Christine Sander 1/26/08
Ida Rolf, Fascia, Gravity, the Humunculus and the Force of Life
It is not easy to deal with these multiple aspects in one paper. It is impossible to even begin to grasp them seperately. They are connected and interdependent. This fact informs the format of humuncu.li's first editorial, chosen as well to get to the point quickly.
How come a person who learns to sing the Feldenkrais way, finds inside himself the skill to improvise? As if suddenly in touch with the physics of sound and music? How explain the improvement of social skills after a treatment according to the concepts of Ida Rolf, which after all clearly is „only“ bodily? Leave alone the new awareness of three dimensional space, of purpose and harmony in life.
How explain – to dare a leap into history – the unequalled appearance of Greek classical art after the discovery of the One God’ unhiddenness in pre-Socratic times. Classical art’s rediscovery in European Renaissance. The simultanious occurance of Luther’s literary liberation of the New Testament, Melachton’s input in education, Lucas Cranach’s Northern Renaissance art and – of all things – Christopher Columbus’ first step towards globalisation.
An understanding of fascia, this un-appealing bodily mass, which butchers cut away when preparing meat for consumption, seems to hold promise. Knowledge of its biology and structure may provide clues to the astounding successes of the Rolfing process. The existance of a living, breathing, feeling matrix, there to envelop and support the “human machine“, while serving as a medium and filter for all kinds of „flowing activities“, not the least effective interior communication, makes more sense than its absence.
And yet it says nothing about gravity’s part in the human body. We know the force of gravity very well. It in fact equals what is more commonly known as weight. Take anything, lift it, and you know the force of gravity. However, – we humans are not aware of our own weight. The pull of gravity on a body you become aware of only when lifting a lifeless body. And yet - we are aware of lightness. Of situations and states of mind that make us fly. In equitation there is the famous French term „La légèreté“. And all who have experienced it will go for nothing less.
All things considered it looks like Einstein may have come closest to what here is referred to, with his equation of mass and energy. Does an energy exist that checks and balances gravity? What about the body’s ability to filter gravity and its suspected counterpart? The body’s ability to use gravity for its own needs and for uplifting? What and where in the human body does this process take place? The direction of the human vertebra in respect to gravity may hint at the answer. The upright human sensory-motory system, at its crown the humunculus. Is that the lead?
I remember the day when the wife of our beloved pastor in a Washington D.C. suburban church spotted me in the crowd and summoned me. Putting one hand on my forehead, with the other grabbing my back and shaking me, I feel to this day the root of my tongue come alive to speak a language, which no way I might have learned otherwise.
What happened in my sensory-motor system just then? What enabled me to speak in tongues? Did the humunculus on the surface of my brain change that very moment ? Speaking in tongues is a minor gift, and yet in thirty years of faith it has helped me to live, pray and make sense of life; the Holy Spirit coming alongside.
Where does this take us? There is a mysterious – yes ... -, but not secret interdependance of the upright human body, earth, gravity and physical, historical life, in all its unfathonable detail. There are scientific finds and literary sources which speak of it. And there is the inherent call to understand physical reality.
We, here at humuncu.li, will do our best to add to this understanding.