LIFTING OFF YOUR HEAD

In 1967, in the "Summer of Love" I was studying Indian music in Berkeley, California at the American Society for the Eastern Arts. One of my classmates was the obscure, brilliant guitarist, Robbie Basho. One morning I arrived early and Basho was standing on the front porch. He was slowly bending his knees, putting his arms behind his back, then rising up and, as he did so, took his hands, palms up, behind his back then raised them above his head toward the sky as he straightened his legs. I watched him repeat this over and over for some minutes, my 20 year old eyes and mind wide in wonder.

Finally I said, tentatively and softly, "What are you doing?"        

He said, in his serious and stentorious voice, "I'm lifting the top of my head off!"

Needless to say, I was still a bit mystified. But it sure stuck with me.

Now years later, teaching and practicing Deep Massage, Zero Balancing and cranio-sacral work, a profound part of my vocation is lifting off the tops of people's heads! Putting fingers gently on the occicput or parietal bones and lifting, we can give the bodymind room for freer thought and feeling, and a sense of connection with the worlds around us that are so much more vast than ourselves.

Emily Dickinson said it too,

 "If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”

illustration by Christy Krames from Lauterstein - The Deep Massage Book