When I arrived in Bali March 28, Made suggested we visit Putu for a spiritual session since I’d been outside of Bai for three months. I told him that I didn’t feel the need to visit the spiritual room but he reassured me we’d just have dinner with Putu’s family.
On the drive up to Putu’s house on Mt. Batur in Kintamani, I resolved to not get involved in any more spiritual events and if one did occur while I was there my role would be similar to a journalist observing an event. When the huge fruit bat flew into the glass on my side of the car I was startled more than a little bit. Even though I’ve had preventative rabies vaccinations, I’m still glad that my window was closed at that moment. Then, while parking in front of Putu’s house, Made accidentally ran into a large rock which partially pulled his fender off. Why wasn’t the magic ring working?
The magic ring: After my first ‘ceremony’ back in December, Putu’s father gave me a Balinese ring with a white quartz stone to protect me while I was traveling. The ring worked for the past three months but it was apparently loosing steam the closer we got to Putu’s house.
Made waited until we were in the car to Putu’s to tell me that in mid-January the tiger delivered a message that someone put a ‘spell’ on the three of us (me, Putu and Made) so that we’d all have motorbike accidents. Earlier that same day I attempted to ride a motorbike without much instruction. I fell off of it trying to turn onto the main road in Ubud and visited a clinic to get the cuts cleaned out. The clinic, Bumi Sehat, is owned by Ibu Robin Lim that CNN had just named ‘the CNN Hero of the year’; I was fine with someone giving birth in the same room while having my cuts worked on as my screams paled in comparison. Made then showed me the wounds he got from his accident two weeks earlier. He then said that Putu had a near fatal accident on February 8 having spent 10 days in the intensive care unit. What happened in Putu’s hospital room falls into the category of ‘very interesting’.
When we arrived, Putu asked if anything unusual happened on the way to his house so we told him about the fruit bat and fender incidents as well as the fact I’d had a motorbike accident that morning. After about five more minutes, while we were sitting on the floor watching a poorly-acted Indonesian television program, Putu collapsed forward, growled, then started banging on the back door to get out of the kitchen and into the spiritual room. I told Made I didn’t want to go to the room with them, but eventually he convinced me to go to the room because of the fruit bat incident.
Putu’s messages in the special room we delivered in Balinese, but later translated as ‘the black magic spell was now broken and there would be no more accidents’. The only surprise this time was that Made slowly turned into a tiger as well. Putu’s parents looked a little more stressed now that there were now two tigers in the room growling who both wanted to deliver messages. I was wishing that I asked the family in advance if I could bring a video camera into the room. While I’ve still never brought a camera in the spiritual room, I did recently bring two other American friends to witness Putu as the tiger; but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Putu finished his dramatic channeling experience. As he finishes, i.e. the gods leave his body, he collapses backward then his family sprinkles holy water into his mouth and forehead. He then came over to sit with me and was back to his ‘normal’ self. Putu asked me why he had a strange taste in his mouth and I told him he chewed burning incense and that he should consider brushing his teeth extra hard before going to bed. He had no recollection of doing that, but wasn’t surprised.
Made had suggested I hire Putu in April to be my pembantu, a term meaning ‘general helper, butler, staff’ and use his services as security guard, house cleaner, gardener, cook and chauffer. TO BE CONTINUED
