Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter

HE JOURNEYED far from the hot, dusty and sometimes volatile concrete jungle of Arnett Gardens, St Andrew, to the cool, pristine hills of Balcarres, Portland, five years ago.

But Nigel David Cobb's aim was not to inhale cleaner air or swim daily in the river, which is part of the inviting offerings of rural life. Instead, he wanted to learn obeah.

But neither a cursory glance nor an everlasting stare would let you recognise that Cobb is practising to peep through the proverbial nine-inch wall.

The young man is as unassuming as any 30-year-old around town.

He wears no strange clothes; carries no flag; and has no head wraps, horse shoe, shells, animal or human skulls. At least, not from The Sunday Gleaner's vantage point.

"I got a calling to seek the high physician and that is why I am here," Cobb testifies.

"The Lord sent me into the hills, He who has a clean hand and a pure heart," he adds.

Cobb left Kingston in 2004 for Portland to sit at the feet of a bush doctor known as 'Mr Murray'.

Cobb tells The Sunday Gleaner that he has washed and bathed clients and is convinced that he has learnt enough to go on his own.

"I have learnt so much and still there is more to learn," he says confidently.

Practice for deliverance>

On an average day, the 30-year-old says he registers up to 25 clients. He spends his days learning to read, bathe and cure persons around whose "neck trouble hangs like an albatross".

He says young and old turn up daily in droves for deliverance at his "teacher" and mentor's practice. He is convinced that they always receive help.

So far, Cobbs' education has taken longer than the average university degree and he still has, at least, one more year of apprenticeship.

"Five years ago, before mi come here, mi neva believe inna it (obeah), but I have seen his work and I know that he is a high physician.

"The Bible says seek the high physician and you have to find the highest knowledge," Cobb relates. "A lot of people do it (indulge in obeah) because it can give them benefits in life, which is true. But some people do it for money. I want to use it to help people and to know more about the natural mystic of God's work,"

With approximately one year to go in his studies, this young obeah man has already figured out where he will be taking his business.

And, it's not the concrete jungle, Trench Town or Tivoli Gardens; neither is he heading to Windward Road. His destination is uptown, among the more well-to-do Jamaicans.

"I am going to set up in Eastwood Park Gardens. This is where the calling says that I must go," discloses Cobb with a wide grin.

But not only is he a blooming high physician, he believes he is a big musician in the making. He tells The Sunday Gleaner that he has refused to use his spiritual work as a means of gaining that big burst on the entertainment scene.

"Mi nah guh work obeah fi buss. Mi a just wait peacefully fi my chance. Anything that you use obeah fi do, in the long run, it is going to fall back on yuh," says the young student.