*****Article taken from Body Play and Modern Primitives Quarterly, Vol.2, No.1
		These are the words used by a Tamil Hindu man in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to describe the indescribable sensation of being pierced by up to 100 four-foot long steel spears held high in an arched framework like the tail feathers of a peacock - then dancing oneself into a state of ecstasy. The practice is known as "TAKING KAVADI" which means to ritually bear a shoulder pole or other physical burden (like a small altar or pot filled with milk), often with pierced tongue, cheeks or torso which supports the curved arches of the KAVADI frame. For hundreds of years, perhaps even thousands, this form of intense physical ritual has been used by Hindus for spiritually oriented transformations: healing, vision questing, altered states of consciousness. It is NOT SEEN by its devotees as "mutilation" or "mortification of the flesh" (prejudicial terms applicable only in Judeo-Christian culture). Rather, "to take Kavadi" is a gift to give and a gift to receive high communication with the most Divine. In Tamil Hindu culture, Kavadi is most frequently taken on the February holy day of Thaipusam. In Hindu mythology, Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati brought forth two offspring: GANESHA, the elephant headed God and protector of things good, and MURUGAN, a beautiful child God who rides on a peacock holding a bunch of spears (VEL in Tamil). Murugan is a patron saint to the Tamils, so very often the KAVADI rite is dedicated to Murugan and the cheering crowds chant "Vel, Vel, Vel" for Murugan’s spears that pierce the cheeks, tongue and torso of the celebrants. In the book TRANCES (Wavell, Butt & Epton, E.P. Dutton Co., New York, 1967) those who have taken KAVADI are asked by Stewart Wavell: "Why did you carry the kavadi? Each one told me a story of some illness or misfortune in the family during the past year. Husbands prayed…for recovery of their wives, mothers prayed for their children, and each gave the promise that if illness was cured, the path of the kavadi to the great god would be made." "Was it worth it?, I asked them when the ordeal in the sun was long since over. And one old man replied, ’Three time I have taken the road to the Batu caves (KAVADI bearing route in Kuala Lumpur) and each time I walked with God’. A young girl replied, ‘There is no pain, only gratitude and love, and afterwards you feel so peaceful’. A young student said, ‘When I think of that journey all I remember is flames around me, cool flames that did not burn; and the needles in my body did not seem like real needles at all - they were like needles without points, like needles of eternity.’" In another reference, ETHOS (Society for Psychological Anthropology, Winter 1984) Colleen Ward writes about the Thaipusam Kavadi Bearers’ ritual trances and altered states of consciousness like this: "Many devotees report sensations of weightlessness, feelings of upward movement, pure consciousness, or that they ‘were not existing’. Detached from the external environment, feelings of depersonalization or cosmic unity may also occur. Peculiar kinesthetic sensations are characteristic, especially since most devotees report little or no pain during piercing. Other characteristics of dissociation include a sense of timelessness, a sense of the ineffable and feelings of rejuvenation."