I didn’t want to play Julia Roberts in Bali
I found my new family both in Thailand and in Bali – says Thai masseuse Monika Karsai, who studied traditional healing in Asia for several years, while meeting masters, scuba diving or practicing the out of body experience during a Vipassana retreat. The everyday life of a healing masseuse in-between Asia and Europe.
“My karma is to heal, and to achieve the union of East and West” – says therapeutic-masseuse Mónika Karsai, who found this profession on the other side of the globe, in Thailand. She lives her life as if it was a spiritual adventure story, and speaks of her defining experiences as if they happened regardless of space and time, even I find it hard to follow at times. “I know, it’s like living in a matrix” – she laughs.
If I wanted to introduce this healer who obtained several international degrees through her travels, I should start in Budapest.
Banned books and yoga for pneumonia
I have some family ties to healing. My grandmother, who lived in Veres Pálné Street drank herb tea every day and she had books about traditional healing that were banned in the socialist era. My grandfather healed from pneumonia with yoga in 1938. Needless to say that yoga was not the method he could have heard of from his doctor” – Monika Karsai begins her story. She believes she took after her grandmother regarding her personality and interests, who was always on the run, organizing, for example in the seventies she picked herself a new hobby: she became a travel guide.
Her grandchild started quite a few things too. She studied art, journalism, gastronomy, she was a fashion model in Italy, then got to Thailand, where her boyfriend wanted to open a resort, and she was already interested in the technique of Thai massage for a while. The getaway that was planned to last for six months turned out to be seven years.
I was her child in one of our previous lives
The couple settled in the island of Koh Phangan, and not long after their arrival, Monika Karsai met an old masseuse who did not leave a very good impression in her for the first time. “I quickly realized that our encounter was karmic, she became my mommy, who was certain that in one of her previous lives I was her child. In the beginning her children were envious of me, but when they saw that I don’t want her house or land, they calmed down.”
During her years of studying the masseuse witnessed a miraculous healing. One the old, traditional healers started to treat a boy who suffered burn injuries with a substance made out of coconut oil and herbs. “People die of such injuries elsewhere, but here this boy was saved. His skin peeled off within a few weeks and new skin grew. Thailand is in the state of globalization and I’m concerned that this ancient knowledge will die out along with the old healers.”
During a meditation I left my body
While the boyfriend of Monika Karsai was dealing with hospitality, the girl was gardening, worked as dive guide among divers and got to know Thai cuisine. She studied massage from different masters each year, while she passed on her knowledge to locals and healed Thai spine patients.
During the eight year she signed up for a ten day long Buddhist Vipassana meditation. “We were not allowed to speak with each other during the time of the encampment. The breakfast was royal, the lunch was plain, but for dinner we got such little food, practically just fruits, that I was starving. No pleasures, we lived like real monks. I felt horrible on the second day already. I can’t handle confinement too well. The helpers observed us, and when they saw that someone was not behaving according to the rules, they wrote him/ her a note. Three notes resulted in exclusion. I got one warning, while I left my body during a meditation. The master wrote: be cautious, this is not what you are here for!”
The master entered and fresh air was generated
I did not get to know how a master can know where the soul of a meditating camper is wandering, but the masseuse considers these ten days as one of the defining experiences of her life. Prior to this she had similar experiences here at home as well.
“Sometime in the early nineties Lopön Tsechu Rinpoche, a famous Nepalese monk, the master of Ole Nydal came to Hungary and held a lecture somewhere in Nefelejcs Street. It was forty degrees Celsius, the air was still and a huge crowd. As the master entered, a fresh breeze was generated in the room, and Green Tara himself gave us a healing teaching. While we were meditating together, time and space no longer surrounded me, and I saw everything in an out of body experience, from above. This was a stronger initiation for me than Vipassana.”
In coma – the first healing
Arriving back to Thailand, after the masters living on the island Monika Karsai studied at the Wat Pho School and obtained all international degrees available. Parallel to her studies abroad, the continued her university studies in Hungary, while she began healing here. “I started at the ICU. My first case was a young boy called Joco, with basilar skull fracture. He was in coma, and I was very happy when I managed to wake him up, after which I also helped him recover.”
After another case and the weeks spent with Jocó Monika traveled back to Thailand and did not return for half a year. She has not stopped studying ever since, currently she’s studying selfness (see in our framed text), and in the meantime she also started teaching several students. “Wherever in the world I travel, I always meet people that I have to meet. I found my new family both in Thailand and in Bali” – she claims. Before the Balinese adventures, years filled with struggle followed during the second half of the 2000s as an entrepreneur in Hungary.
Selfness
Selfness is an approach that aims at improving the way you feel, facilitating a healthy lifestyle, and improving the quality of life. It is about expanding self-knowledge, strengthening the ability to change, personal development and developing a healthy self-image. Several systems take part in this, like kinesiology, ERT (Emotional Release Technique), self-knowledge training, astrology or various types of massage.
I could heal without even touching
“My dream was to open a healing massage center, where traditional knowledge and western approach are compatible with one another. This is how Chi Thai Massage Centrum was founded, where we did not only give a refreshing massage, but patients could come as well, because they received safe, personalized massage. I want to show that there is a world beyond what we are able to see. Along with our physical body we have an etheric body, in which all the issues that might cause problems in the physical body can be found. I could heal without even touching someone, but then s/he does not have the experience of being healed.”
Traditional Thai massage is a thousands of years old therapy, which does not only serve as refreshment to the body, but also stimulates detoxification, helps release stress, strengthens the immune system, and by this, improves resistance against diseases. Masseurs believe that the basis of illnesses is the blockage of energy somewhere in our energy system. Massage affecting acupressure points triggers energy that has been blocked. The organs affected are usually identified through sole diagnosis.
Causes of diseases
“When it comes to diseases, western people are interested about the whys. In holistic and traditional healing it is well summarized what causes which diseases have. From genetic predisposition to various family events, socialization features and of course your thoughts are responsible as well. I see these when I make condition assessment massage and a body massage, but I only tell the patient as much as I feel that s/he is prepared to hear. I do not want anyone to talk him/herself into something and create the problem.”
“Many times even just talking about it helps dissolve blocks in the soul, sometimes sensitive issues, dramas surface, and I try to help guests in getting these burdens off their shoulders as well. I believe that we can learn from diseases and painful experiences. If we recognize what their message is, amazingly fast results can be achieved.”
Monika Karsai cooperates with the doctors. She completes their symptomatic treatment with healing by finding the deeper roots, the causes of diseases. She was greatly disappointed when her big dream came true and opened the massage center. Her Thai masseuses were convinced to work for Ukrainian entrepreneurs, so one day she arrived to see that guests are waiting, but the staff is nowhere to be found.
Bali – during the first screening of Eat, Love, Pray
“I needed a little getaway, time to digest this and to find new colleagues. I traveled to Bali, where I chose Ubud, the spiritual, healing and cultural center of the island. It was around that time when Eat, Love, Pray was first screened, and the film haunted me everywhere. When I walked around, I spotted a healer for myself instantly, from whom I wanted to learn, but I did not have the courage to go to him, because I did not want to play Julia Roberts that here I am, teach me. Eventually his wife invited me over.”
As the masseuse admits, she has been to many beautiful places around the world, but she never felt this kind of harmony before. “People of different religions and beliefs respect each other. They live among each other in peace. No wonder it is called the island of gods. The flow of energies really does work here. People look into your eyes and they immediately know whether they will accept you as one of theirs and help you on your journey, or only see the tourist in you. I was lucky. I got to know several masters by coincidence. In two weeks I was already teaching locals methods of application of massage and their herbs. They called me guru, which means leader.”
I come home and charge people
Although the masseuse felt at home in Bali, she returned home. After deciding to quit business, instead of Chi she founded a course that consists of several levels, continuing healing and teaching now one level higher. “The advantage of my travels for others is that when I come home, I charge people. Hungarians are so sad. Many times it’s not even their personal problems that pull them down, but general bad things that they are lamenting about. While our country is beautiful and full of talents, they stone you if you want to be somebody here. And I want to build something and take my knowledge to an international level. I feel that this country is too small for me.”
This is one of the reasons that European and international workshops, as well as foreign students are important to the therapist, who is now also dealing with the relation between nutrition and healing in addition to selfness. She speaks of her private life laconically. “Until I create my own permanent system or rules I feel that I will keep wandering. I cannot. I rather retreated to my own little house and conclude what I know. You can only build a castle on firm foundation and I am not afraid to dream big.”