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Ida Rolf Talks About Rolfing and Physical Reality
Ida Rolf Talks About Rolfing and Physical Reality [Jun 01, 1979] Feitis, Rosemary
Paperback
First published March 28, 1979
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May 23, 2024
AN EXCELLENT EXPLANATION OF ROLFING BY ITS CREATOR
Ida Pauline Rolf (1896-1979) was a biochemist, best known as the creator of Structural Integration or ‘Rolfing.’
Editor Rosemary Feitis wrote in her helpful Introduction to this 1978 book, “I first met Ida Rolf at Esalen ten years ago… the ‘human potential movement’ was then just beginning to hit its stride… Showing your work at Esalen could either make your reputation or break it---Esalen was always a turning point. This was equally true for Rolfing. Ida Rolf had been … teaching all across the United States and in Canada and England since the 1950s. Yet it was only after she began at Esalen that Rolfing became widely known, the subject of much notices and some controversy. The people who came to Esalen for workshops stayed to get Rolfed…. Eventually… Rolfing outgrew Esalen and moved out into the world.” (Pg. 1)
Rolf told Feitis in an interview, “As a young woman, I had been struck by a horse’s hoof … my mother took me to a blind osteopath… It was unusual to go to an osteopath at the time; there was still a great deal of controversy going on between the medics and the osteopaths and they were not accepted at all. I got to be friends with [the osteopath], and I became interested in the theory of osteopathy---that structure determines function.” (Pg. 5)
She continues, “Osteopathy and homeopathy were known to Dr Rolf, and contributed to her early understanding of the body. But the cornerstone of her thinking was yoga … All through the 1920s, she belonged to a group that practiced yoga asanas (positions) and held meetings and lectures and discussions. Her teacher then was an American Pierre Bernard, who maintained a beautiful center for yoga instruction in … New York…” (Pg. 7)
She states, “if Rolfing was to live beyond [Ida Rolf’s] lifetime, she would have to teach. But all her early attempts at teaching were unsatisfactory. When she taught osteopaths and chiropractors, they were liable to see her work as a technique rather than a point of view. This kind of cooption was not only an affront to Dr. Rolf’s originality, it was also a total misunderstanding of her intention. [She] was not interested in curing symptoms, she was after bigger game. She wanted nothing less than to create new, better human beings. The ills would cure themselves, the symptoms would melt as the organisms became balanced.” (Pg. 13-14)
Dr. Valerie Hunt of the UCLA Movement Behavior Lab… used electrodes measuring muscle potential at various locations… it showed that Rolfing changes could be monitored on several dimensions, one of which was the ‘energy body,’ and that these dimensions were consistent with each other. Furthermore, the Rolfing process was used as an opportunity to show that the perceptions of an aura reader were correlated with other measurements of physical change.” (Pg. 22-23)
In an essay on Rolfing in the ‘Psychotherapy Handbook,’ Rolf wrote: “Rolfing is nor primarily a psychotherapeutic approach to the problems of humans, but the effect it has had on the human psyche has been so noteworthy that many people insist on so regarding it. Rolfing is an approach to the personality through the myofascial collagen components of the physical body. It integrates and balances the so-called ‘other bodies’ of man, metaphysically described as astral and etheric…The amazing psychological changes that appeared in Rolfed individuals were completely unexpected. They inevitably suggest that behavior on any level reflects directly the physical energy level of the initiating physical structure … Rolfing postulates on the basis of observation that a human is basically an energy field operating in the greater energy of the earth; particularly significant is that energy known as the gravitational field… following Rolfing, a man’s greater awareness suggests to him that his energy has been increased. In fact, Rolfing has simply free his energy, made it more available. His greater structural competence makes it possible to utilize his energy more efficiently.” (Pg. 26-27)
She states: “This is the gospel of Rolfing: When the body gets working appropriately, the force of gravity can flow through. Then, spontaneously, the body heals itself.” (Pg. 31)
Later, she says, “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 and reinforce the body’s energy field. This is our primary concept.” (Pg. 86)
She summarizes, “After all is said and done, Rolfing is building on the pioneering work that the osteopaths did, on their fighting that went on for the first forty years of this century. In those days, respected medical authority was ready to hang any man who said you could get better health from the sacroiliac joint… Now their information is taught over a wide part of medical education.” (Pg. 170)
This book will be “must reading” for anyone seriously studying Rolfing.
Ida Pauline Rolf (1896-1979) was a biochemist, best known as the creator of Structural Integration or ‘Rolfing.’
Editor Rosemary Feitis wrote in her helpful Introduction to this 1978 book, “I first met Ida Rolf at Esalen ten years ago… the ‘human potential movement’ was then just beginning to hit its stride… Showing your work at Esalen could either make your reputation or break it---Esalen was always a turning point. This was equally true for Rolfing. Ida Rolf had been … teaching all across the United States and in Canada and England since the 1950s. Yet it was only after she began at Esalen that Rolfing became widely known, the subject of much notices and some controversy. The people who came to Esalen for workshops stayed to get Rolfed…. Eventually… Rolfing outgrew Esalen and moved out into the world.” (Pg. 1)
Rolf told Feitis in an interview, “As a young woman, I had been struck by a horse’s hoof … my mother took me to a blind osteopath… It was unusual to go to an osteopath at the time; there was still a great deal of controversy going on between the medics and the osteopaths and they were not accepted at all. I got to be friends with [the osteopath], and I became interested in the theory of osteopathy---that structure determines function.” (Pg. 5)
She continues, “Osteopathy and homeopathy were known to Dr Rolf, and contributed to her early understanding of the body. But the cornerstone of her thinking was yoga … All through the 1920s, she belonged to a group that practiced yoga asanas (positions) and held meetings and lectures and discussions. Her teacher then was an American Pierre Bernard, who maintained a beautiful center for yoga instruction in … New York…” (Pg. 7)
She states, “if Rolfing was to live beyond [Ida Rolf’s] lifetime, she would have to teach. But all her early attempts at teaching were unsatisfactory. When she taught osteopaths and chiropractors, they were liable to see her work as a technique rather than a point of view. This kind of cooption was not only an affront to Dr. Rolf’s originality, it was also a total misunderstanding of her intention. [She] was not interested in curing symptoms, she was after bigger game. She wanted nothing less than to create new, better human beings. The ills would cure themselves, the symptoms would melt as the organisms became balanced.” (Pg. 13-14)
Dr. Valerie Hunt of the UCLA Movement Behavior Lab… used electrodes measuring muscle potential at various locations… it showed that Rolfing changes could be monitored on several dimensions, one of which was the ‘energy body,’ and that these dimensions were consistent with each other. Furthermore, the Rolfing process was used as an opportunity to show that the perceptions of an aura reader were correlated with other measurements of physical change.” (Pg. 22-23)
In an essay on Rolfing in the ‘Psychotherapy Handbook,’ Rolf wrote: “Rolfing is nor primarily a psychotherapeutic approach to the problems of humans, but the effect it has had on the human psyche has been so noteworthy that many people insist on so regarding it. Rolfing is an approach to the personality through the myofascial collagen components of the physical body. It integrates and balances the so-called ‘other bodies’ of man, metaphysically described as astral and etheric…The amazing psychological changes that appeared in Rolfed individuals were completely unexpected. They inevitably suggest that behavior on any level reflects directly the physical energy level of the initiating physical structure … Rolfing postulates on the basis of observation that a human is basically an energy field operating in the greater energy of the earth; particularly significant is that energy known as the gravitational field… following Rolfing, a man’s greater awareness suggests to him that his energy has been increased. In fact, Rolfing has simply free his energy, made it more available. His greater structural competence makes it possible to utilize his energy more efficiently.” (Pg. 26-27)
She states: “This is the gospel of Rolfing: When the body gets working appropriately, the force of gravity can flow through. Then, spontaneously, the body heals itself.” (Pg. 31)
Later, she says, “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 and reinforce the body’s energy field. This is our primary concept.” (Pg. 86)
She summarizes, “After all is said and done, Rolfing is building on the pioneering work that the osteopaths did, on their fighting that went on for the first forty years of this century. In those days, respected medical authority was ready to hang any man who said you could get better health from the sacroiliac joint… Now their information is taught over a wide part of medical education.” (Pg. 170)
This book will be “must reading” for anyone seriously studying Rolfing.
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