FRANKLYN SILLS ARTICLES

The Holistic Shift

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The first step in the unfolding of the inherent treatment plan is the settling of the conjoined practitioner-client relational field. Once the relational field settles, and a state of basic trust is present, the practitioner maintains his or her orientation to primary respiration and waits for the holistic shift to emerge.

The holistic shift heralds the true initiation of the inherent treatment plan. It is a systemic process that manifests as a change in state within the person’s system within which the resources of primary respiration come to the forefront. It naturally arises as a starting point in session work. This is a theme that was present in cranial work from its roots in Sutherland and was clearly seen in the work of Becker. Becker encouraged practitioners to wait in a receptive and still state until “something happens.” In a transcript of Becker’s verbal teachings this “something” was described as a shift within the body from CRI levels of rhythm, historical patterning and seeming fragmentation to a sense of wholeness and fluidity. This is a sometimes dramatic shift in orientation from the conditional forces present, and their related patterns and pathologies, to the resources of primary respiration. Potency, fluid and tissues are then perceived to be a cohesive field of action and the system is truly sensed to be unified and whole. Conditional patterns and motions fade into the background and primary respiration at either at a mid-tide or Long Tide level, clarifies.

Although the holistic shift is a natural process, it is more easily accessed within a safe relational field where practitioner interconnection and attunement is present. It then arises within the ambiance of the practitioner’s presence and orientation to health. The key factor here is that the practitioner initially attunes to primary respiration and not to the inertial forces, patterning and conditional effects present. In resonance with the practitioner’s state of presence and orientation, the system shifts from its suffering and conditions to primary respiration and resources. No clinical intervention is attempted until this occurs.
In your studies, you may have already noticed that when you first contact a client’s system, the history and patterning present are commonly the first things communicated. Sometimes a huge amount of information may be communicated in a relatively short time. You might sense inertia, density, autonomic activation, various strain patterns, compressions, tensile patterns of motion, shock etc. You may likewise sense a system-wide stasis that seems to dampen down any motion at all. These are conditional patterns of adaptation and compensation organized by the deeper forces at work within the system. You may also notice the faster rhythmic rate of the CRI, anywhere from 6-14 cycles a minute, is most prominent. As we have seen, the CRI is a realm of conditioned patterning, autonomic activity and unresolved inertial issues within the system. Initially, these patterns and states may be more obvious than primary respiration itself.

In clinical practice, it is important to remain receptive, to not pursue any of this, and to simply hold a wide and still listening field oriented to the underlying expression of primary respiration. After a while, perhaps ten minutes or so of listening, you may notice a stilling, settling and expansion and, as Becker noted, a sense that the system is expressing wholeness. The inhalation and exhalation phases of primary respiration will then clarify or amplify. It is from here that the inherent treatment plan will unfold and this is really the starting point for session work. You have to be patient and not follow or engage the conditioned patterns present until this shift in orientation occurs.

The holistic shift is not a point in time, but is a process. Once the holistic shift occurs, you may notice that it may take a few minutes for the system to settle into its resources and wholeness. It is important to allow this deepening to occur. As the system settles, you may notice that different kinds of qualities manifest. One person’s system may seem vibrant; another’s dense, yet another’s wisp-like. All of this adds to your knowledge of the nature of that person’s system and its changes over time. Once the holistic shift deepens, healing processes may arise from the mid-tide level via the action of tidal potencies within the fluids, or through the more primary Long Tide expressions of field phenomena, or more directly from the Dynamic Stillness itself.

The Holistic Shift and the Three Bodies
In the holistic shift, all three bodies – the physical body, the fluid body and the tidal body – enter equilibrium and are sensed to be a unified field manifesting wholeness. As this occurs, you may sense that the fluid and physical bodies are literally suspended within the tidal body of the Long Tide. Think of each of the three bodies as having different degrees of density while being mutually suspended in space. The tidal body is the least dense and widest in its field of action, the fluid body denser and the physical body is the densest.

As the holistic shift emerges, it may seem like the physical body is suspended within the fluid body, the fluid body within the tidal body, and all three bodies are suspended around the midline in the vastness of the universe. As this sense of being suspended in space arises, the physical and fluid bodies enter coherency and wholeness is perceived. As this sense of wholeness deepens, primary respiration comes to the forefront. The physical body, which may have initially been sensed as having individual parts expressing seeming fragmentation, is now perceived to be a coherent and unified whole suspended in a wider fluidic field of action. As we shall see, as the holistic shift deepens, healing decisions emerge from different levels of primary respiration and stillness, and are not practitioner generated, but are effects of the healing decisions made by the Breath of Life itself.