In Reiki tradition its meditation and attuning techniques are believed to have originated from the Lotus Sutra of the Lord Buddha himself, though it is declared by the practitioners that it has no ideological or event religious dogma with their method. During my involvement, as practitioner, with one of Reiki meditation group and others engagements with others Javanese spiritual movements including Javanese inner power traditions and martial arts, triggering with my intellectual interest on historical studies, I found a fascinating similar facts of techniques and symptoms in Reiki and some of the schools or movements.

Historically and culturally speaking, since late 1990's “Modern” Reiki and Meditation techniques and practices also impacts on the Indonesian people. My motivation for such a study stems from observations and experiences in that region while I resided there at an earlier period. The initial aim was to record the motivations, backgrounds and ideas of dukun and their clients in and around the city of Yogyakarta, in order to arrive at a tentative conclusion related to the dukun role in contemporary Javanese society. The study should be viewed as an exercise in which I tried to assimilate the concepts and teachings on medical anthropology, cultural interpretation and meaning systems, non-western religions and the issues concerned with tradition and modernity in non-western societies from third and fourth year courses. The dukun of Java base their practice on Javanese spiritual and mystical knowledge (ilmu) informed by the body of kebatinan mysticism, which is an essential element of Java’s unique culture and identity. They have played a major role in Indonesian society as curer, priest, magician, sorcerer, sage and basically one that can help alleviate or eliminate both physical and psychological problems. A short definition of the dukun would say that the dukun, or shaman, is an important figure linked with the esoteric world of spirits and mysticism. The study is a sociological approach to the subject of Javanese dukun and their activities. Conducting fieldwork forms an essential part of the Leiden curriculum for Cultural Anthropology, and provides the student insight into the subject in a practical way.

This thesis is the result of a practical fieldwork-training programme that was conducted in the province of Yogyakarta (DIY) in 2003.

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