For many people coming to Craniosacral Therapy is a bit of an enigma. The therapist puts his or her hands gently on the head or body and, quite mysteriously, something happens. It may be a sense of deep relaxation or strong sensations, as if something inside has awoken and is moving through the body. Sometimes there are images or memories that come to the surface. Sometimes emotions seem to arise out of nowhere and with a little gentle attention disappear again. Not only this, but health problems often improve or even go away. There may be a sense of well being, of inner spaciousness and peace, where before there was discord and turmoil. Yet the therapist seems to be doing nothing. There is no massaging, manipulating or sticking in of needles, just a very soft, gentle contact. So what is going on here?
The question is not just one that clients ask, it is one that cranial practitioners have been asking ever since an American osteopath, called William Garner Sutherland, became curious about the sutures of the skull, about 100 years ago. His curiosity was aroused by studying the sutures of the cranium – the joints between the bones – they were fashioned in such a way as to suggest that they were designed to accommodate movement. No such movement was known about at the time and, indeed, the general consensus was that the sutures were fused and did not allow movement to occur. So the questions first began with Dr. Sutherland studying sutures and asking himself ‘what is going on here?’
New Discoveries.
Over the next 50 years or so as Dr. Sutherland developed the ‘cranial concept’ he found answers to his questions, but with each new answer another question arose. As he developed the work he ceased talking just about bones, sutures, membranes and fluids, but was referring to ‘primary respiration’, ‘the Breath of Life’, ‘liquid light’ and a ‘potency’ with ‘Intelligence’ (Dr. Sutherland always stressed the capital ‘I’) at work in the human system. Not only this, but he was finding the less he interfered and the more he became still and listened deeply to the way this ‘Intelligence’ was working, the more happened. Again and again the question came – ‘what is going on here?’
What Dr. Sutherland was in contact with is nothing esoteric or supernatural. What he is describing is a life-force that animates the tissues and fluids of the body, generating subtle rhythmic motion and adapting creatively to the challenges of life. But what is this life-force and why is it not recognised by conventional medicine? What is going on here?
Let us take a moment to leave Dr. Sutherland and his enquiry and be curious about why modern Western medicine does not recognise this life-force, whilst almost every other culture and every other time in human history, has acknowledged and worked with it. Mainstream science, going back to the time of Isaac Newton, has described the universe as being like a great big machine that is slowly running down. There is no creative force at work in nature – just a big cosmic accident and its repercussions. Those repercussions include you and I and everything around us. Modern medicine developed out of this ‘mechanistic’ science, hence we too are seen essentially as machines that need to be repaired every now and then when we become damaged or faulty.
However, this mechanistic view of the world has become deeply challenged during the last 100 years, so that today scientists are talking about ‘zero-point energy’ and ‘quantum energy’, describing in their research huge fields of potential energy that are continually interacting with the physical world as we know it. Essentially they are describing what Dr. Sutherland was feeling through his fingers and describing as the ‘Breath of Life’ – a creative and potent energy that moves through all nature and can be utilised for healing in the human system by practitioners who are trained to work with it. Modern medicine has simply not caught up yet, but is still entrenched in mechanistic concepts that are quickly becoming outdated.
The Breath of Life Conference.
The work has continued to develop since Dr. Sutherland died. It has ceased to be practised just by osteopaths and, as Craniosacral Therapy, has adapted to include an awareness of the way that emotional issues effect our bodies and trauma can become held at a cellular level by the body. In the UK the ‘Breath of Life Conference’ is a regular event held by and for Craniosacral Therapists.
Recent speakers have included scientists, researching fields of consciousness
(‘morphogenic fields’) in nature and ‘liquid light’ operating within organisms as a form of internal communication. Experts in trauma from the USA, leading psychotherapists, natural birth and infant research pioneers, and others, including the head of school of Tibetan Buddhism, have spoken at the conference.
That so many experts in such diverse disciplines come together at a Craniosacral Therapy conference gives some indication of the depth and breadth of the modality that Craniosacral Therapy has become. So, with all the developments which have occurred since Dr. Sutherland first began examining sutures, and with so many people now practicing and benefiting from Craniosacral Therapy, have we got all the answers yet? I’m afraid not – or maybe I should say happily not – for although we know a lot more than we used to, Craniosacral Therapy continues to throw up as many questions as it answers. For me this is part of the joy of the work – to be part of a pioneering profession that is open to the mystery of life, which does not claim to have it all sown up. So when clients ask me ‘what is going on’ when I put my hands on them I am able to give some answers, but I am also happy to add, when we touch into the mystery ‘maybe we can find out together’. For if Craniosacral Therapy is a pioneering therapy, then our clients are pioneering with us.
Matthew Appleton RCST June 2005