Panchakarma the Experiment: The Cleanse

Upon reading about the Panchakarma it didn’t seem that difficult a cleanse to execute. I have done cleanses before, namely the Master Cleanse, and I thought I could sail through this one with ease. But, I was wrong. Ghee was my initial choice for my internal and external oleation. My first attempt with the ghee internal oleation was horrific. It made me gag and the smell was more than I could bare, but I persevered. I continued this morning ritual with a ghee oil pull and tongue scraping for the first three days as prescribed.

On the fourth day I discontinued the internal oleation and replaced it with the external oleation. I also began eating the monodiet of kicheree on this day. Even though I was no longer drinking the ghee, but massaging myself with it before showering, the smell was too much! All day I would burp ghee, everything smelled like butter and not in a good way. I felt as though I were made of the stuff! On the fifth day of my cleanse I woke up with a strange but minor red spot on my chest. After my shower it was a huge red streak headed for my heart. It forked off in two directions and my first thought was that I had some strange infection. So I emailed a picture to our amazing Ayurvedic instructors asking if I should be concerned. As I looked at it it didn’t seem to look all that much like an infection so I settled down. It was concluded that this heat induced spot, over the lymph on my left side was Pitta provoked Ama being released via my skin.