01 The Unbreakable Cult | Hands on

So it's 2006 and a guy called Brendan Jones is lying on a massage table.

OK, not where I thought we would start, but all right.

Incense is burning.

Curtains are drawn.

OK, I can picture it.

But this is not an ordinary massage.

I was a bit freaked out when I went to see her the first experience, OK, because, um...

I hadn't done a hands-on healing before.

Brendan's come to an alternative healer in Torella in Sydney's south.

Brendan works as a tiler, so every day he's bending, lifting.

This healer is working on him with heat packs.

She's, like, kneading his shoulders.

But something keeps punctuating

the air.

Um, she burped the whole time.

Burping?

Burping, that's right.

And it's not because, you know, she's been drinking lemonade or anything.

Brendan doesn't realize it immediately, but this is part of the treatment.

This is part of what he's ostensibly paid for.

Yeah, that's right.

She's burping to purge his bad energy.

And the burping gets stronger.

I thought she was going to vomit on me at one stage.

It was so intense.