Sensual healing with Master Sha

Christ Unity Church’s sanctuary is buzzing on this warm Friday evening. A hundred or so people hold their right hands up high, shaking them like shamans, repeating “light, light, light, light” as a woman stands motionless on the altar. She has pain in her foot, and the man leading the crowd, Dr. Zhi Gang Sha (a.k.a. Master Sha), Chinese physician and spiritual healer, is going to make her pain disappear.

According to Sha, God appeared to him in 2003 and chose him as a divine servant, giving him the power to “transform the consciousness of humanity and all souls in all universes.” His latest book, Soul Wisdom: Practical Soul Treasures to Transform Your Life, is a New York Times best seller. He’s also the subject of a documentary, together with his mentor, Dr. Zhi Chen Guo, called Soul Masters. His teaching is simple: “Heal the soul first. The healing of mind and body will follow.”

I met with Sha for an interview in the lobby of a Rancho Cordova hotel. And I did my homework, viewing Soul Masters the night before and starting his book, Soul Wisdom. Sha was jolly and charismatic, eager to share his stories. “Every system, every organ, every cell has a soul. How to do the soul healing inside the body? Ask the soul to heal itself,” Sha said of his methodology.

Sha peppered his explanations with real-life examples of people he supposedly has cured, from bone fractures to life-threatening diseases like cancer. “In the last five years, I have created more than 700 divine healers and 100 divine writers,” Sha added. “They don’t want anything. They say, ‘Master Sha, it’s God’s flow, take it.’”

One of the ways that Sha “opens people’s heart and soul” is through songs, which he claims were given to him by God. Without a hint of self-consciousness, Sha grabbed the tape recorder and sang into it.

“You like my soul song, huh?” Sha asked, smiling proudly.

As the interview progressed, Sha invited me to be a guest at his annual retreat in Atlanta. He also offered me a job editing his books and Web site, adding, “You support my mission, I support you.” By this time my bullshit meter was going off, but I was determined to keep an open mind. So when Sha offered to heal my perpetually stiff neck, I accepted.

Standing over me, Sha recited: “A surgeon uses the knife to do operation, which is a medical service. I am M.D. from China, I do not offer medical service. Now, I offer spiritual service. I offer divine soul operation, which means I move my fingers like this. Divine light will open the area, including bones. Divine soul operation clears energy blockages. Then I will offer divine soul transplant in your neck.”

Sha chanted and gestured near my neck, then instructed me to tap my neck while repeating, “Divine the soul instruments to heal and rejuvenate my neck.” I closed my eyes and obliged. When the transplant was complete, Sha asked me how I felt. I rotated my neck. It crackled, still a bit stiff. But placed on the spot, I copped out. “I feel good. Feels like energy is moving and releasing,” I replied.

Sha sat back, pleased. Lowering his voice, he reiterated his earlier invitations. On my way out, he took my palm and studied it.

“This line is very powerful,” he said, pointing excitedly. “I never see this in woman. Let me ask God what it means.” He closed his eyes and asked aloud, “God, Master Palm Reader, what does this line mean?” He nodded, as if listening, and proclaimed, “Ah, it means. … You. Can make. Things. Happen!”