Other Writings
The Three Fundamental Types of Cranial
Intro
Biomechanical
Model
Functional
Cranial Model
Biodynamic Model
The Five Cranial Unfoldments
Intro
Cranial Wave
Fluid
Tide
Long
Tide
Dynamic Stillness
Undifferentiated
Breath of Life
The Biodynamic Wheel
Introduction
Motion Present
Neutral
Fulcrum
Midline
Stillpoint
Primary Respiration
Dynamic Stillness
Three Fundamental Types
of Cranial
Even though everyone’s cranial practice is
different, there are three fundamental types of cranial
work according to the Sutherland osteopathic tradition,
so let us spend a little time reviewing the differences
in the approach for each model. This is important because
in the cranial field, especially in the biodynamic, there
is confusion about these differences. Let us start with a
very brief review of biomechanical cranial work based on
the principles developed by Dr. Sutherland as found in
the osteopathic literature. back to top
Biomechanical Model
Biomechanical cranial work is the most widely practiced
approach, and rightfully so, it was the first cranial
work taught by Dr. Sutherland. This is classical cranial,
a structure-function approach based on accepted
biomechanical principles. Primary respiration is seen as
a mechanical system powered by the inherent motility of
the brain and its effect on the reciprocal tension
membrane system (RTM). As the brain moves it carries the
RTM with it, creating a mechanical movement model.
The brain coils and uncoils along the developmental axis
of the lateral ventricles, which moves the RTM. The RTM
is said to be firmly fixed at the specific poles of the
skull which act as levers that move the sphenobasilar
joint (sbj). The sbj movement causes all other cranial
bones to move—the face, the vault, and the sacrum
via the core link. So it is this RTM pulling at the poles
that moves the bones from one position to another on
their axial fulcra, and is called interosseous motion.
This motion affects the arachnoid whose movement fluxes
the cerebrospinal fluid and creates the longitudinal and
lateral fluctuations throughout the body. On inspiration,
the CNS coils along the lateral ventricles toward the
lamina terminalis, widening in its transverse axis and
decreasing in vertical height, this is called flexion at
the sphenobasilar joint, and so the movement of the
facial and vault bones as well as the sacrum via core
link, are named accordingly. On expiration, the brain
uncoils and this is called extension. The fundamental
motions of the cranial wave are called flexion and
extension. They are combined with the secondary motions
of side bending, torsion, strain, latero-flexion, and
compression to become the named cranial wave lesion
motion patterns. The sbj is the key joint—the
fulcrum--that dictates how all other bone lesions are
named. Even though one orients to the axis or fulcrum of
a particular bone, the key is to name the pattern in
relation to the defined motions of the sphenobasilar
joint. Therefore, when sensing cranial wave motion in any
bone, it is named according to the sbj lesion pattern,
regardless of how one would otherwise name that
particular bone, but for the sbj.
The practitioner evaluates for the presence of lesions by
applying a series of motion tests to the bone for its
range of motion to determine the direction of ease, that
is, where the movement most easily goes relative to its
permitted range of motion—this is called the
permitted motion. Treatment is referenced to the named
lesions, or distortions in the normal pattern of the
sphenobasilar joint motility. To treat, the practitioner
takes the bone in the permitted motion to its endpoint,
or barrier, and he holds it there. This exaggerates the
lesion and creates a tension in the osseous-membrane that
matches, or is equal to, the unstrained osseous-membrane
dynamic, which creates a point of balance, this can be
compared to taking out the slack and is called balanced
membrane tension (BMT). The tissues are held in this BMT,
until a stillpoint is induced, in which potency is
exchanged throughout the fluids and tissues, and this
creates a more harmonious cranial wave motion pattern.
When the practitioner senses a new motion arising out of
the induced stillpoint, he moves to the next lesion and
repeats this process. Most cranial practitioners employ
the biomechanical model. Classical osteopathy (Magoun),
chiropractic (DeJarnette, Goodheart), and bodywork
practitioners (Upledger) are examples, and there are
countless other less well-known approaches. back to top
Functional Cranial
Model
The functional approach differs from the biomechanical in
the way lesions are evaluated and treated. Evaluation of
cranial wave motion is still based upon the axial
motility of the sphenobasilar joint, as in the
biomechanical. But in the functional method, the
practitioner follows the cranial wave, and adds thoracic
respiration and the autonomic nervous system (ANS) as
therapeutic agents, referenced to lesions. To evaluate,
the functional practitioner motion tests differently
also. He follows the cranial wave permitted motion in the
direction of ease, within the freedom of movement only.
No barrier is met, and there is no holding at the
barrier. As one follows the permitted motion without
meeting the barrier, there is a progressive increase in
the freedom of the joint motion until no tension can be
sensed. In essence, balanced membranous tension becomes
buoyant, or free floating, which in functional work is
called the neutral. The neutral, therefore, is sensed as
a buoyancy in which there is a free-floating suspension
of any tension in the joint space and it is free to move
in any direction. The practitioner then engages thoracic
respiration, so the client’s breath comes in to
further relax the area, and the relaxed breathing causes
a shift in the autonomic nervous system (ANS). As the ANS
balances, the client’s craniosacral system more
deeply relaxes, and naturally arrives at a stillpoint in
which a dynamic interchange of potency, fluids, and
tissues occurs. When a more balanced and synchronous
cranial wave motion pattern is sensed, the practitioner
moves on to the next lesion. Stillpoint has the same
definition here as in the biomechanical model, except
stillpoints are arrived at naturally, so the practitioner
does not hold at the barrier, there is no use of any
outside force, and no induction or even suggestion of
stillpoint. Sutherland spoke of not applying any outside
force passionately in his last recorded cranial training
classes. In the functional model there are abundant
choices:
Functional Methods, Zero-balancing, Jones Counter-Strain,
and Muscle Energy Technique are few examples of
functional techniques found in osteopathy, and Hugh Milne
combines biomechanical with functional in his Visionary
approach. back to top
Biodynamic Model
There is a major threshold to cross between the
functional and the biodynamic model. The most important
difference is that biomechanics and the cranial wave is
no longer guiding the therapeutic process. Now the
practitioner observes primary respiration (PR) as an
outside presence that is found in all of nature, and he
senses how it creates all other motions inside the entire
body-mind system—be it osseous, membrane,
neurological, hormonal, fluid, psychic, meridian, or
potency. All functional motions in the system are due to
PR, which is based on a dynamic relationship between the
forces of levity and gravity that interface in the
fluid-body. The PR rate is steady, as compared to the
variable rate of the cranial wave; it is also four times
slower than the cranial wave. Primary respiration is a
steady 2 1/2 cycles per minute, as compared to the
cranial wave rate, which varies between 8 and 14 cycles
per minute. One no longer names lesions based on the
status of the sphenobasilar joint, or the axial motion
patterns between the bones, which is called interosseous
motion. Instead, a metabolic flow is sensed breathing
within the bones, called intraosseous motion; this flow
is also sensed throughout the entire body. One observes
this without naming lesion patterns. In fact, the
perception of bone motion recedes into the background and
the fluid dynamics of living protoplasm becomes more
prevalent in our awareness.
Staying with the bones for the moment, modern anatomical
research shows that the dura does not attach to the poles
any more strongly than any other place in the skull, in
fact, it is contiguous with the endosteum throughout the
inside of the entire skull. Therefore, in the biodynamic
model the motion of primary respiration is described as a
uniform breathing that is skull-wide within the bones, or
intraosseous motion. During the phase of inspiration,
motion is sensed as a welling up and a transverse
widening within all the bones of the entire cranium as a
living tissue that breathes. Potency inspires levity into
the fluids within the bones and throughout the body,
which suspends the effects of gravity and this disengages
the compressed inertial patterns within all the tissues.
The fulcra are then free to shift into a more aligned
relationship with the midline, which changes the inertial
patterns into the patterns of health. With expiration,
the welling potency recedes in a tide-like manner and the
reorganized fluid patterns subsequently augment the
position of the tissues, based on the matrix of health
patterns that were laid down. Treatment, therefore, is
referenced to the matrix of the health patterns that are
created by primary respiration as it moves through the
whole body as a fluid body. This means that in biodynamic
work perception expands beyond focusing on the
parts—individual bones and membrane compartments,
for example—to also include the entire body-mind.
One senses primary respiration and its influence on the
fluid body as a whole, and, observes how it moves in
particular areas, which is called the fluid drive.
In the biodynamic model, the practitioner witnesses the
whole and the parts at the same time. He holds a wider
perceptual field for observing primary respiration as it
wells out of the midline and affects the entire fluid
body and, at the same time, he supports the potency that
creates the local fluid drive, without influencing
either. The particular motion patterns that are sensed in
the fluid drive is called the motion present, essentially
it is the motion as it is. No motion testing, no
techniques, no intentions, or suggestions are applied in
the biodynamic model. Everything is left to the
intelligence of the fluid body that is precisely being
guided by the tidal forces of primary respiration, which
is oriented to the midline. As potency infuses them with
intelligence, the fluids make specific decisions that
bring the inertial areas to a more healthy coherent
relationship with midline and in synchrony with the whole
body as a unit.
Here is an example of how a biodynamic session might look
if you first begin with the biomechanical and segue into
the functional. First, the practitioner follows the
osseous-membrane movement in the direction of ease to a
balanced membranous tension, (in the biomechanical model,
this is where he would hold at the barrier to induce a
stillpoint, and marks the end of treatment for that
bone). Wait until the balanced membrane tension becomes
buoyant. Wait in this buoyancy, or neutral, as the
client’s thoracic respiration and the autonomic
nervous system balance begins to further resolve the
inertial forces (this is the end of the treatment in the
functional model). Wait, while the potency inherently
infuses levity into the inertial area and the buoyant
space expands, which disengages the inertial fulcra. Then
he senses the fulcra begin to automatically shift, which
augments them toward a re-orientation with the midline.
Wait, as a stillpoint is sensed locally in the part, and
wait until the stillness spreads to the whole body of
fluids (creating balanced fluid tension). Wait in this
whole body stillpoint, until primary respiration is
sensed breathing in the fluid body as a whole unit. One
senses a whole fluid-body breathing that wells up and
transversely widens on inspiration, and recedes on
expiration. This whole body breathing is called primary
respiration, and how it affects the local inertial areas
in the fluids is called the fluid drive. The biodynamic
treatment begins here, but primary respiration treats
inherently, it is not the practitioner’s job to do
any treatment. In the biodynamic model, stillpoint is
defined as that moment when stillness passes from the
local part to the whole body as a unit, and after which,
whole body primary respiration is perceived. This is
important to understand; the neutral paves the way to a
stillpoint, which determines the beginning of the
biodynamic session, specifically when primary respiration
has taken over healing the clients whole system.
The client’s neutral is fundamental because it marks
the point where the client’s ego has begun to hand
over control to primary respiration of the Breath of
Life. The neutral leads to stillpoint, stillpoint leads
to primary respiration and the biodynamic treatment
process begins. To repeat, the neutral begins as BMT,
becomes buoyancy in the tissues, and then it becomes
still locally. When stillness spreads locally, from the
part to the whole fluid body, this is still point, which
by definition ends when whole body primary respiration is
sensed as a 2 1/2 cycle per minute whole body breathing,
called the fluid tide. Primary respiration feels like a
subtle, metabolic flow body-wide—a fluid within the
fluid.
When primary respiration stops in the fluid tide, and one
senses a balanced potency tension (BPT), it is the last
time we refer to a client’s neutral because we enter
the trans-personal domain of potency, known as the long
tide. The long tide is a global phenomenon that expresses
as a steady one minute forty second rate (that is, 50
seconds inspiration and 50 seconds expiration), which
ultimately segues into the Dynamic Stillness, a universal
phenomenon, which has no rates. We will talk next about
the five levels of cranial enfoldments shortly, so let us
stick to our brief review of the differences between the
three models.
See if you can appreciate this major difference between
the biodynamic approach, when compared to the
biomechanical and functional models. In the biodynamic
model, the treatment begins when one can perceive primary
respiration as one unitary metabolic flow, that feels
like breathing throughout the fluid body, and its affects
locally on the fluid drive is called the motion present.
The practitioner does not treat; he waits. The rate of
primary respiration is a very stable two and one-half
cycles per minute, which is also called the fluid tide.
In Sutherland’s biodynamic model, the practitioner
adds no stress to the system either by motion testing,
applying techniques, intentions, suggestions, or even by
focused perception--the practitioner waits, remains
relaxed, open, and in his own neutral. When a
practitioner abides in this disposition, the breath of
life is left in her natural state, free to engage the
inertia in the client via her inherent treatment plan.
The practitioner’s job is to wait in stillness, with
presence, synchronized with primary respiration as the
potency breathes health into the fluid drive and resolves
the inertia inherently, thus it is called inherent
treatment plan. If a practitioner were to apply
biomechanical techniques in the biodynamic model, or even
suggest intentions, then he is introducing stress vectors
into the field of primary respiration. This will imprison
primary respiration and force it to deal with the stress
that the practitioner introduced—even if it is only
a suggestion--and it creates what Dr. Jealous calls false
fulcrums. If the stress created by false fulcrums is
overwhelming, primary respiration could withdraw and
disappear, which may leave the client bereft of
resources. To protect her self, the client may enter into
a freeze response, also called a shutdown; she could
dissociate, or even suffer treatment reactions. One
indicator that our good intentions have gotten in the way
is when during a session, the fluid tide suddenly
disappears, and the cranial wave reappears. What, then,
are the effects of practitioner’s intention on the
breath of life?
If I introduce my intentions into the field of primary
respiration, it forces her to respond to the stress I
introduced before it is able to get back to her inherent
treatment plan that is very specific to that client and
is already underway. I hope you now appreciate what
effect it has when applying biomechanical principles
while in a biodynamic world space--even if these
treatment methods are paraded as subtle intentions or
suggestions--if they are applied even with the slightest
of intention (suggesting flexion, extension,
side-bending, stillpoint, etc), it is a biomechanical
overlay onto a biodynamic model.
The idea that one can apply treatments in a biodynamic
world space is not based on Dr. Sutherland’s
teachings, according to his closest students. The
biodynamic osteopaths cringe that non-osteopaths practice
biodynamic work in general, but this is why in
particular. They have sat back, perhaps hoping the
non-osteopaths will hang themselves in the noose of
confusion, and that eventually they will go away. I can
appreciate that disposition, but the practice of cranial
work outside of osteopathy is not going to go away and I
am unable to sit back any longer and watch how this
confusion imprisons the breath of life, nor can I bear
knowing that thousands of clients are being adversely
affected.
Now, with that in mind, let us explore very briefly the
various cranial enfoldments from the biomechanical to the
biodynamic. back to top
The Five Cranial
Unfoldments
Please note that these enfoldments are described as
discreet levels for the sake of clarity. There are no
levels, just seamless feeling states that not only
overlap, each deeper level both includes and transcends
all the levels preceding it.
The four recognized levels of experience that have
emerged in the cranial field are the cranial wave (CW),
which correlates with the rational and vision-logic level
of human consciousness. The second is the fluid tide
(FT), and correlates with the psychic realm; the third is
the long tide (LT), which corresponds to the subtle
level. The fourth enfoldment is the Dynamic Stillness
(DS), which emerges as the causal realm of consciousness.
Finally, there is the undifferentiated, or unconditioned
Breath of Life, or the non-dual level of consciousness.
It would be inaccurate to correlate this level with a
cranial experience per se. It is simply what occurs after
the Dynamic Stillness, described below, has deeply
infused into the core of the client’s
body-felt-sense awareness, such that no resistance or
separation remains, and the unconditioned Breath of Life
is free to fully express itself as the consciousness of
the person in which it is infused. There emerges a bodily
presence that exudes health, which cannot be described,
yet it feels as if your cells wake up with life and
consciousness. This unconditioned breath of life does not
express as primary respiration; it is characterized as a
multi rhythmic, multidimensional, un-nameable something,
that upon contact, dissolves one’s exclusive sense
of separation and it bestows an awakened body-felt-sense
of wholeness. The non-dual session occurs when there is
infusion and a full body integration of the unconditioned
Breath of Life. It looks something like this: the client
gets up from the session and she feels profoundly
ordinary, yet the most authentic she has ever felt. It is
literally a full coming home into the body, a direct
bodily contact with Health and Originality, or essence.
The non-dual level of awareness, from the point of view
of practitioner in cranial terms, is the mystery where
the practitioner spontaneously becomes a neutral, and
transmutation is a spontaneous event--as the suffering of
another enters his awareness it is as if it is self--and
the client’s forces of inertia are transformed into
forces of life, spontaneously. This synopsis leads us to
a brief exploration into the first level of cranial
experience, the cranial wave. back to top
Cranial Wave
This rhythm is found in the body’s tissues and
cerebrospinal fluid. Its rate varies between 8 and 14
cycles per minute. The cranial wave is sensitive to
gravity’s vectorial forces, which can overpower the
body’s homeostasis and create the inertial patterns
that manifest as cranial membranous lesions. The
practitioner corrects these tissue lesions using
techniques, and observes the changes in the client’s
homeostasis. The cranial rhythmic expressions are a
record of the experiences that the client has undergone
since birth as recorded in the reciprocal tension
membrane system and the connective tissues. Cranial wave
practice is the foundation for further development in
cranial skills. This is why it behooves the practitioner
to hone his sensing and technical skills here. In my
opinion, it is a mistake to skip over cranial wave work,
to short change ones experience, and quickly dive into
more energetic realms of fluid tide cranial practice
because the laws (principles) of tonality that exist on
the cranial wave level of experience is the precise
training ground for skill development and interpretation
of the events that occur on all subsequent levels of
depth. What you learn on the cranial wave level is
essential for competent reality based practice on the
deeper levels of cranial work. The boundaries that you
develop here prepare you for a boundless world later. back to top
Fluid Tide
The Breath of Life is a primitive regulatory system that
contains, yet also transcends nervous system control.
This primitive force exists in protoplasm and in
single-celled animals, which can react to stimuli even
though they have no nervous system. The Breath of Life
regulates cellular communications and cellular
migrations, and is involved in defense and healing. This
primitive system works through all of the body systems
(neural, connective tissue, fluids, hormonal, immune,
meridian, chakra, etc) and its first expression is
primary respiration in the fluid tide, sensed as a whole
fluid–body breathing. In the fluid tide there is the
perception of primary respiration--a 2 1/2 cycle per
minute rate that is not variable. Unless the client feels
like their life is threatened, the fluid tide rate
remains stable, even amid changes in her body state, such
as the presence of disease, stress, or by fluctuations in
the autonomic nervous system activity. If the client is
receptive to this healing presence of primary
respiration, then her mind settles into a natural, quiet,
meditative state.
Perception of the bone and tissue motilities that are
easily sensed in the cranial wave, are replaced by an
awareness of metabolic breathing throughout the whole
fluid body. One senses an integrated wholeness in the
body that is connected to the Intelligence of life, which
is ancient and pervades all that lives. Contact with this
wise presence is deeply felt--as one of my students said,
“When the fluid tide emerges, my own intelligence
feel very small by comparison.” Primary respiration,
an expression of the Breath of Life contains an
intelligence that is millions of years old, which can
seem daunting to the ego when it is first encountered.
In the fluid tide, the practitioner does not apply
corrective techniques. He waits with presence as the
inherent treatment plan manifests in the client’s
fluids. Access to the inherent treatment plan occurs if
the practitioner can support precisely what is happening
within the fluids in synchrony with the guidance of
primary respiration. He observes that a natural quiet
arises—this is the neutral--in which the fluids are
suspended and are free to move in particular directions
and vectors that reorient the inertial patterns toward
the midline, which ultimately frees the movement of
potency throughout the midline. Then a stillpoint may
arise, which begins locally in the part and spreads to
the client’s whole body, until stillness pervades
the whole client. After some time the stillness yields to
the presence of one seamless unit of whole-body motion,
called primary respiration.
Initially, the neutral organizes this process. The build
up potency infuses into the inertial area, and in an
instant the fulcrum shifts, reorients to the midline, and
the inertia resolves. This is experienced as a felt-sense
of softening, expansion, and metabolic warmth, which
frees the membrane, osseous, and tissue layers that one
is compelled to characterize as beautiful. Essentially,
the lesion frees itself through a process that emerges
out of the intelligence of the client’s own forces
of health, not through biomechanics, or the
practitioner’s application of techniques.
“I have been calling your attention to the potency
of the Tide. It has more intelligence and potency in it
than any blind force that can be safely applied from the
outside.” says Dr. Sutherland. “You do not even
have to test for the pattern of mobility at the
sphenobasilar junction. The Tide will tell you. It is
uncanny, and that is why I have hesitated to speak of it.
However, the proof is in the pudding.” The pudding
is to experience this inherent treatment process for
yourself, and any doubt will leave you forever. back to top
Long Tide
In the session room, the long tide (LT) emerges out a
Stillness that enters the room from outside that
expresses as an awesome Radiant Presence. Absorption in
this encounter, and allowing the process to proceed
without reacting is challenging because the
practitioner’s perception expands globally to the
edge of the horizon, or beyond the known. The long tide
presence is sensed as a universal breathing that fills
the room with an oceanic vaporous potency, which has a
non-variable 1 minute 40 second cycle rate (100 seconds)
of 50 seconds inspiration, and 50 seconds expiration.
Nothing diminishes this rate; it prevails throughout
nature as a natural streaming in protoplasm--it moves in
one direction for 50 seconds, and reverse directions for
50 seconds. It can be sensed in special times when
outdoors in nature, in meditation, during awakenings, or
near-death experiences The LT is not affected by changes
in the client’s autonomic nervous system or by his
stress levels. The rate continues unchanged during
anesthesia, poisoning, shock, narcotic or stimulant
overload, and, according to Dr. Jealous, even for some
time after death.
In other words, the long tide rate does not vary; it is
not dependant on the client’s personal disposition,
therefore, it is a non-personal phenomena. Clients report
that their body feels lighter, because levity dominates
here. The practitioner’s perception of the fluid
tide as a whole body breathing, recedes into the
background, to be replaced by a sense of an oceanic
vaporous body of potency that fills the whole space.
There are direct, instant changes in the clients state,
which are multilayered, multidimensional, and throughout
the entire body-mind. The practitioner’s perception
inverts--he disappears as the observer--he feels seen.
When the practitioner contacts the long tide, his
awareness becomes lucid, clear, and fluid, with no
fixation.
One client described the long tide during a session in
this way: “I’m lying on the table and begin to
feel an ever deepening stillness enter the room and fill
my body with openness and receptivity. Then I begin to
sense a loving presence, like light, enter the room from
outside. It hovered a bit, and like a gentle wisp of
delicate fog, it enters me, and my body lights up inside.
I felt my body expand very slowly into a vast
spaciousness, as if my body had de-materialized to become
a delicate vapor. The vapor began to move and swirl
around in many areas at once all over my body. Inside the
space--that is my body--I see two luminous triangles that
emanate two different vibratory tones that feel so
joyful. One triangle descends from above my head, and the
other rises from below my pelvis. They overlap and
converge in my heart and form a three dimensional six
pointed star. From the center of the space where the two
triangles overlap, thousands of pinpoints of light
radiated all through my body like tiny fireflies in
summer. The lights began pinging throughout my body. Each
ping felt like it opened up a space and freed something
that had been compressed inside me. When the pings stop,
I feel this presence, a soft, loving, warm, liquid light
that pulsates throughout my body--I really cannot
describe this--I felt totally seen, so held by this
loving presence. I received exactly what I needed without
asking for it. After the session, I was astonished by how
natural I felt, just me, and I am fine just the way I am.
During the weeks that ensued, I noticed many subtle
changes in myself on many levels. I felt a new
uprightness in my posture and an inner integrity within
me, and those little irritating character flaws that have
always run my life vanished into the background! I was
permanently changed for the better in that one
session.” back to top
Dynamic Stillness
There are no waves, or rates perceivable in the Dynamic
Stillness. Primary respiration of the long tide stops
breathing, leaving only stillness that radiates from
infinity, beyond infinite proportions as it emerges from
over the horizon and infuses everything. The
practitioner’s attention first touches, unites with,
and then merges into, and finally dissolves and becomes
one with the Dynamic Stillness. The practitioner is no
longer in control, not even over his own breathing. The
Breath of Divine Respiration breathes the practitioner,
literally and existentially--with each breath a deeper
stillness and serenity pervades ones awareness. In the
profoundest silence of all faculties--intelligence,
imagination, memory, and will--the world is perceived as
a rhythmic dance of the Breath of Life sustained by the
four primordial, instincts. These instincts are tonal
expressions that are sensed as energetic textures, or
resonant tones, in which one senses earth as stability,
water as mobility, air as expansion, and fire as
impulsion--each instinct is seen arising out of the
Stillness. As such, one is witness to Divine Art forming
life.
When the practitioner totally relaxes into this encounter
with the Dynamic Stillness, everything ceases. He is
simply absorbed in unwavering silence, stillness, or the
full emptiness that is aware. There is no self, no other.
There is one, not two, which gives rise to all of life.
There is no experience here, only awareness as such--of
potencies that defy description. I can only point at this
by saying that it is as if your awareness has been
dropped into an infinite space of nothing, yet it is not
nothing--it is the absence of anything, yet it is, as
potential for everything.
In the Dynamic Stillness the client’s consciousness
is fully and seamlessly integrated and they may report
something like the following.
“The atmosphere in the room suddenly got eerily
still and quiet. All the distracting motions and noises
were vacuumed out of the space by a total silence that
came from very far away. I felt like I had dropped into
another element, like deep water, except the water was
stillness that both surrounded and filled me with this
deep peace. Something was there, it was not visible, but
I could feel a presence beyond my knowing, which felt
infinite, even beyond infinite. I felt a sense of it
knowing, loving, and understanding me with wisdom, and I
could sense its awareness of all of me. I felt that this
stillness was deeply intimate with every part of me,
every cell, and I could feel that it knew what each cell
specifically needed. I somehow knew to stay completely
still--I dared not move, think, question, or even
breathe--my breathing was almost imperceptible it was so
subtle--the stillness breathed into me this
ever-deepening peace-filled presence. My body seemed to
disappear, and the inside of my body became an infinite
empty space of stillness. All of my inner pains from past
emotional wounds lifted from me and I was able to witness
my pain from a distance where the grip my wounds
previously had on me seemed to drop away and I could
deeply relax about them. I experienced a peace, a love,
compassion, forgiveness, and a freedom both inside me and
outside me that was beyond my understanding. I really
knew that I was ok just the way I am and that I am loved.
I really feel that I was in the presence of the Life
Spirit of the World and it entered me and became the
spirit in me, and we became one and the same.” back to top
Undifferentiated Breath of Life
In the dynamic stillness, when all of primary respiration
stops breathing, everything is still and emptiness
prevails—here, nothing is manifest. Then, suddenly a
Presence may arise out of the dynamic stillness from
beyond the horizon, beyond infinity. This Presence moves
very slowly, taking what seems like forever, wait. This
Radiant Presence of the Breath of Life cannot be
characterized because it does not have a rate that can be
counted. It is sensed as multi-dimensional, multi
rhythmic, on all levels and depths all at once, in the
same moment, in all spaces and times--truly, this is not
rational. The felt-sense is that the Mystery has come
alive: a billowing non-physical, non-liquid,
non-potency—something--that is not anything, yet it
pervades each molecule of the client and lovingly infuses
Health as Wholeness throughout the parts--healing is. At
the point of contact with distortion it heals without
process or sequence, and one knows it, without knowing
how one knows. It breathes like the wind billows through
clouds, and it spreads like blinding luminous mercury
that exudes with unconditional love that slowly pours
into and through all dimensions of the body-mind, as if
whispering Wholeness and the most intimate Love into each
and every molecule of its precious parts.
This mystery, the undifferentiated Breath of Life,
affects the deepest depths of matter—into the bones
of life. My personal sense is it carries the resurrection
forces, which can bring dead areas back to life. The
Breath of Live contains a living Intelligence that knows
consciously the precise needs of each living being. One
sees this and knows yet one cannot perceive the way that
one knows, nor do questions arise. The other baffling
characteristic of the undifferentiated Breath of Life is
the absence of boundaries, which in my mentor classes I
have made such a fuss about when exploring the various
enfoldments from the cranial wave to the Dynamic
Stillness. But boundaries no longer seem to apply here in
the same way. I want to be very careful talking about
this, because it would be irresponsible of me to imply
that boundaries are irrelevant, but I must point out that
the undifferentiated Breath of Life makes the rules, and
they may not be what we think they are, even based on
previous experience with it.
This unconditioned Breath of Life is beyond the cycles of
primary respiration of the fluid tide or long tide. It
can be sensed as coming out of the Dynamic Stillness from
beyond the horizon, out past infinity, into and through
the body without any loss of force. It transmutes disease
into the Divine Form, the Original Blueprint that
contains our destiny. The undifferentiated Breath of Life
is the animating force of life, the prime mover of
primary respiration--it will ever remain a mystery--it is
not knowable. This is unconditioned, pure originality; it
is everywhere, always, already present. One realizes that
what is inside of me and what is emerging from out there
as the Breath of Life is one and the same, contiguous,
not exclusively an other, nor only a me, but both at the
same time.
The entire purpose of resting in the SA node in your
heart radiance as the unwavering presence of stillness
will become clear to you during your encounter with this
undifferentiated Breath of Life--they are same. This
encounter, in which the finite and the infinite become
one is described as the non-dual level of consciousness.
Not much can be said about it--this is a consciousness
where one knows that both infinite stillness and limited
form are two parts of one continuum—there is no
perceptible difference. Form arises out of stillness and
stillness becomes form. One intuits--and this is
literal—that the whole universe is both within my
finite heart and is manifest out there as infinity. back to top
The Biodynamic Wheel
These are the steps to the practice of Biodynamic
Cranial Work, based on Dr. Sutherland's oral teachings.
To read more about each term, click on the wheel, or
select from the words in the box below it. back
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Motion
Present
Motion Present is the motion that a
practitioner senses, as it is, under the influence of
primary respiration, as juxtaposed with the permitted
motion that is tracked in the biomechanical model, which
is limited to flexion, extension, torsion, side-bending,
vertical and lateral strain, and compression. The motion
present arises the moment that primary respiration begins
to influence the craniosacral system; it can be any
motion, thus it is not limited to the permitted
biomechanical ranges of motion. In the biodynamic model
the motion present is the key to understanding the
inherent treatment plan of health that is always and
already underway within the client, as directed by the
Breath of Life. When the practitioner opens awareness to
include the excursions of primary respiration combined
with the motion present his attention will be led by the
movement of the potency in the fluids through a precise
sequence that inherently resolves inertia without
applying any techniques, suggestions, or intentions. back to top
Neutral
A Neutral creates the space of freedom
before a stillpoint can arise for the dynamic exchange of
the healing forces of the Breath of Life. This free space
permits potency to infuse the area so the original
pattern of health can re-express itself out of the
pattern of disease. A neutral occurs when the client
becomes receptive to health, and, if the practitioner
does not add stress into the field of primary respiration
via techniques or suggestions. A neutral begins in the
client when balanced membrane tension segues into tissue
buoyancy, which suspends and disengages the restricted
inertia and leaves the area free to move under the direct
influence of the motion of primary respiration. The
client’s neutral is fundamental because it marks the
point where the client’s ego has begun to hand over
control to primary respiration of the Breath of Life.
When the neutral deepens, it leads to a Stillpoint, and
Stillpoint leads to primary respiration and the
biodynamic treatment process begins. To repeat, the
neutral begins as balanced membrane tension becomes
buoyancy in the tissues, and then it eventually becomes
still locally. When stillness spreads locally, from the
part to the whole body, this is Stillpoint, which by
definition ends when whole body primary respiration is
sensed as a 2 1/2 cycle per minute whole body breathing,
called primary respiration. Primary respiration feels
like a subtle, metabolic flow body-wide—a fluid
within the fluids—therefore it is called the fluid
tide.
When primary respiration stops in the fluid tide, and a
Stillness enters from outside, it is the last time we
refer to a client’s neutral because we enter the
trans-personal domain of potency, known as the long tide.
The long tide is a global phenomenon that expresses as a
steady one minute forty second rate (that is, 50 seconds
inspiration and 50 seconds expiration), which ultimately
segues into the Dynamic Stillness, a universal
phenomenon, which has no rates.
The practitioner neutral: In Sutherland’s biodynamic
model, the practitioner adds no stress to the system
either by motion testing, applying techniques,
intentions, suggestions, or even by focused
perception--the practitioner waits, remains relaxed,
open, and in his own neutral. When a practitioner abides
in this disposition, the Breath of Life is left in her
natural state and is free to engage the inertia in the
client via her inherent treatment plan. The
practitioner’s job is to wait in stillness, with
presence, synchronized with primary respiration as the
potency breathes health into the fluid drive and resolves
the inertia inherently, thus it is called inherent
treatment plan. If a practitioner were to apply
biomechanical techniques in the biodynamic model, or even
offer suggestions or intentions, then he is introducing
stress vectors into the field of primary respiration.
This will imprison primary respiration and force it to
deal with the stress that the practitioner
introduced—even if it is only a suggestion--and it
creates what Dr. Jealous calls false fulcrums. If the
stress created by false fulcrums is overwhelming, then,
primary respiration could withdraw and disappear, which
may leave the client bereft of resources. To protect her
self, the client may enter into a freeze response, also
called a shutdown; she could dissociate, or suffer
treatment reactions. One indicator that our good
intentions have gotten in the way is when during a
session, the fluid tide suddenly disappears, and the
cranial wave reappears. What, then, are the effects of
practitioner’s intention on the breath of life?
If I introduce my intentions into the field of primary
respiration, it forces her to respond to the stress I
introduced before it is able to get back to her inherent
treatment plan that is very specific to that client and
is already underway. I hope you now appreciate what
effect it has to apply biomechanical principles while in
a biodynamic world space--even if these treatment methods
are paraded as subtle intentions or suggestions--if they
are applied even with the slightest of intention (intend
flexion, extension, side-bending, suggest stillpoint,
etc), it is a biomechanical overlay onto a biodynamic
model.
The idea that one can apply treatments in a biodynamic
world space is not based on Dr. Sutherland’s
teachings, according to his closest students. The
biodynamic osteopaths cringe that non-osteopaths practice
biodynamic work in general, but this is why in
particular. They have sat back, perhaps hoping the
non-osteopaths will hang themselves in the noose of
confusion, and that eventually they will go away. I can
appreciate that disposition, but due to the evolutionary
function of the Breath of Life the practice of biodynamic
cranial work outside of osteopathy is not going to go
away. I am unable to sit back any longer and watch how
this confusion imprisons the Breath of Life, nor can I
bear knowing that thousands of clients are being
adversely affected. back to top
Fulcrum
A Fulcrum is the still point, the
center of organization for any type of activity, like the
center around which a merry-go-round spins. Therefore
both functional and inertial motion is organized by
fulcra, which are the portals that permit inertia to
transmute into healthy motion under the influence of
primary respiration. A fulcrum is sensed as a point of
stillness, the central gravitational point, around which
a movement pattern revolves. Everything in manifest
creation has a fulcrum, regardless of how large or small,
be it subatomic particles, solar systems, galaxies, or
the entire cosmos.
Fulcra are what connect all the dots, and are the
mysterious portals to oneness. Each expressed activity is
specifically inter-related to all other activities
through its own fulcra as a point of stillness, so
stillness is how each part unites with all other parts
and with the whole. If we combine all the fulcra in the
universe, it is called the Dynamic Stillness. Abiding in
the unwavering presence of stillness is our personal
connection to the Dynamic Stillness, and thus to all of
creation, in fact, the two are contiguous. Our midline is
our access to this stillness in our body, and the SA Node
is the center, or fulcrum of our midline. back to top
Midline
The Midline is a bioelectric potency
around which structure and function orient during
embryonic development, and afterwards is the orientation
for continued maintenance, healing, perceptual, and
spiritual development. The midline is also the
fulcrum--point of organization of stillness--for the Tide
of the Breath of Life before it distributes throughout
the body as primary respiration.
For the first two weeks of life the embryo is amorphous;
there are no recognizable structures, only a clear as
glass liquid protoplasm. Then on the sixteenth day a
mysterious vertical line appears in the embryonic plate
out of nowhere, which is called the primitive streak.
Within the core of this line is a dynamic stillness, and
then around this stillness there develops a chaotic
whirl, which draws the molecules toward the center. In
time, these molecules combine to form substances. The
substances congregate and transmute into cells, then the
cells differentiate into two different layers, the
ectoderm and endoderm. Due to the intense polarity
between these two layers a middle layer is formed, the
mesoderm, out of which a solid rod, like a tree trunk,
emerges and rapidly grows out of the top of the primitive
streak. While this rod, the notochord, develops it
becomes segmented, meanwhile, a matrix of connective
tissue unites all the cells from inside to out and
body-wide to form the template for the development of
organs, bones, connective tissue, brain, blood, lymph,
and glands. Finally, from behind the curtain, presto, a
human being is formed. Thus embryogenesis is based on the
process of transmutation, but how it works is a mystery.
The midline is the fulcrum around which all activity
takes place in the human being, this includes physical,
psychic, and spiritual.
One way the practitioner can remain connected to this
mysterious process of transmutation is by abiding in a
whole-body-felt-sense inside the liquid light filled body
core of stillness in the spine that is impermeable to
outside influences--this is the midline. This is
physically where ones “personal” unwavering
dynamic stillness exists. Once you are able to rest in
the midline, your posture and body will change shape and
substance. When the midline becomes comfortable as your
perceptual center of organization, you can then practice
resting in the vulnerability of your heart towards the
spine in the SA Node. This is an ignition point where the
Breath of Life, the vast spark of being, abides in
connection with the physical body, even though there is
no actual physical location as such—it is a
functional touchstone for where being meets human in the
body. In other words, the midline is the center of
organization for form and function, and the center of the
midline is in the heart.
Resting in the midline, and particularly in the SA Node,
permits the practitioner’s awareness to expand as
far as required by the Breath of Life to remain bodily
connected to any of the enfoldments of primary
respiration, the dynamic stillness, and beyond to the
undifferentiated Breath of Life. back
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Stillpoint
Stillpont is
that point at which a dynamic exchange between the potent
forces of health and the forces of inerti can take place.
Stillpoint is followed by the emerging presence of
primary respiration. Stillpoint arises inherently,
without suggestion, and is precisely defined in
biodynamic work as the moment in the neutral when
stillness in the part spreads to the whole body—and
in which the parts join the whole. Therefore a Stillpoint
is defined in biodynamic work as a whole body Stillpoint,
or when Stillness enters from outside and fills the room.
Both of these Stillpoints precede the presence of primary
respiration--in the case of the whole body Stillpoint,
this is the primary respiration of the fluid tide, and in
the Stillpoint that enters from outside it is the primary
respiration of the long tide. The ultimate Stillpoint is
the Dynamic Stillness. Each of these Stillpoints is the
source for the particular expression of the forces of
health that continually emanate from the Breath of Life
and is the fulcrum for its power as well as the fulcrum
for the practitioner's
awareness. back to top
Primary
Respiration
Primary
Respiration is the carrier of the original blueprint
matrix of healthy motion that creates the human form
during embryogenesis. During a session this primordial
motion of health arises within a Stillpoint and can be
sensed expressing out of the client's midline. It is
sensed by the practitioner as whole body breathing that
wells up and expands in the transverse dimension, and
then recedes. In the fluid tide, primary respiration is
sensed as a body-wide metabolic, protoplasmic flow of 2
1/2 cycles per minute; in the long tide, it is sensed as
a vaporous oceanic potency that enters the room from
outside with a 100 second cycle. Primary respiration
infuses potency into a client’s system, which
re-establishes healthy motion within the contracted
inertial patterns. During a client’s neutral, a
practitioner senses the client gradually relax control of
her body, which culminates in a stillpoint that begins in
a local part of the body and then deepens and spreads to
the whole-body. After a while, this deep whole body
stillness gives way to the presence of whole-body
breathing, called primary respiration. This is sensed and
experienced by both the client and the practitioner as a
body-wide breathing as one unit. Primary respiration
re-connects the client both to her self and to life,
which is almost always reported in that way by clients.
Primary respiration is the guiding force that directs the
therapeutic process and in which biodynamic
practitioner's trust and follow.
back to top
Dynamic
Stillness
Dynamic
Stillness is defined by the presence of Stillness only.
When primary respiration stops breathing in the long tide
and is replaced by the presence of Stillness only, then
healing occurs without process, often in unknowing. All
life arises and transmutes out of the Dynamic Stillness;
it the ground out of which all manifest creation arises
and recedes.
When the Dynamic Stillness establishes itself as a stable
presence in your perceptual life, it begins as a
whole-body-felt sense of a witness consciousness--where
thinking is no longer the source of perception, and
finally, it culminates as a non-separate conscious
embodiment--where you finally relax all attempts to be
different than what you are. You then become non-separate
from the Dynamic Stillness and the undifferentiated
Breath of Life, which now freely expresses through you
unimpeded by the resisting strategies of your ego. back to top
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