In the ongoing debate about whether our conscience is the ‘ghost in the machine”or a mere illusion, I lean towards the phenomenologists’ view that “the sensing body is not a programmed machine but an active and open form, continually improvising its relation to things and the world.”(The Spell of the Sensuous, David Abram, 1996)
The hierarchy set by Descartes in the 17th century placed human kind alone as a thinking intelligent machine above any other being considered mindless ‘things’ (animals, plants, minerals…). This mindset presided over a progressive but thorough destruction of entire habitats, the exploitation and gradual disappearance of the Earth’s limited mineral resources and the extinction of millions of other living species. This mind-led dichotomy resulted in a profound disconnect between human kind and its living, breathing, teeming environment.
No wonder so many people confess to feeling lost and ‘blue’, experiencing a kind of angst and malaise, a ‘mal etre’(literally an ill being in French) when it comes to finding meaning and cohesion in their lives. And it is no surprise either that depressions and mental disorders are at an all time high.
We are born in a second womb called Mother Earth yet we have ruptured our sense of belonging to this Earth, we are aliens on our own planet and unaware of its, and our, vibrant aliveness. We have set ourselves apart as a species in the chaotically stunning symphony of life and the living on Earth.
As David Abram asks in his stupendous treatise, the Spell of the Sensuous: “ Does the human intellect, or “reason”, really spring us from our inherence in the depths of this wild proliferation of forms? Or on the contrary, is the human intellect rooted in, and secretly borne by, our forgotten contact with the multiple nonhuman shapes that surround us?”
We are slowly grasping the extent of and attempting to stop this unobstructed pillaging, this reckless march to a point of no return.
We are asking questions and finding ways to reconnect and be present to Mother Earth.
The missing link is this essential need (because it is so inherently natural) for us to be woven into the living fabric surround us. Who we are as a people is where we are and how we are with one another and our environment in the present moment. Everything and every living being resonate and speak to our senses all the time on this planet.
Instead of opening our senses to this resounding web, we have dissociated from it, floating away from the Earth's vulnerable wonders with our separated selves.
Biodynamic craniosacral therapy is a non-dual therapy, it is deeply connected and connecting. As a practitioner I hold the space for a gradual but definite reweaving and enlivening of each client’s ecosystem.
One of them mentioned how she felt I had “unlocked” her. Another spoke of a “reset”. I have also heard the words “waves’, “flux” and “currents” in testimonies during or after a cranio session.
I have felt them too, these powerful expressions of health and reconnection and this is one of the many reasons I love this therapy: it is a witnessing of what internally unfolds and engages with life at a very deep level. It is a profound act of presence to Life's Intelligence.
It is when our bodies are in sync, balanced, energised, our inner potency and aliveness at their optimum that we can be present to who we are and what's around us. It is then that, no longer dissociated, we become more aware of how sensuous and sensitive we are. This can be frightening of course as in so doing we connect with our very own vulnerability. As practitioners we facilitate this process progressively ensuring that our and our client's resources can support these internal shifts and releases.
Craniosacral therapy works at its best when the client and the practitioner are well resourced, feeling supported and safe.
As our system slows down, we are more relaxed and with each new session we can perceive more fully with all our senses and truly open to the universe within and around us.
“If the body were truly a set of closed of predetermined mechanisms, it could never come into genuine contact with anything outside of itself, could never perceive anything really new, could never be genuinely startled or surprised. (…) could we even call them experiences? For is not experience, or more precisely, perception, the constant thwarting of such closure?” (The Spell of the Sensuous, David Abram)
Cranio sacral work, among other alternative healing modalities, helps us to "thwart" "closure" and live better, healthier lives because we are more whole, we resonate harmoniously within and with what surrounds us.
As we are more in tune with our own true nature and state of being in the present moment, we are also more attuned to the natural environment around us. The threads are rewoven and we are again part of the greater tapestry of the living.
When we reconnect with Nature we become more resourced, more supported and as a result we feel more at peace and less agitated, less affected by the many stresses in our daily lives. A greater sense of belonging pervades our being. Our tendency to dissociate lessens. We are in harmony within and without.
It takes time and practice to be present to ourselves and the environment around us and it can be painful and overwhelming too but just like Joanna Macy’s The Work that Reconnects, it is, I feel, an essential act and one of the most beautiful gifts to our lives on this planet today.
I wish you a lovely time breathing and feeling your own and Nature's sensuousness.
