ZIGZAGGING OUR
WAY TO EXPANDED POSSIBILITIES FOR FOCUSING
Bruce Nayowith M.D.
Introduction p1
Connections with Physics and Biology p2-6
Pointing our sensing into new areas p7
Attention, Permission, and Mental
Models p 8
The direction of felt sensing in
different schools of Focusing 10
Beliefs and Worldviews in healing
practices p12
Transmitting
beliefs and information patterns p14
Reflecting Systems p 15
Sensing into different models of
what the universe is like p 18
Resonation and Coherence within
larger systems P20
Closing comments p20
References p22
Areas in blue have many science
references and can be skipped to facilitate ease in reading.
This paper investigates
some of the possibilities that can arise from the kindling of the inner
knowing of Focusing with the outer fuel of scientific insights.
Utilizing discoveries from the fields of physics
and epigenetics, we’ll explore how these concepts can dynamically expand, and
possibly revolutionize, current understandings and practices of Focusing.
Note:
Footnotes are indicated by the small numbers within the text. They refer to further
commentaries available online at
http://serviceoflife.info/focusing/foliofootnotes.html
Starting
with a particular definition of Focusing
A definition of Focusing that makes helpful
distinctions, and will set the stage for this paper, was articulated by Bruce
Gibbs
He suggests that it is limiting to
define Focusing as simply felt-sensing. Quite a few
processes contact and work with felt-senses – but not usually in the same way
as in Focusing.
In
order to understand this better, he distinguishes three levels of relating to
felt-sensing:
a) Contacting a felt-sense: Something in the
body that has meaning, which is not yet clear in
the mind. This level
brings felt-sensing into awareness, but does not prescribe what kind
of relationship one has with the felt sense – one may
push, ignore, or manipulate felt
experiencing.
b) Mindful
Awareness: Bringing mindful, loving attention (compassion and/or
interested
curiosity) to felt experiencing. Just being with felt experiencing in an
open,
accepting,
connecting manner.1
c) Focusing: Focusing can be
described as a zigzagging and a checking – offering
mindful
loving attention (“mindful awareness”), between felt experiencing and
the
symbolic,
the conceptual, continually checking with the body for rightness or fit.
Using
the zigzagging of Focusing as a metaphor, this paper itself will zigzag
– in an open and curious way – between one of our favorite tools for First
Person science (“the body” as a referent in Focusing), and some areas of Third
Person science.
For example - whole branches of physics
deal with sending, receiving, and transmitted energy.
How might an understanding of radio antennas, tuning, and signal
transduction expand our capacities for increasing connection and apprehension
while Focusing?
How might the physics of resonance influence the process of
resonating while Focusing?
The study of optics enabled us to
see farther and more closely through microscopes and telescopes. Radio
telescopes and electron microscopes later expanded our vision beyond the
limitations of optical lenses and direct perception.
What might the physics of reflecting and refracting offer to
sensing-into?
Might there also ways to indirectly sense-into, or
to sense beyond, what is directly bodily-felt?
Epigenetics – cells, sensing, and energy patterns
We can begin with cell biology and the blossoming field of
epigenetics: “ the study of the molecular mechanisms by
which the environment controls gene activity.” (Lipton, p. 26)
As research has progressed, our understanding of what
constitutes “the environment” has expanded. Besides physical influences and
local chemical processes, the environment includes more complex processes and
distant influences such as neurotransmitters and “molecules of emotion”
sent from other parts of the body (Pert, 1999).
The
Psychobiology of Mind Body Healing (Rossi, 1993) elaborates biochemical pathways through which mental
events may influence the expression of certain genes on the cellular level.
The scientific literature offers
multiple studies supporting the role of emotions and mental states – including
beliefs – in altering biochemical processes. These include studies on the
placebo2 and nocebo effect (Arguriou, 2007) (Klopfer, 1957 ) and on
Dissociative Identity Disorder (Coons, 1988)
(Braun, 1983 ).
Others have studied spontaneous remissions from metastatic
cancer (Hirschberg, 1993).
The direct experience of many who practice hypnosis supports
that some subjects, while in trance, can start and stop their bleeding from an
induced needle stick, adopt altered state-bound physiology during age
regression, and alter skin temperature upon suggestion.
Lipton takes Rossi’s
work even further, offering new insights about the mind-body interface. He
suggests that we widen our understanding of what factors can be epigenetic
influences to include intracellular, environmental and energetic
influences (Lipton, 2005, p. 26)
Some interesting research findings along these lines
Several research studies point to some
interaction between biochemistry, energy, intention, and information – even at
subcellular levels. (HeartMath, 2011)
The DNA Phantom Effect (Poponin & Gariaev, 2002) found DNA affects
the configuration of photons in a container. In other words, the photons in the
empty space are organized into some alignment because of the presence of the
DNA.
What is even more striking is that this alignment of the photons
is maintained by them even after the DNA is removed from the container!
Moreover, findings from “The DNA-wave Biocomputer” (Gariaev, 2001) suggests that electromagnetic
signals are of key importance in the regulatory functioning of DNA.
A study entitled the “Modulation of DNA
Conformation by Heart-Focused Intention” (McCraty,
2003) is quite provocative. I would like to spend some time on it
because it has quite intriguing findings that may increase our understanding of
Focusing dynamics.
In these experiments, practitioners of HeartMath who were skilled in attaining “coherence” (HeartMath LLC, 2011) were compared to
untrained control subjects as they attempted to influence DNA.
The study found that the length of strands of DNA in a test tube
could be significantly altered by the combination of attuning to a certain
emotional state and setting a certain intention.
According to this study, both the
feeling-mental state of heart-connection and the intention needed to be present in order for
this effect to occur.
Either aspect alone had minimal effect; both together had a
quite significant effect.
Exploring further, the HeartMath researchers discovered that intention could be
directed with quite a precise specificity. Subjects who had attained
“coherence” were able to effectively choose to lengthen two specific strands of
DNA and not a third one which was also present in the same tube at the same
time.
Other studies (Tomasino, 1997) have shown that changes in coronary blood flow
were affected by water which had been charged with certain electromagnetic
energies. Some of these changes seem to be able to be transmitted in a variety
of ways.
A lab at Northwestern University Medical School was able to
digitize a signal from a solution of energetically affected water. The
computer-digitized file was sent to Digital Biology Laboratory in France. The
water “listening to this signal” affected coronary blood flow just as the
activated water in Chicago had done! A dummy signal had no such effect.
(“Transatlantic Transfer of Digitized Antigen Signal by Telephone Link” 3)
An invitation to a thought experiment
I find these studies mentioned above to be quite incredible.
Even after having read the original papers, I am not totally convinced of their
validity.
On the other hand, do we need to believe these studies in order
to explore the ideas that they suggest?
No. We can take a
different tack - play with the idea that they might be true, then go
from there. Asking, “If this were
true, then …” is an invitation into a thought experiment.
Using some of these descriptions as
metaphors, we can explore what an understanding of physics based on this
biology might offer to Focusing.
Then we can check to see if we can find any examples that might
support or disprove our speculations.
Let’s begin
with a passage from “The Biology of
Belief” discussing the cell membrane, underlining some of the terms that
seem to have some parallels in the world of physics:
Receptor
Integral Membrane Proteins are the cell’s sense organs, the equivalent
of our eyes, ears, nose, taste buds, etc. Receptors function as molecular ‘nano-antennas’ tuned to respond to different
environmental signals. Some receptors extend inward from the membrane surface
to monitor the internal milieu of the cell. Others extend from the cell’s outer
surface, monitoring external signals
...receptors
have an inactive and an active shape and shift back and forth between those
conformations as their electrical charges are altered. When a receptor protein
binds with an environmental signal, the resulting alteration in the
protein’s electrical charges causes the backbone to change shape, and the
protein adopts an ‘active’ conformation. Cells possess a uniquely ‘tuned’
receptor protein for every environmental signal that needs to read…
…Receptor
‘antennas’ can also read vibrational energy fields such as light,
sound, and radio frequencies. The antennas on these ‘energy’ receptors vibrate
like tuning forks. If an energy vibration in the environment resonates with
a receptor’s antenna, it will alter the protein’s charge, causing the receptor
to change shape [Tsonga 1989]…because (some) receptors can read energy fields,
the notion that only physical molecules can impact cell physiology is outmoded…(Lipton, 2005, p. 83).
From epigenetics to physics
I would like to work with some
implications from Lipton’s ideas:
1.) Cellular metabolic
processes can be considered to be electrochemical events – associated
with changing electrical charges. Protein synthesis, cell metabolism, gene
activation, and reproduction generate
accompanying electromagnetic fields along with the biochemical reactions.
2.) Electromagnetic
fields are created by the process of cellular metabolism. Therefore DNA, the
cell membrane, and perhaps other cellular structures, transmit
electromagnetic radiation in the processes of cell activity.
3.) At the same time,
it could be said that certain aspects of living cells act as “sensors”.
They are sensitive to, are affected by, and differentiate between, types of
electromagnetic energy and information. DNA itself is one form of ‘sensor’, as
are the proteins that cover the DNA, and so are receptors on cell membranes.
So far, all of this is consistent with
Lipton’s ideas and with the DNA experiments above, which suggest that certain
components of cells can transmit, and receive, electromagnetic radiation.
4.) Interacting
patterns of electromagnetic energy are generated during cellular activity.
There may be a transmitting, sensing, and interacting occurring at various
levels of an organism - from the cellular level on up to profound levels of
complexity.
5.) There may be
different patterns of this radiation at each level - organelle, cell, organ,
body, or collection of bodies.
6.) Each of these
might have its own ‘signature’, its own frequency and pattern. Combinations
could create overtones, harmonics, and resonation patterns, as in music and
with waves.
7.) If something is
transmitting electromagnetic energy, then it may be possible to sense into
many of these frequencies via human and/or mechanical sensors. This might
be akin to tuning a crystal radio or a scanner.
As an example, one Focuser had an experience
of connecting with a sense of the living form of a cell, leading towards
healing nerve damage in one arm4. (Rolsma, p. 158-9)
Many skilled
Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners are able to sense what they call the
flow of “qi”, or life energy, along certain pathways or meridians, which
correspond to certain physical and emotional aspects. Pulse diagnosis is one
method of sensing these energies.
From Physics to Focusing
With that background, let us now ask:
“What might the physics of sensing or tuning-into offer to the sensing and
tuning-into of Focusing?”
One of the concepts that will be helpful is induction,
which is the process by
which
electrical
or magnetic properties are transferred, without physical contact, from one
circuit
or body to another.
The
inductive tap takes advantage of the fact that an electric current passing
through a conductor generates a magnetic field. Changes in the magnetic field,
under the right conditions, can "induce" current flow in
another nearby conductor.
The induced current in the second conductor will vary as the
original current, providing
us
with a "duplicate" signal. Since the signal is
induced magnetically, no direct
connection
to the original conductor is required. (Unterzuber, 2008)
Changes in energy and information in a
human body, or in anything else, have the potential to emit fields. Any
electromagnetic field that is generated has the potential to be picked up by a
“conductor”.
Many things can act as conductors, including mechanical instruments
and living creatures.
Common examples of our capacity to detect such fields include
sensing when someone has entered a room, picking up “vibes” from another
person, and experiences of felt resonation to another’s process in our own
bodies when listening deeply – even when they are not speaking.
This vast potential of sensing-into is
not always realized. Even if our sensing capabilities might allow us to detect
faint currents by induction, this information may be ignored or unregistered
by filtering mechanisms in our nervous systems. It may be considered as
‘background noise’, and not enter into awareness.
(We shall return to this topic when we discuss the power of
awareness and mental models to direct our sensing into new areas.)
Physics would suggest that the quality
of our receiving and sensing is influenced by
a) The strength
(intensity/energy) of the signal coming from the initial “transmitter”
(person, situation, body organ).
b) The alignment
of the receiver in relationship to the sender (tuning and attuning). If
an
antenna is perpendicular to the electromagnetic field, the
induction current is
approximately zero. The closer the two are aligned
(parallel), the stronger the induction
current in the receiver.
c) The sensitivity
of the receiver and the suitability of the sensor (antenna) to the
particular
frequencies
sought for are key factors, as well. Different antennas and sensors do better
on
different
frequencies.
d) Receptive stillness. Quieting down,
lowering internal judgments, mental or intense feeling
activity) can
decrease the amount of ‘static’ or
other current running through the
receiver (listening person’s mind and body) which might
otherwise interfere with the
signal.
e) The capacity
of the receiver to ‘decode’, or translate the energetic transmission from
the
sender, into something of relevance (how we make sense of
it, what our understanding is)
is key, for without it, there is no way to understand that
which is received. (Wikipedia,
2011)
So
far, this scientific discussion has laid out quite a bit of theory, without
direct application to Focusing.
We
already know that reflecting back and sensing for a ‘right fit’ in Focusing is
a way of aligning and checking for attunement.
Focusers
are already quite aware of the need to be still and present as a listener, to
attempt to attune both to ourselves and each another – this is not new.
But
let us take these ideas further. What about tuning into other frequencies or
increasing signal strength? What might that look like and how might that
happen?
Pointing our sensing into new areas
“In order to do the
impossible, one needs to be able to perceive the invisible.”
(attributed to Frank Gaines)
Directing
an antenna often involves pointing it in a certain way (deciding what to
sense into). In Focusing, felt-sensing is often described as a process in
itself. But, sensing often has a directionality.
Sensing-into is sensing in to – some particular direction, in to some particular something.5 This
aspect of our felt sensing often goes unrecognized- it is possible to aim our felt sensing toward something we wish to connect with.
Once aimed, we can do things to increase signal strength and fine-tune.
I
first became aware of this concept of attuning
felt sensitivity during a workshop on “Focusing and Architecture” offered
by Ellen Kirschner.
After
an introduction, the participants were encouraged to sense in a Focusing way
into various architectural qualities, such as space and design, and then to
share what was coming to them into the circle.
Akin to a phased array of radio telescopes
directed towards the same spot, participants offered input and shared it with
the group.
Each
person took in and resonated with his or her own sensing - and with
what the others were sharing from their directed felt-sensing inquiries, checking
inside for how exactly all of this information fit for them.
This
led to a deeper understanding and depth of connection with the subject
than any one person could offer alone. We noticed rapid learning - and development
of a new sensitivity to (and capacity to articulate) certain aspects
of what had been a “new field” for some of us.
Later,
we realized that this process could act as a model
for showing how to expand what one can sense-into.
It also can function as a model for a synergistic
group process for learning how to sense into new directions.
As
we examine this process more carefully, we may notice some of these elements
present:
-
Being
aware of what one is wanting to learn to consciously sense into (directing
the antenna)
-
A
setting where one can get direct experience and feedback from others’
mastery of subtleties of the process (having something to align to)
-
A
co-sensing system where each piece of observation or suggestion or concept is
allowed to resonate inside and between members. Each is taken in as a
reflection to see what is evoked in response (reflecting as a form of both
amplifying, and as a tuning-into)
These insights suggest a
very valuable, (and very marketable!) use of the
Focusing process. It can be used to help people learn more fully and more
deeply from others who have acquired particular skills and sensitivities in
almost any field.
Learning how to tune into certain key
essences in a field or a practice could become incorporated into Focusing
trainings as a skill.
For
example, one painting instructor may be finely attuned to subtleties of
contrast, another to shading, and still another to perspective.
One therapist
may be highly attuned to the sense of internal connection a person has to him/her self,
another to the attachment dance between a couple, and another to the object
relations.
Once
these sensitivities have been articulated through sensing into, others
interested can learn to intentionally sense-into a teacher’s perceptual gifts,
into a sense of what they are tracking and connecting with in their work.
This
process can accelerate our own learning and sensitivity of these qualities,
especially if done in a supportive cooperative
setting.
Attention,
permission, and mental models
If
felt sensing can be pointed like a directional antenna, what are some factors
that can shape the direction of our transmitting-into, and receiving-from?
Our filtering mechanisms run akin to
software programs, on autopilot.
If we are not aware of something existing, or
if we believe that something is not possible, then energy and information
actually coming to us from those areas may not make it to our cortex – or be
registered in awareness – unless the signal is strong enough to be registered above the filters we have.
This
unexpected information may be considered as ‘background noise’ and not be
registered consciously.
Awareness
of what is possible is useful – but not essential
Unexpected
things can enter into our awareness (such as a sense of a ‘third presence’ at
times while Focusing) – so, being open to the unexpected does help.
As
conscious beings, we have the potential to influence some old and habitual
processes.
We
can stop, notice, and become aware that there are other possibilities, and then
attempt to connect with them.
We
can then select, or search for, something else.
Analogous
to a radio, we can choose to change
channels to another frequency that we are already familiar with... or… we can hit the ‘search’ button, and sense into a more open field of what is out
there, scanning until something registers on our sensors, and we begin
to tune-into it.
While
we are on this topic of shifting frequencies, it is important to also be aware
of the key role of the pause in this
process. Pausing allows a stepping back from a presently operating pattern and
making space for allowing a different one to occur.
One way to help us search or direct our
attention into ways beyond the habitual is through the use of ideas – such as a
model or theory.
These
structures can also offer encouragement and permission.
Giving
permission or welcome may bypass limiting beliefs that might hold one back from
sensing into particular directions, or from registering ‘what came’ when doing
so.
Permission
and acceptance also may encourage sensing into areas that were habitually
unrecognized.
For example, I have always been interested
in how people have learned to be intuitive. When I
ask the intuitives I have met over the past 25 years,
many of them have given me the same response:
“A workshop, (or a teacher) gave me
permission to be intuitive. Then we were encouraged to practice, and got better
at it.”
In those cases, the mental model that offered permission
was, “You have the capacity to be intuitive – it is possible.”
Ensuing experiences in the workshop support the results of
operating from that belief.
While other factors are also at play – a supportive group,
sharing percepts in a co-sensing environment, self-selection bias of attendees
– permission is a crucial element.
While we sometimes hold the realms of thinking and feelings
as quite different, it is very true that beliefs, concepts, and ideas – “mental
models” – can influence our sensing.
As earlier parts of this article have pointed out, we already are
aware of how much these factors can affect our biology (placebo effect, for
example!)
If we can stop, re-orient,
and shift from one operating model to another, we can alter the tape loop and
the program that is running.
This insight can apply to the cellular programs – both the
programs that affect sensing and those that affect transmitting.
This conscious choosing can affect the biochemistry being
generated, the ideas and stories that are being generated, and the level of
health or illness that is unfolding in that moment by cells responding to the
informational patterns they are receiving and creating.
Focusing
is often so useful in getting past certain types of stuckness,
that it is easy to lose sight of the fact that sometimes the life-forward
step in certain situations is a change in the conceptual – a new
perspective or understanding. Sometimes a ‘knowing’ is what can carry us forward.
Just as we have habitual
ways of thinking, we also have habitual ways of feeling, and habitual ways of
sensing. Sometimes, when we pause to notice, we can identify the situation or
remember a concept (“That sounds like a critical voice”, or “I feel way shut
down – I wonder if some shame is here”, etc.) that gives us another way to
frame things, another way to relate to our experiencing, so that we can be with it and interact with it more spaciously and constructively.
Aligning
with an idea can help us connect with the life-forward-movement that we may not be able to feel, but that we can know must
be there.
This conceptual change can help us find ways
to shift out of being too caught in something, too close to it, and to find
things when they are otherwise too distant for our previous sensing to detect
and connect with.
The
direction of felt sensing as a differentiating feature among Focusing styles
If
we become aware of the possibility of something existing, and are offered cues
or guidelines, then we may be able to make
sense out of our sensing, so to speak.
“Look
there (at architecture, for example) and see what comes for you” opens a
direction, a possibility, that one may not have previously explored – but it
may not seem to be a mental model.
Better
illustrations of how mental models direct felt sensing can come from Focusing
itself:
One
meaningful way to distinguish differences in the various schools of Focusing is
by studying their models and how these models direct the felt-sensing in
distinct ways.
One
of the several powerful aspects of the framework, or mental model, of Treasure
Maps of the Soul (Cornell and McGavin) is the acknowledgment of felt dissociation. If a person is aware of really wanting to do
something but feels that they cannot, this model presupposes the
existence of a part (out of awareness) that does not want to do that
very thing.
Asking and then sensing inside if such
a part exists often connects one with a very powerful dynamic inside, something
new that one might not have been aware of had they been operating in their
habitual Focusing manner.
(In this case, the habitual pattern is being
overly identified with one part of an opposed pair of wantings,
and not sensing the other.)
On the other hand, Recovery Focusing is grounded in the
12-Step model.
Each
step incorporates a felt-sensing process.
The
felt-sensing in the context of each of these steps is done in three phases, or
three ‘directions’.
Each
of these guides the sensing differently and encourages support and forward
movement in dealing with addictions – first resourcing, then connecting with
the difficult places, then allowing the body’s knowing what it wants to become
to carry a person forward:
The
"Honoring" phase is about experiencing a positive "helper"
felt sense to begin the process. The "Opening" phase is about
exploring the "stuck process/pattern" (in this case certain aspects
of addiction); and the Widening phase is about experiencing "what could
be" and expanding that felt sense. S.Noel (personal communication, Nov. 20th,
2011).
This lens of “felt sensing guided along
certain mental models” could apply to other schools of Focusing, as well
(Domain Focusing, Wholebody Focusing, Biospiritual Focusing…).
Each
master teacher has his or her own particular concepts, own worldview about felt
sensing, own constructive maps for navigating one’s inner environment.
In
addition, each brings their particular worldview about the inner landscape,
and also their own personal refined attunements, their cultivated
felt-sensitivity in certain areas.
And
more…
Once
we are aware of this perspective, we could begin to consciously articulate
these aspects for each style of Focusing. This could create some handles to
help work amongst them in new ways.
This clarification might also offer a way to enable students to
increase “fluency” in several styles of Focusing without the expense and time
involved in having to begin at the very beginning.
Once a practitioner of Focusing knows
the basic “operating system” (zigzagging between felt-sensing and
the conceptual), they can learn and
practice the new conceptual models and particular felt attunements of any style
they wished to learn (the new “software program” that runs off of the same
Operating System) much more rapidly.
The
“DNA Phantom effect” suggests that DNA may transmit something to the space
around it – something that can organize the alignment of photons into a certain
pattern.
Let
us spend some time with this concept of transmitting patterns – patterns that
can organize or arrange energies into certain conformations.
Where
can we go with this?
In
homeopathic medicine, the practitioner seeks a remedy that matches the disorder
that in some ways resonates with it. “Like cures like.” A solution is then made
from this remedy which is so dilute that no molecules of the remedy remain
in the solution – only the informational pattern or energy remains.
This
pattern can act as a “seed crystal”, to allow a reparative internal
re-organization and re-alignment to occur.
(Lansky, 2011)
Brainwave
patterns between people can coordinate and align. A Brain-Mind Bulletin issue
from 1989 describes a study on brain wave synchrony between two people (Grinberg-Zylberbaum &
Ramos, 1987).
Each person in their pairs was instructed to close their eyes and
“try to become aware of the other’s presence”.
During the periods when both people reported that they had
developed this awareness, the inter-hemispheric correlation brain wave patterns
of each brain were very similar to the other.
If partners reported
that “it feels like we have blended”, the EEG patterns were nearly identical.
Conversely, there was no such synchrony when they just sat in silence alone not
trying to attune to each other.
In
addition, the researchers found that the person with the highest
concordance (the one with higher amount of right brain-left brain
synchrony) was the one who most influenced the sessions.
The implication is that, by
centering and grounding more deeply, any of us can contribute to a partner,
client or group’s increased well-being and level of connection.
You may have experienced how someone in
a group speaking from their deep connected place can bring other participants
to a more connected level. Many participants in Community Wellness Focusing
groups experience this dynamic on a regular basis.)
Beliefs and
worldviews in healing practices (as an example)
“A
belief is a thought that channels energies all of the time” (Patent, 2011).
In
this section, we will dip into the roles that beliefs and attitudes play in
shaping flows of energy and information, and consider whether beliefs can be
transmitted.
One
answer to this is a very clear Yes! We need only recall the placebo
effect – how the patients’ and also
the practitioners’ beliefs about the efficacy of treatment affect outcomes
in many situations.
Another
example of the effects of changing beliefs is seen in hypnosis (in the form of
giving suggestions – to believe something.)
This
point can also be illustrated by identifying different worldviews about the
nature of illness or suffering:
a) Illness is caused by a biological or
chemical imbalance or aberration (machine model, common in Western medicine).
b) Having emotional symptoms means that
something is defective inside of you (very old, shame-based worldview. Sadly,
this has mutated into a new variation, the “New Age Guilt Trip”… “If you can’t
heal yourself from your dis-ease, you must be really messed up!”)
c) What happens is the result of Fate. It
is destiny, and we can learn to deal with it (a fatalistic worldview).
d) The Buddhist Four Noble Truths describe
the truth of suffering, its causes, and cessation.
e) Distress and disease comes from being
out of balance; there are ways of regaining balance… (many
holistic modalities). Some are more prescriptive, and others more allowing and
listening-receptively based)
f) Who you really are is fundamentally
good. Your distress is just your stuff; you are not your stuff. After emotional
discharge, you can think more clearly. (Re-evaluation
counseling and others).
g) Your distress is some aspect of Life
singing a song of something it wishes to become, some way it wishes to help.
Something that seems to be a problem may be life’s new growth edge encouraging
the system to evolve further. (This idea is incorporated into the practice of Jin Shin Jyutsu, for example.)
Each of these
different understandings – about the nature of who we are, our distress, and
our relationship to the larger world – would
lead to an entirely different orientation to our situation.
Sam
Keen stated this quite succinctly: “Be careful whom you let diagnose your
disease, for you then give them power over its cure.” (Keen, 1985)
Depending
on which system we operate within, we might make different choices, interpret
what happened differently, monitor different parameters, relate to ourselves
and the distress differently, etc.
We
might welcome our symptoms, treat them with medication to suppress them, allow
them to deepen our mindfulness, encourage emotional catharsis, or just hide
them!
If
we were to do Focusing on our symptoms, it would make a difference as to which
worldview we were holding as we sensed into them, as well.
Beliefs
and worldviews affecting sensing-into
As
beliefs direct energy and information toward certain directions,
And
felt-sensing can be directed in certain ways by intention and mental models,
And
mental models include beliefs in what matters and how things work and interact,
Then,
felt-sensing can be significantly affected by beliefs.
This
includes beliefs of the client, beliefs of the healers (when applicable), and
beliefs implicit within the process used for healing.
For example, felt-sensing would be
directed very differently within allopathic medicine (sensing into medical
diagnostic clues, encouraging patients to sense into their felt rightness about
medical treatment options),
as compared to an
“illness as a turning point” model (LeShan 1990),
where one might sense into what wants to emerge, what “song wants to be sung”.
Jane Bell, practitioner of both Focusing and
shamanism, shared that a surprising number of clients, who have traditional
experiences with other Focusing listeners, will often experience shamanic
content (animal spirits, etc) during their Focusing
sessions with her.
These
clients were unaware of her shamanic background.
This
example points to an openness or transmission from the listener that can subtly
(or not-so-subtly!) shape another’s process.
Energetic
transmission is affected by intention and belief systems. Since Focusing allows
such a sensitivity to felt qualities, more attention to the role of worldviews
and intentions within the practice, experience, and teaching of Focusing would
add power to the practice.6
Examples
of intentionally transmitting a belief or information pattern
Along
the lines of the brain wave experiment described two sections above, perhaps what
one person brings in terms of an embodied understanding can resonate with others, allowing a synchrony
to occur, an alignment, a healing or growing.
Reiki,
Therapeutic Touch, and other forms of energy healing are intended to transmit
certain qualities through the healer-as-channel (first connecting and
receiving, and then transmitting) to the client.
A number of spiritual traditions
utilize the capacity of a master teacher to transmit a blessing or a state of
consciousness to students and devotees – such as in offering darshan (a
Sanskrit term meaning "sight" or “seeing”).
The
student attempts to open to, and attune to, the teacher’s energy.
At
times, a transmission is received that affects the consciousness of the
student.
This
process parallels the study findings on the role of intention, opening,
tuning into, and that the one
with the most synchrony (teacher) is the one more likely to be attuned to,and resonated with – can bring
the other up to their level of synchrony.
Lawrence
LeShan has done landmark research into the
particular worldviews of psychic healers when in the healing state.
He
has found that shifting one’s own worldview (understanding and relationship
with the universe) can allow certain kinds of healing to occur7.
Based
on this finding, he was able to learn and teach healing based on principles most
healers had in common:
-
centering, grounding oneself
-
making an intention to be of service to a particular person or group
-
holding an image (a worldview, an experiential belief) of
connectedness and
wholeness in one’s
awareness.
This
awareness could somehow have an effect on the client7.
Greg
Braden describes another form of healing, where the client, the “healer” (or
both,) hold a multi-sensory image (felt, visual, etc.) of a desired
or ideal state in which they experience the client as if already healed, as
if the healing has already occurred in the present. (Braden, 2011 – video
reference)
Gandhi’s
“Be the change that you want to see happen” may be seen as an application of
these the same principles to spiritual activism. If one lives as if it were
already true, the closer it is to making it so.
Within
Focusing, two examples of intentionally calling forth a positive outcome from
the body include:
-
the question: “What
would come in my body if this were all ok?”
- the Widening step in Recovery
Focusing (experiencing "what could
be" and expanding that felt sense.)
In
these two Focusing examples, the ‘vision’ comes primarily from the body, rather
than being directed primarily by one’s conscious mind. These allow the
possibility of another source of information and integration than one could achieve
by mental intention alone.
Reflecting
systems - amplification of signals and patterns
Directing attention, connecting inside,
sensing-into – all of these allow energies and information to resonate and
expand within oneself and within others.
So,
let us look at the most common intentional transmission that occurs in
Focusing, which takes the form of reflecting.
What
we choose to reflect depends on what one believes is important or significant
to facilitating the process.
Therefore,
reflections contain (implicitly) a worldview about what is believed to be
important or significant to the process!
A “worldview and mental model, with
reflections based on them”, is what I term a “reflecting system”.
In
Focusing, we are often taught to reflect back either what the speaker says, or
feelings, or felt meaning.
These
types of reflections are intended to support the client’s process in being with
and holding their felt experiencing.
But
there are other possibilities, as well. Just as in
sensing-into, reflecting is somewhat directional.
Particular aspects of one's experiencing are chosen to be
reflected back, and shape the experiencing of the person receiving them.
If this is true, then what else might we be able to sense into and
reflect back – besides the clients’ words, feelings, and felt meaning8?
- reflecting back feelings and needs (NonViolent Communication)
- reflecting back the aliveness of a
person’s process (Gendlin9 )
- reflecting back a therapist’s sense of the
attachment dance between a couple (Sue
Johnson, Emotionally Focused
Therapy)
- reflecting back a parent or teacher’s
awareness of qualities of greatness in the child in
that
moment (Howard Glasser’s Nurtured Heart Approach) (Glasser, 2011) (Glasser,
2010)
- reflecting back qualities of spaciousness
or holding that seem to be present in the
situation
(some meditations)
- reflecting back the divinity within
someone (numerous spiritual teachers)
David Young
posted about a Changes Group experience from 1985, in which Marshall Rosenberg
(developer of NonViolent Communication) was present (Young, 2008) :
. . . Marshall listens to Z, but in a much different way, and
Z gets to some honesty -- not to change, but to a touch of reality, connecting
with what's alive in him.
All my classic, careful empathic Listening, and all Jane's and
many others' beautiful Listening -- hours & hours for years -- didn't do
what Marshall did in a few minutes.
During an earlier Changes,
Jane had spent the entire two hours Listening to Z, determined to get
through. Nothing.
With Marshall, Z arrives at what Gene might call "the edge".
Afterwards, I
ask Marshall how he knew to do that.
[Marshall
Rosenberg founded Non Violent Communication. He often listens for, and
reflects, feelings and “needs” – what he senses is alive in the other person as
they talk. As an example, when listening to someone who is expressing a
judgment, he will not usually reflect those words back.
Instead, making the intention to connect, he
may offer a guess at what needs may be underneath their judgment, and have the
speaker check that for fit.]
“Have you
noticed," Marshall asks, "when you reflect content, you get more
content?"
“Sure, Marshall,” I
reply, puzzled.
“And have you noticed,
when you reflect feelings, you get more feelings?"
I frown. "Of course.”
Marshall fixes me with his dark intense eyes. “When you reflect an alienated
view of the world, you just get more alienation.”
Marshall
is aware that simply listening and reflecting back words spoken out of a
disconnected place, may not create any sense of connection. Something else may
be needed. ..
Part of the power of reflections has to
do with resonance – how one transmission sets up a response in another,
and vice-versa. This process creates a back-and-forth interacting, which may
amplify or interfere with each other, leading to phenomena such as harmonic
overtones, which we so enjoy in music.
Resonation and amplification may be
helpful, or harmful, depending on context. The same applies to dissonance, or
discord.
Energy and information entering a system will influence that
system. Reflections are one such kind of energy and information.
Whether or not the system adapts, evolves, or instead loses its
integrity and breaks down, depends on how it is channeled and integrated into
the system.
Soldiers are taught to break out of their
usually coherent marching pattern when walking across a bridge. They disrupt
their marching pattern because of a recognition (and experience!) that marching
frequencies resonate with the bridge. If a single coherent back and forth
marching frequency were to match the bridge’s structural design and periodicity
of motion, it could cause sway, excessive oscillation, and possible damage or
collapse to the bridge.
On the constructive end, nearly all
holistic and mind-body healing modalities have ways to coordinate various
patterns of life energy in order to better integrate mind and body.
In general, processes that link different aspects of our being
in a connected way support health and healing.
The HeartMath Institute has done
research on the effects of their practice - involving what they term Heart
Focus, Heart Breathing, and Heart Feeling. They describe their process as
leading to “coherence” - a synchronization
(entrainment, mutual resonance) of certain bodily parameters such as breathing,
blood pressure, and heart rate variability, all of which can be measured.
They have illustrations of this synchronization of rhythms
online (Institute of HeartMath, 2011).
They propose that the effects of attaining this type of
coherence can resonate personally – into benefits for health and intuition, and
also into larger settings – such as decreased violence in social settings.
This is a good place to remember that resonance
and attunement occur naturally, on their own. But, it
is also true that alignment may sometimes be more likely to occur if it is
intentional, rather than accidental.
The combination of felt-connection and intention may help attune
and resonate more effectively than either alone.
Being internally coherent alone, and only making a positive
intention alone, had little effect (1.1%) in the Modulation of DNA
Configuration study. The combination of both together had a 10-25% effect. (McCraty, 2003)
Another kind of coherence between mind and body is created in
the Focusing process.
Focusing includes bodily felt resonation between the felt and
the conceptual, or symbolic, within a certain kind of space that is held.
Certain qualities of attention and reflection more fully amplify
and assist in aligning with the body sense, so that something unclear comes
into focus, into some coherence.
It might be interesting to note that a laser achieves its
coherent beam through back and forth reflecting and amplifying in an optical
cavity! (WiseGeek, 2003)
Sensing
into different models of who we are, and what the universe is like
“But that is not all!
Oh, no!
That is not all...” said the Cat in the Hat
(Geisel, 1957).
So far, we might say that
learning to attune our sensors into activities within cells is using
felt-sensing as a microscope.
We can also shift the lenses of felt-sensing
outward or towards the sensing of “larger bodies” – as a sort of telescope.
Resonation and harmonics occurs at a
cellular level, with organs, at the level of individuals, and to larger groups.
Perhaps these larger patterns can be sensed into, and transmitted into, as
well.
Some of what we find in our Focusing will depend
upon our worldview that we are holding while Focusing
- since worldviews affect our sensing-into.
The most common worldview used in Focusing is
seeing ourselves as separate beings, each with our own
distinct processes.
We
each take our own personal turn. We respect each other’s process, and avoid
interfering with each other’s content – that is felt to be disruptive or
intrusive.
This
description may seem so obvious, that some may consider it to be “how
Focusing is done correctly.” Some may feel that changing these traditional
guidelines will threaten the sanctity and protection which makes the Focusing
process so gentle and safe.
On the other hand, sensing can be directional.
New mental models can offer new
directions to sense into. What might occur during Focusing if we tried on
other ways of understanding reality?
-
While Focusing, we may experience a sense of a “third thing”, some presence or
sense of grace that is palpable, occurring without us intentionally attempting
to seek it.
What
might come if we intentionally directed our sensing into the “between space” of
interpersonal resonance?
As
each would be sensing into a shared field and shared space of interactive
content, it could begin to assume qualities of its own as it was offered attention.
- What if we assumed ourselves to be part of
larger bodies, such as a community, or an Earthbody,
and allowed ourselves to acknowledge that dynamic and sense into it? What is it
like for us to feel that way? Where in Earth’s body might IT feel ITS feelings? ( one way to explore
this is at http://www.serviceoflife.info/focusing/healingplaneten1.html )
- What kind of sensing
and receiving might occur if we also did Focusing from the perspective of
ourselves as interpenetrating waves of energy and information that inter-affect
each other?
How
would our habitual sense of self, of who we feel ourselves to be, and how we
relate to each other and the world around us be affected? (Glenn Fleisch and Karen Whalen write about this in this issue of
the Folio)
- We take for granted that it is “we” who are
doing the Focusing, offering our attention to various aspects of our
experiencing.
But
what might arise if we considered that there is a Larger Body that is Focusing, a larger ‘Something’ that is offering caring
attention to us as if we were felt senses, so that we can shift and
unfold into our right next steps?
Such
a process might involve a sort of letting go into a larger loving attention,
allowing ourselves to be shaped by it…
This
seems a good place to pause and breathe…
Resonance
and coherence within larger systems
If we decide to explore any of these other ways of
understanding reality, we can pursue them on our own.
We could potentially enter into these areas more fully if we were
to
- choose a direction to
explore,
- offer permission to
try something “completely different”,
- make
an intention,
- work with someone who
is already attuned in that area,
- and be part of a
co-sensing, co-reflecting group in these realms.
This
is already happening in groups such as the Global Consciousness Project, the
Global Coherence Initiative, and Transcendental Meditation.
The Global Consciousness Project11 has been monitoring the effect of world events
on random number generators (Nelson, 2009) for years. They
claim a significant correlation for certain events. Interestingly, Sept 11,
2001 recorded the highest anomaly since the monitoring began. This is a
measurement project, examining correlations.
In terms of creating peace through
resonance, several groups and individuals make a heart-felt intention for peace
and harmony, and offer it for the benefit of society as a whole.
The
Global Coherence Initiative (Institute of
HeartMath, 2011) is
one of many such projects12.
Research studies sponsored by groups
of Transcendental Meditation practitioners (Maharishi Institute of Management, 2004) suggest a measurable and
significant decrease in violent events during the times when directed
meditative attention and intention was being offered in certain areas
(including during some of the 1983 Israeli-Lebanon conflict13).
They
offer a mathematical formula for the number of meditators needed to positively
influence a community14.
Due to space constraints, much has been
omitted. It could be very valuable to discuss integrating other frequencies
(such as theta- disembodied intuitive connection) into linear thinking and felt
sensing, creating something analogous to an i3 chip - integrative triple-channel mind-body- intuitive processing.
We did not get to
the physics of bias and distortion.
Analogous to how iron can cause a compass to deflect, can felt-sensing be
distorted or deflected?
Can
it be protected from such influences?
Nonetheless, by crossing only a few
aspects of two fields of science with Focusing, we have insights that may have
some personal, professional, and social implications for its practice.
It is my hope that the ideas presented here
may bring additional depth, breadth, and sources of wonder to the practice of
Focusing.
But
that remains to be determined.
As
the way to test a hypothesis is to try it out, I invite you to check whether
you find practical value in applying any of these concepts:
-
felt-sensing can be directional
-
we have the capacity to intentionally attune felt
sensing in multiple directions
-
mental models and belief systems can guide our sensing
and transmitting
- the role
of reflecting systems has an effect on the process and outcome
- when we
listen, both transmitting and receiving are occurring on various levels
-
through the combination of intention and bodily-felt
connection, we can influence much smaller (cellular) and much larger (social)
systems than we may have imagined
Please
feel free to send me examples from your own experiences along these lines –
ones you have already had, ones that come in response to trying on ideas
suggested here, and new discoveries that come for you.
A
caveat, a suggestion, and a blessing:
As
much as I am excited about these many concepts, I also acknowledge the good
reasons that many Focusing practitioners historically are cautious about
applying mental models and conscious intention to shape sensing and
transmitting.
The sensitivity
to, and honoring of, bodily-felt process in Focusing makes us loath to use the
mind to push bodily-held process.
The
power of intention is sometimes used to force or manipulate the body in ways
that do not respect its wisdom, that do not interact with it as partner.
McMahon
speaks to some of this in “Beyond the Myth of Dominance”
(McMahon, 1993).
We
have direct physical experience of how willpower and beliefs can be “used” by
one aspect of our being against less verbal aspects.
Focusing includes a type of
kinesthetic biofeedback, in which we can feel how various aspects of our being
are relating to each other. We can ask ourselves, or others, to pause and to
check:
“Is
something being too pushy?”
“Is
something feeling steamrollered?”
“How
is everything inside with what is being suggested? “
Focusing has been described as practicing
and offering a “non-colonizing relationship with one’s inner landscape” (Zubizarreta, 2003). It operates within a respectful
partnership between mind and body, listening, checking with, and following the
lead of the body’s life and knowing.
The
worldviews implicit in the practice of Focusing could positively inform the
worldviews of those who seek to improve the world through intention and
applying concepts.
In combining the depth and respectful
listening with the cognitive and the intentional, a dual channel zigzag can
help us integrate the conceptual and bodily-felt realms.
Focusing can help us hold not only
conscious intention, but also the bodily-felt sense of intention, to
help facilitate a synergy between what may be two hands of one Larger
Intention.
This
creates a respectful partnership between ways of knowing and being in a time
when we seek processes that are organic and eco-friendly.
This
article closes with the hope that the zigzag and loving attention within
Focusing can allow a crossing of what the heart longs to express, with what the
mind longs to know and achieve – thereby carrying forward this vision of Teilhard de Chardin:
“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we
shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the
history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”
Thank
you for your participation in this larger process.
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Bruce Nayowith, M.D. practices emergency
medicine in western Massachusetts. He has an interest in learning and crossing
multiple disciplines that support aliveness, so that they can inform and deepen
one another. These include depth psychology, whole brain education, emergent
group processes, spiritual practices, NVC, Ken
Wilber’s work, and Focusing. He can be reached at bnayowith@pol.net