Biodynamic Lineage
The biodynamic cranial lineage passed down to me from Todd Jackson is based in non-dual relationship with life, and emphasizes wholeness. The work encourages a dissolution of motives and a growth in practitioner presence.
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In order to attend to this wholeness from which health arises as a basic ordering principle, the practitioner develops precise palpation skills. These include whole body listening with: the hands, heart, derma body, inner body, glands, and central channel (and its chakras), to name a few. Just like in meditation where the meditator learns to track felt sense within her own body with unwavering presence, overtime the biodynamic practitioner develops the ability to precisely track the clients quietude and health throughout all aspects of a treatment. The quieter I am at my core, the greater the depth and potency of healing force is likely to emerge and make way for fresh expression in you. Ideally, both precise focus on localized health and unfocused awareness of the whole are being held by the practitioner simultaneously.
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Biodynamic practice naturally becomes a way of being as the practitioner begins to gravitate toward places that are flooded with silence. Regular meditation and qigong help clear the physical and energetic layers and ventilate the sense of self, and are considered a normal part of preparation for advanced work. Receiving the work and regular exchange with peers is requisite to honing and sharpening essential internal palpation skills. Repeating training until the principles become fully embodied reflexes is expected.
Below are a few people whose ways of being, practicing, or what they teach have inspired how I relate to Quietude in the cranial field.
 Todd JacksonTodd's innovative curriculum, which grew out of direct experience, is a significant contribution to the biodynamic cranial field. His sparkling intellect and congruence of being are rare gems. His gifts for healing and teaching are quietly transforming a growing population of Portlanders into a new way of being. Todd is founder of Biodynamic Massage, Cranial Therapy, and Inner Body Yoga. |
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 Bruno Ducoux, French DOBruno is a gifted educator and healer in the Osteopathic and Biodynamic traditions. He is a master of facilitation in the atmosphere of friendship with his joyful and wise presence that conveys a deep reverence for all of life. Todd first encountered Bruno's teaching in the 1990s. |
 Mike Boxhall (1930-2019)Boxhall is the author of The Empty Chair. Though he calls his work Stillness, his international courses animate the essence of biodynamic practice "focusing on the wisdom that is resident in the heart", and point to the stillness underlying everything, |
 James Jealous DO (1943-2021)Jealous was a well known Osteopath and academic who is respected for his refreshing intellectual brilliance by those in the know. He was mentored by Rollin Becker. "Allow your attention to breathe over the edge of the horizon, set it free, and then wait for it to come back on its own. There's a perceptual bridge here that we can teach people." |
 Viola Frymann DO (1921-2016)Frymann is known for her pioneering work in the Osteopathic treatment of childhood conditions. |
 Rollin Becker DO (1910-1996)Becker, who was influenced by Sutherland, emphasized being guided by listening to an Inner Physician. "Health is related to a return to the freedom of interchange between physiology and stillness." |
 William G. Sutherland DO (1873-1954)A student of A.T. Still, Sutherland discovered that bones of the skull aren't fused together after birth. He described the rhythmic movement in the cranial bones as "primary respiration" and expanded his definition to include the movement in all body tissues. Of primary respiration as the agent of change, he said: "The potency of the tide has more intelligence and potency in it than any blind force that can be safely applied from the outside." Sutherland's Epitaph reads: Be Still and Know. |
 Andrew Taylor Still DO (1828-1917)Still is the founder of Osteopathy, and is credited with having developed the cranial approach. He was a D.O. and an M.D., an educator and a surgeon. |
Books on my shelf
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Osteopathic & Cranial
The Autobiography of A.T. Still and Philosophy of Osteopathy - A.T. Still
Life in Motion and Stillness of Life - Rollin Becker
Osteopathic Odyssey - James Jealous
The Heart of Listening - Hugh Milne
Stillness - Charles Ridley
The Empty Chair - Mike Boxhall (audiobook read by the author can be purchased here)
Bruno Ducoux DO 2001 interview with James Jealous DO
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Embodied Being
Miracles for the Earth - Sandra Ingerman
The Realization Process: Guide to Embodied Spiritual Awakening - Judith Blackstone
Free Play - Improvisation in Life and Art - Stephen Nachmanovitch
Science and Spiritual Practices - Rupert Sheldrake
True Happiness - Pema Chödrön
I Am -Jean Klein
Meditation in Action - Chogyam Trungpa
Bone, Breath & Gesture - Practices of Embodiment - Don Hanlon Johnson
Kosmic Consciousness - Ken Wilbur
Somatic Descent - Reginald Ray
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Relational Neuroscience and a Consciousness based Universe
Trauma and the Embodied Brain - Bonnie Badenoch
Relationships that Heal - Diane Tegtmeier
The Quantum Revelation - a radical synthesis of science and spirituality - Paul Levey
Beyond Biocentrism: Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death - Robert Lanza
Plant and Animal intelligence
Plant Spirit Medicine: A Journey into The Healing Wisdom of Plants - Eliot Cowan
Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge - Jeremy Narby
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness - Peter Godfrey-Smith​
Dolphin assisted (Upledger) Cranial Sacral Therapy Documentary
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating - Elisabeth Tova Bailey (William Saroyan International Prize for Nonfiction, John Burroughs Medal Award for Distinguished Natural History, National Outdoor Book Award in Natural History Literature, Gold Award)
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Presence and Discernment
The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible - Charles Eisenstein
The Tao of Leadership - John Heider
How to be an Adult in Relationship: 5 Keys to Mindful Loving - David Richo
The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy - edited by John Brehm
Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One With The Universe - Yumi Sakugawa
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