Ju|’hoansi Community
Healing Dance
Background: Where does this technique come from?
Definition: Ancient technique. Following hours of
community dancing and singing, healers enter an altered state, where the energy
boils up within them, and they heal by laying-on hands. “Healing has three main
aspects, ‘seeing properly’, pulling out the sickness, and arguing with the
gods.” (Katz, 23)
Source: Healing Makes our Hearts Happy: Spirituality
and Cultural Transformation among the Kalahari Ju|’hoansi by Richard Katz,
Megan Biesele, and Verna St. Denis.
Origin of Method / History: The healing technique of
the Ju|’hoansi, a group of Bushmen of the western Kalahari desert of southern
Notes on pronunciation: “The dental click (“|”)
sounds like ‘tsk, tsk’, the English expression of irritation. It is made by
putting the tongue just behind the front teeth.” You can substitute a ‘t’
sound. “The alveolo-palatal click (“!”) is a sharp pop made by drawing the
tongue down quickly from the roof of the mouth.” You can substitute a ‘g’
sound. (Katz, xxii)
Theory: What is energy? What is energy healing?
What energy is being worked with? “N|om, a spiritual
substance or energy residing in the bellies of the men and women who have been
taught to activate it.” (Katz, xiii) “N|om is ‘invisible’, though it can be
seen and picked up by experienced healers during a state of enhanced awareness.
Otherwise, n|om is known only by its action and effects.” (Katz, 18)
“Traditionally, n|om is not in limited supply. Individuals need not compete for
its healing power. The activation of n|om in one person stimulates the
activation in others. The total healing effect of n|om at a dance far exceeds
the individual contributions toward activating that n|om.” (Katz, 137)
Energy centers/pathways: “It resides in the dance
fire, in the healing songs, and most of all, in the healers, concentrated in
the pit of their stomachs and the base of their spines.” (Katz, 18) “N|om is
said to ‘boil’ when [healers] dance strenuously, or sing the healing
songs strongly; it leaves their stomachs and travels up their spines and out to
their fingers, where it may be used to heal by the laying on of hands.” (Katz,
xii) “As n|om reaches the base of the healer’s skull, they enter a state of
transcendence called !aia.” (Katz, 19)
What is illness? “Sickness is a process in
which the spirits try to carry a person off into their realm. In !aia, the
healer expresses the wishes of the living to keep the sick person with them.
The healer is the community’s emissary. If a healer’s n|om is strong and the
Great God wishes the spirit will retreat and the sick one will live.” (Katz, 1)
What is the mechanism for healing? When n|om boils, it brings
on !aia, an enhanced state of consciousness which enables them to heal.
Who can heal: “Healers’ vocation is open to all, and most
of the young men and many of the women seek to become healers. About half the
men and a third of the women succeed… “ (Katz, 25) The Ju|’hoansi say that a
healer’s most vital quality is an open heart. “To have an open heart is to
have… courage to face the raging pain of boiling n|om, trust in the community’s
support for the healing journey, dedication to serving the people, and passion
to sustain the healer’s journey.” (Katz, 142)
Training of healers: “The training is
difficult. Not everyone can stand the excruciating pain on the boiling n|om,
which is said to be ‘hot and painful, just like fire.’” (Katz, 25) “When
healers are overwhelmed with the searing pain of boiling n|om, their bodies
often writhe in a rigid, convulsing agony.” (Katz, 6) Healers describe the
experience of !aia as a death from which they return to heal. “When Ju|’hoansi
healers face the fact of death and willingly die, they can overcome their fear
of n|om and break through to !aia.” (Katz, 111)
“To heal depends upon developing a desire to ‘drink
n|om’, not on learning specific techniques. The healer's education stresses…
the importance of dancing so one’s ‘heart is open to the boiling n|om’… and
singing so that one’s ‘voice reaches up to the heavens.’” (Katz, 60)
Practice: How does a healing session work for this technique?
The Dance: “The central event in the healing tradition is an
all-night dance. It occurs on average four or five times in a month. The women
sit around the fire, singing and rhythmically clapping as night falls… the men,
sometimes joined by the women, dance around the singers. As the dance
intensifies, n|om is activated in those who are the healers and they experience
!aia.” (Katz, 1) Both the dancers and the female singers can reach !aia, and
both contribute to raising n|om. The songs call the spirits to the dance, so
that healers may bargain with them for the health of the people.
Assessment: During !aia, healers can see inside of others’
bodies, which allows them to locate and diagnose the illness, and begin
healing.
Treatment:
The healer who is in !aia goes to each person at the dance, whether showing
symptoms of illness or not… Healers plead and argue with the gods to save the
person from illness. They lay their hands on each person, and as they ‘pull out
the sickness’ (≠hoe) they usually utter their cries of healing,
earth-shattering screams and howls that show the pain and difficulty of the
healing work.” (Katz, 21)
Healers
may work “standing up, kneeling down, lying down, back and forth, wherever
their boiling n|om leads them.”(Katz, 172) Healers “place their fluttering
hands on either side of the person’s chest or wherever the sickness is located.
They touch the person lightly, or more often vibrate their hands close to the
skin’s surface. At times healers wrap their bodies around the person being
healed, rubbing their sweat – believed to carry healing properties – on the
person. The sickness is drawn into the healers, who then expel the sickness
from their own bodies, shaking it from their hands out into space, their bodies
shuddering with pain.” (Katz, 24)
Uses: When is this Technique useful?
What do practitioners say it is useful for: This is the primary
technique for treating all illness within the traditional culture. In addition
to the healing of specific illnesses, all who participate in the dance
experience “a sense of joy, renewed social commitment, and spiritual
connectedness.” (Katz, xiii)
Spiritual
/ Emotional Component:
“Ju|’hoansi healing involves health and growth on physical, psychological,
social, and spiritual levels; it affects the individual, the group, the
surrounding environment, and the cosmos. Healing is an integrating and
enhancing force, touching far more levels and forces than simply curing an
individual’s ‘illness.’” (Katz, 1)
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