Rolfing (sessions)

Rolfing was a form of bodywork therapy offered in sessions in Pune One by various practitioners, including Rakesh. It was developed by Ida Rolf. The Community to Provoke God brochure had this as a brief description:

Rolfing is a form of structurally re-ordering the body to bring the major segments -- head, shoulders, thorax, pelvis and legs -- into vertical alignment. It also brings the body into graceful and efficient balance relative to the field of gravity. In a carefully worked-out sequence of deep manipulations, the rolfer reverses the constricting, tightening influence of the inevitable environmental conditioning on the tissues, giving the body back its natural symmetry and balance. Emotional blocks and physical tensions are released simultaneously and energy is able to flow freely and effectively.

And from an entry in a Darshan Diary, Nothing to Lose but Your Head (Mar 1 1976), Osho talks to a sannyasin who feels pain all over her body, and to whom he is assigning a ten-session course of Rolfing:

Rolfing is nothing but making the tissues loose. On a few points on the body the musculature takes a certain shape. If somebody has been worrying continuously, then the body takes a certain musculature which is adjusted to worrying. Then worries may disappear but the musculature remains and it will feel heavy, painful. Its function is no more there, and the body does not know how to dissolve it. If you don’t do anything about it, it will dissolve by and by but it will take a long time. But why wait?

Through Rolfing it can be dissolved by pressure. The musculature disappears, and you will feel almost as new in the body as you are feeling in the mind. Then a new adjustment arises again -- at a higher stage.

It is going to be painful, that's certain. It will be really painful, mm? because the whole of the past is accumulated in the body, and the musculature has to be melted, reabsorbed in the body. That reabsorption is painful, but it pays. And after Rolfing you will feel very very good. So you just do it ... nothing to worry about.

Maneesha adds:

Rolfing, or Structural Integration, is a deep and very heavy massage which, as Bhagwan describes, works on the soft tissues of the body, releasing tension in the muscles and allowing the body to find its natural shape.

As the work progresses, usually in courses of ten sessions, there is much emotional catharsis, as material that has been suppressed for years is released. The technique in itself is extremely powerful. With the addition of daily meditations, and the effect of Bhagwan, its potential is increased dramatically.

Bhagwan has also said that it is helpful to have someone who meditates to rolf one, as he will reach deeper layers in his work, as he has gone deeper into himself. The sannyasin who gives Rolfing here, and who has been trained by Dr Ida Rolf, is assisted by other sannyasins in this work.

Rolfing seems to be another good example of many in the Human Potential Movement where founders and/or innovators and/or those close to them see the limitations of their work, ie lacking the innermost "work" of meditation,and find their way to Osho.

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