by Louise Barrie

Sometime in the fall of '96, Mary Goodell called and asked if I would be willing to put something in the March issue of the RMPA Views. I told her yes, as I had already been working on a piece that will be either a long article or a short book. Most of the following is an excerpt from that.

Huma Bodywork is a transpersonal method of working with people. It builds on a very rich Western tradition of body-based approaches that focus on physical and psychological health, and of which the Rosen Method is a part (and has been a large and fundamentally formative part for me). And, it combines this tradition with some of the more mystical Eastern traditions, which point toward the deeper, more universal nature within us. For this article, I have decided to talk about one aspect of Huma Bodywork, which is key and central to it, and a direction that can open up from there. I call it "gliding," and it is the way in which I begin each session.

First, though, to provide a context, I should say that, so far, there seem to be generally four types of sessions that occur in Huma bodywork. Although the fundamental principle of reaching for a deep structure is present in all of them, they manifest this principle differently. Of course, there is a blending of the different styles, but for the purposes of clarification, I'll separate them for a brief description.

In the first style, a client will get in touch with some difficulty in his or her life and will then drop down deeper in awareness, gradually, as the session progresses. For example, a woman who is just newly pregnant, realizes that she is very anxious about having a child, then drops down a little more to realize that she's afraid something will happen to her and she won't be there for her child. Then, as the session progresses, she drops further into the place of connecting with her feelings about her own mother's death when she was ten. And then, beneath that, she contacts the awareness of how much she misses her mother. All along the way, her body eases, but at this final place there is a physical and emotional sense of completion--of resolution.

Another type of session developed when I began to work with people who tend to chronically dissociate from themselves. My normal approach didn't work with these people, and we could go on for session after session with them being disconnected and me feeling that I couldn't get through. Briefly stated, over time I found a way to help them locate themselves and to "name" that "place" with them, and identify together, that place as not being supported by their deeper self. Of course this whole process is done with the guidance and support of the resonating body/self, as we go.

The transpersonal nature of this work is its reaching for the deep structure, the intuition, the voice within, the inner guide--and developing a relationship with that inner guide, one of remembrance of it and surrendering to it. The voice of this inner guide, this intuition, is, I believe, the voice of God, (or the transcendent) within us.

A third style of session in this work involves hearing that voice, for example, when a client is guided to pursue some direction which might fly in the face of worldly considerations. This is a less psychological style. And a fourth type of session is also one that is less psychological. It is more archetypal in nature. All of these styles emerge from the gliding and the kind of touch that comes from gliding. But it is this more archetypal style I'm going to discuss in this article in relation to the gliding.

I believe that using the hands well is the most primary and important aspect for a practitioner of this work, and if the hands are used well the rest of the session will evolve naturally and effortlessly. The first thing I do is really go over the body with my hands. It is a way of making a generalized connection with the person. I glide my hands over them in connection with a pacing, or a rhythm that comes from the person. This is a rhythm that can be felt, and it can be felt any place in the body. I had occasion to study cranial work and when I felt the movement of the cerebrospinal fluid, I recognized immediately that this rhythm is the one with which I had always been working.

There are many rhythms in the body (circulatory, lymph. breath), but this rhythm of the cerebro-spinal fluid is a very slow one, the slowest in the body. And wherever my hands are, they spontaneously move in that same rhythm. It has a very deep ocean-like quality that engulfs both the client and the practitioner as though together the two of you begin to float out to sea. And from this place of moving out to sea, of being and floating in a boat together in the middle of the ocean, it is easy to see anything that appears on the horizon from any direction. It is a place of deep connection, where the inner and outer distractions are gone, so that when something emerges into awareness from the client's psyche, it is easily spied. It is also, I might add, impossible, as a practitioner to "worry" about how you’re doing in the session or where it will go from this point.

I almost always begin each session by gliding my hands generally over the body, but mainly up the person's back, up the spine primarily, or along either side of it, along this rhythm. After while, there is almost a sense of a hum like the hum of electrical wires, only softer and without the static. And I think this process of gliding up the spine with awareness, over and over, and in the same rhythm as the movement of the cerebro-spinal fluid, bathes the nerves, perhaps the whole nervous system in awareness and relaxation. Also, that initial sense of fragmentation that I feel in the body, particularly in the back, gives way to a deeper sense of continuity. Under my hands I begin to feel the back as all of one piece, rather than the feeling as though it is divided into segments; lower, middle and upper. Also, within this gliding I get a feeling for the "lay of the land," a sensory, kinesthetic mapping of the person as expressed in his or her body.

But primarily, what happens with the gliding is a reaching for and an emerging of a deeper self, one that feels part of a greater whole. This self has a universal quality and is mostly non-verbal. The gliding reaches past all the particulars of the body and personality to some deep, universally shared place and floats in that place. It is calm, very calm. It is as though this place rises up like some Atlantis from the sea, through and from beyond the tightnesses of the body and the limitations of the psyche. All this occurring while floating on that rhythm of the cerebro-spinal fluid.

This is the beginning of the session and it may last for a short or a long time, but often I do the gliding for a long time, twenty minutes or more. It is the place where my client and I meet, and after being there a while, sometimes the particulars do begin to emerge. The tight places in the body may spontaneously begin to become more foreground, and my hands will address them more specifically and directly. I should mention here, however, that even when I move out of the gliding mode, and whatever way I use my hands to address particular areas more specifically I still always work in that same slow rhythm, always reaching for that deeper place.

I should also mention that this connection with that rhythm doesn't come from self-consciously thinking about cerebro-spinal fluid. I don't think of it at all, in a conceptualized sense, while I work. Awareness of this rhythm is a natural and spontaneous occurrence when I have my hands on the body, and it can be learned quite simply. It is that anything other than this feels "off", either too fast or too slow, and not in contact with, not reaching for that deeper part of the person. At some point something may come into the awareness of the client that will be supported by an easing in the body and the breath, and then we will go in that direction. The particulars emerge from the vast, non-specific place. We first move into a place of uncluttered availability, the uninterrupted horizon, and are then able to recognize and receive the authentically compelling particulars of the body and psyche, rather that being prey to the initial, clanging psychological and physical noise.

Often the nature of what emerges, this Atlantis rising, has an archetypal quality, rather than a psychological one. It feels whole. It feels whole physically under my hands, and that which comes into awareness feels whole as well. I am guided by the easing and openings in the core of the body as I track the verbal material. In the following examples, however, I won't describe that part of it in any detail.

One client, I'll call her Mary, had a tendency to split off, to dissociate from herself and to follow very compelling images and feelings that were not at all supported by the responses in her body. I did not follow those compelling images with her; instead, I persisted with my hands, through her holding, reaching for that deeper place. At a certain point, I felt her ease, felt that more universal place under my hands. When I asked her what was there she said "light" she could see light coming from within her. As we worked through the session, we returned more and more to this light. Each time, she would ease and expand; it became clear that this was the only reality in the session. I told her, "this light is the thing that's real. It's what you can count on. And it will never go away. You may go away from it, but it will never go away from you. You can always return to this place. It will always be there for your refreshment."

I had the authority to tell her that because of the support coming from her inner self, as reflected by the responses in her body, and also because of my conviction that the place this opening comes from is permanent and eternal. One of the pitfalls of something like this is that the person may (and often does) try to "hold on" to this place and that never works. This holding on becomes a rigidity. So, I think of that place more as a pool to take a dip in, a place of refreshment, and most definitely a reflection from the soul, from the infinite. That infinite quality is echoed in this place. It becomes integrated in its own way. The force of our ego habits may cover this place from view, but the shell of unconsciousness has been pierced by it and we have only to remember this place to return there.

Also, the thing about this place is that it is complete in itself. It is a moving from the surface to a deeper place, or a rising up of that deeper place to the surface and there is nowhere else to go, no need to manage it or expand it or take it anywhere. In fact, any attempts to do so by the mind result in a moving away from, the loss of, connection with that space. It's very much a place of being, not doing, for example, Mary tried to make the light bigger, and then the tightness came back into her body. It simply is what it is. And if the client or the practitioner tries to manipulate it, they lose touch with it.

Another example of such an archetypal image happened with Marilyn. During one session, the sense and image of the Garden of Eden emerged, and she realized that she is always in the Garden of Eden. At one point in the session, when she had been ruminating over some problems and difficulties, she recalled, again, her Garden of Eden and said, "Oh...they (the problems) all fall away when I'm in the Garden of Eden." And each time she returns there, the ease and expansion occur in her body and breath. When Marilyn first became aware of being in the Garden of Eden she realized that that is her primary state. She is always in the Garden of Eden. This was fully supported by the responses in her body. And then, as was demonstrated in the session, she would absent herself from the awareness of it, usually by worrying about the circumstances in her life. This place of worry was provided with no support whatsoever by the responses in her body. And so it seems that fundamentally, she is "always in the Garden of Eden."

Once again, a place of being, not a place of doing and nowhere to go, either for the client or me. I should say, also, that this is something the person can take with them -- by virtue if its being in their awareness, they can always return to this place, they have only to remember it. It is a touchstone, a place of knowing and conviction which informs, which becomes a light that infuses the fluctuations of the normal ego life. This is not to say, however, that our clients are thus freed from the demands and shackles of their ego lives, however ultimately false those demands may be. But it is to say that there is an accessible resource within them. There is a resonance, a vibration that comes with this place that goes all through body and psyche, as well. This is a healing, coming from the deeper self. And each time a person revisits this place, that resonance, that vibration, that flow of healing occurs again, spontaneously.

To penetrate into the essence of all being and significance and to release the fragrance of that inner attainment for the guidance and benefit of others, by expressing, in the world of forms, truth, love, purity, and beauty, this is the sole game that has intrinsic and absolute worth. All other happenings, incidents, and attainments in themselves can have no lasting importance.

Meher Baba

Footnote:
Since the publication of this paper, I have come to believe that there is a level which is deeper than the rhythm of the cerebro-spinal fluid. It is a place where the physical gives way to the energetic. While this energy can be felt anywhere in the body, there is a central channel in the core of the body which feels (under the hands) like the place of its fullest and deepest manifestation. The experience of the client when this full flow of energy is there is always tranquil and without worry. It is this for which I am ultimately reaching with my work.