The first time I tried this, I bounced around and exclaimed, “It’s SO cool!”

When you perform this easy and revealing experiment, you can look directly into the eyes of your nervous system… it’s so cool.

And you will see and feel the subtle power of our interconnected system for yourself.  From this insight and direct experience, you will see why and how the subtle work with the CranialSacral system is so effective and so potent.

The Experiment

This all comes from Dr. Hugh Milne, one of my CranialSacral instructors.

Stand very peacefully. Take a few deep breaths and allow calmness to settle on you, entering alpha wave – the brain rhythm associated with wakeful relaxation. Focus your awareness on your feet. 

Turn your head to look to your left, and notice whether your weight distribution changes on either of your feet. Follow with a rotation of your head to the right, then come back to center and take a couple more relaxing breaths.

Now rotate your jaw – only your jaw -to the left, being aware of the effect on your feet; repeat to the right side. Come back to center and pause.

Now move only your eyes to the left, noticing again how the weight distribution on your feet changes, then move your eyes to the right. Notice which direction causes the most weight transfer on to which part of which foot.

This exercise demonstrates an interconnectedness in movement that has its roots in our savanna-living hominid ancestors of five million years ago. For them, it was a matter of life or death that these movements were synchronous: head turning, eyes seeing, jaw prepared to bite – all with feet poised for fight or flight in the millisecond it would take to wheel their wiry bodies around if startled by a noise to the rear.

The eyes and neck are deeply connected: the main evolutionary reason for the existence of the neck is to give our eyes greater scope. All but one of the muscles that move the eyes attach to the sphenoid, the central bone of the cranium. As the eyes begin to move, the sphenoid and the whole body begin to respond.

As an example, we prognate (jut) our jaw when we are threatened or become aggressive, and the powerful muscle with which we do this originates from the sphenoid.

So, what did you feel?  Pretty cool, eh?  Leave your comments below.

You can read more about CranialSacral Therapy HERE. 

 And if you’re in Seattle, consider coming for some sessions. http://VitalArts.net