IT WAS the day harsh realities intruded on what some consider the esoteric world of holistic medicine. The soothing melody of babbling brooks and chirping birds was filtering through the sound system of the Vital Life Centre when 10 officers from Central Police Station marched into the Duddell Street premises.
Brandishing a search warrant, the armed squad spent two hours combing a labyrinth of ''new age'' treatment rooms, where some of the territory's wealthiest and most fashionable people go for hypnotherapy and acupressure.
Finally, it is alleged, they uncovered a quantity of medical drugs in the office of the centre's medical director, Dr Manik Hiranandani, who has rented space there for 11/2 years.
The drugs were confiscated, as were some of the doctor's papers. His assistant volunteered to be interviewed and went to Central Police Station.
Three weeks after the raid, police are still considering whether to prosecute and want to speak to Dr Hiranandani, who is staying out of Hongkong on legal advice.
But those involved in alternative medicine claim the incident goes far beyond the case of just one man. For the territory's holistic community, the raid is the culmination of what it sees as a malicious vendetta waged by some members of the powerful medical establishment.
The police action - which followed a tip-off from the Department of Health - is the latest and most public salvo in a bitter feud between practitioners of alternative medicine and orthodox doctors.