Bali aka Island of Gods is known not only for surfing breaks and beaches but powerful local sages who know how to heal you from visible and invisible wounds.
Balinese believe that good and evil live in everyone but should be balanced and maintaining such balance will grant us health and success. The divine balance of Sekala (tangible world)-Niskala (intangible) is a governing principle of all, including healing.
Eat Pray Love novel and movie greatly contributed to how popular Balinese healing modalities are today but the locals have been using them for centuries staying fit, healthy, and happy without ever needing to visit a doctor.
What is a spiritual healing experience you can expect to get in Bali and what will the healers do to you? Here are all the things you need to know to add a healing session to your Bali trip.
How Do The Balinese See Physical and Mental Illness?
In Balinese culture, being sick means disharmony between yourself and the surroundings and it happens mostly for 2 reasons:
if a person does something wrong or disrespects the sacred order,
or the disease or negative thoughts and behaviours can be caused by black magic cast by a person with certain powers.
People born with defects or mental illness are believed to suffer from their karma from the past life. So the pain or certain traits were given to the person by gods to balance out what was done in the past and set it to the right path in this life.
But you don’t have to abandon your family doctor’s treatment plan to explore traditional Balinese healing methods – they can coexist well!
What Is Spiritual Healing In Bali?
Balinese traditional spiritual healing uses natural oils and natural herbs, connecting with spirits and gods, healing body massage techniques and cleansing from bad energy.
It is said to offer people emotional release, help them regain confidence or find the right path in their lives or heal extreme pain. Village healers perform such a treatment.
Balinese also go to village temples called Pura Dalem to ask for purification and protection from evil spirits and bad influence.
In Balinese spiritual healing, your own desire to heal is the most important part of the process.
The Concept Of Yanga, Yantra And Mantra
Yanga, Yantra and Mantra are ancient Hindu teachings combining yoga, meditation, and working with one’s mind.
Shamans often recite mantras for energy cleansing rituals. Yanga is all about finding happiness and peace, while Yantra brings more resilience and consciousness to your mind and body.
Some yogis consider mantra and yantra to be powerful instruments able to reprogram our brain and be deeply connected with our energy centres (chakras), our diet and lifestyle.
Traditional Balinese Healers, Who Are They?
Many Balinese people have never been to a hospital, even to this day, as for them it can take a whole day trip from a remote village, sitting for long hours waiting for the consultation and a medical bill they can’t afford.
Generations of villagers rely on traditional Balinese healing and the names of the traditional healers travel via word of mouth from house to house. Those healers are called Balians.
Many of them inherited the gift or came to it later in life after surviving their own traumas and illnesses and connecting with a certain spirit that now guides their work.
Balians are not all the same and cover a large variety of capabilities. These healers follow Balinese people from the very birth and participate in pretty much all of the rites of passage – 13 important Balinese rituals everyone passes from birth to death.
These rites are all meant for purification and increasing the person’s spiritual energy so he or she can live according to the divine order and be a good person.
Despite being so useful and powerful, according to the Hindu caste system, Balians are considered low-caste shamans (dukuns) and witch doctors.
Make no mistake, Balians are extremely respected and sometimes even feared as Balians study and work with both white and black magic. It is common knowledge for locals that you don’t refuse to help an elder Balian if he or she needs something.
The higher caste priests are Pedanda high priests of the Brahmana caste and Pemangku of the Sudra caste and can only work with divine energy, and no black magic at all.
What Does A Bali Healer Do?
Bali has different types of healers. Balians know both white and black magic and are considered “doctors”, but they are not general practitioners types of doctors Westerners may imagine and have no medical training.
Each Balian has a specialization which may not always be health. According to some of the Balinese healers they do not heal at all, but merely show people how to heal themselves.
Some of the things healers in Bali can do:
They go into trance to connect with divine knowledge and ancestors or use children as a “crystal ball” connecting with spirits through them. For ex., Balian Ketakson uses trance to connect with spirits. This often includes prophesying. Often, Ketakson are women.
Balians attend all the major ceremonies and rituals in Balinese families, from the very beginning as they can determine what spirit arrived in a newborn and what a child’s identity is like.
Balian Tulang heals broken bones.
Balian Kebal can cast spells and charms and make love potions, or make a protective amulet, a ring, or a magic item for protection against black magic
Commonly, they work as a midwife as not all Balinese villagers can go to the hospital. This is called Balian Manak.
Balians can help find lost items and locate the thief, name the best day for a project or make sure it isn’t raining on a certain day the ceremony is held.
can make or give recipes to make traditional Balinese medicine at home. It can be a topical paste like a scrub (boreh) or drink.
Balian Usada are literate healers who take care of the sacred books with ancient scriptures called lontars and pass their knowledge. It may come as a surprise, but some Balians historically could not read or write so preserving the lontars is like preserving the Koran or Bible. These healers usually know everything about traditional medicine.
Balian Taksu are spirit mediums. They work with dead people, gods and spirits, and can help with curses, negative traits like greed, passion or jealousy, and incurable diseases or unexplained illnesses.
Balian Paica specializes in astrology and can draft your pelelinyangan – Balinese astrological chart based on your birth date, and select the auspicious date for a ceremony.
Before The Session Starts
Ngelus – the healing session can’t start without Balian connecting with its powers and determining what issues he must address and what tools to use.
This process is called Pawisik and is done through meditation, intuition, trance or using other tools in the arsenal.
Once the healer knows what to do, he can start the work. Balinese healing sessions can include one or several techniques like massage, energy healing, sounds, work with chakra, natural herbs, holy water, and mantras.
Often, Balians offer “life coaching” advice and bits of wisdom to guide you.
Bali Usada: Balinese Healing Methods And Techniques
Balinese healing treatments are believed to be holistic and address various ailments and cure physical and mental illnesses without a visit to a proper hospital.
The general term for Balinese healing is Bali Usada, where Usada means “traditional medicine” in Indonesian and it is the Indonesian version of the ayurveda.
Healers often intuitively combine many other methods during the session.
Melukat – Balinese Spiritual Cleanse & Water Blessings
Melukat is an ancient cleansing ritual that has become very popular among tourists visiting Bali. Holy water blessings aim to purify the spirit but actually is also a powerful treatment for skin conditions.
Tirta Empul temple is one of the most spiritual places in Bali. You walk into a waist-deep stone pool filled with holy water and stand under one of the fountain statues with running natural springs water.
Balinese Healing Massage (Taksu Massage)
Balinese healing massage is not the same as Balinese traditional massage and is performed by Balian Uat.
It combines massage with magic, mantras and offerings working with body channels and fluids and the goal is to restore a smooth flow and connection between all parts of the body.
It works great if you feel pain or some stiffness, but can also help with constipation or infertility.
However, healers can still use elements of deep tissue massage, cupping, Chinese acupuncture, moxibustion, and reflexology in their work, especially if the goal is to make you pain-free.
Note that healing massage can be relatively painful, as some healers use wooden tools and sticks to apply pressure.
Balinese Yoga
While yoga is not traditionally Indonesian or Balinese, healers may use certain positions (asanas) in their practice as yoga modalities are proven methods to heal both mind and body.
Yoga helps the body to activate “self-repair” mechanisms, clean the mind, align energy centres (chakra balancing) and our spine, and move properly through a series of subtle and challenging poses and conscious breathing.
Ultimately, yoga opens up the inner reserves of strength and spiritual resilience.
Sound Healing
Sound healing uses gongs, bowls, drums, bells, voices, and other instruments that can resonate with our bodies to help us align the energy and heal.
Sounds help with anxiety and stress as well as injuries.
If we think about it, chanting mantras is also a powerful sound-healing tool that healers use to enter the trance.
Palm Reading And Full Body Reading
Thanks to Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love reading sessions in Bali are super popular.
Many of healers with reading powers can tap into this ancient technique to help you find peace, and answers, change your career, improve your health or find love.
An energy healer can also be a palm reader and combine many techniques in his or her work. Many healers can also use Tarot cards during the sessions.
Chakra Balancing
The human body has 7 centres or chakras that are connected with the energy of the Universe and align our body along the spine:
Root Chakra, Muladhara – Earth’s rhythms
Sacral Chakra, Swadhisthana – Creativity
Solar Plexus Chakra, Manipura – Life Force
Heart Chakra, Anahata – Heart
Throat Chakra, Vishuddha – Communication
Third Eye Chakra, Ajna – Psychic
Crown Chakra, Sahasrara – Spirituality
All of them should be activated, and easily exchanging energy. If that doesn’t happen we may get sick or stuck on our path to success. Energy healers can deal with it and include chakra balancing into the session to help your body parts synchronize.
The chakra balancing session itself can include different techniques and tools from reiki to yoga to sound healing. It can also be the case that your session needs to focus on one specific chakra which determines what tools, sounds and movements can the healer use.
Energy Healing Modalities
The basis of traditional Balinese healing practice is taksu – divine healing energy.
Healers can scan the body and find the energy blockage you need to release. They can use Cranio sacral therapy, Reiki and other balancing techniques to work with the energy flow.
Some are capable of channelling energy for healing or performing an aura-cleansing ritual.
Despite the fact that energy healing sessions often don’t involve any touching (unlike massage) the results are quite transformative.
Medicinal Food And Drinks
Balinese and Indonesian cuisine are very inclusive of medicinal plants and roots. Many Balians work with traditional herbs, but even regular local residents may have a first-aid kit full of natural herbs instead of pills.
Some of the common healing treatments are loloh – crushed herbs and leaves with water, Jamu – a healing drink with turmeric and ginger, and drinking water charged with special stones gifted to you by the Balian or bought following his advice.
Gurah Therapy is a unique modality to fight off addictions like smoking and allergies. Balian puts a special mix of herbs in the client’s nose and while the person lays on the stomach, the healer waits for the mucus to come out.
Spiritual Healing Retreats In Bali
There are a few Western and Balinese companies that can organize the whole thing from the airport pick-up and taxi driver to the healing session for you.
Some of them are:
7-day retreat with Bali Holistic Retreats.
Weekly “Goddess Retreats” for Women.
Bali Chy Healing can organize a retreat upon request.
Silent meditation retreats (Vipassana) in Bangli.
Spiritual Souvenirs To Bring Home From Bali
If you feel inspired after the session and would like to have something that will remind you of the experience or even help you maintain the state of mind you had after the visit to a healer, you can bring a spiritual souvenir back home
Traditional herbs for cooking and making your own medicine.
Essential oils for aromatherapy.
Massage tools.
Singing bowls that resonate with your chakras. Kirtan and other musical instruments also have magic powers but can be tricky to transport.
Incense.
Some Balians can make amulets or draw protective signs on a piece of cloth for you
Not exactly a souvenir but you can learn yoga and other practices while in Bali to help yourself and your family when in need.
Join the Melukat ritual to bring home a protective bracelet.
Ceremonial-class cacao is considered holy and used for healing and balancing heart chakra.
FAQs
What Is The Most Spiritual Place In Bali?
Ubud is the spiritual capital of Bali and there are a few temples that are the most powerful and sacred temples on the island like Tirta Empul Temple, Tanah Lot Water Temple, Uluwatu Temple, Besakih Mother Temple on Mt Agung, and Goa Gajah Elephant Cave.
Where To Go In Bali For Healing?
Ubud is the spiritual capital of Bali, but traditional Balinese healers can be found in any village if you ask the locals.
You can also ask the Bali Res team, to help you find the healing centre closest to your location and with a free spot for you (healers are often booked out and don’t take clients during certain special dates according to the Balinese calendar).
Who Is The Best Traditional Balinese Healer in Bali?
It will be hard to name only one as every healer uses different methods and every person’s experience is unique.
Pak Man, Ibu Jero, Jero Balian Mangku I Wayan Sumawijaya, Jero Mangku Geni, and Pak Galung in Ubud are among the most recommended and visited healers in Bali.
Read more: 7 Best Traditional Healers In Bali.
How To Have A Spiritual Experience In Bali?
You need to ask local friends about a shaman or balian they use and ask them to take you to their house – these healers won’t be on any tourist guides.
Another way is to book one-on-one sessions through a local tour agency or find the nearest healer on Google Maps and request a healing session directly. True healers only accept donations.
You have to go to the healer’s house as true Balians do not offer home service. Usually, you don’t have to explain what spiritual or physical problems bother you unless the shaman asks you.
Visit dressed appropriately: shoulders and legs covered with a temple scarf or a sarong.
Final Thoughts On Spiritual Healing In Bali
Come with an open mind and you may be surprised how ancient techniques and energy cleansing will help you connect your mind, body, and soul and feel much better.
No matter what bothers you, Balinese healers have tools to help you find peace and answers within yourself or using tools Balinese natural medicine and healing traditions have.
