- Re my interesting energy experience today

[Guest guest]

You posted the other day about working on your friend so I thought I

would share a couple of things from my class.

I will post a much more detailed write up next week about Visceral

Manipulation, what it is, how it is done, applications, etc., but

will give a very brief synopsis of it here. The bulk of the

modality works with the viscera, the internal organs (stomach,

liver, kidney's spleen, pancreas, gall bladder, intestines, etc).

There are NO empty spaces in the abdominal cavity; the organs expand

to completely fill the space.

As such, they are in direct physical contact with adjacent organs.

They also move within the cavity. They are " anchored " to the walls

by ligaments but are not " glued in place. " The organs slide and

glide across each each other, separated by fascial membranes. They

slightly change positions as you move (bend, turn, twist, etc).

This physical movement is called " mobility. " For any number of

reasons (infection, trauma, surgeries, etc), adhesions and

restrictions can form which inhibit normal mobility.

In addition, each organ has an inherent, internal movement rhythm

which is called motility. There are actually three movements,

around the transverse, coronal and sagittal planes. These movements

can also become dysfunctional.

Because of the interconnectedness of everything in the body, a lower

abdominal restriction can translate via ligamentous attachments to

other areas of the body. As examples, dysfunctional movements or

restrictions of the liver can affect the right neck and shoulder.

Similar stomach dysfunctions can affect the left neck and shoulder.

At any rate, VM is a modality that can assess and evaluate for those

restrictions and then loosen them to improve mobility and motility

of the internal organs. Among other things, it can be used to treat

hietal hernias, GERD (acid reflux), and gall stones, to name just

three.

I kept asking on the first day about how much of this stuff can be

done energetically. And I kept getting the party line about needing

to follow the steps exactly as taught: use your thumb here, the heel

of your hand there, etc, etc. Well, I did a " little " experimenting

the first day, enough to convince myself that at least the motility

can be done energetically.

Fortunately, the person I have been working with the most is as

interested in this question as I am. He was not the least averse to

my doing a bigger experiment today. The physical techniques involve

assessing mobility and motility and then applying a directed stretch

to loosen any restriction. One of the things we were doing today

was working on the five abdominal sphincters, assessing to see if

they were moving correctly, moving incorrectly, or were in effect

frozen and not moving at all. One of them was the ileocecal valve

in the right lower abdomen.

Well, instead of poking and prodding with my fingers to find it with

correct, technical palpation, I simply held my right hand over the

area (about four inches above the body) and used the energetic

tingle that I picked up in my palm to identify the location. I then

focused on movement, and couldn't feel any. I then asked one of the

TA's to come over and cross-check me on location and movement. Sure

enough, I was smack on for location and the sphincter was frozen.

I then grinned at her and said " I think I'm going to try

something. " I put my hand over the spot (again, about four inches

off body), focused on the spot, and then mentally anchored the spot

to the palm of my hand and MENTALLY put the valve into a stretch

unitl I had a sense that it was as far as it was going to go. At

that point, I just mentally " let go " as a reflex or rebound. My

partner said " Boy, I just felt that one release. " I then had the TA

retest for me. Sure enough - back to normal motion.

Later in the day, we were doing a manual draining of the gall

bladder (useful for a number of things, including flushing small

gall stones). Being lazy like I am, I didn't feel like following

the full manual drill. So, I simply put my fingers on either side,

right hand at the bottom and left hand at the top. I then mentally

did a pumping motion (and I could physically feel it in my hands -

so could he).

Don't know about you, but I think it is pretty wild to be able to

connect energetically with some of this stuff and to literally be

able to affect it by simply focusing attention and thinking about it.

Truth of the matter is that I had more than an idle curiosity

interest in the question. I have not so far worked with any one

with the vascular variety of EDS. What I do know about it tells me

that even remotely aggressive or invasive techniques are absolutely

contraindicated. But if the work can be done energetically? This

needs to be explored in much greater detail.