The Panchakarma of Maharishi Ayurveda is a royal road to relaxation. I dictated this on Tuesday 22nd March 2011 straight after the experience it describes …
I have just had a massage that rejoices in the name “pizichili” and I am covered in oil and feeling very, very relaxed.
This amazing treatment starts by being seated in the treatment room for a short oil massage of the head and shoulders. You then climb up onto the massage table and lie on your back.
While you lie here in silence with your eyes closed, warm herbalised oil is poured from jugs held by technicians, one on each side, starting with your hands, up along the arms, then down across the body in long delicious runs.
It doesn’t get any better than this in this world. Even Transcendental Meditation!
Then, while that two jugfuls of oil is slowly running off your bliss-saturated limbs back into the collector, the technicians massage you in long gentle strokes while the next batch of pouring oil is warming on the stove for a minute or two. Then the whole thing is repeated about five times, taking 10 minutes before you roll onto your tummy for the next round. And this is not easy to do when you are so slippery!
Now I know that my back is more sensitive than my tummy because the next oil pouring is pure bliss, transcendental, immortal, slushy – hard to express. But let’s try it. Transcendental, unctuous, sloshy, oily, warm, slippery bliss.
This is only the beginning. After 30 minutes, pizichili is followed by takra dhara – the drizzling of delicious milky smelling lukewarm curds onto the forehead in a cascade of delicate tickly sensations. If the pizichili didn’t put you to sleep, this will. Unless you’re well-rested, which I was. Then its like going into deep meditation as you experience the brainwave coherence triggered by the treatment. I could hardly stand up, I was so relaxed after 30 minutes of this heavenly bliss.