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Jurnal Komunitas 6 (2) (2014): 280-293. DOI: 10.15294/komunitas.v6i2.3307
JURNAL KOMUNITAS
Research & Learning in Sociology and Anthropology
http://journal.unnes.ac.id/nju/index.php/komunitas
The Power of Sugesti
in Traditional Javanese Healing Treatment
Atik Triratnawati1, Arsanti Wulandari2, Tiara Marthias3
1Anthropology Program, Faculty of Humanities, Gadjah Mada University
2Nusantara Literature Program, Faculty of Humanities, Gadjah Mada University
3Centre of Health Policy and Management, Faculty of Medicine, Gadjah Mada University
Permalink/DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15294/komunitas.v6i2.3307
Received : July 2014; Accepted: August 2014; Published: September 2014
Abstract
This paper aims to explore the beliefs in society toward traditional healing regardless of the more accessible,
aordable and improved modern health services. This ethnographic study was conducted in Yogyakarta in 2013-
2014. Phenomenological approach was used to analyze the data using the theory of health seeking behavior as
the guiding principle of this research. The main factor inuencing Javanese community’s belief in traditional
healing was the power of placebo eect. Placebo can arise from both the patient and the healer. Additionally,
other factors such as compatibility between the patients and the healer, patient’s aversion to doctor’s therapy,
and the fact that traditional treatment is cheaper, easier, and more eective than modern medicine were the main
considerations for patients in choosing traditional treatment. The benet of psychotherapy provided through
traditional medicine is in the form of life advices or counseling. In addition, healers’ attentiveness in listening to
patients’ complaints was also the main appeal of the traditional health care service.
Abstrak
Tulisan ini mengupas kepercayaan masyarakat pada penyembuhan medis tradisional meski pelayanan kesehatan
modern semakin mudah diakses, murah/gratis pembiayaannya serta ditingkatkan pelayanannya. Studi
etnogras ini dilakukan di DIY tahun 2013-2014. Pendekatan fenomenologi digunakan untuk menganalisis data
disertai teori health seeking behavior. Kunci kepercayaan masyarakat Jawa berobat ke penyembuh tradisional
adalah pengaruh sugesti. Sugesti muncul baik dari penderita maupun penyembuh. Selain itu faktor cocok,
takut dengan terapi dokter serta murah, mudah dan manjur juga menjadi pertimbangan pasien ke pengobatan
tradisional. Manfaat psikoterapi berupa nasihat, wejangan maupun saran serta kemampuan penyembuh
tradisional mendengar curahan hati pasien menjadi daya tarik lain pasien merasa cocok ke pengobatan non medis.
Keywords: sugesti eect; traditional treatment; compatibility; psychotherapy; Javanese culture
How to Cite: Triratnawati, A., Wulandari, A. & Marthias. T. 2014. The Power of Sugesti in Traditional Javanese
Healing Treatment. Jurnal Komunitas, 6 (2): 280-293 doi: 10.15294/komunitas.v6i2.3307
© 2014 Semarang State University. All rights reserved
Corresponding author :
Address: Kampus Bulaksumur, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia
E-mail: atik_triratnawati@yahoo.co.id
ISSN 2086-5465
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Jurnal Komunitas 6 (2) (2014): 280-293 281
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INTRODUCTION
Various forms of health insurance in Indo-
nesia such as Askes, JAMKESNAS, Jamkes-
da, Jampersal or the most recent National
Health Insurance (JKN) do not reduce the
interest of people to use traditional health
service. Traditional health service with the
role of traditional healers still claim an im-
portant place in the hearts of the people be-
cause it can serve as one of the healing tre-
atment options.
Back-to-nature movement in this
global era aects people in pursuing their
health. Modern people, nowadays, prefer
to avoid the use of chemical drugs because
of their impact. Therefore, the natural hea-
ling, either through herbal medicine or tra-
ditional therapies that do not contain toxic
substances in the human body, is more at-
tractive. The tendency of the western world
to investigate and understand the bene-
ts of the traditional healing is increasing.
Complementary and alternative medicines
(CAM) as a form of healing through non-
western medicine which are generally from
eastern countries, gain much attention from
modern medical science and patients in
the developed countries. Therefore, CAM
and traditional healers is in great demand
due to the increasing interest from people
(Encyclopedia of New Medicine, 2006; Kert-
hyasa, 2013).
In Indonesia, CAM and the practi-
tioners which are increasingly growing in
number, have huge inuence on the proli-
feration of advertisements both in the mass
and print media. Events at national and lo-
cal television become a media for traditional
healers to increase their therapy’s populari-
ty. This condition indicates that CAM seeks
to be more publicly known. In addition, the
healing method is also displayed to the pub-
lic so that it will gain people’s trust to use
CAM.
The percentage of Indonesia’s popula-
tion using traditional medicine in the treat-
ment itself continues to increase over time,
from 15.2%, 38.3%, 62.5% (CBS, 2010). This
trend does not only occur in Indonesian so-
ciety. People in some developed countries
who have high level of modern medical ser-
vices also experience the same circumstan-
ce. Data mentions that 30% of Americans
use alternative medicine regularly. They vi-
sit the health care center of alternative more
often than the conventional one. Other
countries also vary, such as Denmark 23%,
France 49%, Australia 48.5%, Taiwan 90%
(Tamtomo, 2012).
There are various types of traditional
medicine. High interest of traditional hea-
lers can be seen from the increasing practice
of traditional medicine. The practice also
shows that local knowledge in the eld of
health is still in the hearts of Indonesian.
People still appreciate the legacy of know-
ledge from the ancestors, although medical
practitioners themselves are still often du-
bious about the benets and they even pro-
hibit its usage (Sciortino, 1999; Tamtomo,
2012).
However, until now, the study that ex-
plores the eectiveness of traditional medi-
cine is rarely found in Indonesia. Even writ-
ten sources that mention why people believe
in traditional medicine than the modern
one, as well as what the basic factors of pa-
tients believe in the patterns of traditional
medicine, are rarely conducted. Social and
cultural factors of the patient surely play an
important role on their belief in traditional
healers (Foster and Anderson, 1987; Trirat-
nawati, 2010).
The purpose of writing this article is to
identify the concept of health and the aspect
of patients’ belief to choose traditional tre-
atment instead of modern one; as well as the
factors of sugesti eect underlying patients’
belief in the traditional healing.
METHODS
Data was collected through interview and
observation of the traditional healers such
as: bekham, sinshe, acupressure, acupun-
cture, map age, herbal medicine, gurah,
religious treatment through prayer, water,
herbs, and Javanese treatment as well prana
(life force) healing. There was also interview
with patients from traditional healer and
experts of Javanese culture who understood
the topic of traditional healing. There were
24 informants interviewed in their houses
282 Atik Triratnawati et al, The Power of Sugesti in Traditional Javanese Healing Treatment
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and in the place of healing practices. The
data was collected since July to November
2013 and April 2014. The data was processed
based on the results of the interview transc-
ripts, coding and classication. Then, data
category was made based on the concept
and the most dominant nding.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
According to the understanding of Javanese,
the concept of health and pain has a compre-
hensive denition which includes elements
of physic, spirit and soul. Spiritual element
becomes more important than physical one,
because they believe that if someone is spi-
ritually healthy, his physical health will fol-
low. However, if someone is physically healt-
hy, his spiritual health will not necessarily
follow. The eorts to make someone spiri-
tually healthy can be done through many
ways. Each religion has its own way, such
as through fasting, prayer, and meditation.
However, for Javanese, being modest which
means perih atine or the mind must suer
through meditation is one way to force hu-
man spirituality become strong and able to
withstand any temptation.
Health and pain are connected to the
body. For Javanese, body consists of 3 parts.
There is a body in the form of spirit, physic
and soul. Spirit or soul is the barrier of good
and bad thing as said by a healer G (treat-
ment through herbal and Javanese culture).
Spirit is often referred to as human mind;
spirit always warns the physic. Physic,
spirit, and soul contain human ambiti-
on which never gets satised, so that this
body should be controlled by the spirit of
the human itself. Soul controls human
life.
According to Javanese, disease comes
from human itself, not from the outside. The
disease comes from the human spirit then
it goes to the human physic. Disease begins
from the element of human nature that is
covetous, greedy, and careless which means
he is not careful, rigorous, and thorough
in his daily behavior including in choosing
the food which causes the disease. Human
behavior then becomes the cause and sour-
ce of all diseases. For Javanese, the eort to
prevent the disease more focuses on how
humans control the spirit and soul. Cont-
rolling the breath is an attempt to balance
the rhythm of life. Controlling the breath in
modern world can be interpreted as taking
exercise or doing physical sport, but for Ja-
vanese controlling spiritual breath means
controlling soul in order to balance the body
and the environment where human lives.
The main healing treatment is to treat
the patient spiritually. If the spirit gets the
treatment, the physic is also relieved. Me-
ditation, for example, is intended to focus
the attention on divinity and to refrain from
worldly life and to avoid eating various co-
lors of food. The best food that should be
consumed is by eating and drinking somet-
hing that comes from nature which is free
from chemical, avoring or preservative
substances. Body must only consume food
with limited quantities because the food in
large quantities will only increase worldly
lust of human, and human should be able
to avoid.
Principle of Javanese Healing
There are many ways of healing done by Ja-
vanese. One way of healing can be dierent
from another although they have the same
goal. The Healer G (68 years) states that Ja-
vanese songs / ballads (there are 23 ballads)
are able to cure the disease. The lyrics of the
ballad can case out the demons, crimes and
even wars, because the ballad contains re-
quests of prayer to God. If the child had a
fever, the Javanese ancestors only sang the
ballad in order their child to get better.
Other treatment is to plug the red chili
and shallot then put them under the bed of
the sick child. Through scientic research,
healer G gives the data that shallot and red
chili are element of bacteria repellent. Color
is a natural antibiotic wave coming from the
plant. Therefore, the healing process does
not require drugs but plants are sucient.
The principle of Javanese healing is
similar to Chinese in which there are 5 ba-
sic elements in the human body. Those
elements are wood (liver), supporting the
growth and comfort; water (kidney), cool,
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humidify, reduce, denoted as coolness, fer-
tility; soil (spleen) bearing the burden, gi-
ving life, receiving as well as supporting life;
re (heart) warmth, revival; metal (lung)
cleaning, eliminating, weakening, the sym-
bol of human nature (lust) which is blazing
the heat that cannot stop (Chunjiang, 2003,
Kerthyasa, 2013).
Those ve elements and one more
element which is ether (air) must be in har-
mony to achieve the health. If one element
is not balanced, it will cause pain. Human
who has higher level of re element will cau-
se pain in the heart. In the contrary, human
who has higher level of wind element will
get abnormality in the liver. Human who
has too much amount of water element will
get nerve system disorders. Coolness as the
symbol of water will describe the pleasures
of life which results in laziness. Earth or
land as life support will cause the element of
re, water and wind; therefore, these three
elements must be in harmony with the ele-
ment of land.
Sick body must be relieved in order
to harmonize other elements. The basic Ja-
vanese healing emphasizes the element of
harmony or in harmonious. In other word,
the treatment in Javanese culture always in-
cludes God as the main element which me-
ans that God is still number one as an im-
portant element in healing, as stated by RM
(64 years), the Catholic spiritual healer who
provides treatment through water, prayer
and lighters.
The Lord Jesus, the son of God always
leads good man. God sees the hearts of
man. That God created the earth, sky,
freezing water, rain all things that contain
water. Even people is living like in a sh-
bowl, if it’s in the outer space, the water /
overcast and the clouds will look beauti-
ful. God can open his powers including in
the healing.
He added that his skill in treating
people is a blessing from God. Since child-
hood, he dreamed of becoming a doctor but
he ended up going to school for pastor and
he became pastor. Now he realized that the
ability to treat someone is in accordance
with the duties of a doctor. He added that
he always wanted to help people who are in
diculty (sick).
I always ask the patients to pray together
at my home yard. They need to be guided
in praying because they are the people
who are in a dicult situation, confused
and sick. They need to feel the joy in or-
der to make their hearts happy. God must
bless!
Reasons for Choosing Traditional Heal-
ing
The knowledge of Javanese is based on their
empirical experiences. The experience is
passed down from generation to generati-
on. However, in a globalization era in which
everything in this world has been connected
rapidly, Javanese society is widely exposed to
the elements of modernization and they are
able to receive modern medical treatment.
Many traditional medical elements then
are combined with modern medical com-
ponents and vice versa. The combination
of two or more medical systems that come
from dierent culture occurs. Acculturati-
on of medical system adds to the wealth of
cultural treasures of Indonesia in the eld of
healing method diversity.
Although modern medicine has been
accepted by Javanese, the classication of
the disease based on the cause of the di-
sease (etiology) still becomes the basis for
them to determine the form of treatment.
If the etiology is believed to come from the
personal circumstance, human as an agent;
then healing process will be delivered by the
shaman. Meanwhile, if the disease is belie-
ved to come from naturalistic circumstance
then the healing process will be delivered in
modern medical treatment (Foster and An-
derson, 1990; Sciortino, 1999; Triratnawati,
2011).
From the statements of the traditional
healers after conducting information data
cross from patients, some of the reasons
why people tend to choose traditional treat-
ment rather than modern one are founded.
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Hopeless expectations of the modern
medical treatment
The numbers of patients with severe dise-
ase who fail to be cured by modern medici-
ne (doctors, hospitals) causes them to turn
their treatment to the traditional healing.
Someone who suers terribly in his illness
must seek for his recovery. In having the
treatment, if a therapy does not give any
result, this kind of treatment will be aban-
doned and forwarded to other healing with
the same method for example from general
practitioners to specialists or subspecialists;
or from one shaman to other shaman which
is considered to be qualied and have higher
level of knowledge. All of the attempts re-
quire a good eort, cost and power. All of
them are done to cure the patient.
The fact obtained from the description
of the patients as well as traditional healers
is that most patients come to a traditional
healer after they found that modern medici-
ne was no longer able to cope with the dise-
ase. The information from herbal healer and
prayer B (47 years) is described as follow.
My patients are mostly the former pa-
tients of particular doctors, both from
leading hospitals in the Province of DIY
and other doctors from private practice.
My work just deals with receiving second-
hand goods.
The remark from healer B above shows
that the patients are generally described as
secondhand goods from doctors. This me-
ans that the patient had been handled and
he visited the doctor for times. He even had
surgery. He had hospitalized for long time
in the hospital, but he never felt any recove-
ry. Comments are almost similar as given by
healer W (67 years, healing through massa-
ge, prayer, water and herbs) that stated.
There is my patient, Caucasian people
from abroad whose head had been clea-
ved (surgery). Once he came here I trea-
ted him. Thanks God, he is healing. I tre-
at him in my own way, namely massage,
prayer and water.
The healer W often receives patients
with severe diseases including leaking heart
and cancer, even though he never went to
school. He is thankful for his ability in hea-
ling gained from the Lord because he is able
to help a lot of people from suering even
he treats them in a simple way and without
any equipment. Prayed water is believed to
be able to cure diseases. In the past, people
thought water treatment was only sugesti
for healing, but with medical discovery, wa-
ter can be explained scientically and ratio-
nally (Muyosaro, 2012).
Fear of modern medical therapy
Not all patients have the same courage to
receive the therapy from a doctor. Many pa-
tients are afraid of injections. They are even
afraid to look at the syringe. There are some
who are worried about the surgery, even
though the doctor’s verdict states that the
patient can be cured after the surgery. Fre-
quently, patients with bone fractures are af-
raid if the doctor places the pins into their
bones. Most patients think and feel that the
therapy done by doctor is terrible or pain-
ful. They imagine that their body is pierced
with a needle and drilled to place the pins,
or their head is cleaved to describe brain
surgery in the head. Horrors and fear of pain
(the pain because of the therapy) are always
reected in the patient’s mind. Moreover,
older age patients (older generation) are of-
ten more worried about the doctor therapy.
They feel that their body is quite frail and
they will not be able to receive therapies that
require strong endurance.
Many patients avoid medical therapy
because of psychological conditions such
as fear, horror and fear of tremendous pain
for the doctor therapy. Although the doctors
have explained that the patient will receive
anesthesia in order to make the patient no
longer feel the pain, the fears and worries
from the patients cannot be easily removed.
Moreover, there is still a lack of understan-
ding from ancient Javanese that once a per-
son has been exposed to the scalpel (sur-
gery) then he will experience it again. This
means that the patient will experience anot-
her surgery in the same or a dierent part of
his body.
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Therefore, to avoid the therapy from
doctor who uses a scalpel, the Javanese is al-
ways looking for a safe alternative which is
simple yet it is healing. The treatment will
be traditional one that does not require any
scalpels or syringes and other tools. Tradi-
tional therapy is not considered to be cree-
py. If the pain appears, it will only last for a
while and temporary. Although traditional
therapy uses massage, pressure, smearing,
and even the needling acupuncture, those
treatments only last for a while without any
pain. Likewise, if drinking the bitter herbs is
needed, the patient does not mind doing it.
Indeed, feeling of getting better and comfort
appear because of the traditional therapy.
Although there is a little pain, the patients
feel that they make a recovery faster than
the doctor treatment which takes a long
process, especially the treatment related to
bone grafting, nerves and brain.
Fast, eective and inexpensive
Javanese thought process is strongly in-
uenced by either beliefs or ancient under-
standing such as Javanese and Hindu, Budd-
hist, Catholic, Christian, and Islamic beliefs.
Reasoning is not considered sucient to
decide anything because it must be accom-
panied by a sense. Since Javanese know the
general and specic diseases (Geertz, 1989),
they will choose the treatment based on the
belief on the etiology of the disease. In ad-
dition, they also believe that the cause of
the disease can be categorized into personal
circumstance (agent, human as the cause
of pain) and natural circumstance (equilib-
rium model) (Foster and Anderson, 1990;
Galanti, 2008). Physical illness is general-
ly treated with modern treatment such as
doctor. However, the metaphysical illness
should be treated by shaman because only
shaman who is capable to cure these dise-
ases.
Patients with bone fractures, for
example, are not possible to perform the
treatment by themselves. They need a help
from the experts. Fractures are automatical-
ly curable through subconscious mind but if
they are not physically treated, it will cause
crooked bone (Praworo, 2011). Modern me-
dical treatment requires a long time in the
recovery process for bone fractures. Many
patients cannot wait long for their recovery.
By waiting for a long time recovery, many pa-
tients feel that they are wasting time, energy
and opportunity to make money. Moreover,
patient who comes from lower class and acts
as the head of the household states that if
he does not work in a single day due to the
illness, the other family members even can-
not eat any food. In addition, pain is an un-
comfortable condition and gives traumatic
experience to the patient. Therefore, some
patients want to end their suering in a very
short time if it is possible. They then try va-
rious methods of healing in order to get fast
recovery.
Patients with bone fracture either
caused by falling, accident, or crushed by
heavy objects certainly take a long time for
the healing process to make the bone resto-
red. An orthopedic doctor will perform the
process of bone fracture treatment through
X-ray method, cast or pins (a metal installed
to connect the bones), therefore the hea-
ling process requires between 2-3 months.
In the hands of traditional healers like sin-
she, the experts of fractures, F (48 years old)
mentions that the healing process will be 1
month. Patients only need to be smeared
with Chinese herbs for 1-2 months depen-
ding on the severity of the fracture. In order
to accelerate the healing, patients will also
be asked to buy Chinese medicine to heal
wounds as well as to join the bones.
Although the patients have to wait
long to be served in healing practices of F,
the treatment is quite fast for each patient.
Patients need to bring the X-ray result from
lab / doctor. Then, they will be asked the
cause of the fracture. Sinshe reads the X-
rays to ascertain the position of the wound.
Patients will be asked to remain seated if
the fracture is part of the hand and lay if the
fracture is the waist part or any part below
the waist.
After gathering Chinese powder and
Javanese plants with egg albumen, the sin-
she will spray anti-infective substance with a
spray of Chinese herbs to the body fractures.
The sinshe prepares transparent plastic and
286 Atik Triratnawati et al, The Power of Sugesti in Traditional Javanese Healing Treatment
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thick cardboard to hold the compound so
that the compound remains attached to the
part of the body that is being treated. Deftly,
he covers the broken part of the body with
the Chinese herb and dresses it with banda-
ge and plaster tightly. The patients will be
asked to come again after 2 weeks to see the
result whether it is already dry and recove-
red or it needs to be covered one more time.
The sinshe will write on paper how to treat
the patient with a bandage compound in-
cluding prescribing Chinese medicine that
can be purchased at Chinese drug store near
his place. The prescription of Chinese me-
dicine is intended to enhance the healing
process with the drug. Practically, the sinshe
combines two types of medicine time to get
a quick recovery. Sinshe also gives spiritual
advice based on the patient’s religion. The
point is that the patients need to always take
care, pray and surrender to the Almighty.
The patients should be sure that the way of
his healing, they will recover completely.
In terms of payment, if the doctor put
the pins based on the pin length, for examp-
le, 3 cm or 4 cm per cm and it costs Rp 10
million per cm, then the sinshe gives the
same rate for each patient and it is not based
on the length of the fracture. Whenever the
patients get smeared with the Chinese herb,
then the cost paid to the sinshe is much
cheaper than the cost of doctor. Although
the price is still considered to be expensive,
particularly for patients with low income,
only by visiting 1-2 times the bone fracture
is able to be cured without any complaints.
This cost will be much cheaper than the rate
of doctor which can reach tens of millions
and take a longer recovery process.
This cost is relevant with the quick re-
covery process, because the patient will be
able to return to work more quickly. Thus,
the suering of the pain will end and the pa-
tient gets normal life without any help of ot-
hers anymore. According to the patients, re-
covery needs to be sought, even if they have
to move from one healer to other healers,
they will still ght for it. Although recovery
is expensive, most family of the patient will
endeavor to pay the cost, even by owing or
selling goods of his belonging.
Psychological Therapy
In the globalization era, Javanese also recei-
ve the impact. Social interaction is greatly
inuenced by the mutual needs. They once
wasted their time because they thought
it could be repeated. Nowadays, time has
become a very expensive thing because all
people are busy to look for money. Society
has changed. The principle of “time is mo-
ney” becomes a role model in a modern
world today. The relationship between fa-
mily members, relatives and friends are
very limited due to the increasingly strong
individualism. Conding something and
complaining about life or disease that so-
meone has are dicult to do. This is becau-
se all people are so busy or otherwise they
are not able to give advice or listen to the
complaints. As a result, patients needs help
from others, in this case, the healer which is
willing to listen to his complaints, not only
about his disease but also his personal prob-
lems.
In the medical world, the term is kno-
wn as psychotherapy that is a therapy to
raise motivation, passion, and desire of the
patient to heal and it is usually conducted
for patients with mental disorders through
speech, the advice from doctor or psycholo-
gist (Galanti, 2008). In general, patients are
weak mentally. Therefore, there is a need to
build their mental by the healer. The eorts
of health maintenance will not succeed if
there is no change in the mental attitude
(Guang and Lewis, 2012). What traditional
healers do is similar to what doctors do. The-
refore, the role of traditional healers is like
a traditional psychotherapist because they
give advice to patients without any special
education, but only based on habit. Howe-
ver, the psychotherapy is rarely performed
by doctors due to the increasing number of
patients. In contrary, traditional healers al-
ways have time to do psychotherapy which
makes patients feel happy, safe and peaceful.
If someone goes to see a doctor, he
has very limited time for consultation. Doc-
tors even tend not to have time to talk, hear
complaints and give advice because the
number of patients that needs to be served
is increasing. The option for going to tradi-
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tional healers becomes the best alternative
because the traditional healers are generally
willing to share ideas, listen to complaints
about patient’s illness, and even about fa-
mily and economic problems. Consultation
with traditional healers tends to be unli-
mited in terms of time. The time is also very
exible. In some cases which traditional
healers are highly in demand, the consulta-
tion time then becomes limited. However,
it is not very rare to nd traditional healers
who are willing to talk until late at night, as
experienced by healer RM. He told that once
he did not sleep for 3 months because there
were patients who constantly came to him.
The main factor of the recovery:
Sugesti Eect
Among the traditional healers who were
interviewed and observed, some of them
combined traditional and modern ways of
healing. The adoption of modern healing is
to ensure the diagnosis. For the disease asc-
ribed to physical disorders / body, they take
the advantage of modern medical instru-
ments such as sphygmomanometer. Their
diagnosis is based on the results of x-rays
to ensure the bone fracture, or other parts
of the body as well as the results of labora-
tory tests. Even the healers of age map, H
(45 years), has principle of 5 D before trea-
ting the patients. Principle 5 D are: asking,
seeing the map, touching, analyzing and
treating in order to get the body recovered
as before. The methods of traditional hea-
lers do are similar to how doctors treat the
patients such as anamnesis, prognosis and
therapy (Haruyama, 2013).
The combination of modern and tra-
ditional way is not the factor that attracts
patients to go to a traditional healer. The
main factor, however, is the sugesti eect
that underlies the willingness of patients to
be cured by traditional healers. Through the
sugesti eect, the patient will feel certain,
condent and they completely let the ability
of traditional healer handle their pain. St-
rong condence from the patients becomes
support and passion for them to heal. As
stated by healer GN (42 years).
I denitely give the patients a sugesti.
Patients of any religion would be given a
sugesti so that they pray, feel certain and
condent that their disease will be cured
by God. Insya Allah, if patients believe,
God will grant the prayers of his servants.
Sugesti is important in Javanese hea-
ling process (Pranoto, 2000). Sugesti comes
from two sides, namely from the patient and
the healer. With the sugesti, the patient will
feel certain, condence and put his trust on
the ability of the healer to cure his disease.
Feeling great certain and condent about
the technique and method of healing such
as prayer and herbal medicine/compound
given by the healer will certainly encourage
the patient to recover. The enthusiasm from
the healer through his advice or some rest-
rictions that must be followed by the patient
increases his motivation and condence to
recover.
Strong condence in the patient is the
basis of traditional treatment. If the patient
has a distrust of the traditional healers’ abi-
lity from the beginning, he then will not able
to be given a sugesti of any treatment done
by traditional healers. Therefore, the patient
does not feel any benet of the healing. In
contrary, if the patient has great condence,
the patient will feel the benets after he has
completed the therapy performed by tradi-
tional healer. The patient’s health will gra-
dually get better and he is fully recovered.
In this case, the patient must trust and
believe the greatness of healer so that he
seems to surrender his fate to the healer. The
healers who have the ability to cure through
sixth sense (Ferzacca, 2001) will add a suges-
ti to the patient. The patient’s family which
take him to the healer’s home or place for
traditional healing also needs to have a high
level of sugesti. This is because family is the
person or group who most suers and sacri-
ces in seeking the recovery of family mem-
bers. Many patients come to a traditional
healer with condition in which they are not
able to walk so they need to be carried by
stretcher or wheelchair. There are also many
patients who come with crutches and walk
with diculty. Patients with bone fractures
288 Atik Triratnawati et al, The Power of Sugesti in Traditional Javanese Healing Treatment
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generally come with a special vehicle (rent)
because they are not able to move. When
they move, they will feel tremendous pain
in the part of their fracture bone. General-
ly, patients with bone fracture who come to
sinshe are lying down on a stretcher.
Patients who came to the traditional
healer generally have been treated by doc-
tor but they have not recovered. Therefore,
most of their conditions are terribly bad.
They need help immediately so that they
can go back doing their activity normally
without any help of their family. They want
to get well very soon so that they do not bot-
her family members as well as his children
and grandchildren.
Traditional healers practically also
apply the belief that the patient will be able
to recover through his own power. The two-
way sugesti reinforces the trust from both
patient and healer. In self-healing, espe-
cially through prayer and mantra, the fac-
tor of sugesti also appears that the patient
must accept sincerely for the ordeal of God
(which makes life), so they have to trust in
God’s mercy.
Beside the sugesti, some traditional
healers also believe that many patients who
complain, moan or gripe about the pain as if
they were the most miserable person in the
world will be more dicult to heal. As ar-
gued by the fracture healer F:
The pain and no pain are actually only
in the mouth. Many patients who like to
complain and moan usually have a long
recovery. While patients who are more
calm and resigned to God as well as they
sincerely accept the trials and they obey
my advice, they actually make a fast reco-
very.
Not only treatment that uses prayer,
massage, sinshe or cupping requires a su-
gesti. Even drinking herb also needs sugesti.
As the experience of the Javanese herb seller
and herbalist named M (48 years old) who
stated.
I emphasize that before the customers
drink the herb they have to read bismil-
lah, because all treatments come from the
Lord. Herb is only media. They also must
feel certain and condent about the herb
benets. Whatever the treatment, they
have to be certain. If someone who wants
to drink the herb is always anxious and
not sure, the herb will not give him any
inuence.
The description of M shows that drin-
king herb needs a sugesti. He needs to give
the customers the sugesti to make them
certain and sure of the traditional herb be-
nets. At the same time, he warns the cus-
tomers to always remember God because
through God’s permission, health problems
experienced by a person will bring him to
an improvement. By reading Basmallah (re-
ferring name of Allah), M believes that God
will help him to cure the patient. A sugesti
is the key factor of all types and methods of
traditional treatment among the Javanese.
Sugesti is a method that always appears in
every process of traditional treatment. The
role of sugesti is very important to give the
patients a strong belief to recover. Almost
all healers say that this method can be con-
sidered as the base of the entire treatment
process. If the patient is sincerely sure about
the treatment then he will feel a speedy re-
covery. In contrary, if the patient cannot ac-
cept the sugesti given by the healers, then he
will get diculty to heal. If the patient who
comes to traditional healer is hesitant even
he does not believe and he is not certain or
unsure about the ability of the healer, then
he cannot get maximum recovery or even he
fails to make a recovery. In contrary, someo-
ne who comes to him with sincere hearts in
order to take and remove his disease, then
the recovery will be obtained. As expressed
by healer RB (35 years).
If the patient does not believe in the treat-
ment, even he cannot accept the sugesti,
the result will be contradictory. The con-
dition of his body will be getting worse.
Practically, all healers state that most
patients always believe in the sugesti. Some
of healers express almost all patients accept
a sugesti given by the healer. To convince
the patients, healer Z (48 years) gives a ter-
Jurnal Komunitas 6 (2) (2014): 280-293 289
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rifying story about the condition of other
patients and the expenses paid to have the
treatment in the hospital. Through this way,
the patient is persuasively suggested to be-
lieve in the greatness of God, then the pa-
tient will feel more certain and sure on the
healing process done by traditional healers
done.
A sugesti is made by giving Unen-
Unen (remark, advice) to the patient either
it is expressed implicitly or explicitly. The
media of water, prayer, and herbal medici-
ne can also become the eort to increase the
sugesti of the patient about the healing. The
healers will try to convince the patient that
he believes in the healing done by the hea-
lers. There are various ways to bring out the
sugesti, for example, by suggesting the pa-
tient to continue praying and to surrender to
God as the One who gives the pain and cure;
listening to complaints and problems of the
patient; seeing the pain as the evidence of
God’s love, and so on.
Not only the sugesti which is able to
attract patients to go to a traditional healer.
Patients of traditional treatment who come
from dierent backgrounds, village, city,
education, illness, and age, feel that coming
to a traditional healer is easy, cheap, and
there is a high trust about the healing met-
hod (Supardi, Susyanty, 2010).
Ability healer in treating patients
The fame of a traditional healer is often de-
termined by the ability to cure the patients.
Moreover, if there is patient with a severe
disease comes and he is treated once then
he recovers, the news will be spread out im-
mediately and automatically the healer is
getting well known.
Even though the popularity of the hea-
ler is actually known by the people who live
far from his place, his neighbors also know
about the treatment done by the healer.
Neighbors actually know his therapy becau-
se many patients come and wait to have the
treatment. However, in general, the neigh-
bors will not come to have his treatment.
They come to another healer who lives far
from them instead. Javanese still believe
that if they make more sacrices, the cure
is getting closer. This means that the higher
the time, eort, costs spent by the patient,
he will be rewarded with the cure. Great sac-
rice to get to the place of the healer is con-
sidered to be comparable with the recovery
process.
Many traditional healers do not want
to advertise or place the nameplate for their
treatment. According to them, there are va-
rious traditional healers, but there are only
few healers who are really sincere to help ot-
hers. Many of them are not genuine and eve-
rything is measured with money. Some tra-
ditional healers who do not place nameplate
are even famous by word of mouth (mouth
to mouth) from the patients who had been
healed. These patients are like the adverti-
sement which does not need to be paid be-
cause they will advertise the greatness of the
healer to another person without any order.
Meanwhile, the healers who advertise
themselves are considered too commercial
because they then have to nd the money to
pay the advertisement. The cost of adverti-
sing is surely taken from the services received
from patients. The debate on advertising or
system of word of mouth is endless because
today is the era of information. The sophis-
tication of technology and the inuence of
mass media such as radio, leaets, news-
papers, magazines, TV, and internet have
attracted traditional healers to advertise in
order to be known more widely by people.
The mass media also oers to assist tradi-
tional healers to get a greater opportunity to
raise their revenue. Through advertisement
attached with telephone number, complete
address and testimony from patients who
have been cured by the healers will increase
the sale value of their services.
Denitely, there are plus and minus
of traditional healers eorts to be further
known by the public. There is always aspect
of business and economics. Nothing is bla-
med that traditional healers are people who
devote their whole life to help the patient.
They also have family that also needs to be
supported. Through the services oered by
the traditional healers, they can make a li-
ving wage.
Related to the service rates, traditional
290 Atik Triratnawati et al, The Power of Sugesti in Traditional Javanese Healing Treatment
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treatment varies, from not paying / free, pay
as much as the patient can (without taris)
until the set prices based on the level of
diculty in treatment. The service rate for
doctors, specialists and subspecialists, the
Indonesian Medical Association has made
a limitation even though the rate varies de-
pending on the ability of the people as the
patients. Doctors who live in rural and re-
mote area will give a dierent rate with the
doctors who live in big cities especially in
the metropolis.
Cocog-cocogan
Among all factors of patient’s recovery, the
factor of compatibility (cocog-cocogan) be-
comes the main thing in traditional treat-
ment (Geertz, 1989). Although a healer is
well known for his ability to cure a celebrity,
artist or other important persons; he cannot
cure a poor patient. It is as stated by a herbal
and Javanese healers G (68 years).
Although I have cured thousands or hun-
dred thousands of patients, a patient
might come to me and he did not recover.
However, he was cured after he came to
another healer. It means not all patients
are suitable with the way of my healing.
He also told that not all the patients
with the same type of disease were cured
with the same method of healing. There was
a couple who were both suering severe ill-
ness and they came to have his treatment.
The wife recovered but her husband did
not. This case means that healing deals with
compatibility which means it can be suitab-
le for someone but not for others.
Although a person is not necessarily
compatible with the treatment of traditio-
nal healer, trying to come to him is an eort
made by most patients. Islam, as it is belie-
ved by the majority of Javanese who have
treatment from traditional healer, emphasi-
zes that someone who is sick should look for
either a modern or traditional treatment as
long as it does not deviate from the religion
teaching.
Many traditional treatments are based
on the verses of holy Quran reading and
basmallah. This kind of treatment method
is not considered violating religious teach-
ings because there is a prayer sung in the
name of God. Therefore, the Javanese who
are Muslims are generally more certain to be
treated by him since the prayer is in accor-
dance with the his religion teachings.
DISCUSSION
Health seeking behavior (search patterns
of treatment) (Kleinman, 1980) emphasizes
the search pattern of healing through the
decision-making process which based on
cost-benet analysis. Any pain experienced
by the patient such as severe disease will
be immediately sought. There is an under-
standing that the pain will cause a discom-
fort feeling in the body that aects everyday
life including mindset, eating, drinking and
inability to work.
Once an individual experiencing pain
conditions, he will interpret his health. Alt-
hough he rejects the truth of general discus-
sion about the disease, he cannot deny that
they are explicitly or consciously and un-
consciously inuenced by the narration of
someone who talks about him (Mejer, 2013).
Javanese who have the disease, espe-
cially those who have not recovered even
though they have been handled by doctor,
likely choose traditional treatment. This
means that traditional treatment has been
used as an alternative healing in addition to
modern medical treatment. If we look more
closely about the patient’s recovery through
traditional treatment, almost all healers
state that the patients completely recover.
Recovery here means that patients no lon-
ger feel the symptoms of their disease. Alt-
hough the pain slowly disappears and they
do not recover at once, the patients belie-
ve that they are getting better than before.
Kerthyasa (2013: 30) cites CAM researchers
in many developed countries who nd that
people who frequently use natural medici-
ne, including herbs, acupuncture, massage
have a higher level of health, more rarely
experience chronic and degenerative disea-
ses (heart disease, diabetes, cancer). Their
expenses for treatment are much lower than
people who do not use a natural treatment.
Jurnal Komunitas 6 (2) (2014): 280-293 291
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This nding shows that in terms of costs
and health benets, traditional treatment is
benecial for people. In addition, the hea-
ling process is not complicated and does not
require long line of queue and registration.
The treatment process of traditional hea-
lers is not formal, without registration and
patient card. The ease of treatment process
makes the patients feel comfortable.
There is no denite indicator for the
patient’s recovery from a traditional healer.
Unlike the traditional treatment, modern
medical uses denite indicators of healing
through clinical examination, laboratory
and physical examination done by doctor or
other health workers. The recovery of tradi-
tional treatment is not based on the medical
indicators, but it refers to the psychological
and social recovery. Psychological recovery
refers to the recovery perceived by the pa-
tient himself that he feels healthy and his
condition is getting better. Social recovery
more focuses on public recognition that the
patient has recovered his health and he is
able to return doing his normal activities as
a healthy person.
Although both modern and traditio-
nal medical are able to heal patients but
there is dierence among them. Some tradi-
tional healers mention that the patients’ re-
covery is a medical cure because many tradi-
tional healers ask their patients to check to
the laboratory and they might come back if
they feel they do not completely recover. As
stated by religious healer GN (42 years old):
If the patient was not sure of his recovery,
I would ask him to check into the lab or go
to see a doctor.
One of the benets from traditional
healers that patients cannot nd in doctor is
the advice of life. Healers will give some ad-
vises as if they teach their child. The advice
given includes spiritual advice. Spirituality
is a dimension of health which is generally
derived from religious or supernatural po-
wers (Baum, 2008). The advice given is of-
ten about knowledge of safety to provide an
understanding of how humans live to adjust
the physical, mental and spiritual balance in
order get a better life which is good, fair and
wise so that they are physically and mentally
prosperous, peaceful and happy (Hardjo-
disastro and Hardjodisastro 2010 ). What Ja-
vanese miss nowadays is the practice of safe-
ty knowledge. Therefore, traditional healers
always remind it. Patients feel comfortable,
safe and secure with the traditional healers
because the healing process is relaxing, wit-
hout being limited by time, and there is no
such a rush. Psychotherapy (pcycho thera-
py) (GALANTI, 2008) which is given by tra-
ditional healers is more benecial than ot-
her therapies using: water, herbal medicine,
massage and more.
A sugesti as an important factor in
traditional healing is mentioned to be 50%
contributor to the patient’s recovery pro-
cess. Eort to get recovery through sugesti
given by the healer becomes dominant in
traditional healing. Although modern me-
dicine also recognizes a sugesti from doctor,
the sugesti is dierent with traditional hea-
ling process. Traditional healer motivates
and prays for the patients so that they have a
strong condence to recover. The healer also
gives Javanese spells (Unen-Unen) in order
to make the patients surrender to God so
that their recovery is quickly obtained. The
healer assumes that the patients are actu-
ally able to cure their illness (Supandi and
Susywaty, 2010)), but through the healing
process, power and energy in the patients’
body are assisted by the healer to get their
stronger power. The sugesti given to patients
is important and needs to be done by tra-
ditional healer because when someone is
sick he is weak both spiritually and physi-
cally. The condition of being weak causes
patients lack of condence. When the hea-
ler is giving a sugesti to the patients, he tells
as if the patients’ energy (prana, strength)
is weak and needs to be strengthened. In
the healing process, the healer seems to act
as executioner / angel and tells that the pa-
tients’ energy is taken which causes them
weak. The healer actually says that his po-
sitive energy is able to take the disease in
the patients’ body. Therefore, at the end of
the process of healing the healer often says:
nggih sampun (yes, already, meaning that
292 Atik Triratnawati et al, The Power of Sugesti in Traditional Javanese Healing Treatment
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the disease is already taken). This speech is
believed as magic words that are capable to
reassure and give great hope for patients in
order to end his suering.
Until now, the medical eld still sees
the disease from the physical side. A doctor
rarely admits that the disease is not only due
to physical factors. He often does not believe
that the physical disease aects someone’s
mental which hampers his recovery or even
aggravates his condition. Now, western me-
dical begins not to believe a common view
that a disease is entirely because of its phy-
sics. Physicians begin to learn the concept of
eastern medicine (Ariani and Madjid, 2001).
In contrast, Javanese has already had an un-
derstanding that the body consists of body,
soul and spirit that if all three in an unbalan-
ced state, it will cause disease. This kind of
understanding needs to be maintained and
disseminated so that Javanese generation do
not lost their cultural roots about health be-
cause even the western people now refer to
the eastern science.
The movement of back to nature has
inuenced humans’ life style in the eld of
health. If modern people want to return to
a natural lifestyle and abstain from drug in-
uence which is poisonous, then Javanese
has already had a healthy lifestyle becau-
se they are more familiar with traditional
medicine, the ancestor’s heritage, which
is simple and free of toxins. However, due
to modernity and the inuence of foreign
culture, Javanese and Indonesian precisely
choose modern medical treatment. Western
culture has realized the greatness of Eastern
medicine. Even Eastern medicine in the re-
search of many experts is believed to be ef-
fective in dealing with lifestyle diseases and
fatigue (Haruyama, 2013). Therefore, in the
current global era, the alternative treatment
can be a complement and support which is
crucial in the quest for health (Ariani and
Madjid, 2001).
CONCLUSION
According to Javanese, body consists of phy-
sical body, soul and spirit. The balance bet-
ween the elements of the body will result in
a healthy condition and the imbalances will
result in pain. For Javanese, people who are
sick are failed to be cured by modern medici-
ne. Therefore, the traditional treatment be-
comes an alternative option. The rationality
of choosing traditional treatment is caused
by many factors. The degree of sugesti eect
in the traditional treatment process has gre-
at inuence on patients’ recovery.
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