Rolf Lines – (Genérico)

Jonathan Jo has a mouth like an O And a wheelbarrow full of surprises; If you ask for a bat, or something like that, He has got it, whatever the size is.A.A. Milne

Rolfing® Practitioners, practicing in a field with little experimental research and learning often by imitation and intuition, consistently look for links between our experience as practitioners and the established viewpoint of scientific knowledge. The following article, the keynote speech at 1997’s Annual Meeting, provides an interesting perspective on Rolfing’s relationship to the biological sciences. However, instead of “legitimizing” our experience of Rolfing by comparing it with traditional theories, it places the philosophy, science, and art of our profession in the context of recent inquiry about the nature of living organisms. Our experience of the unity of mind and body in our work with living beings finds a context in theories of cognition and the systems of life. We begin to see how Rolling can best be viewed, not by being explained by “science,” but as a vehicle for inquiry at the very edge of biological theory.

Warning – The following is a portrait of an extremely shocking subject-human dissection. Something deep, deeper than the rational mind can easily wrap itself around, reacts to the picture of a human being, alive or dead, being dismembered. There is no easy or comfortable way to talk about it. Why, you might ask, would I want to chronicle a week long class in human dissection? I have no simple answer. The class profoundly moved me and most of the members. Maybe it was the way our leader kept us related to our human donors even as they deteriorated beneath our hands. We crossed into forbidden territory and broke ancient taboos which in earlier ages would have resulted in our own demise. Something very important, something beyond my ability to translate into language, took place when I delved below the surface of human skin. I haven’t written to shock but to illuminate something about death which we shy away from in our modern world. We don’t hunt and butcher our meat, hook and fillet our fish, wring and pluck our chickens. We got our hands dirty in this class and it actually brought us closer to our humanity. I have tried to be faithful to the tactile intensity of the class, to not tone it down too much for comfort. Nothing about the class was comfortable, quite the contrary. Nonetheless, for those who have ever had a desire to see the profound mystery which lies a millimeter below the surface of our human skin, this might prove interesting.

SUMMARYIn spite of the best efforts of some of the greatest thinkers, the mechanisms of gravity, lift, and inertia are unknown. Part 1 of this article explored the relationship of the human body to the ever-varying gravity field. Now we describe how a deeper understanding of the physics of gravity and lift may be derived from study of the ways living systems utilize these phenomena. A novel mechanism is presented for the “lift” experienced in the Rolf work. It is suggested that lift arises from the same mechanism that returns the venous blood from the trunk and lower limbs back to the heart. A counter-current energy exchange takes place between the blood descending in the aorta and the blood ascending in the vena cava. The Rolf work optimizes this energy transfer and thereby enhances the experience of lift. This is accomplished when the great vessels are brought into appropriate relationship with each other, with the vertical, and with the various fascial layers, particularly with the double spiral/oblique musculature described by Dart. The lifting phenomena are not due to an anti gravity ‘force.” Instead, a vertical or spin or “levity” field is set up between the blood spinning and spiraling down the descending aorta and the blood ascending in the vena cava. The phenomenon is related to the “core” sensation described in Rolfing, as well as “the moving Qi between the kidneys” described in the literature of Oriental Medicine. Lift arises because the properties of space are altered in a way that reduces the inertia of the blood and of the surrounding tissues. Postmodern physics, particularly the work of William Day, is leading to logical concepts of space, energy, and motion that are highly relevant to the practice of bodywork, movement therapies, and the understanding of the phenomenon of lift.

Author’s note: I am not a scientist and this is not a scientific paper. The information contained within does, however, come from a multitude of published scientific articles. Please see the bibliography’ if you would like to investigate the source materials that I have used. Any mistakes in this article are solely my responsibility.

“To me, the most important thing is not a specific Rolfing hour: it’s the progression from hour to hour Its the Way you prepare in the second hour for the third hour so that you can get the results of the third hour”Ida P. RolfA Note from The Editor: This review is being republished as some of the text was lost in the first edition published in the December, 1995 edition of Rolf Lines. I extend a sincere apology to the author, review author and the membership.

“Be conscious when you are violating primary rules of the process of living. Listen to your voice as you describe what you see, then to your voice as you think or image you see. When you project what you think, there are all kinds of strain in your voice.”Ida P. Rolf

Where the word breaks off no thing may beStefan George

The key to all life experience is movement…Ida RolfRolfing: The Integration of Human Structures

In her closing remarks at the Rolf Institute’s 1976 Annual Meeting in Mill Valley, California, Dr. Ida P. Rolf posed these two questions: “As for 1976-77, what do we hope to do in that year? What are the dreams toward which I would like to see us move?” Reprinted from the December 1976 issue of the Bulletin of Structural Integration, the first part of this address seems worthy of repeating as we enter into 1992.Editor

This research paper was forwarded to me by Board member John Walter with his belief that the contents of this paper would be of interest and value to the membership of the Rolf Institute. Due to its length, it is being published, with the permission of Mr. Greenstreet, in two parts in these two subsequent editions of Rolf Lines.Editor”You can’t talk just a little about Rolfing. You have to tell it all.”Ida P. Rolf (1978, p.114.)

The first in a possibly brief series of metaphors drawn from biology. The only rule: that they have no conceivable practical application.

An exploration of the subtler, deeper pathways of communication with another through touch-pathways that do not create peace but, rather, disclose the peace that is already there, waiting to be discovered.

SummaryThe back muscles alone are unable to provide the extensor moment required to lift large weights, and must be aided by another source of anti-flexion moments. It has been postulated that contraction of the abdominal muscles can provide an extension moment by developing tension in the thoracolumbar fascia (TLF). Anatomical studies and a biomechanical analysis, however, reveal that the anti-flexion moment generated in this way is only very small. Too little of the abdominal musculature attaches to the TLF to generate a significant tension in it. Previous calculations of the forces in the TLF have overestimated the tension developed in it because of erroneous assumptions and interpretations of the relevant anatomy. Whatever the role played by the TLF in lifting it must be essentially independent of abdominal mechanisms. RelevanceThis study illustrates the importance of consulting or determining the anatomy integral to a biomechanical theory before undertaking calculations and ascribing the functional significance of postulated mechanisms. Controversies concerning the possible mechanisms that assist the back muscles during the act of lifting are addressed.