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"Craniosacral Biodynamics, Volume 1"
By Franklyn Sills Chapter 1 Extract
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Beginnings
In the first few chapters of this book, I will introduce a particular understanding and approach to work within the cranial field. The way I describe this perspective is based largely on my own perceptual understandings and clinical experience. It is a perspective that has been influenced by many sources, by deep discussions over many years with colleagues, students and friends and, most of all, by my clinical practice. This viewpoint entails a paradigm shift from a mechanistic orientation to work within this field to a truly dynamic one. In this perceptual shift, there is an appreciation of life as it unfolds its intentions within the creation of a human being. With this awareness, there is a recognition that the organising forces at work within the developing embryo are still at work in the eighty year old. It is seen that these forces are epigenetic, that is, they underlie and precede genetic expression.
It is a viewpoint which acknowledges that life originates in the infinite present and that healing can only occur in the present time-ness of life. Healing is thus about present process and organisation, not about past or future experience.
In this chapter we will:
Introduce some basic concepts
Outline some of the history of the work
Give some of the basic premises and intentions of the work
Enquiry
Work in the cranial field is largely perceptual. The heart of clinical practice is listening. This demands both stillness and humility on the part of the practitioner. In this enquiry all one can do is to enter into a stillness and see what our journey brings. The foundation of this endeavour is the experience of our own perceptual and inner processes. An appreciation of our inner world is crucial for efficient clinical practice. This awareness of our own interior world is critical in the creation of a safe and efficient healing relationship. In this process, we will come directly into relationship to our own human condition and our own suffering. This is a huge undertaking. It means truly enquiring into who we are. The ground of this exploration is a commitment to learn about ourselves. It is about enquiry and awareness.
In this context we can develop a relationship to our unfolding process as a sentient human being. From this ground, it is more and more possible to form clear and healing relationships with others. Work in the cranial field is very intimate. It entails an intimacy of contact and communication. Within the context of a clinical relationship, you explore what it means to be a human being. In this process, the practitioner must truly learn what it means to have a depth of contact with another person. However, this process has vast implications for everyday life. Our relationships are the ground of our experience. It is from our relationships that we mould our sense of the world and our place within it. Thus the work, in a powerful way, can only bring us back to ourselves.
Suffering
As we pay attention to our lives, questions will naturally arise. The most pressing of these for me are about the nature of the suffering which I feel within me and see in the world around me. In the work I do, I constantly meet suffering and its personal manifestations. There is a whole spectrum of suffering ranging from an inherent sense of dissatisfaction, to physical, emotional and spiritual torment. From my experience, I have seen that suffering is truly a relational process. That is, suffering arises within the context of relationship. The nature of our experience is that it happens within relationship. Whether it is the relationship we have to our inner life, to our particular experiences, or to the people within our life, traumatisation and suffering are seen to be relational processes. The ground of this is our relationship to our inner world and to our experience of the outer world we inhabit.
Suffering may even arise due to our relationship to the universe we inhabit and our sense of selfhood within its vastness. Existential crises are not unusual and play a large part in the suffering I see around me. A sense of meaningless-ness can be overwhelming. Who am I in this seemingly vast and impersonal universe? Even more so, if there is a sense of "something other", a greater power, something that underlies the seeming arbitrariness of things, another kind of self crisis can ensue. A painful experience of emptiness can grip us as a sense of separation from the divine, or from the deeper creative forces within our human condition, is sensed.
Perhaps the deepest suffering which we hold is the suffering that arises due to the loss of trust in relationship itself and to the subsequent pain of intimacy. In this, we lose trust in the safety and potential of relationship, and intimacy itself is experienced as painful. Intimacy, the experience of a depth of contact with self and other, becomes painful and threatening. People end up both deeply yearning for intimacy, and deeply afraid of it. For some, the closer a relationship becomes, the more threatening it becomes. Because of this, it seems that the deepest healing processes are those which occur within the context of relationship. In the cranial field we consciously create a relationship which holds open the possibility that trust in intimate contact can be renegotiated. This must occur within a non-judgmental field of presence and respectful listening. There must be a fundamental intention to create a safe and meaningful relational field within the context of clinical exploration.
The Buddha taught extensively and deeply about the nature of suffering, and his teachings have been of great personal benefit to me. The first noble truth of the Buddha is about suffering, or dukkha. Dukkha is a basic sense of unease, a state of anxiety which arises as we experience life. It is inherent within the conditions of life. The Buddha, in this, did not say that everything is suffering, or dukkha, as is sometimes said. He simply and profoundly stated that there is suffering and it must be understood. This simple statement is the ground of therapeutic enquiry. The understanding of dukkha is not just a mental understanding, but is an embodied, almost visceral insight into the nature of impermanence and self-construct. Suffering is seen to be a relational process. If we are in the world in a certain way, then there will be suffering. If that way of being is relinquished, then suffering is also relinquished.
Simply put, if we hold onto things, onto fixed positions, onto self-construct, self-view and past history, then there will be suffering. If we relate to the world within the context of attachment and aversion, and if we are confused about the nature of present reality, then there will be suffering. If we are ignorant about the present nature of things, then we suffer. Most of us, most of the time, tend to see the present through the filters of the past. But if we can find a way to truly live in the present, in the present time-ness of things, then there is the possibility of not suffering. There may be pain, but there needn’t be suffering. Within the cranial context, it is seen that suffering is relinquished when the system truly aligns with the present time-ness of things. It is an alignment to something else beyond the fear which seems to hold our sense of selfhood together. It is a realignment to a universal, an Intelligence much greater than our human mentality.
To something still, yet potently present. This occurs when the oppositional forces of our past experience are reconciled within us, in states of balance and stillness. Within the Stillness, known only in this present moment, something else can occur beyond the suffering held. It is as simple as that.
Questions
Over the years I have been privileged to be able to engage in an exploration into the human condition, and into the nature of suffering and healing, with many people, in many contexts. It has been a journey that has not only encompassed the cranial concept, but has embraced many avenues of enquiry. These included journeys into many healing arts and spiritual traditions. As one engages in this process of enquiry, some deeper questions about the work we do, and about life itself, begin to unfold. Some of these may be summed up as:
Questions about suffering, health and disease like:
What is the nature of suffering and dissatisfaction?
What generates suffering and can one be free from it?
What is health?
Can health be accessed even in the midst of the greatest suffering?
What processes and forces express and maintain health?
Can healing be facilitated from within?
What is healing and what heals?
Questions about meaning like:
What are the deeper roots of my existence?
Does my life have meaning?
What is the spiritual ground of my life?
What is my relationship to spirit and the source of existence itself?
What centres my existence?
Who dies?
What is really going on here?
I personally believe that questions like these will naturally arise as one listens to the human condition and explores suffering, health, healing and life and death issues. The more we are with suffering, and the healing processes we are privileged to witness, the more questions of meaning and truth will arise. The questions which arise will be personal ones. They will be expressions of our own unique journey and need. They are, however, essential to allow and to meet, even within a clinical context. Indeed, one might say they are the very heart of clinical understanding. In this endeavour, we must allow ourselves to observe and listen to our human condition without preconceptions, expectations, judgements or fear. Can we, as practitioners, truly listen to suffering, pain, hope, joy and the deeper forces at work within our lives, without fear? Can we leave all agendas behind and be open to the forces of life itself? This is our challenge and the heart of the healing journey.
Beginnings
Let’s start our journey in this book with a look at the beginnings of work in the cranial field. Something remarkable happened at the turn of the twentieth century. A young osteopathic student sat musing over the nature of the human skull. As he was viewing a disarticulated temporal bone, an extraordinary thought struck him, bevelled like the gills of a fish and indicating a primary respiratory mechanism! This seemingly bizarre thought started William Garner Sutherland on a life long exploration into the roots and depths of the human system and led to a depth appreciation of what is called primary respiration. By all accounts, William Garner Sutherland was an extremely gentle and spiritual man and felt that this thought was given to him as a pointer to his life’s direction and work. In his on-going research, he used his keen palpation skills and his knowledge of anatomy and physiology, to uncover the workings of a primary life force within the human body.
During his career he developed concepts and treatment approaches based upon his discoveries which were revolutionary and profound. His discoveries have huge repercussions for all of the healing arts.
As a student, in his anatomy classes, he was taught that the cranium is fused in the adult and that cranial bones do not move. When he closely inspected the nature of the human skull, he could not understand why, if it was fused, was it designed with sutures that seemed to allow movement. He then set out to investigate whether or not cranial bones move. To do this, he set up a number of experiments. He decided to experiment on himself first, with the insight that if he could sense the repercussions of the process within himself, then he would have real knowledge, not just information. I have always appreciated his clear understanding of the difference between information and knowledge. He reasoned that if the cranial bones move, then, if movement was restricted, some sort of pathological state would result. He designed a helmet to place on his head which could be adjusted to restrict different cranial bones.
As he experimented on himself, he noticed various responses in his body and mind, from gastric responses to mental confusion. He began his quest in order to prove, as he was taught, that the cranial bones don’t move. Instead, he proved to himself that they do move and that they have physiological importance. This spurred him on to explore the physiological aspects of this movement and then to discover it’s deeper implications.
Dr. Sutherland’s Discoveries
When Dr. Sutherland began his exploration, he, being an Osteopath, was initially interested in the physical manifestations of cranial bone motion. When he began to relate to the movement dynamics of the whole body, he discovered not just bony movement, but a whole series of interrelated pulsations. In his explorations, he discovered that he was sensing the dynamics of a powerful yet subtle physiological force within the human system. He realised that this force is the most fundamental ordering and healing principle within the human body-mind. He believed that this ordering principle was generated by the action of what he called the Breath of Life. The Breath of Life is a concept which is difficult to define. The best I can do is to call it the action of a divine intention. This divine wind expresses and orchestrates the intention to create. I will discuss this in much more detail in later chapters.
The Tibetans call a similar concept rigpa, the pure and divine state of pristine awareness, or pure consciousness, which is the ground of all phenomena. Dr. Sutherland realised that the Breath of Life generates a primary life force which is expressed within the human system. This life force is a bioelectric principle which has physiologically integrative and healing functions in the human system.
In his palpation studies, he also realised that he was exploring a subtle physiological system which is critical in the maintenance of health and vitality in the mind-body system. He called this system the Primary Respiratory Mechanism, or the Involuntary Mechanism. He discovered some amazing things about its functioning and expression. He noticed a subtle rhythmic impulse that is palpable to sensitive hands throughout the body. As he explored this impulse, he realised that he was palpating a basic motility, or inherent motion, which was driven by what he termed the potency of the Breath of Life. This potency was sensed to permeate the cells and tissues of the body, maintaining its order and healing processes. As we shall see, this potency is an expression of a subtle bioelectric ordering field which orders and enlivens the human body. It is its most essential life force, and is an expression of a deep Intelligence at work within the human condition.
In accord with this view, some researchers in bio-physiology are beginning to view the organisation of the human system as a dynamic and coherent quantum bioelectric field phenomenon. This has huge implications for healing work of any kind.
By the end of his career, Dr. Sutherland believed that the potency of the Breath of Life is an expression of the Intelligence of life itself and is fundamental to the proper functioning of both mind and body. He also perceived that the cerebrospinal fluid which surrounds the brain and spinal cord becomes potentised with this life principle. He described the process of potentisation as one of transmutation. Transmutation means a change in state. In other words, there is a change in the state of the bioelectric potency within the fluids, which allow it to act as a direct physiological ordering force within the body. This transmission of the potency of the Breath of Life into the cerebrospinal fluid became the most fundamental concept in his treatment modality.
As potency is received by the cerebrospinal fluid, a tide-like motion, or fluctuation, is created within the fluids of the body. Dr. Sutherland learned that it is this fluctuation of fluid which conveys and transports the potency of the Breath of Life to all of the cells and tissues within the body. So here we have the makings of a concept of the human system based on an understanding of the dynamics of an inherent life force. We also have the revolutionary concept that it is the fluid systems of the body which conveys this ordering principle to all of its parts. Thus the fluid dynamics of the body are essential to its expression of health.
As we shall see, the potency of the Breath of Life conveys the Original blueprint, or matrix of a human being to every cell and tissue via the body’s fluid systems. The Original matrix is a bio-electric form expressed at the moment of conception and is the organising matrix of the human system until the moment of death. It is an expression of the potency or force of the Breath of Life in its purest form. As we shall see, the Breath of Life, and its potency within the system, is the inherent ordering principle around which the cellular and tissue world organises. It arises at the time of conception, drives the initial phases of embryological development, and is with us until the day we die. This seems, at first, an incredible concept, but the amazing clinical results that Dr. Sutherland and other practitioners obtained was based directly on this very understanding.
There are similar concepts in many forms of traditional medicine where the main healing focus is placed on life energy or life force. In Chinese Medicine, for instance, the emphasis is on the balance of chi and the potency of jing in the body. Interestingly, jing, or essence, is similarly sensed to be an inherent ordering principle in the human body which is intimately related to its fluid systems. In Ayurvedic Medicine, there is also a similar concept in which ojas is sensed to be an essential ordering energy which again manifests in the fluid systems of the body at a cellular level. Finally, in Tibetan Medicine, the most primary life force is called the wind of the vital forces and is considered to be the inherent ordering principle of the body. In the Tibetan system of medicine it is traditionally experienced to be located along the central axis of the body and within the cerebrospinal fluid and central nervous system! From here.
Let’s get started on some basic concepts.
A Unit of Function
The human system is a unit of function; it is an integrated whole. It is only our minds which fragment that whole. This truth can be perceived both within our immediate experience of suffering and within the experience of the underlying Health which centers that suffering. Within the cranial concept, it is seen that Health is never lost. Health is a principle, it is not dependent on particular mind-body states. Even in the most desperate health situations, this inherent principle is never lost. In our work we learn to palpate and to be in direct relationship to the expressions of this inherent Health within human form. This Health has been with us from the moment of conception and will be with us until the day we die. It never becomes diseased. It is a function of the universal within us. It is the true neutral which centers our existence. Neutral is a term that is commonly used within the cranial concept. It encompasses a number of concepts.
Here I mean that there is a still center, or a depth of Stillness, around which the our whole being is organised. It is the most essential and fundamental ground of our being.
We are whole from the moment we are conceived and, in this wholeness, we discover that our human system is unified and is never fragmented. Fragmentation is a illusion which the mind generates due to its tendency to focus on the results and affects of experience, rather than on the inherent forces which organise our mind-body process within this present moment. If Health is truly perceived, we discover that it is never lost. We discover that structure and function are mutually inter-dependent, that the body is self-healing, self-regulating and self-integrating. The key to this process of discovery lies in our God given abilities to be aware, to be present, to be able to deepen and widen our fields of awareness and simply listen. It is in the ability to be still and listen that the truth of the human system unfolds its mysteries. As we listen, a true humbleness arises as we meet the awesome Intelligence within the human system.
Basic Premises
Let’s discuss the nature of the therapeutic work involved in the cranial concept. Dr. Sutherland evolved his work in the context of his Osteopathic profession. He considered the therapeutic aspects of the work to be an extension of the Osteopathic concept. There are a few important premises of Osteopathic practice that are crucial to understand. One important aspect is that form and function are inter-dependent. In this it is seen that function, whether it is the functioning of a joint, or of an organ system, is dependent on the relationships of the form, or structure, of the body. Form is precise, liver cells are liver cells, neural tissue is neural tissue. Another aspect of this, is that all form is seen to be in motion, and the movement dynamics of form is of crucial importance in the functional health of the system.
Thus the structural relationships of the system are considered to be of extreme importance in the functioning of the human body. Another way of saying this, is that the anatomy of the body is of crucial importance in relationship to its functioning. This may seen obvious, but it is not emphasised in orthodox medicine to the degree seen in Osteopathic practice. Again, this is especially seen to be crucial in motion dynamics. Life is expressed via motion. Whether this is seen in the voluntary motions of the musculo-skeletal system, or the involuntary motions of the cells, fluids and tissues of the body, life is in motion. Resistances and congestion within the tissue and fluid relationships of the body are seen to be precursors of pathology, and early pathology can be perceived as subtle resistances within fluid, cellular and tissue motion.
A further belief is that the body is a self healing and self regulating entity. It already has all the information it needs to heal and maintain a balanced state. This is critical. There is an Intelligence at work within the mind-body process. This Intelligence knows what to do. The practitioner, within this context, does not have to work out what to do. He has to find a way to access this knowledge. In this work it is seen that the treatment plan, the exact sequence of what needs to happen within a treatment context, is inherent within the disturbances found in the system. The role of the practitioner is seen as assisting and facilitating this inherent healing intelligence. In this book, we will explore this natural intelligence and suggest ways to relate to it. It is of crucial importance that practitioners learn to relate to the inherent health of the system, and not just to its patterns of resistance. A last important aspect to appreciate, is that the human being functions as a whole.
The human dynamic is a unit of function, a unified dynamic that cannot be reduced down to a conglomerate of its parts. Hence, inertia found in any part of the system has repercussions for the whole system. For instance, a sacroiliac disturbance may be due to a process located in another part of the body, or even in another system of the body. Any discussion of the premises of craniosacral biodynamics must be seen in the light of these basic premises. A summary of these basic concepts are :
Some Basic Understandings
Structure and function are inter-dependent.
The body is self-healing, self-regulating and self-integrating.
The human system is a unified entity and should function as such, it is a unit of function,
a whole.
Essential Intentions
Essentially, work within the cranial field is an art of intelligent and intuitive listening. Practitioners learn to perceive the body’s intrinsic movement dynamics, rhythms and pulsations. Within this context, they are able to appreciate the inherent Health within the system and its historical patterns of trauma, pathology and inertia. Through this perceptual process, practitioners can assist both the expression of the inherent Health of the system and the resolution of its inertial forces and patterns.
In relationship to the basic osteopathic principles outlined above, practitioners learn to deeply appreciate the nature of the structure-form of the human body and its subtle motion dynamics. One basic intention is to be able to palpate and hear the Health within the system and to respond to the inertia within its fluids, cells and tissues. Practitioners learn to comprehend the nature of the self-healing process and the role of primary respiration in these healing processes. They learn to deeply appreciate the arising of what Dr. Sutherland called the Breath of Life, and the manifestations of its inherent healing potency. They develop the ability to sense this most fundamental resource within the human system and to facilitate its expression.
Finally, practitioners learn to sense the human body as a unified field whose inherent life process is an expression of the Breath of Life itself. They learn to perceive and receive the whole of a person. They discover the dynamic forces at work within the organisation of the human system and a reverence for life ensues. As you study the material in this book, I want you not to forget, in the midst of all the technical and specific theory and clinical work presented, that it is the magnificent human system which does the healing. Most importantly, you can have a direct relationship to this most essential healing and organising principle. As you will discover, the heart of the work rests in stillness and stillness is the ground of our human condition. There is a saying from the bible, be still and know me. Perhaps that is the most important thing we can do. Let’s all renew our journey and enquiry into life with an open mind and warm heart.
As you will see, life continuously unfolds itself to the still and respectful observer.
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