Craniosacral Biodynamics, Volume One: The Breath of Life, Biodynamics, and Fundamental Skills

by Franklyn Sills

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Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic books/ Palm Beach Gardens, FL: UI Enterprises 2001 453pp (8 1/2 x 11 inches) 1 p. resources $35

Cranial field work involves biofield perceptions with the hands held lightly touching or several inches away from the head, sacrum, and other places around the body. There are rhythms of pulsations that the therapist senses and uses as guides for therapeutic interventions. Elaborate theories to explain the biofield sensations are suggested to explain these pulsations. These pulsations are attributed to fluctuations in spinal fluid pressure against the skull. The bones of the skull are believed to move in response to these pressure fluctuations. Treatments are given with the therapist’s hands held near the head, sacrum or other parts of the body. The hands may be held lightly touching (not directly manipulating) the body, or may be held several inches away from the body. The therapist silently attends to intuitive impressions that arise while holding the intent to be available to offer whatever treatment is appropriate. Intention may be introduced to alter the rhythm of the pulsations.

This process overlaps very broadly with spiritual healing treatments by the many other names, such as Therapeutic Touch, Healing Touch, Reiki, Qigong, and others. Oddly, most cranial field therapists focus their theoretical explanations of their treatments on the body they are treating far more than on the bioenergies they are sensing and manipulating. A converse oddity is that I know of few spiritual healers who identify the pulsations of bioenergies which are the focus of much of cranial field therapy.

The writings of Franklyn Sills are, in my opinion, among the finest in the literature on spiritual healing. His concise, clear descriptions of what he does and how he does it are an inspiration to practitioners to strive for the highest levels of wholistic healing.

Here are a few examples:

Work in the cranial field is largely perceptual. The heart of clinical practice is listening. This demands both stillness and humility on the part of the practitioner. In this inquiry all one can do is to enter into a stillness and see what our journey brings. The foundation of this endeavor is the experience of our own perceptual and inner process. An appreciation of our inner world is crucial for efficient clinical practice. This awareness of our own interior world is critical in the creation of a safe and efficient healing relationship. In this process, we will come directly into relationship to our own human condition and our own suffering. This is a huge undertaking. It means truly inquiring into who we are. The ground of this exploration is a commitment to learn about ourselves. . . (p. 3)

Cranial field therapy requires that the therapist be totally in the present moment. Sills acknowledges the wisdom of The Buddha in reaching towards and into the stillness that facilitates healing.

He simply and profoundly stated that there is suffering and it must be understood. This simple statement is the ground of therapeutic inquiry. (p. 4)

. . . if we hold onto things, onto fixed positions, onto self-construct, self-view, and past history, there will be suffering. . . Most of us, most of the time, tend to see the present through the filters of the past. But if we can find a way to truly live in the present, in the present time-ness of things, then there is the possibility of not suffering. There may be pain, but there needn’t be suffering. Within the cranial context, it is seen that suffering is relinquished when the system truly aligns with the present time-ness of things. It is an alignment to something else beyond the fear that seems to hold our sense of selfhood together. It is a realignment to a universal, an Intelligence much greater than our human mentality. To something still, yet potently present. This occurs when the oppositional forces of our past experience are reconciled within us, in states of balance and stillness. Within the Stillness, known only in this present moment, something else can occur beyond the suffering held. It is as simple as that. (p. 8-9)

When Dr. Sutherland began his exploration, being an osteopath, he was initially interested in the physical manifestations of cranial bone motion. When he began to relate to the movement dynamics of the whole body, he discovered not just bony movements, but a whole series of interrelated pulsations. In his explorations, he discovered that he was sensing the dynamics of a powerful yet subtle physiological force within the human system. He realized that this force is the most fundamental ordering and healing principle within the human body-mind. He believed that this ordering principle was generated be the action of what he called the Breath of Life .The breath of life is a concept that is difficult to define. The best I can do is to call it the action of a divine intention. This divine wind expresses and orchestrates the intention to create. I will discuss this in much more detail in later chapters. The Tibetans call a similar concept rigpa, the pure and divine state of pristine awareness, or pure consciousness, which is the ground of all phenomena. Dr. Sutherland realized that the Breath of Life generates a primary life force which is expressed within the human system. This life force is a bioelectric principle, which has physiologically integrative and healing functions in the human system.

In his palpation studies, he also realized that he was exploring a subtle physiological system that is critical in the maintenance of health and vitality in the mind-body system. He called this system the Primary Respiratory Mechanism, or the Involuntary Mechanism. He discovered some amazing things about its functioning and expression. He noticed a subtle rhythmic impulse that is palpable to sensitive hands throughout the body…

By the end of his career, Dr. Sutherland believed that the potency of the Breath of Life is an expression of the Intelligence of life itself and its fundamental to the proper functioning of both mind and body. He also perceived that the cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord becomes potentized with this life principle. He described the process of potentization as one of transmutation. Transmutation means a change in state. In other words, there is a change in the state of the bioelectric potency within the fluids, which allows it to act as a direct physiological ordering force within the body. This transmission of the potency of the Breath of Life into the cerebrospinal fluid became the most fundamental concept in his treatment modality.

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