Wisdom in the Body

by Michael Kern

  This groundswell motion arises with a centrifugal force (a movement outwards), followed by a centripedal return to the source (a movement inwards). These centrifugal and centripedal motions rhythmically arise from and return to the source as the most basic expression of life (see Figure 2.5). This may be perceived as spiral movements of energy, like the coiling and uncoiling of a spring in constant motion.28

  Figure 2.4: The three tides emerging out of stillness (illustration credit 2.4)

  Figure 2.5: The groundswell of the Breath of Life (illustration credit 2.5)

  Genesis

  The body is in a constant state of repair, regulation and regeneration. At each moment, the vitalizing forces of the Breath of Life hold the whole process together, bringing order and integration. As Dr. James Jealous describes,

  The Breath of Life comes into the body. We can sense various rhythms that are created from it, and we can perceive that process taking place … We can actually perceive the Breath of Life come into the body, come into the midline, and from the midline, generate different forms of rhythms in the bioelectrical field, fluids and tissue. Essentially what’s happening is genesis. It never stops. Moment to moment we are building new form and function.29

  Dr. Jealous is describing an extraordinary thing: the direct perception of the Breath of Life coming into the body, oriented around the midline. In this continuous process of creation, our form and all our physiological activities are being generated and maintained by the expression of life’s creative impulse.

  Transmutation

  The primary respiratory system can be regarded as a kind of transformer that steps down the powerful energies of the basic life-breath into the physical body. From a source of stillness, the emergence of each rhythm signifies a further condensation into form. This can be compared to how electrical power is brought into a city on 44,000-volt power lines, and then stepped down to 110 volts so that it can be used.30 Dr. Sutherland called this process a transmutation.31

  Change of state

  Transmutation refers to a change of state. Just as ice can turn to water and then to steam, a transmutation is a becoming of something new, a kind of “shape-shifting.”32

  Each emerging unfoldment of the Breath of Life is a change of state as our creative intention unfolds into form. In this process each new state is formed out of the one that underlies it. From the ground of dynamic stillness, motion arises. This is a transmutation that is expressed as the long tide. Then the mid-tide is generated, as the essential potencies of the long tide become transmuted into the fluids of the body. This motion unfolds into the faster longitudinal fluctuations of fluid and the craniosacral motion of tissues.

  THE HOLOGRAPHIC PRINCIPLE

  Relativity and, even more important, quantum mechanics have strongly suggested (though not yet proved) that the world cannot be analysed into separate and independently existing parts. Moreover, each part somehow involves all the others: contains them or enfolds them.33

  DR. DAVID BOHM

  The human organism can be seen as a unified system of function in which the whole is contained in every part. This same idea is found in a variety of health care systems such as Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine, polarity therapy, reflexology and iridology. In these therapies, individual parts of the body such as the pulse on the wrist, the texture of the tongue, zones on the feet or regions of the eye are used to reveal information about the whole system.

  This principle is also illustrated by the genetic building blocks called DNA contained in every cell. Each cell contains coiled strands of DNA that hold the inherited information of the entire body. Each cell contains information of the whole, enabling the creation of compatible new cells with the same genetic imprint.

  Holographic model

  The different tidal rhythms produced by the Breath of Life make up a whole system of interrelated motion, the primary respiratory system. Each aspect of the primary respiratory system is contained within the other, creating a unified field of activity. Therefore, each part is interconnected and has access to the whole.

  In the holographic view of the universe, each and every physical form is considered to be interconnected in this way. This concept was pioneered by researchers such as Stanford neurosurgeon Dr. Karl Pribram and the renowned quantum physicist Dr. David Bohm.

  What is a hologram?

  The behavior of light illustrates how the holographic principle works. A hologram is a special type of three-dimensional projected image, produced by a beam of pure laser light. A laser beam is passed through a prism, which then splits it into two separate branches34 (see Figure 2.6[i]). One branch of the laser beam is aimed at an object being photographed and as a result the object is reflected back onto a photographic plate or film. The other branch of the split laser beam is aimed directly at the photographic plate.

  Figure 2.6: The formation of a hologram (illustration credit 2.6)

  Let’s say that the object being photographed is a flower. The beam of light projected onto the flower is called the working beam. When the working beam meets the flower, it splits up into various wave forms like the scattered ripples produced in flowing water when it encounters a rock. In this way the working beam becomes diverted or conditioned by encountering the flower. Some of the ripples of light bouncing off the flower are reflected onto the photographic plate.

  However, the other branch of laser light from the prism maintains its coherence. It remains as pure unadulterated laser light, unconditioned by meeting any object.35 This beam is called the reference beam. It is also reflected onto the photographic plate.

  Where the light waves from both the working beam and the reference beam meet, interference patterns are produced. Where these interference patterns reach the photographic plate, they are recorded on film that stores a three-dimensional image of the hologram. If you then shine another beam of pure laser light through the photographic plate, a complete three-dimensional image of the flower is produced in the space behind it (see Figure 2.6[ii]).

  Whole in the part

  Let’s imagine that, after recording the image of the flower, the photographic plate is accidentally dropped and shatters into many small pieces. One would probably think that at least a part of the image would be lost. However, each broken piece is still able to produce an image of the whole flower (see Figure 2.6[iii]). This is because each individual part of the plate contains the whole picture in an encoded form. One of the key features of a hologram is that information of the whole is contained within each part. In other words, each part has access to the whole.36

  Reference beam

  Let’s imagine that the reference beam becomes blocked while the image is being made, and only the “ripples” created when the working beam encounters the flower reach the photographic plate. When you then attempt to produce a holographic image, no clear or coherent picture will be generated, only chaotic patterns.37 However, if some of the ripples from the working beam become blocked, an image will still be produced. So, in the production of a hologram the reference beam is fundamentally necessary to maintain the order and integrity of the encoded image. Without the reference beam, only chaotic images are produced.

  An organism can be viewed as a kind of holographic system in which everything is intrinsically connected. Furthermore, the reference beam of a hologram is akin to the essential ordering principle of the Breath of Life, which maintains the integrity and coherence of the body. If the Breath of Life becomes blocked or restricted, then disorder or chaos results and coherence is lost. One of the main intentions of craniosacral work is to reconnect chaotic parts of ourselves to the reference beam of the Breath of Life.38

  Holographic memory

  One of the great mysteries that has puzzled neuro-scientists is how the brain stores memory. Even though various parts of the brain may be damaged or even removed by surgery, memory can still remain intact. This shows that there is not any one particular physical location in the brain that carries out the function of memory. It seem
s that memory is enfolded throughout the whole brain.

  Dr. Karl Pribram proposes that the brain operates in many ways like a hologram.39 He suggests that memory is stored in a similar way to how holographic images are stored on a photographic plate. This would explain how a specific memory does not have a location but is distributed throughout the brain.40 In the holographic model, each part of the brain contains information relating to the whole and therefore has access to every other part.

  Light-based

  Holograms require a source of coherent light. Recent research indicates that the brain also has the ability to communicate and process information through pathways of light. This is in addition to the linear communication that takes place through nerve pathways. While we usually consider nerve impulse conduction as super-fast, physicist Dr. Mae Wan Ho suggests that it is actually quite cumbersome in comparison to this light-based communication system and is probably designed to slow things down!41 Evidence has been found that brain cells may emit coherent light in organized waves.42 These light waves provide the ideal medium in which memory could be holographically distributed. Some researchers suggest that cerebrospinal fluid is the vehicle that carries this light.43 In fact, tiny particles of energy, biophotons, with the capability of emitting light have been found in the life fluids of all living organisms (see also Chapter 3, “Conductor of Potency”). 44

  Implicate and explicate order

  Dr. David Bohm proposed that a unifying principle holographically links the whole of creation. He surmised that although all forms in creation appear to be separate on the outside, they are in fact, connected by an underlying implicit order. Dr. Bohm referred to a “holographic universe” that has two aspects: an inner implicate realm and an outer explicate realm (see Figure 2.7).45

  Figure 2.7: Implicate and explicate realms (illustration credit 2.7)

  The implicate realm is a domain of undivided wholeness, which is at the basis of all forms. The explicate realm is the domain where things appear, at least on the surface, to be separate. This is what we can see with our eyes. However, the implicate realm of wholeness is always contained within each explicate part. Franklyn Sills observed, “What may at first appear to be unrelated random occurrences, may actually be completely interrelated at an implicate level.”46

  All these proposals are in accord with Dr. Sutherland’s view of the primary respiratory system. In the craniosacral concept, the tidal rhythms of the Breath of Life emerge from an implicate realm of dynamic stillness. Within each emerging state, all others are enfolded—rather like a set of Russian dolls. In the primary respiratory system, there are interpenetrating rhythms within rhythms, emerging from a unified field. Each rhythmic unfoldment is a particular expression of an enfolded universal principle.

  Realm of unity

  According to the holographic view, everything in life is connected to everything else, and everything is contained in everything else. It is even thought that the whole universe is holographically contained within every single atom.47 Each atom can be seen as an individual little universe. Just as the sun and planets in the outer universe revolve around one another, so do electrons.48

  The presence of an intrinsic realm of unity is acknowledged in many spiritual traditions, as well as in modern quantum physics. For example, both Christianity and Judaism refer to God or the “divine” as an indivisible universal principle. The whole Eastern spiritual philosophy is founded on the principle that there is an essential unification of matter and experience. Buddhists refer to this underlying state as shunyata—our true enfolded, unmanifested nature. The quintessential religious experience of oneness and unity described by mystics may be a clear experience of this implicate and universal ground.49

  This view suggests that the essential wholeness at the ground of our being can be intrinsically found within any single part. It is by reconnecting to the implicate realm that our greatest potential can be accessed and most fundamental healing take place. Going back to this source of wholeness, in each moment it may be possible to wipe the slate clean and start over again.

  ORIGINAL MATRIX

  Health can be defined as the emergence of Originality. The Originality expresses a complete balance of both structure and function as intentionalised in the creation of a human being.50

  DR. JAMES JEALOUS

  Embryological imperative

  From the moment of conception, the body forms around a precise and primary design. As the first cells of the body start to divide, they somehow know how to create a human being—as opposed to something else! An extraordinary degree of order and intelligence is apparent in this process. However, at this early stage no genetic mechanisms have been found that are capable of promoting such organized development. According to leading embryologist Dr. Erich Blechschmidt, the ordering and organization of our early development does not occur as a result of genetics operating through our DNA. As he states, “Hereditary factors are an important but not the only condition for the process of differentiation … The genes themselves do not perform the differentiation process.”51

  Apparently genetic influences do not begin to fully operate until about six weeks after conception.52 Even then they are only considered to modify the process of cellular development rather than being primarily responsible for it.53 In other words genetic mechanisms will determine whether you have blue or brown eyes, but not whether you have eyes at all. Therefore, an important question arises. What provides the coherence of our early growth? Dr. Blechschmidt proposes that an ordering principle brings about this organization, operating through the fluids of the body. Significantly, this is the same conclusion that Dr. Sutherland came to when considering the role that fluid plays in carrying the intrinsic ordering principle of the Breath of Life.

  Essential blueprint

  The Breath of Life carries an essential blueprint for health, which Dr. James Jealous called the “Original Matrix.” This blueprint is a deep and unwavering ordering principle intrinsically distributed around the body in the tidal rhythms of primary respiration. The original matrix has also been described as an original intention, because it is present at the very beginning of life as the cells of the embryo begin to form and differentiate.54 However, this same embryological imperative continues throughout life, in each moment of creation. The rhythms of the Breath of Life continuously deliver an intrinsic order into the fluids, and thus into each cell of the body. The various tissue and fluid systems of the body form around this essential blueprint and are maintained by it, until the time of death. As long as there is life, this ordering principle is never lost.55 Franklyn Sills states,

  In healing work this is a critical point to understand. No matter how desperate the situation, the information of the whole, its inherent ordering principle, or blueprint, is still available in each part. The blueprint of health is thus present in each part and is still available if it can be accessed.56

  Facilitating order and health

  Because the original matrix is distributed in the rhythmic cycles of primary respiration, the ability of cells to express the Breath of Life has critical consequences for their health. At a fundamental level, primary respiration maintains each cell’s order and integrity. The aim of craniosacral treatment is to facilitate the expression of the original matrix in tissues that have become disordered and affected by pathology. By encouraging the manifestation of the Breath of Life at a cellular level, the craniosacral therapist acts as a facilitator of this essential blueprint for health. According to Dr. Jealous,

  It is the permeation of the Breath of Life into disorientated tissues that re-establishes the Original Matrix. The Original Matrix is a form that is carried through the potency of the Breath of Life around which the molecular and cellular world will organise itself into the Original pattern set forth by the Master Mechanic.57

  Sarah’s story

  Sarah’s case illustrates how the re-emergence of the original matrix may be experienced. Sarah had come for craniosacral treatment because
of a serious and persistent lower back problem. Her doctor had recommended surgery to remove one of her spinal discs, but Sarah was reluctant to go ahead with this and was looking for alternative treatment. When tuning in to her primary respiratory system from the feet, the intrinsic wisdom in her body began to take over. What follows is her own personal description.

  Sarah started to feel a slow wave move through her body. This wave began at her feet, moved through her legs, up into her lower back and then into the disc that was causing trouble. As this wave permeated the area of her lower back, she literally felt a rearranging of the tissues around the disc. The wave continued up her spine, but then got stuck at the occipital bone at the base of her skull. She started to feel an intense pain there. A strong image then came into her mind. “Oh, my god! I remember coming off a motorbike and ‘biting’ the back of a bus!” she exclaimed. A few years back, Sarah had been in an accident. She had landed face-down in an open-backed bus, knocking out a few teeth. She then remembered that after this accident she needed to undergo lots of dental work. Flashbacks of this time started to come back to her during her treatment. She next felt the wave move from the back of her head to her face, and then back down through her body. At this point the pain and the images associated with her accident all disappeared. Sarah then exclaimed, “My body now feels how it was intended to!”58