Energy Work and Coherence: Don't Be Fooled By What You May Have Been Taught In Massage School

You will very often hear these days about different forms of energy work in the bodywork field. When one conjures up that image it is naturally associated with very light pressure, or no pressure at all. Naturally, if a therapist talks about a discipline where there is from time to time enough pressure elicited to cause a wince or two...we have automatically left the realm of energy work and moved into massage. I have mentioned Buckminster Fuller before in some of my articles about massage continuing education, because I believe his model of tensegrity does a great job of illustrating how the human body works for students and practitioner's of our art. He links clearly the concepts of structural patterns and energy movement. The body consists of tensegrity systems all the well down to the interior of cells.. The continuous network is comprised of tensile elements called tendons and a discontinuous system of compression members called struts. So, if an energy vector enters the system it will flow away from the site of impact through the tensegrous network. The more balanced and flexible the structure the more able it's ability to absorb the impact. Athletes who use Rolfing as a stable in their training diet, know exactrly what I am talking about.

Any shortening or imbalance in one part of the system will impact the structure and movement in other parts. The system is both structural/mechanical and energetic. So, again any imbalance in the system will effect both the mechanical and energetic aspects of the system. Simply said, one cannot influence the structural system without having an impact on the energetic system, and vice versa.

So the tensegrous aspect of the tissues are literally pathways from which energy flows. The connective tissue which we interface with as massage therapists, extends throughout the entire body down to the most simple forms within the cell and nucleus. The entire matrix is composed of semiconductors. Research has proven that all parts of the living matrix respond to the stimuli in specific ways to every form of energy that enters into the biosphere which surrounds the body.

There has been research that focuses on the amount of energy that is emitted from our hands consciously emitted and as a factor of the therapist's gifts or acumen. The lattice work of of highly organized systems like fascia, tendons, ligaments and cartilage have shown that these lattices vibrate powerfully, emitting coherent energy fields. We know that living tissue is extremely responsive to coherent energy. One needn't look any further than the famous chi gung healers of China who ply their trade in hospitals hardly touching their patients.

So, the more balanced the structure becomes through conscious effort with systems such as yoga, tai chi or bodywork like Rolfing, whose aim it is to bring coherence to the fascial network, the system becomes more energetically coherent as well.

I will leave this discussion for now with the concept that as your client's system becomes more coherent, they will become more responsive to your system's energy field. Conversely, as you are able to tune into their body, you can project more aptly, order and function into their bodies. We see that not only with Rolfing, but with Craniosacral therapy as well, where we talk about the client's resources being able to hold the information that is reflected into the field. More to come on this subject.