Archive for December, 2008
by John F. Barnes, PT
International Lecturer, Author and Authority on Myofascial Release
www.MyofascialRelease.com
(Posted with permission from the Author)
Something has happened that is incredibly important! The Quantum Shift that I have been talking about has occurred and will have a massive impact on you and healthcare that will be so vast it will be beyond your wildest imagination.
First, allow me to step back so any therapist or physician that has yet to take my Myofascial Release seminars or any patient that may be considering Myofascial Release can better understand our Myofascial Release perspective. Myofascial Release is a Therapeutic Artistry. In school, I was told that therapy was a combination of science and art. Then all that was stalked about was the scientific aspect, but no art.
Newtonian physics, the paradigm of traditional therapy, claimed things have energy. Unfortunately, traditional therapy ignored the discoveries by Einstein that things are energy! This is the paradigm that Myofascial Release utilizes so successfully.
Traditional science views people as objects. The fundamental premise of the “old” science is objectivity. A rudimentary understanding of Quantum Physics clearly demonstrates that there is NO OBJECTIVITY. Yet, researchers continue to look for an objective cause for an objective disease or dysfunction. Therefore you and I as therapists were trained to do the impossible. The foundation of science was built on quicksand. This is also why traditional therapy only produces limited and temporary results. My serious back injury and resultant struggle to regain my strength and health opened my eyes to the limitations of traditional therapy. My Myofascial Release philosophy, principles and techniques were developed years ago through my experiences, trial and error, intuitive guidance and feedback from my patients, despite the fact that it didn’t jive with what science said I should be thinking or doing. Traditional scientist’s obsolete view of the human as a bag of chemicals has eroded healthcare into the biochemistry of disease.
My confusion in the early part of my development of my Myofascial Release Approach was compounded by all the research on the fascial system did not match my experience with my patients and myself. I eventually realized that all of the scientific research on the fascial system was done on cadavers (dead people). This led traditional scientists to a very erroneous view of the fascial system and its importance in the physiological functioning of all systems of our body in life.
How could science omit something so important? This error probably occurred due to the fact that Myofascial restrictions do not show up in any of the standard tests such as x-rays, MRI’s myelograms, CAT scans, electromyography, etc. This was compounded by the flawed view of the traditional paradigm which was logical, but terribly incomplete.
The medical paradigm fragmented the human over 300 years ago and taught us that we are mindless machines. In other words, consciousness does not matter and was not important or to be included in healthcare. However, this refutes our moment-by-moment experience. My personal experience was that consciousness was the most important aspect of life and healing. I found that my patient’s fascial system was full of life, memories, emotions and consciousness!
Albert Einstein has said that most scientists are mere technicians, since all they do is memorize facts written by someone else. He believed a true scientist was one that utilized his or her creative genius coupled with the rational mind. He said that all of this incredible ideas came in an intuitive visual flash. He “saw” the total picture and then used the logical/linear side of the brain to write down the concepts that described his intuitive/visual experience.
Some interesting thoughts from Arthur Koestler’s book “The Ghost in the Machine” may be relevant here. He states that science is based on monumental superstitions and argues that the pillars of science are cracked and revealing themselves as hollow. And that science considers terms like consciousness, mind, imagination and prupose to be unscientific, treated as dirty words, and banned from the vocabulary. Koestler goes on to state that at first the intention was to exclude consciousness as objects of study, but later on this came to imply that the excluded phenomenon did not exist.
It is a paradox for conscious humans to deny consciousness. Yet, generations of scientists influenced by behaviourism claim to study human nature while doing so. They claim to study perception without consciousness, attention without consciousness, learning, brain physiology, animal behaviour, sleep, language, and healing without consciousness; the whole list goes on, all the while explicitly evading the common sense of 26 centuries of written human thought. Naturally, they were unable to deal with subconscious events either; you can’t have a subconscious without consciousness. Yet they’ve experienced every waking moment consciously.
Albert Einstein has speculated that rational science reveals only the external appearances of some deeper reality. I believe that Myofascial Release allows us now to deal with that deeper reality. Traditional therapy missed a key component for effectiveness, the treatment of Myofascial system, the conduit of consciousness.
Myofascial restrictions occur from trauma, surgery, and inflammatory processes. Trauma and infalmmatory responses create myofascial restrictions that can produce pressures of approximately 2,000 pounds per square inch on pain sensitive structures that do not show up in any of the standard tests (x-rays, MRI’s, myelograms, CAT scans, electromyography, etc). This enormous pressure acts like a “straight jacket” on muscles, nerves, blood vessels and osseous structures producing the symptoms of pain, headaches, and restriction of motion, and disease.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
John F. Barnes, PT, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania as a Physical Therapist in 1960; he holds physical therapy licenses in Pennsylvania, Arizona, New Jersey, Delaware, Colorado, and Hawaii. John is on the Counsel of Advisors of the American Back Society; is an Editorial Advisor of the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies; and is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association.
