KINGSTON — The first time he experienced a massage at age 17, Kingston resident Dennis Pryor said he didn’t want to do anything else but that.

Now, almost 25 years later, he is continuing toward his goal of rejuvenating the masses with an office in Kingston and his four-month old business, Wakufu Massage Therapy.

“I’ll tell you the truth, I experienced massage while I was at a University of Illinois clinic,” he said. “I happened on the clinic, and since I discovered that idea, how fascinating it is, I’ve made it my life from that day.”

Pryor is sharing the upper portion of the Old Kingston Hotel Cafe with several other massage and accupunture therapists, each with his or her own style. He focuses his efforts on getting patients to relax and let go of some of the rigidness the American way of life creates for them.

“Our social structure places our body mechanics in strain,” he said. “The body accumulates it, and we walk around in all ways constricted by it. Massage allows us to relax and rest.”

Pryor said the way some people dress can cause their bodies to become even more clenched, speaking especially to ties and any form of tight clothing. In loose, comfortable clothes, men and women feel more free and their bodies are unrestrained. Today’s society also creates a more stressful life in general, again something that is reduced by massage.

The healing powers of touch are also spiritual, Pryor said, an aspect which has become taboo in Western society.

“Unless we are in a relationship with someone, we don’t touch them,” he said. “It puts a wall in humanity. It’s a very spiritual aspect to our lives. Two-thirds of the people I meet, I tell them it has taken this long to meet me, and for me to meet them. That’s an important bond. It really helps, really helps people relax in their body, mind and soul.”

Pryor said in the future he would like to create a space not just for massage, but for music and dance as well.

He said because of the touching restrictions, many families in America have steered away from dance, movement or even hugging, which can be detrimental to children and prompts a circle restraining touch. Pryor, who has children of his own, said he would like to create an environment for parents and youth to come together.

“I see myself waking a lot of people up out of a stupor,” he said. “This is becoming a life calling for me, and I’m waking myself up as well.”