All Rolfers would agree that part of what makes our approach unique is our work with the body not just in terms of mobility, but in terms of its spatial order how the body’s parts relate to each other spatially and how the body as a whole is organized in gravity. However, saying that we assess and treat the body by improving its physical organization in relation to gravity is language that other approaches also incorporate in descriptions of their work.

Yet we believe that something distinguishes our work from the others. So we add to our statements about spatial order and alignment concepts like the Line and Lift and assertions that we are interested in the “state” of the organism, its shape and the nature of the being. Unfortunately, concepts such as the Line and Lift are for the most part internal to our community and have not been greatly elaborated in any written or practical form, even though they are immensely valuable for assessing and treating a client) They remain vague and veiled in some sort of magical perception that one is expected to pierce by observing others and sensing in one’s own experience. There ought to be a way to describe clearly how to perceive these qualities of spatial organization that go beyond mere mechanical alignment, the same as we can explain spinal mechanics, Cylinders and Blocks and the Internal/ External model.

Something does differentiate our work from other manual therapies and approaches other than the fact that we use spatial order as a tool for assessment and treatment to a larger degree than they do. At its best, our work is different from other structurally-oriented body therapies not just in degree but in kind. However, our ability to make this distinction is not reflected in our language.

These two kinds of descriptions of the aims of Rolfing – those that are mechanical about geometry and alignment, and those that sound more ethereal, about the state of the organism, its self-organizing capacity, etc. – point to something true about our work, and deserve greater clarification: that we work with spatial order in relation to gravity in two fundamental ways.

One we share in common with other methods and do better than most – the assessment and treatment of the body based on the geometry and mechanical alignment of the body’s segments. The other way, which we allude to but haven’t properly defined, is the assessment and treatment of a more subtle, dynamic quality of the body, which when treated evokes what we know as the “Rolfing Effect” – experiences of Lift, of the Line, of spaciousness and support – namely, our work with the body’s Unifying Spatial Field.

It is in our work with this more subtle substance of the human body that we need clearer language and terminology to better address how we successfully enhance the self-organizing capacities of the human body. Naming and defining this subtle substance is a critical first step.

The aim of this paper is to name and define this particular substance of the human body – the Unifying Spatial Field – that we as Rolfers work with to improve structure, functioning and health, and which sets us apart from other structurally-oriented approaches. I believe that it is this subtle but fundamental property of the body that can tether our abstract notions about Lift, self organizing capacities, etc., to something more practical and teachable.

DEFINING THE UNIFYING SPATIAL FIELD

The Unifying Spatial Field names something that actually exists in the body. The term is not describing a concept or an activity but an ontological substance, like a bone or muscle or cerebral spinal fluid. The Unifying Spatial Field is actually a thing, and as a thing it has certain attributes. It is not clear what the USF is in terms of conventional anatomy. One might say that it exists more in the realm of Chi and its various manifestations, as understood in Chinese medicine, in that a softer eye and touch help to recognize it. However, one does not need to be light in touch to be actively working with it or aware of it; in fact, a stronger touch is often required to address the gross structures that limit the USF’s optimal functioning.

The term Unifying Spatial Field itself has been chosen because it best describes the nature of the thing we are defining. According to the unabridged Random House Dictionary, these words on their own have the following meanings.

? Unifying: To form into a single unit; unite; reduce to unity by removing or reconciling differences, incompatible elements, or the like.

? Spatial: 1. Of or pertaining to space; 2. Existing or occurring in space; having extension in space.

? Space: 1. The unlimited or indefinitely great three-dimensional expanse in which all material objects are located and all events occur. 2. The portion or extent of this in a given instance; extent or area in three dimensions: the space occupied by a body.

? Field: (this word has 38 meanings) 1. A piece of open or cleared ground, especially one suitable for pasture or tillage; 6. An expanse of anything: a field of ice; 7. Any region characterized by a particular feature, product, mineral, mining activity, etc: a gold field; 14. Also called field of force. Physics. a region of space under the influence of some agent, as electricity or magnetism [their emphasis].

For our purposes, the Unifying Spatial Field is an actual property of the body within which the body’s spatial organization is created and maximized. It is a subtle substance similar to Chi (according to the tradition of Chinese Medicine, Spleen Chi would be the most similar in purpose to the Unifying Spatial Field. However, I do not believe that they are the same.). The Unifying Spatial Field is the medium that determines our form or shape. Therefore, one can work directly with the USF and with the grosser structures of the body that most directly relate to the USF to optimize the body’s overall form and, consequently, improve its functioning. The USF is not an abstraction or a term describing an activity like the words tone, span, or Palintonicity, words which describe attributes of the USF. It is similar to a field as in a meadow, a three dimensional fluid-like space.

As with the Cranial-Sacral Rhythm, the Unifying Spatial Field cannot be easily reduced to traditional anatomy or physiology, but rather seems to straddle two realms: the more obvious anatomy of the body and the more subtle energetic fields of the organism. The USF can be felt beyond the edges of the physical body and to a limited degree manipulated from there.

Although I do not believe that the Unifying Spatial Field is synonymous with connective tissue or fascia it resides moss strongly in the connective tissues and fascial sheaths, like Chi in the meridians. Ever so, the USF is not the same as the connective tissues.

One can manipulate and loosen connective tissue without substantially improving the body’s organization in gravity. Also, one can improve the body’s organization it gravity without manipulating the connective tissues – through movement cues and through work off the body. However, because the Unifying Spatial Field is richesin the connective tissues of the body, the most reliably effective and efficient way to manipulate the USF is through direct manipulation of the connective tissue.

PAYING ATTENTION TO THE UNIFYING SPATIAL FIELD

Cultivating an awareness of the Universe Spatial Field as it resides in the connective tissues is critical for doing consistent, effective Rolfing. In the past we have had good concepts and metaphors ranging from Touching the Lizard to Palintonicity to ex plain how we actively work with a living unified whole in relation to gravity. How ever, it has been difficult to apply these concepts into the moment-to-moment experience of working in the tissue. When we sad that there is an actual unifying field that is distinct to itself and that can be felt operating in the fascia, this gives the practitioner something to feel for, assess, and treat.

To further elucidate what the Unifying Spatial Field is and how we can pay attention to it in our work, it will be useful to list some of the major attributes of the Unifying Spatial Field that we commonly perceive in our work:

. It takes up space.

. It has volume and depth.

? It is subtle, in the background more than the foreground, requiring a unique kind of perception.

? It is an effulgent force, actively moving in all directions; it could be described as “puffing out”.

? It is continuous, without breaks, somewhat homogeneous, with changes in density and texture.

? It is similar to a fabric, like silk without borders – or a smooth silk gelatin.

? It organizes shape palintonically. It has dominant lines of Palintonicity, such as the lateral line.

? As a subtle substance, it exists within and through the other more gross structures of the body.

. It can be seen and felt.

? It relates and balances the body’s more gross properties to gravity.

? It can vary in its degree of integrity, balance and health, becoming folded, contracted, stiff, still, twisted, lacking in effulgence, stagnant, too thin, or too thick.

It may be useful to offer a couple of analogies to help explain the nature of the Unifying Spatial Field. The body’s capacity for effulgent volume, balance and uprightness manifests in part because of the Unifying Spatial Field. In this sense, it is like a cylinder shaped balloon partially filled with fluid, with weight, lift and uprightness. If the balloon’s fabric has a fold in it held together by sticky butter, one can slowly work only a portion of that fold until the natural pressures contained with the balloon open the entire fold, evoking an increase in the balance, span and volume of the entire structure.

One can also imagine the USF to be like a kind of sail, with cables and ropes running through it – representing the thicker fascia and body structures. When those ropes are properly rearranged, the sail takes up more of its potential volume, which in turn can cause restrictions in other ropes to ease, without direct intervention. This is like easing strain across the lower leg and observing a related change in structures below and above it.

One way to observe and evoke change in the Unifying Spatial Field is to keep your hands on an area after you are done manipulating it, allowing a few moments to pass. You may then feel a filling coming into the space made available by your work that has a sense of Palintonicity. You can also be working in tissue and be aware of the slow filling of the Unifying Spatial Field at the same time.

EFFORTS TO NAME THE UNIFYING SPATIAL FIELD

As Rolfers, we have always used terms and language to describe the effects of the Unifying Spatial Field, but have not named the thing itself. We are like four blind men touching different parts of an elephant, who each describe different attributes of it – sometimes seemingly unrelated – but do not name the actual thing. One reason no one has named the object itself may be that we often are reluctant to step outside the confines of the parameters set by the conventional Western understanding of anatomy. Since exisiting text books do not name this field or acknowledge its existence, people can be reluctant to assume that they are recognizing something others have not. Consequently, we talk and teach about the effects of the field but do not say that something actually exists beyond these “activities” in the body that we are working with. We do not say that there is a substance in the body that we are actually recognizing and manipulating, other than the fascia or connective tissue. This may be the physical body’s primary conduit of the Unifying Spatial Field but is not synonymous with it.

Even though no one has named the Unifying Spatial Field before, there are many places that we recognize attributes of it in our work. There is the mutual agreement (hopefully!) in classes among Rolfers when they recognize the lack or presence of USF attributes in class models – lack of lift, fullness, etc. – before, during, and after sessions. There is also the mutual experience between Rolfer and client, for example, when after a session the client stands and begins to feel a spaciousness not felt before in some area of their body, which the Rolfer can see and feel as well. Sometimes, the Rolfer recognizes the shift and needs to bring the client’s awareness to it because it is not the kind of thing one tends to pay attention to. As sessions progress and gross restrictions are freed, the USF becomes stronger and more vibrant, eventually to the point where not only can the practitioner see and feel its effects but so can the client.

Did Dr. Rolf recognize such a subtle substance in the body that underlies its selforganizing capacity? It is difficult to tell, but it seems possible. Several themes recur in Dr. Rolf’s writings, among them ideas about order, relationships, patterns in the body, energy in the body, and the body in relation to the field of gravity. In discussing energy, Dr. Rolf varied her meaning, moving from what she called energy of pure spatial Physics to more esoteric notions, appreciating for example the fact that laws for licensing acupuncture being passed in the United States were including in them the idea of energy flowing. (Ida Rolf Talks, pp. 40, 60, 181). On pages 34 and 35 of Ida Rolf Talks, Dr Rolf mentions that fascial connective tissue is the body’s organ of structure, that it is pure physics, yet later writes that we “change the way the parts of the body fit together into a whole [so that it] can transmit the gravitational field through [the] body in such a way that it enhances [the body’s] energy field.” Her use of the term “energy field” implies some quality or substance in the body different than its major segments or more conventional notions of energy and effort.

Later in the same book, Dr. Rolf writes that “nowadays, I insist on thinking in terms of gravity, and my image of a shopping bag [holding the parts of the body together] has been transformed into a picture of the body as an energy pattern, a structure which lengthens as it gets better tone.” (p 73) A famous quotation of hers reads: “Rolfers make a life study of relating bodies and their fields to the earth and its gravity field, and we so organize the body that the gravity field can reinforce the body’s energy field. This is our primary concept.” It is hard to read this and not conclude that Dr. Rot believed that there is an actual subtle spatial field in the body which is distinct from the mechanical energy that is restored to the body by improving the balance of tone between various muscles and connective tissues.

Dr. Rolf created controversy when she wrote that there is an inherent pattern to the body which could be called a Platonic Idea, a blueprint for the body’s structure (Rolfing, p. 16). This becomes easier to understand and digest when considered in terms of a subtle Unifying Spatial Field which informs the more gross physical structures of the body; this seems to be her point, not that every body should look the same in terms of its larger structures, but that there is a more subtle field which itself has an optimal form inherent to it.

Shortly after her comments about the Platonic Idea, Dr Rolf distinguishes different levels at which Rolfing helps a person: “the physics of spatial relations … man in his environment, and … man-as-a-whole in the energy field of the earth, gravity.” (p. 17). This “man-as-a-whole” distinct from man as understood in terms of the physics of spatial relations, is referring to, I believe, the Unifying Spatial Field. There was no word or term to say what she wanted, so she resorted to a compound concept.

Regardless of whether Dr. Rolf recognized the existence of this subtle spatial field, which underlies the more obvious spatial relations in the body, it is clear that today many Rolfers are knowingly working with the Unifying Spatial Field when practicing Rolfing. Several teachers mention working with certain attributes of the Unifying Spatial Field in their work. For example, when describing working with the inherent motion of joints, they will say how they work the joint from its pathological pattern until the bones of the joint are moving in symmetry, then stay a few moments longer until they feel a kind of flushing or uniform filling of the space. Michael Salveson has described “feeling the Chi” fill a space in the body, or move beyond the physical boundaries of the body, as it dynamically fills the full space of the person. The attributes of what I am calling the Unifying Spatial Field have been organized under the general principle of Continuity, formally called Palintonicity. The term Palintonicity, first discussed by Jeff Maitland, is highly significant, saying more precisely how our work goes beyond merely mechanical alignment of the body to evoking something more fundamental. In my opinion, this phenomenon of Palintonicity, of moving in two directions at once, occurs because of the Unifying Spatial Field.

VALUE IN NAMING THE UNIFYING SPATIAL FIELD

Naming the USF is important not only in and of itself but also because it is a cornerstone of our work, and one of the most important – and least frequently recognized – contributions we make to the larger fields of Structural Integration, Somatics, and body and movement therapies. Discovering it, teaching about it, working with it, is fundamental to Rolfing. It is the very thing we work with, whether knowingly or not, when we have the “golfing” effect, the improvement of structure in such a way that we not only improve the anatomical alignment of the body and not only improve the range of motion of various segments of the body but also manifest the body’s inherent capacity for Lift, support, balance, and Palintonicity in the field of gravity.

Being able to say to a student that the phenomena they are seeing or feeling in the body of lack of lift or support, or the opening of the Line, are not just some amazing activity but attributes of an actual substance of the body, empowers the student to actively look for the “elephant” amidst the various parts. When the attributes we are discussing are rooted to a concrete source, one can be more precise in working with those attributes.

At its core, Rolfing aims beyond improving mechanical alignment to evoking a three-dimensional manifestation of consciousness in the body, a body which inherently knows how to optimize its movement and health in the context of its larger environment. We do this most frequently by working directly with the Unifying Spatial Field.

Many schools assert that part of their aim is to improve the structural organization of the body and to better align the body in the field of gravity. To some degree, this is true of virtually any approach. At one extreme, any effective intervention will improve the body’s alignment in gravity.

Second, and slightly more sophisticated, is an approach that aims to lengthen shortened structures and balance tone in an effort to line up the major segments of the body. Included in this are Neuromuscular Therapy, Chiropractic, Osteopathy, certain strength and conditioning approaches, physical therapy, etc. Even more sophisticated, however, is an approach that directly works with the component of the body whose purpose is to orient and actively organize a living organism in; its larger gravitational environment.

The second approach mentioned is a mechanical one with value, and is a component of what we do. The last approach incorporates the mechanical understanding, and places it in context within a more dynamic, vital substance.

Our bodies are to a certain degree like inanimate physical structures, such as buildings, but not completely; they are also like other animate structures, such as trees and plants and other animals, in which uprightness cannot be explained entirely through mechanics based on levers, pulleys and weights. Even though one can roughly duplicate our uprightness in a robot, for example, the means by which that is accomplished is very different than the means by which our own uprightness is accomplished. Such a model does not account for the fluid nature of our bodies, the various internal pressures, and the body’s dynamic metabolism of constantly breaking itself down and building itself up. This point comes home experientially when one experiences the “integrating” effect from a treatment by a Neuromuscular Therapist, physical therapist or a “second paradigm” body worker, versus by a Rolfer; in the former, one feels and actually is mechanically stacked up, ears over shoulders, etc. like a well-designed building; in the latter, one has this mechanical effect as part of the experience made possible by the USF of dynamic Lift, volume and spaciousness, which is more like the living thing we are.

Recognizing the USF also makes it easier for the Rolfer to study techniques not typically offered in our training, without losing the fundamental perspective of Rolfing. For example, new Rolfers want and need a practical understanding of how they can systematically improve the body’s capacity to self-organize but are only given broad language about organizing sessions, the Recipe and the Principles. Consequently, they look outside the Institute to learn visceral, Cranial, Somatic Experiencing, etc., and try to use these modalities as the orienting lens for their work.

Although learning these approaches can be valuable if one can apply them within the principles of Structural Integration, it can also be a detriment if the practitioner lacks this basic understanding and unknowingly becomes more like a jack-of-all-trades than a master of one. A practical appreciation that the body has a Unifying Spatial Field gives Rolfers the grounding they need to explore their new work without having to go too far a field too soon. Without this understanding, phenomena like the Line are difficult to grasp and just seem to happen by accident. An analogy might be trying to teach about flexion and extension in the Cranial-Sacral rhythm with no knowledge of the existence of cerebrospinal fluid.

The continuous net that the connective tissues create is not an inanimate structure with basic chemical properties like thixotropy and tensile strength. Most forms of fascial work, however, treat connective tissue as though this were the case, teaching that one is affecting its tone and span through a thixotropic effect of some kind. Unwinding techniques and muscle energy techniques that load and unload the body can explain how to loosen something that is neurologically contracted but not how the body then takes that loosened structure and places it in the best possible place for spatial order and efficiency, or how the practitioner can predict where that optimal alignment will be and guide it there. Conventional notions of the nervous system and neurofascial net do not explain the sense of effulgence, spaciousness, or Palintonicity that arises in the body as it becomes better organized. The maximizing of form in gravity occurs continuously and everywhere in the body, from cell to organ to fluid to bone to the whole organism. It can be felt anywhere and even around the body. I can only conclude that a Unifying Spatial Field is responsible.

Learning to feel the CSR and visceral motility is valuable to one’s practice of Rolfing; however, one loses the Rolfing perspective when one adopts either of these body rhythms as one’s fundamental assessment and treatment tool. One is no longer treating the body with a primary focus of integrating the body’s field into the larger field of gravity, because neither the CSR nor visceral motility have this as part of their function. The USF does. So, we could say that to be practicing from the Rolfing perspective, one can establish a better CSR secondarily to, and as support for, balancing and integrating the USF. By incorporating an understanding that we are working with an actual spatial field as fundamental to our work, we are speaking more precisely about our work and are better able to increase our skills within the framework of our Structural Integration.

We all recognize attributes of this field separate from the mechanical changes in alignment. We call it Lift, the Line, volume, spaciousness. I believe that when we are working, we are manipulating the fascial structures of the body in relation to this unifying spatial field the same way a CranialSacral practitioner works with the bones and Dura to affect the CSR. In other words, we are working with the more gross objects and structures that limit and restrict the subtler and more vital substances of the body.

NOTES

1. J. Maitland’s recent article on Orthotropism is a step in this direction. Ironically, it was not a written piece but a transcript from a talk.

2. When I wrote this and posted it on the Rolf Forum, I sometimes did not properly distinguish between whether I thought the Unifying Spatial Field was just a property of the living body or a substance of the body. At times I strongly asserted that it is a substance, at other times only a property. I would say now that it is a substance of the human body. It seems that Maitland’s article only goes as far as to say that what he calls “Orthotropism” is a property. I would say Orthotropism is a description of the effect of the Unifying Spatial Field. Either way, it is important to discuss this property/ substance and elucidate its characteristics to make our teaching of Rolfing clearer and deeper.