Soon after sunrise in the heart of the old town of the Thai island of Phuket, a swordsman chants an incantation and slowly slides the first of three blades into the right cheek of the woman who sits calmly below him. The ceremony at a nine-day vegetarian festival in the Thai tourist island of Phuket aims to cleanse the soul of the 29-year-old woman, Sirinnicha Thamapradit, who is believed be a medium that a god has selected to bridge the connection between the divine and the human. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES