by Michael Kern
Multiple hand treatments
Two or more practitioners can work with the same patient at the same time. The presence of more than one practitioner may amplify the sense of contact and containment felt by the patient. Having a second pair of hands is also very useful for providing physical support if patients move into awkward positions during treatment. Occasionally patients may benefit from a second practitioner encouraging the movement of potency towards an inertial fulcrum while it is being worked with. Furthermore, some severe cases respond more quickly when there are several pairs of hands working at the same time.71
Self-help
While craniosacral treatment mostly involves employing the skills of a practitioner, everything we do ourselves can support our health—or not. Health-building measures such as getting adequate rest and eating a suitable diet bolster our inner resources and enhance any treatment process. Time for fun and a sense of humour also usually help. Health is ultimately the responsibility of each individual. Everybody needs to find the things that support them and to follow what suits their constitution. This is a process of self-discovery. If we are able to deal with the origins of diseases, there are possibilities for resolution even in the most intractable of cases. According to an old saying used in naturopathy, “There’s no such thing as an incurable disease, there are only incurable people.”
Healing can begin as soon as we are able to find a clear relationship to our intrinsic health, whether or not this is done with the help of a practitioner. One way of forming this relationship is to identify and reconnect with our inner resources (see exercises in Chapter 9). Simply tuning in to the subtle motions within ourselves produced by the Breath of Life is another way to connect with our health (see exercises in Chapter 6). These rhythms are a manifestation of our deepest physiological resources.
Ultimately, all craniosacral treatment is a form of self-help because it always works in cooperation with the self-healing forces of the body. Nevertheless, although the vast majority of health problems are resolved quite naturally without any outside assistance, there will often be difficulties with which our self-healing forces need support. It is then that the practitioner can give valuable facilitation along the way. In many instances, it is not so easy to give oneself craniosacral treatments because the hand positions and subtle intentions need to be precisely applied. Moreover, it can be difficult to relate clearly to our own inertial patterns. This is because we are often too involved or too close to the source of a problem to discern what may be needed to resolve it.
Having said this, some craniosacral self-treatments can be effective. For example, the facilitation of lateral fluctuations of fluid and potency towards the site of an injury can reduce inflammation and bring pain relief. We may also be able to access a state of balance or stillpoint by finding a resting place in body and mind. Furthermore, there is an approach to facilitate a CV4 on oneself by lying down and resting the back of the occiput on two tennis balls wrapped together at the end of a sock. If the tennis balls rest either side of the raised bump at the back of the occiput (external occipital protuberance), a stillpoint can be encouraged. However, the advice of a qualified practitioner should be sought to clarify if this may be useful in your case.
Frequency of treatment
Craniosacral treatment can facilitate deep changes in just a few sessions, or may be an on-going therapeutic process that lasts for years.72 The frequency of sessions varies according to the needs of the individual and the conditions being treated. In the average case of a more chronic problem, treatment can be given once or sometimes twice a week until there are some definite signs of improvement. At this point, sessions can be spread out to fortnightly, monthly and then perhaps just some maintenance checks from time-to-time. An acute problem, however, may need more intensive work at the start of a treatment program, but then less work long term. In some of these cases treatment may be given every two to three days until the acute symptoms have subsided. However, these are all generalizations; each case needs to be assessed on its own merits.
An evolutionary process
For shifts in health to occur, the conditions maintaining the problem have to be ripe for change. Creating ripeness for health is an evolutionary process rather than a specific event. In craniosacral work the body is supported to resolve its inertial patterns in a sequential, unfolding manner. Steps one, two, three and four, and so on, are taken during this process until there are no more steps to take and healing is complete. The further emergence of health is always built on the basis of previous steps taken. If the foundations for health are not established and we try to trick the body with a drug, an external force, mental gymnastics or posturing, then sooner or later we will fail. The missing steps must be taken for health to be sustained.
RETURN TO WHOLENESS
The philosophical ramifications of this concept are staggering. It means that every one of us matters, that we affect each other in many, many ways never before described. Everything we do matters in the context of the whole. What we do and think affects everyone else. It probably involves planetary consciousness and much broader aspects of humanness than are currently understood.73
CARLISLE HOLLAND D.O.
Core levels of functioning
People come for craniosacral treatment for many different reasons and with many motivations. Some know of its benefits for particular physical disorders, others use it to help with stress or psychological difficulties, still others to engender a greater integration of mind, body and spirit. The beauty of this work is that it encompasses all these.
The results of treatment are often remarkable, even when other medical and therapeutic approaches have failed. The depth of craniosacral work is explained by the fact that it works with our most fundamental physiological system, that of primary respiratory motion. This approach has the ability to either by-pass or move through any opinions or mental defences we may carry. It works directly with the wisdom in the body.
Empowering reconnection
It seems that our problems become much more difficult when they become fragmented in their relationship to the whole. When this relationship is re-established, life and motion resume. Craniosacral treatment provides a clear reflection of physiological and psychological patterns, and is able to access the forces of health needed to restore integration. This may be a challenging process as we break new ground, yet at the same time greatly liberating. As layers of inertial patterning become resolved, a deeper connection to our own nature evolves.
When primary respiration is restored and the blueprint for health re-emerges, clarity and balance return to both body and mind. This brings a reconnection to a profound sense of O.K.-ness. It is then that the feeling, “this is how I really am” can emerge.74 As a practitioner, this positive process of transformation is always a privilege to witness.
One frequent and valuable end product of treatment resulting from the deep listening of craniosacral work is the enhanced ability to track body states and their significance. This ability may enable us to identify early warning signs of difficulty or danger so that we no longer need painful experiences screaming out to us before we notice that something needs attention.75 In this way, we can become experts of our own bodies and so feel empowered to take greater responsibility for what is right for us and for our own health and happiness.
Greater flexibility
The motion of life creates cycles of constant change. Our freedom, fluidity and flexibility to accommodate for life’s intrinsic movement are in direct relationship to our sense of well-being. Craniosacral treatment encourages a greater flexibility of function and enables us to move more easily with the natural rhythms of life. It provides the conditions for a depth of healing to occur, while being sufficiently open so as not to stifle or suppress the infinite possibilities that the innate intelligence within each one of us may wish to bring about. This can be an important part of the realization of our potential on physical, psychological and spiritual levels.
/> As we undergo a commitment to work with ourselves in this way, our relationship to the body, to our feelings, to our friends or partners, to our work and to life itself can become more open and creative. The path of health and wholeness stretches out before us, all the way towards the Infinite —
Even the hour of our death may send
Us speeding on to fresh and newer spaces,
And life may summon us to newer races.76
HERMANN HESSE
8
A HOLISTIC VIEW
The human body, at peace with itself,
is more precious than the rarest gem.
Cherish your body, it is yours this one time only.
The human form is won with great difficulty,
it is easy to lose.
All worldly things are brief, like lightning in the sky;
This Life you must know as the tiny splash of a
raindrop;
a thing of beauty that disappears even as it comes
into being.
Therefore set your goal,
Make use of every day and night to achieve it.1
TSONG KHAPA
ORIGINS OF DISORDERS
By concentrating on smaller and smaller fragments of the body, modern medicine perhaps loses sight of the patient as a whole human being, and by reducing health to mechanical functioning it is no longer able to deal with the phenomenon of healing.2
H.R.H. PRINCE CHARLES
From the core to the periphery of our bodies and from our deepest to our most superficial levels of function, patterns of inertia can restrict primary respiratory motion and affect our health. Causes as diverse as physical injury, trauma, poor nutrition, environmental pollution, and genetic and psychological factors can all have their influence. From the soil to the soul we are a part of life’s process and may be subject to its conditioning forces. In this chapter we will consider the origins of illness and look further at the important connections between mind, body and spirit.
Physical Trauma
Physical injury is a frequent cause of inertial patterning in the body. Incidents such as blows, cuts, falls and accidents create protective contractions in the tissues that may stay long after the original trauma has passed. As long as the underlying forces of an injury are unresolved, its effects remain.
Impact of forces
All the muscles, bones, fluids and organs of the body have a certain density. Whenever a physical force is introduced into the body, such as by a blow or fall, it meets the resistance provided by these tissues. As the biokinetic energy of an incoming force meets this resistance, its velocity slows down and eventually reaches a particular place where it comes to a stop (see Figure 8.1). If the force is very strong, the tissues can suffer damage or breakage along the way. The point at which the energy of an incoming force stops is where it may remain lodged if the body’s resources are unable to process and dissipate it. This place of energy entrapment is often located some distance from the actual site of impact. Powerful kinetic forces may even pass right through the tissues and out the other side, forming a fulcrum of organization in the field just outside the body.
Entrapped force vector
If the body’s capacity to dissipate a traumatic force is overwhelmed, the incoming energy is treated as a kind of foreign object. As such, the biodynamic forces within the body will try to contain and center this disturbance, so producing an inertial fulcrum. The consequent contraction that forms in the surrounding tissues helps to wall it off. This response minimizes the effect on nearby structures. In time, tissues become more permanently organized in relationship to the contained biokinetic force, adopting a habitual pattern of contraction. This process is similar to how the lungs wall off an infection of tuberculosis bacteria, forming a calcified cyst.3 Consequently, a walled-off area of biokinetic potency is produced, creating a fulcrum around which primary respiration then has to organize.
This particular type of inertial fulcrum is called an entrapped force vector or energy cyst.4 The term vector refers to the pathway that the kinetic energy of a trauma takes as it enters the body (see Figure 8.1).
Figure 8.1: Formation of entrapped force vector (illustration credit 8.1)
This vector pathway may be in a straight line or bent, depending on the angle that the force enters the body. If the body moves at the time of a traumatic accident (which is frequently the case), the vector pathway tends to bend as it passes through the moving tissues. This causes the vector pathway to become curved.
If the force vector meets something solid, such as a bone, it can sometimes splinter into different branches, forming satellite entrapped force vectors. This may result in the formation of various smaller inertial fulcra (see Figure 8.1).
An entrapped force vector may result in the formation of tissue adhesions, disturbances in fluid motion, poor circulation, a build-up of toxicity and nerve irritation. Franklyn Sills notes, “These protective responses may be useful at the initial time of the experience, but can become locked into the system as deeply-ingrained protective patterning.”5 A number of practitioners have also noted a correspondence between the sites of energy entrapments and the development of tumours. Dr. John Upledger observes,
The body adapts somewhat to the presence of energy cysts, but in the process ideal function is compromised, interference waves are produced, normal electrical conductivity of involved body tissues is reduced and the flow of energy along acupuncture meridians is obstructed. All of this saps body energy and creates pain and dysfunction.6
Interference waves
The interference waves referred to by Dr. Upledger are three-dimensional patterns of energy that emanate from the site of an active disturbance. They are like the ripples of water produced when a stone is thrown into a pond. These waves can be sensed by palpation as arcs of energy radiating out from an entrapped force vector. They may be noticed if the practitioner maintains a light and airy quality to his perception. The closer to the fulcrum of disturbance, the faster and stronger these waves become. Therefore, by following the pattern of interference waves back to their source it is possible to locate the site of an entrapped force vector.
Surgery and scars
A scar developed as a result of tissue damage or surgery may act as a continuing fulcrum of disturbance. A scar can pull on surrounding tissues and consequently act as an inertial fulcrum influencing motion in even distant areas of the body. Furthermore, a surgeon’s knife may be experienced by the body as a type of incoming force vector, particularly if surgery is carried out too aggressively or without sensitivity.
Another frequent and significant cause of physical trauma is a difficult birth. As this is a subject of considerable scope, we will be taking a more detailed look at it in Chapter 10.
Emotional coupling
If strong emotions are experienced at the time of a trauma, they tend to become coupled together with the entrapped force vector. For example, if someone experiences anger or fear when the energy of a force vector enters it may become retained as part of the pattern. This is a frequent occurrence because strong feelings get invoked in most people when they suffer injury. Emotions can be an important element in both organizing and maintaining the inertial pattern that develops (see “Mind-body continuum”).
Nutrition and Diet
The food we eat provides essential ingredients for the development of healthy tissue and plays an important role in building our resources of vitality. However, poor nutrition leads to weakness of the tissues and a build-up of toxicity which can influence the functioning of the primary respiratory system. Not only is the intake of a well-balanced diet needed to furnish the cells of the body with health, but so is the proper absorption of these nutrients in the digestive tract and the elimination of any wastes. The ability of the digestive organs to express primary respiration is imperative for these functions—absorbing nutrients, getting rid of wastes—to be efficiently carried out.
Build-up of toxicity
If the organs
of elimination—mainly the bowel and skin—become overloaded, waste products and toxins cannot be discarded effectively. These become stored in the body, leading to the development of toxic build-up. As far as the body is concerned, this toxicity is another kind of biokinetic force that its intrinsic forces of health have to try to deal with. Some waste products may become stored in the connective tissues, joints, muscles and fluids causing a lack of motility, tissue adhesions and the development of inertial patterns. A variety of degenerative conditions such as arthritis, disorders of the digestive organs or cancer may result.7 A build-up of toxicity can also occur from factors including food processing, chemical additives, pesticides, over- or under-cooking and the use of drugs.
Frequently, a lack of potency can be palpated in the tissues of someone who eats a lot of junk food, is a smoker or heavy drinker. In such cases, primary respiration is often expressed with a quality of sluggishness or congestion. When this type of inertial pattern is worked with, the toxic substances that became stored in the body can start to get eliminated. This often leads to a healing crisis as these substances are dissipated from the tissues. In a number of cases I have treated, skin eruptions, acute colds, fever, or diarrhea have followed the resolution of toxic inertial fulcra.