Biodynamic Touch: Energy & Spirit
At the most basic level of life we have found that energetic particles are the fundamental building blocks for all material forms. Energy particles and the empty space in between those particles compose the formation of matter, the most tangible expressions of the physical world. Seeing life from this (scientific) vantage point one can acknowledge that when engaging with the physical form we are engaged with energy in its vastly varied manifestations.
One may say that the skeletal system is the most dense collection of energy molecules in the human form. Bone is actually quite porous but for the sake of example we can say that bone falls on the ‘more dense’ end of the spectrum of a linear line that attempts to depict a comparison of the most dense collection of energy particles on one end of a spectrum and those that are ‘less dense’ and more ‘subtle’ in wave shape formation on the other end. On the other end of the spectrum opposite of bone we may place the auric field of the human body, an aspect of the human form of a lesser density. Further along this spectrum we reach to the limitless space of which all matter is connected.
Spirit is all inclusive in a similar way that energy is all inclusive.
Speaking about Spirit is challenging because it hits on our belief system buttons. Giving spirit definition also in some way confines it to an absolute that is defined by and contained within the world of language. It then becomes a construct of mind rather than the all pervasive Presence that gives rise to life and to form.
We could say that spirit is that which animates life. Some translate spirit as consciousness. Others may highlight spirit as that which imbues Nature with an innate intelligence that governs the natural rhythms of birth, healing, death and decay. The term spirit speaks to us of other worlds, worlds which we cannot see but can imagine. To imagine is to utilize the mind of Spirit. Utilizing the mind of Spirit we are able to construct our world. We take from the formless to build and shape life into forms.
How does a seed know to become a tree?
Nature is imbued with an intelligence that guides its course. The seed doesn’t need to wish to become a tree. It cannot help but become what Nature has already placed inside itself to become. Again, some may say that Spirit is that which animates life- a force that is within and around all things everywhere all at once.
Biodynamic Cranial Therapy as “energy work”
At the most basic and fundamental level of life, all is energy. Therefore the practitioner that is engage in working with the human form is simultaneously engaged with working with matter and energy. Thus, it is safe to say that practitioners of this work are indeed engaged in a practice of ‘energy work’. They are working the chi, the life force energy, of the body. The work is simultaneously energetic and physical, how could it not be so considering science tells us we are both physical and energetic in our make up. Matter is energy condensed therefore when working with the physical, the most dense, we are also engaging the energetic particles that comprise the density of matter that is being engaged with while we work.
There is a vast array of schools of thought pondering and deciding what it means to practice energy work and just as vast numbers of schools of thought that employee to teach people how to practice by such means. Some of these schools of thought apply methods that encourage the will of the practitioners to be actively engaged in attempting to morph and change the ways in which the energy body is composed. Student practitioners are encouraged to pull out and put in energies, to stand separate from those they are working on behalf of while acting as an outside force impacting change as they see fit.
In some shamanic cultures there is concept that has been given the name of the “hallow bone”. The hallow bone refers to a way in which the healing practitioner, the medicine person, the helper, is working with others. As the hallow bone, the practitioner is present and connected to life within and around themselves and to the life within and around those they are working with. From this place of connection they allow the forces of nature to direct the course. There is an alignment of Wills. A reciprocity of power. United on all fronts, the force of life enacts to aid in the change that is most necessary in that moment while in a process of relationship. (“Relationship” here is a verb- an action, To Be in relationship) The practitioner does not disengage from the physical but instead roots deeply to the embodied essence while also being available to the most subtle expressions of Life. “Life” here represents All that is, stretching beyond the limiting duality of what is defined as life and death.
It is not uncommon to hear stories from seasoned practitioners working in the world as healing artists of varied modalities, stories that speak to the process of traversing the spectrum of Will. First the engagement of the willful practitioner is given to the process of learning how to employ a specific skill set. Trying, forcing, effecting and then, something happens. The personal will becomes fatigued and surrenders. In this surrendering, space is made for life force creative to move in and better support the process that is underway. The practitioner wakes up to, re-imagines, a new way to work. A new way to be in relationship. This new way is akin to the Hallow Bone.
Seasoned practitioners, our teachers, and those who innately practice in this way, will tell you that eventually “we learn to get out of the way”. What does that mean for the practitioner to get out of the way for the healing to happen? Words can only point the way.
In the process of learning a new skill set it is advantageous of the student to collect information and experience, to upload data into the formatting system so that it can be accessed for the function it is intended to be used for. At some point in the practice, in the running of this program, the system begins to no longer rely on the collector of data to force upon the moment what it remembers. Instead the presence of the practitioner opens the doorway to a process that comes alive to the moment, unencumbered by yesterdays happenings while still being informed by the storehouse of capacity that has been built to respond to the moment. It is a process of learning and forgetting all that you think you know so that what you don’t already know has room to reach you and teach you what you don’t already know.
The grandfather of Osteopathy knew how to work in this way, to be the hallow bone. He knew of life intelligence, the spirit that animates life. He knew to allow himself the process of coming to know, to expand his knowledge and to also allow space for the Great Mystery to continue to inform his life, his work. The work of Craniosacral therapy born from the work of A.T. Still, weaves together a tapestry of healing arts. Being an art form, its expression and interpretation is subjective.
What we are doing when engaged in the practice is engaging with Life, working the Chi, the life force energy, and uniting with Spirit- life intelligence, consciousness. Working biodynamically we become the hallow bone- grounded in this physical world, connected with all that is here and beyond and available for life as it is here now.
Our embodiment becomes an additional resource for life to interact with Life in an ever evolving process of change and transformation. The practitioner of this work is changed by this work just as much, if not more so, then those acting as recipients of the work. How could they not. Engaging with the intelligence alive in the body of others engages us with the intelligence alive in Nature, the force which is also the same life force intelligence alive within ourselves.
The enactment of human life is cosmic. The spectrum from the subtlest to most dense is not linear nor is it static. Everything, Everywhere All-at-Once.
We, as practitioners, invite life to re-arrange itself.
Touching on the particles of matter, waves of change emerge and transmit new potential for a continuum of evolution.
Trust the process.
In the center of duality there is a place of neutrality. Within that central place exists a key.
This key unlocks the heart of our greatest wish- to Be in Our Humanity.