Local Reiki Teacher’s Trip to India Truly Altered Her Point of View
By Martha Slater

Alexis Houston says her recent trip to visit a clinic and orphanage in India changed her viewpoint on "just about everything."

Houston practices craniosacral therapy, massage therapy, and teaches Reiki in Hancock and also in Chatham, Mass.

"For 15 years, I had practiced yoga and meditation," Houston explained. "I always felt drawn to Indian culture, without completely understanding why. I wanted to take a spiritual pilgrimage that also kept me grounded in the social, political and economic reality of India."

In Houston’s practice in the US, she treats many stress-related conditions. By visiting the east, she also hoped to gain a deeper perspective on western sources of stress related disease.

Houston met the program director for a free community acupuncture clinic in Pundag, West Bengal run by the humanitarian organization, Ananda Marga. The director, Charles Martley, encouraged her to volunteer at the clinic and also to teach.

"We agreed that I could teach some techniques there to the two main acupuncturists who run the clinic, and do some pediatric work in the orphanage that is also on site," Houston said.

"West Bengal is one of the poorest areas of India. Most of state of West Bengal is decades behind the United States economically. On the one hand, I could never even begin to describe how beautiful the sunrise and sunset is there, but I could also never describe how debilitating it is to continually breathe in dust from the roads, which for the most part in India, remain unpaved. Years of breathing in this dust wreaks havoc on the respiratory systems of the villagers."

Houston said she had many experiences when she was "awestruck by the majesty of this ancient culture, and at the same time struck by shock and disbelief at what the majority of the population endures on a daily basis."

During her first week there, she worked in the orphanages with 60 orphans.

"I showed up prepared to help any number of pediatric conditions, respiratory problems, scoliosis, spondylosis, asthma, chronic digestive problems etc." Houston notes. "What I discovered however was that in the midst of treating these remarkable and courageous children and teenagers, they gave me, at least as much as I gave to them."

By the time that week and a half was over, Houston had not only adjusted to jet lag but had navigated many cultural differences.

"Many times I thought back to the incredible gift of freedom I had been given through my education, through basic shelter from the elements, and abundant healthcare at every moment in my life," Houston recalled. "To have these gifts in India, particularly for woman in India is still rare indeed. Eighty percent of the population still lives without running water and much of this same percentage still travels long distances to the local well for water. The majority of women in the villages still remain illiterate."

The next phase of Houston’s trip was treating men and women and children at the Acupuncture Clinic of Ananda Nagar, from the local villages and beyond, many of whom suffered from generations of malnutrition and overexposure to the elements. The clinic sometimes treats over 200 people per week.

"Each morning there was a line of sometimes 20 or more men, women and children who traveled for miles barefoot or took the train with what little money they had to come and get free treatment," Houston said. "The clinic has 12 beds, and there was hardly a time during those weeks when any of those beds were empty. I would teach for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon and the rest of the time I would rotate from bed to bed treating many types of muscularskeletal issues."

Houston says "There are many people in that country of almost 1 billion people who need serious care. Preventative care there is an absolute luxury, whereas in the US, generally one can easily take advantage of some form of preventative care."

Houston notes that, "In the US, the majority of preventative issues I treat come from stress and imbalances of excess. In India I treated people who are still at the mercy of basic external elements they have no control over, and malnutrition that had taken its toll generation after generation. And yet, even though they are in an incredible amount of pain by the time they reach the clinic, these men and women show remarkable courage and patience. Strength and depth of spirit shines through them and they always showed incredible gratitude for the help they were given."

"Again, as with the orphans, what they did not realize is that they were actually the ones giving me the gift," Houston concluded. "I came back to the US from treating some of the poorest people in the world, to treat some of the richest people in the world. My viewpoints on just about everything had altered drastically but my main conclusion was this...east or west, rich or poor, there are many valid reason why suffering occurs. Real compassion treats all suffering with the same degree of nurturing. My only regret as I left, was that there were not hundreds more hands like mine to go around."

For more information about the Acupuncture Clinic of Ananda Nagar please visit www.acuindia.org.

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