Ketut Liyer is a renowned healer and fortune teller in Bali. In an interview, he modestly shared his path to becoming a healer after being injured and having a dream telling him to pursue healing. He studied ancient palm leaf manuscripts and learned to heal using plants. While gaining fame from Eat, Pray, Love, he remains humble, treating all visitors equally with kindness. He recounted fondly meeting Elizabeth Gilbert and Julia Roberts but seemed unaffected by their celebrity, focused solely on healing through spiritual practices and his healing gifts.

1. Ketut Liyer: The Real Deal
In an exclusive interview with OZIP, Ketut Liyer revealed his workings as Bali’s most well-
known healer and fortune teller. He appeared unaffected with the fame that his encounter
with Elizabeth Gilbert brought him. Modest and polite, the soft-spoken Ketut Liyer in
person is a charming and calming presence. Meet the real deal behind the famed Eat,
Pray, Love character.
OZIP‟s meeting with the healer character from Elizabeth Gilbert‟s best selling
memoir seemed destined. At the same time when OZIP has scheduled a visit to his house, he
was available and was having none of his usual high number of patients. Spanish tourists who
came at the same day reached Ketut‟s house only after we have finished our interviews. Our
driver had previously told us that this man was not easiest person to meet.
Many foreign tourists and local people usually line up in queue to consult him.
Publicity about him, though, is rare and few in-between. Ketut Liyer does not seek them. He
is content to just help people with their problems.
His youngest son, I Nyoman Larta, who also likes to paint like his father, told OZIP
Ketut‟s secret. “He has a peace of mind. He is happy doing what he does now, and that is
why he can look so much younger than he is.”
Ketut Liyer called himself “Kakek” (grandfather) and often apologised for being an
aged person. In the middle of his stories he sometimes said apologetically, “Kakek often
jump time in my stories… Kakek is old and have forgotten a lot…”
Ketut began his story the same way he did it in the book “Eat, Pray, Love.”
“When Kakek was young, my father and grandfather always advised me to be a
healer…This house has seen nine generations of healer, and I am the ninth generation,” he
started.
“My grandfather told me, „If you did not follow the path of a healer, it would not be
good.‟ Kakek did not believe it, because at the time I had already started learning to paint.
Kakek knew at the time that it is difficult to be a healer and it was also very hard to make
money as a healer. In my heart and in my mind, I was thinking that it is better to be a painter.
Kakek saw that many of my painter friends made a lot of money.”
But as fate would have it, Ketut was led to that healer path anyhow.
“At the time, I was very happy because I got an order to create a painting from a
foreigner. I painted at midnight, and I used an oil lamp. There was no electricity at that time. I
pumped the oil lamp when it was dimming, and it went bust. The oil littered suddenly, I had
fire on my arms, and I got burnt. I went to the doctor, he can only cure 25 per cent of my
wounds.
“Maybe I was lucky. Because one night, I went to sleep and had a dream. I met the
spirit of my grandfather and my grandmother. They advised me to be a healer. They also said
to me that I can cure my burnt wounds with tumeric and sandalwood. When I woke up, I still

2. had not believe in it. I thought dreams can be right, it can also be wrong. Because the pain
persisted in my arms, I decided to try it one day. Then I tried to made it, and put it on. Before,
I was in great pain, and the wound was large. When I put that on, just two hours after, I
immediately felt less, much less pain. Five days later, my wounds were totally healed. “
Since then, Ketut Liyer‟s dedication in this path was unquestionable and his
commitment was cemented. “I finally believe in it and decided to become a healer. I learnt
how to read palm leaves manuscripts that my grandfathers have inherited for me. I studied
very, very hard. I studied by myself, I read all the palm leaf manuscripts, this one is called
Usada Bali….and all the explanations about illnesses, healing methods and medicine are in
that palm leaves manuscripts.”
Ketut Liyer has since tried to get to know people‟s problems and helped to solve
them. “Not long after, I can already heal people. Some illnesses originate from the nature,
you can heal that through plants and vegetations. Some illnesses came from inside the house,
from the people around the house. You wake up in the morning, you have a fight. When you
go back home at the end of the night, you fight again. I can heal the house by creating a
special room from palm leaves. That room can offset the bad influences from black magic.
Those are the stories that had been passed on to me from my grandfathers and grandmothers.
Those stories are also written in these palm leaves. Each palm leaf has a god and is 900 years
old. That is what I was told. I don‟t know whether it‟s true or not. For example, this palm leaf
explains that if someone‟s eye pupils are so red, it usually means the illnesses come from
heat. It can mean that he is having a head ache or a stomach ache. The medication is from a
certain leaf.
Healing people is not Ketut Liyer‟s only talent and skill. Beside being known as
“Medicine Man” in Bali, he can also read face and palm.
“I also learnt fortune telling from books…Sometimes I still read from books…my
father can also do that, but he can only do that in Balinese language. I do fortune telling by
looking from someone‟s ear, eyes, nose, chin, cheek, and forehead, and then I read the palm.
After that I will see your back, and then your legs. Please forgive me if I said something
wrong…I only say according to the book… I have inherited many, many books….If I see
bad, I will say bad…If I see good, I will say good…”
He recalled his meeting with Elizabeth Gilbert fondly, but one has a feeling that he
would treat the memories of any of his visitors with equal fondness. He does not treat
someone special just because of status. He treats anyone with equal politeness.
“Liz (Elizabeth Gilbert) also came to me to do palm reading. At the time, she was
very, very sad. Her ex husband took so much of her money. I said to her, if someone’s good
and has good luck, the money will come, even more than what is taken from that person.
He does not brag at all about speaking and meeting with big Hollywood star, Julia
Roberts, and does not even mention her, until he was asked. He sounded unaffected with that
name and was even seemed indifferent to her big name.
“Julia Roberts also came here during the film shooting…But I was sick then. I stayed
at the back. He met me here. She said to me that she is very happy to meet me. I just said, me
too. I forgot what I said to her after that…I was quite sick at that time. She did not ask me for

3. a palm reading. I came to see the shooting, but I just saw it briefly. She didn‟t come all the
way to the backyard garden, she just came to the house‟s temple to do the shooting,” he said.
I Nyoman Larta explained that Ketut Liyer‟s rise to fame has provided his family and
his neighbourhood with enough compensation and fund to improve the street conditions.
“Kakek brought so much blessing for the family, and also through Liz, he had many more
visitors since,” said Larta, who was born in 1952.
But just like his response to Julia Roberts question seemed to imply, he is a simple
man, no-frills human being with one single focus and oblivious to the worldly matters.
Take a look at how Larta describes his father‟s daily routine other than receiving
guests to heal. “He wakes up and meditates. He meditates again before he goes to sleep. That
is pretty much what he does. “