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Panchakarma Starts Tomorrow!

        Tomorrow I start my Panchakarma treatment. It’s a five day oil-massage treatment where the oil penetrates into the body, moisturizing the internal organs, while encouraging the toxins within my system to navigate their way to the gastro-intestinal tract for elimination. It’s a therapy that has its roots in India, and is, clearly, not covered by Western health care policies.
        But after going to the doctor for a piece of glass embedded in the palm of my hand (cleaning up after a broken car window on the Trans-Canadian Road Trip), the conversation lead to warts. Then on to the need to boost the immune system, which was either through a detoxification, or through treating my core wounding, or both.
        “Yes. That,” I said. “Let’s talk about that. How do we get the core wounding to not set me off over and over again.”
        The doctor rubbed the crystal hanging on a chain around her neck.
        “Well, there are a number of treatments. What would a treatment for that look like to you?”
        This was much more complicated than I had anticipated.
        “Meditation,” I said, realizing that mediation needs to become a healthy habit in my life, rather than something for a quick fix.
        “Meditation is a good one. What else?”
        Encouraged, I continued on.
        “Journaling. Recognizing the miracles in my life.”
        “Those are all good. Yoga is also a great form of treatment.”
        “So what’s the fastest? I mean, I want results. I want to fast track this.”
        “We’re just all having a really hard time right now.” She looked me in the eye. “I mean, humanity, in general, we’re all just having a hard time.”
        “I’ve already lost my Bush weight.”
        “That’s good. I just hope we can figure it out in time.” She glanced at the clock on the wall as if the apocalypse will be coming in about an hour.
        “Obama is going to save us, right?”
        “I hope. So, there is a great Doctor. Doctor Shambu. He’s here in July and August. It’s a bit of a trek, but he’s up in Lake Forest.”
        “I work in Lake Forest.”
        “Or it’s down the street. He does this procedure. It’s a five-day procedure, called Panchakarma. It’s an oil massage treatment, combined with a chakra reset at the end of the session. It’s really terrific. Anyway, the oil seeps down into your skin and the process is really cleansing. It works to reset your cellular memory. You may not remember the source of your wounding, but your body does. So through this treatment, we create some sort of experience -- some missing experience that doesn’t eliminate or remove your core wounding, but it sets it up so that the wounding can’t continue to do damage to you.”
        I was sold. I called. Set up the appointment for the process that begins tomorrow. Now, on the eve of cleansing, I’m reading about more of it on the Internet, and am wondering what I might have got myself into. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say:

        Panchakarma (meaning "five actions") developed in India, though there are regional variations in therapeutic procedure as well as in the equipment used. According to Charaka, the five actions are Nasya (nasal therapy), Vamana (emesis or vomiting), Virechana (purging) and two kinds of Vasti (therapeutic enema), Nirooha Vasti and Sneha Vasti. Herbal decoctions are used for Nirooha Vasti and herbal oils for Sneha Vasti.
        Another school, that of the surgeon Sushruta, regards Rakta (blood) also as a dosha (humour), the vitiation of which can cause diseases, and advocates Raktamokshana (bloodletting) as the fifth in the Panchakarma therapies. In this school the five therapies are Nasya, Vamana, Virechana, Vasti and Raktamokshana. As bloodletting involves medical venesection, it is no longer popular. Leeching, however, is still practised.

        Nasal therapy. Vomiting. Purging. Enemas. Who said cleansing was going to be neat and tidy?