Cranial Circle No: 50 "To Invoke Spirit" Part I

To be sure, Craniosacral Therapy is gentle touch therapy, but the force applied is by way of intention. Intention changes the effect of touch and the challenge is to explain why.

As CST therapists we all know we work with the energy in the body known as the craniosacral rhythm. Doing so, sometimes the body responds with physical and emotional release. People ask if this is like Reiki. They also ask "Is this some kind of 'California Wooh Wooh' thing?" Have you ever been asked that? I would like to tackle that question and assumption herewith.

Below is a one minute video from Charise Rogosky where we discussed stillpoint and the spirit at a recent class:   (You may need to turn your device's volume up to hear audio.)

I use the word “invoke” with specific intention. Invoke: to call on, appeal to, ask earnestly for. Earnest: serious, sincere. Sincere: not assuming, actually moved by or feeling the apparent motives, honesty of purpose. Spirit: soul, ghost, essential character or meaning, courage, liveliness, frame of mind, liquid got by distillation. From these definitions it should be clear the energy we employ as therapist and the energy/spirit/life force the therapist and patient try to become aware of is: Inner Wisdom also known as Potency, Breath of Life.

By way of intention we call upon, earnestly ask for and often receive intentional wisdom from the body in the form of physical, spiritual and energetic awareness. From the book, "The Nature of Spirit and Man as a Spiritual Being" by Chauncy Giles we learn; "The concept of form and spirit are ideas and any idea is an image which then is a form. Spirit as well as matter therefore has substance and form." Intention is an idea and look how powerful it is! By focusing around the idea of intention to heal, we can spark the idea of spirit to change the substance of matter, namely the body. Release occurs. Healing and self-awareness result.

Emmanuel Swedenborg wrote in 1719 “It also frequently happens that a person falls into the thought of another person, that he perceives what another is doing and thinking, that is that his membrane trembles from the tremulation of the other person’s cerebral membrane, just as one string is affected by another if tuned in the same key."

William Sutherland has said the Breath of Life had supreme potency and initiative spark to involuntary activity to the primary respiratory mechanism, (Craniosacral Rhythm).

One of the most common things that come up in a CST session is one that we cannot see, but we do indeed feel: emotions. We put our hands on, settle in and earnestly appeal to the Inner Wisdom to express itself. Something usually happens. The moment the Inner Wisdom awakens and/or responds, is the moment the Craniosacral rhythm becomes still. If it occurs spontaneously it is an invitation, by spirit to be aware of body position and thoughts of the moment. Often the therapist can intentionally pause the CST rhythm (induce a stillpoint) and the Inner Wisdom will initiate a release of any restriction that was in the body before the therapist got there. In practical terms the patient might remember falling on the ice and that was the start of his headaches. The benefit in therapy is we might evaluate the sacrum where the fall occurred in order to indirectly treat the head. This is important holistic information made available to us by the Inner Wisdom (spirit), which makes significant difference in treatment outcome. These are the moments when the spirit (non-conscious life force wisdom of the body) comes into view for the therapist and the patient. The substance of the body is changed by the idea of spirit. It can be life changing.

So, CST is like Reiki in that we work with the energy of the body. CST is not like Reiki in that we do not put in -- but rather intend -- for things to come out.

As for "California Wooh, Wooh" that's up to you. I find CST based on physics, anatomy, physiology and body/mind medicine of the highest order.

This is my very first attempt at a multipart Circle. How the Inner Wisdom presents and how therapeutically we respond to it will be in Part II. Tell your friends to check in and stay tuned. Comments welcome.

Happy Day,

Don