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When a healing dance begins, the women usually sit around and attent to the fire while singing and clapping. The dancing is uaually dont by the men, although women may sometimes join them. More people begin to join in the dance as the night progresses. The motivation of a healing dance is to pull the sickness out of the ill. But, a healer may not just heal theone who is sick, but heal everyone who attends the dance. After a short interval of singing and dancing, the ritual becomes intense and the num, which is the spiritual energy that the Kung experience bvefore they go into a state of kia. The num is sometimes referred to as the boiling energy inside their bodies. The num is so strong that is overwhelms the healer. It causes them to scream in pain, run around and shake. The num is at its strongest at the healing dance. As is becomes stronger, it becomes hotter. "The num resides in the pit of the stomach and the base of the spine" (41). The kia comes from the intensity of the num. In order to heal, the healer must experience kia. Kia is the state of consciousness that a Kung transforms into after receiving the num. Everyone is born with this power. It is a substance in the stomach and the training of how to use it involves having it boil. When it begins to boil they are able to pull sickness out of the ill. When they go into a state of kia, it is extremely painful. Even though the experience of num is painful, the men of Kung will usually refuse to stop trying to obtain it. They feel that they are men and they must save the ill. Also, they claim that even thought it is painful, the num makes you feel good and happy. Many people refuse to enter kia after their first time because they fear the pain again. When you enter kia, you die. The power is so strong and intense that you die. Although, after they rid the illness, they come back to life.
The singing and dancing is usually intense during the beginning of the ritual.