Massage & Bodywork - Winter 1997: Revised 11/8/99,
By Mark Lamm

Transformational changes available in a client are directly related to the philosophy, personal experience and tools of the practitioner. As health practitioners it is vitally important to take our awareness into more expansive and exciting areas beyond conditioned, limited belief systems and beyond techniques to provide quicker and greater results with our clients.

Let's accept, for the moment, that there is a creative, universal heart based energy that could be called the Living Library of unlimited resources and knowledge. Wow! And, we are a part of and a replication of that energy in an individualized human form but with programs in our chromosomal makeup and conditioned self-images that keep us from accessing the full potential that is available. Eco-physicists estimate that we are using much less than 10% of potential, so, we have a great playing field available.

I remember a conversation with John McEnroe in the summer of 1989 after he had returned from a tournament in Texas where he just barely lost to Ivan Lendl. He said, "Mark, if I had just even a quarter of a percent more, I would have beaten him". A quarter of a percent, .025 of 100, that doesn't seem like much, yet he knew, as I believe we all know, that there is always much more potential whether we are parents, scientists, healthcare practitioners, scholars, athletes, politicians, etc. A small paradigm shift has the ripple effect of producing many positive and far reaching results.

To understand and appreciate the extent of our individualized personal computer which is part of the Living Library, let's again acknowledge that this living computer runs our entire system including circulation, respiration, digestion, endocrine, hormonal, etc. and without biological and/or psycho-emotional interferences would run optimally. Well, what are these interferences? For the sake of simplicity, let's just say that on a physical level they manifest as blockages, hardness, tightness and shortening of tissues, distortion from balanced alignment, nerve impingements, limited range of motion, limited flexibility, etc. On an emotional level, interferences could be dysfunctional emotions such as anger, grief, rage, poor attitudes (fixated emotional states). On a psychological level they are expressed as limited belief systems, filtered and biased realities, personal victim states, etc. Is an interference/holding pattern a component of all of these levels, psycho-emotional somatic? Does physical trauma affect the emotional and psychological state? Does an emotional trauma affect you physically and psychologically? Does it affect the internal biochemistry of the hormonal flow? Could one create autointoxication with unsupportive emotions? Does a psychological trauma deeply affect the emotional and physical responses? In my experience, absolutely!

These holding patterns on all levels are "stuck" states, in energetic terms "static", which, under stimuli, loop back into a repetitive pattern somewhat like a telephone answering machine tape that repeats the recorded message over and over. Now, if you were actually speaking with someone on the phone that conversation would be flowing, in energy terms, "dynamic".

In order to facilitate a client's challenges, we must easily, naturally and non-invasively read the "static" expressions in order to abet the process of moving it into a functioning "dynamic". How does a practitioner calibrate this? The greatest and most available measuring device is your client's physiology. Is the body in a resourceful state or is it collapsed? Is it in balance? Of course, it gets much, much more specific than that, so, what does it take then to read physiology? First let's become aware of what truly great, functional physiology looks like. Since the most powerful influence on the planet is the magnetic field called gravity, then the more one is aligned and balanced with that force structurally, the less "stress" and distortion accumulates. To counter balance this force, every animal stretches by instinct. You can observe this in nature or with your own pets. Over centuries we have conditioned over the natural stretching instinct to such a degree that we no longer feel this impulse and thereby accumulate and reinforce compression daily.

Because our system is an organically operating biocomputer and resources are available when the system is expanded and fully functioning in an awareness of unlimited potential, all internal organs will have more ideal functioning space leading to a corresponding effect on the mind/body. Of course, it is all one package, one hardware/software system.

How much of this information do we already know? You may be surprised. Most of us, I would imagine, have unconsciously in everyday language, described some type of emotional state(s). For example: "That person gives me a pain in the neck", "He hung his head in shame", "She carried the weight of the world on her shoulders", "I felt it in the pit of my stomach", "My knees shook with fright". We could go on and list an everyday statement to correspond with every organ and part of the body.

So, what does all of this awareness mean to a therapist? How much potential can one entertain the possibility of moving into? This then becomes the expansive thinking and belief system of the therapist, in conjunction with the ability to understand and calibrate the system by using sensory acuity as an elegant tool, which over time becomes integrated. By using all modes of function visual, auditory and kinesthetic, that is, observing physiology, listening to verbal representations and feeling of tissue holding will give the therapist knowledge to aid in facilitating the challenges of their client making each session much, much more effective in unfolding to the most expansive awareness of potential.