I was told once that doing bodywork is not the same as meditation. I disagree. I think we are walking on this path of realization by dropping any notions of a differentiation between our spiritual lives and our “normal” life journey. To me they are one and the same. The more attention we can bring to our everyday lives, the more powerful the transformation of reality. The more we can open, the more sensitive we become to our environment. We begin to truly realize the total connection to everything. There are many forms to experience the depths of Stillness that lie within us. And to me they are the “keys to the kingdom”. My belief after 30 years of practice is that the deeper the state we can achieve, the more profound our ability to sense the underlying patterns that are causing imbalances, both physically and emotionally, in our patients’ systems. Or in plain speak, the reason they are lying on our tables. Let’s explore the next step in creating a template to use as your portal.
First of all, it really is important that you have practiced the step prior to this one or your ability to maintain your focus will most likely be hampered. We don’t want to limit or control the experience of our ability to perceive what is happening when we touch someone. These practices begin to dissolve the boundaries between our self-directed world of intention, which has its limits due to ego, and the limitless knowledge that is available to us beyond that. Remember how many times I have said to you, “What would it be like if you didn’t have to know the answers to what you were beholding?” There is a limitless sea of knowledge available to us if we decide to become the new explorers of this vast ocean of information! Remember this, often it’s our own thoughts and beliefs, as well as technique, that limit the conversation between us and our patients! It’s so easy to get stuck on technique! We all have boundaries that have been established in our inner history that can be dissolved and expanded. You just have to practice! It’s just another instrument but, this one is the most important to play! Then you can experience the fullness and mystery of life. Freedom from the prison of past patterns, or as we say in some of the earlier works, the template of the liquid crystalline matrix! The neural pathways grooved deeply into our permeable template can be transmuted. So, by creating new pathways we are able to perceive and receive information that wasn’t available to us before. Our courses are just the beginning of the journey. Remember, I am here to support your evolving knowledge. Ask and you shall receive.
OK, here we go. Next time you work with your client try to focus as much as you can in your lower belly. I know that there are some very advanced practitioners of the work who suggest the heart center. If that has been your focus just try the belly for a few months, and you can always revert back to the heart area. Also, when playing with the various fields, as you have been taught, you can play with the two areas and see which reflects back more insights. But, I would prefer the Tan Tien area for a while. I would like you to play with something I call “ocean breathing.” It is a practice from martial arts that has been around for a long time. Inhale in through every pore of the body and exhale through the pores. Try that for the first initial contact with your clients. In cranial we teach that the first 10-15 minutes can be a total space for observation. The trick will be for you to be aware of the client’s field at the same time you do this ocean breathing technique. It’s as if you are in the ocean and breathing in the chi from the water to survive on.
All these techniques are to bring you into a coherent field with your client’s field. It creates a safe relational place to begin the work. There are no time limits for this. This is a tool to play with and entertain the possibilities. For those who practice Structural Integration only, please email me or ask a question in the comments section and I will share with you how I use these techniques in my Rolfing practice to enhance the work and create a positive outcome.
This technique is great when you are synchronized with flexion and extension. Breathe in and expand on flexion. Exhale through every pore in your body on extension as your body narrows. Like a bellows, in and out. Not big huge breaths, just subtle imaginary breathing. Of course, you can add this to your breathing practice while lying on your back, dissolving tension in your body. Try it!
Just substituting this for a little of the time you spend watching or listening to the depressing news will have a lovely, beneficial effect on your body and mind. Pose the question, “What is going on here”? Do this for any technique of bodywork you use. It moves you out of the mechanical/total knowing modality and into more of the magical mode of doing things. Even a minute of this will make a difference. Don’t push this, just relax and wait. Try it at night before bed and if you have insomnia it might be a helpful practice to fall into deep sleep. You can do it anytime or in anyplace.
Next week I will send off the core practice (literally) that this has all been building towards. Then all the techniques that you have been practicing up to this point will happen naturally, without you thinking about them. And that is the whole point of what I have been sharing with you. How one creates a felt sense of the field that they are palpating and a deeper level of being in a relationship with the Mysterium!
Great, Judah.
This is excellent… thank you!
My pleasure, remember if you have any questions, post them here for everyone
Judah your instructional explanations of these distinguished body work modalities truly puts one in the position to “hear” and “learn” with patience and ease. Beautifully done!
Thanks Ivan for your kind words!
Hello Judah and fellow students,
This might be a bit of a long message. I’ll post it here so as to share my experience and questions.
I’m an Osteopathy student from Portugal. I’ve been studying the mechanical model of CST for a couple of months and have access to the CST course package for the same time. I haven’t practiced all the different holds and exercises so far as I’ve been more concerned with passing the school exams. Even so, I’ve imersed myself in the Biodynamic model since I first heard about it. When I encountered the Lyons Institute website I simply felt it was right.
I was sensing the Cranial Rhythm whenever I worked Cranio-Sacraly. Then, one day I arrived home at 3am after being in a friend’s house. A person in my home was having very strong headaches. I decided to do CST hoping it would help. We ended up in a hold that she felt comfortable with and she asked to stay in this hold. My hands were feeling both the sides of the cranium and the upper part of the neck. I visualized a wide field wth us in the middle (I basically did the exercise Michael Kern recommends in his online lectures about BCST) and all of a sudden, it is difficult to explain but something came over and took control. With my eyes all the time closed all I saw was a river/stream coming my way and getting larger but very slowly… Also, after what felt like a long time it started receding. I understood I was experiencing one of the tides and tried to focus. In a certain way it wasn’t so difficult because I felt it grabbed me. It felt physically like balancing/riding a wave. The experience lasted for 2 and a half cicles.
At a certain point I started loosing focus and started having thoughts. I’m not sure if it was just because of this or if also “it was time” but it slowly “went way” and there was nothing I could do to prevent it. Felt like it had already went away to much and I couldn’t retrieve it. So, as the stream was moving away it got narrower and narrower and turned reddish as it disapeared from the visualization.
During the time the experience lasted I kind of lost the sense of feeling in my hands. I don’t know if I was still touching her head but I think I at least loosened up the touch. I’m not sure as I didn’t risk opening up my eyes. It was all an internal experience. I kind of lost notion of where we were and didn’t feel my body at all. All that existed was that visualization and the feeling.
For her, the experience was completely different. She felt it in her body very much during and after session. She specifically told me about feeling the tide in her legs still after the session. She was also very emotive at the end of the session. She felt pain in her left kidney. She had been having problems with her kidneys for the last year (kidney stones altough she’s only 22 yo) but the symptoms gradually subsided for the last few months. I interpreted what she described in her kidney as the Inherent Treatment Protocol happening in her system.
We were both very touched by the experience and the next day we felt a natural high. The feeling had carried on… It’s funny that I had a problem with a certain person in my family the day before and I was completely unable to be upset by this time :).
We both knew we experienced something different that we ever experienced. During the last expansion fase (when it was disappearing) I counted slowly to 17. The other expansions fases lasted longer and I’m now confident it was the Long Tide we experienced. I thought it was going to take much longer to experience this and I’m so glad it happened. Thank you Judah for making this material available! It is truly a blessing.
Some observations and questions:
– I thought that experiencing the tides would be similar to both practicioner and patient but it was very much not the case.
-The next sessions (3 or 4) were made with both the last patient and another person. I was eager to experience the Long Tide again… It happened every session but was SO different from the first time… Completely different really. It varied in intensity but didn’t get to be such a deep experience. I still felt a bit of the Magic but never got transported to another place like that first experience. I think I wanted it too much and my efforts to relax were not successful. One session I accidently also felt the Mid Tide.
-Is it normal for the experience of the Long Tide to vary so much?
-The last CST session I decided not to try to sense the Long Tide and it was also beautifull!
I think this time I experienced what I understand to be the Holistic Shift although I’m not sure if this is what it is referred to.
As I relaxed and tried to go into Neutral and relaxed, I started to have the visualization of myself as sort of a “balloon” shape with a golden color around. My friend was another balloon but not golden. I sensed his field relaxing his vibration and truly shifting as it kind of “shaked” and then went into ressonance and also became golden on the outside. After that, we were on the same “vibration” and I felt like his whole body was levitating in my hands…
-I’ve only now watched the lesson on the Mid TIde and Long Tide. I’ll practice in order all the holds and practice going into the Mid Tide first.
-The people with whom I practice CST/BCST are changing in their psychology. The way they behave and their general atittude towards life is more grounded and positive. What a blessing this work is. Not long ago I thought I wanted to specialize in HVLA manipulations. I am now in love with Biodynamic Cranio-Sacral Therapy. This is now what I want the focus of my practice to be.
Thank you once again Judah 🙂
All the best in your practice for all the students/practicioners of this work
Great work! The most important thing is not to seek the Long Tide just listen to the system, reflect for the system. The long tide is not always available to you and seeking it sometimes gets in the way which I think you probably experienced. It also varies greatly between person and person. It’s all about the field resonance and the field that you’re holding and projecting. But it sounds like you’re making great progress and experiencing the joy and the beauty of the work that keeps us all on the path. It’s those experiences of mysticism that enliven us and carry us with the light emanating with this work!