Long before Michael Murphy and George Leonard coined the term “human potential movement’ in 1965¹ and The Beatles met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in August 1967 Ida Rolf, Ph.D. was interested in the development of human potential. In addition to osteopathy and homeopathy one of the biggest influences on Rolf’s understanding of the human body was yoga. Throughout the 1920s she participated in a group that practiced yoga asanas and held meetings and lectures in Nyack, New York with American yogi, Pierre Bernard. Rolf has this to say in her 1978 book Ida Rolf Talks About Rolfing® and Physical Reality.

His father had been a tantric and he was brought up as a tantric. He had spent most of his childhood in India. In tantric families, boys of seven years of age are taken from their families, put into another home of the same culture grade, and are brought up with the other family. In Hindu tantric families, through the centuries, the basis of the boys’ education was the Tantras—the five Indian sacred books. These they had to learn by rote, which is something like the mental equivalent of doing five hundred cartwheels.²

I believe Rolf is referring to Sylvais Hamati here, a Syrian-Indian, who Bernard met at the age of thirteen in Lincoln, Nebraska. Hamati was an accomplished Tantric yogi and he and Bernard traveled together from the late 1880s into the early 1900s. Bernard made his first dynamic splash into public view on the front-page of the New York Times on January 29, 1898. “He had given a public demonstration of his Kali-mudra or ‘death trance’ to a group of physicians in San Francisco, during which he seems to have successfully slowed his vital functions sufficiently to mimic death.³”

Bernard capitalized on this publicity becoming known as “The Hypnotist Dr. Bernard” and quite a famous personality in the San Francisco Bay Region before he left the area around the time of the 1906 earthquake. He published what is likely the first Tantric publication in the United States, the International Journal of the Tantrik Order.

By 1909 Bernard was in New York City and had emerged as a successful teacher of yoga. With the help of New York’s elite, including Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, in 1919 Bernard moved to a 73 acre estate in Upper Nyack, New York. It was here where Rolf met and trained with Bernard in the 1920s.

Robert Love has just published a biography of Bernard titled The Great Oom: The Improbable Birth of Yoga in America, a name modeled after “Omnipotent Oom” given to Bernard by the local press after reported accusations of such things as “wild Oriental music and women’s cries, but not those of distress.” ⁴
I refer you to Love’s lively biography for more details about Bernard’s life.

What Bernard offered Rolf through his teachings was unique at the time and is, I feel, still relatively rare today: physical experience as a pathway to spiritual enlightenment, or the evolution of consciousness if you will. Yoga aims to develop the whole person through the practices of breath awareness, meditation and movement. Rosemary Feitis writes of Rolf:

In those years of practicing yoga and discussing its principles, she was establishing the basis of all her future work: that bodies need to lengthen and be balanced, and that a balanced body will give rise to a better human being.⁵

How fascinating to me, as a Rolfing® practitioner for 15 years now, to see the early origins of Rolf’s work. From the turn of the 20th century popular interest in hypnotism, Theosophy, and the self-proclaimed mystics such as G.I. Gurdjieff, to the Jazz Age roots of yoga in America, it seems the interest in the “human potential movement” has been with us quite a long time indeed.

You may also enjoy reading “Deep Impact” an article about Rolfing SI published in Yoga Journal in 2002. Deep Impact by Linda Knittel

Notes

1. Jeffrey J. Kripal, Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007), p. 207.

2. Ida Rolf, Rolfing® and Physical Reality, ed. Rosemary Feitis (Rochester, Vermont: Healing Arts Press, 1990) p. 7.

3. Kripal, p. 236.

4. Kripal, p. 237.

5. Rolf, p. 8.

© Carole LaRochelle, 2010.

Over the past 25 years many professional baseball players have used Rolfing® Structural Integration to help them recover from injuries and stay in the game. Here is a list of half a dozen players who have benefited from receiving Rolfing® SI.

1) Sean Casey, former Major League Baseball first baseman

During his career National League All-Star, Sean “The Mayor” Casey, played for the Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates, Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox. On April 14th, 2006, while playing for the The Pittsburgh Pirates Casey’s spine was fractured when a base runner for The Chicago Cubs collided with him. While in the hospital a martial artist friend suggested Rolfing SI to Casey.

I had never heard about Rolfing so I went to the www.rolf.org website, read about the founder Dr. Ida Rolf, and decided to try Rolfing. My Rolfing sessions started with Certified Rolfer™ Michael Waller on April 27th. The bodywork relieved my muscle pain and spasms immediately. In 4 weeks I  had 8 sessions and I returned to play May 26th, only six weeks from the initial trauma.

Casey was traded to The Detroit Tigers on July 31, 2006. During the 2006 American League Championship Series against the Oakland Athletics he partially tore his left calf muscle in Game 1.

In Oakland I blew out my calf while batting. When I swung it felt like an explosion in my calf. It was going to be tough. The World Series was coming up quick, and I thought I would not be able to play.

The MRI showed that I tore the fascia wrapping my soleus. I did not know what fascia was before I tried Rolfing. When the injury occurred I new to call my Rolfer. The first day I saw Michael I could feel him reset the muscle and put it back in place. I think Rolfing is one of the best things going. No doubt it has helped me so much.

Casey came back from his torn calf in Game 2 of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, becoming the hottest hitter for the Tigers belting 2 home runs and batting .432 in five games.

The World Series was the highlight of my career and without my Rolfer I would not have been able to do what I did. (Doctors projected a three week recovery; Sean was playing again within 10 days.) Rolfing has helped me 100%.

Sean Casey was in the zone. It was pure performance, an excellent example of athletic skill meeting the moment and making the most of it.

2) Bret Saberhagen, former Major League Baseball pitcher

Two time American League Cy Young Award Winner and 1985 World Series champion, Bret “Sabes” Saberhagen, pitched for the Kansas City Royals, New York Mets, Colorado Rockies, and Boston Red Sox before retiring in 2001. He started receiving Rolfing SI in 1986 while playing for the Royals.

In August of 1986 I was having arm and shoulder problems, including tendonitis and some muscle strain. At that point, I was all messed up. You come into Rolfing because you have wear and tear on one part of your body or another, and after a while you have to readjust that particular muscle.

The soreness you have when you receive Rolfing is a good soreness. Everything’s getting unjammed, things just seem to get tight and tense, and after the session’s over you feel better.

Saberhagen received some more Rolfing SI in 1987 and again in 1990 to help him recover from surgery on his right elbow.

I recovered from the surgery faster than the doctors thought I would. I’m sure the Rolfing helped me out.

Rolfing is good for anybody in any walk of life, because it’s going to put you in focus with your body, to realize what kind of beating your body takes from an average day, and not necessarily an athlete’s day.

3) Bob Tewksbury, former Major League Baseball pitcher

During his career National League All-Star, Bob Tewksbury, played for the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres, and Minnesota Twins. Due to shoulder and arm problems he would face over the course of his playing career, Tewksbury became known as an excellent control pitcher. In 1997, he threw an Eephus pitch, joining an elite few who have thrown the “junkiest pitch in baseball.”

Tewksbury had this to say about Rolfing® SI:

I have received many benefits from Rolfing. In 1991 my massage therapist recommended it as a way to get a deeper level of work. Although the benefits of muscle work come and go depending on when and how regularly I get Rolfing work, I have noticed lasting benefits with regard to my breathing, my posture and my body awareness. I have used Rolfing mainly in two areas, for my lower and upper back to help with flexibility and stiffness, and to enhance performance. I plan to use it again.”

4) Tom Seaver, former Major League Baseball pitcher

Three time National League Cy Young Award Winner, 1969 World Series champion, and Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Tom “The Franchise” Seaver, pitched for four different teams during his career, but is known primarily for his time with the New York Mets. Seaver is the Mets’ all-time leader in wins, and is considered by many baseball experts to be one of the best starting pitchers in the history of baseball. Seaver found out about Rolfing® SI from another former New York Mets pitcher, Craig Swan. Swan became a Certified Rolfer™ after his retirement from baseball. Here is what Seaver had to say about the Rolfing SI he received from Swan.

Until I went through the Rolfing with Craig, I had chronic lower back, hamstring and calf problems. Besides feeling better after each session, Craig taught me how to use my body in a much more efficient and relaxed way. Little did I know that the way I was unconsciously using my toes was effecting the muscles in the back of my legs reaching all the way to my lower back. Since going through the Rolfing with Craig back in the 90s, I had no problems with my back, calves or hamstrings. I would strongly suggest that anyone with a chronic muscle/skeletal problem try Rolfing, it sure helped me.

Before retiring from baseball Seaver would go on to play for the Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox, and Boston Red Sox. Today Seaver lives with his wife in Calistoga, California (special bonus for us wine country residents) and runs GTS Vineyards & Winery.

5) Craig Swan, former Major League Baseball pitcher

Craig Swan spent most of his baseball career with the New York Mets before a very brief stint with the California Angels. Swan first received Rolfing SI after tearing his right rotator cuff which resulted in him missing most of the 1981 season.

I had a grade two tear, and we were going to treat it with rest and a lot of physical therapy. I had hear about Rolfing from a beach bum friend in St. Petersburg. I was a little skeptical about Rolfing because I didn’t know anything about it. But I’ve always thought it’s important to try everything.

Swan went on to receive Rolfing sessions with a Certified Rolfer™ in Florida.

The Rolfer was trying to give me enough length in my joints to create leverage in a pitch. When you can keep the space in your joint, keep the musculature fairly relaxed but still use it, you can then get your shoulder girdle and arm away from your body. This creates velocity on the fast balls, or any kind of throw, because it develops leverage.

The injury that finally ended Swan’s career was a tear to the fascia covering his tricep. He decided to use the medical knowledge he obtained from his numerous injuries and trained to become a Certified Rolfer™. Swan graduated from The Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration in Boulder, Colorado and practices Rolfing SI in Connecticut. He finds it ironic that as a Certified Rolfer he now works on the same thing (fascia) that ended his career. Here is Part 1 of a three part interview Swan did with Mets Weekly. 

Check out the rest of the interview on Craig Swan’s website www.GreenwichRolfing.com.

6) Tim Salmon, former Major League Baseball right fielder

World Series champion, Tim Salmon, of the California/LA Angels of Anaheim wraps up our list of half a dozen professional baseball players who have utilized Rolfing SI to recover from injury and extend their careers. Indeed Salmon received the American League Comeback Player of the Year award in 2002. I was not able to locate any specific quotes from Salmon testifying to his use of Rolfing, but The Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration website lists Salmon as a pro-athlete who has benefited from Rolfing SI.

I hope you have enjoyed this collection of stories I’ve gathered about professional baseball players who have utilized Rolfing SI. Maybe it will inspire you to give Rolfing a try the next time you have a sports injury or want to enhance your performance in your pro, semi-pro or amateur athletic endeavors.

Watch piano virtuoso Leon Fleisher’s most recent interview with PBS NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown. Fleisher’s memoir My Nine Lives is mentioned and they discuss Fleisher’s long career from two-handed playing, to one-handed playing, to teaching and conducting. Fleisher speaks about his neurological disorder focal dystonia and how he recovered the use of his right hand through a combination of Rolfing® SI and Botox® injections. There is a small segment showing him receiving Rolfing SI from Certified Advanced Rolfer™ Tessy Brungardt.
 
 

Leon Fleisher on PBS NewsHour

Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.

Fleisher, famous for first losing then regaining the use of his right hand, is featured in Nathaniel Kahn’s 2007 Academy Award nominated documentary film Two Hands.

Nathaniel Kahn’s documentary about Leon Fleisher Two Hands

Leon Fleisher – Two Hands from Thomas Duperre on Vimeo.

Oliver Sacks, MD also writes about Fleisher in his September 2008 revised and expanded national bestseller, Musicophilia. In 1964, Leon Fleisher was forced to give up performing having been stricken by a mysterious ailment that caused the fourth and fifth fingers of his right hand to curl under when he played.

Three decades later he was finally diagnosed with a neuromuscular movement disorder known as focal dystonia. Fleisher tried Botox treatments but needed additional help for his arm and hand which he found with Rolfing structural integration. The Rolfing manipulation was able to soften up the muscles and tendons in his arm which felt like petrified wood and release Fleisher’s right hand that had become so clenched he could not open it. By 1996 Fleisher was able to give a two-hand performance for the first time in 30 years. Below is a clip of Fleisher’s 1996 Dateline NBC interview with Jane Pauley.

Leon Fleisher on Dateline NBC

www.youtube.com/watch?v=STcSBkxB11o

A while ago I had an interesting conversation with David Rickey over at www.SoulsCode.com. You can read our conversation about “A History of Consciousness, and How to Live in Presence” here. The next day, as I was riding my bike immersed in the beauty of the intense yellow, wild, blooming mustard juxtaposed against the spring green grass and robin’s egg blue sky I realized I had something more I wanted to share around duality, the ego and conscious connection.

For many on the path of personal development the ego is viewed as something bad, something to transcend. However, I believe a well-functioning ego is essential to living a conscious, embodied, healthy life. My ideas about ego come from Bodynamic Analysis. They have a model of four ego aspects which is described below.

The Bodynamic system’s understanding of the ego operates with 4 ego aspects: body ego, individual ego, role ego and an observing ego. The body ego is the first ego aspect to be established, whereby we comprehend the world directly through our body senses and psychomotor experiences. The individual ego is established at 2 years of age and develops through individuation and separation processes. The individual ego is the part of us becoming aware of the fact that we as individuals are different from other individuals. The role ego starts developing when one is 3 years old. From then on we can adopt roles and apply them in a social context. Ideally, this new skill is established based on the sensation of being me in my body, and on acknowledging me as a separate individual. The 3 ego aspects are integrated in a healthy ego development. The observing ego has a purpose with respect to all 3 ego aspects. In this level of the ego, we can observe what we do while we are doing it. The ego, as we use the term, is the overarching and collective concept that includes all 4 ego aspects.¹

For me, this model works very well both personally and professionally. It has helped enhance my self-understanding as well as my understanding of others. It has also aided me in my own personal healing process.

I am not endeavoring to take on an explanation of the spiritual experience of union, or oneness except to acknowledge that it exists in a place outside of ego. Bodynamic sometimes refers to this place as the bigger Me.² I believe we can have blissful, spiritual experiences of oneness while we are physically embodied, but that attaining complete immersion into everything else is not a place a physical body can reside in permanently. Our bodies are not permanent.

For me, the development of the observing ego is what is key to creating a larger awareness of connection between ourselves and others. The observing ego helps me see the bigger picture rather than just my own personal needs. It helps me to have some space between my impulses and my actions. And, in a dualistic world, I believe this space is where we gain access to that sense of oneness with all life. In my experience, being able to contain in my own system two extreme opposites opened up a space inside me where energy could flow at great intensity. Holding those opposites at the same time kept me from flipping from one side of duality to its polar opposite. One of my teachers, Curandera Elena Avila, expressed this concept beautifully in a poem she wrote.

Woman That Glows In The Dark

I woke up to my illusions,
and now I can’t sleep.

I have no desires
and now I can’t eat
what you dish out to me.

I’ll stay awake forever if I have to.

I live in the crack of an egg.
In the space
between galaxies and earth mud.
Along the thin borders
of enlightenment and darkness.

I saw through the smoky mirror,
and my third eye winked at me!

Time is an illusion,
and eternity lives
in the cracks of everything
that is dualized.

I like living in the middle of
either/or
and gray is my color
in black/white.
I’m cozy in the nucleus of past/future and

I am the ember seed in light/dark.
I am Woman that Glows in the Dark.

I’ll stay awake forever
if I have to.³

Elena passed away this year. She was a mother, healer, teacher and woman of integrity. I am honored I had the privilege to apprentice with her.

Notes

1. Merete Holm Brantbjerg, Ditte Marcher, and Marianne Kristiansen, Resources in Coping With Shock, A Pathway to a Resource-Oriented Perspective on Shock Trauma (Copenhagen: Kreatik Publishing, 2006) p. 25.

2. Brantbjerg, Marcher and Kristiansen, pp. 25-31.

3. Elena Avila with Joy Parker, Woman Who Glows In The Dark (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1999) n. pag. opposite contents.

© Carole LaRochelle, 2009.

Do you suffer from back, knee or neck pain? Carpal tunnel syndrome? Interested in having better posture? Or, do you just want to feel more at home and graceful in your body?

If so, GOOD NEWS!

Rolfing® SI National Awareness Week is coming up May 14-22, 2011. Join me on Monday, May 16,  as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration and our 2nd Annual Rolfing® SI National Awareness Week. If you’ve ever had the notion to try this transformative form of bodywork now is the time to check it out.

On May 16 I’m offering complimentary, 30 minute, Rolfing SI mini-sessions that include a consultation, structural evaluation and some hands-on work. This is a fabulous opportunity to try Rolfing SI for the first time and get all your questions answered.

Call my San Francisco office at 415-547-0710 to schedule your session or go to my website www.RedwoodEmpireRolfing.com for online scheduling. Select my San Francisco office, May 16, and book a free 30-minute consultation. It’s that easy! This offer is limited to the first 12 people who sign up.

There is one major reason to take Rolfing SI seriously: it works. Not only can it dramatically change people’s bodies, it can transform their lives as well. Rolfing SI is powerful stuff. — Larry Dossey, MD

Benefits of Rolfing SI:

• Recover from an accident or injury
• Improve posture & balance
• Deepen pilates or yoga practices
• Re-pattern habitual ways of being & moving
• Increase flexibility
• Boost physical fitness & athletic performance
• Enhance body awareness

The effect Rolfing SI has had on my yoga practice is so remarkable I would make something up just to get on the table. — Sianna Sherman, Internationally Respected Anusara Yoga Teacher

The Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration has created Rolfing SI National Awareness Week to honor the legacy of Dr. Ida P. Rolf, who developed Rolfing SI over fifty years ago. During these nine days, Certified Rolfers™ throughout the United States will hold local events and activities to promote the benefits of Rolfing SI. The Rolf Institute, headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, will host an open house on Tuesday, May 17 at 5:30 p.m. featuring free Rolfing SI demonstrations to the general public along with the opportunity to meet renowned faculty and local Colorado Rolfers. More information about National Awareness Week is available at www.RolfingWeek.RolfingEvents.org.

Rolfing SI is a form of hands-on manipulation and education that systematically reorganizes the connective tissues, called fascia, to release, realign and balance the whole body. It may bring dramatic results, such as recovery from injury; reduction in chronic pain, including headache and back pain; improved ability to move with ease; reduction in physical and mental stress and tension; and increased balance and flexibility. Unique to the process is the incorporation of Rolf Movement® Integration which brings the structural work into activities of daily living allowing for greater ease and freedom throughout the body.

Since its inception in 1971, The Rolf Institute has trained and certified over 1700 Rolfers worldwide. The Rolf Institute, including its international sites, is the only organization that teaches Rolfing SI and graduates Rolfers™. Its rigorous training program is supported by an esteemed international faculty, some who trained directly with Dr. Ida P. Rolf, the school’s founder and developer of Rolfing SI.

Help spread the word about Rolfing SI National Awareness Week! Please share this post. You can use the simple Facebook tools on this site.

It’s been a fantastic three days for news coverage of Rolfing SI in the San Francisco Bay Area. First, on December 4, the San Jose Mercury News re-published the October 7, 2010, New York Times Style Section piece about Rolfing SI. Here are some highlights from the article.

Popular in the 1970s, Rolfing once evoked hairy-chested, New Age types seeking alternative therapies — perhaps most famously spoofed in the 1977 football movied “Semi-Tough,” starring Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson. Today, Rolfing is experiencing a resurgence, especially among younger city dwellers.

I found the clip from “Semi-Tough” the article refers to on YouTube. Here, actress Lotte Lenya (spoofing Ida Rolf, Ph.D.) plays Clara Pelf who’s professional corporation is named the “Institute of Muscular Harmony.” Near the end of the clip notice the sculpture to the left of the front door titled “The Unreconstructed Body.” Is this scene one of the reasons why Rolfing SI continues to be hindered by a reputation for being extremely painful? People, this is satire! Est, pyramid power, and Doman-Delacato Patterning are also parodied in the movie.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q3doiKoli0

Please excuse my veer off course, back to highlights from the New York Times article.

Russell Poses, a 39-year-0ld international equities trader on Wall Street, started getting Rolfing treatments after injuring his back. Chiropractors and years of physical therapy couldn’t accomplish what two or three Rolfing sessions did, he says. And he adds that he could still feel the results two weeks later. “It’s something that actually lasts,” he says.

The article also mentions the 2007 endorsement Rolfing SI received from cardiac surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

Then, on December 6, Rolfing SI was featured on NPR’s “Morning Edition.”  This piece titled “Rolfing Back In Vogue, But With Shaky Evidence” was produced by San Francisco’s own public radio station KQED with reporting by Sarah Varney. Varney took the time to actually examine some fascia at Stanford University’s cadaver lab.

It almost looks like the thin layer of white film you have after you debone a chicken and pull the skin off of it. If this person had bad posture or a chronic injury, Rolfers say the fascia would tighten, throwing off the person’s gait and possibly leading to lower back pain or other aches.

The story quotes UCSF physician Wolf Mehling as well as USC physical therapist Rob Landel who say not enough research has been done about Rolfing SI and that it “probably couldn’t stand up in a clinical trial.” This has touched off quite a response in the Rolfing community and I suggest you read the comments following the article.

For my part I will restate that Ida Rolf had Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Columbia University, and she worked as a Research Associate at Rockefeller Institute from 1919 to 1927 during which time she published fifteen research articles. One of the primary missions of The Rolf Institute is to promote programs of research in Rolfing Structural Integration. To that end The Rolf Institute is a proud sponsor of the Fascia Research Congress and also supports the Ida P. Rolf Research Foundation.

Here is a list of resources I have compiled about Rolfing SI and fascia research.

The Rolf Institute’s own guide to available research.

The Ida P. Rolf Research Foundation

Fascia Research Congress

Cell Biology Meets Rolfing – Science Magazine

Rolfing structural integration treatment of cervical spine dysfunction

Fascia Research Project at Ulm University

Reversal of repetitive motion strain via manual therapy

About 3 hours ago Adrian Peterson NFL running back for the Minnesota Vikings tweeted this about Rolfing SI from his BlackBerry®.

Adrian Peterson

Hello twitter world! I’m at my rolfing session right now! And its wonderful for the body, but its PAINFUL!

Here’s more about how the Minnesota Vikings use Rolfing® SI to help them get ready for the game and recover from injury.

I recently spent some time at Esalen® Institute and while there picked up a copy of Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion by Jeffrey J. Kripal. This book recounts the fascinating formation and history of Esalen Institute, the 1960s epicenter of the human potential movement. Many people are familiar with the deep connections between Ida Rolf, Ph.D., founder and developer of Rolfing® Structural Integration and Esalen. (In fact the institute still has a meeting room named after Rolf.) What I wasn’t familiar with, up to now, was the connection between Swedish scientist turned religious writer, Emanuel Swedenborg, and Esalen. After all, Swedenborg lived between 1688 and 1772; centuries before Richard Price and Michael Murphy, founders of Esalen, were even born.

As these sort of synchronistic events go, I received notice in my email this week of a newly published article by Theodore Jordan in the International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine titled “Swedenborg’s influence on Sutherland’s ‘Primary Respiratory Mechanism’ model in cranial osteopathy.” Now there’s been an oral tradition in Rolfing SI (passed down to me) that Ida Rolf knew of, or had a copy of a rare book by Swedenborg titled The Brain. It had effected her thinking on the importance of cranial work in the structural integration process. In the Rolfing community we are highly cognizant of how Dr. Rolf’s thinking was influenced by her practice of yoga, the study of biochemistry, and treatments and training from pioneer osteopaths.

Jordan explains the connection between Swedenborg’s book and William Sutherland, DO, developer of cranial osteopathy, and how surprisingly Dr. Rolf carried on an oral tradition of that connection.

The connection between William Sutherland, DO and Swedenborg’s book, The Brain, is described by a person with close ties to osteopathy: Ida Rolf, PhD (1896–1979). Dr Rolf is best known as the creator of ‘structural integration,’ known commonly as ‘Rolfing.’ Structural integration is a unique form of deep bodywork that focuses on the remolding of the connective tissue of the body with the goal of restoring body symmetry and alignment.

While Ida Rolf was developing her approach to structural integration, she was known to have had an excellent rapport with a number of osteopathic physicians with whom she shared, discussed and demonstrated her ideas. For example, David Patriquin, DO, in a personal communication, described how she presented her ideas at an osteopathic conference in New York in 1955.

Ida Rolf stated in several lectures that she knew Dr William Sutherland and in a transcribed lecture, she told the audience how she learned about Sutherland’s methods after being hired as his secretary. Rolfing instructor Jim Asher reported she often showed off a signed copy of Sutherland’s book, The Cranial Bowl, that was dedicated warmly to her.

It was probably through her contacts with various osteopaths that Ida Rolf heard rumors that Dr Sutherland’s ideas were inspired by the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Ida Rolf even went so far as to identify that the book used was Rudolf Tafel’s translation of Swedenborg’s The Brain. In a taped lecture to one of her advanced structural integration classes, Ida Rolf described this connection to the students:

[Tafel] made a translation which is pretty hard to get. And there are books [by Swedenborg], the titles of which are the Animal Kingdom, and the Economy of the Animal Kingdom, and those are not the same books …. And then there are these books, The Brain. Now The Brain is an impossible thing to get a hold of. Originally there were 6 copies, (or was it 4?) printed, and that’s all. Old … Sutherland had one of those. And when somebody accused him, or suggested to him, ‘Oh I see where you got some of your ideas,’ that book disappeared. And it hasn’t reappeared. Even after his death it hasn’t reappeared ….

Ida Rolf may have exaggerated the scarcity of this book (there were obviously many more than six copies published), but she is correct that Sutherland’s model seems to borrow heavily from the proposed physiology as described in The Brain.

To read more about the connection between Swedenborg and Sutherland I refer you to David Fuller’s “Swedenborg’s Brain and Sutherland’s Cranial Concept” from the Swedenborg Scientific Association.

So how was Swedenborg’s influence felt at Esalen through a separate line of transmission than Ida Rolf? Well, Kripal says Esalen was impacted by two different but connected psychological lineages:

the psychoanalytic stream, which focused on various mystical, occult, and erotic understandings of energy; and the gestalt stream, which focused on the nature, creative constructions, and awakening of consciousness.

Kripal sees the Swedenborg influence come in through the psychoanalytic or energy stream.

. . . Swedenborg became fascinated with the correspondences he saw in altered visionary states between spiritual union, sexual union, and the intellectual life.

This may sound a bit like Tantra and it is likely Swedenborg was exposed to Asian Tantric cultures. He wrote of a mystical energy, called influx, “that permeated the entire universe and descended into his own being in moments of inspiration.” This has much in common with the early hypnotic healers of the 18th and 19th century who used something called animal magnetism to induce trance, altered states of consciousness, and healing. It is this lineage of access to the sacred through the body, through the arousal of a certain type of energy that alters consciousness which gave rise to the psychological model of unconscious and conscious levels of the mind. Indeed, Freud himself had experimented with hypnosis later to abandon it for the “talking cure” eventually to become what we know today as psychoanalysis.

It is this lineage Kripal speaks to:

. . . much of modern psychological thought—that modern “soul-talk” (psyche-logos)—is structured around what are essentially secularized versions of what were once esoteric practices and altered states of energy. Much of Esalen’s history, particularly its rich psychological culture, is simply incomprehensible without a very clear awareness of this historical fact.

And that is how 18th century Swedish scientist turned Christian mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg, in search of the underlying unity between the physical, spiritual and divine worlds influenced osteopathy, Rolfing SI and the flowering of the human potential movement at Esalen Institute during the 1960s. Thank you Jeffrey Kripal for enlightening me!

I found so much material in the process of writing this first piece, I needed to write a second. Please read More Connections Between Emanuel Swedenborg, Ida Rolf & William Sutherland, DO.

© Carole LaRochelle, 2009.

On October 15, 2010 Jan Sultan, Rolf Institute Faculty member trained by Dr. Ida Rolf herself, and Rey Allen, Certified Advanced Rolfer™ participated in a short segment featuring Rolfing® Structural Integration on The Today Show with Kathie Lee & Hoda.

This segment comes on the heels of last week’s New York Times Style Section article about Rolfing SI which featured an interview with Rey Allen.

What a wonderful opportunity to expose our work to a wider audience. I hope you will tune in to watch and tell your friends, who may be interested in Rolfing SI, about this exciting event.

Update: The segment ended up being extremely abbreviated. It seems they ran out of time at the end of the show. Let’s give Kathie Lee & Hoda some feedback that the public is quite interested in learning more about this work, and would like to see a longer segment about Rolfing SI. Please go to their Facebook page and leave a note saying as much.

Here’s the clip of the segment from the msnbc website.

To celebrate the very first Rolfing® Structural Integration National Awareness Week, September 18-26, 2010, I am offering the public a chance to experience a FREE 30 minute mini Rolfing SI session at my San Francisco office on Monday, September 20 as well as at my Santa Rosa office on Friday, September 24.*

This is a fabulous opportunity to try Rolfing SI for the first time! Let’s meet each other. Receive a structural evaluation and consultation. Experience first hand how Rolfing SI addresses problems such as carpal tunnel syndrome and limited neck mobility.

Benefits of Rolfing SI:

• Recover from an accident or injury
• Improve posture & balance
• Deepen pilates or yoga practices
• Re-pattern habitual ways of being & moving
• Increase flexibility
• Boost physical fitness & athletic performance
• Enhance body awareness

Here is how it works, simply phone my office to schedule your mini-session or go to my scheduling website:

www.Redwood-Empire-Rolfing.Genbook.com

select my San Francisco office for September 20 or my Santa Rosa office for September 24, and book a free 30-minute consultation. It’s that easy!

The Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration has created Rolfing SI National Awareness Week to honor the legacy of Dr. Ida P. Rolf, who developed Rolfing SI over fifty years ago. During these nine days, Certified Rolfers™ throughout the United States will hold local events and activities to promote the benefits of Rolfing SI. The Rolf Institute, headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, will host an open house on Thursday, September 23 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. featuring free Rolfing SI demonstrations to the general public along with the opportunity to meet renowned faculty and local Colorado Rolfers. More information about National Awareness Week is available at www.RolfingWeek.RolfingEvents.org.

Rolfing SI is a form of hands-on manipulation and education that systematically reorganizes the connective tissues, called fascia, to release, realign and balance the whole body. It may bring dramatic results, such as recovery from injury; reduction in chronic pain, including headache and back pain; improved ability to move with ease; reduction in physical and mental stress and tension; and increased balance and flexibility. Unique to the process is the incorporation of Rolf Movement® Integration which brings the structural work into activities of daily living allowing for greater ease and freedom throughout the body.

Since its inception in 1971, The Rolf Institute has trained and certified over 1700 Rolfers worldwide. The Rolf Institute, including its international sites, is the only organization that teaches Rolfing SI and graduates Rolfers™. Its rigorous training program is supported by an esteemed international faculty, some who trained directly with Dr. Ida P. Rolf, the school’s founder and developer of Rolfing SI.

*Discounted 3 and 10 session packages offered to those who come in for a Rolfing mini-session on September 20 or 24.

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© Carole LaRochelle, 2010.