Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
oil being dripped on your forehead, mud being slathered on your body, and other treatments
that remove excess gunk that has accumulated over the years.
With that kind of royal treatment, it's not surprising that the ratio of staff to clientele is
something like three to one. The lush spa that
Town & Country
voted one of the top five for
the new millennium has 80 employees taking care of just a few dozen customers at a time.
The center certainly has some compelling success stories, including a barely walking
multiple sclerosis patient who left doing pirouettes and a study by Blue Cross/Blue Shield of
Iowa that found that adherents of Ayurveda reduced their medical costs by 92 percent. Sue
Mandel was taking 12 to 14 medications a day for her chronic asthma, digestive disorders,
sinus problems, malfunctioning thyroid, migraines, and back pain when she first came to the
Raj. Now, she says she's down to two medications, suffers no asthma attacks, and has shed
35 pounds. Layne Longfellow, a writer and lecturer from Boulder, Colorado, says his choles-
terol level dropped from 245 to 191 after an eight-day stay at the Raj.
“I AM LIVING IN HEAVEN ON EARTH”
That is the goal of Ayurveda practitioners.
Ayurveda
is a Sanskrit word that trans-
lates as “science of life.” All of its healing rituals come from ancient Sanskrit text-
books. Here are some terms that are helpful to know:
•
Abhyanga:
A head-to-toe massage with sesame oil performed by two tech-
nicians. The goal is to entice the ama to attach to the sesame oil so it can be
excreted from your fat tissues, where it tends to hang out.
•
Ama:
The toxic impurities you're there to get rid of. Ama is a sticky residue
that builds up in cells, impairs cellular function, and accelerates aging. It
may even be why DNA makes mistakes that cause cancer.
