January  18 – 2007

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ Talking during treatment.
+ How the face reflects the cranial rhythm.
+ Why is the ventricular system so important?

Hello,

Let me just put my Hula Hoop down for a second
so I can talk to you.  You don’t Hula?
Why, it’s the latest re-fad.  You know, a fad
that makes a comeback.

In America, “hip hooping” classes, videos and
Hoopster clothing lines are springing up across
the country. Beyonce and Charlize Theron are huge
fans.  They are always pestering me to join them
at hip hooping class.

I can see I’m wasting my time talking to you
about this.  You just want to hear about cranio.

Fair enough, let’s get on with the mailbag.

***QUESTION***

Dear John,

Thank you for your newsletters they are wonderful.

Here is my question.
I would like to get some of my patients more
involved in their process when we are working
together but I don’t want to do a full somato-
emotional release type thing with them.
Do you have any suggestions for an intermediary
type approach I could do?

Thanks again.
PR.
California.

MY COMMENTS:

Okey dokey.  Here’s something you can do.

Once the person is on the table and you are
settling in and chit chatting and generally
entraining with them.

No, not entertaining them, I said ENTRAINING
with them. Now take that clown suit off and lets
get back to the session.

Tell the person that you are going to do
something a bit different this week.  Keep your
tone light.

Take up a contact that allows you a good sense
of the whole cranio sacral system.  Ask the person
to close their eyes and begin to see themselves
shrinking on the inside until they are small
enough to walk around, inside the structures of
their body.

Whenever you are talking with a patient choose
your words carefully.  I used the word ‘see’ on
purpose.   ‘I want you to see yourself shrinking
on the inside until you are small enough to be
able to walk around inside the structure of your
body.’

Don’t say visualise or imagine as I have found
these words can short circuit the process before
it even gets started.

Why?

Well, because some people are convinced they
have no imagination and others have tried
visualisation before and are, ‘just no good at
it.’

Start off with a relatively restriction free
area.  Ask the person to describe what it looks
like.  Get them to describe the area in as much
detail as possible.  Encourage them to tell you
what they see, even though they may be inhibited
by their lack of anatomical knowledge.

They can shrink themselves to whatever size
they need to be to pass between structures or see
something in detail.  Ask them if everything looks
okay in the area.  If it is, move on to another
area, one where you sense a restriction, though
you don’t need to tell them you think it is
restricted.

If they tell you that everything is NOT okay in
an area, ask them to describe what it is that
looks unnatural.  Encourage them to be as specific
as possible.  You may need to move your hands
closer to the area they are describing.

Ask them what needs to happen for the area to
return to a more natural state.

Wait for their answer.

If they are having difficulty seeing a way to
correct the situation you can suggest solutions to
them using the symbols they have communicated to
you. Make full use of their size in the area.

They can climb in between bones and push them
apart.  They can pull and push things with their
hands in very specific ways. You can suggest
little tools that may help them, but avoid
frightening tools like hammers and saws etc.

You can suggest light beam machines to warm
cold areas.  Ice guns for cold.  Muscle oil
aerosol cans for tight or stiff muscles and so on.

All the time you will be monitoring and
following the changes they are making on the
inside with your hands.

This is generally an enjoyable technique for
you and the person.  It seldom has a huge
emotional aspect and is particularly good with
patients who are very out of touch with their
feelings.

Most people don’t find it threatening and are
amused by what they find in their bodies. They can
be surprised at the clarity of the images they
see. This is because the following of your hands
enables the person to see more clearly the
restriction in their bodies.

This technique is a very useful way to involve
the person and use their attention as an extension
of yours, to check things out and correct them
from the inside.

As you get more experience with it you will get
a sense of who this technique is appropriate for.
It is a good introduction for other forms of
therapeutic conversation which you may intend to
use in future treatment sessions with the person.

***QUESTION***

Dear John,
I am currently studying the face and the way it
moves with the cranial rhythm.  Frankly I find it
confusing and hard to remember.

I’m hopping you have some little analogy or trick
for making it a bit clearer.

Yours Sincerely.

KS.
Canada.

MY COMMENTS:

Before I get into the face I need to quickly
run through flexion and extension in the cranium.

Think of the cranium as a balloon.

During extension the balloon narrows and
elongates and during flexion it expands and
becomes squat.  Long and thin in extension, short
and squat in flexion.

To understand the way the face moves with the
cranial rhythm, take the balloon and add a small
box.  Attach it to the balloon roughly where the
face hangs off the cranium.

Now, lets look at how the box moves with the
balloon.

In extension the balloon will become long and
thin.  The box will arc inferiorly and narrow as
the whole balloon elongates

During flexion the balloon will become short
and squat.  The box will arc superiorly and
broaden as the balloon shortens and broadens.

So what does this feel like in practice?

Sit at the head of the person.  With their
permission, place your hands on their face, thumbs
on their forehead and fingers on their mandible.

During flexion you will feel your thumbs and
fingers move closer together while in extension
they will move further apart.

Once you get this overall movement you can work
out the specifics of each bone relatively easily.

Here are some other things to consider.  The
mandible and the frontal bone moving towards each
other in flexion could put stress on the bones of
the face but this compressive movement is
naturally absorbed by the orbits.

This makes the orbits particularly vulnerable
to any restriction patterns present in the face or
cranium, especially the posterior aspect of the
orbit.

Certain bones of the face are designed to
reduce the amplitude of the movement of some of
the larger bones they articulate with. These bones
are the palatines, the zygomae, the vomer and the
ethmoid.

You can think of them like ‘washers’ between
two larger bones.  William Sutherland called these
bones the ‘speed reducers’ but they do not
actually reduce the frequency of the rhythm, they
reduce the amount of movement or amplitude.  So a
40 micron movement of the frontal can be reduced
to a 10 micron movement in the Zygomae. [Remember
a sheet of writing paper is 100 microns thick.]

***QUESTION***

Hi John,
I am being repeatedly told that the ventricles are
very important but I am not sure why.  I have
asked this question of my tutors repeatedly but
never got a satisfactory answer.

I would be grateful to hear your explanation.
Thanking you in anticipation.
PB
South Africa

MY COMMENTS:

It may be easier for you to think of the whole
system in terms of plumbing, which it is in a way.
It’s a very important and significant plumbing
system.

The ventricular system, is a collection of
cavities and canals deep within the brain and
spinal cord. It consists of 4 ventricles connected
by various channels.  It always looks to me like a
model of a space ship.  Think Star Trek.

The four ventricles are made up of the 2
lateral Ventricles located within the two cerebral
hemispheres, each of which connect via an inter-
ventricular foramen to the 3rd ventricle which is
located between the two thalami of the brain.

The 3rd ventricle connects inferiorly through
the cerebral aqueduct (or aqueduct of Sylvius as
you will see it in some books) to the 4th
ventricle which is located between the cerebellum,
posteriorly and the pons and medulla, anteriorly.

The 4th ventricle continues inferiorly as the
central canal passing down the centre of the
spinal cord.

The whole ventricular System is filled with
Cerebrospinal Fluid.

So that’s the plumbing.  Now let’s look at
inlet and outlet valves.

The INLET valves are located in the roof of
each of the four ventricles and are called Choroid
Plexi.  These are filter like structures through
which cerebrospinal fluid is formed as a filtrate
from arterial blood.  Arterial blood enters the
choroid plexi from the cerebral arteries; then
blood cells, proteins and other large particles
are filtered out.  The pure colourless fluid that
filters through this choroid plexi into the
ventricular system is cerebrospinal fluid.

I will get to the outlet valves in a minute.
First I want to focus on something that is very
easy to get confused about.
We know that the membrane system contains
cerebrospinal fluid, right?

Just nod.

And now we have a good idea of how
cerebrospinal fluid enters the ventricular system.
And we also know the ventricular system is
contained within the membrane system.  The thing
is the ventricular system is, for the most part,
closed.
So how does cerebrospinal fluid get out of the
ventricular system into the membrane system?

Very good question.  It all happens in the 4th
ventricle.  In the posterior and lateral walls of
the 4th ventricle there are three foramina,  – the
foramen of Magendie which is in the middle
posteriorly and the 2 foramina of Luschka,
bilaterally.

It is through these 3 foramina that
cerebrospinal fluid passes out into the sub-
arachnoid space where it circulates around the
brain and spinal Cord.

Now back to the OUTLET valves.
Cerebrospinal fluid is eventually returned to
the blood via the Arachnoid Villi which protrude
from the sub-arachnoid space through to the
superior sagittal sinus of the Brain.  It re-joins
the venous blood which then drains from the venous
sinuses via the internal jugular Vein to be
returned to the heart.

So that’s the plumbing, the general flow and
the inlet and outlet valves.   The significance is
that this system is in continuous use which means
it has to be in working order all the time.  If
any one of the valves or canals of foramina are
not working properly the effects are serious.

Just think of the person having a spinal tap.
Only a tiny amount of cerebrospinal fluid is
removed yet the person will have to lie horizontal
for 24 hours to avoid severe headaches.

Also if there is a problem in this system it’s
not like you can just shut it down while repairs
are made.

So that’s it for this issue.

Cheerio for now.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.

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.

September 14 – 2007

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ Follow on comment from last issue from Etienne in Belgium.
+ Link between breast-feeding and CST.
+ Working with the blueprint.
+ CST clinical trials.

Hello,

I was passing a news stand the other day and the
headline ‘Crocs can kill,’ shrieked out at me from
the front page of Britain’s ‘The Sun’ newspaper.
Having lived in Australia for ten years I thought
it had taken a rather a long time for that bit of
obviousness to reach GB and certainly didn’t
warrant a headline.

But it turns out they weren’t talking about
those ridged chompers so beloved of the late Steve
Irwin.
They were talking about the brightly coloured,
perforated clogs adored for their comfort by
doctors and nurses, charged by the fashion police
with crimes against style, and flaunted by
Presidents and pop stars alike eager to capitalise
on their quirky cachet.

The paper reported the banning of the shoes by
some Sheffield hospitals, apparently because of
claims that static electricity generated by Croc-
shod medical staff could knock out vital
equipment.

So that’s what those static electric shocks are
all about.  I just thought everyone was releasing
a lot last week.

Note to self: Don’t wear crocs when
treating again.

Anyhu, I can’t stand around here lollygagging
with you about the pitfalls of being fashionable.
We’ve got a mailbag to get on with so let’s have at it.

***FOLLOW ON COMMENT FROM LAST ISSUE FROM ETIENNE IN BELGIUM***

Hi John,
I stated about the tennis sock  … if their
system can take it … even if you are not crazy
about it, its their system that has the answer !

If you can bring the elderly past their
compensations you will find they are all too happy
to go into babyhood, how do you do that … only
if you drop the idea that they will go
automaticlly into compensation (which they will do
as a defense mechanism, because they do not know
what else to do) , but it is your job not to step
into that pile but via your own system show their
system (in complete silence) how to go beyond the
mind, thats all, of course you have to drop all
prejudice for that, do not forget, knowingly or
unknowingly they are preparing for death … and a
guide out of their cr.p is welcome

There is a very good therapist in St Martin de
Lon… something (South west France) Margo Berr

Have fun,
Etienne

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Etienne,
Thank you for your swift and passionate
response.

I am not wild about the tennis sock thing for
two reasons.

Firstly I think it negates all the years we
spend developing our palpatory skill and learning
about timing and sensitive responding to a persons
system.

I agree that the person’s system has the answer
but there needs to be someone there to hear and
respond to the answer, not an inanimate object.
The person’s system will change in the time
between treatments.  If their system can’t handle
it the tennis sock will give them a headache or an
uncomfortable feeling of pressure.

Secondly.  The people that I treat are by and
large uninterested in natural medicine or
alternative approaches.  I think most of them
would be more than happy if the Doctor was able to
help them.  They only come to see someone like me
because they are desperate.

I am very aware of this and aim to make it as
easy for them as possible because I know that the
really confronting thing will be their having to
take responsibility for their own health.

So I try and minimise the other stuff.  I am
conscious of the environment they will be
returning to and the sort of resistance they may
have to put up with from family and friends.

From a sceptics perspective the tennis sock
thing looks and sounds kooky.  For its benefits,
which I think are minimal at best, compared to the
undermining effects it could have on the person’s
whole process, I don’t think it’s worth it.

As for the elderly, you are right of course.
Having any kind of preconception about how a
treatment is going to go is never good.  Whether
it is that the elderly are like babies and they are
so happy to ride the wave or that they are like
babies that are locked behind 500 layers of
compensation.  We must always treat what we find.

***QUESTION***

Dear John,

I’m contacting you after being very encouraged by
your informative website – particularly the area
on “the top ten causes of trauma”

I have had a very positive experience myself with
Cranio-sacral – jaw work – which helped me to
breastfeed successfully after 18 months of minimal
supply (20ml max)

My problem related to a fractured cheekbone -
where the displaced bone impacted the brain – not
enough to cause brain damage or to stop the
pituitary function, but enough to take away any
room for the gland to swell slightly with greater
need (such as breastfeeding).  The treatment I had
(with the intention of bringing relief to neck and
shoulder pain – not breastfeeding – I’d given up
on that by then) – included jaw work – and worked
to balance a very unstable xyoid process – and
when that balanced – my breast milk flowed like
I’d dreamed for so long (my baby was allergic to
most formulas – hence the repeated pneumonia from
a supposed hypo-allergenic formula).

I have since quizzed Moms who struggled to
breastfeed in my practice – most of them had some
kind of serious trauma to the head or spine in
their lifetime.

Considering the vital importance of breastfeeding,
it might be so beneficial to have some kind of
research project done on this one day…. do you
have any idea who could do it /how this might be
done?  Should I contact Upledger directly?

Kind regards,
C
South Africa.

MY COMMENTS:

Hello C,
Thank you for your feedback about my website.
I’m glad you found it helpful.

In my practice I don’t think I have ever had a
mother come for treatment specifically for help
with breast milk production.

Improvements in breast milk supply have usually
come in the way you have described it, a happy
secondary bonus but not as the main focus of
treatment.

I never really thought of it as a specific
problem that could benefit from cranio sacral
treatment until I received your email.  But once
you say it, it’s obvious.  I will add it to the
list of conditions that can be helped with cranio
sacral therapy on my websites.

I agree with you that it is an important area
and I am sure the Upledger Institute would be
interested in your idea

http://www.upledger.com/

as would the Craniosacral Association of South
Africa http://www.cranial.za.org/
and possibly Le Leche League http://www.llli.org/

I will include your letter in my cranio sacral
therapist and student newsletter and pass on any
enquiries or feedback I receive.

***QUESTION***

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
Australia

MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for the feedback J, 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
blueprint 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.

***QUESTION***

Hi John
Thank you very much for your newsletters and all
the wonderful info.
It was really exciting to read about Harvard
Medical School’s dept of psychiatry including CST
in their continuing education programme.
Hopefully this leads the way for other schools to
do the same. Do you know of any others?

My question today is how do you answer:
patients
medical practitioners
the public
who ask you for scientific evidence to support the
effectiveness of CST?

Yours sincerely,

John Rosen.
South Africa

MY COMMENTS:

Hello John,
Thank you for the feedback it means a lot to
me.  I don’t know of any other medical schools
including cranio sacral in their curriculum as yet
but I will let you know if I hear of any.

Scientific evidence to support the
effectiveness of cranio sacral therapy is pretty
thin on the ground.  There is a lot of what is
called anecdotal evidence, which is basically
people saying it is good or helpful or wonderful,
but not a lot of hard scientific evidence.

One of the reasons for this is the difficulty
of applying the normal scientific testing
procedures to cranio sacral treatment.  They say
it is hard to do the usual double blind
experiment.
In a drug trial the test group is divided in
half.  One half is given the test drug and the
other half, called the control group, is given a
sugar pill.  The people undergoing the test don’t
know which group they are in.

The amount of improvement is measured in the
two groups and if the drug is effective there will
be a substantial improvement in the group that
received the test drug.

The difficulty with applying this model of
testing to cranio sacral treatment is with the
control group.  Their contention being that once
you know how to do cranio you can’t not do it and
so provide a viable neutral group.

This has never made sense to me because I’m
sure you could show non-cranio sacral therapists
how to place their hands at different places on a
person’s body to affect the appearance of giving a
cranio sacral session.

My knowledge of this area is quite limited so
there is probably more to it than that.

I’ve never had a lot of faith in medical trials
to begin with but particularly so after what
happened with the medical trial carried out on the
Buteko method of breathing.

Buteko is a method of breathing that was
developed in Russia.  It is very effective with
Asthma.  There was a large, well organised
clinical trial held at the Mater Hospital in
Brisbane in 1995.  The trial showed that the
Buteko method demonstrated a 90% improvement rate.
This is an excellent result for a clinical trial.
Most drugs are doing well if they get a 50%
improvement.

For some reason the results of the trial got
delayed.  When they were finally released it was
10 years after the trial had been carried out.
The results were deemed invalid because the
testing methods were obsolete.

Do Doctors and Scientists think cranio sacral
therapy is valid?  By and large, the official
answer is no and I think we are partly to blame
for that ourselves.  The combination of in-
fighting between schools and approaches, the
dilution of the therapy to the level of adjunct to
massage in parts of the world and a unilateral
lack of good assessment of students.

All of which have led to some pretty shocking
people calling themselves cranio sacral
therapists.  As you might have noticed John I am a
passionate advocate of cranio sacral therapy yet
even I am very cautious about referring people to
cranio sacral therapists I don’t know.

So not very helpful I’m afraid John but let me
ask the gang.

- O -

Do you know of any trials or Scientific evidence
to support the effectiveness of cranio sacral therapy?

That’s it for this issue. Cheerio for now.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.

April 4 – 2009

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ Special report from Mary Hegarty in Cape Town on autism.
+ Any results with tinnitus?
+ Treating children on Ritalin.
+ Working with the sphenoid.

Hello,
Apparently there are as many creatures on your
body as there are people on Earth. Feel free to
use that one at your next dinner party. Here is
the video to back it up. I wanted to call it,
‘Your Micro-organisms and You.’ but the makers
weren’t that keen.

If you are interested in developing ‘Virtuoso Touch’
have a read of Jesse Arana’s article on palpation.
He is a big fan of John Upledger. If that doesn’t
put you off too much he has some interesting
perspectives and observations.

In fact it was Jesse who let me know about Casa BESU
in Portabelo, Panama. This is an initiative by 4 cranio
sacral therapists to bring cranio sacral treatment and
training to the local community in Portabelo. It is a
great project and fits right in with my vision for
Open Source Cranio.

And while we’re on the subject of inspiring people,
get your tissues ready and have a look at this video of
Nick Vujicic who faces obstacles I can’t even imagine
every day of his life. His message is great,
‘It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.’

Stanford University has launched a video series from
7 of its faculty members in the fields of neuroscience,
bioengineering, brain imaging and psychology.
I haven’t had a chance to look at them all yet but
the ones I have seen are interesting.

My Masterclass DVD series is coming along nicely.
I have put a 10 minute video compilation of extracts
from it on this page.
You can also sign up for a Review Edition or an advance
copy there too.

Before we get into the mailbag here is a special report
from Mary Hegarty on work she was doing with a boy
diagnosed with autism in Cape Town.

***SPECIAL REPORT FROM MARY HEGARTY IN CAPE TOWN***

Alpha School Case Report: The Boy with the Pencil
August 2007

The week ends with a bang on Friday as we enter the
Alpha School for Learners with Autism! Noise abounds,
footsteps echo off high ceilings and stairwells; pots
and pans clang and clatter in the kitchen; raised voices
reverberate greetings and admonitions, songs and laughter,
tears and tantrums.

Among the 65 days students, who are predominantly boys
between the ages of 5 and 18, most (85%) come from
disadvantaged homes. What all have in common is autism.
The spectrum is pretty wide. Some can language, read,
and count; others do not speak. Some have a
‘high functioning’ label, while others need help
with basics, even the toilet.

Our CST outreach program focuses on children under 12.
Teachers and their aides are a tremendous resource,
generously sharing information about what happens in
the classroom and on the playground when we are not there.

This is R’s story, ‘a lethargic boy with a dislike of
gross motor activity,’ as described in a 2005 psych
report. Back then he was often anxious and tearful
on the school bus, becoming sullen upon arriving at
school. He might scream for up to 20 minutes at a
stretch twice a day. He would hit himself during
tantrums on the floor.

At home, bedtime was problematic. R would often lay
awake for three hours before falling asleep at 11pm.
He could dress and undress and use the toilet. He
was not fond of sharing. He was able to use scissors
and a pencil. He would examine objects obsessively.
I met R in November 2005, when he was 9 years old,
and began working with him in the classroom. While
his teacher read a story, I supported R’s right kidney.

He would not allow contact with two hands. After the
story R wanted to go home, though when I asked
permission he said I could come back to see him.
Soon after the 2006 school year began, R’s teacher
said that his tantrums had stopped and he was
showing a marked improvement.

I met with his parents in February and explained CST
to them. They were keen for R to continue in the
program. By this time, R was allowing more contact
for longer periods during CST sessions. I could hold
his liver and kidney areas with no fuss, though he
continued to be less enthusiastic about cranial
contact when I tried to hold his frontal bone,
sphenoid and parietals.

Early in March 2006, R came to school very charged.
That day he refused treatment, saying ‘GO AWAY!
Not today!’ Not to be deterred, I sat beside him
briefly, offering verbal support without physical
contact. I promised to return in a week’s time.

The next few days would bring a devastating loss to
R and his family. On the evening of R’s 10th birthday
his dad was struck by a taxi and killed instantly
while riding his bike home from work.

The following Friday, R did not want me or CST, but
his teacher insisted. A classmate supportively held
R’s hand and accompanied us to the OT room. There R
leaned against me and stared blankly at the colourful
posters hanging on the wall. Moving onto a big red
physio ball, I gathered him into my lap, rocking
gently. My hands made a sandwich of his mid-thoracic
spine and his heart/solar plexus.

After 20 minutes, we joined his classmates on the
playground. He sank onto the picnic bench, leaned
against me and cried. Another 20 minutes passed
and R gazed skyward, lifted his arms and became very
agitated. We walked back to the classroom, where he
began to settle.

We enjoyed a couple of good sessions before the
winter holidays, but by the time Term 3 began,
R’s tantrums had begun again. Concerned, his
classroom teacher, the school psychologist and
I paid a home visit to the humble cinderblock
cottage bordering the airport, where we listened
for two hours to his mom’s non-stop story. It was
clear that the entire family was in crisis.
I was just a volunteer practitioner working with
one family member. That would have to be enough.
Since that home visit, I created a routine when
working with R. I announce my arrival at school
to R and ask his permission to return in a while.

For the next year and a half, on good days I would
sit beside R and watch him draw (he’s becoming
quite the artist!). If I’m lucky he allows contact
somewhere on his back for a brief period, and in
rare circumstances on the cranial vault. I ask
about his family. On a not-so-good day, R tells me
to go away! On those days I sit beside him without
touching… but I DO NOT GO AWAY!!!

When R’s class was invited to join in an art
program at a nearby school, R refused to participate,
even though he loves to draw. In his collapsed world,
venturing into unknown waters is too threatening.

On a rainy Friday in August 2007, I arrived on time
to see R’s classmates filing into the media room to
watch a video. R had stayed behind in the classroom
to draw on his own. His teacher said R did not sleep
the night before. I pulled up a chair and remarked
that he must be exhausted. It was just the two of us,
the room was quiet. R wore a track suit made with
slippery fabric, and I decided to try massaging his
back, neck, shoulders and arms. No protest. For the
next 35 minutes, bent over his desk, R surrendered to
cranio sacral therapy… cranium, spine, sacrum.
At one point he relaxed the grip on his best friend,
the pencil, melting into the moment. The silence
was exquisite. When I left I whispered a promise to
return next week. I’ll be there!

The following is a poem I wrote this year inspired by R…

*Kwansaba: Curious Boy with the Pencil
Curious Boy grips the pencil too tight
his silent friend during dark feral nights
these days nights last all day long
taxi smashed bicycle… dada’s dead and gone
guns shoot outside, mummy’s on her knees
pencil draws blue sky, happy birds &bees
bad lines rubbed out before anybody sees

Mary Hegarty
24 January 2009

*KwanSaba is a cross-cultural poetic form dedicated
to Kwanzaa. Each poem addresses one of the seven
principles of Kwanzaa: Umoja (unity); Kujichagulia
(self-determination); Ujima (collective responsibility);
Ujamaa (cooperative economics); Nia (purpose);
Kuumba (creativity); and Imani (faith), and consists
of seven lines of seven words each. Every word used
contains no more than seven letters.

MY COMMENTS:

Great report Mary. As always I am so impressed
with the work you and your fellow therapists are
doing in South Africa. Well done.

***FORUM QUESTION***

Has anyone had any long term success treating
Tinnitus? I treated a long term sufferer and it
was gone within 20 minutes but came back that
afternoon, two further sessions have shown no relief.
Karen
Australia

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Karen,
I have had good success treating tinnitus and its
big brother menieres disease. Here is a case history
of a woman I treated with menieres in Brisbane in 1997.

Not all cases of tinnitus will respond to cranio
sacral work but I have found that it is easy enough
to identify these cases in the initial assessment.

A common thing I have found in people with tinnitus
is their membrane systems are very tight. They often
feel to me like their membrane system is a half size
too small for their body.

This can be throughout the whole membrane system or
just in specific parts of it.

Why this causes the tinnitus has to do with the
sensitivity of the ear drums to vibration. Let me
explain. If you were standing in the corner of a
room whispering and I was standing in the opposite
corner trying to listen, the 3 little bones in my
ear – ossicles – that connect to my eardrum would be
moving a couple of microns.

Remember a sheet of writing paper is 100 microns
thick so a movement of a couple of microns is tiny.

When a membrane system is very tight it can feel
like an over-tightened guitar string that is
reverberating.
This minute vibration is what causes the occicles
to vibrate minutely and this tiny movement is what
causes the noise – tinnitus.

I have found that as the membrane system begins
to ease the tinnitus diminishes.

Because you got a positive result the first time
you treated the person it means the tinnitus is
being caused by restrictions in the person’s
system. I suggest you go through your case
history notes to see what you worked on in that
first session.

Something you did will have caused the symptoms
to diminish. It is possibly something small you
didn’t register as being part of the primary
lesion. It may not fit your idea of what is wrong.

For example, you may have done an ear pull
in the first session and felt a good release. In the
subsequent 2 treatments you may have done ear pulls
also.
What you may have forgotten is that you did
some work on the sacrum in that initial session
but because there was an improvement in symptoms
and you got such a significant release with the
ear pull, you may have neglected the sacrum work.

Of course I’m not saying that is what happened.
I am offering it as a possibility.

***QUESTION***

Hi John,
I recently treated a teenager with ADHD who has been
on Ritalin since about age 6. While I’ve treated kids
with variations on the condition before, this is the
first time I’ve come across a system influenced by
Ritalin. It felt to me like a massive dose of caffeine,
but it seemed to reverberate outside as well as inside
the system, which is a new experience for me. It felt
like treating two systems at once. Any comments or
experiences with Ritalin to report?
Keep up the great work.
Joseph McGuire
Ireland

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Joseph,
I’ve had quite a bit of experience with kids on
Ritalin and the many other drugs that are prescribed
for ‘difficult’ kids. Here is a case history of
one such child I treated in Brisbane in 2004.

Ritalin has a particularly strong effect on the
system because it is, well, a really strong drug.
If it was administered intravenously it would have
the same ‘hit’ as cocaine.

That’s not just folksy hearsay, Ritalin actually
has the same pharmacological profile as cocaine.

So when you make contact with a system that has been
distorted with Ritalin for a long time you can feel
all sorts of strange resonances, counter currents,
compensations, rhythm echos and the sort of feeling
you were describing.

The way to work with it is the same as working
with any drug. You treat as much as you can see
through the haze the drug causes in the person’s
system.
When the symptoms improve and under the guidance
of the prescribing Doctor, the medication is reduced.

With less medication, more of the restriciton
pattern will reveal itself. You continue treatment-
symptoms improve – medication is further reduced
and so on.
Eventually there is no medication and no symptoms.

Happy days.

If you want to read more about the effects of
Ritalin there is a good little article reproduced
from ‘The Observer’ on the South African Institute
of Cranial Studies website here.

***QUESTION***

Dear John!
I hope you don’t mind me asking you a question,
concerning cranio-sacral. I just had a young female
patient here, for cranio, she had a spine-operation
6 months ago. And as I tried the lateral strain, the
whole structures became somewhat swirly and blurry…
and I had no idea what to do – haven’t felt this before
(ok, some swirls are ok, but this was totally blurry…
it felt as if the whole head swam in my hands)… so I
just tried to hold on, until it got a bit calmer.
Have you ever experienced something like this?
What is your opinion, what to do in a case like this?

Lots of greetings,
Iva
Croatia

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Iva,
I am happy to answer your questions and I’m glad to
see cranio sacral is flourishing in Croatia.

Based on what you have written about trying the
lateral strain, I am going to assume you were working
with the woman’s sphenoid when this ‘blurry-ness’
happened.

This could be for a number of reasons. Firstly
you were working with the sphenoid. William Sutherland,
the grand daddy of our work, was fascinated with
the sphenoid and considered it to be the ‘master cog’
in one of his his mechanical models of cranial bone
motion.

I can understand why he was so into it as I have
found the sphenoid to have a very strong energetic
signature and can have a significant effect on the
whole cranium and the rest of the body.

The first time I experienced this I was working
someone in a standard kind of treatment situation.
Quiet room, eyes closed. We were about half way
through the session. I had been at the person’s
head for about 10 minutes and focusing on the
sphenoid for about 5.

Suddenly it felt like the sphenoid just lit up.
The superior surface reminded me of a console on a
space ship or something like that, with colored
flashing lights turning on and off in sequence.

I had to open my eyes to check the person’s head
wasn’t glowing. It wasn’t. They were lying with
their eyes closed, deeply relaxed – they may have
even been asleep.

Inside their head everything was gang busters.
It felt like there was a brass band going off
in there.
As I observed the ‘lights’ on the sphenoid I
began to get the feeling that there was an order
and a pattern to the way they were flashing
and moving.
Them it began to dawn on me that there was a
progression to what was happening almost like some
kind of program running.

It went on like this for about 5 minutes and
then as abruptly as it started, it just stopped.
All the lights went out and the sphenoid settled
back into a very smooth and solid rhythm.

When the person returned the following week they
reported a significant improvement in their
symptoms.

I have had similar kinds of experiences with
lots of different peoples sphenoids since.

Being a science fiction fan it’s no surprise
that my brain translated what I was feeling in that
person’s sphenoid in terms of space ship consoles
and flashing lights.
In your case, it sounds like, your brain
translated what you were feeling as ‘blurry-ness’
and that swimming feeling in your hands.

The significant thing is that something important
was happening in the woman’s system. Over time
you may find that you experience the same kind of
thing with more people.

In my experience bodies are capable of the most
amazing and from our perspective, shocking, things.
I have been treating people for 15 years and I am
still coming across new responses.

The responses may be new but the feeling of being
taken by surprise is the same. Over time I have
learned to become familiar with that feeling of
being shocked and surprised by a new response.
From what you have written it sounds like you
are on the way to doing that too.

You said you held on until it ‘got a bit calmer’
I suggest you held on until YOU got a bit calmer.
Because that is what I have found works best in
dealing with new responses, not getting pulled
into them.
If you can get a bit of distance from what is
happening you can see that the persons body is
taking advantage of your support and is getting
on with it. It just happens to be in a way that
you haven’t seen before.

Lastly I would wonder how the spinal surgery fits
into all this? Was it involved in the sphenoid
resettling you described? Was trauma from the
surgery working itself out and you were feeling this
from the sphenoid or was the sphenoid involved more
directly?
I have come accross a few cases of trauma arising
from the positions people were put in or rough
handling during surgery that had nothing to do
with the actual surgery itself.

So that’s it for this issue.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.

+ Working with the blueprint. – September 07

Hi John
Thanks so much for your continuing newsletter and the great tipsand humour.
I have a double question.
It’s often a lonely place at the coalface and I seem to have peoplecome 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 were 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.