R
O L F I N G
THE
VERTICAL --- EXPERIENTIAL SIDE
TO HUMAN POTENTIAL
By: Ida
P. Rolf, Ph.D.
Blackwood, New Jersey
March, 1977
Like so many teachers,
some of them very close to home, I like to complain that people do not seem to
understand my basic goals, the fundamental purpose for which ROLFING
has been developed. In an effort to lessen this type of frustration, I offer the
following summary of ROLFING developments, purposes,
and ideas.
First, let me reiterate what I have often said before: I as an individual am not
primarily interested in the relief of symptoms, either physical or mental. To
hear Rolfees tell of their
“wonderful,” “unbelievable” symptom alleviation, it is
hard not to accept this assessment as a goal. However, I am interested in
human potential, and human potential per se neither includes or excludes the palliation of
symptoms.
As of today, ROLFING is accepted as being one of the
most basic, one of the most reliable means of developing whatever potential is latent in
any given human, psychological as well as physical. By what route did ROLFING reach this particular eminence?
We assume that human beings are, as a species, evolving toward verticality.
What are the intellectual considerations which can speed us on our way toward
understanding the value of this verticality?
There can be no argument that the bony structure is
less subject to capricious change than soft tissue. Rolfers
have heard me say over and over that the bones, per se, are however, not the basic
determinants of body structure. Bones are where they are and as they are to separate
and stabilize the softer tissues which, in point of fact, play the more significant role
in physical organization. Never-the-less, bones are fundamental, relatively stable
elements of structure. As we observe the blueprint of the bones, it becomes
increasingly apparent that the softer tissues need to be in certain patterned relations to
each other for the bones to perform their role most effectively as separating and relating
elements.
Now, the $64,000 question which I asked many years
ago, and to which I am still seeking an answer, is this: What kind of
organism will develop if these body parts are appropriately related?
What happens when soft tissue and related bone structure actually function in the
positions in space which their architectural design suggests as most appropriate and which
contributes must effectively to establishing the vertical? The vertical
in man’s structure is the outcome of his proprioceptive, sensory appreciation of the
Gravity pull of the earth. Whether consciously or unconsciously, he
feels this pull and responds to it. This is a subtle concept: the intellectual
formulation arises out of the sensory awareness.
Man’s appreciation
of the vertical evolves from
his sense of the Gravity pull of the earth.
We as a generation have begun to take this touchstone into all parts of the world of
ideas, evaluating the validity of a concept in sensory terms, in the light of information
from our senses as well as from our intellects.
Up to this point in time, humans have always developed and
still live within the gravity pull of the earth. They must
make their peace with this energy field, whatever it is. To the
extent that they fail to make peace and mistakenly carry on a war,
Gravity wins every time. The energy of this field can enhance or dissipate the
energy of the individual man.
You can not change the energy field, but you can change the man. |
The question remains; to what extent could ROLFERS create a small population able to live within the
Gravity field without an ongoing, everlasting war, without the constant expenditure of
precious human energy merely to carry on life within the Gravity field? If we could create
such a population, what would be its characteristics? I am not interested solely in
physical structure, although that is really of basic importance especially in terms of
physiological well-being. What will be the psychological
characteristics, the behavior both of the individual and of a group composed of such
individuals? How would these more vertical individuals
compare with the physically random majority of less conscious humans who tread the surface
of the earth today?
Is it perhaps too
far-fetched to wonder whether one of the tap-roots of human aggression and its
underlying fear, may be the continuous sense of insecurity which random humans
unconsciously feel with reference to their environment – the Gravity Field?
| This emotional response is called forth very early in
life, probably with the first attempt at verticality (standing), and certainly with the
first walking steps. Many psychological and behavioral aberrations arise from
causes less basic than this. |
Be that as it may, I see no means of gaining an answer to this suggestive and really
important question in the abstract. The answer will come when we can create such a
population and observe it through a long-term period. At this
point, we are justified only in looking with satisfaction at the reports coming in from
people who have experienced some approach to the integrating vertical. The
appropriate integration of the bodies of man in the Gravity Field is a long-term
evolutionary project. Not even the first page has been turned yet.
It is possible that we are seeing the
first conscious attempt
at self-evolution that any species has ever evidenced. |
The
words ROLFING, ROLFER, and
ROLFEE are the property of the Rolf Institute.The
term, ROLFING, was a nickname that early client/patients gave
to the work. From the word Rolfing, the word Rolfer
was coined as a nickname for the Rolf Practitioner, and the recipient of the rolfing work
became known as a Rolfee.
   
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