the biodynamic model of osteopathy in the cranial ﬁeld

The Tao that can be completely explained is notthe Tao itself.

Dao Dejing

INTRODUCTION

The aim of this chapter is to describe the bio-dynamic model of osteopathy in the cranial field(BOCF). To do this, we employ a dialectic, a weaveof BOCF principles with BOCF science, presentedwithin an historical context. Some of this materialappears in Chapter 3 but within a differentperspective. Note that certain words have aninitial capital letter, indicating the use of a definedBOCF meaning, not a standard dictionary sense.

BOCF’s legacy extends back to Hippocrates, asreflected in the Hippocratic Oath’s axiom ‘do noharm’ and its concern for our triune (body-mind-spirit) integrity. Threads of Paracelsus-styleempiricism and Avicennian experimentalismcolor the BOCF tapestry. The foundation of BOCF,however, is firmly grounded in the philosophyand practice of three osteopathic teacher-physicians, evolving from three lifetimes spent ingeneral medical practice, working alongside theself-balancing, self-healing principles present intheir patients.

The first of these teacher-physicians is AndrewTaylor Still (1828–1917), who ‘unfurled the flag ofosteopathy’ in 1874. Dr Still sought ‘the Health’ inhis patients, which was always present no matter

93

Chapter 4

The biodynamic model ofosteopathy in the cranial fieldJohn M McPartland and Evelyn Skinner

CHAPTER CONTENTS

Introduction 93

Metaphor and archetype: the keepers of thekeys 94

Evolution of thought 96

Evolution of perceptual skills 98

Evolution of treatment approaches 99

BOCF science: quantum consciousness 101

Care and enhancement of the attention faculty 108

References 108

Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM Page 93

how sick his patients presented. This concept was fundamental to Still’s hands-on approach tocare. ‘I love my patients’, he declared, ‘I see God in their faces and their form’ (Still 1908). Thephysician’s task, Still always reminded hisstudents, was to remove with gentleness allperceived mechanical obstructions to the free-flowing rivers of life (blood, lymph and cerebro-spinal fluid). Nature would then do the rest. Stillformulated innovative concepts regarding thecranium and the cranial nerves and he famouslyproclaimed, ‘the cerebrospinal fluid [CSF] is thehighest known element that is contained in the human body’ (Still 1899). His treatmenttechniques included gentle pressure on cranialbones, for example in the treatment of pterygium(Still 1910).

The second of these teacher-physicians isWilliam Garner Sutherland (1873–1954), whodeveloped osteopathy in the cranial field (OCF).Dr Sutherland was a student of Still and becameimbued with Still’s thinking, methods andpractice. Sutherland formulated his first cranialhypothesis as a student in 1899 while examining atemporal bone from a disarticulated skull. Thethought struck him that its edges were bevelledlike the gills of a fish, as if part of a respiratorysystem. Sutherland’s 1899 revelation initiated alife-long evolution of thought, described insubsequent sections of this chapter.

The third teacher-physician is James S Jealous(1943– ) whose biodynamic model of OCF (BOCF)has attracted great interest and controversy withinthe profession. For over 30 years Dr Jealous hascompiled oral histories from Sutherland’s studentsand he continues to research Sutherland’s writings(both published and unpublished). This ‘workwith the elders’ enabled Jealous to compile anauthoritative chronology of Sutherland’s journey.Thus BOCF dedicates itself to the perceptualodyssey where Sutherland left off at the end of his life.

METAPHOR AND ARCHETYPE: THEKEEPERS OF THE KEYS

Still (1902) wrote ‘… that life and matter can beunited and that the union cannot continue with

any hindrance to free and absolute motion’. Still’sconcepts, from the beginning, were alreadybeyond the capabilities of double-blind trials.What Still saw and understood, and Sutherlandcame to refine in his later writings, was theuniversal principle that the natural world isconstantly changing and what is fixed (or withoutmotion) becomes out of balance with its environ-ment. Still considered osteopathy a science butwhen Still’s osteopathy extended beyond knownscience and rational explanation, he imparted hislessons by using metaphorical language. Ametaphor uses familiar information to describe anunfamiliar idea. Metaphor provides a verbalbridge over the space between the speaker’sintention and the listener’s interpretation (Artaud1938). This transformational space, metaphoricallyspeaking, characterizes the learning spacebetween teacher and student, the theatre spacebetween actor and audience and the healing space between the practitioner and patient, whereat a certain moment during an exchange some-thing greater than the sum of the parts emerges.

Metaphors, despite being inherently non-rational,have long provided heuristic tools for approachingscientific problems (Chew & Laubichler 2003).Western culture, however, has difficulty graspingnon-rational thought. The non-rational aspects ofosteopathy (and other alternative medical systems)are the most difficult lessons to impart and themost difficult traditions to maintain. The man-as-triune truths that lay behind Still’s osteopathybecame the victims of medical reductionism,casualties of our Western way of emphasizing theintellectual and eschewing the intuitive andinstinctual. Reductionism limits our view ofreality and our faculty of awareness (sense ofconsciousness). Alternative forms of consciousness,as expressed through dreams, poetry, music,painting, or as found in cultures outside the West,such as meditation or trance states, have remainedundeveloped in our society. Limiting our knowl-edge to what can be proven in a reductionistexperiment has consistently succeeded inexcluding the human spirit from the Westernmedical model.

This lack of spirit has been a concern of BOCFpractitioners, who gained insight and inspirationfrom Laurens van der Post (1962).

THE BIODYNAMIC MODEL OF OSTEOPATHY IN THE CRANIAL FIELD94

Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM Page 94

Man’s awareness since the Reformation has beenso narrowed that it has become almost entirely arational process, an intellectual process associatedwith the outside, the so-called physical, objectiveworld. The invisible realities are no longer real.This narrowed awareness rejects all sorts of thingsthat make up the totality of the human spirit:intuition, instincts and feelings, all the things towhich natural man had access.

van der Post’s anthropological concepts haveplayed an important role in our understanding ofhealth and disease in society. BOCF practitionershave reclaimed the human spirit in their work, inpart by use of poetic metaphor, e.g. ‘From Hensen’snode emerges the Primitive Streak, the landingstrip of the Soul’ (Turner 1994).

Still no doubt acquired the skill of communi-cating symbolically rich language from his father,a Methodist minister. Sutherland, like Still, was apracticed wordsmith, having worked as a news-paper editor before training as an osteopath(Sutherland 1962). Still’s and Sutherland’s languagereflected the intimacy of their connection with thenatural world. Still was part of a pioneer family,where nature was ever present and its impressionwas deeply embedded upon his psyche. Hematured among the Shawnee and other NativeAmerican peoples – primal cultures, in anthro-pological terms. ‘In indigenous, oral cultures,nature itself is articulate; it speaks. … There is noelement of the landscape that is definitively voidof expressive resonance and power …’ (Abram1996). Abram quotes a Native American healer,whose words resonate with the writing of Dr Still:

In the act of perception, I enter into a sympatheticrelation with the perceived, which is possible onlybecause neither my body nor the sensible existsoutside the flux of time and so each has its owndynamism, its own pulsation and style.Perception, in this sense, is an attunement orsynchronization between my own rhythms andthe rhythms of the things themselves, their owntones and textures.

Still’s landscape was peopled by individuals whosaw things from a totally different culturalperspective. Highwater (1981) wrote: ‘Though thedominant societies usually presume that their

vision represents the sole truth about the world,each society (and often individuals within thesame society) sees reality uniquely’. Still’s andSutherland’s unique cultural perspectives havebeen revived by BOCF practitioners. BOCF initiallyevolved in New England, a land imbued with thespirit of Ralph Emerson and Henry Thoreau. These19th-century New England philosophers believedthat the study of Nature, or being out of doors inthe natural world, offered a cleansing of the mindand spirit (‘defacilitation’ in BOCF terminology)and enhanced the journey of self-discovery.

When Sutherland first published his insights(1939), osteopathy was undergoing a period ofreductionism. Most practitioners focused on themechanistic aspects of osteopathic principles and practices. Sutherland’s OCF represented arenaissance of Still’s osteopathy but by the time ofSutherland’s death in 1954, the OCF renaissanceitself entered a reformational period, a reclaimingof the rational. Reformational OCF and its basictexts (Magoun 1976, Upledger & Vredevoogd1983) have been embraced by many osteopaths aswell as massage therapists, physical therapists andchiropractors. But Sutherland’s original renaissancehas carried on, under the aegis of his osteopathicstudents including Anne Wales, Ruby Day, RollinBecker and Robert Fulford (Cardy 2004).

As OCF has led to BOCF, the use of metaphorhas led to the use of archetype. Whereas ametaphor is a figure of speech used to suggest aresemblance, an archetype is a universal symbolthat evokes deep and sometimes unconsciousresponses in a reader or listener. Archetypessymbolically embody basic human experiencesand their meaning is instinctually and intuitivelyunderstood. Jealous’s concept of ‘the embryo’ asever present in the living organism is a key BOCFarchetype. When studying the writings of theembryologist Blechschmidt (described below),Jealous was impressed by Blechschmidt’sconclusion that embryonic function (fluid motion)creates form and precedes structure. Jealous(2001) intuited from Blechschmidt’s reports thatthe embryologist must have witnessed theorganizational forces of primary respiration atwork, without the palpatory confirmation, giventhe reverence with which Blechschmidt & Gasser(1978) wrote:

Metaphor and archetype: the keepers of the keys 95

Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM Page 95

The originality of embryonic human beings isdiscernible in many ways; for example, the earlyhuman conceptus is master of the whole geometrythat it applies to itself. It is never mistaken aboutany angular sum and it is never deceived in anysurface to volume ratio. It never sets an inter-secting point on the wrong site and is master ofevery physical as well as chemical reaction.

The embryo, as an archetype of perfect form,serves as a blueprint for our body’s ability to healitself. The formative, resorptive and regenerativefluid forces that organize embryological develop-ment are present throughout our lifespan, readyfor our co-operation in harnessing their therapeuticpotency. In other words, the forces of embryogenesisbecome the forces of healing after birth. It is to thisstate of originality and omnipotentiality that ourFluid Body is constantly returning, a process of‘morphic resonance’ (Sheldrake 1981).

Among BOCF practitioners, every event withinthe therapeutic arena has a name. Nothing isreferred to vaguely in terms of ‘energy’. Theimportance of naming is shared by primal culturesworldwide, notably the Bushmen of the Kalahari(van der Post 1961). According to the Bushman, anindividual’s separation from that part of them-selves that is connected to ‘everything else’ leadsto fear and a sense of aloneness and this facilitatesthe disease process. Because treatment using theBOCF connects the patient to nature, the patientreceives an immediate experience of ‘not-aloneness’or ‘belonging’ in a deep way. Patients gain aphysical sense of ‘community’, possibly for thefirst time in their life. As Wendell Berry (1996)emphasized, ‘The community is the smallest unitof health’.

In the next three sections of this chapter, wereview OCF’s and BOCF’s evolution of thought,evolution of perceptual skills and evolution oftreatment approaches – from the Bones to the Durato the CSF to the Fluid Body. See Box 4.1 for asummary.

EVOLUTION OF THOUGHT

Bones

From his student days until the late 1920s,Sutherland concentrated on cranial bones, their

sutures and foramina. Sutherland proposed thatcranial sutures remain mobile throughout aperson’s life. His hands-on insights predictedwhat is now known through histological studies –that most cranial sutures never completely ossify(Retzlaff & Mitchell 1987). Living sutures containconnective tissue, blood vessels and nerves. Theymaintain articular function and serve as cross-roads of metabolic motion and somatic information.Sutherland’s deductive observations were con-firmed by research completed by his osteopathiccontemporary, Charlotte Weaver. She conductedexperiments that led her to regard the bones of thecranium as modified vertebrae (Weaver 1936a).Fetal dissections supported her theory that thespinal column and the cranium are embryo-logically homologous (Weaver 1936b). Weavercharacterized the sphenobasilar symphysis as amodified disk between occiput and sphenoid –plastic and capable of motion (Weaver 1938).


1910s–1920s Sutherland studies the cranialbones and their sutures and foramina

1930s, early Sutherland begins experimentingwith the dura and its infoldings (falx, tentorium)

1930s, late Sutherland shifts his focus to thefluctuation of cerebrospinal fluid and elucidates thePrimary Respiratory Mechanism

1943 Sutherland describes the Breath of Life

1948 Sutherland begins working with Tidal Potency

1951 Sutherland stops motion testing, all fulcraoccur in still points

1960s Sutherland’s writings are published, afterediting by Ada Sutherland and Anne Wales

1970s Sutherland’s students Rollin Becker andRobert Fulford expand his post-1943 work

1980s Bar Harbor: at a meeting of osteopathsfrom England and New England, James Jealous linksSutherland’s insights to the works of Blechschmidtand van der Post

Box 4.1 A chronology of OCF and BOCFevolution

Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM Page 96

Dura

In the early 1930s Sutherland shifted his emphasisto the dura and its bilaminar infoldings that formthe falx and the tentorium, collectively known asthe reciprocal tension membrane, which balancesmotion within the skull. Sutherland accessed thedura by gently gripping the cranium. The externalperiosteum is contiguous with the internal dura.Sutherland visualized one continuous web ofconnective tissue, from the cranium down to thesacrum – which he characterized as the tadpole-shaped ‘core-link’.

CSF

In the middle 1930s Sutherland shifted his focus tothe fluctuation of CSF, driven by what he termedthe Primary Respiratory Mechanism (PRM). Hepostulated that the PRM consists of fivephenomena (Magoun 1976).

• The inherent motility of the brain and the spinalcord

• Fluctuation of the CSF• Motility of the intracranial and intraspinal

membranes • Articular mobility of the bones of the cranium• Involuntary mobility of the sacrum between

the ilia.

Sutherland described CSF circulating down andaround the spinal cord in a rhythmically pulsatileand spiral fashion. Science has again caught up with his hands-on insights, thanks to advancesin radionuclide magnetic resonance imaging(Greitz et al 1997). Magoun (1976) named this CSFpulsation the Sutherland Wave, after its discoverer.Many practitioners refer to the pulsation as thecranial rhythmic impulse (CRI), a term coined byRachel and John Woods (1961). Clinical studiesreport a palpable CRI rate of 6–12 cycles/min,independent of cardiac or diaphragmatic rhythms(Magoun 1976).

The CRI phenomenon is poorly understoodand its origin remains unknown (acupuncturistsface a similar situation when asked to describe qi).Sutherland (1939) proposed that pulsations arisefrom rhythmical motions of the brain, causingdilatation and contraction of cerebral ventricles,generating a pulse wave of CSF. Magoun (1976)

elaborated on this proposal and also posed analternative hypothesis – that the choroid plexusproduces CSF in rhythmic cycles and thisoscillation generates brain motility. Upledger &Vredevoogd (1983) refined the choroid plexushypothesis, calling it the ‘pressurestat model’.McPartland & Mein (1997) called the CRI apalpable harmonic frequency, a summation ofseveral pulsations such as CSF oscillations, thecardiac pulse, diaphragmatic respiration, Traube-Hering modulations, rhythmically contractilelymphatic vessels, pulsating glial cells and otherpolyrhythms. This ‘entrainment hypothesis’ hasbeen put forward independently (e.g. Milne 1998)and recently supported by experimental data(Nelson et al 2001). Many of these biologicaloscillators are lesioned by imbalanced autonomictone (Schleip 2002), making the CRI variable andephemeral. Indeed, in the face of severe dys-function, the body’s rhythms may not co-ordinateinto harmonics, resulting in an undetectable CRI.Thus from a BOCF perspective the CRI is a lesionphenomenon.

Fluid Body

Many osteopaths today work within the CRImodels proposed by Magoun or Upledger butSutherland moved on. In the final 10 years of hislife, Sutherland described the PRM being generatedby external forces. He sensed his patients beingmoved by an external ubiquitous force, which hecalled the Breath of Life (BoL). Sutherland per-ceived the BoL to be an incarnate process, passingthrough the patient’s body and the practitioner’shands, undiminished. With the BoL conceptSutherland’s reverence for a self-correcting systemhad fully flowered.

Sutherland arrived at a conceptual transition,leaving those who followed with a bridge to thedepth of osteopathic research and practice thatplaces us upon a new and deeply challengingrenewal of the ultimate truths of our profession.(Jealous 1997)

Sutherland’s bridge linked his students to Still’searlier insights, such as ‘Life is the highest knownforce in the universe’ and ‘We are the children of agreater mind’ (Still 1902).

Evolution of thought 97

Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM Page 97

In the final years of his life, Sutherland’sperceptual language drew upon the natural worldaround his home in Pacific Grove, California. Hespoke of his patients as if they were part of a sea,with waves that rhythmically move through thewater and a tide that moves deeper, through bothwater and waves (Sutherland et al 1967). Sutherlandwas describing a polyrhythmic system (see Table 4.1). As the BoL transubstantiates into thePRM, it generates various harmonic rhythms inthe body, such as the ‘Long Tide,’ the ‘2 to 3 cycle’and the CRI. Becker (1965) described the LongTide as the basal rhythm, its rate directlycorrelating with that of the BoL, oscillating at afrequency of six cycles every 10 minutes. Around1988 Jealous described the ‘2 to 3’ (aka the 2 CPMcycle) with a mean frequency of 2.5 cycles/min(Jealous 1997). The 2 CPM is a harmonic of theLong Tide. It is not modulated by the central orautonomic nervous systems, making it a stablerhythm. Polyrhythms may explain the poor agree-ment seen in some OCF interexaminer reliabilitystudies. For example, the interexaminer study byNorton (1996) reported low reliability betweenOCF practitioners. This study was flawed becauseone practitioner recorded the CRI rate while theother practitioner recorded the 2 CPM cycle(Jealous, personal communication, 1997).

Sutherland (Sutherland & Wales 1990) comparedthe BoL to the cyclic, sweeping beam of lightemitted from a lighthouse, ‘lighting up the oceanbut not touching it’. The BoL sweeps through thepatient, enlightening the healing forces alreadypresent in the patient. This allows the ‘Fluid Body’to emerge, where the whole body behaves as if

12

12

12

it were a single unit of living substance. The Fluid Body represents the BOCF equivalent of aBose-Einstein condensate, where individualmolecules lose their identity and form a cloud thatbehaves as a single entity (Cornell & Wieman 2002).

EVOLUTION OF PERCEPTUAL SKILLS

Bones

Sutherland’s initial osseous approach to OCFrequires a sound palpatory comprehension of allsurface landmarks of the cranium, at all stages ofhuman development. This includes the contoursof the 22 cranial bones, their interlocking articu-lations and many fissures and foramina. Normaland abnormal levels of tonus in extracranialmuscles must also be appreciated, as well as tissuetexture changes in cutaneous tissues.

Dura

The dural model of OCF, like the osseous approach,requires a comprehensive grasp of anatomy.Perceptually, sensing the dura and the reciprocaltension mechanism requires the practitioner topalpate tissues beyond his or her fingertips. Thisseemingly esoteric skill is familiar to anyone whohas driven an automobile on wet roads – feeling aslippery road surface through the steering wheel,sensing the road surface indirectly, through aseries of linkages from the road through the tiresthrough the wheel axles to the steering wheel.

CSF

For practitioners working with the CSF and fluidfluctuations, anatomical knowledge is not sufficient.Rollin Becker admonished, ‘Studying the cadaveris like studying a telephone pole to find out how atree works’ (Speece et al 2001). The requisiteeducation comes from a study of living tissues inone’s patients. The practitioner visualizes ‘a stateof rapport in the fluid continuity between thephysician and the patient’ (Magoun 1976) by‘melding the hands with the head’ (Upledger &Vredevoogd 1983). With training and practice thepractitioner feels a subtle motion, much like therespiratory excursion of the chest, sensed as a


Cycle name Cycle rate Cycle source

Cranial rhythmic 6–12 cycles/min Unknown. Possiblyimpulse autonomics or

pre-Neutral CNSactivity

2 CPM cycle 2.5 cycles/min Primary Respiration

Long Tide 0.6 cycles/minute Breath of Life

12

Table 4.1 Polyrhythmic cycles described in OCF and BOCF

Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM Page 98

broadening and narrowing of the head betweenthe hands. This type of palpation represents aharmonic signal of several senses, includingtemperature receptors, mechanoreceptors andproprioceptors (McPartland & Mein 1997). Otheryet unelucidated sensors may detect piezoelectricityor electrical fields as described by yogic prac-titioners (Green 1983). Milne (1998) achieved‘visionary craniosacral perception’ by entraininghis diaphragmatic breath, empathy and intentwith those of his patient.

Fluid Body

Detecting polyrhythms and the Fluid Bodyrequires practitioners to augment their ‘afferent’activity and reduce their ‘efferent’ activity. In otherwords, practitioners must emphasize receptionrather than transmission – the difference betweenlistening to a radio and conversing on a cellphone. Even ‘melding the hands with the head’may be too efferent. Conveying efferent forces intoa patient creates a jumbled sense of ‘I–thou’. Todetect the Long Tide and the 2 CPM cyclerequires defacilitation of the practitioner’s centralnervous system (Jealous 2001). Our consciousness,like our spinal cord, can become facilitated andnoisy. According to Jealous, a quiet mind requiresthe cranial, thoracic and pelvic diaphragms tofunction without inhibition. This is accomplishedby allowing the breath to become slow andregular and by softening the muscles above thepubic bone. These actions reportedly serve to‘synchronize the practitioner’s attention’. Asattention synchronizes and has room to breathe,the practitioner senses deeper rhythms and thesignal shifts from the CRI rate to the 2 CPM cycle. With deeper defacilitation, perception of the2 CPM cycle disappears into the Long Tide (Jealous 2001).

With enhanced perceptual skills, the practitionereventually perceives a sense of Neutral, which isexperienced as a homogenization of tissue, fluidand potency – the Fluid Body, where nothingunder the fingertips can be discerned as a separateentity. This lysergic entity lies at the perceptualcenter of BOCF. The Neutral cannot be con-ceptualized, it can only be experienced. It is herethat ‘holism’ becomes more than a philosophical

12

12

12

concept; it can be appreciated as an actual sensoryperception.

References to the Long Tide and the BoL appearin the first edition of Magoun (1951), possibly dueto the influence of Paul Kimberly (Jealous,personal communication, 2001). But references tothe BoL were expunged from later editions.‘Osteopathy has shamefully hidden its greatestmystery and resources’ (Jealous 2001). A summaryof some of the differences between OCF andBOCF is presented in Table 4.2.

EVOLUTION OF TREATMENT APPROACHES

Bones

Directly adjusting sutures and foramina affectsthe function of cranial nerves and vessels thattraverse these apertures, as well as the function ofmuscles that originate or insert upon cranialbones. Some of Sutherland’s students continue tofocus on bones and sutures, such as the Americanchiropractor DeJarnette, who founded sacral-occipital technique (Hesse 1991). Treatment ofsuboccipital muscles directly impacts the duraand may be helpful in patients with duralheadaches and chronic pain syndromes(McPartland et al 1997).

Dura

Treating the reciprocal tension membrane withbalanced membranous tension (BMT) is anindirect technique, performed by gently exagge-rating the membrane’s strain patterns, balancingthe tension in strained fibers with the tensionpresent in normal fibers, effecting a release of thestrain (Sutherland & Wales 1990). Many osteopathswork with this dural model and get good results.Lawrence Jones used his counterstrain techniqueto mold the falx and the tentorium. Beryl Arbucklewas an extraordinarily gifted practitioner of BMT.

CSF

Sutherland initially used direct hydraulic force,such as the CV-4 technique for compressing CSFin the fourth ventricle (Magoun 1976, Upledger &Vredevoogd 1983). The CV-4 induces therapeutic

Evolution of treatment approaches 99

Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM Page 99

changes around the body, possibly via peri-aqueductal gray (PAG) tissue, which surroundsthe fourth ventricle. The PAG is lined with neuro-receptors (opioid and cannabinoid receptors) andit responds to stimuli (such as hydraulic pressure)by activating these neuroreceptors, by releasingendorphins and endocannabinoids and bypropagating pain-inhibitory signals to the dorsalhorn. The PAG is homuncular, like the somato-sensory cortex, so the topography of the PAGcorresponds to different parts of the body (J Giodarno, personal communication, 2002).

Most practitioners who work with the rhythmicfluctuation of CSF focus upon the CRI rate, asexampled by Magoun’s and Upledger’s models.The CRI rate is also the focus of the SutherlandCranial Teaching Foundation (SCTF), althoughthe SCTF now incorporates the 2 CPM cycle andthe Long Tide into its curriculum (A Norrie,personal communication, 2002).

CRI-oriented practitioners may bring abouttherapeutic changes by inducing entrainment(McPartland & Mein 1997). Entrainment was first described in 1665 by Christiaan Huygens

12

(Strogatz & Stewart 1993). He noted that collectionsof pendulum clocks began swinging in synchronywith each other. This coupling phenomenon alsoarises within organisms (e.g. cardiac pacemakercells) and between organisms (e.g. simultaneouslyflashing fireflies, harmoniously chirping cricketsand women whose menstrual phases cycletogether). Huygens noted that the ‘strongest’ clocks(those with the heaviest pendulums) establishedthe eventual, overall rhythm. McPartland & Mein(1997) proposed that practitioners transferredtheir ‘strong clock’ rhythms onto their patientsand enhanced this transfer by assuming a medi-tative state before treating patients. Meditative,centered states are known to produce strongentrainment (Tiller et al 1996). Centering to harnessentrainment may be a widespread therapeutictechnique, albeit unrecognized by practitioners ofFeldenkrais, network chiropractic, polarity therapy,reiki, therapeutic touch and Tragering. Chinesepractitioners center on tan tien, the ‘one point’,about 5 cm above the pubic bone, whereas Tibetanpractitioners meditate on an image of theMedicine Buddha centered at sahar chakrã, the


Biomechanical Biodynamic

Techniques led by practitioner’s forces, directly or Techniques follow movement within the system. Transmutativeindirectly ability of the Tide is acknowledged. Tidal forces directly interface

with pattern of disease. Practitioner follows closely

Axial motion in bones Transmutational, translational motion

‘Mechanism’ used as a non-distinct collective term ‘Mechanism’ defined through specific elements (i.e Breath of Life, Fluid Drive, Tidal Forces, different rates, etc.). Words have sensory foundations that are clearly stated

CRI is a primary expression of the BoL CRI is not an expression of the BoL, nor is it a therapeutic force.

CRI 8–14 cycles per minute. Slower rates not Basic rate is 2–3 cycles per minute; slower rates are specifically identified identified as primary to the system

Perception is automatic. Skills not delineated Perception is a conscious, skillful act, requiring training and moment-to-moment adjustment, not automatic

Lesions are somatic and articular in nature Lesions may occur at any level in the system. A lesion is seen as aunit of dysfunction in the Whole person

SBS is a primary site of orientation for lesion activity. Primary site is variable. Lesions are not automatically corrected, Lesions are diagnosed and reduced by conceptual sequences are not conceptual. Priorities are established by sequences beginning at SBS the Tide

Table 4.2 A brief comparison of biomechanical and biodynamic models of OCF

Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM Page 100

crown of the head (McPartland 1989). The new‘Freeze-Frame’ technique focuses on the heart toachieve entrainment (Tiller et al 1996). All thesetechniques center attention on parts of the bodyrich in biological oscillators (intestines, brain andheart).

Tiller et al (1996) stated that feelings of empathyand love lead to strong entrainment. Jahn (1996)described the resonant bond between practitionerand patient as a form of love, transmitting‘beneficial information’. Wirkus (1992) emphasizedthat the healer ‘… must feel and be the heartchakra. … It is not thinking the word “love”, it isthe real sensation of pure love which bringswarmth, delicate vibrations in your heart area’.Fulford (1988) was precise: ‘You the [practitioner]stand neutral, acting as a conduit for the flow ofdivine love. As you learn to use love properly inhealing work, your body vibrations increase and itbecomes easier to handle the potency of the loveenergy’.

Entrainment has its limitations. It can only beemployed by practitioners who work with theCRI. Practitioners working with slower rhythmsavoid efferent activity, so no entrainment may bepossible or desired. We limit our therapeuticpotential when we focus solely on the CNS –whether we work with the CSF or the cellularvibrations of entrainment. We may also cause sideeffects and iatrogenesis (Greenman & McPartland1995, McPartland 1996).

Fluid Body

According to a précis by Jealous (personalcommunication, 2004), ‘Cranial osteopathy is notabout the cranium. It is about Primary Respiration’.Sutherland’s move from the CSF to the Fluid Bodybegan with a technique he called ‘automaticshifting’. Paulsen (1953) described Sutherland’ssensation of a ‘motor’ starting in the CSF and thencarrying on of its own accord, generating ahealing force that treated several lesions aroundthe body. ‘The core of this work is perceptual’,wrote Jealous (2001). ‘We learn to sense the Whole.When one meets a patient, one sees the Whole – avery rare event in our modern world.’ When apatient achieves a Neutral as described pre-viously, the CNS becomes quiet (the person often

falls asleep). With the CNS ‘out of the way’, thewhole person – the CNS, CSF, all other fluids andall other tissues – merges into the Fluid Body.Within the protoplasmic Fluid Body, motion ispurely metabolic, responding freely to the outsidepresence of the natural world and the BoL.

To harness the potency present in the BoL asexpressed in the Tide requires ever more subtletechniques. In the final years of his career,Sutherland stopped all motion testing of the headand applied no forces to osteopathic lesions. Heworked with fulcrums in still points and stated,‘treat not with techniques but gentle contact’(Sutherland & Wales 1990). Working with theHealth is a BOCF imperative, echoing Still (1899):‘To find health should be the object of the doctor.Anyone can find disease’. Jealous (1997) describedtherapeutic changes requiring an ‘aboriginal andinstinctual consciousness’ on the part of thepractitioner, not intellectual or even intuitive: ‘Themoment is filled with the effort to be present withthe Health in the patient and the story as itunfolds into its own answer’.

BOCF SCIENCE: QUANTUMCONSCIOUSNESS

Osteopaths base their science in physics, whereasWestern medical practitioners practice chemistry –their pharmacodynamic tools treat chemicalmoieties known as genes and gene products.Osteopaths recognize the A-T-C-G chemistry ofgenes but focus on the physics of the midlinewithin the double helix itself. To wit, osteopathsfocus on the double helix’s fourth dimension:time. DNA converts time into space. Surprisingly,this transmutation can be explained within the mechanistic model of Newtonian physics(Pourquié 2003). Many new ideas proposed byNew Age healers operate within a Newtonianparadigm. Pert (2000) hypothesized that energytherapists heal their patients by inducing avibrational tone that shifts neuroreceptors intotheir constitutively active state or the vibrationstrigger the release of endorphins that activate the neuroreceptors. Oschman (2000) describedcrystalline materials within biological structures(e.g. phospholipids within cell membranes,


Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM Page 101

collagen in connective tissues) that generateelectric fields when compressed or stretched(piezoelectricity). These energy fields may be thesource of hands-on healing, a radical propositionbut safe within a mechanistic paradigm.

Newtonian physics has undergone a paradigmshift to quantum physics, thanks to relativisticstudies addressing subatomic phenomena andconsciousness. Still’s writings suggest he hadundergone a quantum paradigm shift. He knewinstinctively that the healing events in his patientshappened at the subatomic level but he did nothave the words or the concepts of quantum physicsto draw upon, to express the transformation hewas experiencing in his treatments. Instead, heascribed the return to health to God or DivineNature at work.

Sutherland’s BoL exhibits characteristics thatcan only be explained by quantum theory (e.g. thetheory of implicate order by Bohm 1980). The BoLtransubstantiates into Primary Respiration, a fieldforce that generates a spatial orientation, so itshares characteristics with the ‘morphogeneticfields’ described by Sheldrake (1981). Sheldrake’sconcepts are very quantum: morphogenetic fieldscarry information only (no energy) and areavailable throughout time and space without anyloss of intensity after they have been created.These non-physical ‘blueprints’ guide the formationof physical forms through three-dimensionalpatterns of vibration he called morphic resonance.The morphic resonance that generates form in theembryo is the same process that generates healingin the adult.

The role of consciousness in quantum theory isa radical departure from classic physics. Theoutcome of any experiment depends upon theconsciousness of the observer. Indeed, the termobserver should be replaced by the term participator.We cannot observe the universe, we are partici-pants in it. Our individual consciousness is asmall hologram of the universal consciousnessshared by all living things. Capra (1996) namedconsciousness (‘the process of knowing’) as a keyfeature of life, including life forms such as plantsand protozoans that lack a central nervoussystem. The protoplasmic Fluid Body shares thisconsciousness, which explains its ‘sensitive’ and‘decision-making’ attributes (Jealous 2001).

From a BOCF perspective, Jealous (2001)acknowledged that the practitioner’s conscious-ness has a primary role in the depth of therapeuticchanges arising in the patient. Jealous discoveredthat his therapeutic results improved in proportionto the extent to which he could free himself fromconscious rationalization. He discovered, as didSutherland, that the practitioner’s effort ‘… is to letthe Breath of Life move us, allow us vision. … One’seffort must be from a “sense of the possibilities”’(Jealous 2001). The following sections of thischapter review new research ‘around the edges’ ofBOCF science.

Blechschmidt’s embryology vis à vis the BoL

Jealous (2001) characterized traditional osteopathyas a science based on anatomy, whereas BOCF is ascience based on embryology. BoL practitionershave followed the work of Erich Blechschmidt(1902–1992), an unabashedly holistic embryologist.Blechschmidt (1977) maintained that the embryois not only alive, it is fully functional at every stageof its development. According to Blechschmidt,each part of the embryo develops in motion andeach motion impacts the development of eachsubsequent development. Early embryologicaldevelopment is largely epigenetic, guided by fluiddynamics. Blechschmidt’s concepts agree withBOCF practitioners, who postulate that the BoL,the external force described by Sutherland,generates a spatial orientation in the embryo. Thespatial orientation becomes expressed in thematerial plane by fluid forces, perhaps byelectromagnetic water hydrogen bonds (a conceptthat resonates with the ‘water imprint’ theory ofhomeopathy), generating a matrix that governsthe embryo’s development. This conceptualagreement between Blechschmidt and BOCFplaces them on one side of a great debate. For thepast 50 years scientists have argued over twotheories regarding embryonic development: is itpassive and ‘external’, driven by fluid dynamics, oractive and ‘internal’, driven by the molecularactivity of genes?

Neural crest cells (NCCs) are a focus of thisdebate. Migratory NCCs appear in the fourthweek of human embryogenesis. As the lateraledges of the neural plate fold up and fuse at the


Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM 2

midline to form the neural tube, NCCs surf thecrest of the wave generated by this zipper-likeaction. They follow highly replicated, stereotypicalpathways. In our age of molecular medicine,advocates of active cell migration uphold thedominant paradigm. According to this view,migrating NCCs are directed by genes thatexpress cell membrane receptors. NCC receptorssense molecular gradients in the extracellularfluid. Thus NCC migration has been described aschemotaxic, guided by molecules such as integrins,cadherins and connexins (Maschhoff & Baldwin2000). This molecular view is challenged, how-ever, by phylogenetic inconsistencies – NCCs onlyappear in vertebrate embryos. Invertebrateembryos have no NCCs yet they express geneslinked with NCC migration, such as BMP2/4,Pax3/7, Msx, Dll and Snail (Holland & Holland2001). Vice versa, genes associated with vertebratecell migration, such as CNR1 (Song & Zhong 2000),are absent in invertebrates (McPartland & Glass2001, McPartland et al 2001). Plants, which aredevoid of a CNS, also express integrin receptors(Lynch et al 1998), which aid plant cells in theperception of gravity (a very subtle force in non-ferrous materials). Perhaps integrin receptors arenot chemotaxic guides but in fact respond tosubtle electromagnetic forces such as the BoL.

Blechschmidt argued that fluid dynamicspermit migrating cells to overcome the inertial,thixotropic (viscous) behavior of embryonicextracellular fluid. The tensile quality of the fluidmatrix provides a scaffold for the migration andmovement of NCCs. BOCF practitioners correlatethis concept with Sutherland’s description of theTide acting as a fluid-within-a-fluid, expressing atensile quality, with the ability to direct force.Blechschmidt’s theory has been verified byresearchers around the world (see a dozencitations in Jesuthasan 1997) who injected latexbeads into living embryos. Latex beads are inertobjects incapable of molecular chemotaxis andlacking inherent motility. They nevertheless followthe migratory pathways of NCCs. The tensilefluid forces required for this kind of movementwere demonstrated by Schwenk (1996), who usedmicropipettes to inject streams of fluids into water.Boundary surfaces arising between the movingfluid and the still water vortexed into organic

forms (see Fig. 4.1). Experimental changes in fluiddensity or injection speed created different forms.In some experiments, the tensile quality of thefluid matrix created shapes that resembled themigratory path of neural crest cells. In otherexperiments the spatial orientations of fluid-in-a-fluid suggested CNS formation in the embryo,complete with dura and pia, cerebral hemispheresand a corpus callosum connecting the hemispheres(see Fig. 4.2). Schwenk’s experiments with fluidmechanics suggested that the geometric configu-ration of the embryo is present before the structuredevelops.

Genetic contributions

After the fluids lay down a matrix or blueprint,genetic expression subsequently organizes the cellsand cell migration does indeed become active. Forexample, the initial wave of NCCs stops migratingand establishes a reticular lattice. This latticeprovides a scaffold for the active chemotaxicgrowth of neurons, presaging the mature organiz-ation of the autonomic nervous system (Conner et al2003).

Similar phenomena govern the growth ofneurons, via a sensory and motor apparatus intheir tip termed the growth cone. Growth conepathfinding is partially guided by fluid forces, apassive process again demonstrated by thetranslocation of inert latex beads (Newman et al1985). But genes also contribute to growth conepathfinding, by expressing cell membrane receptorsthat are activated by extracellular ‘attractant’ or‘repellent’ compounds. For example, UNC-40 andEph receptors are activated by netrins and ephrins,proteins secreted into extracellular fluid. ActivatedUNC-40 and Eph receptors begin a molecularcascade that directs the cell’s actin cytoskeleton,thereby regulating growth cone motility (Dickson2002). A veritable molecular soup guides neuronsto their destinations. This complexity can beappreciated by the daunting task faced bycommissural axons, which must grow towards themidline, cross it and then continue on their pathwithout turning back.

Nevertheless, Blechschmidt emphasized thatgenes do not act; they react to external forces. Thereaction of genes to hydrostatic pressure during


Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM Page 103

embryogenesis has recently been termed ‘themorphogenetic mechanism’ (van Essen 1997). vander Wal (1997) likened genes to the clay that formsa piece of pottery. Clay by itself cannot form intoshape, it requires the hands of the artist. And thehands of the artist cannot act without the mind ofthe artist. From a BOCF perspective, clayrepresents the genes, the hands represent the fluidforces and the artist’s mind represents the BoL –the ‘deific plan’ or the ‘master mechanic’ often

alluded to by Still. Anecdotally, we (JM and ES)attended a BOCF workshop the week that Venter et al (2001) published the human genomesequence. While scientists around the worldpondered the paradox that an organism of our complexity could operate on only 30 000genes (Claverie 2001), our workshop of BOCFpractitioners confirmed the obvious necessity forepigenetic forces to make ‘decisions’ that shapeembryogenesis.


Figure 4.1 Photomicrograph of micropipette injecting a stream of fluid into water, forming a vortex. Theboundary surface between the moving fluid and the still water creates organic forms. (Illustration by Gerald Moonen, redrawn from Schwenk 1996, with permission.)

Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM Page 104

Metabolic motion

Blechschmidt (1977) elaborated six differentmechanisms by which fluids ‘behave internally’,creating function out of which emerges structure:contusion, distusion, dilatation, retension, detractionand densation. Later he added corrosion, looseningand suction mechanisms (Blechschmidt & Gasser1978). These mechanisms are driven by themetabolism of cellular tissues. Cell metabolismpotentizes or depletes various fluids, whichBlechschmidt termed ‘metabolic fields’. Forexample, the earliest bending of the embryonicdisk – flexing into a ‘C’ shape – is due to adecrease in pressure from the collapse of the yolksac (Drews 1995). Cellular metabolism depletes

nutrients in extracellular fluids and causes abuild-up of metabolic wastes. Sheets of cellsadjacent to depleted fluids slow their growth andbecome the concavity of tissue curvatures.Concentration gradients of nutrients and wastescreate fluid movements between sources andsinks. When these fluid movements canalizetissues they become embryonic blood vessels.

Sheets of cells, tissues and organs grow atdifferent rates. The epithelial linings of theseassemblages become restraining structures,generating form. The embryonic face, for example,arises as folds and furrows between an expandingbrain and a beating heart (Blechschmidt & Gasser1978). Growth differentials within the embryoniccranium create fluid patterns that later condense


Figure 4.2 Photomicrograph ofmicropipette injecting a stream of fluidinto water, an experimental variation fromFigure 4.1, changing the density of thefluid. The spatial orientation of boundarysurfaces suggests that of embryonic CNSformation. (Illustration by Gerald Moonen,redrawn from Schwenk 1996, withpermission.)

Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM Page 105

into mechanical tension zones or mesenchymalrestraining bands known as the dural girdles.They guide the position, shape and inner structureof the brain: ‘The resistances are not crudemechanical forces but delicate living developmentalresistances’ (Blechschmidt 1961). The midlinedural girdle between the cerebral hemispheresserves as a strong restrainer against the pull of thedescending viscera and the eccentric growth of thecerebrum. This midline dural girdle is retainedinto adulthood as the falx cerebri. It initiallycleaves the frontal bone, which is why the frontalbone, a single midline structure in most adults,functionally behaves like a paired bone. In someindividuals this midline function is retained asstructure, the metopic suture (Magoun 1976).Several paired dural girdles arise in the embryoand one of them is retained into adulthood as thetentorium cerebelli.

Functional midline

Another aspect of embryology that informs BOCFis the concept of a functional midline, around whichour bodies and health must organize. The midlineis the earliest expression of function within theembryo. A series of structures arises from themidline – first the primitive streak appears in theectoderm, beginning at the caudal pole of theembryonic disk. Subsequently, the notocorddevelops within the endoderm, again growingfrom caudad to craniad. Days later, the neuralgroove forms along the midline, arising tail tohead. During the fourth week of development, theneural tube closes at its two ends and themovement of fluid is no longer a circulation but afluctuation. The amniotic fluid becomes the CSF.The lamina terminalis marks the closure of thecephalgic end of the tube. This midline structurepersists in the adult, at the roof of the thirdventricle. It is the pivot point for all neuralmovement. During the inhalation phase of thePRM, the entire central nervous system spirallyconverges upon the lamina terminalis. During theexhalation phase, all tissues move away from thelamina terminalis.

Jealous (1997) described the midline arisingfrom the Stillness, generated by the BoL. Thefunctional midline remains present throughout

our life and our structure and physiologicalmotion remain oriented to the midline. The BoLcomes into the body at the coccyx and ascendsalong the midline, radiating ‘like a fountain sprayof life’ (Sills 1999). The conveyance of a midlinebio-energetic force from tail to head has beendescribed by numerous workers, perhaps first bythe medical polymath Wilhelm Reich. Reich andhis students independently described the PRM:‘… confirmation of brain movement can beobtained from individuals who are free ofarmoring … this movement is relatively slow andunrelated to arterial pulsations’ (Konia 1980).Interestingly, genetic mechanisms tend to work inthe opposite direction, in a cephalad to caudadprogression. This is best exemplified by theactivation of a dozen Hox transcription factorgenes (the ‘Hox clock’) that direct the formation ofembryonic somites from head to tail. Thesequence of Hox gene expression is co-linear withtheir gene order on the chromosome (Kmita &Duboule 2003).

The movement of the Tide can be palpatedthroughout the body, termed ‘Zone A’ by BOCFpractitioners (Jealous 2001). Asian practitionersconceptualize this energy moving in channels,such as Chinese qi and Ayurvedic vata and itssubdosha prana (McPartland & Foster 2002). Themovement of the Tide can also be palpatedoutside the body, in the ‘auric field’ of variousEastern and Western energy workers, termedZone B in the BOCF lexicon. Osteopaths such asRandolph Stone and Robert Fulford primarilyworked in Zone B. Rollin Becker worked in Zone C,a field diffusing from the midline to the edges ofthe room (personal communication, J Jealous,1999). Jealous (2001) emphasized that all thesezones exist simultaneously, as do other domains,such as Zone D which extends from the patient’smidline to the horizon. The zones are usefuldiagnostic tools, augmenting the practitioner’sperceptual fields.

Embryology learns from BOCF

BOCF has learned from embryology but therelationship is reciprocal – BOCF has informed thescience of embryology. Take the anterior duralgirdle (ADG) for an example. The ADG arises


Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM Page 106

around the eighth week of pregnancy, as a con-densate of strain patterns between the evaginatingtelencephalic vesicles (Fig. 4.3). According to mostembryologists, the ADG regresses before birth.However, one of Jealous’s colleagues alerted himto a cranial strain pattern that he detected inseveral of his adult patients. They started calling it‘the hoop’, describing its sensory feel. Theyorganized perinatal dissections with FrankWillard PhD and discovered that the anteriordural girdle does not always involute before birthbut sometimes remains as an anterior transverseseptum (Fig. 4.4). In other cases the girdleregresses, although a strain pattern may remain inthe fluids.

BOCF palpation also presaged the discovery ofa dural bridge in the suboccipital region (Jealous,personal communication, 1999) and this structureis now known to persist in adults (McPartland &Brodeur 1999). The dural bridge attaches the durato the posterior atlanto-occipital membrane(PAOM), a ligament that spans the OA joint.


Figure 4.3 The anterior dural girdle forming in an 8-week-old embryo, drawn as a thin double line betweenanterior and lateral telencephalic vesicles. (Illustration byMcPartland, redrawn with permission from Blechschmidt &Gasser 1978.)

Figure 4.4 Neonate dissection of the anterior cranial fossa, looking from posterior to anterior, with the ponssliced and brain removed. Bilateral anterior transverse septae angle between the dissected midline falx andpaired tentoria. (Photograph courtesy of the F.O.R.T. Foundation, www.BioDO.com.)

Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM Page 107

CARE AND ENHANCEMENT OF THEATTENTION FACULTY

BOCF is taught within a clinically based program,where each step is designed as a journey toreawaken the intuitive and instinctual aspects ofthe practitioner’s mind. Our intuitive and instinctualfaculties were called ‘primary perceptions’ byPearce (1977), who described them as ‘part ofnature’s built-in system for communication andrapport with the earth’. These abilities tend todisappear, like muscle atrophy, if they go unused.Thus intuition and instinct are present at birth butwither due to lack of use given today’s societaland educational burdens. Our intuition, instinctand perceptual vitality are also dulled by thestress of urban living and the pressures of ourprofessional life.

Great care is taken in the choice of wherepractitioners receive BOCF training. The naturalworld is a necessary participant and instructor.Through his own experiences in the wildernessesof New England and Canada, Jealous learned howthe deeper self, the human spirit, emerges uponencountering the natural world. Nature’s ‘spell ofthe sensuous’ quiets a person’s CNS, allowingboundaries to fall away between the individualand the whole. John Muir, a 19th-century Americannaturalist, spoke like an osteopath: ‘In nature,when we try to pick out anything by itself, we

find it hitched to everything else in the universe’(Muir 1911). The BOCF practitioner transports thisnatural-world phenomenon to the urban treatmentroom, incorporating an indigenous state ofconsciousness into everyday clinical practice.

It is important to recognize that what isobserved during the course of treatment is not theresult of mesmerism, colored by a vaguely vitalistictheory, but evidence of a precisely organizednatural system which requires discipline anddedication in order to develop the practitioner’sperceptual faculty. Practitioners are currently in aunique position. Given our training in medicalscience and hands-on manipulative techniques,combined with the principles of Still andSutherland, we can consult with the blueprint forhealth, namely embryological growth and develop-ment recapitulated as the forces of healing. Butthere is a caveat: without the proper preparation,this approach can be dangerous for the patientand an abuse of the practitioner’s commitment tothe Hippocratic Oath. This model does not workwith ‘energy’ but with the consciousness of thenatural world.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This chapter was first published in Liem T 2004Cranial osteopathy: principles and practice, 2ndedn. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh.


REFERENCES

Abram D 1996 The spell of the sensuous. Vintage Books,New York

Artaud A 1938 The theatre and its double. Grove Press, NewYork

Becker R 1965 Be still and know. Cranial AcademyNewsletter Dec: 5–8

Berry W 1996 The unsettling of America: culture andagriculture. Random House, New York

Blechschmidt E 1961 The stages of human developmentbefore birth. WB Saunders, Philadelphia

Blechschmidt E 1977 Beginnings of human life. Springer-Verlag, Berlin

Blechschmidt E, Gasser R 1978 Biokinetics and biodynamicsof human differentiation. Charles Thomas Publishing,Springfield, Illinois

Bohm D 1980 Wholeness and implicate order. Routledgeand Kegan Paul, London

Capra F 1996 The web of life. Harper Collins, London

Cardy I 2004 Experience in stillness: a hermeneutic study ofthe Breath of Life in the cranial field of osteopathy.Masters dissertation, School of Osteopathy, UNITEC,Auckland, New Zealand

Chew MK, Laubichler MD 2003 Natural enemies – metaphoror misconception? Science 301: 52-53

Claverie J 2001 What if there are only 30,000 human genes?Science 291: 1255–1257

Conner PJ, Focke PJ, Noden DM, Epstein ML 2003Appearance of neurons and glia with respect to thewavefront during colonization of the avian gut by neuralcrest cells. Developmental Dynamics 226: 91–98

Cornell EA, Wieman CE 2002 Bose-Einstein condensation:the first 70 years and some recent experiments (NobelPrize Lecture). Chemphyschem: A European Journal ofChemical Physics and Physical Chemistry 3(6): 476–493

Dickson BJ 2002 Molecular mechanisms of axon guidance.Science 298: 1959–1964

Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM Page 108

Drews U 1995 Color atlas of embryology. Thieme MedicalPublishers, New York

Fulford RC 1988 Integration of love with the cranialconcept. Cranial Letter 41(4): 2–3

Green E 1983 Foreword. In: Upledger JE, Vredevoogd JDCraniosacral therapy. Eastland Press, Seattle

Greenman PE, McPartland JM 1995 Cranial findings andiatrogenesis from craniosacral manipulation in patientswith traumatic brain syndrome. Journal of the AmericanOsteopathic Association 95: 182–192

Greitz D, Greitz T, Hindmarsh T 1997 A new view on theCSF-circulation with the potential for pharmacologicaltreatment of childhood hydrocephalus. Acta Paediatrica86: 125–132

Hesse N 1991 Major Betrand DeJarnette: six decades ofsacro occipital research, 1924–1984. Chiropractic History11(1): 13–15

Highwater J 1981 The primal mind. Harper and Row, New York

Holland LZ, Holland ND 2001 Evolution of neural crest andplacodes: amphioxus as a model for the ancestralvertebrate? Journal of Anatomy 199: 85–98

Jahn RG 1996 Information, consciousness and health.Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 2(3): 32–38

Jealous J 1997 Healing and the natural world. AlternativeTherapies in Health and Medicine 3(1): 68–76

Jealous J 2001 Emergence of originality, 2nd edn.Biodynamic/Sargent Publishing, Farmington, ME

Jesuthasan S 1997 Neural crest cell migration in thezebrafish can be mimicked by inert objects: mechanismand implications of latex bead movement in embryos.Journal of Experimental Zoology 277: 425–434

Kmita M, Duboule D 2003 Organizing axes in time andspace: 25 years of collinear tinkering. Science 301: 331–333

Konia C 1980 Brain pulsations, Part I: normal functioning.Journal of Orgonomy 14: 103–113

Lynch TM, Lintilhac PM, Domosych D 1998Mechanotransduction molecules in the plant gravisensoryresponse. Protoplasma 201: 92–100

Magoun H 1951 Osteopathy in the cranial field. JournalPrinting Co., Kirksville, MO

Magoun H 1976 Osteopathy in the cranial field, 3rd edn.Journal Printing Co., Kirksville, MO

Maschhoff KL, Baldwin HS 2000 Molecular determinants ofneural crest migration. American Journal of MedicalGenetics 97: 280–288

McPartland J 1989 Manual medicine at the Nepali interface.Journal of Manual Medicine 4: 25–27

McPartland J 1996 Side effects from cranial-sacral treatment:case reports and commentary. Journal of Bodywork andMovement Therapies 1(1): 2–5

McPartland J, Brodeur R 1999 The rectus capitis posteriorminor: a small but important suboccipital muscle. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies 3(1):30–35

McPartland J, Foster F 2002 Ayurvedic bodywork. In:Coughlin P (ed) Principles and practices of manualmedicine. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh

McPartland J, Glass M 2001 The nematocidal effects ofcannabis may not be mediated by cannabinoid receptors.New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science29: 301–307

McPartland J, Mein E 1997 Entrainment and the cranialrhythmic impulse. Alternative Therapies in Health andMedicine 3(1): 40–44

McPartland J, Brodeur R, Hallgren R 1997 Chronic neckpain, standing balance and suboccipital muscle atrophy.Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics21(1): 24–29

McPartland J, Di Marzo V, de Petrocellis L, Mercer A, Glass M 2001 Cannabinoid receptors are absent ininsects. Journal of Comparative Neurology 436: 423–429

Milne H 1998 The heart of listening: a visionary approach tocraniosacral work. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA

Muir J 1911 My first summer in the Sierra. The RiversidePress, Cambridge, MA

Nelson KE, Sergueef N, Lipinski CL, Chapman A, Glonek T2001 The cranial rhythmic impulse related to the Traube-Hering-Mayer oscillation: comparing laser-Dopplerflowmetry and palpation. Journal of the AmericanOsteopathic Association 101: 163–173

Newman SA, Frenz DA, Tomasek JJ, Rabuzzi DD 1985Matrix-driven translocation of cells and nonlivingparticles. Science 228: 885–889

Norton JM 1996 A challenge to the concept of craniosacralinteraction. American Academy of Osteopathy Journal 6:15–21

Oschman JL 2000 Energy medicine. Harcourt Publishers,Edinburgh

Paulsen AR 1953 Automatic shifting. Journal of theOsteopathic Cranial Association 1953: 65–66

Pearce JC 1977 Magical child. Penguin Books, New YorkPert C 2000 Foreword. In: Oschman JL (ed) Energy

medicine. Churchill Livingstone, EdinburghPourquié O 2003 The segmentation clock: converting

embryonic time into spatial pattern. Science 301: 328–330Retzlaff EW, Mitchell FL 1987 The cranium and its sutures.

Springer-Verlag, BerlinSchleip R 2002 Neurobiological aspects of the cranial rhythmic

impulse. Somatics Web Page: www.somatics.de/cranial.htm.

Schwenk T 1996 Sensitive chaos: the creation of flowingforms in water and air (revised edition). Rudolf SteinerPress, London

Sheldrake R 1981 A new science of life. Blond and Briggs,London

Sills F 1999 The embryological ordering principle. TheFulcrum 14: 1–8. www.craniosacral.co.uk

Song ZH, Zhong M 2000 CB1 cannabinoid receptor-mediatedcell migration. Journal of Pharmacology andExperimental Therapeutics 294: 204–209

Speece CA, Crow WT, Simmons SL 2001 Ligamentousarticular strain. Eastland Press, Seattle

Still AT 1899 Philosophy of osteopathy. Journal Printing Co.,Kirksville, MO

Still AT 1902 The philosophy and mechanical principles ofosteopathy. Hudson-Kimberly, Kirksville, MO

References 109

Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM Page 109

Still AT 1908 Autobiography of Andrew T. Still, revisededition. Privately published, Kirksville, MO

Still AT 1910 Osteopathy research and practice. JournalPrinting Co., Kirksville, MO

Strogatz SH, Stewart I 1993 Coupled oscillators andbiological synchronization. Scientific American 269(12):102–109

Sutherland AS 1962 With thinking fingers. Cranial Academy,Kansas City, MO

Sutherland WG 1939 The cranial bowl. Free Press, Mankato,MN

Sutherland WG, Wales A (ed) 1990) Teachings in the scienceof osteopathy. Rudra Press, Portland, OR

Sutherland WG, Sutherland AS, Wales A (eds) 1967Contributions of thought: the collected writings ofWilliam Garner Sutherland. Sutherland Cranial TeachingFoundation, Kansas City, MO

Tiller WA, McCraty R, Atkinson M 1996 Cardiac coherence:a new, noninvasive measure of autonomic nervoussystem order. Alternative Therapies 2: 52–65

Turner S 1994 The beginnings: osteopathic care of children.Journal of Osteopathic Education 4(1): 13–19

Upledger JE, Vredevoogd JD 1983 Craniosacral therapy.Eastland Press, Seattle

van der Post L 1961 The heart of the hunter. Hogarth Press,London

van der Post L 1962 Patterns of renewal. John Spencer Inc,Chester, PA

van der Wal JC 1997 De spraak van het embryo. In: BatselierS (ed) Liber amicorum. www.home.uni-one.nl/walembryo/esve.htm

van Essen DC 1997 A tension-based theory ofmorphogenesis and compact wiring in the centralnervous system. Nature 385: 313–318

Venter JC, Adams MD, Myers EW et al 2001 The sequence ofthe human genome. Science 291: 1304–1351

Weaver C 1936a Cranial vertebrae. Journal of the AmericanOsteopathic Association 35: 328, 35: 374–379, 35: 421–424[three parts]

Weaver C 1936b Etiological importance of cranialintervertebral articulations. Journal of the AmericanOsteopathic Association 35: 515–525

Weaver C 1938 Symposium on the plastic basicranium.Journal of the American Osteopathic Association 37:298–303

Wirkus M, Wirkus M 1992 Bioenergy—a healing art. Bio-Relax Press, Bethesda, MD

Woods RH, Woods JM 1961 A physical finding related topsychiatric disorders. Journal of the AmericanOsteopathic Association 60: 988–993

For more about BOCF, see:Jealous J 2001 (with annual updates) The biodynamics of

osteopathy (interactive audio CD series):www.bioDO.com


Ch04.qxd 24/03/05 12:56 PM Page 110

the biodynamic model of osteopathy in the cranial ﬁeld

Documents