Lomi Lomi: Massage or Bodywork?

Hawaiian Lomi Lomi Massage or Hawaiian Bodywork - which is correct? In truth, in today's language, one is not more correct than the other but we tend to refer to our school of Lomi Lomi as Bodywork.

Although Lomi Lomi is uniquely Hawaiian, the name itself is relatively modern in its origin! The pre-cursor to Lomi Lomi in our teachings is Hamo Hamo - which is still known by a few today (Kumu Lawrence is one of them) but is rarely taught.

When the Missionaries and Explorers first came to Hawaii, they saw what the people were doing and mistakenly called it "masser" , the French word for "massage", because that's what it looked like to them. In fact, in the old times, the Lomi Lomi person wasn't a Practitioner at all but a person who took care of the Ali'i (Ruler or Chief's) spitoon which contained his waste!

What the Missionaries and Explorers didn't know then, and what most people still don't know, is there's so much more to Lomi Lomi than the physical technique of "massage". Of course there's the physical healing and correction of injuries but stacked on top and around that is a whole system of profound understanding about life, healing, spirituality, the Universe, the aina (or land) and the inter-relatedness of all things.

These are all thngs our Kupuna (Elders and Ancestors) knew about intimately - and it's why the time is taken to share them with you in your treatment. It’s part of building your foundation of inner knowledge so that you are Pa'a - strong, firm and unshakeable - in what you know as a result of your treatment or session. You leave with a better alignment of Spirit, Mind, Body - in that order.