To see a world in a grain of sand...hold infinity in the palm of your hand... William Blake
From Shamanicroots of Huichol Indians of Mexico, descendents of the Aztecs and still inhabiting mountains of Northern Mexico to Aboriginal cultures in Australia or Hawaiian “lomi-’lomi” work passed by the family tradition of kahunas, massage has been an important part of magical and medicinal ritual through ages.
In Australian aboriginal cultures the touch is called “yabung”, and represents a vital link in building relationship with elders and parents. It is believed, as in any traditional culture, that everyone has a healing power. Young children, especially young boys, are thought how to touch so they can help their pregnant mothers and later pregnant wives. Massage and birthing practices were closely connected in native medicine traditions.
African cultures being a midwifery tool for turning the baby around. Traditional hand-on healing by Olmecs, Toltecs and Aztecs was also preserved through both midwifery and shamanic work (curranderas) and healers who heal with mix of folk chiropractic, muscle and bone manipulation, acupressure (sobadoras).
In the ancient world medicine and magic did not separate before 1300 BC. In spite of the development of quite sophisticated mummification processes in Egypt, the interest in anatomy or science of touch did not go further.
Strigil
Ancient China, however, developed a very intricate system of both medicine and therapeutic body work.
In classical Indian Texts such as Charaka (100AD) the word that indicated massage was “Abhyanga”. In Sanskrit “tshampon” indicates a head massage. Alexander the Great soldiers were credited with spreading "tshampon practice" in the Mediterranean upon returning from India in 327BC.
Greek medicine revolutionized both medical diagnosis and treatments, initiating a separation of medicine from its ritual roots.
Hippocratic Corpus has a very little reference to massage also called “anatripsis” (Greek word for friction) but very elaborate classification of temperaments that deeply influenced medieval European medicine. Nevertheless, anatripsis, designated as a rubbing toward the hearth, was revolutionary and in opposition to previous mystical practices that were rubbing away from the heart and toward extremities in order to expel the “evil” outside the body. Another practice frequently used in conjunction with anatripsis was “anointing” with olive oil.
Slave masseurs or “aleiptes” were kept in Greek gymnasiums (esclapeion) working on stone (usually marble) tables. The clients had two treatments: one prior to exercise that consisted of rubbing a conspicuous amount of oil (tripsis paraskeuastike), and then again scrubbing and anointing after exercise. (apotherapeia).
Greek slaves working as physicians in the Roman Empire, made anatripsis known. Pliny the Elder (23-79CE) praised medical practitioner who helped him heal “by the process of rubbing and anointing”.
Asclepiades (124-40BC), Greek Physician and Hippocrates’s follower, believed in movement (or “mechano-therapy as Dr Kellogg will later on call his treatments he will credit to Asclepiades) and hydrotherapy. Galen (130-201 CE), Roman physician, speaks of massage in his “Hygiene” detailing differences between morning and evening routines, strokes and direction of hand application. With the fall of Roman Empire, little was left in Europe to be used for number of centuries.
Avicena(980-1037), a chief physician at Baghdad hospital spoke affirmately about benefits of friction and influence of music on human health.
Midwifery practices that were widely spread and well organized in Greek and Roman Civilization were not taken lightly in the middle age Europe.
Between years 1400-1600, the Church executed more then 60,000 “witches”, among them 80% women and half of them midwives. In spite of this France tried to regulate midwifery in the 15th century but the real training was re-established only two hundred years later. However, Christianity did preserve lying on hands and anointing both in the Church and in homecare practices.
The Renaissance ensured revival of touch and body work and significant advancement in the study of anatomy. A famous renaissance physician Paracelsus (1493-1541) believed that emotions stay trapped in the body and massages and hot springs can help to get them out.
THE HISTORY OF SWEDISH MASSAGE AND WESTERN THERAPIES
Old Greek and Chinese civilizations emphasized the importance of regular exercise for balanced and healthy mind and body. In ancient China Kung Fu was one of the first systems that combined stretching and breathing for better health. Movement, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, alleviates humidity and stagnation of Chi.
Old Greek exercised in gymnasiums (gymnos= nude). There was a clear distinction between “athletes” who was competing in sports and “ascetes” who were developing both body and mind.
But the ancient knowledge was forgotten and it took Eighteen hundred years for the West to widely accept exercising.
A very important and interesting figure in the history of gymnastics was Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, German physical training enthusiast and creator of a movement system called “Turnverein” (movement). The premise of Jahn’s system was the idea of reviving the vitality of people through the practice of gymnastics. By the development of physical power and a strong body, Jahn believed, you will create a cheerful, intelligent and “free” spirit.
Being politically engaged and outspoken Jahn created a strong opposition, he was eventually imprisoned and kept outside Berlin. Jahn invented the parallel bars, vaulting horse, the horizontal bar, balance beam and gymnastics rings.
The fame and honour of being called a father of Swedish massage goes to Peter Henry Ling (1776-1837) who systematized a method of medical gymnastic. Through methodical and consistent effort Peter Ling established Royal Central Gymnastic Institute in 1813 in Stockholm. Thank to Dr Kellogg’s love for exercise, Peter Ling’s work became very popular in United States.
Ling’s work was called “Swedish Manual Therapy” or “Mechano-Therapy”. It is based on theoretical speculation rather then observation. Being partially “hygienic” (educational gymnastic) and partially medical, being repetitive and very exact the system easily spread throughout military schools in Sweden, England, Russia and Germany (Royal Prussian Institute of Gymnastic 1849);
Ling’s system was neither massage nor rubbing. It was a “movement cure” that included some frictions, kneading and stroking as a part of exercise.
The Active part of the work developed as a range of motion exercise while passive exercises (or manipulation) became known as massage.
Dr. Kellogg's Swedish Room
The true father of massage would be Dutch practitioner Johan George Mezger (1838-1909) who published “The Treatment of Foot Sprain by Friction” in 1868. Mezger simplified Ling’s movement and co-founded the oldest massage therapy association in the Netherlands in 1891. Mezger himself was a practicing masseur in until his late 60’s.Mezgertook the effort of systematizing strokes which was a further step toward separating massage from exercise.
At the beginning of the 19 century medical gymnastic was endorsed by a few physicians in both United States and Europe. Massage advocates such as George Taylor, MD who published 4 books about active movement or Russian M.Y. Mudrov tried to separate medical massages from those provided by barbers, common rubbers and gymnastics.
In 1894 a group of women formed "The Society of Trained Masseuses", that eventually became "The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy", which still exists today.They initial aim was to set up a study of massage with standardized prerequisites for education.
In 1891 in Sweden, a law was passed prohibiting non-physicians from performing mechano-therapy without properly completed training at Royal College .
In United States at the beginning of 20 century Douglas Graham popularized massage in private practice and published work about lomi-lomi and history of massage.
But the most famous physician embracing massage was certainly Dr Kellogg. Dr. Kellogg published “The Art of Massage” in 1895 that was sold, along with following editions in 27000 copies. “The Art of Massage” explains the effects of Links’ model on patients of Battle Creek Sanitarium established in 1866. Battle Creek Sanitarium was a corner stone in popularizing mechano-therapy, healthy living, healthy purging and abstinence in many forms.
Between 1928 and 1978 so-called Swedish massage has been developed and taught in all American massage schools. It consisted of four basic strokes described by Dr Klein in 1892 (effleurage, friction, petrissage, tapotement) and additional vibration techniques. In 1898 some passive ranges of motion (ROM) exercises were included to the massage training.
In the 1930’s in Europe there was a development in the field of Manual Lymphatic Drainage (Emil Vodder), and aromatherapy, the word coined by French chemist and aromatherapy researcher Rene Maurice Gattefosse, that was eventually incorporated into European training.
By the end of the 20th century there were 75 Swedish techniques, and massage started an era of specialization branching out into pregnancy, infant, geriatric, sport, on-site, connective tissue massage etc.
