No, Your Masseuse Can't Heal Your Illness Through Burps

For almost a year, Dessy Silitonga has been living and working at an ad agency in Jakarta. Once every two weeks, she goes to her parents house in Serang, Banten to eat her mother's signature sambal and to get a massage from Bu Susi Sendawa.

Susi Sendawa is the family's go-to masseuse. Her last name means "burp," it's not her real name, but her famous technique has landed her the strange nickname. Dessy calls her that simply because Susi always burps whenever she massages someone.

"I swear, during massages she just won't stop burping," Dessy told VICE Indonesia. "I guess the bad wind from my body gets transferred into hers, and then go away for good."

Dessy doesn't want to believe that her diseases go away through Susi's burps. But like many others who swear by the myth, Dessy doesn't think it's impossible. Susi has been working as a house-call masseuse in Serang, Jakarta and surrounding metro area for five years—that translates to a lot of burps, and she takes them very seriously. She believes that a burp is a blessing from God, and a way for her to know which parts of her client's body need attention.

"So if my clients are ill, I will burp. If they're not ill, I won't burp. It's that simple. And so if my client is very ill, I will burp constantly and very loudly, too," Susi told VICE. "Say, my client has severe illness. Before I touch their body, and only by seeing their faces, I would already burp so hard that I actually feel exhausted. I can't hold it in, either, because I will get nauseous."

VICE asked Fajar, a professional masseuse in South Jakarta, if any of this makes sense. Fajar is familiar with the myth that a client's illness is released to the massage therapist's burps. Some of his co-workers have experienced this, but he has his doubts.

"It's more common that the client burps during massage therapy, due to their gastric acid. Sometimes they have acute gastric acid and the reflexology improves their blood circulation and their body releases gas," Fajar told VICE. "In my experience, I'm never the one who burps. I can't know for sure."

Dr. Mahesa Paranidpa from the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) offers another perspective. It's possible that a masseuse burps because he or she receives the effect of the massage itself.

"I mean, masseuses use their energy when applying pressures. So maybe, since they're using their own hands, and the therapy oils, there's a stimulation on their palms. They become as relaxed as their client," Mahesa told me. "Sometimes, masseuses burp, too. People think it's because the sickness has been transferred, when in fact it has nothing to do with that."

Mahesa also highlighted that many Indonesians mistake gas as wind trapped in your body, as if the human body were full of wind in the first place. This mindset not only is problematic, it can be dangerous too; many could dismiss their ailments as trapped wind when in fact their body is going through something more serious.