Sarita Khan and her salt cave. (Kate Barcellos)
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Sarita Khan and her salt cave. (Kate Barcellos)
MONTGOMERY — After 45 minutes of breathing in salt in a dimly-lit cave, customers tend to float – not walk – out of their therapy session.
“It’s not only good for the respiratory system, it’s also very relaxing,” said owner Sarita Khan. “You’re in a heavily-saturated negative ion environment, and you’ll go in there and come out feeling like you’ve been reborn.”
For the past six years, the Vermont Salt Cave in Montgomery has been drawing out toxins and impurities from customers as they lie beneath fuzzy blankets and a ceiling of stars, awakening their systems and refreshing their minds.
Khan and her husband Nafis decided six years ago they wanted to build their own salt cave after falling in love with Vermont. Originally from Jamaica, Khan said she first experienced a salt cave when visiting her daughter in Colorado.
Deep believers in the power of naturopathic medicine, the Khans enlisted the help of a Polish salt cave designer, who traveled to Montgomery to build the only salt cave that exists inside of a barn in the United States.
“Salt is antibacterial, antiviral, anti fungal, and we have a machine that takes pharmaceutical grade salt and crushes it into less than 10 microns,” Khan said. “It gets deep and cleans up the lungs. It’s a therapy that’s been around for hundreds of years.”
After each session, the customer is sent off with a “blessing,” or an intention written on a piece of paper that they take with them on their way. A last offering of “peace on your path” sends customers back into the world with a lighter head and open heart.
“We get more from what we do than the people who come here,” Khan said. “We get to be the ones who help people.”
A 45-minute session in the sale cave costs $30, and customers are asked to wear white socks inside the cave to keep their feet and the salt clean of debris. The dimly lit room is layered with 4,000 pounds of pharmaceutical salt in the form of small, white stones. There are 20,000 pounds of salt in the walls, which glitter with colorful himalayan salt lamps, and sparkling constellations peer down from a “night sky” ceiling.
Zero-gravity chairs laden with soft, fleecy blankets are lined in a half-circle around the room, and small waterfalls trickle from the walls and over wiry, witchy-looking branches stained white from the salt.
After staff member Christine Favreau places a blanket under the feet and across the laps of customers, she briefly introduces the cave.
The therapeutic effects of the cave are supposed to be relaxing, and body temperatures can lower significantly during the sessions.
Salt, crushed down into invisible dust, is blown throughout the cave, seeping into the skin and airways and causing many to fall into a sleep or altered consciousness. Often customers emerge euphoric and energized, and are met by Favreau who offers fresh water at the end of the session.
“We have members of the National Guard who may have PTSD, who come here for a calming session,” Khan said. “It’s great for COPD, asthma, it’s a remedy for any number of ailments.”
With the help of Favreau, Khan has transformed the space into a center for whole-body healing in a calming and enchanting environment. It is a clean, bright, almost magical place that has a transformative effect on its customers.
“Everything here is curated,” she said.
In addition to providing the salt cave experience, Sarita Khan said she wanted to be able to sell salt lamps and tinctures, but her inventory has grown to also include Cannabidiol products, teas, stones, crystals, non-alcoholic spirits and pendulums.
The center now offers multiple types of holistic therapies in collaboration with local practitioners and has become a popular spot for bachelor and bachelorette parties, mid-day breaks from work and injury rehabilitation for athletes.
Some of the busiest times of year, Khan said, are the fall and winter months when skiers and riders from Jay Peak stop in to rest their tired muscles. The salt sessions help dissipate lactic acid build-up in the joints, and the cave is a welcome respite from Vermont’s frigid winters.
Vermont Sale Cave also offers hand and foot therapy sessions, which draw toxins from the hands and feet using large, pink, glowing salt stones. Infrared sauna sessions and massage offerings are also popular and all therapies are partnered with Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance policies.
Kate Barcellos is a staff reporter for the Saint Albans Messenger. Contact her at kbarcellos@orourkemediagroup.com
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