Freedom in the whirlwind

Vipaporn Sripaijit was just going through the motions of life a year ago. She’d lost her beloved sister to brain cancer and couldn’t forgive herself for not taking better care of her. She was stressed out at work. A doctor had found cysts on her uterus and said they were likely to become cancerous.

Today Vipaporn is in much better health, mentally and physically. The cysts are disappearing and she’s lost five kilograms. Best of all, there are no more tears for her sister.

What happened in between was a course of “emotional detoxification” at Jirung Health Village in Chiang Mai’s Mae Rim district, followed by an assigned daily routine at home. 

“Now I know what I’m living for,” says Vipaporn, in her 40s but looking considerably younger. “I know what real happiness is.”

Supinya Vongsurapichet, a sales director, climbed the corporate ladder at the cost of her health. Loaded down with sales targets and frustrated with her clients, she often went home and vomited. Sometimes, when she was supposed to be driving to the office, she drove to the hospital instead. 

But Jirung Health Village turned Supinya’s life around too. She spent four days there.

Paritta Pomar, the emotional detoxification programme’s “master trainer”, says it all comes down to the junk we carry around inside us.

“Physically, we all have ki,” says Paritta, who is also the vice president at Jirung. She’s referring to excrement.

“We have ki-klai [dead skin cells], ki-hoo [ear wax] and ki-mook [nasal mucous]. And emotionally we have ki-mo-ho [hot tempers], ki-ngud-ngid [chronic frustration], ki-kung-won [constant worry] and ki-noi-jai [feelings of inadequacy]. 

“We clean our bodies to get rid of physical excrement, and emotional excrement should be wiped from our minds as well. Accumulated negative energy can harm the immune system, and the lower the immune system, the weaker the physical, mental and spiritual health.”

Emotional detoxification involves jettisoning the waste matter of the subconscious mind. They use natural healing energy and pranic forces to balance body and mind. In place of medication there is music therapy.

It’s a technique supposedly passed down from Por Kru (Master) Bancha Tangwongchai. Jirung Health Village’s founder, Luenchay Vongvanij, and all the staff practise it. 

There are seven basic steps, some of which are similar to “active meditation” and “whirling meditation”. You dance or simple move about to shake off the feeling of being restricted by society. You jump around, arms raised up, shouting, “Ho!” You speak “non-human languages” to loosen the thinking processes and release inner feelings.

You shout and scream and go totally mad – but consciously. You whirl around to slip out of the emotional gravity and drain information from the subconscious.

“Sit comfortably, eye closed, and listen to the music,” Paritta tells participants. “Pay attention to what you hear, and feel it in your heart. Pay attention to the ear again and go back to the feeling in the heart. Once the mind stays still, you’ll feel an inner rotating force, which is encouraged by the mood of the music. When the beat of the music gets stronger, the rotating force will become stronger – this is the pranic force. The force will take you through whatever action. Do not mind the action, but be mindful of whatever is happening.” 

You have to “be like a two-year-old child and express whatsoever is there”, says Natpat Wongworawat, another master trainer. 

“In the beginning you might move back and force slowly, but when a master helps you move a little bit more, you should let the body flow naturally. Don’t try to hold back. When you’ve finished the process you’ll feel light and refreshed, because all the residues have been drained away.”

The whirling opens up the deeper layers of the mind so that buried emotions spill out, often accompanied by actual physical belching, yawning, crying, laughing and even vomiting. 

The treatment also involves total relaxation in a pyramid-shaped room. The energy that’s released ascends the walls. Lying at the centre purportedly leaves you feeling refreshed and powerful. 

“During the whirling I vomited and felt so terrible that I almost quit,” says Supinya. “But thanks to the masters I completed the whole process. Leaving the pyramid room I had a big smile on my face, feeling a kind of freedom I’d never felt before.”

Supinya, who returns regularly to Jirung, says she’s undergoing a gradual transformation. “I decided to change my lifestyle, to get up and go to bed earlier so I’d have time for my morning meditation and exercise. No more sinus problems now and no more vomiting after work. 

“Most importantly, I work as efficiently as before, but finish my tasks in even less time – no more mental residue!”

 

THE WAY TO GO

<< A four-day, three-night emotional detoxification normally costs Bt39,600, but through September is Bt31,600.

<< That includes three nights’ accommodation, airport transfers, a four-element health analysis and an aromatic massage.

<< Learn more at (053) 861 511-3 and www.JirungHealthVillage.com.