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A Research Report
from The Upledger Foundation
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During
the fall of 1996, The Upledger Foundation sponsored a pilot project designed
to investigate the effects of providing CranioSacral Therapy (CST)1
to patients while in the presence of, and in direct physical contact with,
Dolphins. This project was the first known study to investigate the impact
of dolphins on the efficacy of an already well-understood and effective
therapeutic modality. Some of these CranioSacral Therapy sessions were
conducted in shallow lagoons where the dolphins were in repeated and
frequent physical contact with our patients and therapists. These CST water
sessions with dolphins were alternated with table sessions conducted on a
floating dock adjacent to the lagoons and in immediate proximity to the
dolphins.
The patient population for the project included seven children ages 5-12
years. Diagnoses and medical histories for these patients included cerebral
palsy, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury (T12 paraplegia), hemiplegia, chronic pain and depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome with
chronic pain, vertigo and speech impairment, TMJ, epilepsy and learning
disability, and agenesis of the corpus callosum with severe epilepsy. Each
patient completed two four-hour treatment sessions that included both
in-water CST with dolphins and dockside sessions.
Although much has been written relevant to the intelligent, kind, playful
nature of dolphins, and anecdotal evidence abounds regarding the
"spontaneous healings" many people have experienced as a result of their
encounters with dolphins,2 ours was the first known program to
incorporate a proven therapeutic modality while siimultaneously being in
such direct contact with dolphins.
Patient response to these treatments was quite significant and included
substantial reduction in pain, increased ease in breathing, greater general
relaxation and specific reduction of hypertonicity, enhanced strength and
flexibility, increased appetite, and more restful sleep.
The very favorable outcomes experienced by the diverse patient population
that participated in this program gave rise to a variety of conversations,
thoughts, ideas and speculations concerning the nature of the dolphins'
"healing presence". Central to these speculations was the importance of the
dolphin sound, and the role of sound and energy in our health.
Sound and Vibration
For thousands of years, cultures
throughout our world have recognized that sonic vibrations influence states
of consciousness and the physical body. Recorded history documents that
ancient cultures used music, rhythmic drumming and chanting in religious
practices as a means of restoring or maintaining physical and psychic
well-being. Indeed, there is written record of Islamic, Chinese, Hebrew,
Egyptian and Greek cultures using sound to impart cultural wisdom,
facilitate altered states of consciousness and heal the sick.3
Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras is reported to have believed
that certain sounds could be used specifically for curing illness, other
sounds for enlightenment or inspiration, and still different sounds for
relaxation and meditation. We additionally know that Plato and Aristotle
taught their students that sound and music were curative, and that disease
could be thought of as a condition of "dis"ease; being without ease, without
harmony within the body. Illnesses were often believed to have their origin
in a disharmonious state of being. Music was seen as a primary means of
restoring this necessary balance or harmony within the self, a way to
reestablish a healthy resonance. Interestingly, the term "resonate"
literally means "return to sound". Music was used to return the body to its
natural sound, its natural resonant frequency.
In more recent times, relatively speaking, classical and romantic composers
saw music as a powerful means of influencing consciousness and also as a
means of transmitting cultural wisdom while simultaneously promoting the
advancement of culture.4 Composers from the Romantic and
Transcendental periods believed they were contributing specifically to the
evolution of our culture and civilization through their music. Today, it is
increasingly accepted that a variety of sonic stimulation from music
therapy to ultrasonic vibration may be utilized as a means of altering
mood and consciousness as well as affecting the physical body.
Clinical experience has shown that the utilization of various naturally
occurring sounds such as wind and surf, flowing water, rain and wind
tend to promote and support meditation and physical healing.5
Music has been shown to directly influence heart rate, breathing, muscle
contractions, memory and immune system function.6 Within our
culture there are numerous examples from film, television, and theater to
confirm the experience that different musical themes clearly affect mood,
state and arousal as well as cognition.
There is, quite obviously, an ancient link between music, sound and health.
While the mechanism for this experiential link between sonic vibration and
human functioning may not be clearly understood, this has not limited our
exploration of this connection and its role in the therapeutic effects noted
in our CranioSacral Therapy with dolphins project.
Ultrasound
While sound has been used to
facilitate altered states of consciousness for various ways of healing in
the past, in recent years it has been used for specific and directed healing
most typically through the application of ultrasonic frequencies. Ultrasound has been used in sports medicine and rehabilitation to facilitate
the healing of contusions, reduce swelling and promote increased blood flow
to damaged tissue. Additionally, it has been employed in diagnostic imaging
and recently, as an alternative to more invasive procedures to destroy
cataracts, kidney stones and gallstones.7,8
Ultrasonic frequencies that are used therapeutically in clinics and
hospitals for various purposes of imaging and as a treatment modality are
typically in the range of 80mW/cm2 (for diagnostic purposes) to
2W/cm2 (for treatment of traumatic injuries). Dolphins have been
observed to produce echolocation sound or ultrasonic vibratory sound
frequencies at intensities of 8.3W/cm2.
Thus, dolphins naturally produce an ultrasonic frequency that is four times
the frequency used for therapeutic purposes in clinics and hospitals
throughout the United States. In addition to this measured frequency of
8.3W/cm2, it is important to remember that the dolphin ultrasound
is delivered through water, a highly efficient medium for sound transference
60 times more efficient than air, in fact.
Our clinical experience with patients and dolphins suggests that there can
be a near immediate, and often quite dramatic, reduction in fascial or
muscular restriction as well as release of adhesions resultant from past
surgeries, scarring or severe trauma upon receiving direct echolocation from
dolphins. Dolphins demonstrate significant variability in the echolocation
sound intensities they emit, and it appears that they are able to adjust
with near infinite variation the intensity of ultrasonic emanations produced
and directed toward patients as well as particular areas or regions within a
patient's body. It would seem that dolphins have the capacity through a
medium that we understand ultrasonic vibration to alter human tissue. This ultrasonic effect, then, is postulated as one of their avenues of
therapeutic effectivenss with humans, or if you prefer, one aspect of their
"healing presence".
Energy
Dr. Valerie Hunt states in her
book Infinite Mind10 that the electromagnetic component of
the human energy field can be detected with special instruments. In her
research, Dr. Hunt placed conventional electrodes at specific locations on
the body and measured the millivoltage frequencies (500hz to 20khz)
associated with the electromagnetic bioenergy field. In particular, she
demonstrated that there was an electromagnetic field or current that was
specific to different physiological and emotional states. Further, the
particular energy wave patterns or frequency signatures measured varied
depending upon the particular state of physiological arousal, mental
attention and alertness, mood, pain state and general overall wellness of
the subject. This suggests that there are definitively distinct
electromagnetic field patterns that correlate to the primary three realms of
human experience physical, cognitive and psychological. Within these field
patterns there are specific signature wave frequencies that relate to
differing physical, cognitive and psychological states.
As profound as this finding may be, perhaps what is more fascinating is the
additional discovery that when sensory stimuli (including sound) are
presented to an individual, the energy field responds even when the person
experiences no conscious sensation or awareness of the presented sensory
stimulus. That is, the energy field responds and/or changes before
alterations are noted in brain wave patterns, blook pressure, cardiac pulse,
muscle contraction or galvanic skin response. A person's energy field seems
to be affected prior to the physical body noticing or responding to any
alteration resultant from internal or external stimulation.
Dr. Hunt goes further to speculate that one's energy field emanations are
affected by negative stimuli, distress or "anticoherency" prior to the
physical body experiencing illness or disease and prior to the
psychological-self experiencing emotional dysfunction. She additionally
speculates that as disease processes begin in the energy field, healing
processes also have their origin in this field a field that is generated
at the atomic level and then manifests progressively in the molecular,
cellular and system levels. Consequently, when there is distress, disruption
or anticoherency within one's energy fields, the negative potential or
influence on the physical body is avoided or eliminated if that condition is
remedied within the energy field. Thus, healthy and coherent energy fields
will diminish, if not preclude, unhealthy or dysfunctional physical and
psychological states of being.
Although these speculations may seem extreme on a purely applied scientific
basis, most of us appear to experientially understand that disruptions and
distress in our energetic being, or energy fields, is very likely to precede
concomitant distress or dysfunction in our physical or psychological selves.
Indeed, our use of common terms such as "out-of-sync" or "off-balance" to
describe how we're feeling seems to bear out this belief.
Dr. Hunt's research confirms what our personal experience has been, and
provides a rational model for understanding what has been known to this
point, albeit unobservable. If it is true that consciousness is mediated by,
and healing begins in, the energy field, then the well-understood principles
of resonant entrainment suggest that if dolphins can sense an imbalance in
the human energy field, the dolphin-human interaction may well provide the
opportunity for initiating an appropriate alteration in the human
electromagnetic field. Thus, dolphins' ability to detect and reduce or
eleiminate incoherencies within our energy fields becomes a second aspect of
their "healing presence".
Information
As noted earlier, water is 60 times more efficient than air to conduct sonic
vibration or sound. The human body is composed of at least three-quarters
fluid (i.e., blood, water, plasma, lymph and cerebrospinal fluid). Of course
within the discipline of CarnioSacral Therapy, cerebrospinal fluid is
particularly important.
In brief, cerebrospinal fluid is a water-based, nutrient-filled liquid that
is generated within the two largest ventricles (the lateral) within the
brain. Each hemisphere of the brain contains one of these lateral
ventricles. These fluid-filled cavities then connect with centrally located
third and fourth ventricles which, in turn, connect to the spinal column. In
the best of circumstances, cerebrospinal fluid circulates relatively freely
around the brain, throughout these cavities, and within the dural tube of
the spinal column.
The importance of cerbrospinal fluid to healthy functioning is well known.
In fact, the extraordinary importance of this medium to mental functioning
is evidenced in individuals with enlarged ventricles who function
intelligently with a minute fraction of the cortex of a normal brain. (Many
of thoese with enlarged ventricles who have lost as much as 90 percent of
their cortex still test above average in intelligence.) Most interestingly,
the water in the body and the cerebrospinal fluid encircling the structures
in the brain are wonderful conductors of a particular band of
electromagnetic energy-sound.
It is obvious that sound vibrations influence the body and the mind. It is
also obvious that, along with our ears and assocated neural structures,
water and cerebrospinal fluid serve as transmission mediums of this sound
energy throughout the body and brain. In addition to the direct effect of
sound, the informational content of sound may be equal to, if not more
important than, the physiological effects of the sonic vibration. This
notion of informational content being embedded within an ultrasonic sound
frequency can be illustrated by simple, everyday experiences.
For example, when you tune your car radio to receive your favorite station
let's say 103.7 (megahertz) that radio signal is modulated or decoded by
the receiver in your car radio. These frequencies are, of course, inaudible.
They are around us constantly, yet only when the wave is modulated in a
particular fashion does whatever content or information that happens to be
carried on that wave at that time become available to the listener. It is
this modulation that produces or gives auditory voice to, the music or words
contained on the radiowave.
Another example of information being decoded from sound frequency occurs
every day in conversation. The human voice during social conversation is
typicaly in the 400hz to 1khz range. That is, your ear receives a sonic
vibratory energetic frequency of between 400hz and 1khz during conversation.
However, you experience much more than just an energetic frequency. In fact,
you receive the content the words, messages, information embedded within
the sounds that are spoken. The voice frequency contains information in
addition to being an experience of sonic vibratory energy.
Additionally, we can decode the different waves of similar frequency, as in
the case of distinguishing the sound of an A musical note played on the
piano versus the same note played on the cello or a guitar. Each musical
instrument has a characteristic wave shape, and thus the electromagnetic
sound frequency of 440hz (musically the note A) will be decoded by us
differently depending upon the musical instrument of origin. We experience
the same sonic vibration frequency, but we receive different information. It
is this similar ability to decode subtlety of frequency that allows us to
distinguish the sound of specific animals, particular voices, or the cry of
sadness from the cry of joy, even though they may be the same frequency.
Electronagnetic sound waves in the conductive medium of water in the body,
and cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain and neural structures, may
serve as carriers for further signals coded with information. In both cases
(traditional ear-linked neural pathways or via water and cerebrospinal
fluid), the informational content of the sound may be quite significant.
From this discussion we now have the possibility that the sound energy of
dolphins may have more to it than brute electromagnetic or ultrasonic force
capable of changing physiological structure. It potentially contains
information, and one possible medium of transmission of that information is
through the cerebrospinal fluid.
We know that dolphins' primary mode of communcation is sound, and therefore
it seems quite plausible that their sonar must contain vast amounts of
information integral to their communication. The exact nature of the
information communicated to us is not known. The content of the
communication may be intedned for us to process and utilize on any number of
levels atomic, molecular, cellular, systems, nonconscious, spiritual. We
do know that focused and organized energy can be profoundly powerful, i.e.,
light to laser, touch to CST, thought to clairvoyance. Perhaps the dolphin
sound is another example of the power of organized energy. If so,
information bearing bioelectromagnetic sound energy, in addition to
ultrasonic sound freuqncies, may be at work in the healing phenomenon
experienced by so many in their encounters with dolphins. This could well be
a third aspect of their "healing presence".
Community
The patients we saw in our CST with dolphins project experienced physical
and psychological gains that seemed to far exceed those reported by persons
who have casual swim encounters with dolphins. Each of our patients received CranioSacral Therapy from two or three therapists simultaneously while
receiving direct attention and physical contact from the dolphins. Certainly
a portion of their gains can be attributed to CST as well as to the three
healing aspects of the dolphins explained previously. A fourth aspect of the
therapeutic effectiveness of this program, however, transcends the
individual contributions of CST and the dolphins.
The word "community" has its origin in the Greek word "commus," which means
"to make common, to share or make known." This fourth aspect is related to
the common unity of purpose shared by the human and dolphin therapists
involved with our patients. If there was ever a "therapeutic community" at
work for a single goal of patient improvement, it was during this project. The eagerness with which the dolphins participated in this program convinced
us that they knew we human therapists were joining efforts for the benefit
of one of our own kind. We brought physical skill, emotional care, mental
focus and spiritual intent to our involvement with the patients. The
dolphins seemed to have sensed what we were about and chose to join us in
our efforts. In so doing they brought their own intelligence, care and skill
to complement and enhance ours and we all benefited from such a joining of
talents.
All who participated in this project were affected deeply by the dolphins. Our patients improved, and the skill and sensitivity of our therapists were
enhanced. Clearly , we have much to gain from continuing our exploration of
interspecies healing communication. Fortunately, the dolphins seem very
willing to participate in this exploration with us.
Please contact
The Upledger Institute
for more information about their BioAquatic Exploration program and
workshops for therapists and laypeople alike.
References
1. Upledger J, Vredevoogd J. CranioSacral Therapy. Seattle: Eastland
Press; 1983.
2. Cochrane A, Callen K. Dolphins and Their Power to Heal. Rochester,
NY: Healing Arts Press; 1992.
3. Fleming W, Veinus A. Understanding Music. New York: Halt,
Reinhart, Winston; 1958.
4. Elson A. The Book of Musical Knowledge. New York:
Houghton-Mifflin; 1933.
5. Bourne R. Promoting readiness for trance in treatment: The preparatory
phase of hypnotherapy. Erickson Hypnosis: Application, Preparation and
Research. New York: Bruner/Mazel; 1989.
6. Castleman M, Spangler T. The healing power of music. Natural Health.
Sept. 1994; 24: 68-71.
7. Stewart H, Stratmeyer M. An Overview of Ultrasound: Theory,
Measurement, Medical Applications, and Biological Effects. US Dept of
Health & Human Services. Rockville, Md: Public Health Services; 1985.
8. Way L. Changing therapy for gallstone disease. N Engl J of Med.
1990; 323: 1273-1275.
9. Cole D. Electroencephalography results in human-dolphin interaction: a
sonophoresis model. Prsented at the Second Annual International Symposium on
Dolphin Assisted Therapy; Sept 5-8, 1996; Cancun, Mexico.
10. Hunt V. Infinite Mind: The Science of Human Vibrations. Malibu,
Calif: Malibu Publishing Co; 1995. |
Jan, Keth and Dr Light have and do work with Dolphin, Whales and Manatees in
Maui and here in Florida as a multi-dimensional part of their healing team.
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Awakening-Healing
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