Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
RAJ MAHARISHI AYURVEDA HEALTH CENTER
balance mind & body with ayurveda
MARARISHI VEDIC CITY, IOWA
I always come back from the Raj with that feeling that you have when
you're six or seven, that feeling that there is nothing wrong with the world.
—Scott Fuller, a businessman from Wisconsin who visits the Raj twice a
year
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Bianca Jagger, Alan Arkin, and Beach Boy Mike Love are just a few fans of a unique
spa in the middle of an Iowa cornfield that offers mind and body “balancing” treatments based
on the 5,000-year-old Indian principles of Ayurveda. Ayurveda has gotten a lot of buzz lately
thanks to Dr. Deepak Chopra, who has written several best-selling books on the ancient medi-
cine that was once the sole purview of Indian royalty. The Raj Maharishi Ayurveda Health
Center, known to everyone simply as “the Raj,” opened in April 1993 and at the time was the
only Ayurveda facility outside of India specifically built to offer the unique rejuvenation treat-
ments that restore imbalances that build up from stress and a harried lifestyle.
“People are drawn to Ayurveda because it goes beyond a one-size-fits-all prescription for
good health,” says Chris Clark, M.D., the Yale-trained medical director who helped develop
the Raj's program. “It gives them a deep insight and understanding of their own bodies.” Some
folks go twice a year as a kind of spring cleaning.
Whether you opt for a three-, five-, seven-day stay or longer, you'll get a customized treat-
ment program designed by a specialist in the Maharishi Vedic approach to health. To determ-
ine your unique thumbprint (everyone is different), you'll start with an hour-long consultation
during which you'll be quizzed on your diet, daily routines, and sleep habits and given a pulse
diagnosis to pinpoint your exact
dosha
(energy) profile. The goal is to achieve equilibrium
among the three kinds of doshas found in the body: vata, pitta, and kapha (see sidebar).
Once your profile is completed, a tailor-made plan is prescribed for your stay—what to
eat, what kind of herbal supplements to take, what kind of exercise, and which of the many
purifying spa treatments would best serve your body. The purifying spa treatments, called
Pan-
chakarma,
are aimed at prying toxins from your tissues. You'll get two to three hours a day of
