"Once, I was very sick and almost died. The entire village held a large ceremony for purification at three temples to gather the Gods and Goddesses. This brought me the energy from the Divine.

I recovered miraculously and discovered I had the power bestowed upon me to heal others. When I am about to perform a healing, I will get a sign from God to do it, then I go completely deaf and blind. At that moment, I go into a trance and bring the sick people messages from God as I am performing the healing. Only the people who seek the medicine through me will understand my words.

Take heart and understand that, with God, all things are possible. Express love and gratitude in your life. We were born to love and respect each other. Be diligent with your spiritual practices and be united with your family and greater community. "

Ketut Rawi

I was staying in a small Balinese village up in the mountains to the north of Bali. My assistant had arranged for a trance-healer to meet us next to shrine in the rice fields so I could photograph her. But on that particular morning, dark rain clouds had quickly gathered and completely blocked the sun. There wasn't any light breaking through the dense cloud cover that had formed.

The road that led to the shrine was narrow and muddy from a rain shower the previous day. Irrigation canals bordered the already slippery road, making it especially dangerous for driving. My assistant begged me not to go up there. It was no use, he said, there wouldn't be any direct sun that day. But I had a different feeling about it. Somehow I felt aligned with the work I was doing there and knew it would all work out fine.

Since my equipment was so large, we needed the car to get it up to the shrine. Any additional weight made the car more difficult to navigate. Given the conditions, my group decided to follow behind the car on foot up to the shrine where the trance-healer waited.

When we got there, the sky was still very dark and it looked like it might rain any minute. However, I still had a good feeling about this shoot. I got my camera out and began to mount it on the tripod. As soon as I finished tightening the screw that held the camera to the tripod, the sun broke through and shone on my subject for the ten minutes or so it took me to shoot this piece. The surrounding hills were still covered in shadow. As soon as I knew I had the image I wanted on film, the light disappeared and it began to pour. The deluge was so intense it forced us to run for cover.