AN
UNEXPECTED LIFE
Rhythms within the Rhythm: an ontological mechanism
Solihin Malim Thom DO DAc
presented at
Cranial Academy Conference,
Des Moines, Iowa.
June 2002
William Sutherland’s legacy was
that he formulated a new map of osteopathy. His world view
was shaped by Andrew Taylor Stills, the medical models of
the day, two wars, a turn of the century education, and a
width of thought fostered by his community, his culture,
and his own religious and ethical character. Sutherland
greatly broadened the understanding of the intricate
workings of the cranial system. His experiences, both
experiential and empirical, resulted in the ?map? that we
know today as ‘Osteopathy in the Cranial Field’.
Since its presentation to the Osteopathic profession in the
nineteen forties, we have attempted to define and marry
this map with conventional science. Our profession depended
on this acknowledgement , for then we can defend by the
model when it is questioned. The paucity of research [1] in
this area does not refute our own experiences, for all of
us can undeniably attest to the underlying principle of the
primary rhythmic impulse and the patterns of dysfunction
that distort this innate movement.
The Field
Andrew Taylor Stills, Sutherland, and a legion of
osteopaths since, have all been in the same collective
consciousness or ?field? [2] with regard to the cranial
system. The prevailing premise that ?structure governs
function? was defined by the minds of those in the early
part of the last century. Andrew Stills was the first to
articulate this, when he recognized that the body was a
wonderful structure, perfected over the millennia, and it
was capable of self-medication. He further observed that
when unable to self-correct, the body was often
structurally disorganized. And that realignment would
facilitate change back to a healthy state.
Sutherland’s contribution of the idea of the primary
rhythmic impulse and the sophisticated mechanism behind it
altered our perception of the field of osteopathy. Modern
research, in its attempt to understand the fluid rhythm,
appears unable to produce a unified theory, for no current
research has hit the proverbial (if not elusive) ?pot of
gold? [3] [4]. The premise of this paper is to present a
new paradigm for the mechanism, based on a formal
ontological [5] argument.
The Rhythm
One of the most consistent paradoxes with regard to the
cranial system has been the general disagreement over the
nature of the rhythm [6] palpated. In many instances people
palpating the same mechanism often described a different
count or rhythm [7] [8]. Perhaps it is nothing more than
the fact that ?old? hands are better at palpation than ?
new?. This would hardly be surprising, as we develop skills
that are more finely tuned over time, and thus are able to
better sense when the mechanism changes. However the
question still remains: why these discrepancies and what do
they mean?
The nature of
the rhythm
In osteopathic literature, the discrepancy of the rhythm
has implicated tissue restriction, pathophysiology, frank
pathology or elements of an altered psyche and/or
psychotropic drugs. However, we appear to disregard the
subtext, instead interpreting it as an accident (in the
ontological sense) that happens at the moment of palpation.
The phenomena is viewed merely as ‘temporary’, because
treatment / facilitation changes what was observed. This
accident [9] (which involves time and space) has a specific
dependence on the substance – in this case the body – for
this endures [10] whereas these phenomena simply occur.
However, it is the occurrence of things that actually
affects the substance of the body and the rhythm tells us
what is actually happening.
In classical terms, we can view the six-second cranial
cycle and the variables that disrupt it as accidents that
have happened. The walking wounded whom we see carry the
imprint of these variables through the door of our office.
But what came first? The backache, the fall, traffic
accident, habitual pose, the repetitive trauma, are all
accidents that have occurred. However, we must also ask
whether there were coexistent accidents (a state of
non-adaptability) already occurring within the niche
occupied by that person at that moment
The niche [11]
Essentially the human self is an organism – a functioning
system of interdependent parts that makes us a living
creature. Its parts [12] are situated in its own niche
within the frame of the organism. Each part speaks – its
language can be ‘heard’ through the rhythm. Classical
osteopathy has been bipolar in its view of the human. The
profession has regarded the body holistically, that is
looking at the sum of the whole at any given moment, but
has also created the idea that we exist as primary and
secondary systems [13]. To better understand the language
of the rhythm we may look at the segmented nature of a
human by altering ‘the’ map of cranial osteopathy. This
will help us to see both the vertical and horizontal
relationship between the various aspects of the human self.
The rhythm itself exhibits this arrangement if we expand
the linear sine wave and give it not only time and place
[14] but also power and force.
The typical sine wave can be drawn as such:
Where X is a duration of approximately 6 seconds, and Y
represents power or force.
This waveform is an accident in that it exists only for the
moment and may change dependent on the observer and the
observed. We know that it is very easy to induce change
simply by watching or being attentive to the rhythmicity of
the mechanism, inducing a stillpoint. We know that the
rhythm may not be so obvious in other parts of the body,
and may reveal a differing tempo. Why is it that some body
parts with differing functions exhibit altered rhythms?
What is actually going on? Is it simply that the structure
is distorted, holding a lesion pattern in the classical
sense, or is there some other force at work that affects
the structure / function relationship?
Ontology
versus phylogeny
A human is a living entity that has substance (a vertical
life) and is associated with, and has a relationship to the
horizontal – a width of life, where accidents occur. These
are the variables of our existence, both transitory and
long lasting that occupy our space, fill our lives, and
help to either bring us alive or metaphorically keep us
asleep. The osteopathic maxim considers a formal
description of the human as a structure that when organized
supports its function. This infers that the early ontogeny
of our embryological maturation is the determinant of our
osteopathic philosophy, rather than putting more weight on
the sophisticated and more complex systems that actually
form the potential for the human self. We have firmly
grasped onto the deific notion of a the primary system -
the neuromusculoskeletal system - and secondary systems
that serve the first order. The problem with this approach
is that in the vertical relationship of the self, it places
part of our substance in the wrong order.
Normal
hierarchy Osteopathic hierarchy
[neuromusculoskeletal system: human-animal-material system
empowered by the vegetal]
The osteopathic profession
placed the vegetative - our provider mechanisms/physiology
- as our foundation or base which then supported the
neuromuscular system which, by default, is undifferentiated
by the naming of such a 'system':
Ontogenesis
In embryology, we progress through periods of development
that are allied to time and illustrate the phylogeny of the
genus [16] . This occurs in four stages:
[1] material – our ground substance is laid down, and we
develop towards a
[2] vegetal stage, as our ancillary support systems are
formed. We then go through an
[3] animal period from the fifth to seventh month whereby
we mature sufficiently – and where survival (if born in the
early months of this last trimester) is possible and the
[4] human stage when the neocortex is being fully fleshed
out at the end of gestation.
These four stages point to the evolution of our species
from the material kingdom to human. This phylogeny is older
than the ontogeny and yet the two are intertwined. In
osteopathic literature we have made a hierarchical
assumption that places the animal and material elements in
a higher relationship than the vegetal, with scant regard
to the human self, which is rather lumped into the animal
component. The vegetal is placed as the foundational
resource that supports the systems above. The vegetal part
is our physiology that is seen as the provider for the
primary system. This creates an organism whose parts occupy
the wrong niche or hierarchical order.
The four
natures and the four rhythms
Hierarchically, the four natures – emphasized
embryologically as stages of development – can be mapped
out in the human body. Each part can reveal itself through
differing sub-rhythms which signal their influence. For
over twenty years, I have observed that the key is to
understand these sub-rhythms for they are the pattern that
upsets the primary display, and distort the harmonic
interplay of all the other physiological systems. If we
teach our students to palpate a single rhythm, then they
will find only one rhythm. If, on the other hand, we teach
that the ?Sutherland rhythm? is the summation [17] of many
rhythms, we can then notice that its alteration is an
accident or influence, the causal relationship of the part
of the whole. That is, each different rhythm tells us which
part of the human speaks or calls our attention. Some part
of our organism whether in its niche or placed or held by
us in an inappropriate relationship, becomes the accident
that affects the substance. This part of us tries to
influence us because it needs attention. It’s intention is
to direct us to the source of power that has an influences
over us.
Material
human
Material substance – the accident is the signal / Ancestral
resonance
The material human is the body that we observe in a
standing examination. It is the frame by which the human is
slung over, enwrapping a fabric over the dense weave of our
skeleton, and enfolding a sea of parts within, to harness
our life. This is the cement, albeit living, that binds us
together, and portrays the nuance of the past in our
posture and stance, in our bony shape and our buttresses.
We mirror parts of the past and reveal our lineage through
our predilections, our inherited pathophysiology, and our
encoded pathologies. These signal us via the bones as an
almost imperceptible rhythm – a tiny vibration that has a
characteristic incessant oscillation. It has low amplitude,
takes little space, and does not, on the whole, become so
salient as to dominate the patient’s time and attention.
-
This barely perceptible rhythm is how the body signals us -
like a telephone without an amplifier - so we feel the
vibration of the spoken word but cannot hear the words in
the receiver. This is the calling card of our ancestral
patterns. Their noise is constant, yet they lie in the
background and therefore are almost never noticed until we
indicate this solid, archaic state or constitution through
our bony pains. When we have compressed fractures,
osteochondrosis, when vertebra loose their shape and bones
ache, or when we develop spurs and osteoporosis and bony
fractures we are indicating that a primary material force –
gravity, pulls us down towards the soil, towards the old,
the ancient, our heritage . Our ancestors herald us, as
they signal us, calling out the strength and power of that
selfish gene, the power of the material that we have
evolved from. This is our bedrock and foundation, and which
we have inherited from our forebears. This tires to force
us to look at our foundation and roots.
Vegetal human
Vegetal
substance – accident is time / past / roots / Ancestral
call
If we do not notice the material oscillation or signal, we
simply over time, adapt to it. The body accommodates,
dependent on the myriad other accidents that have occurred,
which stymies the flexibility of the system. When our
inherent capacity to adapt starts to wane, the body begins
to amplify the signal so that we become aware of it. It
does this by changing the carrier. Instead of the bones, we
carry it in the substance of our soft tissue and organs.
This is the secondary system of our osteopathic model. Our
internal milieu holds the field occupied by the amplified
signal, and this is registered as noise in the system. As
we amplify the signal it becomes a field – it occupies an
area within (our tissues) and creates a force that exerts
an influence at every point. Our neurology records the
afferent signals and either stops it locally or sends the
message up to the mid brain and limbic system to compare it
to previous experiences.
If the noise in the system is familiar but new, then the
body will either send the data up to the mammalian brain
and cortex for further identification, or it will simply
react based on past experience. If the noise is habitual or
known it may simply mask the data. However the system
alerts the practitioner that the person is 'held'’ in time,
unable to move out of that state. People held in the
vegetal system are unable to be flexible enough to either
be attentive or cognitively aware of their emotional or
sensorial states. This non alive state is artificially kept
down by the human (who manages) to avoid confrontation with
those elements. The body indicates this through the nature
of the rhythm itself, altering it into low, flat sine wave.
Its characteristic. Is a long duration with little
amplitude. This means that when palpated, we feel little
power of dynamic present, and thus the patient is unable to
lift them from their state. Hence, these patients tend to
stay in their illness or dysfunction as they lack the
animal vitality to move them out of their state.
-
This is a vegetal, emotional-based life, water-logged or
fluid stasis in its essence. Their lethargy, poor thyroid
function and general debility means that the vegetal human
is in power, and that the person’s emotional life takes
precedence. Underneath this, there will be some ancestral
pattern or resonance that heralded this condition.
Animal human
Animal substance – accident is the force of protection and
habit / the dura protects.
Many of us shrug off the aches
and pains, slight discomfort or adopt a laissez-faire
attitude to ourselves. We fail to notice or are ‘out of
step’ with the underlying unease. When situations are more
immediate or life threatening the body can directly and
more effectively illustrate its warning. It does this
through our joints, fascia, dura and muscles. Our
locomotive mechanism – our mammalian cortex, limbic system,
rhinocephalon and cerebellum – directs our capacity to act
in life. This is the neuromuscular aspect of our
neuromusculoskeletal system. When the structures that
enable us to act in life are affected then the rhythm again
changes and illustrates the force of the information
carried. When the human becomes unable to move, unable to
act, moribund, when they become out of step with what
really is bothering them, then the rhythm changes to
amplify this situation. The sine wave has a higher
potential in its amplitude, and shorter duration. The speed
of the rhythm – quicker than normal - tells us the person
is held in the process of ?doing? a life rather than
?living? a life. This is the ‘A’ type personality, the
highly competitive athlete, the salesman – humans who
operate from a perspective of survival, protection and
action.
Protection
The
nature of the animal self is to survive. It does this by
defining and protecting its territory, feeding and mating.
It provides the human with our work ethic, power and
strength, flight and fight, sexuality and courage. This
inbuilt animal mechanism is exemplified by the
axiomatically dura mater (protective / tough mother), which
is actually programmed to lead us off on a wild goose
chase. When we hold onto the dura we meet the wounded
animal. This is amplified when we follow the dura to unwind
the fascial mechanism. Its modus operandi is to provide
protection. It does this as the animal would do, taking us
off course so we are unable to find the truth around which
their being pivots. Finding the true fulcrum is often a
moot point and possibly gives credence to many osteopaths
who assert that unwinding, although spectacular, may not
actually result in resolution.
-
Human self
Human
substance – accident are the thoughts / Cerebral
asymmetrical movement
Humans may be well adapted and
have systems that illustrate a fundamental wholeness and
unity in a vertical manner. That is, their systems
illustrate a healthy and functional state. However, their
psyche can be the root of their problems or ills. Many
people have robust constitutions having inherited as such.
What may ail them is within the human mind. The clay or
material nature of the brain itself is what we inherit
through our lineages just as we inherit our skin, hair and
eye color. Just as the tissue matrix of our body
illustrates our familial predispositions, so too, does our
minds. In our technological, literate society, where
knowledge has become paramount, the psyche takes a bitter
toil. It struggles with knowledge, for it has little
boundaries, but also is hindered by the mental patterns
inherited. The human mind, entangled by or sometimes
unfettered by knowledge, speaks through a completely
different rhythm. This is characterized by high and low
peaks, intermittent fluctuation, movements or two of
absence, without a still point. It can disappear, appearing
disjointed and un-integrated. This uneasy rhythm is
difficult to notice, tantalizingly difficult to sense, and
often disappears when our attention is focused upon it. It
reflects lofty un-tethered thoughts, castles in the sky, an
ungrounded imagination. Conversely, if the human mind has
shaped and woven beliefs and ideas that have entangled the
patient, the human rhythm may then feel entangled,
enwrapped, held down or too wide, possessing thoughts that
are too expansive without boundaries
Pathoneumonic
Although the cranial rhythm is not heard, it is felt and
its nature is pathoneumonic [18] of the carrier from which
we are operating. Noticing the nature of the rhythm that
underlies the mechanism allows us to have a far broader
understanding of the patient’s state. That is, instead of
simply addressing the symptom that is being presented, we
may notice that there is an ancestral or inherited
predisposition deep within the system that signals its
disquiet and may well be the precursor to the accident or
repetitive trauma that has occurred.
Broadcast
This
is when we are aware of that tiny resonance deep within the
bony matrix. Clinical experience has shown us that some
bones hold patterns that are inherited and manifest with a
similar broadcast in all peoples, whereas when other non
specific bones hold a resonance they broadcast a particular
and specific set of instructions for that person.
Receiver
Occasionally when we hold onto our patients, we may find
ourselves being drawn into a sombulent state, as we hold
onto a system devoid of its own power. We may find
ourselves ‘going out’ or suddenly loose consciousness. This
tell us that we have been drawn into or encountered a field
whose power pushes us ‘out’ suddenly, as we meet its force.
We may then enquire as to the person’s emotions or feelings
at that moment relevant to the present context.
Amplified
Likewise, when our attention is narrowed towards the fascia
or dural mechanism we must become aware of the nature of
the tissues. Through addressing the protective mechanism as
a delaying, obfuscating and defensive mechanism allows the
subtext to surface – familial pattern and /or emotional
history. The fulcrum around which the pattern has occurred
may well then present itself in a hidden manner. What is
being protected, what habit has made the path? What is it
that they defend, or hide?
Deciphered /
decoded
Palpating a rhythm that peters
out, goes off or disappears entirely may well signal us as
physicians to enquire as to the beliefs and conceptual maps
that the person may hold, that sends their primary human
mechanism into a cerebral torque , asymmetry or dysfunction
within the ventricular spaces. This may then help to decode
or understand the shape of the discordance from that
initial resonance deep within the base of themselves.
Addressing the repetitive pattern at its root, even in the
absence of knowing precisely what has been carried through
the DNA or code, may nevertheless allow the innate
potential of the body to recognize the predisposition that
had created the accident of the moment.
Conclusion
Sutherland and others have performed an extraordinary
service to bring us back to the model that the Creator
oversaw the evolution of a wonderful machine. However we
are in essence not merely a system, but an organism. We
contain a multiples of differing and often separate parts
all playing a role within us. When we begin to note that
our own consciousness dictates our own cranial rhythm, we
may then reconcile the model that the cranial rhythm
actually is a signal of an unexpected life within, and this
creates the rhythm.
.
Notes
1] Dr.
James Jones DO has written a seminal piece on contemporary
research regarding osteopathic medicine. Dr. Jones can be
contacted at the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the
Pacific, Western University of Health Science, Pasedena,
California.
2] A field is that which occupies our space or fills our
thoughts – this is what Jung would have termed a
?collective consciousness? – and is based on a unified
principle of the CRI.
3] KE Nelson, N Sergueef, CM Lipinski, AR Chapman, T
Glonek. The cranial rhythmic impulse related to the
Traube-Hering-Mayer oscillation: Comparing laser-Doppler
flowmetry and palpation. The frequency or rate after
cranial treatment fell into the range of 6 – 10 cycles per
minute. Prior to this frequency had a duration (frequency)
that was quiet rapid in the subjects examined. J. Amer
Osteopath Assoc 2001; 101(3), pp163-173
4] In 1865, Traube reported an oscillation in blood
pressure and blood flow velocity with a frequency of 6 to
10 cycles per minute, and this was further acknowledged by
Herring the following year – hence the Traube-Herring
oscillation.
5] Ontology is the most general branch of metaphysics,
concerning the nature of being.
6] The general consensus is that there is a rhythm that has
a cyclical nature or rhythm of about six seconds, or about
10 cycles per minute. However empirical observation
indicates that this rhythm is variable, dependant on the
state (lesion, pathophysiology or pathology) of the person,
and may be anything between 6 and 14 cycles per minute.
7] Dr. VM Frymann DO FAAO FCA in 1971 suggested that the
cranial rhythm may be some form of ‘beat’ frequency of the
pulses – cardiac and respiratory – in both client and
practitioner.
8] McPortland and Mein (1997) considered that the rhythm
was a summation of the many inherent rhythms within the
body. The rhythm was the expression of an harmonic
frequency of many biologic oscillators and included the
respiratory, cardiac pulse, Traube-Hering-Mayer modulation,
diaphragmatic excursion, contractile blood vessels, CSF
production by the choroids and perhaps others. When we
palpate, we may feel the blend of all these. Some
practitioners will have a bias towards a particular
frequency, that is their own kinesthetic senses an state
will perceive particular elements within that frequency
set. This may well explain some of the differences in
palpatory perception.
9] The word accident is used in the ontological argument to
imply an event or moment that occurs by chance, without any
planning, apparent cause, or deliberate attempt.
10] The word endures implies the capacity to last or
survive over a period of time, when faced with
difficulties.
11] The role of an organism within its natural environment,
that determines its relations with other organisms to
ensure its survival.
12] The parts consist of our structural, physiological,
locomotive, cognitive and essential identity.
13] This is a mirror of a deific model that assumes a
central Divine axis, the primary force – and secondary
elements created by such.
14] Place is defined as the position of somebody or
something, in rank, sequence or series.
15] Force: somebody or something that has great power or
influence, especially in a particular field, where the
force exerts this influence at every point.
16] Time alters us as accidents happen. These affect the
substance. Accidents in utero act as the switching device
of old coded material in our genome, or the cessation of a
switch in structural, organ of chemical/physiological
mechanisms.
17]As in Irvin M Korr’s classic model of neurological
summation.
17]Although the word strictly infers that sound points to a
pathology behind it – as in Chinese medicine, which relates
to certain sounds as well as emotions as indicators of
imbalance - the use here is that the rhythm speaks to us.
In effect we ‘hear’ it.