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Published South Florida Sun-Sentinel, April 22, 2001. |
HAVANA – Since the Soviet block crumbled in 1989, Cubans have increasingly turned to innovative alternative treatments such as low-cost herbal remedies and acupunture to compensate for critical shortages in mainstream medicines. But Lino Tomesen‘s tiny Central Havana clinic is perhaps the must unortodox. Tomasen says he uses astral energychaneneled from African and Chinese spirits—as wel as a Franciscan monk – to cure all manner of aches and pains. He simply waves his hands over a patient or touches a few pressure points and the pain is gone. “We live in the third dimmension, but there are many worlds beyond that,” Tomasen explain quite earnestly while chewing on a cigar and rubbing his rotund belly like a Buddha. “I operate in the fourth dimension. There is no hypnosis and no suggestion. I’m not about rituals. This ai the real thing. It’s healing from the inside out. I can cure anything from a blister on your foot to cancer, AIDS, hepatitis B and impotence.” Don’t believe him? Look al the long line that starts daily outside his house about 9 a.m. and usually snakes the block by noon. “That’s the barometer”, Tomasen says. Tomasen, 39, discovered his misterious gift for healing at the age of 7, when he banished a friend’s headache with the flowrish on his hand. Gradually, he says, he discovered other powers: He could open a rosebud by simply concentrating on it or cool a glass of boiling water. “I was incredulous,”said Tomasen’s mother, Gladys Vera Vidal, 74. I would take him to the doctor and ask , “What’s wrong with this boy?”. But Vera slowly grew to accept her child’s unusual behavior and Tomasen embraced his curing powers. In 1985, according to a University of Havana diploma hanging on his living room wall, Tomasen graduated from medical school. However, he says he was fired from the Salvador Allende Hospital in 1991 after a two-year stint, accused of practicing witchcraft and casting spells. He has been healing people in his his home ever since. Must people find their way to Dr. Lino, as he is known, referred by a friend or neighbor. One patient, Aida Almeida Canoso, first heard about him two years ago from her husband’s friend. Since then she has brought seven family members to see him. She says Tomasen made a large boil behind her husband’s knee disappear, uncrossed one of her granddauther’s eyes, and straightened her other granddauther’s foot , which was slightly turned in. But most amazing, she says, is the relief he has brought from chronic back pain caused by a curvature in her spine. “When my granddauther was born I could barely lift her from her crib. Now she’s 4 years old and I can carry her down the street. I can walk all of Havana,” Almeida, 53, says: “I’ve seen dozens of orthopedics. Instead of getting betther I got worse. When I leave here my pain is always relieved.”. Tomasen charges 20 pesos ($1) a session to Cubans and $20 for foreigners. Almeida said she stopped coming to Tomasen’s clinic for a while because she couldn’t afford the 20 pesos. But he admonished her. “He said, 'Don’t disappear on me if you don’t have the money,'”Almeida says. “I’ve been here three times without paying. Today for example, he didn’t charge me”. Another patient, Argelio Sarmiento, a retired phisics proffesor at the University of Havana, calls himself a “man of science” who initially was skeptical of Tomasen’s reputation. He became a believer when Tomasen cured arthritic pain in his neck. Now he makes frecuent follow-up visites to fortify his energy. Sarmiento, 67, points to his improved workout routine as proof of the doctor’s powers. “Before, I could only do 10 pushups,” Sarmiento said. “Now I do 50. Instead of getting older, I’m getting younger.” Tomasen’s clinic is about the size of a walk-in closet.It has two chairs and several tables with fetishes from Africa, India and the Caribbean. One wall is lined with Tomasen’s suspicious-looking healing concoctions: a polished black rock in a bowl of honey, a jar of fermenting roots and leaves and a large turtle in a tub of water, which he boils and gives to children to help build antibodies. A consulyation can take anywhere from two to 20 minutes and often consistsof just a quick wave of his hands. In fact, patients don’t even have to be present. Tomasen says he can heal long-distance by looking at a photo of the afflicted person. Tomasen estimates that about 2 percent of people who see him are beyond help. Either their disease is too advanced or there is too much “interference” for his energy to reach them. He says he plans to heal people until he reaches the ripe age of 108—when he predicys will die. Tomasen has four children, and he suspects the youngest, 3 –year-old Arisnei, may have inherited his gift. For now, however, the little girl is too busy watching Walt Disney cartoons on the fancy, big-screen TV in Tomasen’s living room to worry about her mystic legacy. Vanessa Bauza can be reached at vbauza@sun-sentinel.com Copyright © 2001, South Florida Sun-Sentinel |
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