Something Completely Different
Elvis has left the building ... Elvis is back!
You may remember in Rolf World when the road forked and some stayed the traditional course, while others opening to principle-based innovation(s).*
I’m an innovator. But, I’ve left them all in the dust. Those old fashioned “Fascia Mashers”, off you go to the dustbin of history. Heck, took a quantum leap from those who “hold to higher standards”. Next, next level.
Progress. You're either on the way, or you're in the way. What's it gonna be boy? You gonna have to sleep on it?
Fascia. It’s something, yes? Everywhere in the body, from the skin all the way to the bones. To the cell walls, if I read the science correctly. Every last of one them, to be sure. And, everywhere in between. A three dimensional matrix of shape, relationship, support, continuity, and pathway of neural and metabolic communication. This "Organ of Structure" is connected throughout forming a continuous felted-like woven web of supportive collagen protein fibers. Turns out that old ditty “The Head Bone Connected to the Toe Bone” ... well, turns out it’s true!
Let me ask you this. When did we decide, and who had the bright idea to mark just where the Fascial connections end? Outside, on the surface of the skin? Well, science doesn’t [yet] measure outside that parameter, so we talk for convenience in terms of the skin being the boundary.
Fascia. It’s something, yes? Everywhere in the body, from the skin all the way to the bones. To the cell walls, if I read the science correctly. Every last of one them, to be sure. And, everywhere in between. A three dimensional matrix of shape, relationship, support, continuity, and pathway of neural and metabolic communication. This "Organ of Structure" is connected throughout forming a continuous felted-like woven web of supportive collagen protein fibers. Turns out that old ditty “The Head Bone Connected to the Toe Bone” ... well, turns out it’s true!
Let me ask you this. When did we decide, and who had the bright idea to mark just where the Fascial connections end? Outside, on the surface of the skin? Well, science doesn’t [yet] measure outside that parameter, so we talk for convenience in terms of the skin being the boundary.
But, what if, like the trees and plants, our facial connection extends beneath the surface of the Earth, going down deep, like roots. Maybe even to the center of it? Certainly not with actual physical fibers; but, energetic. Isn’t the weightiness of the feet on the ground a sort of measure of that connectedness? Okay, that’s Gravity, you say. Well, yeah. But, isn’t the Fascia of the actual physical body itself under the influence of Gravity. The Life Force of the body creates the responding [to the pull of Gravity] tension in the span of the connective tissues. Bone up on your "Tensegrity" if you don’t know what I’m talking about. Think of the weight sense on/in the feet as a kind of tension. Use your imagination. Think of Gravity as the Fascial network of the Universe. It glues you to the ground. Feel it from that POV.
After all, isn't it what we do in Rolf Structural Integration: Re-imagine the body? You may wonder, if that's so, then wouldn't the body itself be a thing imagined in the first place? That's above my pay grade. Look elsewhere for the answer to that. Just know ... it's out there. Easy to find.
Also consider the other, topmost side, of the vertical human structure. Is it too far fetched to consider how the hair itself, as it grows upward and outward, is a fascial extension connecting humans to the heavens, the center of the Universe? Energetically. But, more rarified and subtle than the downward, more tangible weighty and definitely palpable energetic connections to the Earth. Can’t prove the concept. But, as a percept, it’s a tangible experience. Stand centered on a line anchored to the center of the Earth and extending out to the infinite expanse of the Universe ... to the center of the Universe?
So, hear this. Here’s my bright innovation:
If the Fascia is fully connected to the skin ... what about the hair? Of course! Eureka! It was there all along in plain sigh! Too obvious maybe to even notice. Like Ida Rolf talked about how Gravity is so there there that we don’t notice it. Or, God. But, that's above my pay grade. At least to discourse with you's. Where is Gravity? Short answer ... right under your nose. Look down at those ten toes in front of two feet. Then feel it. Dig it?
Also consider the other, topmost side, of the vertical human structure. Is it too far fetched to consider how the hair itself, as it grows upward and outward, is a fascial extension connecting humans to the heavens, the center of the Universe? Energetically. But, more rarified and subtle than the downward, more tangible weighty and definitely palpable energetic connections to the Earth. Can’t prove the concept. But, as a percept, it’s a tangible experience. Stand centered on a line anchored to the center of the Earth and extending out to the infinite expanse of the Universe ... to the center of the Universe?
So, hear this. Here’s my bright innovation:
If the Fascia is fully connected to the skin ... what about the hair? Of course! Eureka! It was there all along in plain sigh! Too obvious maybe to even notice. Like Ida Rolf talked about how Gravity is so there there that we don’t notice it. Or, God. But, that's above my pay grade. At least to discourse with you's. Where is Gravity? Short answer ... right under your nose. Look down at those ten toes in front of two feet. Then feel it. Dig it?
Get a load of this: Gravity, Einstein concluded, is the shape of what most people would casually think of as nothing. Some nothing, huh?
Think of it compared to Massage. Massage is like a blow dry and a comb out. Lasts ... a little while. Then you wake up the next morning. Well, you know. The Wronskification® is more like a permanent wave. Just remember those fascial connections! Pull on those follicles and their hearts and minds will follow.
Just to whet your appetite a bit ... the 13th session mainly looks like taking a twist of hair from the topmost of the head and pulling directly vertical while the recipient is sitting and then standing.
As for principles! One principal indicator of proper tension on those curlers is you know it’s too tight if the toes curl. That, and tears; well, that’s way too. There is an art to it. But, it’s simple. When you come to my school, that is. We say, “If you can roll up a slice of Ham, you can do this!”
Interested? Let me know.
THE Wronskification® and THE Wronski® and THE Wronskified® are registered trademarks of the THE Wronski School of Fascial Extensibility and Wavelike Tensional Facility. THEWSFEWTF.
My new revolutionary approach can be rather technical for some. I now teach it in a recipe format consisting of 13 sessions — yes, 13 ... so as to distinguish it from the 10’s, the 11’s, and 12’s. A proscribed series of follicular manipulation and movement coiffure orientation.
Yes, you got it right from the photo. Rollers are skillfully used to 1. Place specified tensions on strands of hairs and their corresponding fascial pathways. And, 2. Curled in directions according to the recommended progress of the recipe though the sessions. There's your "Anatomy Trains"; and now, there's your "rocket" to the stars.
Think of it compared to Massage. Massage is like a blow dry and a comb out. Lasts ... a little while. Then you wake up the next morning. Well, you know. The Wronskification® is more like a permanent wave. Just remember those fascial connections! Pull on those follicles and their hearts and minds will follow.
Just to whet your appetite a bit ... the 13th session mainly looks like taking a twist of hair from the topmost of the head and pulling directly vertical while the recipient is sitting and then standing.
As for principles! One principal indicator of proper tension on those curlers is you know it’s too tight if the toes curl. That, and tears; well, that’s way too. There is an art to it. But, it’s simple. When you come to my school, that is. We say, “If you can roll up a slice of Ham, you can do this!”
Interested? Let me know.
THE Wronskification® and THE Wronski® and THE Wronskified® are registered trademarks of the THE Wronski School of Fascial Extensibility and Wavelike Tensional Facility. THEWSFEWTF.
We say, “Sure, have your higher standards, your dogged traditions ... THE Wronski goes for the top!”
NB: State Bureau of Cosmetology and Hairstyling board licensure may be required.
* In 1989 a cadre of Dr. Ida P. Rolf's original teachers departed association with her founding school, the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration. They resurrected the original earlier Guild for Structural Integration as a teaching organization to preserve the basic original approach to the work. Sort of like making sure Aunty Ida's orginal recipe card is kept safe in the tin box in the kitchen. The Rolf Institute is now named the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute. Is it me or does it seem ironic and reversed that the traditional teaching of Dr. Rolf's definitive and peerless work is now taught somewhere other than her founding school? The Dr. Ida Rolf Institute — "We Hold to Higher Standards®" — does teach Dr. Rolf's method; evidently, though, with "improvements". That is, they're open to adding in techniques from other modalities, and feature a "principle-based" approach which suits the now more Post Modern Relatavistic times. Whatever works seems to be the ethos. This schism is nothing new to what happens after the founder leaves the building. Ah, duality! As for me, I'm a traditionalist. There's a whole conversation about the distinctions ... but, for another time.
NB: State Bureau of Cosmetology and Hairstyling board licensure may be required.
* In 1989 a cadre of Dr. Ida P. Rolf's original teachers departed association with her founding school, the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration. They resurrected the original earlier Guild for Structural Integration as a teaching organization to preserve the basic original approach to the work. Sort of like making sure Aunty Ida's orginal recipe card is kept safe in the tin box in the kitchen. The Rolf Institute is now named the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute. Is it me or does it seem ironic and reversed that the traditional teaching of Dr. Rolf's definitive and peerless work is now taught somewhere other than her founding school? The Dr. Ida Rolf Institute — "We Hold to Higher Standards®" — does teach Dr. Rolf's method; evidently, though, with "improvements". That is, they're open to adding in techniques from other modalities, and feature a "principle-based" approach which suits the now more Post Modern Relatavistic times. Whatever works seems to be the ethos. This schism is nothing new to what happens after the founder leaves the building. Ah, duality! As for me, I'm a traditionalist. There's a whole conversation about the distinctions ... but, for another time.
