Sharan Meets a "Healer"

Hi folks (from Sharan),
Maznah and I have just returned from the northeast corner of MY - the most conservative and rural part of the country; her village borders Thailand. Anyway, we visited a bomoh who does "surgery" and I thought you'd like to read my notes on this experience. Ramlah mentioned below is her sister. I can't wait to have some time to look up this kind of "healing" on the Internet. I recall seeing a tv show on some famous "surgeon" in Mexico, I think it was - somewhere in Latin America who does this sort of thing. So, my notes which were in an email to Bob....
We went to this guy's grandfather's house in the village where he sees patients. The house where he sees patients is in a very poor area, very dilapitated, basic, with geese running around the yard making a racket off and on, the smell of cow dung, etc. Apparently he has his own home near the airport or somehing, but he practices in the grandfather's house because he was a bomoh from whom he inherited his skills. - and his grandfather's spirit "protects" the house from evil spirits etc. Anyway, he does "surgery" sort of invisible using his hands, no instruments. He diagnoses by looking at your eyes, feeling your pulse, and then sort of pokes the bottom of your foot with a little needle thing. So, I asked if he could demonstrate diagnosis for me (using Maznah - we do this regularly to see how these guys operate). He looked at her eyes, took her pulse and said she had some blockage; then he did the needle thing and said her liver was swollen (which she's been told before because she takes so many cancer medications including chemo that they are in her body - and her eyes a little jaundiced etc.). He said he could alleviate it by "operating" but first he had to get rid of the evil genie that had accidently gotten into her body. So he did a little exorcism, nothing like the other one we saw - with the needle on her foot. It was fast, very painful to Maznah (Ramlah held her hands, I took pictures), but then it was over and he poked with the needle and nothing - spirit gone!
Then there were all these preparations for surgery. Maznah changed into a sarong thing, the bomoh's mother got some clothes and a bowl of water. Maznah's fully conscious on the floor, both Ramlah and I are standing right over her, taking pictjures. So, he feels around the liver area kind of between her rib cage, above belly button. He used his finger and sort of drew a line about 3 inches long - that was the "cut" to remove the blood backed up in her liver. THEN, lo and behold a little blood starts to accumulate along this "line", then some more until he got out what he thought was the extra blood. It looked exactly like blood and neither Ramlah nor I saw any capsules or ANYTHING and I was watching very closely and taking pictures. Then he and his mother wipe the blood off and he "sewed" up the cut. Maznah felt some pricks when he was closing the wound. When he was operating she definietly felt something in the area. She also was given frest coconut milk in the coconut to drink before and after the surgery (a common thing here to "cool" the body heat). Then she rested and the grandmother put betle leaves on her chest to treat for cancer which we've seen before. After about 1/2 hour they took off the leaves and she got up, dressed and we finished our interview and left. The "line" where he operated was still visible this morning - she showed it to me! All the time he's doing "surgery" another family member is videotaping it. He videotapes ALL of his surgeries I guess for protection legally. In fact in the waiting area on the TV are playing videos of his past surgeries. The three of us are still trying to process what we saw. Ramlah and I were both looking for some way he got the "blood" to be there, but he didn't even have long sleeves. Can't wait to show you the pictures!
That's it! This has been the most interesting research! Cheers, Sharan