Thursday saw a host of peculiar healing and meditation practises being perfomed at the Buddhist Monastery in Tainan County, Taiwan.The meditation session started off with everyone sitting down on the floor. A style we're more familiar with in the western world. They were all behaving nicely, sitting there quietly until people started moving around. Some quite violently and as if they were possessed by some external force they wanted to shake off. I must declare I found it all rather amusing, but was told by my western friend Paul who was more familiar with this somewhat unorthodox, almost shamanic style of trance-meditation "I really should stop laughing, its rude!" but by this time the random jerks and twangs of the meditators had become too much and I found myself in an unstoppable fit of laughter.
Later on it got even more energetic as they started getting up from there sitting positions to move around. It looked like one of those illegal raves where everyone is extremely tired and have been dancing for hours on end. They were kind of letting go by expressing themselves through their bodies - a practise seen alot in Shamanism. After everyone had recovered from there exorcising and spiritual creativity it was time for the healing session. People who felt they needed healing (and there were many) lined up to face this woman who was moving her arms around with what looked to be Tai Chi type movements - accompanied by extremely high pitched noises, rampant belching, pops and frog like croaks when she encountered a troublesome area and in extinguishing illicit chi energy from her patient. She would then turn the patient round and bash him on the back for a couple of minutes, an exchange of bows were made and the session was over.
By JC Ball
