The OSFLOW® inventors
Jürgen Lütke-Wenning about the creation of OSFLOW®
The idea for the oscillation platform OSFLOW® arose in 2004 during my practical teaching work and my exploration of the concept of natural movement.
As a teaching trainer at the Scola Training Academy, I often had the experience that prospective Taiji teachers in training found it difficult to find the special middle lot and the flow experience associated with it. Strong habitual patterns that have grown over a long period of time often stand in our way. For example, we may perceive a crooked position as “centre”, even though we are far from our centre.
When one then enters the “true” centre, it can feel “strange” and “crooked” at first, because one has identified with and accepted habitual patterns for a long time – a problem that I could often observe and that preoccupied me.
At that time I thought quite pragmatically about a tool with which one can experience this centre. A way to get back to the centre of the body, because once you really feel the centre, I assumed, you know what to look for and how it feels. I thought of a platform on which one stands – functionally aligned against gravity – between heaven and earth. This platform would have to create a spiral vortex that moves around the person practising, because in the spiral vortex the forces flow centripetally towards the central axis. If the joints are left loose, the posture is then gently corrected towards the centre.
So much for the theoretical considerations.
When I told my friend and Taiji training partner Thomas Hübner, technician and inventor, about the idea back in 2004, Thomas spontaneously said, “No problem, I’ll build you such a device!”
After only two weeks, the prototype was ready and we went to try it out with joyful anticipation. After a short test with different frequencies it was already clear: there is indeed a small frequency range that “pulls” the body of the exercising person into the centre. This optimal spiral vortex frequency has proven itself since the beginning and can still be experienced today with the OSFLOW®. The frequency is a small range within the alpha vibration (8-12 heart).
Very interesting were also the experiments with the different vibration directions of the stand. At first we set the rotation to the right and the feeling experience was fine. However, when we then switched to left-hand rotation, standing on the OSFLOW® immediately gave me the special aha experience! When the standing surface swings to the right, you feel as if it is gently pushing you upwards, away from the floor, away from the earth. But when the plate swings around to the left, there is a subjective spiral-like pull downwards towards the earth. This phenomenon, as Thomas found out with later research, is related to the Earth’s rotation. In the northern hemisphere of the earth, which rotates to the left, the wind and water movements in the spiral vortex also move to the left. In the southern hemisphere it is the other way round. The vortex must first work downwards, thereby centring and compressing the body of the person practising. Due to the gentle compression exactly in the centre, an elastic force immediately rises upwards and with it a feeling of lightness in the whole body. Actio = Reactio, this is Newton’s 3rd law.
After a test phase with prospective Taiji teachers and various movement experts, it turned out that people who have no Taiji knowledge can also experience the flow feeling of the special centre and the associated positive effects after an introduction. This opened the doors to a larger circle of interested people in one fell swoop. After two years of consistently positive experiences with OSFLOW® in our own area, we started the first small series in 2006. At that time, as today, Thomas and his OSFLOW® Manufacture are responsible for the production of the devices and the technical area. He also manages and organises the distribution.
The vibration frequency and the direction of vibration have not changed a bit in all these years and are now confirmed again and again by thousands of users with very special experiences.
