There were two people staying in the ashram in India at that time who happened to work on an Aboriginal settlement in central Australia as teachers. They had a photo of someone they suspected might be a kadaitcha man. the word 'kadaitcha' is something often fearful to Aboriginal people. They are viewed with awe and respect and are considered to be powerful healers, sorcerers and, if they so want to, killers. Aboriginal society traditionally blamed a lot of deaths as due to a spell or something similar from such a person, with the resulting retribution often following. Consequently, most such men keep a low profile, never advertising what they are. People may suspect someone of being one, but never know for sure.
So these two people had a photo of someone living on their settlement they thought might be such a person. We took the photo to the guru, who said that that was the person I should see. These teachers communicated with this man, and he asked to see a photo of me before he agreed to see me. A photo was sent and in time he agreed to see me.
After a few months back in Australia it was time from my parents and I to head out to visit this healer. There was a lot of rain that year across central Australia, which was very unusual. Instead of the barren red sand of the desert, the land was green, grasses and bush flowers carpeting the ground from horizon to horizon.
To get permission to enter some Aboriginal settlements is not an easy thing. many of them do not allow just anyone from the public to visit. Permission from the elders of the community is necessary. Fortunately the healer I was going to see, called Treacle, was one such elder. After a few days driving, we finally drove along the heavily currugated dirt road and into the settlement.
It was not exactly what I had expected. There was no ordered housing system of any sort. The aborigines lived in what seemed to be ramshakle huts and shelters made of a flotsam and jetsam of branches, plastic tarpauling, tin sheet metal and steel poles. They seemed to like it that way. There were western style buildings such as the onsite supermarket, meeting hall and school and also some western style units, which the teachers and any visitors could stay in.
My parents and I moved into one of these units. We were there for two weeks and had planned to meet up with Treacle as soon as possible to begin the healing. In hindsight it is amusing how presumptuous we were. It is important to note that many Aboriginal people do not share the same anal clock driven sense of time as we do. Our western obsession with speed, appointments, being on time etc. doesn't fit with the worldview of many indigenous Australians. Of course not all, but some don't care about thinking of the world like that. The reason I say this is because it was only toward the middle of the second week that Treacle came to visit us in our unit.
He was a nice, quiet natured softly spoken man. Like many Aborigines (so I was told), he didn't engage in direct eye contact much. I was told that they consider this to be ill mannered. He had a very strong accent, which made it difficult to understand what he was saying. We exchanged light hearted chit-chat for a few minutes and then he left. he came to visit us a few times in the next few days, bringing some other 'kadaitcha' men with him on his last visit. They were going to help and participate with the 'healing' when it was to occur.
It turned out that Treacle used to have narcolepsy himself when he was younger.
to be continued...
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