What is slap therapy? Critics of the self-sustaining philosophy say it has no scientific basis
A therapist has been jailed for murdering a 71-year-old woman after she stopped taking her insulin in the hope her slap therapy would “cure me completely”.
Xiao Hongchi, 61, has been described as “Master Xiao” in his training program which involves paida lajin therapy, where patients are slapped, or slapped, repeatedly.
After a trial at Winchester Crown Court, the 61-year-old was convicted of the manslaughter of Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, who died after attending a party at Cleeve House in Seend, Wiltshire, in October. 2016.
He was extradited to Australia, where he was previously prosecuted for the death of a six-year-old boy who also died after his parents withdrew his insulin medication after attending the defendant’s workshop in Sydney.
On Friday, Xiao, from Cloudbreak, California, US, was sentenced to 10 years in prison at the same court.
Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, was attending an event to promote Paida Lajin in Wiltshire in 2016 when she died (PA Media)
The trial heard Xiao said “well done” to Mrs Carr-Gomm, of Lewes, East Sussex, after she told the group she had stopped taking her insulin at the retreat for a week. Prosecutors said Xiao failed to seek medical attention for her as she became seriously ill.
The chef at the residence, Teresa Hayes, told jurors she heard “slaps, screams, screams and painful scream-like sounds” when she passed Mrs Carr-Gomm’s bedroom in the hours before she died on October 20. “The sound of slapping was similar to the slapping of Paida who participated all the time they were there,” he said.
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Paida lajin is described as a self-healing philosophy that involves slapping or slapping oneself repeatedly in the belief that it removes toxins from the blood.
Xiao Hongchi was extradited to Australia, where he was previously prosecuted for the death of a six-year-old boy (PA Media)
The treatment has traditional Chinese roots, although critics say it has no scientific basis. Paida involves patting (“pai” in Chinese) and stroking (“da”) one’s skin, while lajin involves taking various positions to stretch one’s muscles.
A video of one of Xiao’s workshops, filmed in Malaysia, shows people taking part in the treatment, slapping different parts of their body, especially around the head, until their skin turns red or starts to look bruised.
Dozens of participants hit themselves with enough force that the sound is easily heard over the clip’s audio. Others may be seen doing various parts while lying on tables or on the floor.
Others, on the other hand, were taken to the stage when Xiao addressed the room to be slapped by others present at the meeting.
Xiao is a Chinese-American who runs the California-based Pailala Institute and has led workshops around the world.
Xiao is a Chinese-American who runs the Pailala Institute in California and has led workshops around the world (Hongchi Xiao/Facebook)
The Pailala Institute is a non-profit organization run by a group of unpaid volunteers to promote and support the livelihood practice of Paida Lajin, led by Xiao, according to its website.
“Our mission is to transform our world into a healthy place, by enabling everyone to awaken our innate, self-healing power, to reduce medical costs and the possible consequences associated with it,” he adds.
Xiao has also written books about the practice, including pictures showing people how to heal. His first book, The World of Medicine: The Paida Lajin Self-Healing Methodpublished in 2009, it made Xiao famous and his workshops were popular all over China in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. He has had clinics in India, US, Germany.
However, Xiao has been heavily criticized by experts who have disputed his claims that paida lajin can cure many diseases including old age, body pain, Alzheimer’s, stroke, paralysis, kidney failure and even cancer and autism.
Paida and lajin are linked to a concept in traditional Chinese medicine known as “sha”, which is the belief that blood can be “poisoned” and therefore needs to be expelled from the body.
Medical advocates believe that paida and lajin can improve blood circulation and thus release “sha”. According to Mr. Xiao’s teaching, if “sha” is seen this is an indication of “hidden diseases”.
Hongchi Xiao appears at Winchester Crown Court (PA Wire)
However, critics say that slapping therapy is not limited to broken blood vessels and damaged skin.
Mr Xiao has repeatedly referred to the “slap therapy” in interviews and videos posted online.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, in a 2014 radio interview with Australian broadcaster ABC he insisted he was not a “professional”. “I’m not a doctor, I’m not a therapist. I’m just teaching you how. You learn to do it yourself,” he said.
The court heard that, on the day before her death, some participants described Mrs Carr-Gomm’s condition as a “healing crisis” – a term used by the defendant as the Paida Lajin process came into effect.
Duncan Atkinson KC, prosecuting, told the judge that Xiao had written a book about Paida Lajin in which he said “doctors are being abused by drug manufacturers to act as salesmen for their drugs”.
In the book My Life, I Manage! In Dao Paida and Lajin Self-Healing he says that the practice should be “safer and more reliable than existing medical procedures … without the risk of poisoning or side effects” and that “it should work for almost all diseases”.
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