by CHANTAL MARTINEAU

It's one of those terms, like ménage à trois or "open bar," that causes eyebrows to cock suggestively and knowing smiles to be exchanged. Four-handed massage: the words themselves conjure up images of intense pleasure and unadulterated hedonism.

My first four-hander measured up to the hype. Slipping out of the white terrycloth robe the spa provided and into the warm cotton sheets of the massage table, I settled my face into the padded hole at the top, closed my eyes and let the anticipation grow. Two smiling masseuses entered, ready to collectively melt away my every tension.

"Does this feel good?" one of them asks, pummelling my torso while her partner kneads my shoulders. A satisfied groan is my only response. The therapists are like choreographed dancers, each manning one side of my body then alternating their movements to cover my upper and lower back at once.

Crown-to-toe pleasure

In the last few years, the four-handed massage has made its way into a few select spas across the city. Fanny of Westmount (4891 Sherbrooke W.) claims to have invented the massage as a time-saving tool for people on the go. In 30 minutes, you get the same benefits of a two-handed one-hour massage.

"It's very enveloping," says Fanny herself. Her beauty-salon-cum-health-spa, one of the first of its kind in Montreal, has featured the four-handed massage for 14 years. With both sides of the body worked at the same time, a certain balance is achieved that can't be reached with a regular massage performed by a single therapist.

Spa Eastman's Montreal location, Aqua Cité (666 Sherbrooke W.), has a different philosophy for their Quartet massage. Using both Swedish and Californian techniques, two therapists precisely synchronize their movements to induce deep relaxation, while energizing and realigning the body over a blissful period of 50 minutes. Waves crash quietly over hidden speakers as oils are generously slathered over every inch of the body, from crown to toe, with specific attention paid to important pressure points.

"We must apply the same pressure - complete each other in a way," says therapist Marie-Eve Bourgon of Spa Eastman. She claims to leave the massage room energized herself after finishing with a client. The Quartet is relatively new to the spa, only a few months old.

The two masseuses who inflict intense pleasure on me move seamlessly. At certain moments it feels like five or six hands. By the end, I'm slightly disoriented, unsure of how much time has passed. They speak in hushed, soothing tones, telling me not to get up too fast or I'll be dizzy, to rest on the table as long as I'd like.

"With two hands, it sometimes takes longer to relax," says Roza Kopyt, who has been with Fanny's for eight years. "With four, you let go much faster."

Particular pampering

Sylvie Préfontaine, a 15-year veteran of the spa, says the massage can be both calming and invigorating. "It's energizing because we're covering the whole surface at once. You feel the weight of four hands on you and the heat radiating from them is stimulating."

As with any massage, it's perfectly acceptable to specify aches and pains in the body and request that a particular area is especially pampered. The best results are achieved when you forcefully empty your mind of workaday things and focus on "breathing into" each area as it is worked. For those who have never taken a yoga class, it's a simple exercise in visualization: try to picture the breath oxygenizing the muscle being touched.

Along with its Duet massage, a four-handed Swedish technique, Spa Diva (1455 Peel) offers Heaven on Earth, a sublime treatment during which one therapist gives a facial while a second performs reflexology on the feet. Once the perma-smile has been rubbed away from your face, you'll be transported by this double-whammy.

While some people prefer the privacy of a single-therapist massage, many will appreciate the all-encompassing intensity of four hands rubbing and chopping at once. Of course, self-indulgence has its price. Spa Diva's Duet will set you back $149.49 (tax included) for a full hour, Fanny's four-handed massage costs $70 for 30 minutes and Spa Eastman's Quartet is $149.53 for 50 minutes. Studio Bliss (3841 St-Laurent) offers a one-hour four-handed massage for $126.53. These slices of ecstasy make ideal gifts - but better to sample one yourself first.