Excerpts from publications by James L. Oschman, Ph.D.
Back
to the article collection
Readings
on the Scientific Basis of Bodywork and Movement Therapies:
The connective
tissue is a continuous fabric extending throughout the animal body, even into
the innermost parts of each cell. All of the great systems of the body --the circulation,
the nervous system, the musculo-skeletal system, the digestive tract, the
various organs -- all are ensheathed in connective tissue. It is an organ of
form, relationship, support, communication, and movement.
Connective
tissue is a composite material, consisting of strong insoluble collagen fibers
embedded in a gel-like ground substance. The fibers are arranged in highly
ordered, crystalline arrays. Like many other crystals, connective tissue is
piezoelectric, i.e. it generates electric fields when compressed or stretched.
Hence any movement of any part of the body, muscle, bone, skin, blood vessel,
etc., generates characteristic electrical fields that spread through the
surrounding tissues. Since collagen is a semiconductor, the connective tissue
is an integrated electronic network that allows all parts of the organism to
communicate with each other.
The structure of
the adult body is not fixed or permanent--tissues are constantly being
replaced. Electrical fields generated within the tissues may regulate the
replacement process, so that structure can change in response to changes in
activity. This is how athletes and other performers optimize their structure
and function by practicing a movement again and again. Perfect performance
implies total interconnection, the free flow of information through the
connective tissue fabric.
An energetic
model of the body can account for the observations of Rolfers and other
somato-therapists. Specifically, the parts of the organism are joined together
and composed of an interconnected electronic fabric, the connective tissue
system, whose properties (elasticity, flexibility, length, resiliancy) depend
upon a continuous flow of energy/information. When this flow is diminished or
restricted because of physical or emotional trauma or lack of movement, the
mechanical properties of the tissue are affected, awareness may decrease, and
pain may arise. Restoration of flows can be accomplished by applying
appropriate pressure to the affected areas, or by restoring movement. From the
physics of gels, we can predict that pressure or movement may cause the
connective tissue ground substance to dissolve for a short period of time,
during which the tissue becomes more hydrated, and trapped toxins and
metabolites can be released. When the matrix gels again, it is softer, more
open, more hydrated, a better medium for electronic communication, and for
diffusion of nutrients. Cells and tissues can then re-enter the natural cycle
of renewal and replacement. Pain-free movement and flexibility are restored.
Studies of
arthropods and other animals including man have revealed that the interstitium,
cytoplasna, and nucleus each contain a matrix or ground substance composed of
various biopolymers. The extracellular ground substance consists of chains of
glycosaminoglycan molecules which may be linked with hyaluronate to form
supramolecular complexes called proteoglycans. The cytoplasmic ground substance
contains microtubules, microfilaments, microtrabeculae, and intermediate
filaments, and cor~stitutes a movable cytoskeleton. This framework
interconnects the cell surface, the various organelles, and the nuc!ear
envelope. The nuclear matrix consists of a peripheral pore complex lamina and an
Internal matrix. Glycophorin, fibronectin, and other proteins appear to provide
specific linkages between the extracellular and cytoplasmic ground substance.
The nuclear matrix has peripheral elements that appear to interact with the
cvtoskeleton at specific sites. Intimately associated with the ground
substances is a dynamic matrix composed of water and counterions. The structure
of the whole system, macromolecules, water, and ions, is being built up from
basic laws and principles, enabling quantum mechanical descriptions to be
extended to domains containing many interacting components.
To develop a
scientific approach to concepts such as "life energy" and
"healing energy" we need to consider the energetic mechanisms by
which the various parts of an organism communicate with eachother.
When a
physiologist is asked to discuss communication, the nervous system is usually
given most of the attention, but many other forms of communication take place
within the organism. Bioelectromagnetic communications are involved in the
formation of the parts of the body, both small and large, for the integration
of structures, for hormone/receptor interactions, for cells to recognize each
other so they can join together to form tissues, and for the maintenance and
regulation of body shape. Communications are also involved in healing processes
such as regeneration, tissue repair, and activation of the immune system.
The various
tissues and the body as a whole are not electrically or magnetically shielded.
Hence signals used in bioelectromagnetic communications tend to leak into the
surrounding tissues and into the spaces around the body. This article presents
the hypothesis that the various tissues in the body "listen in" on the
signals that initiate actions such as muscle contraction, secretion, sensation,
etc. It is also suggested that this is an important mechanism of communication
and integration. Non-neural cells, for example, may listen to the steady stream
of messages that radiate out from nerves and muscles, and use this information
to adjust their activities.
Contents:
·
Preface;
·
Context;
·
Matrices;
·
An Introduction to Whole Systems;
·
A Language of Relationship;
·
Evolving a Science of Relationship;
·
What is Quantum Mechanics?;
·
Quantum Biology;
·
Biological Fields (Appendix: Publications of Harold Saxon
Burr);
·
Gravity and Life;
·
The Gravitational Field;
·
Electrical and Bioelectrical Fields;
·
Magnetic and Biomagnetic Fields;
·
Induction;
·
Electromagnetic Fields;
·
Resonance;
·
Tissue that Connects;
·
Physiological Integration;
·
Verticality as an Example;
·
Significance of Balance.
Note: This
article answers a question provided by Rolfers Steve Banks and Siana Goodwin.
QUESTION: My
experience with Rolfing leads me to conjecture that the connective tissue
system is subject to a number of processes which have the combined effect of
expending energy to actively maintain the shape of the body.....If the body is
actively maintaining its shape, then there must be some physiological pathways
for this. Such mechanisms may have been noticed by researchers who are working
with various animal systems, but not placed in context may not seem so
significant. Part 1. Metabolic pathways; Part II. Neural and biomechanical
pathways; Part III. Conclusions.
1. Regulation is
a fundamental concept in both Western and Eastern approaches to the human body.
2. This essay
focuses on unsolved problems in regulatory physiology that might be advanced by
looking for whole-body communication and control systems such as those proposed
by acupuncture.
3. Western
physiologists are usually satisfied that the nervous and hormonal systems are
adequate to account for whole-body integration and coordination. Why should we
look for another energetic and communication system as proposed in the theory
of acupuncture? If such a system does, in fact, exist, why has it not been
discovered by Western physiologists? And if it exists, what are its functions
in relation to orthodox regulatory systems, how does it carry out these
functions, and how is it formed?
4. We present
four reasons, from the point of view of Western biomedicine, that it might be
useful to search for additional communication systems in the body.
a. There are
major unsolved problems in regulatory biology.
b. The nervous
and hormonal systems that are the primary focus of modern biomedicine are
relatively new inventions from the evolutionary perspective. Older and more
primitive mechanisms are probably still present, and are important in wound
healing, defense, and recognition of self and non-self.
c. Within the
organism are a large number of cells and subcellular components that are not
under direct influence of the nervous system but that must nevertheless have
some way of being in communication with the rest of the body.
d. Solid state
physicists have discovered a number of cooperative or collective phenomena that
could provide a basis for very rapid movements of information and energy within
living systems. Acupuncture is based on the existence of energetic phenomena of
this sort.
5. Progress in
understanding regulations could help us solve medical problems that are beyond
the scope of either Western or Eastern medicine. Regeneration of lost or
damaged limbs and organs provides an example.
6. Cell
biologists have discovered that every cell contains a cytoskeleton that is
connected, across the cell surface, with the extracellular connective tissue
matrix. This discovery enables us to visualize a structural and energetic
continuum that extends throughout the body and into every nook and cranny. We
refer to this as the connective tissue/cytoskeleton. Pienta and Coffee call it
a "tissue tensegrity matrix system."
7. Robert O.
Becker has developed a regulatory concept that includes the digital nervous
system, an analog communication system in the perineural cells that surround the
neurons, and the extracellular fabric, which he regards as a semiconductor.
8. The
semiconductor nature of proteins was proposed by Szent-Györgyi in 1941 and has
been confirmed. Virtually all of the molecules in the body are semiconductors.
9. The connective
tissue/cytoskeleton is a quasi-crystalline material. To the solid state
physicist, this property explains its great tensile strength, flexibility, and
interconnectedness. The high degree of order allows for cooperative or
collective phenomena. There is evidence that these phenomena are involved in
whole-body regulations, but the concept has not been incorporated into modern
biomedical thought.
10. Tensions and
compressions in the connective tissue/cytoskeleton system give rise to electric
fields because the materials they are constructed of are piezoelectric. The
resulting electromechanical, electrochemical, or electrooptic signals may be
involved in regulation of growth and form.
11. Electrons,
holes, protons, phonons, and excitons are subatomic particles that may be
involved in solid state regulatory systems. As units of communication, these
particles have the advantage of being able to move very rapidly within the
quasi-crystalline material of the connective tissue/cytoskeleton. Each of these
particles also exhibits a quantum wave-like nature, which enables information
to spread rapidly throughout the organism.
12. The water
and ions surrounding proteins in the organism are highly structured, forming
chain-like filaments that hold the proteins together and that allow for rapid
conduction of protons (proticity).
13. The spacing
of amino acids in collagen, the primary connective tissue protein, is ideal for
structuring water. The fact that the collagen molecules are held together in a
regular array prevents the water structure from being broken up by large random
motions of the protein.
14. Coupled
oscillations, resonant transfer, and electrodynamic coupling allow energy and
information to move through the framework of the body. Fröhlich has suggested
that giant coherent oscillations can be communicated between separate molecules
via the electromagnetic field. A cell, a tissue, or an organ could have a
stable resonant frequency which would be a collective property of the assembly.
Support for Fröhlich's model has been obtained from absorption and emission
spectroscopy of a variety of cells and organisms.
15. Electronic
conduction is a well established phenomenon in chloroplasts and mitochondria.
16. Biochemistry
envisions the "flow of energy" as the movement of metabolites,
culminating in compounds with high energy phosphate bonds (adenosine
triphosphate and creatine phosphate). It is not widely known, however, that
this model does not account for all of the energy (heat plus work) produced
during muscle contraction.
17. Western
scientists who have observed practitioners of the martial arts, which developed
in parallel with acupuncture, are often astonished by the energetic phenomena
that can be demonstrated. A recent study by Seto and colleagues has shown that
very strong "Qi emission" can be detected with a simple magnetometer.
This particular form of Qi appears to consist, at least in part, of strong
pulsating biomagnetic fields.
18. The
waveforms recorded by Seto and colleagues, in the range of 4 to 10 Hz, are
reminiscent of signals recorded by Zimmerman from the hands of a
"therapeutic touch" practitioner. They are also in the same frequency
range as human brain waves recorded with the electroencephalogram, and as the
Schumann resonance in the atmosphere. Previous studies have linked atmospheric
electric oscillations with brain wave patterns.
19. If the
relationship between atmospheric oscillations, brain waves, and biomagnetic or
"Qi" emissions is confirmed, we may have the beginnings of a scientific
basis for the "healing energy" that is a central paradigm for a
variety of unorthodox practices.
20. The
biomagnetic fields or "Qi emissions" may be whole-body collective
oscillations, possibly driven by higher frequency Fröhlich oscillations, and
involving the quasi-crystalline array of proteins in the connective
tissue/cytoskeleton continuum and associated water molecules.
21. As a
speculative exercise, we design an ideal communication system for integrating the
parts and processes of an organism, using a wide range of natural materials
with useful solid state properties and millions of years of evolutionary
selection to test different combinations for their effectiveness.
22. The result
is a distributed network of information channels and microprocessors located at
nodes in the system. The basic biological phenomenon of self-assembly is
employed to show how the components might gather together and connect to
produce a whole-body communication network comparable to the acupuncture
meridian system. Some other examples of self-assembly are presented.
23. If the
acupuncture meridians really exist, why have they not been discovered by
Western scientists? From the ideas presented here there is an obvious
explanation. The meridian system may be composed of ordinary connective tissue
and cytoskeletal elements, and is therefore difficult to discern as an
anatomically separate system. Meridians may be laid down in the embryo along
lines of current flow of the sort described by Jaffe. The properties of the
meridians may be a consequence of invisible submolecular solid state
cooperative phenomena. They may be a consequence of energetic phenomena rather
than of observable macroscopic structures.
24. Matsumoto
and Birch have pointed out that acupuncture theorists have for many centuries
envisioned the flow of "energy" as taking place within the connective
tissue of the body, particularly in the fascia, which are termed "fat,
greasy membranes, fasciae, systems of connecting membranes; that through which
the yang qi streams."
Practitioners of
a variety of healing methods tell us of special moments when they feel
particularly "in tune" with their clients and with everything around
them. Athletes often describe similar experiences of connectedness during peak
performances. What is the basis for these moments? If we knew, we might be able
to have these experiences more often.
This article
presents a scientific basis for the concept of "healing energy" that
is common to many of the complementary healing practices. We describe what may
be happening within the practitioner and the patient during times of profound
insight and sensitivity and connectedness.
Years of
research into this topic, by a person steeped in the Western scientific
tradition, in collaboration with a person with extensive experience and
sensitivity, has led to some unexpected conclusions. Here we present a brief
summary.
The energy field
of the human body has been widely studied. Many practitioners feel they have
departed from the mainstream when they attempt to influence the body's energy
field. In fact, we regard their explorations as advanced, leading edge research
into the medicine of the future. There are many scientists who now believe that
"energy medicine" will be the source of the next great advances in
health care. Methods of interacting with the body's energy fields will become a
part of accepted medical practice. These methods will emerge when the wisdom of
acupuncture and other ancient methods is integrated with modern scientific
concepts.
Scientists know
that phenomena are usually described intuitively before they are quantified or
objectified. Healing energy is a classic example of this, since "laying on
of hands," therapeutic touch, aura balancing, polarity, acupuncture, and
related energetic approaches are ancient methods that we are just beginning to
understand scientifically.
We now know that
every part and process in the body produces a specific set of energy fields that
travel through the tissues and that extend into the space around the body. When
a nerve conducts, a muscle contracts, a gland secretes, the skin is touched or
cut or compressed, or a cell changes its function, characteristic electric
currents are produced. While these currents are strongest at the site where the
activity is taking place, currents are also conducted a certain distance
through the surrounding tissues. The current flows are not random, but follow
specific pathways because certain tissue components are good conductors for
electricity. And when biocurrents flow, biomagnetic fields are created in the
space around the body.
A number of
scientists are beginning to recognize that the "global," "whole-system,"
and "energetic" effects of Rolfing and other forms of bodywork arise
because practitioners become intuitively adept at interacting with a
fundamental organizing, communicating, and energetic system in the body. This
system is not the nervous system, but the nervous system is a part of it. The
system we are referring to is the place where the body's relations between
matter and energy are manifested. Structural components of the system include
the musculoskeletal, connective tissue, cytoskeletal, and genetic frameworks.
While we usually study these as separate systems, it is also useful to view
them as a single structural, functional, and energetic domain, a continuum,
which we now refer to as the living matrix. This is the continuous fabric that
forms every part of the organism, that defines the shape and function of each
cell, tissue, organ, and of the body as a whole. Our recent research and
writing aims to facilitate communication between the bodywork and scientific
communities about the solid state and synergetic properties of this system.
This article is a summary of some of the concepts that are emerging.
This is a note
to let you know how and why I continue to be inspired by your work. The path of
inquiry that began some years ago, with my first encounter with Peter Melchior,
Ida Rolf, and their many colleagues, has recently taken a new and very
rewarding direction. I want to share this with those of you who are curious
about the scientific basis of the miraculous.
The phenomena
you observe in your practices provide a fascinating and virtually untapped
resource for exploring unanswered scientific questions. This short essay
introduces some recent thinking about unsolved biophysical mysteries related to
concepts of "body energy," memory, perception, consciousness, and
"Qi projection" in the martial arts.
An energetic
approach is leading to a deeper and simpler understanding of all of these
topics. Like the way many of you experience your practice, the biophysicist
must alternate between material and energetic realities. The great physicist,
Niels Bohr, developed the principle of complementarity, which states that
objects can be viewed as either waves of energy or as particles. In Bohr's
time, these two views could not be logically connected, and Bohr said that to
understand reality one must be able to look at it in both ways.
New
evidence on the nature of "healing energy."
I. Communication
in the living matrix
For a long time,
sensitive bodyworkers have been developing practical and intuitive
understandings of body energetics. "Healing touch" involves far more
than merely rubbing tissue and stimulating the circulation of body fluids. The
nature of the emanations from the hands of the bodyworker has long been a topic
of speculation. Likewise, we would like to know how practiced hands can sense
from a distance areas in a client's body that need attention. Consciousness and
"state of mind" of the practitioner and the client seem to be
important factors in the healing of physical and/or emotional injuries and
diseases.
The nature of
the emanations from the hands of the bodyworker has long been a topic of
speculation.
Until recently,
subjective information, acquired by intuition and sensitivity, could not be
reconciled with modern scientific medicine. This situation is changing because
of research by physiologists and biophysicists around the world. The work we
are summarizing is providing a possible basis for exchanges of "healing
energy" between two or more organisms. The focus is on the ways energy and
information are channeled throughout living tissues, and how the various kinds
of bodywork can influence those processes.
We have two
complimentary goals in presenting this information. First, we are making the
new scientific information available to bodyworkers who are interested, but who
may have difficulty following the technical literature. The information leads
to some new approaches you may find useful in your practice.
Our second goal
is to examine the scientific ideas from as many perspectives as possible. The
recent conceptual breakthroughs are being discussed, tested, and interpreted in
many laboratories. Like all new discoveries, each aspect must be examined from
every possible perspective. This is an endless process. For the true biologist,
no approach or phenomenon can be discarded if it might provide a clue about how
life works. We are convinced that the bodywork practice is one of the best
"laboratories" for the investigation of whole system phenomena. The
"Broad Reach" program (described in the July/August, '94 issue of
this magazine) has provided an exciting and successful environment for testing
new ideas with input from experienced practitioners.
Can we heal the
split between intuitive knowing and rational understanding?" (Rupert
Sheldrake)
Scientists are
realizing that an understanding of whole systems involves new principles that
are not simply extensions of the behavior of parts. Cooperative or collective phenomena
arise in living systems because each individual component is modified in its
behavior as a consequence of being a part of the whole. Previously nebulous and
poorly understood phenomena, such as learning, memory, consciousness, and
"wholeness," are becoming accessible through this approach.
The nature of
the energies projected from the hands of the bodyworker has long been a topic
of speculation. Consciousness and "state of mind" of practitioner and
client are important factors in the healing of physical and/or emotional
injury. Research from around the world is now opening up these subjects to
scientific investigation.
In the first
part of this article, we described recent discoveries about the underlying
features of the living matrix that forms all of the tissues in the body. These
discoveries have important implications for bodyworkers. Like all science, some
of the ideas have a firmer basis than others. We need to examine both the
concepts and our interpretations from as many perspectives as possible. We are
convinced that the bodywork practice is one of the best
"laboratories" for the investigation of whole system phenomena.
We described the
living matrix as a structural and energetic continuum, joining every nook and
cranny of the organism with every other. The cell membrane is not the barrier
that biologists once thought it was. There are specific molecules that traverse
the cell surface and that conduct energy and information all the way into the
nucleus and the DNA, and in the opposite direction as well. Our inquiry
concerns the way the living matrix can detect, conduct, amplify, and project
different forms of energy.
The living
matrix is a crystalline piezoelectric semiconductor--terms we defined and discussed
in Part I. Because of these properties, the living matrix can convert all of
the different kinds of energy from one to another in a very rapid and
sophisticated manner.
Flows of energy
and information serve to integrate and unify the living body. Regulatory
communications and decision-making are accomplished very rapidly at all levels.
The rapidity and subtlety of these processes are manifested in the Olympic
athlete functioning at the limits of human accomplishment. A world record is
set when the individual is able to coordinate the activities of every tissue,
cell, and molecule in the body. Slower integrations and regulations reveal
themselves in the ways our overall structure and form change in response to the
ways we move our bodies.
The phenomenon
of coherence provides a link between form and energy. Coherent structures
(crystals) give rise to coherent energy fields which feed back on the
structures to stabilize their coherence.
An appreciation
of coherence engenders softer approaches, emphasizing order, linking of subtle
rhythms, and projection of energy from the whole body.
This article
continues our interpretation of the new discoveries and ideas with respect to
learning, memory, consciousness, wholeness, and the "healing state".
In Swann's Way,
a taste of a small cake, a petite Madeleine, causes Marcel Proust to be flooded
with memories from his past. At first he is baffled, but he then remembers his aunt
giving him Madeleines when he was small. Obviously, the association triggered
his memory.
Most of us have
had similar experiences, in which a glimpse of some long-forgotten place or
object, or a particular odor, taste, sound, or even a movement, elicits the
recall of a scene from our distant past. This article concerns a related
phenomenon that is frequently experienced by massage therapists and other
bodyworkers.
Massage
therapists, acupuncturists, Rolfers and other somatic practitioners frequently report
uncanny experiences in which vivid images flood into their consciousness as
they are working on some part of a client's body. Sometimes there is a
transient sensation that "something has happened" within the body
they are touching. An avalanche of detailed sensory material may be triggered.
The images may be so striking that the practitioner asks the client about them,
only to discover that their client is simultaneously having a similar or
identical "flash back." Rolfer Randy Mack describes this as ".....the
recall of deeply repressed, highly charged emotional material with full sensory
detail possibly including visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory
components."
Practitioners
who repeatedly have these "somatic recall" experiences with their
clients begin to suspect that "memories" of traumatic or other events
may be stored in or accessed by the soft tissues of the body. Sometimes the
"flashback" is associated with erasure of the memory. When this
happens, the emotional "charge" surrounding the memory may disappear.
The client may even forget, by the end of the session, that the recall
occurred. In other cases, the recollection begins a therapeutic process that
resolves the associated trauma, pain, or psychological attitudes. In other instances,
the "flashbacks" may occur a day or two after a session of massage or
other bodywork.
It has long been
recognized that our individual memories shape our sense of who we are as well
as what we do and how we do it, on a moment to moment basis. Our personal
identity, our comprehension of the world around us, our place in that world,
what we can and cannot accomplish, our every act and decision--all are
referenced to what we have learned and remembered. If these references are to
traumatic past experiences, and to the resulting pains, secrets, fears,
judgments, mis-truths, guilts, angers, narrow attitudes or beliefs, our
physical and behavioral flexibility are limited. Freedom of movement and
thought, and awareness of what is happening inside and outside of us are
compromised. To the extent that our mental lives influence our physical bodies,
and vice versa, any therapeutic practice that has an effect on memory can have
a profound, dynamic, and multidimensional influence on every attribute of the
organism.
The study of
memory and consciousness are among the most fascinating and controversial
topics for scientific inquiry and somatic exploration. Reports that touching
someone can release memory traces and even communicate them to another person
are of great interest. Of course, conventional science labels such experiences
as anomalies or hallucinations, as they do not fit with our normal theories
about how the brain and nervous system work. However, we have talked to enough
practitioners who report similar experiences that we have come to regard
somatic recall as a frequently occurring phenomenon. Some massage therapists
have these experiences daily or even more often. Not only is somatic recall
widespread, but we think it is an important clue about unsolved mysteries of
learning, memory, consciousness, the ways parts of the body communicate with
each other, and the effects of touch.
In this two-part
essay, we explore somatic recall in the light of recent progress in biophysics
and cell biology. New discoveries are pointing to a simple yet scientifically
logical explanation for a variety of phenomena relating to massage and other
kinds of bodywork. The emerging concepts have far-reaching implications for
scientific and philosophical inquires into the nature of consciousness, and for
a variety of approaches to the body. This article is a summary. For a more
thorough treatment, see our other recent articles.
The first part
of this essay defined "somatic recall" as the release during massage
and other kinds of bodywork of repressed and often highly emotional memories.
Often such "flashbacks" are beneficial, leading to resolution of old
trauma, pain, or psychological attitudes. Sometimes therapist and client
simultaneously detect an identical avalanche of sensory information. We
described some ways that soft tissues can store information, and how touching
certain parts of the body could trigger and then erase memories at the same
time that toxic materials are being released, physiological communication
channels are opening up, and flexibility is being restored.
As a phenomenon,
somatic recall seems a bit too peculiar for scientific exploration. Most
scientists would consider instances of somatic recall to be hallucinations or
delusions, as they do not fit with normal theories about how the brain and
nervous system work. This is frustrating for the therapist who has such
"hallucinations" on a daily basis, and who would like some scientific
validation for a phenomenon that seems both important and therapeutic. We take
the view that the phenomenon is not only valid and therapeutic, but that it is
an important clue that could help us answer unsolved questions about the
mechanisms of learning, memory, consciousness, and whole-system communication.
In the first
part of this essay, we described a new way of looking at living tissue as an
interconnected molecular continuum, which we refer to as "the living
matrix." This way of looking at the body is the result of an important
discovery: the matrix inside cells, known as the cytoskeleton, is directly
connected to the matrix outside of cells, classically known as connective
tissue. The living matrix gives the body its overall shape and features,
defines the form of each organ, tissue, and cell, and extends into every nook
and cranny of the organism. The nucleus and DNA are a part of the living
matrix.
The most
exciting property of the living matrix is the ability of the entire network to
generate and conduct vibrations. Modern biophysical research is revealing a
wide range of properties that enable the body to use sound, light, electricity,
magnetic fields, heat, elasticity, and other forms of vibrations as signals for
integrating and coordinating diverse physiological activities.
According to the
continuum communication model, every event in the organism produces vibrations
that travel throughout the living matrix. In this way, every part is informed
of what all other parts are doing. Massage and related techniques are effective
because practitioners have used their intuition and sensitivity to develop
methods of interacting with fundamental and evolutionarily ancient
communication systems that are not part of conventional biomedical paradigms.
The cytoskeleton
is being referred to as the nervous system of the cell. Biologists are now
describing ways that specific components of the living matrix can store,
process, and erase information. We now continue to develop a theory of how
massage and other kinds of bodywork may release memories stored in soft
tissues, and how these memories reach the consciousness of both the client and
the practitioner.
Before doing
this, however, we need to summarize the reason neurophysiologist have not looked
beyond the brain in their search for the location of memory.
These are
exciting times for those of us who are interested in the scientific basis of
energetic bodywork. Research from around the world is documenting the validity
and credibility of a wide spectrum of complementary approaches to the human
body. The mechanisms involved are of great interest to biomedicine, and can
contribute significantly to our health care because they expand our
understanding of how the body heals itself.
We wish to make
the emerging information available to interested bodyworkers. We have reviewed
an important book on the subject, "Biological Coherence and Response to
External Stimuli," edited by Herbert Fröhlich, published in 1988 by
Springer Verlag, New York. Here we summarize some of the new information
contained in that book, as well as from related sources. We have translated
scientific terms and concepts into ordinary language. For details and
references to the literature, see Fröhlich's book and/or our review.
In the first
symposium, we discussed acupuncture an an intervention with whole-body
communication and regulatory systems. Here we detail specific physiological and
psychological effects expected from needle insertion. Two hypotheses guide our
exploration. The first hypotheses is that acupuncture simulates an injury
without actually injuring tissues, and thereby elicits local and systemic
wound-healing responses that have a variety of therapeutic effects. The second
hypothesis is that the skin surface is not uniformly sensitive to
stimulation--certain areas are more responsive than others in terms of their
ability to activate particular injury responses, and to spread those responses
away from the point of stimulation. There is a biological basis for suggesting
that stimulation and injury produce similar responses in cells and tissues, and
that any cells or blood vessels that may be penetrated by the needle will
quickly seal themselves, so their contents do not leak out (Heilbrunn).
We consider
systems involved in the intricate cascade of events mediating wound healing and
the recall of memories associated with physical trauma. First, the epidermis is
a battery. Piercing it with an electrical conductor depolarizes the epidermal
membrane, creating a wave of excitation and current flow that spreads over the
body surface. These events trigger the migration of cells toward the site of
injury. Observed regional differences in transepidermal potentials (Barker and
colleagues) support the concept that some regions on the skin surface are more
responsive to stimulation than others. Regional potential differences are the
likely source of the currents that are driven through "ion pumping
cords." These devices therefore spread the area of activation from a
specific point to a larger area.
Electrical and
chemical events in the vasculature activate the hemostatic system.
Cytoskeletons of epidermal, vascular, connective tissue, and nerve cells,
together with the extracellular matrix, form an electromechanical
semiconducting continuum (referred to as "the living matrix") that
can generate and communicate coherent vibratory signals throughout the body
(Pienta and Coffey; Fröhlich, Oschman). Emotional memories related to traumas
or injuries may be stored and accessed within this matrix (Hameroff).
Perineural
cells, surrounding the neurons, form a continuous network functioning as an
analog communication system. A perineural current of injury is conveyed from
the site of puncture, and regulates a variety of repair processes. These
currents are sensitive to magnetic fields (the Hall effect) and are therefore
transferred through a semiconducting medium (Becker). This finding provides a
basis for the therapeutic effects of magnets. Finally, the digital nervous
system can be activated, triggering the sensation of puncture, behavioral
changes, and the release of neuropeptides by the brain and by other tissues.
We discuss ways
the various systems involved in wound healing interact with each other to
produce the responses to needle insertion.
Approaching
the toes (theories of everything)
Professional
physics journals are bursting at the seams with audacious theories of everything
(toes) and grand unified theories (guts). The acronyms physicists use for their
most exciting concepts are parts of the body! But what about the most important
frontier of all? Who is searching for a unified theory of life?
Quantum
physicists and cosmologists think they may soon explain all of the things they
see when they look at the world through their lenses--particle accelerators and
other devices that reveal the very small, and telescopes and other probes that
tell the story of the grand structure and history of the universe. These
explanations are arrived at by synthesizing countless observations, made during
centuries of scientific inquiry. Biology has a comparable history of inquiry,
and the time has come to look for a unified picture. We believe the ideas of
the cosmologists and quantum physicists will play a part in the unification of
biology, medicine, and bodywork.
In all branches
of knowledge it is being realized that none of the great microphysical,
cosmological, or physiological ideas could exist without observers. Werner
Heisenberg (Nobel Prize in Physics, 1932) established once and for all that
observers are always part of each and every experiment or inquiry. While
philosophers can still consume large amounts of ink arguing the issue,
Heisenberg effectively destroyed any notion of an objective reality that exists
"out there" without our participation. Neuroscientists, such as Sir
John C. Eccles (Nobel Prize in Physiology, 1963), who have looked deeply at how
we construct our reality from our sensations, concur:
I want you to
realize that there is no color in the natural world and no sounds--nothing of
this kind; no textures, no patterns, no beauty, no scent.....The "world
out there" is synthesized in our Consciousness.
Sir John C.
Eccles
Of course, many
inquirers dislike or ignore these ideas, and continue their searches for causes
and effects and predictability and "the truth about nature" as though
Heisenberg or Eccles had never spoken. These are the researchers who consider nature
to be a machine that can be understood by studying it's parts. While their
perspective is limited, their discoveries continue to nourish those who search
for the larger picture.
In contrast to
the seekers of logical causes and predictable effects are those who touch the
world by placing their hands on living tissue. They are engaged in an endless
and fantastic exploration of nature's deepest mysteries and surprises. Here the
only constant is the unanticipated. In the context of this journey, the books
of science and medicine are in their proper places, on the same shelves with
spirituality, mysticism, shamanism, and philosophy. In the practice of
bodywork, no idea or approach has more intrinsic value than any other, unless
it opens us to a deeper level of connection.
No one has an
exclusive franchise on the truth. We have different approximations and
different sets of ideas of how to get there. Ultimately, each of us creates our
own way that fits us. While there are differences in approach, there are no
differences in the impact of the experience of truth. When it comes to the
heart, all approaches overlap.
after Reb Zalman
Schachter-Shalomi
Those of you who
have followed our writings over the past decade or so may have noticed a
gradual and natural shift in focus, from microscopic, molecular, and cellular
phenomena, to physiological, emotional, and cosmological issues. The study of
informational and energetic microcircuits within the organism has progressed
naturally and logically to an exploration of the subtle flows in the spaces
around and between us. This shift has come about naturally because of a simple
and well known aspect of consciousness, long familiar to poets and artists:
When we look at
any one thing in the world, we find it is hitched to everything else. (John
Muir)
After much fuss
about tiny things--strands of algae, chromosomes, microtubules, and
glycoproteins--the broader inquiry has led to something that feels profound. We
have rediscovered a reality that has been with us since ancient times, the only
difference being that we are now able to language it in the context of
contemporary physiology and biophysics. The depth and beauty and mystery of the
experience of this reality lies far beyond any words, scientific or otherwise,
but a technical description is simple. Here it is.
The living
matrix under your hands is an ancient system that was created at the same time
that life began. This system evolved to a very high level of sophistication
long before it established, within itself, the other systems that physiologists
focus their attention upon and give names to, using labels such as
"nervous, immune, digestive, hormonal, circulatory, lymphatic, etc."
The system we are
referring to is the most ancient and natural part of the body--a part that
never wears out. We are referring to the system that created and wove together
those aspects we refer to as connection, communication, regulation,
self-defense, injury repair, regeneration, awareness, memory, consciousness,
form, wholeness, movement.
This is the
system that has spent the longest period of time, in the evolutionary sense,
experimenting with the grand laws of nature and the great forces that extend
across the cosmos. From those laws and forces, life extracted all possible
forms of communication and connection. Nature tested and refined these forms,
and then joined them all together into a perfectly coordinated system of
systems so sophisticated that we can only comprehend a small part of it.
All of the
wisdom of nature is found here. All of our sciences and "ologies" are
maps of discovery, superficial voyages into the mystery of our living selves.
What we have learned so far is but a scratch on the small exposed surface of a
huge iceberg, the depth and size of which we cannot fathom. We cannot know how
much we do not know.
I am afraid that
Nature is not only smarter than we think, Nature is smarter than we can think.
(Ken Wilber)
The ancient
system we are referring to has long been known to science, but many of its
remarkable and miraculous aspects have not, until recently, been appreciated or
even approached. When such an appreciation does settle in, the apparent
separation between conventional and alternative or unconventional or unorthodox
medicine will vanish.
Biologists have
not fully comprehended this system because of the way they are trained to look
at the world. When a new piece of life's puzzle is discovered, its obvious
function captures everyone's attention. The part or system is given a name that
goes with it's function, the story is reported in the literature, it is taught
to students, and it becomes part of the prevailing paradigm, dogma, discipline,
point-of-view, attitude.
Connective
tissue is a good example of this process at work. The mechanical and
architectural roles of connective tissue are obvious and have been universally
accepted for many years. Many of the original observations go back to a
Russian, Professor Alexander A. Maximow, late Professor of Anatomy at the
University of Chicago. Maximow was enchanted with the beauty and ubiquitous
appearance of connective tissue in every part of the body that he examined.
Only recently
has science begun to examine the more subtle energetic and informational
functions of connective tissue. Fortunately the original name, "connective
tissue," is also descriptive of its newly found (in Western science) role
in conducting energy and information. These concepts have been a fundamental
part of acupuncture theory for millennia.
Similarly, the
cytoskeleton was named for its obvious role as a movable mechanical scaffolding
for the cell. At about the same time that biophysicists began exploring
connective tissue as a communication medium, cell biologists began to refer to
the cytoskeleton as "the nervous system of the cell." And immersed
within the cytoskeletal matrix is another fabric of profound importance, the
genetic material, embedded in a nuclear matrix. From this perspective, the
overall structure of our environment and our organism and its parts can be
described as a matrix within a matrix within a matrix within a matrix.
Boundaries, such as the cell membrane and nuclear envelope, are porous, and
mask the continuities.
One of the most
fundamental biological discoveries in recent times is an intricate and intimate
set of linkages between the systems we have referred to as extracellular,
cytoskeletal, and genetic matrices. Major parts and domains of the organism,
which can be separated and studied individually, are, in reality, totally
interconnected, mutually interdependent, and mutually pervasive. Together these
elements and their activities form a dynamic and seamless web or fabric
extending into every nook and cranny of the living tissue, and beyond, into the
spaces around and between organisms.
Every
conceivable kind of vibratory information courses through this web, forming
ever branching rivers and streams and trickles. And the smallest trickles are
as essential as the major rivers, since they represent vital information
flowing back and forth between the whole and its smallest component parts.
The connective
tissue and cytoskeletons together form a structural, functional, and energetic
continuum extending into every nook and cranny of the body, even into the cell
nucleus and the genetic material. All forms of energy are generated and
conducted and interpreted and converted from one to another in sophisticated
ways within the living matrix.
The flows of
energy and information within and around us can be broken down into different
categories, in the same way that physicists distinguish different forms of
energy. Hence one can classify energy as electricity, magnetism, light, sound,
movement, elasticity, heat. (All of these energies are projected by your hands
as you work). But in making these distinctions we distract ourselves from that
which underlies or is common to all of these forms. Here is the branch of
science where all of us, as living conscious beings, have mastery. For our
moment-to-moment experience is the totality of the energy and information flows
within and around us. This totality has been given many names by seekers of
different kinds: life force, prana, healing energy, Ch'i, K'i, orgone,
life-field, wakan, puha, kundalini, bioplasma, odic force, love, great and holy
spirit. What reveals and underlies and is common to all of these concepts is
that mystery we refer to as consciousness.
In laboratories
around the world, researchers are beginning to explore the remarkable signaling
systems within the living matrix. Much of our research and writing aims to
translate the biophysical concepts into words that bodyworkers can comprehend
and use in their daily practice.
Any activity, such
as walking down the street, or giving or receiving a session of bodywork,
generates a veritable symphony of electrical, electronic, protonic, photonic,
phonic, and other vibratory signals that travel throughout the living matrix.
Information diffuses from the primary communication channels (nerves, blood
vessels, acupuncture meridians) into the nearby tissues, which
"listen-in" and keep abreast of what is going on throughout the
organism. Many of the signals are coherent or laser-like, and are strong enough
to be radiated into the environment. This happens because the body and its
parts have no shielding to prevent communication signals from leaking out
across the surface of the skin.
The story that
is emerging has tremendous implications for the future of our medicine, our
health care, and our species. We are now able to understand why many aspects of
life and disease and disorder have been so elusive to our biomedicine. We are
able to see what has been missing from the biomedical perspective, and why the
logical scientist has been unable to comprehend the miracles of bodywork.
Something has obviously been missing from our conceptual frame. It is the set
of ideas that permits all of the pieces to fit together in a logical manner.
Now we can see not only what has been missing, but why we have missed it and
what we can do about it!
We learned much
by studying the separate parts of life's fabric, but there exist profoundly
important principles that cannot be discovered this way. Scientists now refer
to these as cooperative or synergistic or collective or whole-systems
properties. These propertiesare consequences of relations rather than of parts.
Many of the most significant of these relations are transparent, invisible to
our senses. But their outcome is our essence.
One whole-system
property is that the body is highly non-linear. Among other things, a
consequence of non-linearity is that a small amount of energy applied at a
specific point at a specific time (acupuncturists refer to this as a critical
or singular point) can give rise to a sudden and dramatic shift into a new and
stable pattern of structure and activity.
Because of your
choice of vocation, you are daily and quietly and deeply immersed in every
aspect of the system we are describing, and it is here that many of your most
profound and thrilling experiences take place. We believe that, sometime in the
future, our present age will be regarded as a time of great discovery, with
bodyworkers taking their respected places next to the scientists and
researchers and other explorers of the day. Along side the physicist's theories
of everything and grand unification theories will go the great organizing
discoveries of biology and bodywork.
The profound
discovery to emerge from biology and bodywork is the essence that nourishes the
matrix, and that is lacking in those places of disorder or pain that draw our
attention. The fundamental nutrient for the living matrix is information. This
is the same information that courses through the rivers and streams and
trickles, into every corner of the organism, and then outward, from the tips of
your fingers.
Indications are
that information, gently supplied in the pure form that can only be obtained
from another living system, not only enhances functioning, it is essential for
the growth and life of the organism. The side effects are always beneficial,
sometimes magnificent. Over-dose is impossible. This is the biomedicine of the
future. It is the only approach we are aware of that can stimulate the body's
repair systems to repair themselves.
When you come to
be sensibly touched, the scales will fall from your eyes; and by the
penetrating eyes of love you will discern that which your other eyes will never
see. (François Fénelon)
From the
beginning of this inquiry we knew that something unexpected and useful would
emerge. The first wave of joy came when some of you began to find the images
and ideas useful in your practices. The next waves will take place when
biomedical researchers begin to ask you for advice about how the body really
works.
We live in a
time of extraordinary paradox, sandwiched between seemingly complex crises on
the one side, and simple solutions on the other. Our inability to connect
predicaments with remedies is a legacy of our biological, cultural, and
linguistic endowments and bondages. Nowhere is this gap more evident and more
costly than in our present and deepening health crisis.
Methods such as
yours, working in harmony with the profound wisdom and intelligence of living
nature as it really is, reveal and encourage the smooth working together of
parts within the body, and the harmonious flow of the living body within its
larger context. Much could change if we could apply our inherent structural and
physiological wisdom, that sustains and nourishes life's every moment, and that
guides your daily work, in our larger affairs and relations.
Because of our
intellectual endowments, great ideas, clearly articulated, can profoundly
influence the way we live, and can change the course of history. There is a
simple idea, that we refer to as "continuum," underlying our most
profoundly wonderful and beautiful experiences. Continuum refers to the state
of continuous organic wholeness fundamental to the structure and behavior of
the natural world. Our most memorable and breath-taking moments are glimpses,
of one sort or another, of deep connection. Our inability to maintain this
level of awareness and experience sustains our dilemmas.
Providers of
health care share a deep commitment to the alleviation of pain and suffering.
However, our health "system" has long been in crisis, in part because
of unnecessary yet powerful intellectual, institutional, and economic barriers
to free and open and honest communication regarding areas of common interest.
The barriers are languaged by the terms we use, such as "conventional,
alternative, unconventional, orthodox, unorthodox," etc. We prefer the term
"complimentary medicine" to avoid categorizing and separating and
alienating and making "second class citizens" of compassionate
individuals with common goals.
Here we define
"complementary medicine" as therapies that are not widely taught in
medical schools in the U.S. and that are not generally available in U.S.
Hospitals. The simple truth is that no one approach has all of the answers, and
nobody benefits when the potential contribution of any approach is dismissed
out of hand as invalid. In this article we focus on an area of common interest
to all providers of health care-the human body's inherent systems for self
defense and self repair.
Complementary
approaches to medicine are rapidly gaining in popularity. A survey conducted in
1990 showed that Americans made more visits to providers of complimentary
therapies than to primary care physicians [1]. In essence, what has in the past
been classed as alternative, unconventional, unorthodox, etc., is quietly and
inexorably becoming the dominant medical paradigm.
Some studies of
complementary methods have passed rigorous scientific tests of efficacy and are
being published in standard medical journals [2,3]. Research on complementary
medicine is being driven by our health crisis with its escalating contribution
to the national debt, and by the public's right and desire to be informed about
the safety and effectiveness of all medical approaches. Our current problems
make a new approach to medicine virtually obligatory, and complementary
medicine is obviously a major component of this change. An Office of
Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health is initiating
scientific inquiry into methods that have in the past been regarded as
"outside" of normal biomedical research.
A sustained
exploration of complimentary approaches is of inestimable value. Our present
crisis makes it obvious that something has been missing from medicine's
conceptual base--the set of ideas that will enable the various pieces to fit
together in a logical and beneficial manner. An unbiased intellectual synthesis
is urgently needed, for humanity suffers daily and deeply because of our
inability to provide effective care in many situations. What is needed is
innovation, originality, and creativity, balanced with the accuracy and reliability
that science can provide.
"This thing
is the strongest of all powers, the force of all forces,
for it
overcometh every subtle thing
and doth
penetrate every solid substance"
(Tabula Smaragdina
)
The nuclear,
cytoskeletal, and extracellular matrixes: A continuous communication network
Evidence accumulates that nuclear matrices, cytoskeletons, and extracellular matrices are mechanically, chemomechanically, electromechanically, and functionally interconnected throughout the organism. The entire molecular continuum has been called a tissue tensegrity-matrix system or, simply, the living matrix. Oscillations generated by cellular activities are conducted throughout the matrix, and are altered by mechanical forces, hormones, growth factors, drugs, and carcinogenesis. Amplitude and frequency domains of the oscillations can be analyzed by Fourier and wavelet transforms. Viewed whole, the living matrix is a dynamic solid state communication network with global systemic regulatory roles. Major components of the network have semiconductor properties, a high degree of order (e.g. phospholipid bilayers and arrays of cytoskeletal, motor, and connective tissue proteins), tensional integrity (tensegrity), and can produce coherent self-sustaining oscillations with complex harmonics (Fröhlich oscillations). Hence the network generates and transmits various kinds of vibratory information and converts signals from one form to another. Examples of such conversions include mechanical to electrical and vice versa (piezoelectric effects), electrical to photonic (electro-optical effects), mechanical to photonic (acoustic-optical effects), etc. As a solid state network, the matrix and its associated hydration layers are capable of conducting message units in the form of electrons, holes, excitons, photons, phonons, protons (proticity), solitons, etc. Where dissimilar molecules bond, semiconductor junctions can form. These can function as solid state devices capable of filtering, amplifying, attenuating, storing, multiplexing, switching, and interpreting signals, as in integrated circuits. By influencing enzyme activities and protein conformations, oscillations generated and conducted throughout the living matrix can coordinate dynamic nuclear, cytoplasmic, and extracellular activities involved in growth, morphogenesis, regeneration, wound healing, and disease resistance.
Back to the
article collection