Being locked in narrow fields of perception includes a whole way of understanding the world that is partial and out of touch with our true nature. The BCST practitioner brings a huge possibility through a relational touch. It’s an ability to relate to the unconscious perceptual layers of our system. So it’s no surprise that most clients are unable to feel or perceive all of what takes place in a treatment. It takes some training to be able to relate to the them. The sophisticated practitioner is able to be in relationship to all perceptual fields simultaneously. This allows the relational field to be truly relational and not partial. How the client’s system takes this up is interesting. Most people’s systems have particular tendencies to certain perceptual fields. You can feel this when you touch them. This is why holistic shift can be such an important mechanism for the client’s system as it opens up options to other perceptual states that are not consciously experienced. One of the great benefits of this therapy is to open up the client’s conscious awareness to other perceptual states. The client then goes through profound changes as the body and mind are effected by the qualities and states within the perceptual field. One of the most remarkable experiences as a practitioner is watching the client’s system drop into dynamic stillness or long tide and observing their response across many levels. And of course, watching how this unfolds in their lives. This is the biggest effect of all. That’s the transforming nature of the therapy, to open up new perceptual fields for people. This is much more powerful than helping resolve trauma and illness.

Babies are formed in the wide perceptual field and young children move in it. That’s why we like them so much. Part of growing up is to narrow our field of perception to deal with the realities of physical life. Socialization and the modern world hasn’t helped with this shift. It’s only intensified the orientation to the physical and the material world. Lost are the wider perceptions of life. The modern world has lost much, the subtle world, feeling part of the universe and simplicity of life. Instead there’s a subjective mind that is full of ego and skepticism about anything that is not physically evident.

The BCST practitioner opens up to these perceptual layers that are in the background of our lives and guess what happens? The body loves it. It’s what the body has been missing. A connection to the matrix that we were formed in as embryos and fetuses. Suddenly the body starts becoming fluid and less structured. The material world melts and we drop into a volume of fluid reminiscent of the uterus and the fetus and experience a state of floating and freedom. Then the body wants more, it wants to dissolve back to its components into the subtle wide field that creates a feeling of being connected to all life and the body becomes air and feels like one node in a huge interconnecting web. The body is happy beyond belief now. It’s what it’s been waiting for all its life and missing. The big picture.

And to the practitioner this is normal. This is our residing state of aliveness. It comes with a wash of vitality and potency and a sense of the hugeness that is right next to us and within us all the time. It’s been there waiting in the background. It’s funny in a way because we are so blind to it. Once you know it, you see it everywhere. You are transformed to it. It’s in your daily life. It’s in the coffee shop, it’s on the train and the plane and it’s at your workplace. You feel it all the time. Humming in the background, there’s no escape from it now. All these years it’s been ignored and misunderstood but now it’s flowing into your mind and body and you are walking around feeling vast and spacious in a majestic state. And the stress and strains of life are not so serious after all. Hey, you’ve gained a perspective on things at last. And now you know you aren’t just a physical body you are a fluid being, you are a relational field being. The part you thought you were is but a small bit of who you are. And this has all happened through being touched by someone with a perception of these fields and the interweaving of them through your whole system, and that’s just like a painting – there’s a foreground and there’s a background. And the foreground is what’s eclipsing the background. There’s not even a window to see the background and the landscape never mind the horizon. But you know it’s there, you feel it. And within no time at all the background is becoming stronger. This is in the first session.

And the other fields are starting to reveal themselves and the foreground is now a mix of fields not just the narrow one and suddenly there’s the backdrop of reality coming into the room and the body, there’s an horizon in the picture now and the person’s body is diffusing into it because its not separate from us, it’s what we are made of. We have coalesced out of it. The body is a coalescence out of an energy field matrix. The same way the sun is just a part of it’s huge gravity field that effects all planets around it and responds to the rest of the galaxy through dark matter and if only we could see with other eyes the universe would light up with streams of relational lines that reveal how preposterous it is that we think we are separate.

Meanwhile the body is feeling bliss from surrendering into a state of union or is that a state or relationship to its environment? The mind might be freaking out a bit but the body is in heaven and at last it’s found what it’s been missing and now physical conditions and states of mind are but miniscule things next to a health that is everywhere, in your every atom that you’ve somehow insanely missed. That’s the mystery, how we miss it. How we have civilized our way into such separateness. And the practitioner is sat there once again being mesmerized by the phenomenon of life. That life will show itself and the body will naturally reorganize itself in response to this alignment with the whole because the mind, the modern mind, can’t except it and it looks like a miracle but actually it’s just the most natural thing in the universe happening. That’s what’s so funny and that’s what’s so important about the evolution of this work – it’s getting simpler because its recognizing the simple truth that we need to relate to the whole system that we are a part of. That’s all it needs for health and happiness and emancipation and enlightenment and I suspect that’s all that every wise man in the history of wisdom has ever really been saying and now we can make a difference through the most powerful thing in the world – touch.

The receptive field of a sensory neuron is a region of space in which the presence of a stimulus will alter the firing of that neuron. Receptive fields have been identified for neurons of the auditory system, the the somatosenory system, and the visual system. The concept of receptive fields can be extended to further up the neural system; if many sensory receptors all form synapses with a single cell further up, they collectively form the receptive field of that cell. For example, the receptive field of a ganglion cell in the retina of the eye is composed of input from all of the photoreceptors which synapse with it, and a group of ganglion cells in turn forms the receptive field for a cell in the brain. This process is called convergence and brings a whole array of neurons into relationship with a single neuron and back out to the array that is connected with that neuron. You can imagine multiplying this by millions to reveal the nature of the nervous system and how we can move from a relationship of the many to the one and back i.e. have a focal point in relationship to the environment.

The other clue is the fact we need air. We are designed for breathing air and selectively filtering oxygen from the air. Our lungs have arisen to meet this need of our cells. The other cellular need is glucose. What an amazing invention. Sugar plus air equals energy. Brining air and fruit and plants together creates energy. That’s really wild and something I would have never thought of. To make this crazy brew the body has evolved a gut and lungs. We go around and take in glucose which we call eating and we take in oxygen which we call breathing. We take in interesting parts of the planet. The cells are the ones driving this. And when you think about it the cell raw material requirement is responsible for us having a mouth and nose and a heart and blood and actually everything we have. It’s good to recognize this fact. The body has come about because of our cells and their needs. Afterall we are a basically a cellular hive. 1 trillion cells with needs!

The other clue is we have limbs. Limbs are a consequence of needing to forage in order to eat. It’s not about breathing. We could do that from an armchair. Or a bed or anywhere. So the gut and the limbs are deeply connected so that the limbs are carrying the gut around to get enough food. Food doesn’t just come to you unless you’re a clam or a barnacle. And even they move around from time to time. Nothing is static. Funny air just comes to us. One part of this equation is easy and the other really hard. So much energy and effort goes into digesting.

And the clue i really like is that we are formed of Trees. Three of them. The lymphatic, nervous and vascular trees that run through the whole system as capillarized structures that mesh together to form a million miles of fine nerve fibers and lymph vessel strands and blood caplllaries that interweave into all parts of the body so that all cells are in touch with the interstitial space around the trees of life. In fact the cells have grown around these trees. As the embryo grows it grows from its Trees and the body shapes around it. So the fundamental life structure of the body is the Trees of Life which exist in the Ocean of the interstitial fluids. Thats a great image. And the phenomenon is everywhere. All animal and plant life have these trees of life. Particularly trees!

Here’s an experiential exercise to reveal your inner trees: Start with your heart. This is the easiest thing to feel in the body because its beating (hopefully) and creating a huge flow of blood. It’s the pump going off day and night. Your brain filters it out from your daily consciousness but it only takes a few seconds to orient to it through felt sense awareness. Get interested in the flow out from the heart in all directions so that you come into awareness of the vascular system and the movement of blood through your interoceptors. You know when you have it because it’s literally a rush. Now do the same with your brain. The hum of electrical activity of the brain is filtered out from daily life just like the heart beat but you can sense this quickly. It feels like an electricity generator going off in your head and spine. This time follow the trickle of electric flow meandering into the spinal chord and brain. The sensory flow is the most recognisable nerve flow. Sit with that for a while. Now bring the two flows and their different qualities together. Let them overlay in your experience of your body. Blood moving out, nerve flow moving in. Wait for the meeting of the two to arise like an entwining. Think of a tree canopy or a root system and this will help you feel the matrix of fine fibers and capillaries that make up the complex of life structures at the level of your cells i.e. your interstitial fluid space. It’s not the main arteries and veins and nerves that are the big things, its the fine branched network that meets here. Your consciousness will move from a gross structural awareness to a much finer cell awareness that brings you into contact with the whole bed of capillarized structure. Capillary comes from the Latin fo hair. Now get interested in the background and a much slower flow coming from the lymphatic tree that is your immune tree. Quite a different quality that brings about an interesting state of awareness. Notice how this relationship transposes your experience of the blood and nerve trees. Stay with the flow of life through all three trees and follow how your body naturally reorganizes in response.

Click here for the Article  and here for a Video

‘Some species gather by the thousands to form multicellular bodies that can crawl. Others develop into gigantic, pulsating networks of protoplasm.‘

Best thing I have seen on food for ages.

To investigate the effects of moderate stress in humans Janet DiPietro and her colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, examined 122 healthy pregnant women living in the US three times during their third trimester. They asked the women about their stress levels and recorded fetal movements. They also examined the babies two weeks after birth.

Women who reported higher stress levels during pregnancy had babies that moved around more in the womb. After birth, these babies scored higher on a brain maturation test, although they were more irritable. More active fetuses had better control of body movements after birth. The stress hormone cortisol plays a role in brain maturation, which may help explain the result. (Child Development, vol 8, p115)

Anatomy of the Human Body, Henry Gray, Ossification of the Hip Bone (Fig. 237)

The hip bone is ossified from eight centers: three primary—one each for the ilium,
ischium, and pubis; and five secondary—one each for the crest of the ilium, the anterior inferior spine (said to occur more frequently in the male than in the female), the tuberosity of the ischium, the pubic symphysis (more frequent in the female than in the male), and one or more for the Y-shaped piece at the bottom of the acetabulum. The centers appear in the following order: in the lower part of the ilium, immediately above the greater sciatic notch, about the eighth or ninth week of fetal life; in the superior ramus of the ischium, about the third month; in the superior ramus of the pubis, between the fourth and fifth months.

At birth, the three primary centers are quite separate, the crest, the bottom of the acetabulum, the ischial tuberosity, and the inferior rami of the ischium and pubis being still cartilaginous.

By the seventh or eighth year, the inferior rami of the pubis and ischium are almost completely united by bone.

About the thirteenth or fourteenth year, the three primary centers have extended their growth into the bottom of the acetabulum, and are there separated from each other by a Y-shaped portion of cartilage, which now presents traces of ossification, often by two or more centers. One of these, the os acetabuli, appears about the age of twelve, between the ilium and pubis, and fuses with them about the age of eighteen; it forms the pubic part of the acetabulum. The ilium and ischium then become joined, and lastly the pubis and ischium, through the intervention of this Y-shaped portion.

At about the age of puberty, ossification takes place in each of the remaining portions, and they join with the rest of the bone between the twentieth and twenty-fifth years. Separate centers are frequently found for the pubic tubercle and the ischial spine, and for the crest and angle of the pubis.

Like the snake video, the above video captures some essential elements of hardwired trauma responses. Notice how stiff the mouse is at the start of the video. I am increasingly appreciating how stiffness is a good early sign of immobilisation. Before I was only focussed on the loss of muscle tone as a cardinal sign, in fact both can hyper and hypo myofascial tone can occur in immobilisation.

Why does the mouse attack the cat as it comes out of immobility? Two passages from Peters Levine’s excellent new book ‘In An Unspoken Voice’ give an explanation:

As They Go In, So They Come Out: The Rage Connection

‘Similarly, when a well-fed household cat catches a mouse, the latter, restrained by the cat’s paws, stops moving and becomes limp. Without resistance from the mouse, the cat becomes bored and will sometimes gently bat the inert animal, seemingly trying to revive it and restart the game anew (not unlike Jimmy Stewart slapping his swooning heroine to bring her out of her faint). With each reawakening, chasing and reactivated terror, the mouse goes deeper and longer into immobility. When it does eventually revive, it frequently darts away so quickly (and unpredictably) that it may even startle the cat. This sudden, non-directed burst of energy could just as easily cause it to run at the cat, as well as away from it. I have even seen a mouse ferociously attack the nose of an astounded cat. Such is the nature of exit from imrnobility, where induction has been repetitive and accompanied by fear and rage. Humans, in addition, reterrorize themselves out of their (misplaced) fear of their own intense sensations and emotions.

This is similar to what may happen when catatonic psychiatric patients come out of their immobility. They are often extremely agitated and may attack the staff. I once had the opportunity to work with a patient who had been in a catatonic state for two or three years. After carefully sitting by his side (getting closer, over the period of several days), I spoke to him softly about the shaking and trembling that I observed with people and animals when they come out of shock. I had also talked with the chief psychiatrist, and he agreed that they would not give him an injection of thorazine (or straitjacket him) if he came to in an agitated state, unless he was clearly dangerous to himself or others. Two weeks later l got a call from the psychiatrist. The man had begun to shake and tremble, started to cry and was released to a transitional living situation six mondis later.

To review, fear both greatly enhances and extends immobiliry and also makes the process of exiting immobility fearful and potentially violent. An individual who is highly terrified upon entering the immobility state is likely to move out of it in a similar manner. “As they go in, so they come out” was an expression that Army M.A.S.H. medics used when describing the reactions of their war-wounded patients. lf a soldier goes into surgery terrifed, and needing to be held down, he or she will likely come our of anesthesia in a state of frantic and possibly violent disorientation.’  Levine 2010 pp61-62 (Italics from original, bold added.)

The Fear of Exiting Immobility

‘In the wild, when a prey animal has succumbed to the immobility response, it remains motionless for a time. Then, just as easily as it stopped moving, it twitches, reorients and scampers off. But if the predator has remained and sees its prey returning to life, the story has a very different ending. As the prey comes back to life and sees the predator standing ready for a second (and this time lethal) attack, it either defaults to all-out rage and counterattacks, or it attempts to run away in frantic non-directed flight. This reaction is wild and “mindless”. As I mentioned in Chapter 4, I once saw a mouse counterattack a cat that had been batting it about with its paws (bringing the mouse out of its stupor), and then scurry away leaving the cat dazed, like Tom-cat in a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Just as the immobilized animal (in the presence of the predator) comes out ready for violent counterattack, so too does a traumatized person abruptly swing from paralysis and shutdown to hyper-agitation and rage. Fear of this rage and the associated hyper-intense sensations prevents a tolerable exit from immobility unless there is education, preparation, titration and guidance.’ Levine 2010 p88 (Bold added.)

Here is one more great quote from Levine I find am using a lot to support my clients to be find the resources to be with intense sensations:

‘I believe that the people who are the most resilient, and find the greatest peace in their lives, have learned to tolerate extreme sensations while gaining the capacity for reflective self-awareness.’ Levine 2010 p137

A huge thanks to Renee Hella from Body Intelligence Vancouver. She shot and uploaded the video, she thinks the cat was distracted the camera. It is also a stout cat. Renee does great work running the Body Intelligence Training Facebook page.

References

Levine P. (2010) In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid42806346001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAABvaL8JE~,ufBHq_I6FnyWGkf89fI39YptgoH3KWso&bctid=1062596274001