--- title: Snakes on a Face | TIME description: A spa treatment in Israel involves a writhing braid of live snakes. Try to relax canonical: https://time.com/video/GtqAZ44w/ og:title: Snakes on a Face og:description: A spa treatment in Israel involves a writhing braid of live snakes. Try to relax og:url: https://time.com/video/GtqAZ44w/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/GtqAZ44w/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Snakes on a Face twitter:description: A spa treatment in Israel involves a writhing braid of live snakes. Try to relax twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/GtqAZ44w/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Snakes on a Face > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Snakes on a Face [Watch (HLS stream): Snakes on a Face](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GtqAZ44w.m3u8) (2:54)  _Published 2008-09-25. A spa treatment in Israel involves a writhing braid of live snakes. Try to relax_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:01 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [7 At-Home Drugstore Spa Treatments](/video/QNxzFLvv/) ### 7 At-Home Drugstore Spa Treatments [The Internet Loves Watching This Police Officer Unsuccessfully Try to Catch a Snake](/video/aTo4N6hk/) ### The Internet Loves Watching This Police Officer Unsuccessfully Try to Catch a Snake [WATCH: Snake Found in Starbucks Toilet](/video/G3JDHpjs/) ### WATCH: Snake Found in Starbucks Toilet --- ## Transcript -[ Foreign Language ] -[ Foreign Language ] >> Traditionally, snakes got a bad rap in the Holy Land. Just ask Eve. But for Ada Barak snakes have therapeutic value. -[ Foreign Language ] >> She runs a roadside attraction for tourists in Israel, an exhibit of carnivorous plants. -[ Foreign Language ] >> A lot of people are coming to visit the carnivorous plants and I saw that people like the touch of snakes. The snakes are getting into all sorts of places in their clothes. I told myself, " Why don't have a full treatment with snakes ?" -[ Foreign Language ] >> These wriggling serpents have given her a lucrative side gig offering bus loads of tourists another curious and curative option. -[ Foreign Language ] -[ Foreign Language ] -[ Foreign Language ] >> I step into the massage room and see the snakes big and small, dusty orange, checkered, yellow, striped, and black. They're all nonvenomous and they've made themselves at home on this woman sliding up her bare back. The little ones move over her neck and face like caressing fingers. How can this be relaxing? -[ Foreign Language ] >> It's unbelievable how much people like the touch of snakes. They enjoy it. In the beginning, the snakes are a little cold, but then they warm up from contact with the body. -[ Foreign Language ] >> It gives people energy, good feeling, and so much sensuality. -[ Foreign Language ] >> And now, it's my turn. So, you brought your friends with you. >> Yeah. >> All of them, boy. Barak plops a writhing tangle of snakes on my belly, their first reaction and mine is panic. The snakes race away from my belly in six directions and Barak patiently plops them back, braiding them together to slow their getaway. It's actually a pleasant feeling. At first though, I got the feeling that they were trying to-- exploring my personality, but then, they become sensitized to you in a way that you hear of snakes being so sensitive to the movement to the ground that they can tell an earthquake before it actually happens. And I think they are very attuned to the way the body is moving except one of them kept nibbling on my eyelash. >> How do you feel? >> It feels all right. I came away relaxed and curiously lightheaded, though I didn't feel the urge to go out and buy myself a pet python and continue this therapy at home. Tim McGirk for TIME. com, Talmei Elazar, Israel. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Snakes on a Face","description":"A spa treatment in Israel involves a writhing braid of live snakes. Try to relax ","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/GtqAZ44w/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2008-09-25T02:15:32.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GtqAZ44w.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/GtqAZ44w/","duration":"PT2M54S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/GtqAZ44w/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```