"Gravity Ace" Q&A [3]
“GRAVITY ACE” [“GA”]: It’s an approach.
[Q]: Approach? To what?
[“GA”]: Toward true balance.
[“GA”]: There's only one true balance. Gravity pretty much has spoken the last word on that point. As far as approaches go, it's the only one I know. To be sure, everything you do that's good for you goes toward balance. Indirectly. "An Apple a day." This approach is peerless and definitive. It deals directly with the issue of balance of the body as such.
[Q]: Oh. I see. That business about Gravity, and living in alignment with its requirements. But what is the approach itself? How’s it work? What gives?
[“GA”]: It's 10 sessions. Which add up to a dozen.
[Q]: Huh? How do I get a dozen?
[“GA”]: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. See what I did right there? I got you engaged.
[Q]: Tricky, bugger!
[“GA”]: Presumably, now that you know the direction of balance you also now have the choice to go there. Or, not. The key is "loose and natural". Not rigid. If you wanna slouch, enjoy it. Just don't make it a habit. Actually, you should also be tuned in to the signals the body gives when it is out of balance. Just like that pang of conscience when you're a bad boy. Ouch!
[“GA”]: You might be one of those who drag around a long held position that nothing works. I don't work with people for whom nothing works. What's the point? Noting works. But, if you are open to that level of self-inquiry and discovery, then we can work together. You have to want to clean the plate I cook up for you. And, so you should know, as a cook, I'm not bad.
[Q]: So, those10 sessions. All the same?
[“GA”]: Yes, and no.
[“GA”]: Trust yourself! From what I've already said, does it make sense to you? Do you want to look into it further? Try it?
[Q]: Well, how are the sessions different?
[“GA”]: Each session teaches you something. Not very much at all in realm of what we call “book learning”. Words and concepts. No. It's really more experiential. Like the simple recognition of what's so; like you know if you’re on the beach, or in the water. That kind of knowing. You feel it. Same way you know you exist.
[Q]: Again. What’s the difference one session to the other?
[“GA”]: Each session builds on the other. There’s a beginning, a middle, and an end. [Like a dinosaur. Ha, ha.] Each session has it's own goal(s). And, by the way, in light of the individual session goals, there are obvious territories in the body where the contact and coaching are focused.
[“GA”]: I use my hands. Think of them as pointers. Like, "Feel that there?" "Let's move it there." "Now there." Maybe fingers as lights, revealing what's there. And, by "what's there" we're referring to how it feels. Your felt sense of things. The coaching is about suggesting a movement(s) which engage and leverage with my manual contact; or, sometimes just to have you notice what's what. It's really very simple. Touch your nose. Feel that? Like that.
Here’s the progression and the themes/takeaways of the Sessions: Read each one as something you grock ...
"Gravity Ace" Q&A [2]
“GRAVITY ACE” [“GA”]: It’ll show you how to be yourself.
[Q]: But I am myself!
[“GA”]: Indeed. Excuse me. My bad. So, let me ask you, how you doin’? How you likin’ it?
[Q]: You you’re gonna tell me how I should be?
[“GA”]: Yes. And, no.
[Q]: C’mon, man. Throw me a bone!
[“GA”]: I’m not going to tell how you should be, just give you a map for how you can get there, with a clear view of the road ahead. Well, not even "give". The map is already there, maybe let's say I encourage you to look at it.
[Q]: What in the Effen-Ef are you talking about?
[“GA”]: The work I do is typically formatted as a Ten-Session Series. In each session goal is the same: to spend that hour looking for a straight vertical line. Dr. Ida P. Rolf pointed to it as the central vertical axis of the human body. And, suggested that it is meant to match the simple Line of Gravity. Her approach basically nudges you toward that Universal standard.
[Q]: That’s it?
[“GA”]: Well, along with that verticality, there’s the necessary symmetries side to side; and corresponding levels front to back.
[Q]: Then what?
"Gravity Ace" Q&A [1]
QUESTIONER [Q]: Tell me, where does this Structural Integration you talk about fit into the grand scheme of things.
“GRAVITY ACE” [“GA”]: Right in the dead nuts middle. Between your knees, and between your eyes.
[Q]: What am I supposed to do with that!
[“GA”]: You can go and find yourself there. Living centered on the Line that is present right here, right now; that Line is anchored to the center of the Earth and reaches out to the limit of Cosmic Infinity, and back.
[Q]: Is this some kind of “spiritual” stuff?
[“GA”]: Of course. What’s not spiritual? If you want to talk “spiritual”, how about imagining living in true balance on Planet Earth. We can call it living the journey of Atonement.
[Q]: Atonement!
[“GA”]: I’m referring to The Atonement. The Path of healing the separation. Some might call it The Purification. The Great Rebalancing. The Tao. "Goin' with the flow".
[Q]: And Structural Integration comes in ... how?
[“GA”]: Living in simple “plumb and square” architectural body alignment. That puts you in right relationship to Mother Earth. Not separate. Get it? You walk the Earth kindly, as a steward of the great garden of nature and friend to all sentient beings. Really, it’s simply being yourself.
[G]: Myself? What else could I be?
[“GA”]: Indeed. Yes. How you likin' it? There may be those parts of yourself which may no longer be necessary, unhelpful, and inefficient, deficient. Old, unnecessary baggage. That past stuff needs to go for you to truly be yourself.
[G]: Okay, how do I do that?
[“GA”]: Spend some regular time sitting quietly. Just that. See what happens. As things may happen [thoughts, feelings], just sit in choiceless awareness. What should stay will stay, what will go will go. Automatic. Easy Peasy.
[Q]: Just like that?
[“GA”]: Bingo! Just try it. You’ll see.
[Q]: And, Structural Integration?
[“GA”]: It helps the process to be in balance.
[Q]: I get it. So now I should see someone like you to get into that process?
[“GA”]: Perish the thought! Sure, someone like me has skills to apply to assist you in finding your true balance. But, human beings have an innate capacity to heal. Including healing body imbalances. If you look at all those past conditionings that are not working from the point of view that they shape your experience, they shape you ... then do it yourself. Let go of past stuff that doesn’t work. The body goes along and will find its balance automatically.
If you want a hand, you know who to call.
Chatting with Gravity.
GRAVITY [G]: You are welcome. Happy to be here. [Like as if I'm not [here] ... What, you ask? Ever here. Get it? As in, never not.]
"GA": You seem preoccupied? What's up?
G: Yes. I was thinking that that it's ironic to be "happy to be here", as if I just walked in off the street. I seem to be something ineluctable, constant, and ever present [that is, when words are used, otherwise ineffable].
"GA": I recall Dr. Ida P. Rolf speaking to how Gravity is a constant. A reference, if you will.
G: Yes, I will.
"GA": What? You "will" to be constant?
G: No. My will is constant. Constancy. Con-stance. "With Standing."
"GA": Constant, I get that. But, is there movement in it? Direction?
G: Absolutomento! Straight Up! [Gad! Do I have to repeat myself on that?!]
G: Look. I'm talking to you about something which is as plain as a mud fence. Maybe you could brush up on your General Semantics?
"GA": Huh?
G: Like you should know by now that "up" needs a "down" to be up. [It works the same the other way.]
"GA": So there's a polarity?
G: Yes, And, don't let the coming polar shift find you standing beside yourself.
"GA": "Shift"! "Polar"! "Polar Shift"!
G: I'm attempting to say there's a choice. Either to take your sense of things [including, BTW, what you take yourself to be] from your surroundings and circumstances. Or be mindful that you also have a sense of yourself in your own right — but to certainly please do factor in your surroundings and circumstances. It's tangible. You're always really aware of it. [Just painted over some.] Try this: Raise your hand. Alright. You know you raised your hand. Right? It's like that. It's just there to see.
"GA": Is that so?
G: Hey! Wakey, wakey. I'm what's so. Not all of it. But, a goldang big part of all of it. My best feature is that I, like I already said, I am "ineluctable, constant, ever present". And, if I may pick on a bone, something that your kind has yet to figure out is that I'm like a source. A source of whatever. And, a source to Source. Wise the F up!
"GA": Language!
G: "Language". General Semantics, bruh! Language is not just in words. There's body language. Sign language. Languages ... so many! The "Language of Love". I have a language. I'm talking to you, sure. But, I'm always talking ... but, not with words.
When you have my perspective the message I'm getting from all over your lovely planet is that things need to be straightened out. I'm deducing that from seeing all the sturm und drang being staged, with the actors unaware that the underlying problem is that they are "at war with Gravity" [props to Dr. Ida P. Rolf for that firm grasp of the obvious].
"GA": Straightened out. You mean like living with my body balanced in line with Gravity?
G: Well that is one thing. Body structure. Yet, there's also "straightening out" in the structure of world society. How we've set things up among ourselves. Our psychology. And, what is working; what's not. Trouble is there are some faithless, bad actors who want to have it to themselves. Zero sum, I think it's called: "Win/Lose".
"GA": Now you are teaching about something that is not just about tangible physical body balance. But, even so, it might be something that a balanced body would appreciate?
G: Whatever. And, yes. Look. It's just sort of obvious that the world is mucked up, isn't it? Not the Real World. But the made up world; of labels and agreements and concepts. There's plenty of evidence for what I'm talking about. You yourself may have had a moment seeing it's Mashuga!
"GA": Oh, Great One! Please! Please tell us what to do?
G: Kiss my ass! "Great One!" Duh! As if I never was. What to do? What to do?
"GA": Not much more to say now.
G: Oh, I got plenty to say!
["GA": "Gravity Ace" has just been in conversation with Gravity. Stay tuned for our next visit. Ta ta.]
Gravity. We usually talk about that it has to do with how things go up and down. Apples fall straight down. And, rain. And, Niagara Falls. You know. Like that. We “see” it outside of our personal selves; in the comings and goings of the World. We see gravity as a Line. Mostly, from the side.
There are other ways to look at Gravity. On the inside ... of it. Imagine the inside is what’s there when you cut a cross section of that Line of Gravity and you take a look.
Oh, and by the way, while a case can easily be made on how we conventionally “see” Gravity, as a Line [that we see in a lateral aspect], another view is to see that Line extending to the Center of the Universe. Pointing. Leading. And, coming back on itself like the Ouroboros.
So, we’re looking at that cross section of the Line of Gravity. What do we see? [Maybe the simplest answer will come with the question: what don’t we see?]
We notice some elemental things.
That Line ... it’s got no edge. In fact, it’s got no center. I believe there are as many different things to see in the Center of Gravity as there are, have been, and will be human beings. Or, Nothing.
[C’mon Man! It’s just me talking.]
But, hey! Don’t get me wrong. Even as your “Gravity Ace” I’m not suggesting that living in balance with Gravity is the end-all and be-all. I just can’t help but wonder what sort of balance is needed in all the other, holistically related areas of human life. And how each of those domains needs to be settled with the soul. Within the soul.
In other words, insofar as living in balance with the ecosystem is concerned, Rolf Structural Integration is a peerless and definitive approach to human balance on Earth. It enlists Gravity. Really, that’s all there is to it.
Lest my enthusiasm as your “Gravity Ace” leave the impression that it’s the only thing to do. Far from it. But, whatever might you want to do; don’t you think you’d enjoy yourself a bit more if you lived with bodily balance? “DO YOU REALLY WANT TO LIVE?”
Also, if you want to take a look for yourself at the Center of Gravity ... Go! Just take a hint from the quest itself ... Go Within. It just might speed up the process to organize your body so that you can live in harmony with the prevailing wind.
"The world is witnessing an acute conflict between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. On the one hand, there are selfish persons who seek their happiness blindly through lust for power, unbridled greed, and unrelieved hatred. Ignorant of the real purpose of life, they have sunk to the lowest level of civilization. They bury their higher selves in the wreckage of crumbling forms that linger on from the dead past. Bound by material interests and limited conceptions, they are forgetful of their divine destiny."
Who is a Gravity "Ace"?
Short answer: you are!
Yes. But, maybe not at the top of mind sort of thing. We all from the very first must negotiate the force of Gravity. No? [And, reminding: Gravity, it has no sympathy. It has rules.]
Just like any structure on Earth our human body must obey certain laws to survice, to thrive.
Take Gravity. Please.
Interested? So now, just how to "take" Gravity? Simple: Stand up nice and straight and easy. Imagine your body centered head to toe around a line that is anchored to the center of the Earth, and extending out to cosmic infinity. Or, in less New Agey talk ... up from your head.
That's all it is. So easy, in fact, it may seem hard.
When you practice that you're on the way to being a "Gravity Ace". In fact, when you practice that you are a "Gravity Ace". A sort of self-induction to the Human Potential Hall of Fame.
You may ask, why the F do that?
Dr. Ida P. Rolf said it succinctly: "When the body gets working appropriately, the force of Gravity can flow through, and the body spontaneously heals itself".
I that appeals to you, just start being a "Gravity Ace".
Do it! Yes, it does take doing. It's something we learn. Now, though, you have a lesson plan.
__________________________
Some are in the practice big time. There are trained professionals who offer individualized assistance to learn to live with the body organized and balanced to stack up vertically, with everything level [horizontal] and even [symmetrical]. For those there is another category of "Gravity Ace" to embrace.
CLICK for "Gravity Ace" Professional Certification.
Dr. Ida P. Rolf saw chronic symptoms such as pain and stress, fatigue, poor self-image, early aging as “…signals pointing to a single problem so prominent in their own structure, as well as others, that it has been ignored. They are at war with gravity.”
Imagine that. Talk about deep ecology! The force of Gravity itself is a vast untapped, universally available and ever ready natural resource for human health and wellness.
There is a problem with talking about Gravity as such. Gravity is the most prominent physical force the body has to deal with. It is also so constant and ubiquitous a ever present in our life that it’s not noticed. Perhaps we’re reminded of its being there when we drop something or take a spill ourselves. Mainly it doesn’t register. It’s as if you asked a fish, “how’s the water?” “What water?” Imagine if human beings were adapted to gravity to the same degree as the fish are to the sea. If dolphins can leap into the air, what can you imagine humans could leap into? Art Bell listeners, stay tuned.
So what about Gravity and aging, you ask? Simply this … doesn’t it make just plain common sense that if you are not spending energy keeping yourself up, keeping yourself together, that you have more of it for living? You got to be in it to win it, though. And when your body is in balance along the lines of Gravity you will discover its inner secret: It uplifts you. It is supportive, nourishing. It energizes. You feel great. You live well. And you last longer too.
Now that you’re all convinced that you should have more Gravity in your life, now what to do? (While I offer clients personal assistance to balance their bodies along the simple lines of gravity, my aim in writing this is to give some pointers that will get you started. Should you want a helping hand, there are qualified practitioners in my field and in so many others that you can call on.)
Your feet are the foundation of your body, literally. By always feeling your feet you will start creating the habit of paying attention to your body. Such mindfulness will become an ingrained habit. It will grow to the point where you will become conscious of the felt sense of your whole body and the feelings that are moving through it. That’s when you will also be able to be aware of the signals your body gives when it is out of balance in gravity or any other way. Then you can make the necessary adjustments yourself. Comfortable, relaxed is the hallmark of living in balance. It’s in you. Go there.
Imhotep’s Secret ... Update
[Mystery in a Mystery]
Some insight from Nisargadatta Maharaj: The world had all the time to get better, yet it did not. What hope is there for the future? Of course, there have been and will be periods of harmony and peace, when sattva was in ascendance, but things get destroyed by their own perfection. A perfect society is necessarily static and, therefore, it stagnates and decays. From the summit all roads lead downwards. Societies are like people — they are born, they grow to some point of relative perfection and then decay and die.
The room — a sealed vault, really — which guards this immeasurably precious object is itself completely inaccessible. There's no passageway leading to a sealed entrance. Nothing. Not even a tiny portal(s) for viewing. We can imagine they needed a way in to construct the thing in the first place. How come, there's no way out? A mystery compounded in more mystery. Unknowable. For now, anyway.
One supposes the speculation and implications about this mystery and its meaning would be as varied as is human motivation. Archaeologists would salivate over the prospect of such a career-making discovery. Museum curators or collectors of antiquities would be covetous. The more crass pecuniary types would see a once in a lifetime payday. The vain, jewelry. The merely curious, a sightseeing side trip. The mystic — the True Mystic, anyway — might hear of it and turn back inward and not give it another thought. The artist, certainly a wealth of inspiration. The designer and engineer would smile in simple recognition of the central tenet of all sound construction: Balance in obvious observance of the dictates of the Law of Gravity.
The decision to seal that chamber must've taken into account such human factors. For the truly insightful, the fact that it is forever sealed in itself communicates everything. As they say, this is one bone buried deep so the dogs won't get at it.
Bonsai ... So Askew
Between Heaven and Earth grow people and trees. But the trees, he said, are the crucial link. The Bonsai grower must communicate with the tree, which communicates with God.
Dr. Ida P. Rolf founded Structural Integration. She had solid credentials in Bio-Chemistry and researched the causes and cures of chronic disease. Out of her findings she developed and then taught a unique approach to human health and well being. Her teaching now lives on in several accredited schools. The main goal of Structural Integration is to restore and evolve the body to its natural balance along the lines of Gravity. It is possible to do this because the human body is plastic; it can change. And, just like any other structure on this earth, the human body is subject to the force of gravity. So it makes sense that when the body is more symmetrical and stacked up vertically it should work better. Right?
As a long-time student of the work of Dr. Ida P. Rolf I think I may have imbibed at least a little of her essence. That’s where the channeling stuff comes in. Who knew? In the spot where I work her picture looms just over my shoulder. Listen to what she whispered into my ear. (Why golf? One of my friends who I’m inviting to come in for Structural Integration is a golfer. So relating the work to his interest was on my mind. Even if you’re not a golfer, see if what she says doesn’t also apply to you in some way.)
Ida was famously blunt in pointing out that most people live out of balance with respect to the demands of gravity. In her words, “they are at war with gravity.” (If you look at yourself and others you’ll see whether what she is saying is true.)
Ok, Dr. Rolf, what’s on your mind?
“I just don’t get it about those golfers. All that fuss about pushing a little ball around on the grass. To each his own. They spend so much time and so much money on what not and whatever. Lessons. Books. Equipment. Play, play, play. Practice, practice, practice. Well, I will concede all that gets some improvement by and by. Some, anyway. By … and … by.
The one thing that those … duffers … haven’t seemed to have stumbled upon is taking a good long look at the complete picture. The body itself and how it’s put together is a big part of what goes into the game. The human body in structural terms is supposed to work with the force of gravity. That calls for architectural balance — symmetry and verticality. But, if you bother to look, you’ll see that the average person lives with the centers of gravity of the major segments of the body slipped out from the central axis. As for symmetry…you may have an arm and a leg on each side, but how different they are! Goodness, gracious! A lot of energy, time, and expense is invested in lessons and equipment trying to compensate for some of those obvious but unrecognized physical imbalances.
Your body is in balance or it isn’t. Usually a little of both. People at the top of their game in athletics and the arts already know how important cultivating physical balance is. How about the average Joe … And Joanne? If you were a putter, would anybody buy one? Would you? Are you hoping for yet another design gimmick so you can go get another big bucks driver?
So if I’ve offended your tender ego by suggesting that you take a firm grasp of the obvious, get over it. Suck it up and do something about it. You don’t have to go see David. He’s a nice boy, but he’s big bucks. Just think about what I’m telling you. You’ll know what to do. Your aunty Ida loves you. Now straighten up! Get yourself together!”
Whew! Thank you Dr. Rolf, ma’am. You said what I was afraid to say myself. Thanks for the compliment too. I think.
𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐈𝐧 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐓𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲 ...
First, some necessary background ... On Gravity. As everyone knows, Gravity is there. There, all the time and everywhere and all at once....
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What is Dr. Ida P. Rolf Method / Structural Integration? As I understand it, Dr. Rolf’s basic premise is this: Just like it is for an...
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“Gravity Ace” is a group for discussing the topic: Ida P. Rolf, PhD stood for the idea of learning to live in cooperative alignment with t...