Cranial Wave/Fluid-Energetic
Background: In all my years in the healing arts, I have found the CranioSacral Rhythm or Cranial Wave to be the most accurate indicator of the client’s overall health and well being on the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual planes.In addition,we each have an individual cranial wave pattern that is uniquely imprinted on each and everyone one of us.
In ASP1, we learned that there are 4 parameters in which we measure the CSR. These parameters of CSR are Symmetry, Quality, Amplitude, and Rate (SQAR).
Symmetry: We assess the in the skeletal system left vs right side. In the C-S System, we assess not only the difference in the paired bones (eg.parietals, temporals ), but also the singular bones (occiput, frontal,sphenoid) may exhibit many times an asymmetry in the movement in the bone itself.
In addition, there exists a Neutral Zone in the CSR which is a brief pause between the end of the flexion phase of cranial motion as it returns toward the center range and before it enters the extension phase of cranial motion. There are 2 neutral zones per cycle. In normal conditions the extension and flexion cycles should also be symmetric. This assessment is vitally important when we are evaluating the Spheno-Basilar Joint.
Quality: While more difficult to assess , the CSR should have a smooth, liquid feel to it. It should feel like a gentle wave flowing up and down in a rhythmic pattern.
Amplitude:The greater the amplitude, the greater the vitality of the area being assessed. It also indicates a greater potential for healing. Vibrant , positive people have a greater amplitude in their CSR.
Rate: The CSR ebbs and flows at a rate of 6-12 times per minute.
In addition, to the active ebb and flow yang phase of the CSR, , throughout the course of the day, stoppages of the CSR occur. This pause in the Cranial Wave can last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes and is called a Still Point.These pauses in the normal CS cycle are the body’s attempt to recalibrate and reorganize itself. It is the time when the body/mind / spirit comes to a state of deep relaxation and rest. It is a time of nourishment , peace, tranquility and a return to ones soul. As a rule, the healthier the individual, the more and deeper Still Points he will experience.
As Hugh Milne describes so eloquently and poetically, “Still points are to the cranial wave as sighs are to the breath-autonomic releases that ‘let off steam’. They also allow a return to natural rhythm after a period of overload, or trauma. During the still point the dreambody makes profound physiological recalibrations… The still point is much more than a physiological pause…
It is timelessness.
The still point is close to death, and
deathlessness, both.
Origin of the Cranial Wave:
Sutherland believed that the origin of Cranial Movement was the contractile properties within the brain itself. The brain cells , he believed, pulsated was the driving forc behind the rhythm. Scientific research has since proved this untenable.
In 1970, Dr. Upledger, while assisting in surgery to remove calcification of the dural tube in the cervical region, felt the rhythmic ebb and flow of the cerebral spinal fluid in the dural tube which was the same rate of movement of the Cranial Bones. using his palpatory skills, keen intelligence and intuition, and years of research with Zvi Karni and others from 1975- 1978 at
Michigan State University, he developed the Pressurestat Model. In short the driving force of the wave is the inflow and outflow of CSF through the water proof and relatively inelastic Dura Mater. The regulatory system for the rate of fluid is the stretch receptors located at the sagital suteres which communicate with the choroid plexuses which control production of the CSF at its blood brain barrier. Upledger was the first to link the movement of the cranial bones with the dural membranes and hydrostatic pressure of CSF.
However, the BioMechanical Model that Upledger presented cannot explain the nonlocal spiritual properties of the Cranial Wave. Milne developed his Visionary CranioSacral Therapy with the understanding that cranial bone motility is the movement of the fluctuating field…”This fluctuating field is the spirit. It is a field of information and of intelligence, a single unified system of energy, whose fundamental texture is expressed in the quality of feeling we call love… The spirit is a quantum field of energy.”
The ancient Chinese depicted the fluctuating field with the symbol of yin and yang energy dancing around a still center, the two perfectly overlapping. The ancient Hindus depicted the same dance as two serpents ascending intertwined of the kundalini. The Kabbalists recognized this dance as the intertwining of the male heaven energies intertwined with the female earth energies.
Fritz Smith provides us the energetic model of these universal energies through the bones and joints and brings together his Zero Balancing and gives structure to energy and brings energy to structure.
CranioBalance sees the Cranial Wave as the sum total of energy movement through the bones, fascia, and into all the cells, molecules and atoms. The electromagnetic field that is produced by the energy movement in the body is the Cranial Wave. The Cerebro Spinal Fluid, as the highest known element of the human body (A. T. Still) , is able to contain the ebb and flow of the cranial wave. In the words of the Spiritual Osteopaths, “The Soul swims in the Cerebral Spinal Fluid.” In a similar way, the blood contains within it the ebb and flow of the spirit and the health of the organs. Like the Chinese Master who is able to pick up imbalances in the body/ spirit through a pulse diagnosis, the CranioBalance practitioner can tune in to the Cerebral Spinal Fluid and feel the state of being of his client.
Cranial Wave Contact: The 25 micron amplitude ( half the thickness of writing paper) of the cranial wave is so minute that we need different parameters to sense , feel, experience, and affect it. The Cranial Wave can best be felt in an expanded , meditative state of consciousness. In that state, we can “see” the movement of the cranial wave, we can “hear” the inner voice of the spirit being expressed, and feel the individual imprint of the soul flowing through the body.
The optimal contact is about 5 grams of pressure.
Be in passive , listening mode.
Allow the wave come in to your hands.
Blend in with the fluid component.
Be still, be silent , and be one with the core of the client.
