The Migun Diaries: One

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

1

Session One: Invasion of the body snatchers
We went to the Migun place today. We’d heard so many great things from regular people who just kept gushing about the massage bed that we decided to check it out for real. So we headed down Hendersonville Road to the Forest Center North shopping center and found an otherworldly spot.

The Migun place sits tucked inside the front of the unassuming strip shopping center just past the Ingle’s shopping center on H’ville Road, on the same side of the road. With the door open, we walked in. A friendly woman behind a desk asked us to sign our names in a little notebook, then informed us that orientation would start on the half hour. We sat down.

Right off the bat, we saw one woman we knew – a solid massage therapist who works at Sensibilities. That’s instant cred right there, we figured. If she’s coming here to use the massage bed, it must be good, we thought. As we waited, we also learned that another massage therapist named “Freedom” was planning to use the bed for the first time.

The room was full, with about eight people waiting to get on a bed. Workers there said that, on the day we came, they had seen 200 people by 3 p.m. The people waiting for a bed went on and on about the health benefits they’d experienced and simply gushed about how much they loved the beds and how much we’d love them.

On the half hour, a leggy woman who runs the place took the group of five of us who had never used the Migun to the back of the room for an orientation video. The video was actually a local Colorado television station’s take on the Migun. It was a Fox affiliate, and they did an OK job on the story. But we really didn’t pay attention, because we couldn’t take our eyes off the 21 people in the room getting worked by the beds.

The room was half-lit, and ethereal Enya-esque music softly filled the room. We could see people being moved up and down by the bed. At least one guy was actually snoring and had to be woken up after his 30-minutes on the bed was up.

But back to orientation – we got the whole spiel, which took about 20 to 30 minutes. The beds were invented in Korea in 1988 and came to the U.S. in 1998. The beds use principals of accupressure, accupuncture, massage therapy, and some other therapy that boosts the body’s circulation. The beds can heat up to 140 degrees, but were set on 120 degrees. The bed’s heat lamps are covered with jade covers, and the light from the round protrusions is far-infrared light, good for deep heating. People claim all kinds of healing properties from the beds, which have been approved by the FDA as a class of machine on par with the CAT scan and the X-ray. Some people experience reactions from the bed, from tingling to puking. The bed heats you up the same as running for several miles.

That was about it for the orientation. It was not a sales pitch, though the folks working at the Migun place are there to sell the $3,500 beds. It was technical in nature. There was no pressure. And they were clear that anyone can use the beds free for life if they so please.

Finally we hit the beds. We were instructed to bring our own towels the next time we came – two – but were given two to use. The towels soak up sweat and cover two other heat-and-light emitting pads that you can move wherever you need to.

The bed’s massaging nubs move up and down your spine and the back of your neck. The also hit your lower back, tailbone and calves. The bed moves in such a way that at times, it stretches and holds you in positions to work you out.

We found the first session very relaxing. Right after, we didn’t think we got much of a workout, but an hour or two later, we couldn’t stop yawning and felt as though we’d been worked over by Sven the Swedish Massage God. We slept extremely well and vowed to come back.