last
updated:
Friday, 03 July 2009
Ah Shi massage.
In 2002 my right shoulder was hurting so bad I
couldn't reach for my wallet or for a seat belt in my
car. I was already applying for an invalid pension. Then
a Chinese masseur (who learnt the skills from his blind
grandfather) gave me a few massages and he fixed it. For
the next few years I was bugging him about teaching me
how to do that kind of massage, which he did in 2006.
Since I finished the course I've been doing these
massages, earning
money and lots of praises from my customers. Everybody
is telling me they never had a massage like the one I
give.
My teacher called it “Chinese massage”. On Internet I
found a description of some 280 types of massages, but
none of them came close to describing what my teacher
does with his clients. Then I read a book by Dr. Greg
Fors “Why we hurt”. The book is about “trigger point
therapy” and his description of “ah shi” massage was as
close to my teacher’s “Chinese massage” as you can ask
for.
“The recognition of therapeutic tender points in the
body was described as far back as the Tang Dynasty (AD
618 – 978) in China by the renowned physician Sun
Ssu-Miao. In his textbook he actually describes tender
points not fixed in position or running along
acupuncture meridians but appearing on the body when it
is stressed, diseased or injured. Sun Ssu-Miao wrote
that these points were found in tissues that looked
normal but were
spontaneously tender, and when detected by palpation the
patient would cry out “aah shi” meaning “hurts good”.
Today in the East, these trigger points are still
referred to as “ah shi” points. This description of
stressed or injured myofascial tissue parallels the
modern understanding of trigger points, or what I refer
to as the neuromyofascial lesion.”
To the top
Contact Information: Email vlado.viglasky<AT>gmail.com
Google search for “Ah shi” brings out thousands of
websites, but those few dozens that I had a look at are
repeating only the things that I found in Dr. Fors’ book
with a few minor changes of words. The writers describe
Ah Shi as a Chinese variation of Dr. Janet Travell’s
trigger points. Those claiming to be practitioners of Ah
Shi massage seem to me to be following the standard
western approach – a client comes and shows you where he
hurts. The masseur then tries to find the trigger points
and diffuse them.
But my teacher has the traditional Chinese approach to
health care – clients used to pay a doctor regularly
(just like we pay monthly health insurance
contributions) for the doctor to keep the client
healthy. If the client became ill, he didn’t pay any
fees until the doctor cured him. When my clients come to
me for a massage, they may not be aware of any soft
tissue problems, but within a minute or two of the start
the ah shi massage that I learnt, I am discovering many,
many ah shi or trigger points, orneuromyofascial
lesions.
I observed in Philippines that the blind are taught to
give a relaxing massage only. I was told that these days
in China the masseurs are directed to massage westerners
without giving them pain. My daughter is a myotherapist
and they were told not to give pain to their clients.
The massage that I learnt can be incredibly soothing and
relaxing, but if I come across a problem that can be
corrected with massage, then a certain level of pain is
unavoidable. And clients are aware of it – they all say
that they recognize it as “good pain”. The people that I
massaged in Philippines used to say “Sekit ng masarap” -
painful, but nice. Every day I am amazed just how many
different pains and aches you can massage away yourself.
You become so much more aware of what is happening in
the soft tissues of your body. So many surgeries are
totally unnecessary – the problems can be massaged away.
85% of population gets lower back pains. Majority of the
problems can be massaged away very quickly and then kept
away with a daily 3-minute exercise. Tense muscles cause
most headaches and migraines. You can learn how to
massage them away. Just about all soft tissue pains and
aches can be massaged away, unless the pains were caused
by injuries.
I have several grand nieces and grand nephews. They are
all pre-teenagers and whenever I visit them they LOVE to
be massaged. A masseur can learn a lot from massaging
children – most of them have very little fat under their
skin, so it is easy to get to all surface muscles, as
well as to most muscles in the deeper layers. Their soft
tissues respond so fast and so well to corrective
manipulations.I spoke to several masseurs about my
experience with children and they agreed. Parents and
grandparents who massaged their own children or
grandchildren were often amazed just how bonding these
massages were. It brought them closer together than just
about anything else before. And couples too. From a
therapeutic massage it is easy to switch to relaxing, or
sensuous, or erotic massage.
To the top
Contact Information: Email vlado.viglasky<AT>gmail.com
“Brotherhood Of Kindred Souls”
In 2007 I traveled to Philippines, where I saw lots of
blind beggars. They looked like the most wretched
creatures under the sun. I always gave them alms, but
after one traffic incident with a blind beggar at a busy
street intersection at Manila City Hall, I was inspired
to form the following plan:
Establishment of training centres for blind people in
the third world countries. After getting their training
they can get jobs in hospitals, in body care spas, in
gyms, with sports people, in hotels and holidays
resorts, or they can form a co-operative, which would
run massage clinics in shopping malls. A person with
normal vision would manage the clinic – talking to
customers, accepting the payments, housekeeping,
bookkeeping, etc. It works really well in Philippines.
I've seen a few such shops in shopping malls and I spoke
to the blind people. They were earning about the same
money like carpenters, or almost double of what a
checkout girl earns in a supermarket. I had one blind
masseur to come to my hotel and he gave me a one-hour
massage. The charge was 150% higher than a carpenter’s
day wages. That was a standard charge for massages in
hotel rooms. It is not easy job, but what struck me most
was their mannerism – they were behaving like any one of
us with normal vision in
satisfying and well paying jobs. When I compared them to
the blind beggars in streets, or bus/train stations in
practically all the 3rd world countries that I visited,
the contrast was mind-blowing.
I would like to call the organization doing all this
“Brotherhood Of Kindred Souls” - BOKS. Brotherhood is
defined as an association of men (and women) with common
interests and aims. One of the definitions of "kindred"
is "similar in nature, character”, something like
soul-mates. I chose to include "soul’ in it because a
soul has no skin colour, no body
shape, size, or weight, no sex, no age, it cannot be
judged by the clothes it wears, what car it drives, what
neighbourhood it lives in, what is its level of
education, by the size of its bank account, by its
eloquence, social class, occupation, religion, race,
nationality, language, only by its deeds and attitudes.
Another reason to include "soul" in the name was to
remind those scientists, who will not acknowledge the
existence of anything
that cannot be measured, weighed, tested, manipulated in
laboratories, etc.- there are things that everybody
knows about, but nobody can prove their existence.
(Here is a paradox – astronomers say that what we see of
the universe is only 4% of what is actually there. They
don’t know what is the remaining 96%, but they can
calculate its gravitational pull. They call it dark
energy and dark matter. There are many theories about
the dark matter, none of them very convincing, but they
will look you in the eyes and tell you that there is no
room for God(s), angels, souls, good and evil spirits,
ghosts, etc.)
Actually, the Brotherhood could have been called
Association of like minded individuals interested in
performing and/or supporting good deeds.
When I talked about this to my friends, they told me it
is a great idea. In 2007 I travelled to Philippines to
give it a try, but I could find neither the right
people, nor acceptable conditions. Then I thought that
perhaps Bali would be a better place for the project,
but two major set backs in 2008 (one in business and the
other in personal life) forced me to put those plans on
hold until May 2009.
To the top
Contact Information: Email vlado.viglasky<AT>gmail.com
Teaching blind in Bali.
One day after my arrival to Kuta in Bali I met the widow
of one of the victims of the Sari Club terrorists
bombing in 2002. She became my guide and introduced me
to a blind masseur. He in turn gave me the address of a
school for the visually impaired in Denpasar. After I
massaged one of the teachers, while two others were
watching, they accepted my offer and a
few days later I gave the first lesson. I have to admit
that it was challenging - out of the 6 pupils there were
three that did not speak English and the other three had
only a limited knowledge of English, but it was a lot
better then my knowledge of Indonesian language. “If
there is a will, there is a way”.
Though, language was not the worst problem. Seeing
people can get trained quite well in the basics in about
two to three weeks and you can have a number of people
in training at the same time – you are telling them and
showing them. They can watch videos with some fantastic
lectures from the most knowledgeable individuals in the
field. There are many videos showing various moves and
techniques. But it takes a lot longer to teach the blind
– you can’t show them videos or illustrated books to
learn anatomy or massage techniques. You have to do it
one on one – take their hand and guide them. The blind
have one huge advantage over seeing people – their
incredible tactile sensitivity. They also pick up the
knowledge very quickly. But I was happy with the
progress, though it was distorted by the fact that one
of my students was actually a teacher of massage, three
others already have massage businesses and two almost
completed their massage studies. I expect that teaching
blind without any massage experience would be more
challenging.
But that didn’t dampen my enthusiasm to teach them.
Every time I opened my eyes, I was reminded that my
students can’t see any of the things that I can enjoy
looking at – all the beautiful landscapes, the plants,
animals, all the incredible paintings and sculptures,
the movies, documentaries, all the books that I have
read, all the girls that I courted and even more girls
that I didn’t court, but was such a pleasure to look at,
not to mention seeing my children growing and changing.
What an incredible gift do I have from God.
Those few weeks that I spent teaching the blind (instead
of soaking up the sun on Kuta beach) were the most
healing times for my soul. Most of the hurtful incidents
of the past that until now I thought of as unfair are
now healed and I have a feeling that there will be very
little that I will complain about for the rest of my
life.
A brief history of the second oldest profession.
Blind massage is probably the second oldest profession.
Primates are well known for grooming each other. While
socializing, they also stroke each other with open palms
and stretched out fingers. Blind people are well known
for their incredible tactile sensitivity. A primate
gradually going blind would very likely notice a gradual
increase in the sensitivity of his/her touch. They would
also pick up very quickly some abnormalities in the soft
tissues of the person they were stroking/grooming. It
wouldn’t take them long
to learn that if some abnormalities were massaged, the
problem was corrected. This would earn them the
reputation of a healer and gratitude of the fellows they
helped. They would be rewarded with a proportion of food
hunted or gathered by healthy members of the tribe.
Thus they earned their living with their sensitive
hands.
Blind animals in nature don’t survive long – they can’t
see a predator coming, they can’t fight back, they can’t
escape fast, they can’t find food for them selves, they
can’t hunt. If other members of their group don’t give
the blind some food and lead them to sources of drinking
water, they will certainly die within a week or two.
Most people accept that the humanity was born when the
first stone tool was created. The oldest stone tool is
about 2.5 million years old. Blind massage could be that
old. Field studies of primates have confirmed time and
time again that they care about each other – when one is
in distress, others come to their help. So it is with
food – if some members of a troop find something to eat,
they signal to the rest of the troop about their
discovery and it is shared. Good deeds are remembered
and favours returned.
In a Chinese cave they found a bone doll with markings
of most acupuncture points known today. It is about
7,000 years old. I don’t think anyone will argue if I
will say that acupuncture has its roots in massage. What
happened between 2.5 million yeas BP (before present)
and 7,000 BP is anybody’s guess, but the Ah Shi massage
system was fully developed
more then 1400 years ago.
To the top
Contact Information: Email vlado.viglasky<AT>gmail.com
Folk healers.
I think this is a good place to say a few words about
folk healers. It has been observed countless times that
animals will follow their instincts when they are ill.
Early humans were doing the same thing, but as their
intelligence and speech skills increased, some
individuals were observed to have a special talent and
gift for healing themselves and others. They became the
medicine men and handed their knowledge to their
apprentices, which
were not always their children. They based their
selection of apprentices on their attitude. (In some
cultures it was believed that children surviving some
serious illness became excellent folk healers.) In
traditional societies the folk healers looked after the
sick. They never asked for payments, but the society
looked after them and they never lacked anything
essential. They considered their talent a gift from
God(s) and feared that if they abused it, the gods would
take their gift away. Even these days the genuine folk
healers in traditional societies are among the most
humble people you will meet. These days, lots of
alternative medicine practitioners are just following
their instincts and natural talents. Hardly any of them
have the incomes of organized medical practitioners.
Their success rates are much greater than of orthodox
doctors. If you have a health problem, go to a doctor
for diagnosis, but then seek alternative medicine
practitioners for
treatment. They have about 80% success rate, while
orthodox doctors about 50%.
75% of world population depends for their health care on
folk healers. Alternative medicine is growing all over
the world. One of the largest US studies done on
alternative medicine found that more than 1/3 of
American adults practiced some type of alternative
medicine in 2002 and 62% of the subjects used some form
complementary and alternative medicine over the past
year for a specific medical condition. The report was
based on information from 31,044 interviews with adults
aged 18 and older.
There are forecasts of severe shortages of medical
doctors in USA and just about all the developed
countries in the very near future. More and more people
are visiting alternative medicine practitioners, because
they start to realize that the orthodox medicine uses
the “Homer Simpson cure” for everything. The “Homer
Simpson cure” was depicted in an episode
where the family was driving somewhere and a warning
light started flashing on the dashboard. When Homer
ignored it, Lisa told him to “Fix it”.He did – he placed
a black masking tape over the flashing warning light.
For all living creatures pain is the warning light
informing us that something is not right and it needs
our attention. The pills and painkillers prescribed by
our doctors are the masking tapes.
People want to be cured and they are not finding the
cures in their doctors’ surgeries. But they are finding
lots of answers to their questions when they visit
alternative medicine practitioners. Massages are among
the fasted acting healing techniques. They can be learnt
relatively quickly and a student can start practicing
the new acquired skill immediately after finishing a
course. The start up costs is incredibly low and the
business can move from one location to another with
great ease. I know of some people specializing in
massages on cruise ships, or in summer holiday resorts,
or skiing resorts or with sportsmen.
The future for massage and other alternative medicines
is incredible. Get a hold of “The next trillion” audio
CD where one of the most brilliant financial minds
lectures about the future of “wellness industry”.
To the top
Contact Information: Email vlado.viglasky<AT>gmail.com
-D
(Mac)