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Buried alive? In plant matter? Yes!

By Patricia Harris, The Boston Globe

Published March 19th, 2006

I was never a big fan of spa treatments -- until a couple of friends persuaded me to join them in being buried up to our necks in silage.

Or, more accurately, in a big vat of cedar fibers and rice bran spiked with plant enzymes.

Located in the Sonoma County, Calif., town of Freestone, Osmosis spa claims to be the only place in the United States to offer the ''Cedar Enzyme Bath," a treatment that horticulturalist-turned-spa-guru Michael Stusser brought back from Japan about 20 years ago.

We sipped a mild ''enzyme" tea in an anteroom as an attendant prepared our steaming brown vat. Once we climbed in, she covered us. The actively fermenting mixture generates a lot of heat, making it a little like a cross between a sauna and a mudbath. It felt much like being buried on the beach, except that the warm mulch was a big improvement over clammy sand.

''When you feel like you're cooked, just get out," Stusser had told us, noting that 10 to 20 minutes is plenty. As my body heated up, I began to feel my pulse throbbing in my fingers and toes -- enough for me. The heat therapy is purported to aid digestion, improve circulation, and loosen joints. All I know is that it felt good.

As soon as I brushed off and showered, I lay back for an aromatherapy facial with a veritable medicine chest of herb- and flower-infused creams, lotions, and emollients before rejoining my friends in the Zen meditation garden.

We sat. Quietly. We glowed.