February 26 – 2007

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ The CST steak knives set.
+ Facial bone movement revisited (how knowing how to describe it could save your life)
+ Why do we need to learn anatomy and technique if the work is fundamentally energetic?

Hello John,

I’m feeling a bit like a steak knife salesman
in an infomercial because I’m excited!!
I’m excited about all the great stuff I’ve
added to my web sites. . . and it’s all just for
you.
No, don’t thank me, just call the number at the
bottom of your screen now.

In the ‘Patient Resources’ section of my sites
I have added Free downloadable Articles and Books!

There is a great article by Al Pelowski about
treating a new born baby that won’t stop having
seizures and another one by Trish Banks about how
to address the emotional needs of the family,
particularly the children, when going through
separation and divorce.  It’s basically a mine
field map and excellent stuff.
There are the Wallace D Wattle books.  That’s
right all three of them.  The science of getting
rich, being well and being great.

As you might have noticed, it is giving me a
lot of pleasure to finally get around to making
all this great information available.
You can direct your patients to the page and
let them get whatever article they want or you can
print out the article you feel is relevant and
then give it to them.
John Upledger, Peter Levine, Jim Jealous, there
all here at

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/resources/downloads.html

But wait there’s more!

I have finished the ‘CST Therapist and Student
Resources’ section.  So now you can find all those
cranio sacral books you have been looking for, all
in the one place.
Edward Muntinga’s excellent 3D Cranio sacral
DVD is there too.  It is such an excellent tool
for getting your head around the way the cranio
sacral system moves.

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/sacral-training/resources/

And it just gets better!!

Etienne and Neeto Peirsman have just brought
out a book about Craniosacral Therapy for Babies
and Small Children.  It has heaps of very cute
pictures of Etienne treating babies.
Get a warm glow here. http://www.craniobabies.com/
Now I know where Geppetto ended up.
Pinocchio will be so pleased.

But that’s not all!!

I’ve been keeping the best till last!!!
I finally managed to do something I’ve wanted to do
for ages.
No, not combine roller balding and hang gliding,
though I am getting closer on that one.
No, what I’ve finally managed to do is set it up so
you can now download Free Anatomical Animations from my
sites.
You can see a fetus and a developing embryo here

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/sacral-training/embryonic-development/

Phew! I think I need a lie down after all that
excitement.  So while I’m doing that
let’s have a look at the mail bag.
Okay, there’s no bag really.
It just sounds better than saying, ‘Let’s have
a look in the Inbox.’

***QUESTION***

Hi John,
Just a quick question on your last issue about the
face.  I didn’t get the box on the balloon thing
for the face.  It sounded good but I just didn’t
get it.  The movement of the facial bones is
something I had given up on being able to
verbalise.
I can feel it but couldn’t describe it to save my
life.  I do know if I could get my left brain
involved it would good.
Any (other) ideas?

Saludos
F.K.
Berkeley, CA.

MY COMMENTS:

Man, your letter made me laugh.  I immediately
had this mental image of you having to describe
the movement of the facial bones to save your
life.

There you are with a gun to your head and the
villain whispering menacingly in your ear, ‘Just
tell me the way the vomer moves in flexion and no
one needs to get hurt.’

What a hoot.
Far be it from me to get in the way of you
living to a ripe old age so I’ll do my best to get
you out of danger.

Let me explain why you may be having trouble.
We all have a predominance in the sense that we
receive information through.  The common
descriptors for this are visual, auditory and
kinaesthetic.  Smell and taste are included under
kinaesthetic.
Visual people will receive information by
seeing.  Auditory people will receive information
by hearing and kinaesthetic people will receive
information by feeling.

Our predominance shows itself in the way we
communicate.
A visual person will say, ‘I SEE what you
mean.’
An auditory person will say,  ‘It SOUNDS like
you understand.’
And a kinaesthetic person will say, ‘I FEEL
like you both missed the point.’

Learning styles is a large field and well worth
knowing about so you can adapt your language to
you improve your communication.   If you know what
type of person you are talking to, visual,
auditory or kinaesthetic, you can adjust your
language to the way they will best receive what
you are saying.
You can find out more about it here.

http://www.vaknlp.com/

http://www.businessballs.com/vaklearningstylestest.htm

http://www.grapplearts.com/Learning-Styles-in-Grappling.htm

So I hope you see what I mean and you are now
feeling like you will be able to really hear me on
this facial bone thing.  (That should cover all my
bases.)

I am guessing you are predominantly
kinaesthetic.  So my description of the cranium
and face being like a balloon with a box stuck on
the front didn’t really hit the mark with you
because it is a visual metaphor.

Here’s the good news.
Once you know about these learning styles you
can translate one style into another or more
importantly into your own style.
So in this case I suggest you get a balloon and
inflate it but not too much.  Then draw a face on
it. Then pull it into extension and squash it into
flexion.  Do it a few times until you can really
feel it.  Then get a little box and tape it to the
balloon.  Then make the balloon go through flexion
and extension a few more times. Watch the way the
box moves as you do this.

Taking my visual metaphor and turning it into
something you can actually feel should make it
instantly understandable to you.

You can translate anything you are having
difficulty learning into your own learning style.
Kinaesthetic people can make models of everything.
Visual people can translate everything to
pictures, graphs and diagrams.  Auditory people
can translate everything to sound, musical if
possible.

Another really powerful thing that kinaesthetic
people can do is include smell and taste wherever
possible and practical.  These are very powerful
senses and will really lock it in.

You are right about getting your left brain
involved.  It is very important.   I am going to
talk about it more in my response to the next
letter so I won’t go on about it here.

One last tip, stay away from medically
inquisitive villains that carry guns – it will end
in tears.  Probably obvious but someone had to say
it.

***QUESTION***

Dear John,

I am a year into my cranial studies and very
excited and captivated by the beauty of this work.

I avidly consume everything I can about cranio
sacral and have read most of the major works.

In Hugh Milne’s books he talks about this work
being fundamentally energetic yet goes into great
detail about anatomy and technique.  John
Upledger’s earlier books are very technical and
mechanical but his later books are more spiritual.
Franklyn Sills books are mostly spiritual and
philosophical with some mechanical stuff and
William Sutherland’s writing is very spiritual.

You haven’t written a book but the topics you
cover in your newsletters (Thanks by the way,
they’re great.) range form very specific and
technical to very ‘out there.’

What I am trying to understand is if this work is
fundamentally energetic then why do we need to
learn all this anatomy and technique?  If it is
all so fluid why so much structure?

Looking forward to your answer and your book if
you ever write one.

Joe
Sydney.

MY COMMENTS:

Well Joe, I HAVE written a book (sniff, sniff,
pout, pout) it’s just not about cranio sacral per
se.

Anyway I’ll pull in my bottom lip for a minute
and answer your question.

Yes, this work is fundamentally energetic but
it doesn’t follow that we don’t need to learn
technique or to know about anatomy and physiology.

That would be like saying that playing a
musical instrument is basically about passion and
expression so why do we need to practice the
scales or learn how to read music.

Learning technique is like learning the scales
on a musical instrument or the mastering brush
strokes in painting.   Learning physiology and
anatomy is like learning to read music or the
rules of perspective in drawing.

Once these skills are mastered and the
knowledge becomes part of you then you are into
the expression and passion side of things.  At
that point your craniosacral work will be very
energetic.

Got it?

Not really.

Okay, here are a couple of stories to
illustrate the point.

I have been roller blading for about 7 years
now.  In the beginning I just got it into my head
that I wanted to learn so I bought myself some
skates and went to the nearest bike track and just
. .  started.

I fell over a lot but with practice got the
hang of it.  Within a couple of weeks I was able
to go forward without falling over and was very
pleased with myself.

If you had asked me back then if I could roller
blade I would have said yes and I would have been
right, to a point.

I skated like that for 4 years.  Then I
befriended someone who was a roller blading
instructor.  I thought the idea of having lessons
was a bit below me, I was self taught after all,
but I gave it a go.

The difference was remarkable.  With a few
simple lessons and practicing some simple drills I
was skating better, faster, for far greater
distances, with greater ease and confidence going
up and down hills I would never have dreamed of
and all with a lot more safety.

4 years of skating hadn’t actually improved my
skating.  I discovered that practice doesn’t make
perfect it just makes permanent.  It wasn’t until
I had those lessons and practiced the right things
and yes, some of the drills I had to practice were
boring, that I really began to skate.

When I am out skating now, I sometimes pass
someone who reminds me of what I must have looked
like before I had those lessons.  Sweating a lot,
working very hard but inefficiently and with very
little grace or control.

Here’s my second story.

One day a Zen master cam upon a group of men.
A large boulder had become dislodged in a
landslide and the men were trying to shift it out
of the road.  They had obviously been at it for a
while because they were covered in sweat.  It was
also obvious that they weren’t having any success
because the boulder hadn’t moved an inch.

The men recognised the Zen master and asked him
if he could help.  He told them to have a rest
while he reviewed the situation.  The men sat on
the grass and watched the master closely.

He walked around the boulder once and then came
to a stop at a point that seemed significant to
him but didn’t look any different to the men.

He placed his two hands on the boulder and
began to apply gentle pressure to the boulder.
The men looked at each other thinking the master
had gone a bit soft in the noggin.

Suddenly the boulder began to move and rolled
off the road.  The men were astonished.  They
rushed forward cheering and congratulating the
master.

When they asked him how he did it, he replied
that the difficult part was seeing which way the
boulder wanted to go.  Once he saw that he simply
helped it go the way it wanted to go.

I love that story.  I read it about 18 years
ago and I’ve never forgotten it.  The thing about
it is that if you took the master aside and asked
him how he ‘saw’ which way the boulder wanted to
go he would have told you that it took him years
to get to the point where he could see it.

He would tell you that when he started out
years beforehand he was just like the men
struggling.  He would then tell you how he had
gone through a series of learning steps to get to
the point where he could see.

But you never get that kind of ‘behind the
scenes’ with those Zen stories you just get the
wisdom.  Which is great but it can make you feel
like you will never be as cool and have ‘moving
really big boulders’ as your party trick.

Cranio sacral teachers are faced with a
dilemma.  They have had the dazzling insight that
it is, as you say, all energetic but they also
know that they did a lot of ground work to get to
the insight.

Good teachers manage to convey both aspects.
The need to learn good techniques so it can lead
to the fluidity of expression.

My experience of teaching students who had been
through trainings that focused on the end result
and left out the steps to get there was that they
were very broad spectrum in their approach.

Lots of very colourful descriptions about how
they and the patients body were feeling but very
little specific information about what the root
cause was physically and mechanically.  And when
questioned more closely, had a very shaky grasp on
the anatomy of the region they were describing.

Here’s another reason to know the anatomy and
physiology.  Once you start to become competent in
cranio sacral work the word of mouth builds
quickly.  But the word of mouth won’t be about how
cranio sacral therapy works it will be just that
you were able to help someone.   When people come
to see you they will often be doing so against the
consensus of their friends and family.

The fact that you can understand the language
their doctor uses and can explain the physical
aspect of their symptoms to them in language that
is familiar and similar to the language their
doctor uses goes a long way to soothing their
concerns.

Which explanation do you think sounds most
reassuring?

‘Your head feels very tight and heavy and I’m
sensing a lot of tension on the left side.  It
feels very red and angry.’

or

‘Your head feels to me like it is overfull with
cerebrospinal fluid.  The reason for this is that
one of the bones that forms the floor of you skull
on the left hand side, the particular bone is
called your temporal bone, is being pulled inwards
by the membrane that attaches to it.

This has the effect of pinching your jugular
vein because the hole that your jugular vein goes
through is actually formed in the junction of your
temporal bone and another bone called your
occipital bone.

Blood is pumped into your head by your heart
but there is nothing in your head pumping the
blood back out again.  So it’s really important
that the channels of drainage out of your head
are clear and unrestricted.

One of those channels of drainage is your
jugular vein.  So you can see that if it is
pinched then the blood being pumped into your head
can’t drain out as quickly as it needs to.  So you
get the sort of pressure build up that can cause
the sorts of headaches you are getting.’

Learn the physiology and anatomy Joe and master
all the techniques.  They will lead you to mastery
of the energetic work at the heart of cranio
sacral.

So that’s it for this issue.  Your
steak knives are in the mail.

Cheerio for now.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.

November 22 – 2007

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ Cranio sacral therapy on FaceBook.
+ Working with energy.
+ Reframing.
+ Cerebral palsy and the blueprint
+ More on the arachnoid mater from Al Pelowski in South Africa.

Hello John,
If you were one of the many therapists that
sent me your profiles to have them listed, then
have a look here to see I got everything right.
Right picture, right spelling, right on man! (or
Woman!)

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/therapists/listing.html

Speaking of right on women, Rene from New
Zealand let me know about a cranio sacral therapy
group on Face book.  I’ve had a look and think it
is a spiffing idea.  It’s great to be able to put
faces to names and connect with fellow therapists
across the world.

Yes, it is a bit of a pain signing up and
creating a profile but worth it, no?

http://www.facebook.com/

Now. . .
. . . this newsletter is slightly different to
others in that half the content is on my website.
The reason for this is the inclusion of video and
images.

The first article is about how I use energy
when I am working and includes a detailed diagram
of energy flow.  There is also an amazing video
illustrating how you can work with high levels of
energy and not have it affect you.  Be a good egg
and let me know what you think.
You can read it here.

The second article is about how to use
reframing to help you when you hit a wall in
practice or study.  In fact you can use reframing
in all aspects of your life.  The article starts
off with a great little video which illustrates
the power of a reframe.
You can read it here.

I’ll wait while you go and have a look at them.

Finished?

Okay then, let’s get on with the mailbag.

***QUESTION***

Hi John

I would like to know a bit more about working with
Cerebral Palsy. What is the best approach?  Is
there any chance for the person to recover some of
their functions or is it too much to ask to the
body? I suppose it requires to go back to the blue
print. Your comments about the blue print in the
last newsletter were very interesting. My only
problem is that I am a kinaesthetic kind of person
and images don’t talk to me very much. Could you
tell me how the blue print feels so I know that
what I feel under my hands is the blueprint or
something else. This would be very useful for me.
Thank you.
Odile, Brisbane.

Odile Grisel

http://www.odilegrisel.com.au

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Odile,
Thank you for your email.

I have had some good success with cerebral
palsy and I’ve had some no-change-at-all’s.  When
I think about what was common among the successes
the main thing was that the people were young.
Under 3yrs old.

When treating cerebral palsy I generally find
myself working with the nervous system.  From the
hemisphere of the brain involved out to the
periphery.  Following the nerves, working to
enhance the integrity where it is diminished.

I have heard some therapists say they find lots
of limb unwinding very useful to unlock the
central restrictions.  I haven’t found that myself
but pass it on in case you find it useful.

I never think of treatment in terms of, ‘Is
this too much to ask of the body?’  At this stage
I have seen so many apparent ‘miracles’ that I
know the body is capable of anything.  So it is
never a case of CAN this happen but more a case of
IS it going to happen?

It can often be a blueprint problem, which
leads me to your second question about describing
what the blueprint feels like without using
images.

I had to put my thinking cap on for that one.
Here’s what I got.  To me, the blueprint feels
very whispy and mist-like, but not moist. It feels
like touching a smoke ring that pulses with
flexion and extension and releases like solid
tissue.

Phew!  Okay I’m going to take my thinking cap
off now because my head is hurting.

***FOLLOW ON COMMENT FROM AL PELOWSKI***

Hallo John and thanks for the latest issue!
Gets me going on my deck in early morning Joburg
visualising teacups…

I especially wanted to comment, to give a
different slant on what you said about the spider
web mother.

So here goes.  Let me know what you think of this
version.

Starting with the nervous system’s generative
membrane, the ependyma, all else follows.

Leaving out the details..just remember that most
membranes grow in a doubling process.  They grow
with a potential space between.  The space is
where canals and tissues form.

The primitive ependyma lining the neural tube is
doubled.  The inner layer keeps its name but the
other layer becomes the pia between the two layers.
Ependymal cells differentiate to form the brain &
spinal cord.  The pia also doubles to form a
potential space for blood–pia intima and  pia
externa, it provides a capillary network for the
brain.

Some bits of pia are left in the ventricles bound
up with the ependyma  and together form the
choroid plexi the outer layer of pia, the ‘pia
externa’ is doubled as well its outer layer
becomes the arachnoid between are pulled out fine
reticulin fibres–the spider web the arachnoid
sprouts little cauliflower-like buds as it grows-
granulations.

The ependyma, pia and arachnoid grow out of each
other and are referred  to as the ‘leptomeninges’
in many texts.  They are epethelia–derived from
the zygote wall they are closely related to the
inner linings of organs and to the epidermis all
epithelia share a wide variety of peptides and
receptors.

“As the inside, so the outside.”  Gut / brain /
skin growing more slowly along with the rest of
the body, the dura is not  epithelial, but
connective tissue related to bone and blood.  it
comes to form the fascial sac around the arachnoid
mater.

A whole different animal.   It doesn’t need to bath
itself in CSF.  But it too is a doubled membrane
and its potential space becomes canalised for
venous blood.  The arachnoid graulations become
surrounded by and incorporated into the inner
layer of dura as it grows.

The granulations (like the choroid) contain highly
specialised cells which are involved in transport.
some cells can move waste out of the CSF into the
venous return.  Others will to abstracting
material from the blood into the CSF.

All this gets more interesting when you see how
the 4th ventricle foramina form as the ependymal-
pial separation occurs.  the whole thing is
designed to link qualities of blood and CSF
without haphazard mixing.

The leptomeninges can only survive and function in
the amniotic-CSF environment, inside and out.  The
dura doesn’t mind blood at all and never comes
into touch with CSF.

Keep it up

Al

>>>MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for that Al, you describe things real sweet.

So that’s it for this issue.

Cheerio for now.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.

What follows is a description of my experience of working with energy in Cranio Sacral Therapy. It is intended as an adjunct to any energy work you may already have experience in. My intention is to explore different ways of working with energy that are very effective with Cranio Sacral Treatment.

There are many different ways to look at what is happening during energy work and it is best to find a way that makes sense to you.

If you find the idea of working with energy a little ‘out there’ think of it like this; if you went back in time and tried to describe how television worked to someone back in the middle ages, they would probably say it sounded like magic.

“These images are floating around in the air all the time, yet they can’t be seen. But, with the right receiver you can see pictures of something happening on the other side of the planet.”

Nowadays it is all very normal and explainable. I suggest you approach energy work in the same way. Be as practical about it as possible all the while having gratitude for the gift of whatever energy comes through you.

A key aspect of energy is that Energy Follows Thought.

You can encourage something to release in a very specific way by putting your Intention on it. Your intention is energised by the energy that comes to the assistance of your intent to help.

The cells of our bodies adhere to a continually renewing energetic blueprint we first establish in the womb. What gives this blueprint its potency is the movement of cerebro spinal fluid, in what we call flexion and extension. This energetic blueprint sets the outlines for the structures we are familiar with, heart, lungs, etc. The blueprint also includes the unseen connections between these structures, what in Chinese medicine are called Meridians. Another aspect to the blueprint are the structures that conduct energy flow through our system in the same way water flows through a hose.

ENERGY MODEL FOR HEALING
One of the things we are doing when we treat people is we are working to help this blueprint to repair itself. I have found there is a specific circuit we work with. It starts with perceiving energy leaving our right hand and entering our left hand. Our right hand is the one we use to put energy in with and the left is for taking excess energy out.

PRACTICE
You can feel this if you hold your hands about three inches apart and tune into them. You will first feel energy between your hands.

Follow the flow of energy coming out of your right hand. Up to your elbow and generally coming from the right side of your torso. Feel where the source of the energy is coming from.

Now hold that thought while you feel the next bit.

You can sense energy coming down from the sky or universe and also up from the Earth. The energy from the universe has a light, airy and vast quality. While the energy from the earth is grounded, solid and deep.

You can feel it entering your body on the left hand side and leaving it on the right. The energy from the universe and the earth meet as they enter your body. Energy
enters through the left side of your head from the universe and up through your left foot from the earth.

It converges in your torso, crosses your body to the right side and travels down your right forearm and out of your right hand.

The energy that is picked up by your left hand travels up your left forearm is pulled into the left side of your torso. It crosses your body and diffuses up and down to leave
through the right side of your head out through your right leg & foot.

Confused? Here is a diagram that will help.

The flow between our hands is the focal point for the sort of work we do. Having a sense of this circuit will allow you to tap into as much energy as is required. Knowing that you are availing of energy flowing through you will help you conserve your own energy and not feel so drained from the work.

To get a visual reference for how you can have a lot of energy flow through you without being drained by it, have a look at this video. It is of a man who works on high voltage cables. They are not turned off. He is flown in by helicopter and wears a faraday suit which the high voltage flows through. Apart from it being a fascinating video clip, it’s a great example of how you can work with a lot of energy and it not affect you.

+ Question about therapist burnout. – July 08

Hi John

Thank you for the very valuable information shared
by you and other CS therapists.  I’ve been a
little out of circuit lately – life’s little
challenges – so even though you may have not had a
response from me, I’m still keen to remain
connected.

My preference would be more frequent shorter news
rather than the other.
Kindly advise what the donations will be used for.

Any suggestions for therapist burn out ? A long
awaited holiday is needed, I know ,and am busy
working toward one.  My forearms are taking strain
and was told that Kinesiology NOT treatment can
help.  I’m pretty good at caring for myself but
what with juggling teaching yoga, CST, VM and my
latest baby, doing readings it has all suddenly
caught up with me.  I keep the yoga, therapy and
readings for separate days giving me enough time
to replenish.  Please throw some light (energy) on
this subject.

Kindly yours

Peni in Cape Town

>>>MY COMMENTS:

Hello Peni,
There are lots of different energetic
considerations when considering burnout but the
one that stands out to me, from what you have
written, is that you are doing A LOT!

It may be nothing to do with any of the
therapies that you are doing individually.  It may
be that you are doing so many plus your new baby.
I’m getting tired just thinking about it.

It sounds like you know what I am going to say
next but I’ll say anyway.  It’s important to find
a way, that works for you, of removing any
residual energy after you treat someone.

For some people this means a full shower for
others it is simply letting water run over their
hands.

Avoid seeing too many people in a week.  I have
found that somewhere between 12 and 18 adults is
about as much as most people can treat with cranio
sacral therapy without burning out very quickly.

Even if you find a way of removing excess
energy after each person and you don’t see too
many people you will still need to take a break
every 3 months for at least 7 days.

On top of all that you need to take a long
break, around 6 months, every 10 years.

It took me 12 years to figure that one out.

What will the donations be used for?

Well mainly to keep me in cigars and wine, oh
yes and also to help me run open source cranio.
It takes a lot of time and I do have to pay for
things like web hosting etc.  I also plan to put
teaching videos on the site and these all cost
money to make.

Primarily the ‘donate’ button is an opportunity
for people to give back.  This is good for me, not
just because of the cigars and wine, but also
because it’s important to be able to receive, me
included.  I have found that if you can’t receive
comfortably then you can’t really give.