My silat adventures

SEPT 21 — The perils of being a writer of non-fiction are many. To write the truth may mean the loss of one or two friendships.

It is not that a friend has been used as a subject matter but because of differing ethics, clashing tempers and egos, a friendship is ruined.

When I told my friends what I got up to, I was greeted with mirth. I have to admit I was beginning to wonder if I had completely lost my marbles. And yet, the hilarity was also laced with blackness. Not the blackness associated with danger, but rather of an unsettling intent, which until today, I cannot explain.

This was how it began.

Sometime in April, I was told by friends that another friend had a gift to heal, and was a silat practitioner. She had helped friends before, when their businesses met roadblocks. And that was how it started, with my calling her up, and she asking how I knew she had the gift. I said I wanted to know about the community of silat practitioners, and what they learned and believed in.

“Are you open to… a different thought process of healing that has nothing to do with Islam?” she asked.

“I believe in Reiki, acupuncture. I have friends who do Egyptian healing…” I blabbered.

“This has nothing to do with religion. This is pure healing, and working with kawalan.”

“Kawalan?”

“The guardians of the Universe. I will allow you to observe us after our Guru okays your presence, but you must be committed to silat for two years.”

I quite fancied the idea of whirling about and karate-chopping would be assailants. Also, silat was a martial art. Instead of taking up taekwondo or another martial art, why not learn something so intrinsic to Malay culture?

The silat I was to learn was called Silat Gayung Umar Umaiyah. Googling it revealed rather interesting websites, Al-Enhance and Bomoh. A Facebook page had been set up.

The Al-Enhance website stated the following:

We are the specialists in providing alternative solutions and in alternative medicine. Traditionally we are also called BOMOH. We influence and change things, illnesses, and relationships in a positive way, so that our clients can reach the best possible results and profits.

We offer a platform of help for people who stayed blocked in their problems for whatever reason, for people who lost hope to be healed, for those who face financial or emotional crises and where all the other available organisations failed to provide them help.

We have the power to put things in order.

Who we are not

There are many different types of alternative help and medicine. We do not react on empiric healing, medicine men, fortune-telling, occultism, numerology or feng-shui.

But if any of those methods harm our client or if it has a negative influence on them, we can stop it.

The Bomoh website stated this:

Bomoh is a generic term for persons practicing folk medicine in South East Asia. I prefer the term alternative medicine (AM) practitioner. There are different types of bomohs out there; good and bad, easily distinguishable by the manner and methods they employ for healing. Some are affiliated to religions and some clearly are not.

I provide a platform for people who prefer not to use mainstream medicine offered in pharmacies, clinics or hospitals. Public trust in these institutions and corporations is clearly eroding. There is a major shift in society, spirituality and technology, and how they correlate.

I practice without any affiliation to organised religion because I believe it is imperative that my bomohship remains true and pure. A system of check and balance is incorporated to ensure quality and effectiveness. I do not advocate nor do I reject modern medicine. Please do not debate with me on any issues because I neither have the time nor interest to prove anything to anyone. Sessions are available for those interested in therapy and healing.

Silat is a form of martial arts which is indigenous to South East Asia. There are many styles practiced in this region as a folk dance or in it’s original state, a combative system. I teach Silat Gayung Umar Umaiyah which is a uniquely comprehensive fighting system which combines spiritual discipline and physical conditioning. Silat classes for self defence and weight loss are available.

Faced with these, I said to myself, well the Quran has also stated the dangers of withcraft and jins. Of course, what I read would be deemed as khurafat (blasphemous) by Islam. And for the next two months, I observed and learned, and you’d be surprised to know that all this happened right smack in the city.

Next: Learning.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.