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24 A Journal of Contemporary Shamanism VOLUME 8 ISSUE 1 SPRINGSUMMER 2015 E S S A Y Originally in traditional societies doctoring was of a femi- nine nature I am sure though I wasnt there or maybe I was. That is to say that doctoring was by its nature receptive and listening. Our modern medicine has become overly masculin- ized with technology and prescriptions that are often based on a masculine functional idea of one size fits all. The problem is that health is more individual than that especially on the road of manifestation into a condition. However the feminine is still alive and finding a resurgence in the energy based healing arts which I have practiced for over 35 years Craniosacral and Polar- ity therapies. Both Craniosacral and Polarity therapy started with Dr. Andrew Taylor Still MD DO who originated Osteopathy in the late 19th century. He believed that every cell in the body was imbued with a spiritual intelligence. Likewise in the aboriginal worlds where I have participated they believe that all things have their own innate intelligence and deserve to be regarded as sentient. One of Andrew Taylor Stills students was Dr. William Garner Sutherland DO the originator of cranial osteopathy. He determined that this spiritual intelligence had a pulsation to it that emanated from the core of the brain and spine which he called the breath of life. Wherever the pulsation was healthy there was health and where it was impeded there was disso- nance and the beginnings or presence of pathology. He arrived at this thought under Stills tutelage. This work is the basis for todays Craniosacral therapy. Another student of Andrew Taylor Still a contemporary of Sutherland was Dr. Randolph Stone DO DC ND who determined that this pulsation was animated by life energy as it pulsed through the soft and hard tissue of the body. He believed that this pulsation was the emanation of our spirit and soul as it made its way through the process of evolution or the coming into being. He called the system he originated Polarity the Vital Element in the Healing Art. In my personal journey some 35 years ago when I had been practicing yoga meditation and the martial arts and was feeling nourished by something that I only vaguely understood I met a young man who introduced me to Polarity. He rubbed his hands together and pulled them apart encouraging me to do the same. When I did so I was amazed by what I felt between my hands. It was like electricity it had a pulsation and a magnetic type of feeling and I became excited and deeply intrigued. I had never quite had that experience of myself with such ease. That led me to study Polarity and Craniosacral therapies and make them my lifes work. Since then I have done about 35000 sessions trained thousands of students throughout the world and have been an avid student practitioner teacher and mentor of the energetic healing arts. On this journey my life was transformed. My relation to my own life energy and to others had been awakened. I discovered that everything had its own intelligence or pulsation and that it loved it when I thought that and behaved like that. In fact I found that the more I regarded life as though it were a sentient being the more it responded with enthusiasm and with my own self-empowerment. I started to feel that the less I did the more life just unfolded naturally and healthily. Whatever a client would bring me whether it was a broken bone a headache depression cancer bulging discs etc. it was always a similar process where I would sit and listen as if lifes intelligence was speaking through the issues and health of the client consciously and unconsciously. The more I listened and honored the intel- ligence the more the client seemed to unfold and unravel the blockages in their body and life bringing about changes to their life and body that I could not have imagined. This kind of lis- tening began to permeate my work in the energetic healing arts with clients students and teachers and then my relationships. At first I began to use the language of Holding Space in my classes. I thought I had discovered the idea although in hindsight I believe those words were ready to come to many people. At one point I met a North American aboriginal teacher with whom I was called from afar to study during a week of ritual and ceremony. Before I met him I dreamed that I would do so and that it would greatly influence my life. When the time came to meet him I was so excited waiting to hear what he would tell me. Like a child learning a new lesson I was feel- ing a bit awkward. I waited and waited for the teaching and The Holding Space Method Underlying Shamanic Aspects of Polarity and Craniosacral Therapy by Gary Strauss