What comes to mind when we think about Thailand - laid back beaches, exotic adventures, spicy food, or Thai massage. But this healing miracle has nothing to do with any of the above.

Healing knowledge has always played an important part in all cultures. Human beings have always had physical and emotional problems, be it injuries, sickness or any other trauma. Every society has always needed healing professions. Therapeutic healing systems have included everything from faith healers to shamans to energy healers to massage therapists to modern doctors.

Even in western societies which have officially subscribed to modern medicine as the only real healing system, there is a huge subculture of alternative approaches. Older traditional cultures have relied on such methods for thousands of years since there have been no other means available.

All of these methods have merit and work sometimes, but not always - just like modern medicine. Here is the true story of a rather unusual healing that happened in Thailand.

Jang was a 14 year old girl who lived in the southern region of Songkla in Thailand. She had contracted a serious skin disease on her abdomen and back. Several visits to doctors and hospitals provided no relief and no cure. This type of disease is well known in the rural areas of Thailand and can be deadly in severe cases.

Modern medicine was unable to help Jang and it seemed that she would not survive the disease. In desperation her parents took her to a local healer, an old man who was known for his healing powers. He took a look at her and proclaimed that he could cure her.

Next he put something in his mouth which according to Jang seemed to be betel nut and leaves, but she could not be sure. Betel nuts are chewed by many Asians for their stimulating effect. You can easily tell who chews it since with regular use it stains teeth and gums red and black. You cannot swallow the leaves and therefore people always spit out blood red streams of saliva mixed with betel - it looks pretty ugly.

After chewing for a while, the old healer spat the blood-red substance on the girl's abdomen and then rubbed it in. At the same time he blew on her belly and uttered some chants. There is no way of knowing what exactly he was doing, but after three days of these treatments, Jang totally recovered from the life threatening disease.

The scars are still clearly visible on her skin 25 years later, but the disease never came back. The old shaman miraculously succeeded where the doctors had sent Jang home to die. He asked for a modest payment of a couple of chickens and 100 baht which is about US$ 3.-

I am sure someone will think that this is a ludicrous story, but there is a similar story in the Bible (Mark 8,28) where Jesus healed a man's blindness by spitting in his eyes.

What makes this particular case quite authentic is that Jang is not a fictitious person or someone I heard about, but she is my partner. I have been living with her for many years, and I have seen the scars.

The fact is that miraculous healings occur all over the world. We call them miracles, but that only means that we don’t understand how they work. However the people practicing these methods see nothing miraculous in them. The old man in Jang’s village had been healing people for decades, and for him it was just his job. The villagers can attest to many of his successes. He probably could not heal everyone of everything, but he did save Jang’s life.