A few times in my trip in Taiwan, I paid a visit to a chiropractor who my wife says is also an "energy" healer. I'm not quite a believer, so I'm really just in it for the ride. And what a ride...
This is where the magic happens. Kind of like a mad scientist's lab.
We start with lying down on a heated pad, covered by blanket and with a heat lamp as well. What's not shown beneath the blanket here is that there are two long cylindrical magnets, one placed between the legs and one placed alongside the sternum. The magnets are quite weighty.
The chiropractor is pressing on pressure points on the foot. He places a kind of hot-cold sticker, which serves as a form of acupuncture. Acupuncture needles are apparently an option, but we opted not to do that. We have done it before, but... still a bit afraid of them!
What a sticker looks like.
I was told this was nap time. I was pretty excited for that, as I think I was still quite jet-lagged at the time.
Except that was a lie. A terrible, terrible lie.
I did get some sleep. It was a nice and warm bed, and getting a nice warm embrace from the overhead heat lamp. After a period of time, I felt something strange. Burning. Just a burning sensation from the stickers. It is a little bit painful. I guess that's to be expected, since it's supposed to release pressure from the pressure point. So I wait a bit. The heat lamps seem to amplify the burning sensation as well.
Meanwhile, my wife is up at the table for the next phase: Bone adjustment. I hear screams of pain, sounds of thudding from some kind of machine. It seems to be some kind of mini hammer that knocks on a particular bone to slowly push it into some position.
thud-thud-thud-thud-thud. A scream of pain.
I am terrified.
The magnet on the sternum is starting to feel heavy as well. Coupled with the burning dots, I couldn't bear it after a while. I get up, away from the burning lamp. He tells me to get some rest, and some water. The screaming and the thudding is still happening. I am still terrified, and it shows. The others are laughing at me. I don't get it. Do they not hear the screaming? Even my wife who was screaming is laughing at me.
There's also this massage tool he uses to press into pressure points, and at the right spots, it's also causing a few screams. Then there's this peculiar action where he props up this cushion that is designed to fall back down with enough pressure. He then puts significant body weight onto a particular point, as if to push on a particular bone.
Prop up sound. "Okay, take a deep breath." Breath in. "And let it out!" Breath out. Large thud. A little scream and groan after. Yikes. The horror on my face widens.
And now it's my turn. In my case, I'm a very sensitive to touch and what I experience is simultaneous ticklishness and pain. Screaming laughter. He presses very lightly apparently, but it is still very painful.
thud thud thud thud thud
In my head, I am saying over and over...
I am a sack of meat. I am a sack of meat... and bones OW.
"Okay okay... let's not do this too much, let's use this massage tool instead."
Press. Aughghhghffffl! I am also not believing the amount and variety of sounds that are coming out of my mouth. I wonder if this was previously a method of torture.
The belief in Eastern medicine is that pressure points are correlated with the major centers of the body. A common diagram is of the foot.
Various regions corresponding to the head, the heart, the lungs, stomach, etc.
Apparently it's the same with pressure points on the lower thigh. He was pressing, and ow ow ow... "Hey. Your stomach and intestines are very bad". Well yes they are.... I wonder if that's just the case with everyone though hahaha.... lucky guess? Maybe there is something to it too, who knows. Another press. ow ow ow. "Hey. You need to take longer breaks at work. You seem to be excessively holding in your pee. Take a break every hour." Wow... very specific. And true too. To his credit I am taking better care of that at least.
After the first time, I remember being traumatized to the point of being angry. I said, "I never want to do this again!".
My wife was very amused. She of course won't force me to go again if I didn't want to. But then, something strange. That night I slept extremely well, and I felt some strange changes in my body, well, a main change is just wanting to pee more often. And of course I forgot exactly how painful things were. Tasty food probably helped distract from that.
And then... Yup, visited two more times. The next few times are better, since I know what to expect. And now as I write this, I already forgot how exactly it feels. It's painful, yes, but in weird ways.. Pressure point pain. My wife seems to like this chiropractor a lot. Her impression is that he is very skillful with how he handles the body and pressure points.
He also has some nice snacks. As a gift (like candy after a dentist right?), he gave us this pack of sweetened puffed rice. Actually it was amazing. Loved it. Maybe that's just the relief from pain talking. It's interesting though, he says it cannot be bought anywhere. One of the things he does is that he seeks out ingredients, in this case rice, that are free from toxins (e.g. pesticides), and sends them to a mill to turn into this product. If you've ever had that puffed rice cereal called Smacks, it kind of tastes like that. But way better. Tasty and healthy.
There are other things for sale here. My wife likes a lot of the stuff here.
We buy an energy blanket, supposedly some kind of infrared emitting material. I didn't ask too closely here.
A small version of the magnet.
The massaging tool made from a particular type of stone.
The heating pad. This one is not made with running wires throughout the pad, instead there's some other material the heating is based off of.
This is what's inside.
Another energy wrap. This one seems to have some kind of special circles. Emits infra-red they tell me. I just nod.
So yeah, that about wraps up the whole experience. What do you think? Am I just subjecting my body to abuse for no good reason? I guess we'll see...