DR. FRITZ SMITH'S LIFE (May 11, 1929-May 7, 2024)

Edited from the Introduction to “Life in the Bones” - published by Upledger productions

“The lives of both Zero Balancing and Fritz Smith meet at the interface of many worlds and many rivers of influence through the history of bodymind healing. Writing about these conjoined lives offers us an opportunity to understand our own lives. May these enable us to see how we can, with just the right touch and understanding, help create greater peace, health, and harmony in this world.

I first met Dr. Fritz Smith in 1986 at the National Convention of the American Massage Therapy Association. At that time, I was in a curious place in my own teaching and bodywork. Having studied and practiced many modalities - nonetheless I had come to an impasse, where I felt there was something in my clients that I wasn’t touching at all. I had no idea what it could be!

That afternoon, Fritz gave a public presentation on Zero Balancing. He began talking about his realization, over years of study, practice and teaching, that the anatomical layers of the body also corresponded to layers of energy flow. He correlated the energetic layers with the anatomy of skin, muscles/organs, and bones. I had never heard anyone present such an intuitively believable relationship of energy and structure. When he came to bone, he noted that, since it was the densest, deepest tissue, it conveyed the densest, deepest energy currents - similar to ways that a 220 electric line carries more voltage than a 110. It was this skeletal armature, he said, that was the focus of Zero Balancing.

As he spoke, I had a sudden revelation and felt that a light bulb had literally lit up about 6 inches over my head. I realized what had been missing from my work. I had learned from Swedish how to work the skin and the body’s superficial layers, the deeper fascia from the Rolfing tradition, even the meningeal and fluid layers through cranio-sacral work. But I really hadn’t been touching bone! I had not been concious of accessing the living structure of this deepest, supportive layer of being. And I’d not had the sense of its been energetically significant.

At that moment, I knew I wanted to find out more about this man, what he knew, and what Zero Balancing was. I was fascinated with this knowledge that bodywork, to be truly complete and optimally effective, must address this deepest layer of structure and energy. It seemed this was missing piece.”