Fritz Smith is the founder of Zero Balancing. In his latest book, Alchemy of Touch, he uses the "lens" of zero balancing to help practitioners move toward mastery in energy-based body work. Rather than a procedural manual, Alchemy of Touch is a guide to the universal principles of using touch to heal and enable ourselves and others.

The book begins with a fascinating description of Dr. Smith's own spiritual journey and awakening to the power of spirit and the benefit of touch. In his experiences with Ida Rolf, J.R. Worsley, and initiation by Swami Muktananda, we see the roots of Zero Balancing in the on-going revelation of his life. By sharing his personal journey in his own words, he establishes a foundation that invites the reader into a deeper exploration of touch and healing.

That deeper exploration takes the form of seven Zero Balancing sessions reported in two coordinated ways, first as the objective description of the session by experienced practitioners and observers, next, as the subjective impressions of the recipient. This unique format aptly illustrates the relationship between the body work and practitioner interaction with the experience of the recipient. We see how a fulcrum, a breath, or a well-timed question or instruction results in a deeper physical, emotional, and spiritual experience.

Each of the seven session chapters is interspersed with Fritz's expert observations about body work. Using Zero Balancing as a focus for experience, Fritz engages topics that broaden and deepen our understanding of the essential interchanges in body work-- for example, energetic fields and their relationship to the body-mind, the integration of energy and structure, how memory is retained in the body, and the various alchemies of body work. Like yin and yang, these alternating chapters make an integrated whole that advances our understanding of the body and our influences upon it.

Long awaited by Zero Balancing practitioners, and of infinite value to anyone who works with energy and the human body, this work is a most welcome contribution to the literature in the field.