Fingers play lightly through your hair. The tantalizing and delicate smell of sweet orange. A soft brush traces across the ears. The prolonged ring of a singing bowl. The skin prickles with each new ...

I’m sitting on a futon in a stranger’s apartment with my friend Ashley. In front of us, Melinda Lauw—a slender, wide-eyed Singaporean woman—is crouched in a squat, holding a small flickering candle, ...