History of Hot Stone Therapy - Ariana Institute
by Ariana Vincent - Ariana Institute
(Austin and Online)
Ariana Institute offers online and classroom Hot and Cold Stone CE courses. www.arianainstitute.com Enjoy this information on the history of stone therapy. Warmly, Ariana
HISTORY OF STONE THERAPY
The stones utilized for hot stone therapy are basalt, a dark-colored fine-grained igneous volcanic rock. Its main constituent is feldspar which is also the base for lava and many mountains. Basalt is very dense and contains fine crystalline masses and iron which facilitate its unique ability to retain and evenly transfer heat.
The sources for basalt stones include Colorado, the Pacific Northwest, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Mexico, New Zealand, Japan, China and the Philippines.
The stones utilized for cold stone therapy are marble. They retain and evenly transfer cold. They are a relatively soft stone, so care should be exercised in handling the marble stones. Be careful not to drop them or place cold marble stones in hot water because they could chip or fracture.
Rocks can be generators or movers of energy. They give to a place that is depleted, help move in places of excess.
Hot stone therapy is not new, but rather an ancient form of therapy practiced for thousands of years by many cultures.
The Japanese have historically used smooth heated black stones to warm their abdomens to aid digestion.
The Chinese have been using hot stones to relieve muscular pain for some 4,000 years. One person reported that his elderly Chinese acupuncturist in New York's Chinatown used a large heated rock on his abdomen years ago. The acupuncturist told him it was an ancient technique from his province in China, used to help the internal organs.
Hot stone massage has a long history in the native Hawaiian culture. Also known as Pohaku, the art of massage with heated basalt rocks provides therapeutic warmth to muscles and joints. The indigenous Hawaiians used lava stones wrapped in a leaf for their healing treatments.
Many European cultures wrapped heated stones in a towel and placed them on painful or sore parts of the body.
Cowboys used to place hot stones under their sleeping bags to keep warm during the night.
Native Americans have historically used hot stones as part of a hot stone massage treatment in their sweat lodge ceremonies which includes focus on the four elements - fire, water, air and earth. One of the elders in the sweat lodge passes a perfectly round hot stone around the circle for participants to rub where they might have pain or discomfort.
In New Mexico, it is known that heated rocks have been used by sobadores, the traditional massage therapists, and curanderos, the traditional medicine men and women from the Hispanic cultures. These cultures used hot rocks to ease pain and to help ground and connect to the earth.
