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    Indonesian train track 'shock therapy'

    Villagers in Indonesia have resorted to lying on train tracks to treat illnesses using electrical currents that run through the lines.

    Poverty and desperation has led natives of the Rawa Buaya village, near Indonesian capital Jakarta, to flock to train tracks in the belief that electrical streams will cure their ailments. Many believe an urban myth in the area that a paralysed Chinese man was cured on a train line while trying to commit suicide.

    It is thought that this railway therapy can increase the vitality of the body and help cure diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, rheumatism, gout, obesity and high cholesterol.

     
    Groups of people gather daily at the tracks near the village, although numbers have dwindled since a sign was erected by police warning that lying on train line can result in three months in jail or a fine of £1,100. Many still return for ‘shock therapy’ as they cannot afford medical treatment or pharmaceuticals locally.

    Villagers visibly shake as the current flows through their bodies, with little or no evidence suggesting that it is medically beneficial. No-one has died from the practice, although those taking part risk their lives on the busy rail line every day.

     

    102 comments

    • Sandpot  •  9 months ago
      Well, there you go. A Third World State. But the rich over there are mega rich and they do nothing to help the poor.
    • anon  •  9 months ago
      Id like to know how the paralysed man got to the train tracks in the first place ?
    • David  •  9 months ago
      British Rail no longer exist. The current in those rails would not be felt as it is a low voltage to tell the signal panel which section the train is sat in. Fools.
    • Gonzo the muppet  •  9 months ago
      I had a shock on the railway today, train turned up on time and bigger shock, there was a spare seat.
    • BESITOS  •  9 months ago
      The Indonesian people are very intelligent. Everybody knows that electric vibrations help relieve many illness especially muscles pains. Why should be different from train electric power from these entire sophisticate and very expense equipments and device that many companies like Argos sale such as electric machines to relieve the muscles pain.

      Regarding to travel Lourdes for healing yes many people are benefit from many miracles because they have faith and for people that never experience miracles is because have very little faith of lack of, or may be they are spiritual blind.

      Think these guys behind this entire jumbo mambo that you maybe think are scientific explanation and many medics are recommending many treatments base in recollections of people experiences. It is easier that sit a laboratory for ages to find out if that one medicine could be a cure.
    • Mark  •  9 months ago
      On any traction system there will be a certain amount of stray current, which is usually picked up by drainage bonds, but will find its way into any buried structure. maybe the tracks are picking up stray current
    • fitri  •  9 months ago
      I am indonesian and come from middle class probably. I am sure, the train officers have warned and forbidden them doing that. They do it maybe because of the situation or no correct information or maybe think that they will be fine or something else, I am not sure, probably because of a lot of reasons....
    • Poirot  •  9 months ago
      That's one way the NHS in the UK can cut its waiting list. But they have to make sure they lie down with their necks or heads on the rail, otherwise it will be counter-productive. Neckwork Rail can no doubt cooperate.
    • Poirot  •  9 months ago
      That's one way the NHS in the UK can cut its waiting list. But they have to make sure they lie down with their necks or heads on the rail, otherwise it will be counter-productive. Neckwork Rail can no doubt cooperate.
    • Eternity of Sadness  •  9 months ago
      Those people are complete idiots.... obviously a train passing by while laying on the train tracks wont heal your illness! imagine if another train came the other way? SPLAT! silly people... and they're stupid myth belifs.
    • Reinhard Heydrich  •  9 months ago
      Railway sleepers.
    • amanda T  •  9 months ago
      I operate my own railway services company here in UK and to be honest publishing this story is fool hardy. We get enough suicides already on the line costing millions and and delaying passengers for hours. Now this is put online. The internet is a powerful tool and the media dont seem to think about the damage and ruined lives they can cause. Please dont encourage people to do this. there are a lot of mugs out there that are easily influenced.
      • Reinhard Heydrich 9 months ago
        I have always found it interesting whenever there is a traffic or train accident that there is more concern for delayed passengers than those who were injured or killed. It is this type of attitude, selfishness, that is the cause of all the suffering in the world.
      • Reinhard Heydrich 9 months ago
        Rail travel was a lot cheaper in the seventies. I could get on at Westbury Wiltshire for Exeter and the old chap in the ticket office could see i had been working, covered in oil and arm in plaster, was so kind he let me ride for free.
    • Paris  •  9 months ago
      a coming train would solve their problems once and for all....
    • Duncan-UK  •  9 months ago
      So what's the difference? Going private will cost you an arm and a leg too!
    • FiVibeDotCom  •  9 months ago
      I quote 'Dr. Becker first used silver in 1971. His experiments at this time focused on proving that minute amounts of electrical current could dedifferentiate cells and stimulate limb regeneration in rats' - educate yourselves.

      If you think that our current medical system, one that is financed by the Pharma' Giants (even the universities and thus what we are taught and what we research), knows all and is telling us all then think again. Do your reseacrh people. No smoke without fire
    • Sandpot  •  9 months ago
      Yes, if you are dead, then you are not ill anymore. Simple,innit.
    • Sue  •  9 months ago
      A larger proportion of Indonesians are very poor and will resort to anything that may help and which is free. I used to take the train from Solo, Bandung, Jakarta. It used to take many hours - probably around 10 or more to get to Jakarta as the train rarely went abouve 40pmh. It was lovely seeing the old step farming in the tripical climate and the train passed over large viaducts which I was always grateful for when we were over. Monkeys used to line the tracks and even in 1st class I sat next to people with no shoes but with a clean vest. It's been 10 years or more since I regularly visited this island but the rich are rich and the poor are generally desperate and in poor health. Polution has merely been transferred from the west to the east and canals stink and traffic moves at a snails pace if you are lucky.Although the Dutch built rather good canals they are never used. They could operated a boat bus service if they cleaned them up and lowever the awful traffic pollution but as it would be for the poor they never do it. The country was bled by former governments and now has the muslim extremists who really do not like the Chinese Indians there. The Chinese Indians create jobs and wealth so they are the first who are targetted in any attacks so most rich people save their money outside Indonesia. Politics is done in great colour when the red or other parties followers take to the streets to on anything that moves. Many are killed during the political rally "holidays" and they have no idea who they are supporting.
      Yes many are poor and not educated who lie on train lines rather than a bed in the NHS but at least they work for a living. Here we educate people not to work.
      • sweety 9 months ago
        I agree with you.at least people strive to work inorder to earn for a living and they don't rely with the government.unlike english people always moan when they encounter such difficulties in life.
    • A Yahoo! User  •  9 months ago
      The craziest thing is this wont work as they only have steam trains over there.
      • The Marshian 9 months ago
        Did you read the story, or look at the photograph? P.i.l.l.o.c.k.
      • A Yahoo! User 9 months ago
        Heard of irony, @#$%.
      • A Yahoo! User 9 months ago
        Yes, I did, you humourless T.o.s.s.e.r.
    • A Yahoo! User  •  9 months ago
      Shocking....
    • Geoff S  •  9 months ago
      This will cure there illness by killing them.