Massage Law Demonstration in Boise Idaho

There are no massage laws in Idaho, so our demonstration there was more in favour of keeping the status quo rather than changing it. The State capitol is being renovated over the next 3 years so we had our demonstration in the park opposite it

Protest tomorrow in Boise Idaho

Here is the Press release for tomorrows demo near the State Capitol in Capitol Park. The Capitol is being renovated so it will be in a park opposite the Capitol building.

For Immediate Press Release Monday August 6^th, 2007

The International Natural Therapies Association President and Naturopath, Brandon Raynor, as well as other members of INTA are holding a public demonstration of Raynor Massage on the steps of the state Capitol building.

We believe that our troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan deserve better health treatment when they return home from fighting in foreign wars to protect our freedoms. We know that alternative health practices such as Raynor Massage would lessen the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and help alleviate many other health troubles that the troops are returning home with.

We believe that the state government (responsible for National Guard troops), as well as the Federal government , should do as much as possible to help the troops adapt to a normal life and it is a well known fact that deep tissue massage and acupressure is a great way to deal with stress. Our style of massage, in particular which draws techniques from many of the world’s various styles of massage would be particularly effective at helping soldiers and other military personnel with their stress related conditions.

We are calling for the Idaho state government to implement programs to help our returning soldiers not just with addictive drugs and psychiatric help but also with more proven natural methods such as good quality massage therapy. We are also expressing our gratitude to the Idaho government for not regulating the massage industry like many other states have, and we are encouraging them to keep the massage industry unregulated in Idaho.

We will be offering free deep tissue massage treatments to reporters, state legislators and also war veterans on the steps of the State capitol on Tuesday August 7^th between 10:30 am and 4:30 pm.

Let Idaho lead the country in looking after their soldiers!

Brandon Raynor is an Australian trained Naturopathic Practitioner whose school (Brandon Raynor’s School of Natural Therapies) offers massage courses in 20 locations in 11 different countries. He holds Diplomas in Naturopathic Medicine, Therapeutic Massage, Shiatsu, Chinese Herbal Medicine and Ayurvedic Medicine from India. He is currently based in Hawaii.

For more information about the school see www.brandonraynor.com and to follow along with us on our North American campaign for health freedom see www.thefreedomride.org

Brandon will be available for comment and interviews today through the telephone and email listed below and onsite at the steps of the capitol building tomorrow.

Most Sincerely,

Terry Masson

www.thefreedomride.org

terry@brandonraynor.com

360-434-0737

Next day more driving - Finally arrived in Boise

After 2 days of driving we finally arrived in Boise, the capital of Idaho.
After crossing mountains and desserts it was nice to see some greenfields
Spent the weekend having fun with Jai and Terry at Boondocks , an amusement centre and at a water Park

Trip across the desert to Idaho

Thursday and Friday we travelled from Carson City to Boise Idaho. It was quite a drive across some very scrubby type of land.

We stayed the night at Winnemucca, Nevada and went for a walk in the town. We were the only ones without cowboy hats.

Stirred up a hornets nest in Nevada

The Nevada Appeal did another article on The Freedom Ride. Seems like I irritated a massage school owner. Please see my comments in the comments section of the site also.

This was his response to my earlier article in the paper.

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/2007108040106

Trip to Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is only a 20 minute drive from Carson City so we rented a car and took a trip there. It is on the Nevada/California border. It is very high about 7800 feet above sea level and the water is quite cold. A bit too cold for my 7 year old son. He was not happy until he got into the boat with Terry.

Interview with Capitol weekly, California's main political paper

Malcolm Maclachlan, from the Capitol Weekly in Sacramento, California emailed me and asked me to do an interview for him. Capitol weekly is the main newspaper dealing with politics and legislation in California. i gave Malcolm a massage outside the State Capitol in Sacramento.

Here it is....
It should be published on Thursday August 9. When it comes out in the newspaper it may be shortened as I think i went over the 700 words he asked for.

Tell me about the Freedom Ride? Where are you going, and what’s the goal?

Tell me about Terry and Jai, your companions on the trip.

Why do you want to deregulate the massage industry?

How did the industry get so regulated in the first place?

What else do you like to do with you time?

The Freedom Ride is a convoy of Rvs that is going to every state capitol in the United States and every provincial capital in Canada. We have several goals. The first is to promote freedom of choice in health care, specifically the massage industry. We don’t believe that one group of people should force their way of practicing and teaching massage on the rest of the people in that state or province. This is the situation now where a massage board forces people to study for a certain number of hours ( usually between 500 and 1000 in the US, 2000 to 3000 in Canada) in order to practice as a massage therapist.

We believe that there are many different types of massage from many cultures and all of these have different underlying philosophies such as acupressure from China. They never dissected the human body in China because they believed that once the chi, or life force had left they were no longer interested in the dead body. So, their training in massage was all about manipulating the life force, rather than rote learning Latin names for muscles as it tends to be here in the States and Canada .

So we would like to see massage laws relaxed to allow traditional massage styles from places like Hawaii, Thailand, China, India etc as well as innovative methods such as the method I have come up with, Raynor massage, ( www.brandonraynor.com) which combines aspects of other forms of massage to be allowed to be practiced and taught in the manner prescribed by the founders of these methods not a bunch of massage therapists trained in other styles especially when those styles such as Swedish massage, don’t have much history behind them.

Massage regulation is unnecessary and merely stifles creativity. Australia has no massage regulation and the industry is booming, far more than it is in the US, and there is a lot of creativity and use of many cultures’ massage techniques there.

The second meaning to the freedom ride is to support our troops coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan who are fighting for freedom and democracy. They are being neglected by the bureaucracy of the Veterans administration, especially the soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. We believe we can help them enormously with our form of massage. We believe that it is the least we can do for people who are willing to lay their lives on the line for fighting for all the freedoms we take for granted such as freedom of religion, freedom of speech, democracy etc… If we don’t support our troops then there may be a general drop in morale by all the troops in the armies of the free world ( USA, Australia, UK, Canada Europe etc) . The US is the backbone of the free world and we are facing very grave threats at the moment by people such as Osama bin Laden who don’t believe in anyone having freedom.

Question 2

Terry Masson is a student of mine that completed our course in March in Toronto , Canada. Terry had a life changing experience during the course. He is also a Qi Gong practitioner. The Raynor massage has really helped Terry to understand chi in the body and how it flows etc…He is now a teacher trainee and a very good massage therapist.

Jai is my 7 year old son, who I home school. On this journey he will learn about the political process as well as his geography of North America. My wife, Rebecca, is coming back from Australia this week and will continue home schooling him on the road.

Question 3

I want to deregulate the massage industry for several reasons. The first is for the benefits that I see creativity will bring to the industry. It will be much easier for therapists to concentrate on being the best therapist they are capable of becoming, which is what they should be focusing their time, effort and money on rather than on satisfying some silly bureaucrats idea of whether they should know a latin name for every muscle in the body. In Japan, massage was practiced by blind people because their sense of touch was so good. Also why shouldn’t people who have a low IQ, or dyslexia, but a great sense of touch be allowed to practice massage. At the moment they wouldn’t be able to pass the test.

In Hawaii, where I live, native people told me that they introduced massage laws as a way of getting rid of the traditional Kahunas or healers, because they knew not many would pass the test to get a licence. It is similar to what the British did when they invaded India and they closed down all the Ayurvedic hospitals and teaching institutions. It is an attempt at cultural imperialism, something that should have stopped in the 19^th century like the British did.

Massage is an art form and it has its origins in many different cultures with successful histories of hundreds and thousands of years. Why should one group of people now tell the others they can’t practice. Its wrong.

Of course, another reason is that my school would be able to offer our courses in states that we currently can’t and people would be able to practice there without undue government interference.

Question 4

The industry got regulated in the first place by some well meaning individuals and some not so well meaning individuals that wanted to stop prostitution being practiced in the name of massage. Also some big schools realized they can charge more money if the courses had to be longer. They are the main people pushing for regulation today, as well as some of the graduates of the schools who are scared of competition. They obviously don’t realize there is no shortage of stressed out people in this world.

Question 5

In my spare time I like to garden. On Oahu, I have a 2 acre property that is undeveloped and I am planting mangoes, papayas, lychees, and all sorts of tropical fruits there, with the eventual aim of making a retreat centre for people to learn massage and other natural therapies. I love swimming, doing yoga and eating healthy food. I love playing games with my son and hiking. I like travelling and being a citizen of 3 countries ( Australia, Canada and the UK) makes that easy. Of course my favourite thing to do is to receive a good massage. That’s what got me into this industry in the first place. I loved it so much I wanted to share it with others.

Brandon Raynor is a Naturopath with Diplomas in Therapeutic Massage, Naturopathy, Chinese Herbal Medicine, Ayurvedic Medicine and Shiatsu. Please see www.thefreedomride.org and www.brandonraynor.com for more details

Minnesotta Laws as a Model

Scott Schumacher posted an entry earlier showing that Minnesotta's massage laws could be used as a model for other states. From first glances I tend to agree with him.

Here is a link he left to the laws.

http://www.minnesotanaturalhealth.org/

Protest in Carson City Nevada Photos

Well, sorry about the delay in getting the photos up. I misplaced the cord from the camera.
The bottom ones are of the reporter from the Nevada appeal, Geoff Dornan. At first we protested outside of the legislature rather than the Capitol as Nevada seperates the two then we were told our permit was for the other building so we changed location. Geoff was a nice guy and I have included a link to the article he wrote about us in the next entry in the blog.

Jai was a good boy during the whole protest although sometimes he gets bored and looks forward to home time 4 pm or so. Its not always that exciting for a 7 year old.