Buddha's Foot carved from stone (about 1300 years old)
The practice of massage or pressure techniques to the foot for health benefits has been used by man for many thousands of years. First practised in the ancient cultures of China, Egypt, India, Japan and Russia who discovered that congestion or tension in any part of the foot or hand mirrors congestion in the corresponding part of the body.
Passed down throughout the centuries through illustrations, texts, artifacts and teachings, it appears to have been discovered and rediscovered using similar and, over time, additional techniques.
Feet of Vishnu
(India about 4800 years ago)
Pictograph from The Physicians Tomb dated around 2330 B.C.
However the earliest “recorded” evidence of Reflexology was found in Egypt at Saqqara, in the tomb of Ankhmahor (a ka-priests and second to the king) also known as The Physicians Tomb. It has been sugested that llustrations found on the wall, dated at the 6th dynasty, about 2330 B.C. depict physicians working on the hands and feet of recipients.
The hieroglyphic writing above the pictograph reads "Do not let it be painful" says one of the patients. "I do as you please" is the reply.
The story since then . . .
In
1017 Dr. Wang Wei, one of the founders of acupuncture, recommended
massage to the soles of the feet to stimulate the flow of energy in
the body in conjunction with acupuncture needles.
In 1913-20 an
American ear, nose and throat specialist named Dr William Fitzgerald discovered whilst working that, by applying pressure to certain areas of the
body he caused an anaesthetic effect on another part of the body. Dr
William Fitzgerald realised this worked within “Zones” and so divided
the body in ten equal zones. His work was further expanded upon by a
friend and colleague Dr Joseph Shelby Riley and his wife who developed
hook work. They later went on to publish a book called “Zone Therapy
Simplified” in which they charted the first reflex zone map of the
feet. During this time an assistant to Dr Riley named Eunice Ingham
a physiotherapist developed the Zone Theory further and later went on
to develop the "Ingham Compression Method" which is the basis of Reflexology
today. She realised that longer term effects and not just the short term anaesthesia could be produced and that an alternating pressure was more
powerful than a continuous one. Her discovery that the greatest impact
could be produced by pressure on the hands and feet (especially the
feet) and through research with hundreds of patients lead her to further develop the map of the reflexes on the feet. Ingham used to treat her nephew Dwight Byers for asthma and he joined her to spread
the word about the benefits of Reflexology. Dwight went on to found
the International Institute of Reflexology when his Aunt died in
1974 at the age of 85 and is still an active advocate for the Original
Ingham Method (™) of Reflexology. Amongst her students were Hanne
Marquardt who developed transverse zones and took reflexology to
Germany and, Doreen Bayly who bought reflexology to the UK.
