Somatic Recall Part 1 — Soft Tissue Memory
Published in Massage Therapy Journal, Summer 1995, VOL. 34, No. 3.
In Swann's Way, a taste of a small cake, a petite Madeleine, causes Marcel Proust to be flooded with memories from his past. At first he is baffled, but he then remembers his aunt giving him Madeleines when he was small. Obviously, the association triggered his memory.
Most of us have had similar experiences, in which a glimpse of some long-forgotten place or object, or a particular odor, taste, sound, or even a movement, elicits the recall of a scene from our distant past. This article concerns a related phenomenon that is frequently experienced by massage therapists and other bodyworkers.
Massage therapists, acupuncturists, Rolfers and other somatic practitioners frequently report uncanny experiences in which vivid images flood into their consciousness as they are working on some part of a client's body. Sometimes there is a transient sensation that "something has happened" within the body they are touching. An avalanche of detailed sensory material may be triggered. The images may be so striking that the practitioner asks the client about them, only to discover that their client is simultaneously having a similar or identical "flashback." Rolfer Randy Mack describes this as "the recall of deeply repressed, highly charged emotional material with full sensory detail, possibly including visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory components."
Practitioners who repeatedly have these "somatic recall" experiences with their clients begin to suspect that "memories" of traumatic or other events may be stored in or accessed by the soft tissues of the body. Sometimes the "flashback" is associated with erasure of the memory. When this happens, the emotional "charge" surrounding the memory may disappear. The client may even forget, by the end of the session, that the recall occurred. In other cases, the recollection begins a therapeutic process that resolves the associated trauma, pain, or psychological attitudes. In other instances, the "flashbacks" may occur a day or two after a session of massage or other bodywork.
It has long been recognized that our individual memories shape our sense of who we are as well as what we do and how we do it, on a moment to moment basis. Our personal identity, our comprehension of the world around us, our place in that world, what we can and cannot accomplish, our every act and decision-all are referenced to what we have learned and remembered. If these references are to traumatic past experiences, and to the resulting pains, fears, angers, judgments, secrets, mis-truths, guilts, narrow attitudes or beliefs, our physical and behavioral flexibility are limited. Freedom of movement and thought, and awareness of what is happening inside and outside of us are compromised. To the extent that our mental lives influence our physical bodies, and vice versa, any therapeutic practice that has an effect on memory can have a profound, dynamic, and multidimensional influence on every attribute of the organism.
The study of memory and consciousness are among the most fascinating and controversial topics for scientific inquiry and somatic exploration. Reports that touching someone can release memory traces and even communicate them to another person are of great interest. Of course, conventional science labels such experiences as anomalies or hallucinations, as they do not fit with our normal theories about how the brain and nervous system work. However, we have talked to enough practitioners who report similar experiences that we have come to regard somatic recall as a frequently occurring phenomenon. Some massage therapists have these experiences daily. Not only is somatic recall widespread, but we think it is an important clue about unsolved mysteries of learning, memory, consciousness, the ways parts of the body communicate with each other, and the effects of touch.
In this two-part essay, we explore somatic recall in the light of recent progress in biophysics and cell biology. New discoveries are pointing to a simple yet scientifically logical explanation for a variety of phenomena relating to massage and other kinds of bodywork. The emerging concepts have far-reaching implications for scientific and philosophical inquires into the nature of consciousness, and for a variety of approaches to the body.
(This article is a summary. For a more thorough treatment, see our other recent articles.)
An expanded view of the living matrix
For a number of years we have been exploring the molecular anatomy of the body from a new perspective. Papers published in 1981 and 1984 showed that the connective tissue, the basic construction fabric of the organism, is continuous with the cytoskeletons of cells throughout the body. The cytoskeleton is the molecular scaffolding that gives each cel1 its characteristic shape and ability to move about. Our new view arose from an important discovery made by a number of cell biologists. The fibers and filaments that form the cytoskeleton do not end at the cell surface. Instead, they extend across the cell membrane, and connect to the extracellular fabric, classically referred to as connective tissue. Linking the two systems together are molecules called glycoproteins, anchor proteins, integrins, and cadherins, as well as calcium ions and sugar-rich proteins called proteoglycans. [Fig. 1]
Inside each cell, elements of the cytoskeleton attach to the nuclear envelope, and therefore connect to another matrix, called chromatin, that fills the nucleus and envelopes the DNA. Even the mitochondria, the tiny “powerhouses” within cells, contain matrices. [Fig. 2]
Hence the body as a whole, the organs, tissues, cells, organelles, including the nucleus, and the strands of genetic material, DNA, can be viewed as a continuous and unbroken fabric: a matrix within a matrix within a matrix. We refer to this continuum as the connective tissue/cytoskeleton/nuclear matrix, or, simply, the living matrix. Pienta and Coffey, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, refer to it as a "tissue tensegrity-matrix system." They use Buckminster Fuller's word "tensegrity" to emphasize the fact that the human body is a continuous network of tensional elements (ligaments, tendons, fascia, muscles, and cellular microfilaments) with discontinuous compressional elements (bones and cellular microtubules). A fascinating aspect of a tensegrity design is that a vibration introduced at one point is quickly conducted throughout the entire system.
The living matrix gives the body its overall shape and features, defines the form of each organ, tissue, and cell, and extends into every nook and cranny of the organism. All movements are generated and conducted within this substance. The expanded view of the connective tissue provides a physical, physiological, energetic, and conceptual substrate for a communication network that extends throughout the organism. The nervous system is the most widely studied communication system in the living matrix, but it is by no means the only one.
The division of the body into organs, tissues, cells, and molecules separates the study of life into sub-disciplines. [Fig. 3] We believe the division of biomedical inquiry into areas such as physiology, cell biology, pharmacology, genetics, molecular biology, and bioenergetics has slowed our comprehension of the universal integrating principles that must exist for an organism to maintain unity of function at all levels. Chronic disorders and diseases such as cancer, AIDS, atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, stroke, and heart disease persist because our understanding of whole-system physiological integration is incomplete.
The consuming and expensive search for new and profitable pharmaceuticals has closed off other potentially useful avenues of investigation. As a result, wound healing, regeneration, and recognition of self and non-self continue to be poorly understood phenomena. What they have in common is that they involve communications within the living matrix. Massage therapists and other bodyworkers have been exploring these communications for a long time and have made valuable insights about them. A partial list of pioneers in this area includes F.M. Alexander, Mantak Chia, Moshe Feldenkrais, Dolores Krieger, A. Lowen, F.A. Mesmer, B.J. Palmer, Willhelm Reich, Ida P. Rolf, Fritz Smith, Andrew T. Still, Randolph Stone, W.G. Sutherland, and Milton Trager. Some scientists who have contributed along these lines include Robert 0. Becker, Harold Saxon Burr, Valerie Hunt, Hiroshi Motoyama, Candace Pert, Bruce Pomeranz, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, and J. E. Upledger.
Continuum communication
In terms of both massage therapy and biomedicine, the most exciting property of the tensegral living matrix is the ability of the entire network to generate and conduct vibrations. The vibrations occur as mechanical waves or sounds, called phonons, electrical signals, magnetic fields, electromagnetic fields, heat, and light. For the most part, these forms of energy obey established laws of physics that describe fields from any source. Signals are produced and distributed throughout the body because of properties that are common to all of the components of the living matrix:
semiconduction: All of the components are semiconductors. This means they can both conduct and process vibrational information, much like an integrated circuit or microprocessor in a computer. They also convert energy from one form to another.
piezoelectricity: All of the components are piezoelectric. Waves of mechanical vibration moving through the living matrix produce electrical fields, and vice versa, i.e. waves of electricity moving through the lattice produce mechanical vibrations.
crystallinity: Much of the living matrix consists of molecules that are regularly arrayed in crystal-like lattices. This includes lipids in cell membranes, collagen molecules of connective tissue, actin and myosin molecules of muscle, and components of the cytoskeleton.
coherency: The highly regular structures just mentioned produce giant coherent or laser-like oscillations that move rapidly throughout the living matrix and that are also radiated into the environment. These vibrations, called Frohlich oscillations, occur at particular frequencies in the microwave and visible light portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. A number of scientists have detected these signals (Popp and others)
hydration: Water is a dynamic component of the living matrix. On average, each matrix protein has 15,000 water molecules associated with it. Since many of the proteins are highly ordered, as we have just seen, the associated water molecules are also highly ordered. Water molecules are also polarized (dipoles). The living matrix organizes the dipolar water molecules in a way that constrains or restricts their ability to vibrate or rotate or wiggle about in different spatial planes. Water molecules are only free to vibrate or spin in particular directions.
continuity: As we have seen, the properties just listed are not localized, but are spread throughout the organism. While we may distinguish individual organs, tissues, cells, and molecules, the living matrix is a continuous and unbroken whole.
A consequence of continuum communication is that every process taking place anywhere in the organism produces a characteristic pattern of vibrations that travels throughout the living matrix and distributes regulatory information. In terms of electronics, the signals are FM (frequency modulated) rather than AM (amplitude modulated). The frequency changes every time a cell moves or alters its shape, an organ shifts its functional state, a muscle contracts, a gland secretes, a nerve conducts an impulse, or a cell metastasizes. Transmission of vibratory signals through the living matrix imparts unity of function to the organism.
According to the continuum communication model, the living matrix creates a veritable "symphony" of vibratory messages that travel to and fro, alerting each part of the organism about the activities taking place in each other part. What we refer to as "consciousness" is the totality of these vibrations. Disease, disorder, and pain arise within portions of the vibratory continuum where information flows are restricted. Restrictions occur locally because infections, physical injury, and emotional trauma alter properties of the fabric.
The living matrix retains a record or memory of the influences that have been exerted upon it. When vibrations pass through tissues, they are altered by the signatures of the stored information. In this way, our consciousness and our choices are influenced by memories stored in soft tissues. An important property of the living matrix is an ability to regenerate or to restore itself. Massage therapy and other kinds of bodywork facilitate these processes.
Cellular memory In the past, memory has been attributed to the nervous system, but biologists are realizing that all cells in the body have the capacity to store information in their cytoskeletons (reviewed by Hameroff). The cytoskeleton is frequently referred to as "the nervous system of the cell." Since the cytoskeleton is continuous with all of the other molecular networks in the body, as we have seen above, memories stored within any individual cell are accessed and communicated via the living matrix.
The cytoskeleton is made up of a number of components, each of which can store and process information. Most of the focus has been on microtubules, which are relatively stiff rods. Microtubules are the structures that give each cell its characteristic shape, much like the bones which give form to the body as a whole. Hameroff describes in detail how the microtubules can act like computers.
Microtubules are made up of monomeric subunits known as tubulin. These subunits are polymerized into microtubules at specific sites known as "microtubule organizing centers." Microtubules are polymers (poly=many), formed when many identical units, called tubulin monomers (mono=one) join together. [Fig. 4]
Each tubulin monomer is polarized, and has two different ways of fitting into the polymer. Additional proteins, called “microtubule associated proteins” or MAP's, can attach to the microtubule. Information is stored by the orientation of the tubulin monomers and by the position of attachment of the MAP's. The result is a record of the conditions in the cell and in the environment at the time of microtubule assembly. [Fig. 5]
Remarkable studies have used immunogold tracers that stick to proteins attached to the microtubules. Because of its density, the gold shows up in the electron microscope. This method reveals a variety of different patterns of MAP's attached to microtubules (Burns and others). [Figure 6] shows two different patterns of MAP's, representing two different sets of information, attached to microtubules.
Hameroff describes how the patterns of microtubule subunits form "information strings" comparable to those in the word processor we are using to write this article. In the computer the information is stored on a magnetic medium in the form of a series of magnetic particles that can be oriented in either of two polarities, "north-south" or "south-north." The disk drive can read these digital "character strings" and reproduce the sequence of letters and words of our manuscript. Similarly, information is stored as the orientation of tubulin monomers along microtubules. The information is in strings that can move along the microtubules. In nerves, very long microtubules and associated neurofilaments can function as devices that are known in computer terminology as string processors (Jablonka).
Erasing memories and releasing toxins I can erase the character strings in my computer disk drive with a magnet that turns all of the magnetic particles to the same orientation. The information stored on a microtubule can be erased by depolymerizing it (making it fall apart) into its monomeric units.
Depolymerization of microtubules occurs every time a cell divides. In essence, the cytoskeleton falls apart temporarily so the DNA can replicate and the daughter cells can separate. When this happens, all of the information encoded as the direction of orientation of tubulin monomer units and as patterns of MAP's, is lost. Obviously, tissues whose cells divide rapidly, such as in the digestive tract, cornea, and skin, will not be able to retain information for long periods, in contrast to tissues that have a low rate of cellular “turn-over." [Fig. 7]
For massage and other kinds of bodywork, the important property of polymers is that pressure, temperature change, magnetic fields, and other forms of energy, can cause them to depolymerize or fall apart (Tanaka). This is the gel-to-sol transition that Dr. Ida P. Rolf used to account for the immediate effects of Rolfing on body structure. Dr. Rolf's focus was on the connective tissue ground substance (including the proteoglycan molecules shown in our first illustration) that lies between the collagen fibrils. She thought the ground substance depolymerizes from the pressure applied by the Rolfer, and that this allows tissues to lengthen and soften. When the Rolfer stops pressing on the tissue, the gel quickly re-polymerizes. Similar changes take place during massage.
One can ask what distinguishes the effects of Rolfing and other forms of systematic bodywork from the ordinary pressures developed during everyday activities, such as moving in the gravity field, wearing clothing, contacting furniture, random scratching and rubbing, swimming underwater, etc. In general, our individual body structure, and the structural problems that bring us to a massage therapist or other bodyworker (pains, compensations, imbalances, loss of flexibility, inefficient movements, etc.) arise from the ways we use or misuse our bodies in our everyday activities.
Cumulative structural problems can also arise from long-standing emotional attitudes. For example, a man has stiff shoulders, hard as concrete. His tissue has responded to years of fear of being suddenly struck from behind, something his brother did to him many years ago. A skilled therapist reads these structural patterns, and has methods of resolving or freeing us from them. A number of sessions may be required, but when the job is done, the tissue is rearranged. Repeated gel-sol-gel transitions allow the structure to reorganize, soften, lengthen and become more flexible.
Repeated cycles of reorganization, triggered by the therapist's precise, systematic, and intentional application of pressure to tissues, have structural and emotional consequences, and can bring about the release of toxic materials that have been stored within the tissues for many years. When we use the term "toxins" we are referring to foreign substances that have become trapped in the connective tissue meshwork. This meshwork traps substances because it has many electrically charged components that toxins can stick to, and because it has many tiny pockets in which toxic molecules become lodged. Therapists with a keen sense of smell often detect odors of alcohol when they work with tissue that has been sterilized prior to insulin injections, or of ether when working with the tissues of someone who has been anesthetized, or of insecticides when working with someone who has been repeatedly sprayed. This process in connective tissues is called "storage excretion," and involves the trapping and storage of toxins to prevent them from entering the blood and from being carried throughout the body.
We have described how temporary gel-to-sol changes can release toxic material that has been stored in the tissues, sometimes for many years. We can now suggest that one of the effects of Rolfing, massage, and other methods is to cause reversible gel to sol transformations both in the connective tissue ground substance and in cytoskeletons. The result is release of both stored memories and toxic substances. The latter are then released into the environment, or are carried away by the circulatory system and are broken down or excreted. [Fig. 8]
Soft Tissue Memory Microtubules are not the only components of soft tissues that are capable of storing information. A highly respected physiologist has described how records of the ways the body has been used (or misused) are incorporated into the structure of connective tissue. In his well-known book, The Life of Mammals, J.Z. Young provides an eloquent account of the plasticity of connective tissue and its ability to store information.
Young states that the structure of any tissue depends both on how it developed and on the forces exerted on it by other tissues and by the environment. Collagen is deposited along the lines of tension in connective tissues, such as fascia, tendons, bones, ligaments, and cartilage.
Paul Weiss studied tissue cultures and healing wounds, and documented the phenomenon Young described. Wound repair begins with the formation of a clot containing fibrin filaments. At first, the fibers are oriented randomly. As the clot dissolves, fibers that are not under tension are dissolved first, leaving behind a web of oriented fibrin fibers. Fibroblast cells migrate into this web, become oriented along the fibers, and deposit collagen, primarily along tension lines. Any collagen fibers that are not oriented along tension lines are removed by a process similar to the readjustment that took place in the clot. The result is a tissue composed of fibers oriented in the direction that is appropriate to the tensional forces produced by normal movements. [Fig. 9, next page]
Therapists from many disciplines know that it is beneficial to resume normal use of the body as soon as possible after an injury. Normal motion helps guide appropriate deposition of collagen fibrils. In immobilized tissues, randomly oriented fibers persist and disused muscles begin to stick to each other, particularly where there has been damage or scarring. James Cyriax refers to this as the formation of adhesions, and Ida Rolf calls it "gluing." Both terms describe a random web of connections that form between the myofascial layers of adjacent muscles. This webwork compromises the thin layer of lubricating fluid that normally allows adjacent muscles to slide over each other. When a muscle contracts it therefore tends to drag adjacent muscles along with it, reducing muscular efficiency and precision of motor control. These effects are particularly important for athletes and other performers, who strive to achieve optimum control and efficiency of motion. As in Weiss's blood clots, normal tensions are needed to facilitate resorption of unnecessary collagen fibers after an injury. In Rolfing and in the Cyriax method, deep cross-fiber friction breaks the adhesions and restores mobility.
From Young's work we can see these as examples of the way the organism makes predictions or "forecasts" that promote future survival. Genetic information programs the fibroblasts to deposit collagen in the direction of tensions, and forces from the environment generate those tensions. Disuse or injury promote a more random deposition of fibers, and this causes adjacent layers to adhere or become glued to each other. Of course, this gluing has a biological purpose: as muscles atrophy from lack of use, they tend to stick to each other, forming a sort of built-in "crutch" to stabilize and support the injured part of the body.
Connective tissue structure is therefore a record or memory of the forces imposed on the organism. This historical record has two components. The genetic part recapitulates the story of how our ancestors successfully adapted to the gravitational field of the earth. The acquired component is a record of the choices, habits, and traumas we have experienced during our individual lifetime. The collagen fibers orient in a way that can best support future stresses, assuming that the organism will continue the same patterns of movement or disuse.
It is widely thought that the phenomena Young described are not confined to healing wounds (reviewed by Bassett). Readjustment of collagen deposition takes place in all portions of the living matrix all of the time. This readjustment is the primary method by which body structure adapts to the loads imposed on it and the ways the body is used (see Oschman's article on how the body maintains its shape). Young stated that memories are stored not only in the collagen network, but in the elastin fibers and even in the various cells found throughout the connective tissue: histocytes, fibroblasts, osteoblasts, plasma cells, mast cells, fat cells, etc.
Young's concept of memory in connective tissues and cells provides a physiological basis for the way the stresses of life, injuries, diseases, muscular holding patterns, emotional attitudes, and repeated unbalanced movements can influence the form of the body. It also explains some of the dramatic effects of various movement therapies. One has the impression that every movement of the body is recorded in the living matrix. Repeated or habitual movements result in a particular connective tissue architecture. Any change in those habits, no matter how slight, will forever alter that architecture.
But can "memories" encoded in connective tissue and cytoskeletal structures lead to a conscious mental image of past events? How might such information be "released" during massage or other kinds of bodywork? And how is such information communicated from the tissue being worked upon to the consciousness of both the client and the practitioner? The second part of this essay will begin to answer these questions.
Conclusions Massage therapists and other bodyworkers report remarkable experiences of physiological integration in action. Intuition and sensitivity have led to practical methods for interacting with fundamental and evolutionarily ancient communication systems in the body. These communication systems integrate and unify structure and function. The integrity of these systems is profoundly important in the healing of injuries of all kinds. From the information presented so far, we can see how massage and other methods can simultaneously open lines of communication, clear the body of toxic materials that have been stored for a long time, help resolve memories of emotional and physical traumas, restore flexibility, and reduce pain.
Historically, physiological integration has not been a topic of great interest for biomedical research, which focuses on parts rather than wholes. Recent work of biophysicists around the world is now providing a context in which the experiences of massage therapists and other bodyworkers can be validated scientifically. And the experiences of the practitioners can provide important clues for researchers as well.
The realization that the cytoplasmic matrix is but an extension of the connective tissue, and vice versa, opens up a whole new dimension for research. It also resolves a long-standing confusion about the fundamental unit of life. The dilemma began in 1839, when Schwann declared that the extracellular matrix is the source of all life, and that cells are created within it "according to definite laws." In 1859, Virchow disagreed. The extracellular matrix depends on the cells, which are the truly elementary units, the "atoms" of life. This idea was shattered by the discovery that fermentation could take place in a cell-free extract, composed only of molecules and enzymes.
There arose a molecular prejudice: living matter, being built of molecules, must have at its basis a set of molecular reactions. Others, such as Albert Szent-Györgyi, have found this point of view inadequate, and have looked to electrons, protons, and other subatomic particles as building blocks, units of energy and information, and components of consciousness. Our inability to cure major diseases stems from our failure to include such phenomena in our thinking about structure and function.
Biophysics is now progressing rapidly because of a whole-systems perspective. The search for fundamental units is replaced by study of the web of relations between the various parts of the whole. Inquiries at all levels are equally relevant and important.
The realization that the cytoplasmic matrix is but an extension of the connective tissue, and vice versa, opens up a whole new dimension for research. The continuous living matrix, extending throughout the organism, is the context for the web of relations now under investigation. The living matrix has no fundamental unit, no central aspect, no part that is primary or most basic. The integrity of the network depends on the activity of all components, and all components are governed by relations with the whole.
The biophysical properties of the living matrix can explain a variety of phenomena that have been elusive in the past: learning, memory, consciousness, unity of structure and function. Unfortunately, most of the important biophysical research related to complementary medicine is not going on in this country. For example, four important books (edited by Frohlich; Popp, Li, and Gu; Endler and Schulte; and Ho, Popp and Warnke) contain contributions of 94 scientists from around the world, but only eight are from the United States (they are J. Schulte, East Lansing, MI; J.K. Pollock and D.G. Pohl, Milledgeville, GA; W. R. Adey, Loma Linda, CA; S.R. Hameroff, Tucson, AZ; R.P. Liburdy, Berkeley, CA; T.Y. Tsong, St. Paul, MN; and T.M. Wu, Binghamton, NY). A recent international symposium, edited by Allen, Cleary, and Sowers, contains contributions of well over a hundred authors, and, again, only a handful are from the USA. An accessible account of some of this literature can be found in The Rainbow and the Worm by Mae-Wan Ho.
While the concepts presented here are not yet a part of normal biomedicine, they have a sound scientific foundation. And they go a long way toward explaining some of the phenomena that arise in complementary medicine. We believe the bodywork practice is one of the best "laboratories" for testing these concepts. We look forward to hearing from those who find these ideas useful in refining and expanding your technique and understanding. Research is fun when it leads to new questions and opens us to new possibilities.
*****
© 1995, James L. and Nora H. Oschman
This essay is dedicated to Joan Bisson and to others like her who embody our most ancient and natural healing instincts.
References
Allen, M.J., S.F. Cleary, and A.E. Sowers, 1994. Charge and field effects in biosystems-4. World Scientific, New Jersey.
Bassett, C.A.L., 1968. Biologic significance of piezoelectricity. Calcified Tissue Research 1:252-272.
Burns, R.B., 1978. Spatial organization of the microtubule associated proteins of reassembled brain microtubules. Journal of Ultrastructure Research 65:73-82; Geuens, G., G.G. Gundersen, R. Nuydens, F. Cornelissen, V.C. Buklinski, and M. DeBrabander, 1986.
Ultrastructural colocalization of tyrosinated and nontyrosinated alpha tubulin in interphase and mitotic cells. Journal of Cell Biology 103(5): 1883-1893.
Capra, F., 1982. The turning point. Simon and Schuster, New York.
Cyriax, J., and G. Russell, 1977. Textbook of orthopaedic medicine, Vol. II, 9th edition, London, Bailliere Tindall, distributed by Macmillan, New York.
Endler, P.C. and J. Schulte, eds., 1994. Ultra high dilution physiology and physics. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
Frohlich, H., ea., 1988. Biological coherence and response to external stimuli. Springer Verlag, Berlin.
Hameroff, S., S. Rasmussen, and B. Mansson, 1988. Molecular automata in microtubules: Basic computational logic of the living state? In: Artificial Life, SFI Studies in the sciences of complexity. Vol. VI. Edited by C. Langton, Addison-Wesley, Redwood City, CA, p. 521-553;
Hameroff, S.R., 1988. Coherence in the cytoskeleton: Implications for biological information processing. In: Frohlich, H., Ed., Biological coherence and response to external stimuli. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, p. 242-263.
Heisenberg, W., 1958. Physics and philosophy. Harper Torchbooks, New York.
Ho, M-W., F-A Popp, and U. Warnke, 1994. Bioelectrodynamics and biocommunication. World Scientific, New Jersey.
Ho, M-W., 1993. The Rainbow and the Worm. World Scientific, New Jersey.
Jablonka, P., in Hameroff, 1987. Ultimate computing: biomolecular consciousness and nanotechnology. Elsevier-North Holland, Amsterdam.
Oschman, J.L., 1984. Structure and properties of ground substances. American Zoologist 24(1):199-215; Oschman, J.L., 1981.
The connective tissue and myofascial systems. Privately published manuscript; Oschman, J.L., 1989, 1990.
How does the body maintain its shape: A series of 3 articles that appeared in Rolf Lines, the news magazine for Rolf Institute members, Boulder, Colorado, ending with Vol. 18(1):24-25;
Oschman, J.L., 1994. Sensing solitons in soft tissues. Guild News (Guild for Structural Integration, Boulder, Colorado) 3(2):22-25.
Pienta, K.J. and D.S. Coffey, 1991. Cellular harmonic information transfer through a
Pribram, K., 1969. The neurophysiology of remembering. Scientific American (January issue) 220:75; Pribram, K., 1977.
Languages of the brain. Wadsworth Publishing, Monterey, CA.
Popp, F.A., H.H. Li, and Q. Gu, 1992. Recent advances in biophoton research and its applications. World Scientific, Singapore; Popp, F.A., B. Ruth, W. Bahr, J. Bohm, P. Graß, G. Grolig, M. Rattemeyer, H.G. Schmidt, and P. Wulle,1981.
Emission of visible and ultraviolet radiation by active biological systems. Collective Phenomena 3: 187-214; Webb, S.J. and M.E. Stoneham, 1977.
Resonances between 1011 and 1012 Hz in active bacterial cells as seen by laser Raman spectroscopy. Physics Letters 60A(3):267-268; Rowlands, S., L.S. Sewchand, and L. Skibo, 1983.
Conversion of albumin into a transmitter of the ultra long-range interaction of human erythrocytes. Cell Biophysics 5:197-203; Rivera, H., J.K. Pollock, and H.A. Pohl, 1985.
The ac field patterns about living cells. Cell Biophysics 7:43.
Rolf, I.P., 1977. Rolfing: The integration of human structures. Dennis-Landman, Santa Monica, CA.
Tanaka, T., 1981. Gels. Scientific American 244(1): 124-138.
Weiss, P., 1961. The biological foundation of wound repair. Harvey Lectures 55:13-42.
Young, J.Z., 1975. The Life Of Mammals.. Their Anatomy and Physiology. 2nd Edition, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Somatic Recall Part 2 – Soft Tissue Holography
Published in Massage Therapy Journal, Summer 1995, VOL., 34, No. 4.
The first part of this essay defined "somatic recall" as the release during massage and other kinds of bodywork of repressed and often highly emotional memories. Often such "flashbacks" are beneficial, leading to resolution of old trauma, pain, or psychological attitudes. Sometimes therapist and client simultaneously detect an identical avalanche of sensory information. We described some ways that soft tissues can store information, and how touching certain parts of the body could trigger and then erase memories at the same time that toxic materials are being released, physiological communication channels are opening up, and flexibility is being restored.
As a phenomenon, somatic recall seems a bit too peculiar for scientific exploration. Most scientists would consider instances of somatic recall to be hallucinations or delusions, as they do not fit with normal theories about how the brain and nervous system work. This is frustrating for the therapist who has such "hallucinations" frequently, and who would like some scientific validation for a phenomenon that seems both important and therapeutic. We take the view that the phenomenon is not only valid and therapeutic, but that it is an important clue that could help us answer unsolved questions about the mechanisms of learning, memory, consciousness, and whole-system communication.
In the first part of this essay, we described a new way of looking at living tissue as an interconnected molecular continuum, which we refer to as "the living matrix." This way of looking at the body is the result of an important discovery: the matrix inside cells, known as the cytoskeleton, is directly connected to the matrix outside of cells, classically known as connective tissue. The living matrix gives the body its overall shape and features, defines the form of each organ, tissue, and cell, and extends into every nook and cranny of the organism. The nucleus and DNA are a part of the living matrix.
The most exciting property of the living matrix is the ability of the entire network to generate and conduct vibrations. Modern biophysical research is revealing a wide range of properties that enable the body to use sound, light, electricity, magnetic fields, heat, elasticity, and other forms of vibrations as signals for integrating and coordinating diverse physiological activities.
According to the continuum communication model, every event in the organism produces vibrations that travel throughout the living matrix. In this way, every part is informed of what all other parts are doing. Massage and related techniques are effective because practitioners have used their intuition and sensitivity to develop methods of interacting with fundamental and evolutionarily ancient communication systems that are not part of conventional biomedical paradigms.
The cytoskeleton is being referred to as the nervous system of the cell. Biologists are now describing ways that specific components of the living matrix can store, process, and erase information. We now continue to develop a theory of how massage and other kinds of bodywork may release memories stored in soft tissues, and how these memories reach the consciousness of both the client and the practitioner.
Before doing this, however, we need to summarize the reason neurophysiologists have not looked beyond the brain in their search for the location of memory.
The brain as the seat of memory?
Modern biomedical research focuses on the brain as the location of memory, in spite of the many signs that this is only part of the story. The reason for the bias is partly historical. It arose from early brain research, some of which was done by the famous Canadian pioneer of neurosurgery, Wilder Penfield, in the 1920s. Penfield discovered that electrical stimulation of particular areas on the brain surface caused patients to re-experience "memories" from the past. These recollections contained vivid details of long-forgotten events that manifest as moving picture like "flashbacks."
After years of research along these lines, Penfield concluded that electrical brain stimulation could activate sequential records of consciousness laid down during a person's earlier experience. The detail contained in these recalls was so vivid that Penfield concluded that every experience we ever have is recorded in the brain.
The vividness of memory recall is familiar to massage therapists as well as to practitioners of various other somatic methods, including hypnotic regression, rebirthing, acupuncture, and even music and movement therapies. During sessions employing these and other methods, clients often relive early traumatic experiences. In some cases, experiences that took place at birth, or even in utero, can be recalled in detail, and with observable therapeutic benefit.
Penfield's discovery that electrical brain stimulation elicits specific recollections led to an obvious, but incorrect, conclusion. Memory traces, which are called "engrams," seemed to be stored as patterns of neural discharge in specific areas of the brain. This idea was supported by research showing that surgical lesions in certain areas of the cortex can seriously disrupt learning.
Modern researchers have repeated Penfield's studies and questioned the original interpretations. "Memories" elicited by electrical stimulation of the brain have a dream-like quality, and may not be memories at all. Sometimes stimulation at different sites produces the same recollection, and at other times repeated stimulation at one site evokes different recollections. Even removal of major parts of the temporal lobe, the location of the stimulation points, did not destroy memories of events that had been elicited by electrical stimulation of the lobe before it had been removed.
The brain is part of an intricate system, and the effects of stimulating, damaging, or removing certain parts does not prove that those parts are the locations of memories. Because of the interconnectedness of the nervous system, one cannot be certain that a particular evoked experience is stored near a site of electrical stimulation, or far away from it. Moreover, each region of the cortex refers to a particular part of the body. The brain and distant tissues are connected by motor and sensory nerves and by other communicating channels within the living matrix. Stimulation of a spot on the cortex may activate an intricate system that includes cells and tissues that are very far from the site of stimulation. [Fig. 1]
The logical problem of confining the search for memory and consciousness to the brain has exacerbated an already difficult problem: study of these phenomena is conducted by narrow disciplines, each with methods to study only a small part of the whole problem.
The brain's monopoly on memory has been eroding for many decades. Studies done as early as 1940 demonstrated that certain simple reflexes can be conditioned or learned by spinal cord neurons that have been surgically disconnected from the brain (Shurrager and Culler). This fact led to the conclusion that memory may be found in all parts of the nervous system. We now see that this concept, too, may be limited, because of cytoskeletal memory in non-neural cells, and because there are other forms of information storage in soft tissues (ea. as the orientation of connective tissue fibers)
From our point of view, the most significant lines of inquiry arose from studies of neurophysiologists who continued Penfield's search for the location of the engram. Of these, one of the best known was Karl Lashley, the distinguished Harvard psychologist who spent virtually his entire scientific career, 30 years, in an unsuccessful search for the engram.
Lashley's basic approach was to train rats to perform tasks such as running in a maze to find food. He would then surgically damage or remove specific parts of the rats' brains, or cut the connections between them, and test again. His goal was to identify the part of the brain where the maze-running engram was stored. Even removal of large amounts of brain tissue, which impaired the rats' motor skills, failed to erase memories essential to running through the maze. Lashley concluded that all parts of the functional area where memory is stored are "equipotential."
Karl Pribram was a student of Lashley, and wanted to continue the search for the engram. After reviewing all of Lashley's work, Pribram concurred that memory must somehow be distributed throughout the brain as a whole, rather than localized at specific sites. This view was supported by the repeated observation of neurosurgeons that removal of large portions of the brain for medical reasons can dim a person's memory, but never seems to cause a selective loss of particular memories. The engram is so elusive that some neurophysiologist suspect that it may not exist.
Pribram's problem was that there was no concept of memory that was consistent with all of the evidence. This fact had a deep impact on the field of experimental psychology, which had great difficulty advancing without a solid understanding of the mechanisms of processes so basic as learning and memory.
Holography
All of this changed dramatically with the invention of the hologram. Holography was first postulated by Dennis Gabor in London in 1947, but it did not blossom into a radically new branch of optics until 1964, when Leith and Upatnieks introduced modern holography.
Holography is technically defined as "photography by wave-front reconstruction". To understand this concept, consider a beam of light shining on an object consisting of a single tiny point. The diagram shows how the light will be reflected from the point. The light waves bounce back toward the source in a series of expanding concentric spherical shells, called wave-fronts. They are three-dimensional versions of the circular waves formed on the surface of a pond when a pebble is dropped into the water. [Fig. 2-A]
A complex object can be regarded as a collection of points, and light reflected from it's surface will produce a reflection composed of an intricate set of spherical wave fronts. [Fig. 2-B]
In holography, this intricate pattern, which contains precise information on the shape of the object, is recorded directly on a photographic film. The recording, however, is not a record of an image of the object. In contrast to conventional photography, holography employs no lens to focus the image on the film. Instead, wave fronts reflected from every part of the object flood over the whole film. Each point on the object reflects light onto the whole area of the film, and each point on the film receives light that has been reflected from every point on the object.
The wave fronts reflected from the object create a set of waves known as the "object beam." This light interacts with a "reference beam" consisting of light from the same source that has been simply reflected from a mirror. The final image is an interference pattern, created from the interaction of the object and reference beams. [Fig. 3]
Interference patterns
Let us take a closer look at interference. Most of us have thrown a pebble into a pond and watched in fascination as the ripples spread over the surface. Consider a pond with a smooth surface, with no wind or other disturbance. When we throw a pebble into the pond, the ripples spread concentrically outward. In the language of physics, we have created a series of ripples known as a wave train. The leading edge of the wave is called the advancing wave front. It is the place where the moving disturbance produced by your pebble interacts with the placid surface of the pond. [Fig 4-A]
If there is no wind, and if no other activity is taking place on the pond, we can watch the waves spread over the entire pond surface, even to the farthest points. The spreading wave contains information. When the wave has spread out over the entire pond, information about the splash you created is distributed throughout the surface of the pond. (Recall that Lashley and Pribram thought memory might be distributed throughout the brain, but could not think of a way this could be accomplished). An observer at any point on the pond could study the size and direction of the incoming waves and estimate where your pebble had splashed into the water.
Note that the distant observer studying the incoming waves does not see a real image of your pebble hitting the water. Instead they see a wave pattern from which they can infer when and where your stone hit the water.
Our observer would have a more difficult problem if there were a breeze or a boat or a duck or another pebble thrower creating waves that interact with those from your pebble. Interference patterns form where wave fronts interact. [Fig. 4-B]
The interference pattern is produced because some of the interacting waves add to each other to produce larger peaks, while other waves subtract from each other to produce smaller waves. The diagram below shows how two different waves interact to produce a third wave form, the interference pattern. This is an intricate array of crests and troughs caused by the collision of the two wave fronts. It is an irregular wave form, but it still contains information from the events that produced the original waves. [Fig. 4-C]
Let us ask our distant observer to analyze the interference patterns and reconstruct the events that caused it. The problem is not as complicated as you might think. A Frenchman, Jean B.J. Fourier, showed that a complex wave can be mathematically separated into its parts. Fourier analysis is a form of calculus that can be applied to any mixture of waves, whether ripples on the surface of water, sounds emanating from an orchestra, or radio signals coming from deep space. The most intricate wave pattern can be separated into the simple waves that created it. And the simple wave forms can be converted mathematically back into the original pattern. The equations are known as Fourier transforms. We shall soon see that Fourier transforms may also be used by the brain to process visual and other kinds of sensory information.
Now consider the situation created by many disturbances on a pond surface. To research this, we observed a nearby pond. The wind was blowing gently, creating a wave train moving from right to left. A small twig fell into the water, producing a concentric wave pattern. A similar pattern appeared when the head of a turtle popped above the surface. A frog made three hops in the shallow water near the shore, creating three more concentric waves. Small bugs, each about 1/4 inch long, glided over the surface. (Remarkably, these bugs left no wake except when they changed direction. It looked like they were skimming along, in a state of levitation, just above the water surface, and only made contact when they changed direction by pushing off with one leg). A flying pair of mating dragonflies dipped down and the tail of the male briefly touched the surface, creating a tiny bulls-eye wave pattern on the surface.
At any instant we could take a photograph looking down on the pond surface, and record the advancing wave fronts and interference patterns. The photo might look something like [Fig. 4-D]. The picture of waves on the surface of a pond resembles a holographic image. Information about the object is optically encoded as a pattern of concentric rings.
The pattern of light waves reflected from a complex surface is intricate, as we have seen. If white light, composed of many colors, is used, each color will produce a separate pattern of fringes. There will be an averaging out or overlap of the information, and the image will be fuzzy. The quality of the image is therefore greatly improved if the source of illumination is monochromatic, i.e. of a single color. Even better images are obtained if the light is coherent.
Coherence
What is meant by coherence? Coherent radiations are very different from the random signals produced by random vibrations. This is an important point in relation to massage therapy and other kinds of bodywork, and is therefore worthy of an explanation. As an example, compare the light produced by a light bulb with that from a laser. Laser light is monochromatic. All of the vibrations of the atoms in the laser are coupled with each other, and the waves spread uniformly and concentrically outward from the source. In contrast, the light bulb is simply a hot body, producing a jumble of light of many colors. The vibrations of the atoms in the bulb's filament are random, and the waves spread outward chaotically from the source. [Fig. 5]
The diagram in Fig. 6 compares the wave forms of coherent and incoherent light, and distinguishes between temporal (time) coherence and spatial coherence.
For holography, it is essential that the light be both spatially and temporally coherent. While there are other ways of producing coherent illumination, the laser is far superior to any other, and is responsible for the remarkable holograms that are being made today.
When illuminated with coherent light from a laser, the hologram reconstructs an image of the object that contains all of the information in a normal photograph, plus additional information that normal photography is unable to capture. The holographic image looks exactly like the original object, but in contrast to a normal photograph, the object appears suspended in space in three-dimensional form, complete with parallax. (This is the way the parts of an object become displaced relative to each other when they are observed from different angles). The image has depth, and cannot be distinguished from the original object. You can view a holographic projection from different angles, and you will see its front and sides, just like a real object. But when you attempt to touch the object, you find there is nothing there. In terms of optics, the holographic projection is a virtual image rather than a real image. [Fig. 7]
The other remarkable aspect of the hologram is that each part, regardless of how small it is, can reproduce the entire image. A corner cut from a normal photographic image contains only a portion of the original scene, but a fragment of a holographic film contains the entire image in miniature. This is comparable to placing observers at various places around our pond and having them watch the interference patterns produced by disturbances of the water's surface. The story of these disturbances is present everywhere on the surface.
As the pieces of a hologram are made smaller, there is a loss of detail and image intensity. The entire image is still available, but it must be reconstructed from a smaller number of interference fringes.
Holographic memory
Leith and Upatnieks published a technical article on holography in 1964 and a popular article in Scientific American in 1965. Pribram saw the second article, and immediately recognized that holography provided a single conceptual framework that could account for many of the remarkable aspects of memory.
Pribram's subsequent work is responsible for the widespread application of the holographic model to brain function, but he was not the first to suggest it. In 1965, immediately after the first technical paper by Leith and Upatnieks, two other scientists, Julesz and Pennington, made the explicit suggestion that memory is stored in the brain as interference patterns comparable to those used in holography.
Now we can see why Pribram was so excited by holography. He had concluded that memory is a distributed property of the nervous system. He and others had noted that removing large parts of the brain only dims memory but does not erase it, and these properties are the hallmarks of holography.
Holography is a very sophisticated way to store information, and Pribram saw immediately that the brain could exploit holographic principles. Perhaps physical structures responsible for memory were elusive for the same reason that the patterns on a holographic plate are unintelligible and bear no relation to the images they encode. Perhaps brain structures and patterns of nerve impulses contain no first order information (like a regular photograph) about memory and learning. Perhaps memory is to be found not in the patterns of neural activity, but in their Fourier transforms.
Over the years, a number of different lines of evidence have been developed to support the holographic model of memory and to show that some of the remarkable aspects of memory are virtually impossible to explain by any other concept. For the recent neurophysiological perspective on holographic memory, see L.R. Squire's book, Memory and Brain. A very readable description of this story can be found in Michael Talbot's book, The Holographic Universe. The following summarizes some of the evidence:
Vision appears to be holographic. Pribram did a series of studies in which he measured the electrical activity in the brains of monkeys as they performed visual tasks. He found that there was no one-to-one correspondence between visual images focused on the retina and neural impulses in the brain. Like memory, vision appears to be a distributed property of the visual cortex. Subsequent work in a number of laboratories has confirmed that cells in the visual cortex respond to the Fourier transforms of visual patterns (DeValois and others). Pribram looked at the older literature and found that other senses, including hearing, smell, touch, and taste seem to employ frequency transforms of the Fourier type.
Vast capacity of memory. We mentioned above Penfield's conclusion that we retain a memory of every event that happens to us during our lifetime. The Hungarian physicist and mathematician, John von Neumann, calculated that during an average human lifetime some 280,000,000,000,000,000,000 bits of information are stored in the brain. In holography, many images can be superimposed on a single piece of film. This is done by using a different laser frequency for each image, or by changing the angle of the laser illumination. Each image can be recovered completely, and separate from the others, by using the original frequency or angle of illumination. It has been calculated that a single square inch of holographic film can store the information contained in 50 copies of the Bible (Collier and Burckhardt).
Ability to forget. If many memories are encoded in the same tissue, by using different laser frequencies or angles, as mentioned above, searching for a particular bit of memory could involve scanning through a series of angles or wavelengths until the desired memory trace is located. Forgetting could be described as an inability to find the appropriate scan angle or frequency to locate the image or memory that is being searched for.
Ability to recognize a familiar face. How are we able to recognize a familiar face in a huge crowd of people? Physicist Pieter van Heerden proposed in 1970 that this feat is explainable if the brain is capable of "recognition holography," in which the optics enable two images to be compared in such a way that the degree of similarity is registered as the brightness of a spot of light. A related method, known as interference holography, enables one to recognize an image such as a familiar face, and, at the same, to highlight those features that have changed since the image was first recorded. Instruments have been constructed that use this principle to detect minute changes or stresses in manufactured objects.
Photographic memory. People with photographic memories, also called eidetic memories, are capable of extremely vivid and detailed visual recall. In 1972, Harvard vision researchers, Pollen and Tractenberg, suggested that such individuals have access to larger than normal areas of their memory holograms (Pollen and Tractenberg). This enables them to recall information with high resolution of image detail.
Scaling of body movements. Trace your signature in the air with your left elbow. You will find that it is easy to do this, even if you never tried it before. This feat is not explainable by a "hard-wired" nervous system that is only capable of performing a task after repeated practice. You would have no difficulty writing your signature on a black board in letters 3 feet high, even though it requires use of a completely different set of muscles than you usually use in signing your name. Pribram suggested that this ability to transpose a set of movements from one scale to another or from one part of the body to another can be accounted for by a holographic nervous system that converts memories of learned abilities into a language of interfering wave forms. This same phenomenon could account for your ability to recognize a familiar face while viewing it from any distance or any angle. The idea is that the brain contains a three-dimensional holographic recording of your signature or of your friend's features, and this recording can be scaled to any size, or rotated, so it can be recreated at any distance or from any perspective.
Movements as wave forms. Pribram also cited work done by a Russian scientist, Nikolai Bernstein, showing that movements, as in dancing, may be encoded as Fourier transforms. During the 1930's, Bernstein painted white dots on the black leotards of dancers. The dots were placed over the joints. When the dancers performed against a black background, moving pictures revealed their motions as a series of dots that formed wave patterns that could be analyzed by Fourier calculus. To Pribram, this indicated that the brain stores movement patterns as wave patterns, a mechanism that could explain our ability to rapidly learn complex physical tasks.
All of these ideas seem to fit together, and neurophysiologists are beginning to accept that at least some aspects of memory are stored holographically.
Among those skeptical of holographic memory was Paul Pietsch of Indiana University. Pietsch was doubtful of Pribram's theories, and set about to disprove them. To do this, Pietsch did a series of experiments with salamanders. The brain of a salamander can be removed without killing it. Without a brain, the salamander is unable to do much, but normal behavior can be restored by returning the brain to the salamander's head.
Pietsch did a series of experiments based on the idea that if the holographic model is correct, it would not matter how the portion of the brain that controls feeding behavior is positioned in the head. He figured he would flip-flop the left and right hemispheres of the brain, and this would disrupt feeding behavior. Pribram's theory would then be out the window. To his great surprise, the experiment caused no change in the salamander's feeding behavior, once the animal had recuperated from the operation.
Pietsch then did a series of some 700 operations on salamanders, turning brains upside down, slicing, flipping, shuffling, subtracting, and even mincing brains and reinserting them into the animals. In all cases, the animals' behavior returned to normal after they recovered from the "post-operative stupor". All of his research, which Pietsch details in his entertaining book, Shufflebrain, led him, reluctantly, to become an ardent believer in the holographic model.
Soft tissue holography
Now we can return to Young's model of connective tissue memory, and Hameroff's model of cytoskeletal memory, described in the first of this pair of articles. In Young's model, the stresses of the environment select the sites where collagen is deposited. Information is stored in the form of oriented collagen fibers. What is stored is a set of structures that reflect the situations, postures, movements, stresses and strains that have been experienced by the organism. Hameroff and other cell biologists have extended soft tissue memory processes into the cytoskeletal level. Can these ideas be integrated with Pribram's holographic model?
Such an integration can be achieved by recalling that all of the molecules of the living matrix create large scale coherent or laser-like vibrations. Therefore the orientation and other properties of each fiber in the connective tissue and cytoskeleton, and the forces imposed upon it, will be translated into specific wave forms that will travel through the living matrix and that will be broadcast into the environment. Since every molecule in the body can act as both a source and a conductor of information that can spread throughout the whole, the entire body can be viewed as a dynamically interacting, three-dimensional, communicating, coherent hologram. The same mechanism that unifies the structure of the body may simultaneously provide for the storage of information or memory. Consciousness and the processes we refer to as "mind" may arise as consequences of this dynamic system.
Implications for massage therapy
The living matrix is a continuous physical, energetic, and informational network that distributes regulatory signals throughout the body. Every physiological event and every process creates a variety of kinds of vibrations that travel through the tensegrity matrix, much like ripples spreading over the surface of a pond. Some of the vibrations radiate into the space around the body.
When a massage therapist or other bodyworker approaches a client, vibrations are exchanged back and forth between their respective living matrices, even before there is direct physical contact. This interaction is a natural and inescapable consequence of the fundamental design of the living matrix as a communicating system, and is explainable by the laws of physics. Biomagnetic and other field interactions take place all of the time when two or more people are within a few feet of each other. The fields are the result of electric, magnetic, thermal, photonic, microwave, and other kinds of energy.
Empathy, the ability of one person to "tune-in" to the physiological or emotional state of another, and other so-called "psychic abilities," occur because the living fabric radiates energy fields into the environment. These fields are a rich source of information about the history and the present status of the living matrix. The communicating continuum ends with one person who is a receiving antenna, detecting the state of the tissues in another. The transmitters and detectors involved in these exchanges are the molecular components of the living matrix.
Therapists project specific vibrations directly into places in the client's body where energy and information flows are distorted or deficient. The result is the restoration, revitalization, opening up, organizing, balancing, energizing, and tuning of resonant vibratory circuits.
Learning involves various kinds of changes in the living matrix, some of which we have described: tensional patterns in the connective tissues and structural patterns in microtubules and other components of the cytoskeleton. Other kinds of molecular information storage are being investigated in laboratories around the world.
"Remembering" involves manipulating coherent wave fronts to "read" information holographically encoded in cell and tissue structures. "Consciousness" at any instant is the totality of the coherent signaling within the living matrix, including wave fronts reflected from specific information-containing structures. Our behavior is shaped, on a moment-to-moment basis, by choices that are referenced to information contained in the reflected wave fronts.
Coherent signals from the hands of a massage therapist or other bodyworker influence wave fronts flowing throughout the molecular fabric of their client's body. When emotionally "charged" regions are contacted, there may be a sudden recall of stored memories. The memory trace is released as an energetic pulse, and interacts with other wave fronts present in the body. The memory is erased when various polymers, such as ground substance and microtubules, depolymerize or fall apart.
In a separate article, we have suggested that some of the more powerfu1 energetic phenomena taking place during massage or other approaches to the body may involve solitons. These are coherent solitary or singular waves that can occur on the ocean or in any other medium. In contrast to normal waves, solitons do not disperse or dissipate their energy by spreading out. The concentric wave pattern produced by dropping a pebble in a pond loses its energy as it spreads over the water surface. In contrast, solitons carry large amounts of energy over long distances without loss. "Qi projection" in the martial arts probably involves soliton waves. [Fig. 8]
Sometimes massage therapists notice a visible or palpable wave or ripple propagating through their client's tissues in advance of the place where they are working. This may be a powerful, self-regenerating, coherent soliton wave. In the ocean, solitons are called tsunami or tidal waves, and are produced by submarine earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. They can be very destructive.
Soliton waves traveling through the living matrix restore communication channels. When this happens, the soliton can penetrate into areas of the living matrix that have been closed-off or protected for a long time. There may be an sudden recall of some long-forgotten or deeply repressed traumatic event. This can reach consciousness in the form of a reflected wave that travels through the living matrix. The reflected wave contains a detailed virtual holographic image. An entire array of sensations can be conveyed virtually instantaneously. The wave front does not stop at the surface of the client's skin, but is radiated into the environment, and communicated to the practitioner, who decodes the wave front into an identical image. The ability of the therapist to detect and decode the avalanche of sensory information depends upon the degree of coherence of their own structure.
The soliton wave may be energetic enough to bring about depolymerization of information-rich molecules and erasure of the memory. In other cases, the soliton may stimulate metabolic activity in a tissue that has long been dormant, and somatic recall will be delayed for a day or so, until the cells begin to divide, their cytoskeletons depolymerize, and tensional patterns begin to be reorganized in the soft tissues.
The phenomena we are describing are non-linear in nature. When a system behaves in a linear fashion, a larger input will produce a larger output. Living systems can operate in the reverse of this. A non-linear system can undergo a huge change in response to a tiny input. Bodyworkers and homeopathic physicians frequently refer to this as “small is powerful" or "less is more." The living matrix can be delicately poised to accept and utilize small amounts of coherent energy.
Conclusions: A biophysics of massage
There are many reasons for studying the nature of life, and as many approaches. Progress along all lines of inquiry occurs in fertile spurts, punctuated by times of relative stagnation. Progress slows for a variety of reasons that can be attributed to a tendency of "human nature" to:
ignore anomalies
ask the wrong questions
look for answers in the wrong places
create disciplinary and political boundaries
conceal information behind a smokescreen of incomprehensible vocabularies
Biophysics, the physics of biological processes, is by definition an interdisciplinary line of inquiry. Biophysicists combine information from the two great sciences upon which our medicine is founded.
The history of physical, biological, and medical research shows that clever and dedicated investigators have been motivated by similar goals that eventually proved to be erroneous. In physics, it was the search for the fundamental building block of matter; in biology, it was locating the fundamental particle of life; in medicine, it was finding the fundamental cause and cure for every disorder. Expenditure of huge amounts of money and effort yielded useful information, but the original goals remained elusive. As observational methods became more refined, smaller and smaller fundamental units of matter, life, and disease reveal themselves. The focus shifts from one component to another.
The study of memory dramatizes the points just made. It was obvious from the beginning that memory would be found somewhere in the body, and the brain was the best place to look. Logic also dictated that we define a fundamental "particle" of memory, the engram. Many years of research have failed to locate a single place where memory happens, and the engram is as elusive as the physicist's fundamental building block of matter. But the search continues, and it remains focused on the brain.
In the meantime, massage therapists and other bodyworkers have remarkable experiences, of which somatic recall is an example. To us, this is a huge clue in the search for memory, and suggests that researchers may benefit by looking beyond the nervous system. The biophysical properties of the living matrix can explain a variety of phenomena that have been elusive in the past: learning, memory, consciousness, unity of structure and function.
While the concepts presented here are not yet a part of normal biomedicine, they have a sound scientific foundation. And they go a long way toward explaining some of the phenomena that arise in complementary medicine. We believe your practice is one of the best 'laboratories" for testing these concepts. Before this can happen, biophysical language must be translated into understandable terms, so therapists can explore the new data and concepts. Our writings aim to do this. We look forward to hearing from those of you who find these ideas useful in refining and expanding your technique and understanding. Research is fun when it leads to new questions and opens us to new possibilities.
*****
© 1995 James L. and Nora H. Oschman
This essay is dedicated to Joan Bisson and to others like her who embody our most ancient and natural healing instincts.
*****
References
Collier, J., C.B. Burckhardt, and L. H. Lin, 1971. Optical Holography. New York, Academic Press.
DeValois, K.K., R. L. DeValois, and W.W. Yund, 1979. Responses of striate cortex cells to grating and checkerboard patterns. Journal of Physiology 291:483-505;
DeValois, R.L. and K.K. DeValois, 1980. Spatial vision. Annual Review of Psychology 31:309 341.
Gabor, D., 1972. Holography, 1948-1971. Science 177:299-313.
Julesz, B. and K.S. Pennington, 1965. Equidistributional information mapping: An analogy to holograms and memory. Journal of the Optical Society of America 55:604.
Lashley, K., 1950. In search of the engram. in Physiological Mechanisms in Animal Behavior, New York, Academic Press, pp. 464-482.
Leith, E.N. and J. Upatnieks, 1964. Wave front reconstruction with diffused illumination and three-dimensional objects. Journal of the Optical Society of America 54:1295-1301; Leith, E.N. and J. Upatnieks, 1965. Photography by laser. Scientific American, June Issue, 212:24.
Oschman, J.L., 1984. Structure and properties of ground substances. American Zoologist 24(1):199-215; Oschman, J.L., 1981. The connective tissue and myofascial systems. Privately published manuscript; Oschman, J.L., 1989, 1990.
How does the body maintain its shape: A series of 3 articles that appeared in Rolf Lines, the news magazine for Rolf Institute members, Boulder, Colorado, ending with Vol. 18(1):24-25; Oschman, J.L., 1994. Sensing solitons in soft tissues. Guild News (Guild for Structural Integration, Boulder, Colorado) 3(2):22-25.
Penfield, W., 1975. The mystery of the mind: A critical study of consciousness and the human brain. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Pietsch, P., 1981. Shufflebrain. The quest for the hologramic mind. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.
Pribram, K., 1969. The neurophysiology of remembering. Scientific American (January issue) 220:75; Pribram, K., 1977. Languages of the brain. Wadsworth Publishing, Monterey, CA.
Pollen, D.A. and M.C. Tractenberg, 1972. Alpha rhythm and eye movements in eidetic imagery. Nature (May 12 issue) 237:109.
Rolf, I.P., 1977. Rolfing: The integration of human structures. Dennis-Landman, Santa Monica, CA.
Shurrager, P.S. and E. Culler, 1940. Conditioning in the spinal dog. Journal of Experimental Psychology 26:133-159.
van Heerden, P., 1970. Models for the brain. Nature (July 25) 227:410-411.