My name is Sunil Munot and I live and work in Kolkata. What began as a personal search for better health became a long study of how people kept themselves well before modern medicine existed — and of the traditions that are still practised quietly in villages, monasteries and homes across India and far beyond it.
I am not a doctor and I do not run a clinic. What I have is three decades of reading, correspondence, travel and personal practice, and a large collection of material that would otherwise be scattered. This site is where I keep it.
Ancient Indian thought holds that everything in creation — the human body included — is made of five great elements: earth, water, fire, air and space. Each is present in different proportion, and each is connected to the others.
The idea I have found most useful is simple: when the five are in balance we stay well, and when one falls out of balance we do not. Recovery, then, is less about attacking a symptom and more about restoring the balance. Every subject on this site sits under one of those five headings.
The practices gathered here are not new and are not mine. Traditional self-healing methods appear across cultures with no contact between them — in Egyptian, Tibetan, Greek and Roman records, among indigenous peoples of Mexico and the Arctic, and throughout the Indian tradition, where the practice is called Shivambu, the water of Shiva.
The Bible has its own version of the thought: “Drink waters out of thine own cistern.”
I record these traditions because they are part of human history and because they interest me. Recording a tradition is not the same as prescribing it.
Everything on this site is a personal account and a record of traditional practice. It is shared for information and reflection. It is not medical advice, not a diagnosis, and not a treatment for any disease.
If you are unwell — and particularly if you have a serious illness such as cancer, diabetes or heart disease — please stay under the care of a qualified doctor. Nothing here should replace that care or delay it. Talk to your physician before changing anything about how you eat, fast or treat yourself.
Practitioners and researchers have met periodically since the first gathering in India.