S · John Chitty, RPP, RCST® This is an ... dreams, hopes, and prayers about the experience. This...

Autumn / Winter 2004

w w w . c r a n i o s a c r a l t h e r a p y . o r g

ALSO IN THIS

ISSUE...

Letter from the EditorSarajo Berman, RCST®

President’s MessageSherry Phillips, RCST®

2005 Breath of Life - UKConference Announcement London, England

Non-Session SessionSarajo Berman, RCST®

To Franklyn...with Gratitude

CSTA/NA Committee Reports

Letter to the Editor

Book ReviewThe Ontogenetic Basis ofHuman Anatomy - ABiodynamic Approach toDevelopment from Conceptionto Birth

Web SitingsJohn Chitty, RPP, RCST®

This is an attempt to open up a debate onCraniosacral therapy and the levels of awarenessfrom which we approach the work. I am hoping thatthis small article will be a precursor to a bigger piecethat I intend to deliver to first, the UK Breath of Lifeconference in November this year, and thenexpanded again to the Conference in Boulder,Colorado in September 2005.

We commonly refer to levels such as Body, Mind,and Spirit. I guess we all, as proud or ashamedowners, have a pretty good idea of what we mean byBody.

We all also have an interpretation of what we meanby Mind, although there will be less consensus onthe meaning and extent of this.

I suspect, however, that thinking on what is Spiritwill be much vaguer. So with Craniosacral therapy.Some will see it simply as a very non-invasive bodywork. Some will realise and experience that thework addresses mental and emotional problems;relationships and mood. Others again will sense,sometimes, a magic in the outcomes of a cranialsession both for the client and indeed for themselvesand ask themselves where that came from.

I want to explore the limits of the extent to whichthe model of Craniosacral therapy can lead, notonly to the healing of a symptom but also, andmuch deeper, to a fullness of life which transcendsmedicine as we popularly understand that word. Toa state of human ordinariness, that is who we reallyare, so much more profound than the pathologisedcondition that we live in and have accepted as beingour nature.

It is not our nature but is, rather, an accumulationof undigested life experiences.

First a word about models: Buddhism, Christianity,Judaism, Philosophy, Psychology, and indeedCraniosacral therapy are all models. They are not it.Any of them is only it, when it becomes anexperience at a deep level. In the meantime we aretalking about theories, models, thoughts, opinions,dreams, hopes, and prayers about the experience.This is a pretty dogmatic statement and I hatedogma, so I will modify by adding, in the opinion ofmany people whose judgement I respect.

The next piece of dogma that I hate, so it carries thesame modification, is that the deepest levels (I shallexpand on this elsewhere) are formless and are notsubject to the intellect, which like thoughts andemotions, never mind the body itself, are alreadyform. We could call these levels the Spirit, theuniversal that comes into individual and infinitevariety of form. I often refer to this as Intelligence,the Intelligence, as differentiated from one of itsproducts, which is the personal Intellect.

Let us not confuse the Spirit, which I see as beingabsolute, whether expressed or imminent, with theSoul; which I see as being personal and anotherproduct of the infinite Spirit.

To touch, to become the Intelligence itself, even fora moment, is to touch that which causes formationand can lead to rebirth, in the present, right now,back into form that may no longer carry theaccumulations of disempowering life experiencereferred to above.

Medicine, in general, may be said to be linear andNewtonian, all that happened had a definite causeand gave rise to a definite effect (Capra). That is tosay, the world was a clockwork. Tick leadsinexorably to tock.

continued on page 2

pirit Level is not just a Carpenter’s ToolBy Mike Boxhall, RCST®, FCSTS

• autumn / winter 2004 • Cranial Wave

In the last thirty years, or so, the decisive change has been to recognise thatnature is relentlessly nonlinear (Stewart). What does that mean? It means,in my interpretation, that we cannot just use our intellects to rationalisesequences of cause and effect, or diagnosis and prognosis and remedy, ifwe are to reach levels of being other than those subject to the lawsgoverning small bodies, i.e., relatively uncomplicated bodies. That in turnmeans that the structure, the form of the human being is subject, perhaps,to linear interpretation, but that the Infinite aspects are not.

Ants and bees have individual intelligence - not very big - the same creatureshave a large group intelligence which allows them to do extraordinary things.

There are laws governing small things and there are laws governing bigthings. When we have finished dissecting small things and irreduciblyarrive at the no thing, we have arrived at the biggest thing of all, TheIntelligence. The Infinite.

When the human intellect, which is a small thing, wrestles with themeaning of the Big Thing, it arrives at a point where it is trying to beseparate from Infinity. This is a Tautology. The intellect whilst it is separatefrom Intelligence itself has reached its limit. To go further, it must give upits separateness, let go and become its own cause. There is no extrapolationfrom the infinite.

I am the Tide.

The story of Adam and Eve, is the story of gaining Individuality and losingunity. Unity with the Infinite.

It is the experience of some of us that if we are prepared to accept theultimate and terrifying loss of individual self-awareness, it becomespossible to become the Spirit, Intelligence, The Tide itself. Terrifyingbecause, again by definition, we cannot know that. There is only the void,which is not an object, just an experience of no thing, with no form untilwe return to relative awareness. There is, of course, no terror in the void,that is in the letting go, the falling off the cliff. There is no pain, or pleasureor sickness either, there is no life experience, which causes all thesephenomena. There are, shock/horror, no boundaries. They have not comeinto existence yet. There is just void.

If we forget about this journey being linear, but rather a journey into thevery heart of who we are, then it may be seen that the possibility ofemergence into the relative carries with it the possibility of not carryingwith us the pathology which is from a linear projection, whether from thepast or to the future.

I do not believe in miracles. I do believe that trauma, of whatever nature,is an accumulation of past or future events. Under every pathology, and allthe events that led to that pathology, is a present health.

Let us work with the health, which is the core, rather than the pathology,which is in a sense peripheral. I shall discuss elsewhere how to do that.

Human beings have individual intelligence, it tends to get called intellect.They also have group Intelligence (sometimes of an unfortunate ordestructive nature). What human beings seem to have that is differentfrom ants, is the ability to be aware of these attributes rather than just bereactive to them. There is only a very small other genetic difference.

There are hierarchies of Intelligence. A human being has a pretty good ideahow a rabbit breeds. I don’t believe a rabbit has any idea how a humanbeing breeds. I don’t believe it even asks the question, though the rabbit is

of course aware of the human and may well regard it as hostile or friendlyaccording to its linear experience.

Spirit is formless to the senses, although, in my model, it is the ultimateground of the senses. Use the word Intelligence if you prefer. The intellectis aware of the word Spirit but it can only realise it by becoming it.

The intellect is, however, a product of Intelligence as I have suggestedabove, so, when we become Spirit, that is to say, become our own cause ,we are no longer, in that moment, we.

I am trying to say that the deepest, causal levels of being are not within thescope of the ego or personal anything. They are an experience, not aconcept. Where does the ego go? Nowhere, it is there but the awareness isnot.

By extension, at the level of this Intelligence or Spirit, where is thepathology, where is the Craniosacral Therapy, where is Medicine, wheream I? There, but not in awareness.

In that instant which is now, without linear past or future, they have notcome into form yet. This is at an absolute level, perhaps. At a more relativelevel the computer has opened a new page without closing the oneunderneath. You may know the other page is underneath but until youclose the upper page, you can’t prove that. There is no experience. It istheory.

TRUST THE TIDE

The Tide goes deep and deeper still.

Witness.

I do not hold, it has gone on.

Witness.

Here the pain. Not me to fix.

Witness.

Ever deeper, where now the pain?

Witness.

All doing done, who holds

who is held?

Awareness.

The void

Still in the Ocean,

the unformed stirs.

Dark meets light and incarnates.

You and I are we. It was ever thus.

Where now the loss?

Because Craniosacral therapy is grounded in the body, it is an ideal model,a jumping-off point, for contacting the Mind and the Spirit. The last, onlyby using the body as something to be let go of.

continued on page 4

“Spirit Level is not just a Carpenter’s Tool” continued from page 1

Cranial Wave • autumn / winter 2004 • page 3

I would like to share with you a number of thingsthat have come my way which I sense/feel speaksto a biodynamic way of life. This sharing is basedupon my deepening realization that joint practiceis with us at every moment of our existence andthat we tune in and out of the practice throughoutour day. I can only speak for myself, but since Iconsciously began to slow my life down (probablyconsidered by many as a rather subversive thing todo in these times) my sensory perceptions areclearer and perceived more fully.

The first thing I would like to share with you is areconnecting that some of the folks in myfoundation class recently had. One of myclassmates wrote an e-mail about her experiencerunning as a form of meditation - how she ran inher woods passing deer and other wildlife andwatched them grow from winter babies to younganimals. She shared with us an observation aboutherself. As she was running she would focus onher breath noticing that she held her breath a lotof the time. And then one day she realized, whilerunning she diverted her eye gaze quite often, asshe does with people, not being able to makecontact. She then focused straight ahead andwhen she did this her breathing became regular,she could actually feel her breath in her body,began to feel in balance and her running becameeffortless. However, she stated that it was veryhard for her to maintain her focus straight ahead.She thought perhaps there might be a glitch in thematrix and asked for comments. From this e-mailcame stories from others. All these stories seemedto resonate with this perceptual shifting as a resultof some everyday relationship with themselves,others, the environment, or an object. I reallyappreciated this reconnection and/or deepeningentanglement. I felt like I was part of abiodynamic community.

The next thing I would like to share is myexperience during this month’s Primarywave, July11, at 1:00 EST. I sense/feel this experience was acontinuation of the reconnection e-mail. First ofall, this experience came out of sheer instinct.

I was drawn outside from my house to myhammock. I sat there for a moment or two andthen dropped into a comfortable horizontalposition. I began to settle into the environmentand myself. Before I knew it, I felt a tide coming atme from the other side of my pond; my dogs cameto lie down, one under the hammock and theother to the side of the hammock, and then Irealized that my geese had come away from thepond to quietly sit with us as well. Stillness

permeated everything, it seemed, and out of thisstillness I perceived a circular motion comingfrom the west to the east, seemingly lastingforever. In the midst of this tide was the sense thatother people were present and all of us were beingheld with great affection. My eyes welled up and asmile came to my face. I felt in harmony and had nodifferentiation between my body and my space. Allwas effortless. I don’t remember much else, butwhen I left the hammock to go inside my house Inoticed the clock. It was 1:52 pm. EST. You see, Ididn’t cognitively go to the hammock for the jointpractice of Primarywave - I was drawn there.Actually, I had forgotten it was the second Sunday ofthe month, which is the day for the joint practice ofPrimarywave. Perhaps since I’ve been coming intorelationship with this joint practice, my body, heart,and health knew it was time.

You are probably wondering the point of mywords, or indeed if there is a point. My point istwofold: creating a biodynamic life, and cominginto relationship with a biodynamic community. Iam very interested in these two processes helpingthe development of a healthy biodynamiccommunity - one which holds the whole of thewhole and which is the parts of its whole. Aschairperson of the RCST® committee, I’vewitnessed our community growing monthly. Isense/feel it is important for us all to be in jointpractice with our community in whatever form ittakes. We are all part of the same community bythe nature of what we do. The gist of another e-mail I received this month was that this workteaches the wholeness of life and theinterconnectedness of all and that it would beparadoxical if we chose to practice the workwithout connection to the community. She wasreferring to a need to build community or at leastrecognize that we do not practice in isolation.

Many of my biodynamic colleagues have said thatthey were drawn to this work. And so I ask you: Asmany of us have been drawn to this joint practice,how do you breathe into your joint practicewithin your lives after graduation, or while takingan advanced class? How do you come intorelationship with joint practice during yourday/week/month? What is your experience withthe biodynamic community? How do you seeyour community connection and your jointpractice taking form? The Cranial Wave wouldlove to hear from you. �

Sarajo Berman , RCST®

“Cranial Wave” is published two timesper year by the Craniosacral TherapyAssociation of North America(CSTA/NA).

Contributions, including advertising,articles, illustrations, and photos, arewelcome.Submissions for publicationare due six weeks prior to productionas follows: January 15th for Spring/Summer and June 15th for Autumn/Winter. “Cranial Wave” is notresponsible for return of submissionsunless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

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Editorial TeamLynn Warschauer

Sarajo Berman, RCST®

Sherry Phillips, RCST®

John Chitty, RPP, RCST®

Mike Boxhall, RCST®

Michael Kern, DO, RCST®, MICrA, ND

Design & Production Laurie Copeland, RPP

Inzane Visual Communications Inc.

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etter from the EditorL


As the Buddha said, enlightenment is in the body.The body is ultimately light. Is, is the presenttense. In means not somewhere else (Here, now)and the body is here right now and present, it isnot a theory. It is an experience.

The joint practice of all time and all experience isright here and now, unfolding from the core tothe edge of the Universe and beyond. Theimplicate and the explicate in unending dance.

Physics might just as well be looking for thebeginning of time in here as out there.

To touch someone else from Stillness is tobecome a fulcrum for that Stillness to be touchedin the other, whether it comes into their awarenessor not. To then sink into emptiness is to touch theemptiness, not just of the other person, but theemptiness. The client’s awareness may be at amuch more physical level but the intelligence istouched at a profound level and I would not saythat healing is caused but that the core health isremembered.

My experience is that the relatively surface, ego-based life experience may appear to hang on but a

gateway for change has opened. A change not justin the client but in her whole experiential field.Family, friends etc, etc.

Working with a group of people can have evenmore far-reaching effects, as each separateorganism is touching into the one and the samesource and there are increased avenues/cross-references for joint practice.

To summarise

Craniosacral therapy can be a model for work atall levels. I can make no judgement about the levelat which people choose to work. That would be asinvidious as asking which of the Buddha bodies Iprefer. The Nirmanakaya or the Sambhogakayaor the Dharmakaya, this for those who studythese things. They coexist but you can only studyand talk ABOUT the Dharmakaya. That is not it.You have to become IT.

Please work where you are drawn to work and youwill attract clients who want to work with you.Enter into it fully. Schauberger said,“a watercourseshould never be regulated from its banks, but fromwithin, from the flowing content itself.” �

“Spirit Level is not just a Carpenter’s Tool” continued from page 1

CONFERENCE FACILITATORS:

Michael Kern - international teacher of BiodynamicCraniosacral Therapy and author of 'Wisdom In TheBody - The Craniosacral Approach To Essential Health'.

John Wilks - chair of the Craniosacral TherapyAssociation UK, chair of the Cranial Forum and directorof 'Therapy Training'.

Cost - UK£160 (if paid by March 31st 2005)or UK£180 (if paid after March 31st)

For details and booking form:Tel: 44-1225-869309Email: [email protected]: www.conference2005.co.uk

2005 BREATH OFLIFE CONFERENCE LONDON, ENGLANDMAY 28TH & 29TH

FEATURING:

Gerda Boyesen - clinical psychologist, Reichian Analyst,founder of Biodynamic Psychology and Psychotherapyand author of several books.

Mike Boxhall - acupuncturist, craniosacral therapistand international teacher of ‘Working With Insecurity’and ‘Working With Spirit’ seminars.

H. H. the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa - supreme head ofthe Drukpa school of Tibetan Buddhism and one of theleading Buddhist masters of our time.

Hugh Milne - international teacher of 'VisionaryCraniosacral Therapy' and author of ‘The Heart ofListening Vols. 1 & 2’.

Dr Marshall Rosenberg - psychologist and developer of'Nonviolent Communication', author of the best-sellingbook of same name.

Babette Rothschild - pioneer of ‘Somatic TraumaTherapy’ and author of ‘The Body Remembers: ThePsychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment’.

Dr Michael Shea - leading teacher of BiodynamicCraniosacral Therapy, author of ‘Somatic Psychology’and ‘Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy - A Primer’.

To the Editor, Cranial Wave:

My name is Edwin Nothnagel and I am aCSTA/NA member who graduatedDecember 2003 from the BiodynamicCraniosacral Therapy foundation programin Siler City, NC. I have an interest inworking with people with autism and wouldlike to ask the membership what theirexperience has been working with autism.

Thank you for any help you can give.

Sincerely, Edwin Nothnagel, RCST®

In response please submit your Articles & Lettersto “Cranial Wave” c/o Lynn Warschauer [email protected] or by mail to7711 NE 175th Street, B-210,Kenmore, Washington USA 98028

to the EditorLetter


resident’s MessagePI recently was curious about the definition thatthe world gives to biodynamic so I got out mydictionary. The definition that Webster’s givesfor biodynamic is “the activities of livingorganisms”. As I sat thinking about this I realizedwhat a vast domain this encompasses. It mademe aware of the birds outside my window, themusic of my wind chimes, my dog panting fromthe heat, my cats chasing each other down thestairs, the leaves of the palm trees rustling withthe breeze and the gecko hiding behind mycomputer.

Narrowing my perception to my own body Inotice the beating of my heart, the firmness ofthe chair against my back, my bare feet on thecool tile floor and the breeze tickling the hairs onmy arms. I am also aware of the thoughtsbouncing around my body as I investigate whichto grab as I write this. The feeling I am left withis that this is a truly dynamic, stimulating andfascinating word. And yet, to understand thatthis term is a defining term for what we do leftme feeling that it isn’t enough. By defining it welimit it.

That brought my thoughts to the challenge andinsecurity I face when people inquire about myprofession. My friend, Mike Boxhall, says wework “on the Spirit through the body”. This sitswell with me because in my view the Spirit is allencompassing and yet greater than even that.

It is the Spirit that allows me to take that stepinto the abyss without any obvious security orguarantee of success. When I enter into a sessionI have complete trust that whatever happens isthe perfect circumstance. I have to let go of whatI know because if I don’t I limit that session andits inspirational and healing capacities. Somepeople have a hard time with this. They want amore concrete answer about what happened tothem. Of course, when I cannot answer thatquestion they ask it in a different way. When itcomes back round to them again, they are once

again stuck. These are the people I love to hearfrom in a day or a week or a month. “You know,that pain I had is no longer here.”

Of course, I do not always hear this. I also haveclients that love this work yet still are not makingthe progress they expect. I don’t know what tosay to these people either. That brings me back tothe insecurity piece in myself. One thing I amfinding is that the more I accept the insecurityand acknowledge it, the bigger blessing itbecomes. I find that it is my opportunity to besupported by Spirit.

In the past I have had great difficulty with someof these thoughts. I remember as a newcraniosacral therapist I really wanted to get it“right”. I wanted to have the right hand holdsand the right answers and most of all I wanted toexperience the Breath of Life. What I found iswhat John Lennon said, “Life is what happenswhile you are making other plans.” While I washolding on to all of these “wants”, Spirit wasworking with me to let go of them. I finallystarted to grasp the notion that had brought meto this work in the first place. My thought wasthat the deeper I went the more healing therewould be. Only the deeper I went was withinmyself, not the client. The depth that wasreached with the client was because of the workwith myself.

So as I sit here in the sub-tropics aware of someof the biodynamic activity in my surroundingsand acknowledging the relationship I now havewith the Breath of Life, it makes me appreciatethe depth and the breadth of this work that we alldo. I realize that I got so much more than I everwanted from this work. It also makes meunderstand that there are no accidents - onlyopportunities to dance in a bigger universe. �

Sherry Phillips, RCST®

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Non-Session SessionBy Sarajo Berman, RCST®

There I was boarding a small aircraft from St. Louis to South Bend. It wasa dreary day with a light glistening rain. Everything was as usual, the folksboarding the plane with me were a typical range of citizens. Nothingseemed out of the ordinary. There was a sense of calm and comfort.

Then the attendant started her rap. Well, things shifted. She was a little likeWhoopi, a little like Ellen, and a little like Billy Crystal. The plane was filledwith laughter. I just know she was trying out her new stand-up material forsome comedy club in Chicago. Anyway, we settled down and began ourapproach for take-off. The unevenness of the runway gave us a predictablerhythm and sound to follow as we gathered speed for takeoff. The enginesroared as they can only on a 27-seat, 2-propeller aircraft.

Once we were in the air, the ground vanished and we were in a thick, moistcloud that seemed endless. The captain put the seat belt sign back on andsignaled something to the attendant with 4 bells. That was the last we sawor heard from her. Within 50 seconds the plane was rising and fallingwithout warning. There was no sense of being held. I was tracking myautonomic nervous system (A.N.S.) along with those seated directly nextto me. It was obvious primary respiration was needed.

I resourced myself and began to drop into my primary respiration, holdingthe intention of calmness. Time began to slow and there was a sense ofmorphing. It was as though the space that held the plane were in a creationmorphology. I felt the presence of a corrosion field (a sense of dissolvingand shape-changing) and a distusion field (a sense of shearing). Then thepropellers and engines sounded as though they could neither catch the airnor handle the directional change in the air currents. It sounded as thoughsomeone were choking and couldn't find the balance between inhalationand exhalation. There was a moment of dipping into a diagonal and thesense of flying sideways.

It was at this moment that time stood still so that I might remember whatan incredible life I had and to send my love to those that mean the most tome. Yes, I thought we were indeed, at that moment, called to become partof nature’s movement. And then I thought of the slime mold film, themoment at which two fields would either merge or keep their separatenesswithin the whole. My heart was full and my sympathetic nervous systemkicked in. I took a conscious deep breath, felt a body surge and a rush offluids reaching into my feet via my coccyx and ischia. I was grounded forwhatever was to come.

About two lifetimes later, 15 minutes later according to flight time, thecaptain announced that we had passed the worst of the storm, but that hewanted us to remain seated with our seat belts on for the rest of the flight.The attendant was also to remain seated until we landed. It wasn't until Iheard my husband’s voice on the cell phone late that night and told him mystory that tears of relief, joy, and fear flowed from my being and the traumabegan to melt out of my body/mind/spirit.

Oh, the gift of having a loving compassionate witness is wondrous. �

The

CSTA/NA MembershipDues payable to CSTA/NA

Graduate $120.00 US / $160.00 Cdn Student $50.00 US / $65.00 CdnAssociate $75.00 US / $100.00 CdnProfessional/Business $250.00 US / $330.00 CdnRCST® Application Fee $150.00 US / $200.00 Cdn

The financial year of CSTA/NA runs from June 1 to May 31. Each year, membersreceive a membership renewal notice. The full fee for the year is payable wheneverthe member joins.

MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES

1. Graduate: A graduate member shall have completed the requiredtraining in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, as currently definedby the Board, and shall have provided proof of graduation to theMembership Chair. A Graduate member shall be entitled to one (1)vote on any election or other matter requiring a membership vote.

2. Student: A student member shall be enrolled in an approvedtraining course with an approved teacher, as currently defined by theBoard, and shall have provided proof of such enrollment to theMembership Chair. Students are offered a free year of membershipin the first year of their training. A Student member shall be entitledto one (1) vote on any election or other matter requiring amembership vote.

3. Associate: An associate member shall be any person with an interestin Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, professional or otherwise, astudent or graduate of any form of Cranial Sacral Therapy, or amember of the general public. An Associate member shall not beentitled to a vote.

4. Corporate/Business: A Corporate/Business member shall be anycompany, association or business, duly registered within itsjurisdiction, that wishes to support the Craniosacral TherapyAssociation of North America. A Corporate/ Business member shallnot be entitled to a vote.

RCST®

1. A one-time RCST® Application fee is IN ADDITION to themembership fee. In order to receive RCST® status, one must be apaid-up member in good standing. As membership is renewed eachyear, the RCST® member receives a sticker to affix to their certificateindicating their status for the current year.

2. An application for RCST® status MUST be accompanied by a copyof the graduation certificate, or if one is not available, a signed notefrom the school or one of the attending teachers.

3. Only practitioners with RCST® status are listed on the website.

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Remember to advise us of Email and Address ChangesWhen our records are not current, members lose many of the benefits of membership.

Contact Membership Chair: Helen Rea, RCST®6 Sussex Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910Email: [email protected] / Phone: 301-587-7478


At the March 2004 meeting of the CSTA/NABoard of Directors, we unanimously agreed toestablish a Lifetime Honorary Membershipcategory. Eligibility for this award requires anindividual to have proven “outstanding serviceand contribution to the profession”. Althoughwe are only six years young, some of ourmembers have been contributing to theformation and development of the Biodynamicmodel of Craniosacral Therapy in NorthAmerica for far longer.

In 1989 Franklyn Sills arrived at the APTA(American Polarity Therapy Association)conference in Murietta, California andpresented his synthesis of Polarity Therapy andOsteopathy to the audience. It was calledCraniosacral Therapy. (Although Franklynstudied Osteopathy for several years, he is notan Osteopath). From all reports, the audiencewas spellbound. Anna Chitty recalls thatFranklyn’s presentation was “literally thebeginning of a whole new life for me. I wasfascinated. It made complete sense. I knew I wasgoing to teach this work.”

John Chitty estimates that there were over 100people in the room, including present-dayteachers Mary Louise Muller, Kathleen Morrow,Elizabeth Hammond, Anna Chitty, SharonPorter and himself. Kathleen had tried to resistattending the presentation, having experiencedthe painful and disorienting results of havinghad her sphenoid forced into a shear earlier inthe year in a cranial class. However, asFranklyn’s was the only presentation that day,she begrudgingly went, and reports: “Within tenminutes I was on the edge of my chair. This wasdifferent. This was what I had hoped to find inthe other class! My ‘truth bumps’ were going offall over the place. The room kept swelling withpeople... standing room only. I was so excited Icould hardly contain myself.”

Sharon Porter remembers that she lovedFranklyn’s adventurous style at the APTAconference. “He didn’t hold back. He exposedus to one amazing thing after another. He drewus all in: to want to study the work.”

Shortly after the APTA conference, Mary Louiseand Christopher Muller brought Franklyn backto Murietta for a series of classes. Fifteen yearslater, one person I spoke with remembers athree-day training, another remembers it as a

three-week training of five days each week, anda third as a series of three three-day workshopsover about a week and a half. Regardless, it wasa continuation of what was begun at the APTAconference.

Sharon recalls assisting Franklyn for one or twosegments of the three-part course he taught. Shereports: “Franklyn did some really cool thingsaround conception and implantation that I havenever seen him do since. Some of it was reallyprofound. He also took us through all the tidallayers he had learned to palpate. This wasstriking for me, because as a TA in anotherbranch of CST I was feeling slower tides, butcould get no confirmation from the teachers. Iwas left to think that there was somethingwrong with my palpation skills, or that I wasjust plain crazy. When Franklyn described andhelped us find the slower tides I was in heaven.My whole world came together in a moment”.

Kathleen Morrow recalls the first two-yearcourse sponsored by the Mullers. Short of fundsand her family in the process of moving toColorado, it looked as though it would beimpossible for her to participate, but with thehelp and persistence of her family, she joinedAnna Chitty with then-little Lizzie Chitty intow, driving across country in the Chitty’s oldgray station wagon for two years, listening tobooks on tape, to complete the course. RayCastellino and Claire Dolby were Franklyn’sTAs. Besides Kathleen and Anna, currentteachers who attended that eight-moduletraining include Scott Zamurut, Peggy ReynoldsOlsen, Anne Herrick, Mary Louise andChristopher Muller, and Elizabeth Hammond.

Franklyn conducted two more foundationtrainings in North America: one of ninemodules in Boston from 1995–1998, the other,ten modules, in Boulder from 1998–2002,extended because of 9/11 which caused a delayof the final module for one year before thegroup could re-assemble. TAs in these trainingsincluded such familiar names as Mary Louiseand Christopher, Anna and John, Kathleen,Anne, Elizabeth, Peggy, Scott, Cindy Rawlinson,Roger Gilchrist, Debra Bochinski andBernardine Tomko.

Somewhere in the archives is a video of that firstday… perhaps we could show it at the 2005conference. Those of us who have been familiar

with the work for more than a couple of yearsare aware of how much it has evolved over avery short time. Watching Franklyn at work in1989 would be fascinating all over again.

Franklyn, you have been instrumental inchanging many more lives than Anna Chitty’s!First, in recognition of your introduction toNorth America of what has evolved today to bethe Biodynamic model of CraniosacralTherapy, second, with gratitude for yourteaching of the model to the first and secondwaves of our approved teachers and to others,and third, with appreciation for the recentpublication of your works, “CraniosacralBiodynamics,” Volumes I and II, on behalf of allof our members, the Board of Directors ishonored to award you Lifetime HonoraryMembership in the CSTA/NA. �

By Clare Bonser, with contributions fromSharon Porter, Christopher Muller, Kathleen

Morrow, Anna Chitty and John Chitty

Franklyn...with Gratitude

To

Conference 2005 Committee ReportBy Clare Bonser, RCST®

The Conference Committee has been working for several months already onthe next biennial conference to be held again in Boulder, CO, September 16 -18, 2005. While we have not made Boulder its permanent home, the feedbackwe received from the last conference suggested that it is a desirable location,and as our numbers are still relatively small, it seems prudent to hold it in aneasily accessible small city location where a large number of our members arelocated. It is likely that we will be looking eastward for the 2007 conference.

Following feedback from the 2003 conference, one of our goals is to strive toachieve a greater balance of Yin/Yang energy in future conferences. This ofcourse cannot be guaranteed, as, to paraphrase John Lennon, “life happens”.For various reasons and to our great disappointment both Maura Sills andMike Boxhall were last minute withdrawals from the 2003 conference, leavingthe Yin side a little depleted! However, we are also aware of this need forbalance in areas other than the speakers’ energies and hope that you will feelthe difference in the next conference.

Although most of the invitations are out for the presenters for 2005, please letus hear from you at any time with your suggestions for future speakers andpresenters. This is your organization, here to serve you, and we are veryinterested in hearing whom you think would be an exciting, thoughtprovoking and relevant presenter: one who would broaden your thinking andunderstanding of biodynamic concepts, or who would stretch the limits ofyour knowledge. These women and men are found in all walks of life.You canemail any the Board or Conference Committee members personally, orindirectly via the “Contact Us” button on the website.

If you are interested in volunteering on the Conference Committee, pleasecontact Beth Small ([email protected]) or Clare Bonser([email protected]). There’s much that goes into a successful conference,and the more help we have the more fun it is for everyone involved.Meanwhile, mark your calendars: September 16 - 18, 2005.

Website CommitteeBy Clare Bonser, RCST®

In early May we were alerted by Susan Beale that she would no longer be ableto continue in her role as Web Manager beyond the end of June. Susan hasdone an amazing job in this voluntary role, particularly as Web design andmanagement is not her usual line of business, and she pretty much waslearning as she went. Although to the casual observer it may not seem thatmuch is happening with the website, I can assure you that Susan has loggedhundreds of hours behind the scenes over the past year or more, and has beenavailable for and responsive to all of us who needed information posted,updated and revised. Additionally, she has worked on overall upgrading ofthe website, while at the same time drafting a manual of procedures for thosewho are to follow her as Web Manager. To hear her announce her imminentdeparture was akin to taking a cold shower!

Close enough to panic-stricken that you’d hardly know the difference, we put

out a call for help, thinking that in our community of primarily right-brainedpeople, the odds of finding a replacement for Susan were rather long.However, Elizabeth Hammond was conducting an Intro course in Toronto atthe time and had the presence of mind to share our email with her students.Thank you Elizabeth! From that Intro course emerged our new WebManager, Pedro Fernandez.

Pedro contacted us immediately, and within two weeks had made acommitment to us to take over Susan’s post on July 1st. Pedro has over sevenyears experience in developing websites and is currently employed as a SeniorWeb Designer at a tech firm in Waterloo, Ontario, yet he is prepared tocontribute his experience and skills to us on a volunteer basis. Our deepestgratitude for your generosity and willingness to help us in this way, Pedro, andwelcome to the CSTA/NA community. We hope your upcoming foundationtraining is a very rewarding experience. And thank you, Susan, as youcomplete two years of voluntary support for CSTA/NA, the first as our firstStudent Representative to the Board of Directors and the second as our WebManager. We wish you all the best in your new adventures!

Membership ReportBy Helen Rea, RCST®

Thanks to all the members who renewed on time! The membership renewalprocess has gone quite smoothly! We now have a total of 313 members: 14Associates, 25 Students, 8 Graduates who are not RCST®, 250 RCST®s and 17Teachers. By the time of the printing of this issue of the Cranial Wave, I expectthe numbers to be even higher. I am still receiving several applications everyweek. It is very exciting to see our community building. I look forward tomeeting many faces to go with all these names at the Conference in Fall, 2005.

Feel free to contact me if you have questions regarding membership issues:[email protected] or 301-587-7478.

Education Committee ReportBy Sherry Phillips, RCST®

To my knowledge, the Education Committee has had its first teleconference.We had the membership covered from the state of Washington to Florida,Canada, and points in between. I think it was a good conversation with manyviewpoints expressed.

Our first priority is to get the Mentoring program back on line. Back in Marchthe Board of Directors felt that this program had too many shortcomings tobe an effective mandate. The committee felt that the most important part ofbeing a mentor is for the mentor to be willing to be in a mentoring group.Our vision of that is for all of the mentors to be mentoring each other in smallgroups that meet periodically. As we work on this program we will keep themembership informed.

As we grow this organization it becomes increasingly clear that we need anExecutive Director to oversee all of the administration pieces that musthappen in order to be a professional organization. We are moving towardsthat goal. In the interim, we determined that we need to have some means ofdetermining the competency of our graduates.

While the idea of an objective evaluation sometimes meets with a brick wall,it is an area we need to investigate. Without the resources of infrastructure tofully implement teaching policies, it becomes clear that an alternative must be

page 8 • autumn / winter 2004 • Cranial Wave

CSTA/NACommittee Reports

pursued. While I don’t expect anything to happen within the next year, we areworking towards a goal of having clear competencies resolved. Some of theideas have been to have regional testing sites where graduates will be requiredto perform some hands-on abilities as well as have a conversation about thework. Something similar to a first appointment scenario. All of us agree thata written test will not determine competency.

In the next year we have our first group of teachers coming up for their re-approval. This has been mandated to take place every five years. Thecommittee also feels that this needs to happen more often, perhaps everythree years. We will take this to the Board of Directors for discussion.

While continuing education is still on our agenda, we seem to keep moving itto the back burner as we struggle with the more acute items. As ourprofession continues to grow and expand this issue will come to the forefront,as practitioners demand the need. We envision a biodynamic approach wheremany forms of self-reflection modalities will be included along with the nutsand bolts approaches.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please contact me [email protected].

Curriculum and Teacher Review Committee (CTRC) Report

By Mukara Meredith, MSW, RCST®

AN EVOLUTIONARY EXPERIMENT:

As we continue to evolve our organization and ourselves one of the mostsignificant areas of attention has become: how can we cultivate and supportour Faculty so that they continue to offer their best to the community?

At the 2003 Cranial Conference, with Board approval, I presented a TeamStructure Proposal as a way to support Faculty development. In this proposal,all Cranial Teachers/Trainers formed working Teams or Pods and agreed to:

a) provide each other with professional and personal support

b) hold each other accountable for the highest professional performance in the field

Currently there are three working teams. Each team has a team leader andeach team is holding conference calls to discuss issues of importance re:teaching policies, protocols, and how best to teach the work.

Effective September 04, two members from each of the teams will be chosenby the teams to serve on the Curriculum and Teacher Review Committee(CTRC). Two teachers from this group will then serve on the Board asTeacher-Liaisons. We feel that this arrangement will ensure much bettercommunication between the Teachers and the Board. The membership andthe whole organization will be supported by this enhanced communication.

Is our experiment working perfectly? Of course not! I say with great affectionand appreciation that many of our Cranial Teachers are innovators, creatorsand out-of-the-box thinkers and doers! So, working as a part of a team is askill to deepen and develop for many of them. Nonetheless, they know that"no one of us is as smart as all of us" and they are becoming truecollaborators. From this place, they are developing a robust and potentFaculty Group committed to the continued unfolding of this amazing andlife-giving work. It is a deep honor to work with them and support them tobring their best to our organization and community.

Election 2005 ReportBy Clare Bonser, RCST®, RPP, LMT

January will be here before we know it, and I expect to be contacting all of youfor your nominations to the CSTA/NA Board of Directors. This is yourorganization, and we need to know who you would like to see working onyour behalf, if not you yourself!

Our elections are annual, held each April, and the term for a Director is 3years, with the exception of the Student Representative whose term is for oneyear. Although we have your mandate to continue to move towards becominga professional organization, (which means, among other things, that as wecontinue to grow we will have and earmark the funds to employ an ExecutiveDirector), at this early stage in our development we are still fully dependenton volunteers to keep CSTA/NA going and growing. We are in great need ofpeople who will make this commitment of time to CSTA/NA.

We really do need and want you to participate. We had only three people inthe entire organization nominate candidates for the last election. Althoughwe were pleased to be able to present seven candidates for five seats, the lackof member participation in the nominating process is disappointing.

Fortunately you were wonderful when it came to voting... the turnout wasgreat. Now, those of you who are US members, please be sure to show up inthe same way for that other election in November! It’s in your hands.

Handbook Committee ReportBy Cherionna Menzam, RCST®

The member handbook is finally on its way. I met with Helen Rea in June tolearn about the vision for the handbook, what progress had already been madewith it, and what was needed to create it. I felt inspired to start work on it rightaway. We are hoping to have it ready to send to members with the fall mailing.The handbook is intended to help orient new members to the organization, aswell as serve as an ongoing resource for members. It will include informationon CSTA/NA activities and committees, our membership directory,suggestions for how to get more involved in the organization and thecommunity, and procedures such as how to become an RCST®.

Student Representative ReportBy Merlin Arbor

I am enjoying my term as the Student Representative, and feel honored tobe in such great company on the Board. I am working on getting contactinformation for my fellow students in other trainings.

As the Student Representative, I think it is especially important to get theword out that the first year of membership in CSTA/NA is free to students.I believe that having more student members strengthens our community,and makes the transition from student, to RCST®, to practitioner asmoother one. Also, as Student Rep, I have become aware that newgraduates are required by CSTA/NA to work with a mentor for their firstyear in practice. As more information on this requirement becomesavailable, I will be sharing it with my fellow students. �



SAVE THE DATE!

CSTA/NA 2005CONFERENCEBOULDER COLORADO USA

SEPTEMBER 16TH - 18TH

FEATURED SPEAKERS

Candace Pert • Jaap van der Wal

Claire Dolby • Anna Chitty • Mike Boxhall

and more...


The Ontogenetic Basis of Human Anatomy - A BiodynamicApproach to Development from Conception to Birth

by Erich Blechschmidt, Edited and Translated by Brian FreemanHardcover, 255 pages - $30 available from Pacific Distributing

Originally printed in German and out of print since 1978, this book isprobably the most important contribution to embryology literature inthe past 50 years. Dr. Erich Blechschmidt (1904-1992) was a Germanembryology professor who during his career prepared and studied over200,000 serial sections of embryos at different stages of development.Through his studies, he developed a deep understanding of and respectfor the underlying forces that create the human form. Because of hisunflinching pursuit of truth in the embryology field, his work has oftenbeen marked by controversy.

Over the years he realized the glaring scientific error of Ernst Haeckel’slaw (‘ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny’) and that there was nothingremotely salvageable to be obtained from this theory. In contradiction toHaeckel, he states that the human form is uniquely human fromconception to transition. At each phase of our existence, our form isperfectly functional for that moment in time. According toBlechschmidt, the underlying forces that generate shifts in our earlydevelopment require more than a physical or chemical description.They arise in a process of formation that he calls developmentalmovements. He clearly defines the role of DNA and states mostemphatically that it is a reactive substance, not a proactive substance,and as such, it has no ability to bring about cellular differentiation.Through his arguments, you realize that there is ‘something else’underlying the creative force and bringing order to the blueprint. Theparallels to the work of Dr. Stone, William Sutherland and Rollin Beckerare truly astounding.

Dr. Blechschmidt describes in detail the initial forces that move throughthe fluid field to create a continually unfolding human form. He calls thefield in which these biological processes take place a metabolic field.Drawings in the book give us images of the formative forces and thestructural changes in the early embryo.

The developmental movements offer us a reflection that supports oursense of the original energetic matrices and the shifts that we perceiveduring therapeutic and healing processes. This makes the book apowerful resource for healing arts practitioners who listen to andinteract with anatomy, energy and fluid layers.

Dr. Stone says that, ‘This life pattern began by the energy current flow inthe male spermatozoon and in the female ovum center of the vitellinejelly substance, like a thread in a shuttle which travels forward andbackward to weave the most wonderful fabric of life, called the humanbody.’(Polarity Therapy, Volume 1, p.9) Dr. Blechschmidt projects thisweaving of the human form through the early embryological stageswhere force fields generate a continually shifting structure that is perfectfor each moment in time.

This book supports the concept of working from wholeness. To quotethe cover of the new book, ‘Because humans arise from a single fertilizedcell, our body is never composed of separate systems, but rather ofwholeness which is our underlying origin and maintaining force. Dr.Blechschmidt understood the embryo as perfect, whole, and fullyfunctioning within its environment at every moment of itsdevelopment.’

This book promises to be a significant resource to biologists,embryologists, medical doctors, healing arts practitioners and anyoneseeking a clearer relationship with our origins.

A story of this book and its publication:

The recent publication of The Ontogenetic Basis of Human Anatomy islargely through the efforts of Christopher Muller. The project gotstarted approximately ten years ago, when the interest and enthusiasmof a number of practitioners spurred him to search for books by Dr.Erich Blechschmidt. The only book in print was ‘Biokinetics andBiodynamics of Human Differentiation,’ which is difficult to read andexpensive. Shortly thereafter, a limited printing of ‘The Beginnings ofHuman Life’ became available at an extravagant price and quickly wentout of print. At this point, he approached Dr. Blechschmidt’s wife,(herself a medical doctor trained in embryology), and requestedpermission to republish ‘The Beginnings of Human Life.’ She was veryclear that The Ontogenetic Basis of Human Anatomy, which wasundergoing translation, was the most important book that Dr.Blechschmidt had written and should be printed in the Englishlanguage. After two years of concerted effort, the book has finally cometo press. It is through the combined endeavors of Frau Blechschmidt,Brian Freeman, Connie Obermeyer, Burkhard Boehm, RichardGrossinger, and Christopher and Mary Louise Muller of PacificDistributing that this book has come to fruition. There are plans topublish three more of Dr. Blechschmidt's books including his Atlas inthe next couple of years. �

Book ReviewReviewed by Mary Louise Muller, M.Ed, RPP, RCST®

Advertisein the

For more information

contact Lynn Warschauer at

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Web SitingsBy John Chitty, RPP, RCST®

This periodic column in Cranial Wave has the purpose of collecting anddisseminating internet resources that may be of interest to the craniosacraltherapy community. We will focus on relatively less well-known sites thathave some direct relevance for the craniosacral practitioner.

Before beginning this first effort, let’s acknowledge the areas that we arenot addressing. For example, if you type in “Craniosacral Therapy” in asearch program such as Google, you’ll get about 76,000 hits, includingmany schools and practitioners representing all branches of thecraniosacral family tree. The biodynamic branch is represented amongthese sites in a minor way, 900 hits. Of the seventeen CSTA/NA approvedteachers, seven have web sites, and these make interesting, highly-recommended reading. Further afield, if you type in “Cranial Osteopathy,”you get 18,500 hits, including a few of the infamous “skeptic” anti-sciencesites. An evening surfing through samples of these pages, using yourimagination to come up with key words, is well worth the time and effortbecause it gives a clear sense of what is out there and how it is beingarticulated. Perhaps a scan of these will be a future subject of our survey.

For today’s column, I offer the following:

www.newmedicine.ca

This site describes the remarkable theories and insights of Ryke GerdeHamer, (b. 1935, currently resides in Spain) which got him disbarred fromthe practice of medicine in Germany. A cancer survivor himself, Dr. Hamerwas director of a cancer clinic and had the novel idea of looking at MRIbrain scans of his patients. This had never been done before, there beingno good reason to look at brain images when the cancer was locatedelsewhere. He was surprised to find certain repeating patterns in thephotographic images. After viewing about 10,000 of these, and eliminatingthe possibility that the patterns were photographic artifacts, he came to theconclusion that they were clinically meaningful and useful.

Hamer went on to develop a novel theory of disease, several remarkableinsights into the cause and course of cancer, and numerous otherinteresting ideas. But the part that is most immediately stimulating for acraniosacral therapist is, can these patterns be palpated, and if so, what arethe implications.

www.connective.org

This is the site of Alain-Abraham Abehsera , DO (b. 1951, resides in Israel),founder of what seems to be a derivative of osteopathy that he callsConnective Therapy (“CtH”). What I find most interesting here is that thisis one of the most dramatic and direct explorations of the perceptualaspect of hands-on therapy. As Dr. Abehsera says right at the start, “Themedicine of the future will be an act of thinking.” He takes the osteopathicconcept of “remote viewing”, timidly described by Sutherland and hiscolleagues, all the way to its logical conclusions, and gives some greatexamples of applications.

As a sidelight, Abehsera is also a linguist and author of the remarkable bookBabel in which he proposes that all world major languages have a rootcommon ground in phonetic and their archetypal meanings. I find him tobe a good writer, clear and easy to read. Obviously, this is a busy guy!

www.trauma-pages.com

This site is the ultimate resource for students of trauma. David Baldwin hasassembled and maintains an encyclopedic collection of academic papers,research articles and other materials. You will find all the leading authorsand theorists, plus many more. Articles are nicely indexed into categories,and there is a great web links section pointing to many other resources.

http://home.uni-one.nl/walembryo/index.htm

Jaap van der Wal, MD, PhD (b. 1947, resides in Holland) is an innovativestudent of embryology, strongly influenced by Rudolf Steiner’santhroposophy. His approach is “phenomenological,” meaning that themeaning is implied in the action.

On the recommendation of Michael Shea, he gave a class to craniosacralstudents in Colorado in 2003, and as a result he has been invited to presentat the CSTA/NA annual conference in 2005. He is an intellectual heir toErich Blechschmidt, whose writings are frequently mentioned incraniosacral therapy literature, particularly by Franklyn Sills.

van der Wal teaches that embryological development is a story ofunfolding human-ness in motion, capturing numerous insights about ouresoteric origins in polarity fields and the purpose of life embodied in ouranatomy and physiology.

Send me your sites! I am interested in hearing about innovative practitionersand resources for the craniosacral therapist. Please send your ideas for futurefeatures in this column to [email protected] �

We would love tohear from you.

Your Articles & Lettersare Welcome

Submit to “Cranial Wave”

c/o Lynn Warschauer at

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