Fake Healer
Usually after a big ceremony, many Balinese get sick. Just one week after Galungan, many of the drinking club looks very tired. Some have problem with their stomachs, some with their backs, and some have headache.
When they get sick, especially a couple days before a ceremony, they will say that their sickness due to leak (black magic).
“Dadong (grandma) Senggol touched me when we were at the temple. Dadong is known as a black magic woman. She is a very powerful magic woman, and she is in black magic business too. Having touch by her, I vomited and had diarrhoea. She was mad at me because I didn’t give attention to her flirting,” says I Made Basang Bedag (I Made Big Bully).
If you hear Made talking for the first time you might get sick of his talking. He looks very ugly but thinks as if he is a good looking man. He is very fat.
“So did I. She touch me at the outer temple courtyard. The following day, I had pain in my hand, says I Nyoman Bungut Aungan (I Nyoman Big Mouth).
“I have different story. Once Ni Luh Genyol, the suckling pig seller, stared at me at the outer temple courtyard. Then at nigh I couldn’t sleep. I had pain at my waist. I know that I often don’t pay after I eat there. I don’t think it is the reason she sent black magic to me.
Everybody laugh having heard what Made, Nyoman, and Wayan were saying. They think that Americans have talked about travelling to Mars while we Balinese still talking about leak.
“I know that black exists, but your cases are nothing to do with black magic. I don’t understand you keep blaming black magic, says I Pekak Pocol Ongol-Ongol (I Pekak Nod-off).
Two days before Galungan Holiday until one day after, Made had eaten lots of lawar (Balinese mix vegetable with meat). He also ate satay, steam pork, crackers, peanuts and he drank beer as well. That’s why he had problem with his stomach.
Nyoman, on the other hand had been busy gambling until one day after Galungan. He had 12 roosters. All of them had been sent to ‘semi-legal’ cockfighting arena (‘semi legal because it breaks the laws but allowed by the village council because the cockfighting committee paid donation to the village through ‘pecalang’ (the village vigilantes who has a job as parking attendants as well) at the outer temple courtyard. In the morning Nyoman did cockfighting, so does he in the afternoon and other type of gambling during the night. He is a real gambler actually. But is too old now. And he has rheumatic.
From Penampahan Galungan (one day before Galungan day) until Pahing Galungan (one day after Galungan) Wayan had been sitting when he did his activities. In the morning he made ‘lawar’, he sat in the warung during the day, and all nights he played Chinese cards. That’s why he has problem with his waist now.
“No way. No way that cockfighting and playing Chinese cards make you suffer pain in your waist. Instead, it makes you happy all the time. I think I am sure my sickness is because of leak. I am going to a powerful healer to ask for a something that can protect me me from leak,” Wayan argues.
Everybody laughs.
“You should go see a doctor. If you go to a healer when you have problem with your health, well you do useless thing,” Pekak gives opinion.
You know, there are many fake healers now in Bali….They become healer just for money. You should be careful with this kind of healer.
“There are more of our brothers become healers (balian) because it is much easier for them to be a healer than to be a doctor. If you want to be a doctor you must go to university and study there for eight years. But if you want to be a balian, what you need is a bit of talent to act as if you were in trance sometimes, you should have thick moustache, long beard and some other pretending behaviour,” says Pekak.
To be a doctor is difficult. If you give the patient wrong medicine, they might send you to jail, but if you were a balian and you give the patient wrong treatment, they won’t blame you, because they believe you are under the god guidance.
Balians will never suffer loss. If the patient is not getting well, he will make an excuse that the balian who makes the patient sick, is much more powerful than him. That’s why bigger ‘caru’ ceremony and more powerful ‘penyengker’ (magical borderline) along the patient’s house wall) is needed. If the patient dies, he will say that’s the God’s will. If the patient can get well, the family of the patient will keep bringing ‘pejati’ (present) to the balian house for his service.
From selling offering, a fake balian can make good fortune. He can even earn more money if he has a warung selling coffee and arak (palm wine) because he can ask the patients or their family to bring him a cup of coffee or arak that they can buy from his warung. He will be very rich soon.
And if the balian also runs a supermarket which protected by magical power that makes people like shopping there, he will be rich much faster. You know the cheapest ‘penyengker’ (black magic thing that can protect you from bad influences or make your own business runs good) is Rp. 2 millions. It has no guarantee. You can not bring it with you when you go to bathroom otherwise you have to buy a new one because it will loose its power.
If Made, Nyoman, and Wayan decide to go the healer, they might get well soon, but they will regret when they find out their money will be finished.
So nowadays for Balinese, it’s better to deal with leak than have no money.
