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The red logo at the top of the page is from a picture of the sphenoid and occiput bones forming the sphenobasilar junction (SBJ). These bones form a large part of the base of the skull. The big hole you can see is where the spinal cord enters the cranial cavity. The SBJ is an almost mythical place in the history of cranial work. It is the organising fulcrum for all the movements of the cranial bones. It is an important midline organising centre for all the expressions of primary respiration. That means that the SBJ often compensates and holds patterns due to the experiences and conditional forces that the person has undergone. Being skillful in orienting to the SBJ is a key skill in cranial work. It took me many years to feel comfortable to make a clear contact at the SBJ. The clearest impression I notice these days is health is expressed as the sphenoid diving forward on inhale and a sense of anterior posterior space at the SBJ.
We submitted the second draft of the book at the start of January. Just over 100000 words and 79 pictures in the end. Never mind the quality, feel the width. The art took forever and lots of late nights over the new year. We are pleased with the pictures however. We are currently waiting for feedback from the publishers, Jessica Kingsley Publishers (www.jkp.com). We received the foreword from Franklyn Sills, good news, so all the bits are in place. The publication date is now july for the UK and august for USA.
The whole body takes part in primary respiration. There is a filling and widening on the inhale phase, the opposite on exhale. The picture opposite also shows how the limbs roll out and roll in. It is very simple, but when you feel this subtle rhythm clearly expressing in a body, people tend to be healthier and in less pain. A limb, or any part of the body, that is restricted in its movement is a sign of conditional forces being held in the system. In treatment we orient to qualities of absence or fixation or tightness all the time, when they ease it is a very good indicator of change.
The science around mirror neurons is very exciting. It appears perception involves a mimicking of what is around us within our internal environment. If we see a beautiful dancer dancing, our brain is reproducing what we are seeing in the brain’s motor areas, causing physiological responses within our own bodies. Our bodies model and feel the dancer’s movements. Here is V.S Ramachandran from a recent ted.com talk:
‘But a subset of them will fire even when I watch somebody else being touched in the same location. So, here again you have neurons which are enrolled in empathy. Now, the question then arises: If I simply watch another person being touched, why do I not get confused and literally feel that touch sensation merely by watching somebody being touched? I mean, I empathize with that person but I don’t literally feel the touch. Well, that’s because you’ve got receptors in your skin, touch and pain receptors, going back into your brain and saying don’t worry, you’re not being touched. So, empathize, by all means, with the other person. but do not actually experience the touch otherwise you’ll get confused and muddled.
Okay, so there is a feedback signal that vetos the signal of the mirror neuron preventing you from consciously experiencing that touch. But if you remove the arm, you simply anesthetize my arm, so you put an injection into my arm, anesthetize the brachial plexus, so the arm is numb, and there is no sensations coming in, if I now watch you being touched, I literally feel it in my hand. In other words, you have dissolved the barrier between you and other human beings. So, I call them Gandhi neurons, or empathy neurons.
And this is not in some abstract metaphorical sense, all that’s separating you from him, from the other person, is your skin. Remove the skin, you experience that person’s touch in your mind. You’ve dissolved the barrier between you and other human beings. And this, of course is the basis of much of Eastern philosophy, And that is there is no real independent self, aloof from other human beings, inspecting the world, inspecting other people. You are in fact, connected not just via Facebook, and Internet, you’re actually quite literally connected by your neurons. And there is whole chains of neurons around this room, talking to each other. And there is no real distinctiveness of your consciousness from somebody else’s consciousness.’
Click here for the TED.com talk by V.S Ramachandran
Mirror neurons help us understand that perception is an embodied, visceral experience. By learning to be more aware of our own responses we can become more sensitive to what is happening in other peoples bodies. Mirror neurons show us that we have the ability to internally model what they are doing.
Steve Haines
Ged Sumner
