On technique & craftsmanship

[Pompal 09.]

Reading Pharmako/Gnosis by Dale Pendell, I came across this (pg 140)... text in brackets mine...

Sometimes Art is judged by technique. For magical objects [and healing bodywork] technique is less important than vision and attention. Don’t be sloppy, do it well, but if you focus on technique or virtuosity, chances are you’ll lose the magic. It’ll be perfect, and perfect won’t do. It’ll be your great creation, but that’s not the point. To make magic you have to attempt the impossible, you have to attempt what is beyond your powers, and accept that it will be imperfect. Then it can have power—the power to heal—which is what this is all about.

Seems to be a valid perspective on, or approach to, bodywork... thoughts?

 

[<3~??~<3]

oh yeah!
Thanks for this. I'm personally at that crux of trusting the magic, and less so the technique. The imperfection is where the juicy stuff is...the character...the uncertainty...where IT works through us (or in spite of us).
Rock ON, EM. Great quote!

 

[lizaleong]

What I like is that this bit seems to be about getting ego out of the way, although it doesn't come out and say that explicitly... perhaps part of the value of attempting the impossible is that it helps take the ego offline?

 

[Nasim]

This is a paraphrase from Robert Fripp (a world-class and very inventive guitar player who founded King Crimson). The statement is regarding music, but I feel like it could easily apply to bodywork...

The magic of the music happens when we [the musician] get on seforum.xxxe, but get out of the way and let the music take over.

 

[Am_I a_Beatlesfan??]

I like the quote.

I have always believed bodywork to be an art form. Understanding and knowing techniques are important but so are the "x" factors that each individual brings to the table. Intuition and following the path your gut is telling you to follow can bring much magic to a session.

 

[Alhamdulilah]

I think of geniuses like Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Sure they were brilliantly talented and intuitive, but they spent years mastering the various techniques of their crafts because each believed that the details truly mattered.

It is because of their technical mastery that each was able to fully comprehend what they were doing and then move beyond the basics into creative mastery. If not for the many hours of furtive studies of anatomy and physiology, neither would have produced such sublime studies of the body in all its glory.

"I saw the angel in the marble and chiseled until I set it free." - Michaelangelo

Vision and intuition are extraordinary things, but it is the arduous and harrowing application of fundamental techniques that gets things done.

 

[Pompal 09.]

Vision and intuition are extraordinary things, but it is the arduous and harrowing application of fundamental techniques that gets things done.

Not for everyone my friend. For people like me vision and intuition get the job done and then some. Often over-training a "right brained" person with "techniques" can actually damage their "gift." Again no absolutes apply. What works for one won't necessarily work for another. We are all uniquely gifted.

Fact-Some of the greatest artists and musicians that ever lived were self taught and never had any formal training whatsoever. Chet Baker, arguably the greatest trumpet player of all time couldn't read a note of music. My hero Stevie Ray Vaughan never studied music and could never even tell you what key he was playing in. He also never played a solo the same way twice. I doubt there are many guitar players that could touch him.

I spent much of my young life as a part of the household of John Cassavetes, (the Godfather of independent film, a totally self taught film maker and a "father figure" to me) and his wife Gena Rowlands. We had artists of all kinds in the house daily; Horowitz, DeNiro, Hoffman, Depardieu, Penn, Zappa (he lived right next door.) Many were/are amazingly disciplined artists with oodles of training and technique. Just as many were natural born artists who just had something extra they were born with and nurtured in their own unique way. None was prized above the other. I will say though that the trained artists were often in envy of the naturally gifted because many times no matter how they tried they couldn't touch the natural artists in terms of transcendence.

I do agree that proper guidance and training can indeed improve upon the skills of a gifted artist. Michelangelo and da Vinci lived in a city where the artist was revered and apprenticeships with Masters were plentiful. The Medici family saw to that.

They were also not mandatory, regulated or run by bureaucracies.

I'm with Zoe in that I see body work as an art form. I've been doing this for a long time and have learned much just by "doing it" and being present in my work and seeing where it would take me. I also had some great teachers who knew just how to guide me. Truth be told though I probably couldn't even pass the National Boards (and have zero interest in pursuing it.) I'm so "right brained" I'm practically handicapped. But I am confident enough in my work to put it up there against anybody's and I can appreciate another's good work regardless of how they got to where they are.

But I do know magic when I feel it. That is something you just can't teach. In fact when I have been lucky enough to have a student that has it I often stay out of their way and sit back and admire it. It's such a beautiful thing to behold and seems to be kind of rare. I will always fight on behalf of those who have "it" so that they don't get overlooked in an increasingly over-regulated, didactic and pedantic society, one which is in dire need of people who possess gifts we don't need to over explain.

 

[sundown]

For me the "magic" is intent.

And part of this is just trusting that my hands might do things that my brain is not directing.

 

[britt. (:]

:iagree:

Technique is a great thing, but it is a greater thing when it
serves as a foundation upon which we can build & create something that goes beyond it. I've been to many a practitioner that had the technique but wasn't "connected"
to their heart & their intuition.

Granted there are those who have great intuition & plenty of heart - but lack in skill as well. But being an artist takes time & practice for most people, as it does becoming a gifted practitioner in bodywork. Some people come to it easily & others do have to put in time & effort, it's different for everyone. That's all part of what makes life interesting & keeps us learning & growing into who we are meant to become.

 

[Augustus]

"Technique is a great thing, but it is a greater thing when it
serves as a foundation upon which we can build & create something that goes beyond it. I've been to many a practitioner that had the technique but wasn't "connected" to their heart & their intuition. " - Riversinger


AMEN! ABSOLUTELY! Some of the best work I have ever done has been done with intention to do what was best for the client and had absolutely no clue as to how the results were achieved on a technical level. Those instances were "magical" because intent, intuition and techniques blended themselves together effortlessly and without much conscious thought at all, if at all, because my heart and not my mind was in charge of the session.

One of my dearest friends, with just as much training and experience as mine, and one of the kindest hearts in the entire universe, gives a generally "okay" massage. It is as "okay" now as it was when she first began in this business 13 years ago. She concentrates entirely on getting the techniques "perfect" and the kata "perfect" to the extent that the massage is mechanical and without personality and emotional warmth that would make it a "great" massage. Eg. R arm - 4 strokes up, 4 strokes down, cross fiber friction 30 secs. rotate wrist, massage fingers and hand, stroke 3 times downward, repeat exactly on L arm. The whole massage is that way. It gets the job done, but, it is not anything that can be described as "magic."

Waaaay back in school, our instructors told us there were basically 2 types of massage therapists, those who practiced the "science" of massage and those who practiced the "art" of massage. Both are firmly grounded in scientific understanding of a&p, techniques, theory, etc. The difference comes when the 2 therapists begin their work in earnest and only one produces "magic" for the client. "Science" therapists are all about the therapy and the technique. Their clients are well served and are made to function more easily. "Art" therapists are all about the love, kindness, the healing, the benefit to the client and put their hearts and souls into their work. Their clients not only function more easily, but also are able to experience that "magical place" where form, function and intuition function together to bring a loving heart into the helpful process massage is and can be.

 

[barco]

Funny JasonE but when I read the quote I immediately thought of Michaelangelo and da Vinci as well.

When I read about Michaelangelo seeing the angel in the marble and working to set it free I see it differently than you do. I believe it was done with a lot of intuition and assisted with technique. It wasn't just the techniques he used that brought forth the beauty of the sculpture that emerged from the marble. You can chisel marble all day long with perfect technique and end up with a lot of little chunks that don't look like anything unless you have a truly inspired vision behind all the hammering.

Vision and intuition are extraordinary things, but it is the arduous and harrowing application of fundamental techniques that gets things done.

I heartily and respectfully disagree with this statement. It is like saying there is only one way to do something when in actuality there are a myriad of ways to accomplish any one task. What works for you -- the arduous and harrowing application of fundamental techniques -- isn't the basis of my work or the basis of many others who frequent this board.

For me, massage isn't a labor of applying techniques. It is an intuitively based art form. I truly let my intuition guide me in my work. It is like a dance that I do around the body working to facilitate release. No session is exactly the same and it changes depending on who is on my table and what their issues are that day. While there is technique involved in some of what I do it isn't what I rely on to achieve the results I get when I'm doing my work. Much of the time I'm focused on letting my hands do what they instinctively know how to do.

Elsewhere said it best. Neither Michaelangelo nor da Vinci were covered up in mandatory education or highly regulated bureaucracies telling them what they had to learn in order to be artists. They were allowed to learn as they saw fit to learn and seek out the knowledge they felt would benefit them the most in order to do the work they were drawn to do.

Music without heart is hollow. I can read music and plunk out melody all day long on a piano. Doesn't make me a musician. Simply being able to regurgitate technique doesn't make a person a great massage therapist.

 

[Caitlyn]

Elsewhere said it best. Neither Michaelangelo nor da Vinci were covered up in mandatory education or highly regulated bureaucracies telling them what they had to learn in order to be artists. They were allowed to learn as they saw fit to learn and seek out the knowledge they felt would benefit them the most in order to do the work they were drawn to do.

Ah, the good ol' days!