Working with the blueprint.

Posted by John Dalton on September 26, 2008

+ Working with the blueprint. - September 07

Hi John
Thanks so much for your continuing newsletter and the great tips
and humour.
I have a double question.
It’s often a lonely place at the coalface and I seem to have people
come to me with “last resort” problems that require much from me
- I am doing a lot of anatomy and physiology research these days.

First question. Do you think it’s possible for a young man whose
body doesn’t make testosterone to get that working again?
He is 23 and came to me essentially for massive headaches and
his lack of testosterone problem. It was diagnosed at age 15
when he had major back pain.
Bone testing revealed his bone age was that of an 8 year old.
He has to inject himself 3 x weekly for the testosterone cycle
to happen. This injecting ritual is also affecting his mental health
- facing this for the rest of his life is depressing.

So, he has major lesion patterns in his head, esp membranes,
akin to birth trauma (although his mother reports a “perfect” birth),
and his pelvic girdle/sacrum.
Unwinding those complex restriction patterns is top of the list,
with my intention also on all sites for the production cycle to
work normally (including cerebral cortex, hypothalamus and
pituitary and testes). I can’t see any reason it won’t, but there
seems to be an issue with the ‘kick starting’ of the process.
If he is injecting and producing LSH, then his body may not
have the opportunity to take over.
He has had all the tests and specialists do not have any idea
why this is happening in his body.
They can only offer injections for his lifetime.

Can you give me any clues here?

Second question. I have a lot of people with conditions related to
experiencing terror in-utero. So, the main problem seems to lie in
the central nervous system, and glitches in its development.

These all have the quality of having to return to the blueprint as
the major goal. This requires a lot, from both practitioner and client.
(This is also the situation for the young man already mentioned)

Can you give some insight into the process of returning to the blueprint?

Luckily, I have had success already in this area, but the symptoms
and conditions I’m treating lately, (as well as the overall goal of
returning to the blueprint), are extreme and debilitating for the clients.
Patience seems to be the major virtue. Have you any other insights?
Thanks so much for your continued support.
Cheers,
J
Perth, Australia

>>>MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for the feedback I’m glad you are finding the newsletters useful.

‘Do you think it’s possible for a young man whose body doesn’t
make testosterone to get that working again?’

Yes. When it comes to people and their bodies I think anything is
possible.

Both of your questions revolve around the blueprint and how to
work with it so I will answer them together.

It sounds like your palpatory skills are at the point where you are
beginning to feel the blueprint, which is great. The downside is
that it sounds like you are finding it a bit daunting.

But daunt not because it doesn’t need to be.

The ironic thing is that you have been working with the blueprint
from the very beginning of your cranio sacral training. The
difference is that now you have reached a level of refinement
where you can differentiate the blueprint from the rest of what
you are a feeling.

As you know the blueprint is the energetic framework that
underpins our bodies. The cells of our bodies being a bit like
iron filings on a piece of paper. When a magnet is brought to
the underside of the paper the filings are drawn to form the
shape of the magnet.

The magnet is like the blueprint. The difference is that the
blueprint is not a static rigid thing but moves and grows.
The growing part being particularly relevant for your
testosterone light patient.

Like many aspects of cranio sacral work, we feel something
and learn to work with it but have very little scientific evidence
or terminology to describe it. 10 years ago science was enraptured
with the mysteries of genetics, with few voices who was saying
anything different, one of which was Rupert Sheldrake and he was
labeled a kook.

Then the genome was finally mapped and when the party was
over there was a dawning that it didn’t have all the answers.
That everything wasn’t determined by our genes. This is reflected
in the work of the likes of Bruce Lipton in what is being called
the New Biology.

The idea of an energetic field or blueprint underpinning our body
has been around for yonks and shows up in different cultures in
different ways, meridians, charkas, assemblage point and so on.

As I said, the blueprint unfolds during embryonic development.
The timing of this unfoldment directs the pace and progress of
our embryonic development and once started moves forward
with its own pace and rhythm.

It’s like a piece of music that begins at the moment of conception
and continues for the rest of our lives. Within the overall piece of
music there are movements, passages that have the general themes
of the overall music but have their individual beginnings, middles
and ends.

If something happens to interrupt the music or a particular beat is
missed, it is very hard for the body to fill in the blanks.
No magnet - so the iron filings don’t know where to go.

For example the maxillae meet each other and form the hard
palate at about the seventh week of embryonic development.
If this doesn’t happen then person will end up with a cleft palate.

It sounds like all went well with your patient during the embryonic
phase of his development. He decided he was going to be male
and the initial flood of testosterone ensured this.
The beat that was missed was in his puberty.
The second wave of testosterone never happened. So he never
matured into a man. It is this point that I would look at in his
blueprint.

So how to work with it?
I have found that knowing about the blueprint is the beginning
of being able to work with it.
It’s the same as when knowing what flexion and extension were
before tried to feel for them was a help in being able to feel them.

A useful initial access to feeling the blueprint is to use the cranio
sacral rhythm. Think of it in terms of William Sutherland’s description
of it as being the ‘breath of life’. Think of flexion as the in-breath
and extension as the out-breath of this breath of life. He also
described the movement of this breath of life as adding potency
to the cells of the body.

I find this kind of imagery helpful in getting in touch with the
blueprint. It always reminds me of a beach, in particular that part
of the beach where the sand meets the water. Where, if you write
your name in the sand the water will come in and wipe it away and
smooth the sand out.

With my hands in contact with the person’s system and my eyes
closed, tuning into the cranio sacral rhythm and feeling it in terms
of an in-breath that vitalises and recreates an energetic blueprint,
each in-breath washes across the cells of the body and they become
luminous. Any anomalies in the blueprint itself begin to reveal
themselves.

The daunting thing about working with the blueprint is that is
energetic. You don’t feel it in the same way as you feel flexion
and extension, for example, which is a physical movement.
It is felt in the same way you can feel something between your
palms when you hold them close together. It’s the same sort
of something.

The good news is that once it is felt the blueprint behaves and
responds in the same way the body does. So if you get a sense
that there was a disturbance in the unfoldment of the puberty
movement of his blueprint ‘music’ then it is the same as it would
feel if there was a trauma that had occurred to him during his puberty.

But instead of looking to get a sense of a trauma you are looking
to get a sense of what interrupted the unfoldment of his blueprint,
which, ironically could have been a trauma.

Once you get a sense of where the gap is then you can use your
intention to fill it. But not in a directed forceful, ‘I know what needs
to be done here.’ sort of way. More with a sense of providing a
bridge with your intention across the gap.

It is a little like direct technique in as much as you are encouraging
his system to fill in the gap but you don’t make it happen.

As kooky as the blueprint may sound it is still a mechanical kind
of thing to work with. Just because it is energy doesn’t automatically
imbue it with mystical dimensions.

If he doesn’t improve through working with the blue print you
would have to look deeper. What is deeper than the underpinning
energetic blue print that holds the cells of our bodies in place?

Well as I said the blueprint is in essence a mechanical structure.
It is used by the part of us that knows the bigger picture of ourselves.
What our life is about. Why we are a man or a woman, why we chose
the parents we did, the country we were born in and so on.

That is a different part of the questions you would be asking yourself
about the bigger picture of what his symptoms might mean in the
context of the deeper issues he may be working out in his life.

Is he resisting letting go of being a boy and becoming a man?
Or is he resisting growing up? The movie, ‘The Tin Drum’ comes
to mind. Were the headaches just a way to get him to come and
see you or are they part of the mechanical aspect of how this
disharmony is expressing itself.

How do you get someone to look at their issues if they don’t want to?

Posted by John Dalton on August 13, 2008

+ How do you get someone to look at their issues if they don’t want to? - November - 05

Dear John,

I am enjoying your profoundly irreverent letters very much.
I think you are a naughty man.

I have a patient for lower back pain.  She also has many
emotional conflicts and issues within her.  She shows no
interest in addressing these issues.  The opposite in fact.

Here is my question.
Is it possible to invoke someone to address their issues if they
don’t want to?

Kind regards.

N. V.
Singapore.

P.S. Be nice.

>>>MY COMMENTS:

Cute . .

When someone first comes to me for treatment, after the
initial, ‘Hello’, and ‘Take a seat.’ etc.  The first question I ask is,
‘What can I do for you?’
and then I shut up,
and wait.
Whatever their answer is, is what they are asking me to help
them with.

‘No kidding Sherlock.’

That may sound obvious but it’s surprising how many
therapist don’t get it.  From the sounds of it, you might be one
of  them.  [That's me being nice, in case you missed that too.]

Whatever they answer to question, ‘What can I do for you?’

‘I want to sleep better.’
‘I want the headaches to stop.’
‘I want to stop attracting the wrong man/woman.’
‘I want to stop feeling so anxious.’
‘I want to get rid of my fibromyalgia’

It goes to form what I think of as a contract between us.  It
forms the boundaries within which I work and a declaration on
their part of what they want assistance with.

Let’s say someone asks me to help them with a very physical
problem and while treating them, I palpate lots of emotional
disharmonies.  If the emotional disharmonies are NOT causing
the particular physical symptoms I have been asked to help
with, then it would be very bad juju for me to try and start
working on the emotional issues.

First and foremost it’s disrespectful.
It’s like passing someone on the street struggling to carry
a new TV into their house.  They ask me to help them carry
the TV into the house with them.  I do this but once inside the
house I get a dose of ‘Queer eye for the straight guy,’ and take it
upon myself to redecorate the hall, stairs and landing
because, ‘Let’s face it, this person has shocking taste!’

Secondly, it’s more efficient to stick to the contract because it
can always be renegotiated in the future.

How come you are able to palpate the emotional issues in the
first place?

You can only ever see what you are shown.

If you stay within the bounds of the contract, it leaves space
for the person to say to you down the track, ‘I think I would
like you to help me deal with my emotional issues.’

It may sound unlikely but it happens.  It’s another form of
trusting that the person will allow you deeper when they feel
safe.  You’re job is not to invoke them to address their issues
but to provide the safest space you can, allowing them to feel
empowered enough to address their issues, if they’re ready to.

‘Am I making it up?’

Posted by John Dalton on July 2, 2008

+ What I feel with my hands, am I making it up? - September 05

Mr Dalton.
I feel I am at a crossroads in my craniosacral
training. I have been studying CST for six months.

I have listened carefully to my trainers.
I have read books on CST. I understand the fluid
mechanics of what is happening, in theory.

When I tune into the system I begin to feel things.

Then I begin to wonder am I feeling the rhythm
because I expect to feel it. I wonder if I am
not imagining the whole thing. What I feel with
my hands is so tenuous that I could very well
be making it up.

My trainers say that the feeling will become
clearer with time and practice.

It has been six months now. While I can feel more
than I could at the beginning it is nowhere
as clear as I expected.

I understand that with your experience and in
your position you have a strong vested interest
in ‘believing’ in what you do.

I would appreciate it if you could answer me as
honestly as possible.

Do we make it up?

Regards.

M.S.

Somerset.

>>>MY COMMENTS

Let me tell you right now, it’s not going
to get any easier.. . .

What you are looking for is a kind of certainty.

Where you put your hands on someone’s body and
it lights up like a Christmas tree and you can
see EVERYTHING, every restriction pattern,
every cause.

And the road to health for that person looking
like a well lit highway.

And all this without that awful squirmy feeling
like you are groping around in the dark not really
sure of anything.

I feel for you, but it’s never going to
happen. There is something about this work that
always keeps you at the limit of yourself.

I’ll explain.

When you started to learn six months ago and you
heard about flexion and extension, it probably
all made sense.

Then you put your hands on someone and you tried
to feel it and all you could feel was NOTHING!

And it felt awful.

You trusted your trainers and you persevered.

As time passed you learned new things like feeling
lesion patterns in the sphenoid or some such
and when you tried to feel them, all you could
feel was NOTHING!

And it felt awful.

You looked forward to the day when you wouldn’t
feel that awful feeling.

You didn’t notice two important things.

1) Your palpatory skill was improving and
changing. You were actually feeling more. When
you were struggling to feel whether the sphenoid
had a flexion or extension lesion, you failed to
notice that you were feeling flexion and extension
with relative ease.

2) The awful feeling wasn’t changing. It was the
same awful feeling six month ago that you are
feeling now.

As good as your palpatory skills get,
as good as your diagnostic skills get,
as good as you perceptive skills get,
you will still have that voice in the back of
your head wondering, ‘Am I making this up?’

Outstanding cranio sacral therapists haven’t
eradicated uncertainty, they have mastered it.

It’s not like you get it sorted and never have
to deal with it again. It’s something that goes
on every time you treat someone. It’s one of the
most difficult aspects of cranio sacral work.

I know all this because I went/go through it myself
and I have seen ALL the people I have trained go
through it in one way or another.

Here’s what I suggest: put the question on hold for
another six months. Make a deal with yourself that
for the next six months you are not going to ask
yourself that question. For the next six months
you are just going to take it that what you are
feeling is true. It’s not forever, its just for six
months.

I’m not talking about kidding yourself.
You need to understand what you are trying to do.
You haven’t been conditioned to think in the way
that you’re trying to think when you do cranial work.

Your neuronal pathways are formed in a different way.

Continually asking yourself if you are making it
up won’t allow new neuronal pathways to form.

We are not MRI machines. This is science, but not as we
know it, Jim.

Asking if we are making it up is a question from
another approach.

Because we are not machines we have the capacity
to go far beyond our own expectations and pull miracles
out of the bag. It also means we have the capacity to
have an off day and get it wrong.

To answer your very specific question.

Do we make it up?

Sometimes.

Mostly in the beginning of training.

With experience, 1-2 years minimum, you can begin to
discern when you are making it up? You can spot it
and in time it too becomes another thing to note,
along with the multitude of other things you are
registering as you work.

‘The rhythm is changing, I wonder what that means?

The patient is feeling sadness, I wonder what that
means? Now they are angry, I wonder what that means?
I just made that bit up, I wonder what that means?
Now they are about to release this bit, I wonder what
that means? The sadness is still there. .’ and so on.

Have a good look at what I’ve written. Talk it out with
people who know you and care about you. Cranio sacral
therapy may not be the thing for you. It doesn’t suit
everyone. There are lots of modalities that offer
much more of the certainty you are looking for.

Having said that, I encourage you to persevere.
The rewards far outweigh the difficulties.

And the weird thing is as you become familiar with
and master uncertainty, it permeates your whole life
and it becomes more . . well . . fluid.

Th2 - Cranio Sacral Treatment

Posted by John Dalton on June 19, 2008

There are two aspects to the process of cranio sacral treatment.
The first is to locate the primary restriction causing the problem.
The second is to encourage this restriction to release.

We use highly refined palpatory skills to perceive areas of restriction.
Palpation is defined as ‘examining by touch’ or ‘listening with the hands’.
It relates to how things feel with your hands.

Rather than pushing or manipulating the body into a set or ‘correct’
position, we use techniques to assist the body to release its own restrictions.
When restrictions are released in this way they are gone for good.
Once a treatment program is complete there are no follow up or maintenance programs.