Stone therapy
Stone therapy is one of those American “inventions” that have gone around the world. Stone therapy, however, does not date back to 1933 when Mary Nelson, creator of the Stone Therapie process in Tucson, Arizona, first “coded” this treatment became so popular. It all started as it usually does from a sudden “enlightenment”. The revelation took place in the strangest possible place: a sauna where Mary had come to relax, but which did not work well and displayed the temperature of 80 degrees Celsius.
Mary was in constant pain because she massaged her clients throughout the day and did not take any breaks. The young masseuse no longer knew what to do to ease her pain. In a moment of divine inspiration, the masseuse took the basalt stones that were used to warm the sauna and placed them on the painful areas of her body. The feeling of well-being was immediately felt and thus stone therapy was born.
Here’s the American story of this original process. In reality, stones have been used in many cultures of the world, as part of purification and healing rituals. As early as the 5th century BC, Japanese monks eased their pains using reddish and heated stones. Much later, the natives of Hawaii wrapped warm stones in leaves and placed them on different areas of the body to treat nerve problems and anxieties, and the tribes of the African Cloud used the heat of the stones to relieve menstrual pain.
Stone therapy, efficacy and refinement
Some therapists will assert that the vibration of stones, such as pink quartz and rock crystal, allows the development of the body’s self-healing capacity. And the pragmatists will admit that the alternation of the warm basalt with the cold marble provides an extraordinary feeling of well-being.
Whether the stones are magical, possess medical virtues or if the truth is somewhere in the middle, one thing is absolutely certain: stone therapy is fashionable! Beauty centres and SPAs dispute the honour of integrating into their offer, calling it as fanciful as possible and arching its origins as far away as possible.
Used first alone (the first stone therapy consisted in placing and leaving warm stones on the client’s body for half an hour), the stones have today become indispensable accessories in various care techniques: reiki, reflexology, shiatsu, massage based on essential oils.
Some masses even produce “special effects”, urging their clients to keep a warm stone in their left hand and a cold stone in their right hand to let the two temperatures “hunt” each other through the body. A real yin/yang experience! But the use of stones is not limited to body treatments. Stones are present everywhere: the care of hands, feet and even the face, in which case precious stones are often used.
Thus, the famous Chinese jade massage has amazing anti-wrinkle effects. This process always has a positive effect on the clientele. Some aestheticians perfect their massage,placing warm stones between the client’s toes, thus rendering the suppleness of the wrists and facilitating the energy flow. The legs are then wrapped in warm towels, soaked beforehand in a bath of macerated herbs. To accentuate the energy effect, throughout the massage, the client holds a warm stone in her hand. Other aestheticians use cold marble to cool the client’s feet before they are placed in lukewarm, fragrant water, so that she has a special yin and yang experience.
Mystics will tell you that everything born of the earth is an integral part of the universal symphony, difficult to perceive by the human ear. Thus the precious stones would emit high notes, while the basalt or marble would propagate in the ether serious notes. Romantics will whisper confidentially, that minerals influence our luck, that opal is bad luck, ruby cheers and that diamonds are the most appreciated.
