You can change their structure, and in changing their structure you are able to change...
...You can change human beings. You can change their structure, and in changing their structure you are able to change their function. Structure determines function to a very great degree and to a degree which we can utilize. The basic law of Rolfing is that you add structure to the body. In so doing you are demanding a change in function. This is the basic reason why Rolfing works as it does. It is the basic reason why there can be a study of bodies based on structure in the sense that we use the word. There can be a change of function, a contribution to the health, well-being, wholeness, and functioning of a body through balanced change in structure. This is the basic consideration that makes all manipulative techniques worthwhile....
...Rolfing uses a more fundamental way, a more basic way of dealing with structure than any of the other schools. Our way is more basic because we understand that structure is determined by the relation of the body to the gravitational field. We are the only group that recognize that in order for a living body to be at ease in its spatial environment on the earth gravity must be able to deal positively with it. We can't change the gravitational field; we haven't gotten that big yet. What we can do is to change the way the parts of the body fit together into a whole which can transmit the gravitational field through that body in such a way that it enhances its energy field. You can change the body by virtue of the fact that it is segmented, and when you have changed it appropriately, gravity can flow through. This is the basic concept of Rolfing. We are using gravity as our tool not chemistry. When you come to look at it, this is quite an idea.
Gravity is always there; you never escape from it. From the day that single cell is fertilized and develops, gravity is with it. The fetus in the women's womb is under the effect of gravity; and until the undertaker gets the body and lays it away, it 's under the effect of gravity. Even after the undertaker lays it away, it's under the effect of gravity, only the level of energy isn't high enough to worry about. Nobody I know of has ever looked at that.
"Ida Rolf Talks About Rolfing and Physical Reality" edited and with an introduction by Rosemary Feitis