality, etc). and still do.

He’s easy to be with and so interesting to talk to.

Originally from Germany, Heiner now lives part of the year in Bali and part of the year in India.

He just completed the building of his beautiful home in Bali and I’ve enjoyed two dinners there since we met a couple of weeks ago.

Here’s the driveway leading up to Heiner’s house (accessible only by motorbike):

And his open-air dining room perched on the edge of the river:

Such a gorgeous, relaxing spot.

And just one shot of his home that hovers over Kovalam Beach in India because this blog post is not about houses; it is about Balinese healers.

When Heiner asked me if I wanted to go to the Balinese healer I asked how he had heard about the particular healer.

He told me that his friend Susan had been going to this healer for years and that he himself had experienced deep healing as a result of working with him in years past.

“I’m a cynic by nature and this healer, Tjorkorda Rai, is the real thing.”

So Heiner, his friend Susan and I drove to see the healer yesterday.

We sat down on the outside seating area where Tjorkorda Rai was finishing up with a Balinese woman who was lying down on a mat in front of us.

“She’s nauseated. She’s been sick for awhile,” Susan interpreted.

After Rai finished with her he worked on Heiner who winced in pain while Rai fiddled around with his toes which is one of the ways Rai can diagnosis physical and emotional ailments.

After he was finished working on Heiner and prescribed treatment to remedy his situation Susan turned to me and said, “Do you want to get a healing?”

“Yes, definitely,” I replied.

As Rai got ready for me I told Susan why I wanted a healing. “I’ve been really snappy with people lately. I’m not sure what is going on but I’ve had these little bursts of anger lately. Others listening to me being snappy might not think my being snappy is a big deal because it’s not like I’m flying off the handle…”

“But it doesn’t feel good to you,” Susan finished.

“Exactly,” I agreed. ” And also I haven’t really been sleeping well lately so I’m feeling a bit run down.”

I sat down in front of Rai and leaned against his legs. He put his hands on my head, over my eyelids, then next to my nostrils and pressed, then his fingers moved over my mouth, to my jaw and then he pressed my temples.

“OW!” I yelled.

“Tension,” Rai said in English.

“Yes,” I agreed.

“Lie down,” he said, pointing to the mat that Heiner had just been laying on.

Then he got a little wooden stick about half the size of a pencil and pressed it against different sections on the bottom of my toes. I couldn’t feel anything until “OW!”

He had pressed at the bottom of my one of my toes and it hurt like hell.

“Spleen,” he said.

I looked at Susan and Heiner in amazement and said, “Wow, my spleen. That’s what my acupuncturist always says is my problem when I come in for treatments.”

Susan looked at me and smiled knowingly. She’s brought many people to Rai.

“Rai says your energy is blocked there,” Susan interpreted.

Back down goes my head and Rai continues pressing his little stick until he gets me to another sore spot.

“OW!” It’s like no pain I’ve ever felt before. It’s horrible. I want it to stop.

“Breathe into the pain,” says Susan. “Your energy is blocked which is why it hurts. If you breathe into the pain you will feel better.”

How do I breathe into the pain when I want to jump out of my skin? At one point I nearly kick Rai in my reflective attempt to get him to stop pushing my toe with his little stick. This procedure lasted for about 5 minutes. He’d press certain areas on the bottom of my toes and I’d feel nothing but then there would be a spot that hurt like hell and I would beg him to stop.

He would let up for a moment but then he’d press it again.

Then it was over.

Thank God.

Then he began ‘drawing’ lightly on my body with his stick.

“He’s drawing mandalas on you to balance your energy,” Susan said.

That part felt good.

But then he reached for my toes with his stick in hand and I impulsively moved my toes away and said, “Oh please no, not again!” but he put his stick to the spots on my toes that previously had hurt.

No pain.

He said something to Susan in Indonesian.

“Harmony is restored. Your energy is now balanced,” Susan said.

And it was.

My sight was clearer, colors appeared more vivid, I felt (and continue to feel) very grounded.

Then Rai began talking in Indonesian and Susan interpreted once again.

“He says that one of the reasons you got imbalanced is that you’ve lost your passion. You need to find that inner fire within. Something that fills you with ecstasy. And not in the form of a pill.”

We all laugh: Me, Heiner, Susan, Rai.

“He’s talking about ecstacy from within. He says you have a beautiful life…”

“I do! Absolutely. I do have a beautiful life,” I nod in agreement.

“But you’ve gotten out of balance and have lost your passion.”

“How interesting,” I said, looking at Susan. “Passion…the flip side of passion is anger, isn’t it? And I’ve been feeling these little bursts of anger lately,” I mused.

“Yes, that’s what I was thinking when he mentioned passion. If you don’t find and channel that inner passion it can come out as anger,” Susan replied. “This healing that he has given you will restore your energy for some time but he says it would be good for you to do Yoga Nidra to keep up the balanced feeling. Do you know what Yoga Nidra is?”

“No,” I replied.

“Well, his student teaches it. It will help relax your tension. And Rai said it may help you find your passion. His student’s name is Linda Madani and her yoga studio is in Ubud.”

(This was the 5th time in one week that I’d heard about Linda Madani!)

This morning I went to Linda’s 9am yoga class.

It was the best yoga class I’ve ever taken. I fell asleep during the Yoga Nidra part.

When I woke up I felt so refreshed.

I bought a 15-class pass to her classes to save some money and also to commit myself to going as much as possible.

After we visited the healer, Heiner, Susan and I went out for coffee and discussed passion: the different forms it takes and how having it or not having it impacts our lives.

Susan and I talked about how being passionate about a romantic partner is not quite the kind of passion we think Rai had in mind when he talked about my needing to discover my passion.

And I have been passionate about my life at various times: about creative business ideas I’ve had and that I’ve implemented, planting and growing my veggie garden, riding my bike and hiking on my beloved trail, hanging out in my hot tub,  journal writing in the morning and more recently, writing in this blog.

And I’m definitely passionate about Bali: its people, its natural, lush beauty, its culture, its peaceful Hinduism.

A few days before I went to the healer Rai I was contemplating what gives my life meaning. What is truly soulful in my life? What isn’t? Yes, my relationships are number one in my life. Absolutely. But what else gives me passion?

Having stepped away from the routine of my life, from all I know in America, for a period of time, is a potent opportunity to put out these deep life questions and possibly find the answers. All the usual life obligations and to do lists are not here and these things often get in the way of deep contemplation.

I will keep my senses open for other passions that want to emerge.

Keeping the senses open is so easy in Bali.

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