Massage

The mechanical explanation Aajonus offered was specific. He described the tissues of most people's bodies as being in a state of dryness and hardness: solid, hardened, cracked, and brittle. He used the image of a dry connection, something fragile and inflexible, to illustrate what happens when a therapist applies deep pressure. Going into tissue in that condition and working it with force breaks the tissue. It causes bruised areas throughout the body, whether or not the bruising is visible on the surface. It creates more toxicity from the damage itself, layered on top of whatever toxins were already stored there and are now being disturbed.

He extended this to reflexology, Swiss massage, Rolfing, and essentially all deep or aggressive modalities, stating that most of them cause damage by this same mechanism. The popularity or clinical credibility of a modality did not exempt it from this analysis. Rolfing was singled out explicitly as something that is never good under any circumstance.

Aajonus gave particular attention to the lymphatic system because it is especially vulnerable to the specific damage that hard massage produces. He described the lymphatic system as a network of channels and vessels that, in unhealthy people, is already clogged and drying. If a practitioner goes in and breaks the veins and arteries within that network, the lymphatic fluid that has been contained within it leaks out into the surrounding connective tissue. Once that fluid disperses into the connective tissue, the result can be lupus or worsening fibromyalgia or increased fatigue, or various deteriorating conditions. He defined lupus as a dissolution of connective tissue, and identified deep massage of a compromised lymphatic system as one of the paths toward that outcome.

He stated directly that standard lymphatic massages as offered by alternative practitioners are brutal, causing internal lacerations and causing dried and hardened lymphatic networks to break and leak into connective tissue. The label "lymphatic massage" does not make a massage safe. The intensity of the pressure is what determines whether the lymphatic channels are stimulated or destroyed.

A person who has a healthy lymphatic system may tolerate approaches that would be harmful to someone with a clogged or diseased lymphatic system, but Aajonus's general recommendation remained that light touch is always the correct approach.

When a rough massage disturbs large quantities of stored toxins at once, those toxins enter the blood and lymphatic fluids in volumes the body's normal elimination channels cannot process smoothly. The detoxification becomes acute rather than gradual. The result is flu-like symptoms: myalgia, fatigue, nausea, head pain, restricted movement, and malaise that can persist for days. In the case he discussed directly in the Q&A material, the person experienced severe neck and head problems following a massage that left them barely able to move their head, combined with a myalgia and fluey feeling lasting for days. He attributed the massive detoxification and resulting symptoms to the massage itself, separate from any reaction to diet changes happening at the same time.

He also described the risk to arteries and veins more broadly. In people with arteriosclerosis, going in with deep massage and breaking the veins and arteries leads to blood dispersing into the connective tissue. The bruising may be entirely internal, invisible to the eye, but it is present throughout the affected areas. The body then has to deal with both the freed stored toxins and the biological response to the tissue damage itself.

The correct form of massage, in his framework, is one so light it barely touches the surface of the skin. He demonstrated this in workshops by asking participants to touch the arm of the person next to them with so little pressure they were only just contacting the hairs on the skin. He observed that this quality of contact produces a tingling that excites and stimulates the whole nervous system immediately. That nervous system stimulation is the actual goal.

He explained that stimulating the nervous system through feather-light touch accomplishes what acupuncture claims to accomplish, without the neurological damage that needle insertion causes. The light touch sends vibrations through the body and provides the electrical stimulation the lymphatic system needs to function properly. This kind of stimulation does not require force, does not break anything, and does not produce a toxic aftermath.

He called this approach tickle massage or gentle healing touch massage, and stated without qualification that no one should ever submit to a rough massage under any circumstance. For someone with a lymphatic problem, the only appropriate massage is this light tickle approach. The same principle applies to anyone whose tissues are compromised.

He also specified that acupressure, when done gently rather than with force, can be very effective, because gently touching those neurological points stimulates them correctly. Forceful acupressure carries the same risks as any other deep pressure application.

Because a common reason people seek deep or stimulating massage is to increase circulation or move the lymphatic system, Aajonus addressed what the appropriate substitute is. Exercise, he said, is the correct mechanism for getting blood moving and stimulating circulation. A walk or a hot bath accomplishes what hard massage attempts to do but cannot do without causing damage. The hot bath in particular appears throughout his framework as the primary tool for relaxing tissues, stimulating lymphatic and circulatory activity, and reducing pain, because heat relaxes without breaking anything.

He was explicit that hard massage is not the way to increase lymphatic or circulatory activity. The body's own movement, working against gravity and through its natural mechanical systems, is the correct method.

He noted that even after a gentle massage, a significant quantity of poisons can be released from the system. He recommended drinking a large amount of water following any massage to help manage those toxins, while acknowledging the complexity in his framework around water consumption, since water is not a nutrient in his system and carries its own concerns when consumed in large quantities.

When Aajonus received massage himself, he used coconut cream as the massage medium. He distinguished between fresh coconut cream, which he used when he wanted to feed and neutralize the skin, and fermented coconut cream, which he used when he wanted to help break down toxins under the skin. He was specific that coconut oil in its extracted, jarred form is not appropriate as a massage oil because it chokes off oxygen absorption into the cells and skin. Coconut cream, which contains water-soluble fats, is preferable because it does not have that blocking effect.

He also described using bone marrow as a massage cream, noting that he would let it come to room temperature after removing it from bone, at which point it is the consistency of butter. He sometimes combined it with pineapple juice, using a tablespoon of juice squeezed from fresh pineapple for its bromelain content, which helps break down dead cells in the skin. The combination of marrow and pineapple juice served as a topical treatment for skin conditions including scarring.

Aajonus made a related observation about the practice of massaging or using electromagnetic treatments to loosen tissue before chiropractic adjustments. He identified this approach as causing bruising of tissue and described the electromagnetic fields used in electrical treatment machines as damaging to cellular structure. His preferred approach to spinal work was heat, specifically hot water bottles along the spine during rest and sleep, combined with hot baths, followed by yoga stretches such as the plow and spinal twists to achieve alignment naturally. The combination of heat and gentle movement was his substitute for the kind of forced manual tissue work that chiropractic preparation massage represents.

In the context of applying raw meat directly to the skin as a topical healing agent, he included a specific instruction not to massage the area. When using a meat poultice, especially with beef applied as a thin layer roughly an eighth of an inch thick and kept from drying out, he stated no massages should be done to that area. The meat is doing its drawing and nutritive work directly on the surface tissue, and mechanical disruption of that process is counterproductive.