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Like Stroking a Butterfly’s Wing
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Wellbeing

Like Stroking a Butterfly’s Wing

A Most Delicate Massage
Agnieszka Rostkowska
Reading
time 7 minutes
Agnieszka Rostkowska:
An author and editor with "Przekrój". She loves the East: yoga, meditation, traditional Chinese medicine, ayurveda and holistic approaches to health. She is also fascinated by the Middle East, especially Turkey, where she worked for years as a foreign correspondent. She even wrote a reportage book "Wojownicy o szklanych oczach. W poszukiwaniu Nowej Turcji" (Glass-eyed warriors. In search of the New Turkey). The book was nominated to the Grand Press 2021 Award in the Reportage Book of the Year category.

The Butterfly Touch is one of the shortest and the most delicate massages in the world. Its power lies not in strength but in gentleness. 

The baby was motionless, its eyes closed, its skin blue. It wasn’t breathing. The staff in the room froze, fixed their eyes on Dr Eva Reich, and waited wordlessly. The young doctor bent over the child and started to stroke it, so delicately that she barely brushed over the tiny hands and legs, gently moving over the little belly, almost without touching it. Her every move, in all its softness and smoothness, was simultaneously energetic and assured. After a moment, the little body twitched. The skin grew pink, the chest expanded and started to rise. The baby opened its eyes. Another life saved.

Reich assisted with difficult births and looked after infants whose lives were endangered. There were a lot of them in her care because Harlem Hospital in New York catered for premature babies from all over the city. It was the start of the

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Agnieszka Rostkowska:
An author and editor with "Przekrój". She loves the East: yoga, meditation, traditional Chinese medicine, ayurveda and holistic approaches to health. She is also fascinated by the Middle East, especially Turkey, where she worked for years as a foreign correspondent. She even wrote a reportage book "Wojownicy o szklanych oczach. W poszukiwaniu Nowej Turcji" (Glass-eyed warriors. In search of the New Turkey). The book was nominated to the Grand Press 2021 Award in the Reportage Book of the Year category.
Translation: Irena Kretowicz
Publish date: 16.09.2022

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Healing in the Temples of Asclepius
Tomasz Wiśniewski
Tomasz Wiśniewski:
a writer (author of the books “O pochodzeniu łajdaków” and “Wstrząsająco przystojny mężczyzna”) and Editor of the Tall-tales section.

The symbolism of Asclepius remains present in our world today: modern medicine is still represented by the image of the Greco-Roman god’s serpent coiled around his staff. But it’s worth remembering that the fifth century healing methods applied in the temples of Asclepius did not rely on pharmacology.

The supplicant roomed at a special temple guest house and was prepared by priests. There was animal sacrifice—preferably of roosters—fasting, bathing in ice-cold springs, and ritual cleansing. If they had a dream the priests considered favorable, the next night would be spent in an abaton, an innermost temple room inaccessible to lay people. There, the patient would lie on a bed called a klínē (the root word of “clinic”), where they waited for a healing experience that could occur through a spontaneous vision, or a dream should they fall asleep.

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