Travel and study

Travel and study is a great excitement as you meet interesting people in foreign places. I started my interest in healing after I began travelling. I was overseas in 1987 working on a kibbutz in Israel after travelling overland through Asia which had a profound affect on me.

I was working in the banana plantation and got a sore neck and upper back.

I began to massage it myself nightly and to my astonishment I realized if I pressed

certain places then the pain was relieved.In a few days It was gone.  This started me

off.

In 1980 I decided to study at the Wat Po monastery in 
Thailand.  There were very few westerners there then 
and I was the only person in the massage room with my 
teacher who was from overseas. 

Her name was Ladiew Lackiew.  She was a petite, polite, 
beautiful woman with strong hands and a light touch.  
When I asked her to teach she said to come back each 
morning at 8 am and we would work together 'til lunch time. 

She showed me the meridians and the correct touch and 
the feeling of massage and the various wonderful Thai 
stretches which are similar to yoga.  She was only a small 
lady but her power to heal was evident as many rich 
business people would come to have healing with her.
  
She managed one side of the Po monastery area 
massage rooms. One of the most important things 
she and the monastery taught me was "Right Attitude".  
In fact the was of the Buddha is right attitude for the 
healers.  Before each massage we should make a 
spiritual offering to the Medicine Buddha.  I am grateful 
for what Ladiew taught me.

I have returned to Wat Po over the years many times and seen
the changes and how its got more popular. It started in the 1990's when Thai massage began to be sold as a tourist plus.  

I am not sure if all the changes have been good because in the past the village masseurs were not doing the job only for the money. After it commercialized the quality of practitioners varied a lot, schools sprouted up in Bangkok and Chang Mai to teach foreigners.

Below Wat Po Bangkok where I studied in 1984.

Medicine Buddha Later I studied and was given the Medicine Buddha Mantra many years  later at the Adelaide Tibetan Buddhist centre on the Medicine Buddha.  Until then I did not know there was also  a special tradition in their culture for  healing with the medicine Buddha.   Indonesia  In the 1980's I travelled a lot in Indonesia, as I have a grasp of the language and I researched and hung out with martial arts, healing people in Bali and Java. There I spent time meditating in Surakarta the "Samurah" or Paman led meditation and picked up the different massage styles combining them into a style I then taught in Adelaide. The time in Java in Solo was a rich and fascinating oneas I met mystical Javanese spirit men or Paman who were deeply in touch with the Jiwa or spirits of the land and netherworld. Chinese Medicine and Tai Chi After studying Tai Chi in Melbourne firstly with Tibor and later Mr Yau Yee Kay   I began to read and study the reflex points and combine them into my massages which I was doing in Preston and later Switzerland and Adelaide.   I found the meridians and chi points really worked to heal people and it went naturally with martial arts. It seemed like a natural extension to practice and play Tai Chi and then to use the Chi to heal. In 86 I did a year of theory at RMIT massage social sciences including all the health sciences like anatomy, physiology. I also did a acupressure course with Rod Hinks which got me really interested in the Chinese healing elements. In 1992 I was lucky to visit Huang Shuo near Guilin Mr Zhao and to study with a  acupuncturist,chi gong person one on  one and to learn the Chen form with  Thomas Hu. Adelaide School In Adelaide from the late 80's until 2000  I started my massage and healing work  in unison with teaching Tai Chi. My school was called Wild Lotus and I  created an Asian healing course which  included Shiatsu Acupressure Thai Massage. Also at this time I joined the SA Assoc  Massage therapy, and studied Yoga teaching with SAIYT SA institute Yoga.