August 20, 2025 • 55 mins
Michael Shea, PhD. Is the author of eight books in the field of manual therapeutic arts. His latest book: “The Biodynamic Heart, Somatic Compression Practices for a Clear and Vital Heart.” He has advanced degrees in contemplative psychotherapy and somatic psychology. Michael is in training to become a Buddhist chaplain. He is also an international teacher focusing on the reflection of the human embryo in the human body for health, healing and spirituality. Michael specializes in pediatric practice for severely disabled infants and children. He has a 100% service-related PTSD disability with the Veteran’s Association (VA).
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Please note that all XZBN radio and/or television shows are Copyright © REL-MAR McConnell Meda Company, Niagara, Ontario, Canada – www.rel-mar.com. For more Episodes of this show and all shows produced, broadcasted and syndicated from REL-MAR McConell Media Company and The 'X' Zone Broadcast Network and the 'X' Zone TV Channell, visit www.xzbn.net. For programming, distribution, and syndication inquiries, email programming@xzbn.net.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to Mission Evolution Radio Show with Gwildawaka, bringing together
today's leading experts to uncover ever deepening spiritual truths and
the latest scientific developments in support of the evolution of humankind.
For more information on Mission Evolution Radio with Gildawaka, visit
www dot Mission evolution dot org And now here's the
(00:31):
host of Mission Evolution, Miss Gwildawiaka.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Spirituality and Medicine. Never the twain shall meet what's absent?
Because of this divide, is it possible to fully heal
without addressing our spiritual wellbeing? Mission Evolution Radio TV show
is coming to you around the world on the x
On TV channel x T with this is hour to
(01:03):
take a deeper look at the link between spirituality and
medicine is Michael Shay. Michael is the author of eight
books on the field of manual therapeutic arts. His latest
book The Biodynamic Heart Somatic Compression Practices for a Clear
and Vital Heart. He has advanced degrees in contemplative psychotherapy
(01:24):
and somatic psychology. Michael is in training to become a
Buddhist chaplain. He's also an international teacher focusing on the
reflection of the human embryo and the human body for health, healing,
and spirituality. Michael specializes in pediatric practice for severely disabled
infants and children. He has one hundred percent service related
(01:47):
PTSD disability with the Veterans Association. His website Shayheart dot com. Michael,
thank you so much for joining us on Mission Evolution.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Will the pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So Doctor Shaton, Can you share the story of what
first drew you to the healing arts?
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Well, I suppose that gets into a little bit of
my autobiography because when I was in the military shortly
after college, I was on a killing field. I was
in a terrorist bombing attack, and as a result of that,
when I got out of the service, I knew I
had a problem. There was no such thing as PTSD
(02:26):
in the seventies, no such thing, and I had to
get as far away from the military as possible because
it was the Vietnam era, and I got tired of
having my uniform spin on. So I got involved, fortunately
because of my sister in the alternative therapy field, it
was just beginning, so I learned therapeutic massage, I learned
(02:48):
diet nutrition, nature opathy, and I realized that I couldn't
go back to grad school right away that I needed
to have a profession. So I went to massage school
and got my massage license and that really started me
in on the healing process, my own healing process of
getting fixed, so to speak, or healed from that event
(03:10):
and it's still ongoing.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well, Michael, thank you for your service. Those were tough
times for sure. So you've studied under both the Dali
Lama and Navajo medicine. Man, how did those experiences shape
your path?
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Well, you know, I was raised Catholic, and so I
went to a Jesuit university and then I had to
go through a phase of atheism. And that event that
occurred in the military really brought me to an understanding
that I needed to look deeper, I needed to have
and take an inward turn. Events like that in the
(03:46):
military or even any trauma in life can can help
one take an inward turn, and it certainly did me,
and that inward turn got supported actually when I wanted
to get advanced training in manual therapy, and I went
to Boulder, Colorado, and I went to the Ralph Institute,
and Boulder at the time in the late seventies and
(04:08):
early eighties was a bastion of Buddhist work, and I
learned Buddhist meditation and the first time I sat down
on a meditation cushion, I never turned back. It was
like coming home for the first time in my life.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So what inspired you to pursue masters in Buddhist psychology
and doctorate in somatic psychology.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Well, once again exploring my own history of brokenness. But
I was just I really enjoyed manual therapy, and I, unfortunately,
because I had the energy in my twenties and early thirties,
I could work a seven day week, and I could
travel to all sorts of cities and do bodywork, rolfing
(04:55):
and cranium work and so forth. And I pinched a
nerve in my neck in overnight. Overnight, I lost complete
function on the left side of my body, especially in
my left arm. And if you're a manual therapist, you're done,
You're toast. So at the time I just switched gears.
I said, you know, why don't I just take out
(05:15):
a big student loan go to Naropa University because I'd
already converted to Buddhism and get a degree in contemplative
of psychotherapy. And little did I know that that is
the big thing right now, contemplative of neuroscience. But in
the process, I was in therapy three times a week
for over three and a half years, and it really
(05:35):
really helped ground me in terms of my own evolution
as a human being.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
So you're one of the first full instructors of cranial
sacral therapy through the upland jurists to less. How did
that opportunity come about?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Well, this is great telling my story. So you know,
there's nothing worse than it being a one armed manual therapist.
It doesn't work too well. But as I regain nerve
function in the left arm, I still could not apply pressure.
I took a class with John Auppledger, his first ever
(06:12):
you know, training in that domain. So what happened was
that I realized that I could swing my other arm
up on the table and I could hold people's heads
and be very still. I could hold their sacrum, I
could hold their feet whatever the protocol called for, and
I could work with a perceptual process that was necessary
(06:34):
without applying pressure. So I got pretty good at crania
work out of necessity.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
So how is your four decades in bodywork evolved alongside
the growing field of integrated medicine.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I feel like I've really been in lockstep with that,
although I will say that primarily manual therapy, you know,
obviously has been my interest. You know, I also teach
meditation and so forth, but I also integrate that into
the classroom. But because of being able to go back
and get a doctorate in my mid let me see
(07:09):
the mid nineties in somatic psychology, I got trained in
how to be a lifelong learner and how to look
at the literature, how to follow the literature, especially the
literature on spirituality and health. When I did my doctorate,
there were less than one hundred research reports on spirituality
and health. Now they're in the tens of thousands. But
(07:30):
the point being that I have this vivid interest in
lifelong learning, and I probably read ten to fifteen abstracts
a week. People send them to me. You've got to
read this, so I read it. I don't read the
whole research report, but I can get it from there.
So I've been able to stay updated on updates on
the anatomy of the body, on metabolic problems with the body,
(07:53):
which is really a primary interest in myself right now,
And what's happening in the alternative field in general.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Which takes us too. What is biodynamic cranial sacrel therapy.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Well, biodonymic cranial sacral therapy comes fundamentally, it comes out
of the ostiopathic tradition. The founder of osteopathy, Andrew Taylor
Still was the first Western oriented medical person that attempted
to bring spirit back into the equation of Western medicine
(08:29):
and at the same time at a manual therapy component.
His student William Sutherland, had a big revelation probably around
nineteen hundred that he was looking at the skull that
was disarticulated and he said, this must be able to
breathe because of all these different articulations. So it was
(08:49):
William Sutherland, William Garner Sutherland that actually started the cranial
osteopathic tradition osteopathy in the cranial field. And then it
was John Upplo that then took that he was an
osteopath and he brought it to the non osteopathic public.
So that's how I ended up studying with John Upledger.
(09:09):
So that's the typical lineage. And then at the end
of Sutherland's life and I think he was having a
senior citizen moment because he was my age. I'm seventy
six right now. And he saw a force in the body,
a light making a correction in the body, and he said,
you know, we've got to step back and one one
(09:31):
thousandth of a gram of pressure is all we need,
and we need to be able to see the light
and the breath of life in the body. And so
that's the essence of the biodynamic model is to really
step back, hold the client in their wholeness, in their wellness,
and be able to see how light the biophotons of
(09:51):
the cell function and work. And his student, doctor Jim Jellois,
then brought in what is called biodynamic briology. That's where
that comes in for me because I then was able
to mentor with doctor Jealous, a brilliant osteopath. He passed
away several years ago, but he had a deep, deep
(10:12):
interest in human embryology and how it related to health
and healing, and so I became very interested in that
and very much have followed that path as well, just
looking at our origin of when we were originally whole
as a single celled human being and here we are
this differentiated trillion celled being, always looking for wholeness and
(10:35):
sometimes without spirit.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
So how does Buddhist philosophy influence your therapeutic approach.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Well, it turns out this can be very practical, or
we could get very philosophical, and maybe we should avoid
the philosophical component. But you know, there's a big attention
in Buddhism just on meditation practice and calming the mind.
It's called calma biting. So if I were to just
say to the listener, you know, the essence as I've
(11:05):
learned it. You know, within Buddhist practice is just being
able to sit, to meditate, have a relationship with my mind,
and know how to calm it down. So that's the
essence of contemplative neuroscience as well. Well, it turns out
that there's eight categories of cells and tissues in the
human body that require quiescence. Is called quiescence cells. They
(11:28):
require dynamic stillness. So if the practitioner can be calm
with their state of mind and not active, and also
emotionally know how to settle, then that will actually create
a very therapeutic effect because cells work better in the
human body when they're quiet. When the quiescence cells when
(11:51):
that category of cells can be quiet. So that's the
way I link Buddhist practice to the metabolism of the body.
The absolute necessity at every single every single molecule in
the body has to go through a still point in
order to go through its transformation and transmutation. Buddhist practice
(12:12):
and contemplative practice. I'm not just singling out Buddhism, but
there are many contemplative practices that allow that type of
relationship that facilitates a deeper healing and perhaps a spiritual
healing within the client.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Would you mind briefly explaining what a still point is?
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Well, a still point when we look at the therapy
in general, of this manual therapy of craniocycuo therapy, when
the perception of the tissues and the human body of
the client. So I have my hands on someone and
I can actually perceive when things quiet down, in other words,
when their nervous system releases and relaxes around their stress
(12:54):
level and something gets very very quiet. The fluids of
the body, which is a major part of this work,
the cerebral spinal fluid and especially the blood and so forth.
There's many types of fluids, but they're all related to water.
We're ninety eight percent water, and so the waters calm
down in the body and they go into a still point.
(13:17):
And that's a threshold when this instinct for self healing
wakes up bypasses the trauma, and that instinct for self
healing then sends that the necessary vital force, whatever that
might mean for an individual practitioner. That vital force then
can revitalize the person at the level which they've come
(13:40):
symptom wise and otherwise it's a possibility. Does these work?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well, We're going to have to take a station break, Michael,
and I will return very shortly, so don't go away.
This is Mission Evolution Mission Evolution dot org. With is
this hour discussing the interface between medicine and spirituality is
Michael Shay, the author of the Biodynamic Heart Somatic compression
practices were a clear and Vital heart is website Shaheart
(14:08):
dot com. Michael, you often speak of primary respiration and
the long tide. Can you explain those concepts for us?
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Basically, these are just simply metaphors for when we can
perceive that something inside of us is slowing down. These
terms were developed and different osteopaths developed this terminology simply
as a description of their own experience when they had
their hands on a client and they felt that something
(14:39):
was connected to the stillness, that once the stillness was perceived,
that there was a slow movement in the direction of
the fulcrum that was symptomatic, let's say, for the client.
So that was very, very important for the understanding that
something slow is moving. So it's called the long tide.
(14:59):
It could be called primary respiration or simply the tide.
But the practitioner learns to synchronize their attention with that slowness.
So I have to come into relationship with that level
of stillness and slowness in my body, and it's a
universal perception. So the way I teach it is to
(15:21):
be able to look at the horizon and perceive just
slowness and movement of whatever it might be coming towards you,
but also from the heart, heart to heart with the client,
that you can make this level of connection with the
client and feel it as a slow movement sometimes called
chi and Taoism and acupuncture, or the vital force it
(15:45):
might be called. These are all metaphors for the same thing,
the value of slowness and stillness.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
So what does rolled its compassion play in hands on
healing work?
Speaker 3 (15:58):
You know, that's that's a super that's a super question, Gwilda.
So we have to understand that the basis the basis
of our compassion response, which is innate. So let's just
put this out at the beginning. Compassion is innate. It's
(16:20):
built within us. It's a responsiveness that we all have.
We see somebody fall on the street, we hear a
baby crying, whatever that is. Or if you're in the
therapeutic business, you know, a client comes in, they're suffering greatly,
your heart goes out to them. So there is a responsiveness.
But that responsiveness is based on the ability to recognize
(16:42):
our own personal suffering. Everybody has their own unique style
of suffering with their emotional upsets and their mental challenges
that they face. And compassion really means that I am
aware of and in touch with my own suffering and
this therefore I can connect with other people because everybody
(17:03):
has a basically same style of suffering. So that's the
essence of compassion. But how do we build it? And
the way we build it is the research is so interesting.
Just by feeling our heartbeat will it's so amazing to
consciously feel our heart beat without taking our pulse, although
(17:24):
you may need to take your pulse at the beginning,
builds empathy. So the very foundation for evoking this type
of responsiveness is the ability to feel our own heart beat,
and that heartbeat then allows us to give a direction
to the responsiveness of compassion. And we call that right
(17:44):
responsiveness because sometimes we have a response excuse me, and
it's not helpful. So right responsiveness by waiting and listening
for slowness and stillness, and then the moment emerges when
we feel our heart beat. We feel that connection and
we know how to respond appropriately and compassionately.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
So how do you see the body, mind and spirit
as interconnected in the healing process?
Speaker 3 (18:16):
You know, it's so funny when you know the history
of this, well, it's always been connected. It's always there.
It's the essence of who we are. It's only that
somewhere around the Renaissance, in this wonderful Western world of ours,
that we decided to split it off and give it
to somebody else, you know, the Catholic Church at the time,
(18:38):
so that the medical community would no longer talk about spirit,
but they would be able to dissect bodies and take
care of the body, and we've seen that that's created
a big challenge. But body, mind and spirit, then we've
been conditioned in a way in our culture to really
split it off as though it was separate from our body,
(18:59):
and it's not really. It depends on how you You know,
the Abrahamic religions are going to want to to find
spirit in a particular way around the notion of God
and Jesus and Allah, Muhammad and so forth. But all
of this is the essence of who we are, the
essence of what lives in our heart. As they say
in Taoism, the shen the spirit, the essence of spirit
(19:23):
lives in our heart and is flowing through our blood.
And so that's a very very important notion, whether you
believe it or not. But we've been conditioned away from
finding that within ourselves. And that is the turn inward.
That is the essence of contemplative neuroscience. In order to
reconnect the spirit which is already in us, we need
(19:46):
to turn inward. It's already there.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
So how does your approach differ from more mechanical forms
of cranios eco therapy.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Oh, I still do a mechanical work. You know, the
contemporary client is the sickest client that I've ever seen.
I got into bodywork in the seventies, and you know,
gradually the client had relaxation issues, and then they had
orthopedic issues in the eighties and nineties, and then they
had big time nervous system issues, and then they had
(20:19):
immune system issues. I'm telling you we are veryly, really
sick and challenge culture and that's why these dynamics are
so necessary. Repeat that question again. I want to hone
in on it a little bit more willed.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
How does your approach differ from more mechanical forms of craniosycotherapy.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
So with the evolution of the contemporary client, then there's
a necessity to develop a different skill set. One of
my teachers said that I needed to learn three whole
systems of therapy so that we could triangulate with the
client at any given time if one thing wasn't working. Well,
it turns out the mechanical work that I learned doesn't
always work, and gradually it worked less and less. I
(21:06):
still will use it periodically, but maybe only ten percent
of the time. But it's a tool. It's a necessary tool.
If somebody's had a concussion, and I specialize in concussions.
You need to be able to do some deep work
and some mechanical work, disengaging the bones of the cranium,
let's say, for a specific instance like that. But with
(21:27):
the contemporary client, they need a much softer, more gentle
biodynamic approach that it can reach more deeply into the
cells of their body and more deeply into the molecules
within those cells and get them connected in a more
universal manner.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
So you've written extensively on embryology. Why is understanding our
earliest development important and healing?
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Well, I've also studied anthropology and the anthrop of healing
and medical anthropology, and I think this is a very
important point. And that is that and you mentioned at
the beginning, I studied with the Navajo shaman for ten
years these traditional systems of healing. In order for the
healing to be effective, you need to create a ritual
(22:18):
that symbolically regresses the patient back to the time of
their embryo, because it's in the time of embryology, especially
after conception that we were a single celled, whole human being.
So the ritual is to take the human to take
this person, this client that they can touch the living
(22:42):
experience symbolically. It's not a regressive act per se. It's
present rate in our body right now, that level of
undifferentiated wholeness, and to create a dynamic with stillness and
slow movement that they can actually touch that and they
can actually feel that, and that that healing then can
come forward in their own instinctual process for self healing
(23:06):
and the instinct for self transcendence in this moment. And
it's beautiful the way this perceptual process works. So that's
the long and short of it with embryology. And then
we find out that the human embryo in our body,
it's incredible the way it develops. Psalm one thirty nine
(23:28):
says it wonderfully. You know, we're wonderfully created, and it is.
I'm full of awe every time I look at embryology.
And I mentioned Jim Jealous at the beginning, and he
taught me embryology, and I remember the first embryology book.
I started looking at it and I started to cry.
Why was I crying? This is me? This is me
(23:49):
at a sub microscopic level, and it's a beautiful thing
to observe and to be able to touch. That means
that we can also heal. We can heal from the
beginning forward.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
So what's the rule of artery is supreme and why
is it significant?
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Well, that gets us back to the founder of osteopathy,
Andrew Taylor Still, And that's a beautiful question because Andrew
Taylor Still, as I said, his fundamental principle is that
we are a unit of mind, body, and spirit. So
he brought spirit back in. It never really left, it
just got dissected for the purpose of Western medicine and
(24:33):
given away. But he also found out that as he
was developing these different manual therapies and his really his
dislike for Western medicine at the time, which was actually
pretty barbaric. And we don't need to get into that
just in terms of how healing happened, you know, in
Western medicine in the middle of the eighteen hundreds. But
(24:55):
he realized that any place in the body that was
stuck with the muscles, with the bones, that there was
also a restriction in blood flow, and that therefore it's
not just about relaxing the muscles, it's not just about
freeing the bones. But we've got to free the blood.
And so the blood became very very important. The rule
(25:18):
of the artery means free flowing, free flowing with the
proper stillness, which is actually in the middle of blood flow.
Doppler radar studies have shown that there's a zone of
stillness in the blood itself. So here we are back
to the necessity of feeling the stillness. And although blood
moves fast, there are also rhythms within the blood that
(25:42):
go very slow. And this is because the contemporary client
the lining of the blood, and here's kind of the
punchline of the rule of the artery. The lining of
the blood vessels is called the end of and it's
a quiescent cell state. We live in a world now
(26:04):
where ninety ninety five percent of us have metabolic problems,
and that means inflammation, and that means automatically inflammation in
the endothelial structures of the entire or almost the entire
carriguter system. When the end of thelium change is from quiescent,
from being a still cell to an inflamed, superactive cell,
(26:27):
then the blood starts to flow improperly, and we have
all of these heart problems. Now, ninety three percent of
Americans have metabolically unhealthy hearts, and it has to do
with the blood, the way the blood is built and
the way the endothelium is damaged because of inflammatory processes
(26:48):
from the food we eat and the disruption of our
metabolism at the level of the intestines.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
So how can craniopsychotherapy support the immune system?
Speaker 3 (27:02):
God, you were asking really good questions. I love this,
So we are we actually now we're in the age
of the immune system. I'm calling at the age of
the immune system. So for the past ten years and
then with the advent of covid in vaccines and all
of that. The medical doctors that I followed are mainly
(27:23):
Europeans and we teach you an alternative cancer clinic in Switzerland.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Well, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to interrupt and
we'll pick up on the other side. It is time
for a station break. Michael and I will be right
back to continue our discussion, So you stay right there.
This is Mission Evolution, Mission evolution dot org. This is
Mission Evolution, Mission evolution dot org. With this discussing biodynamic
(27:49):
craniocacre cranial sacrel therapy is Michael Shane his website shaheart
dot com. Michael, we were talking about how craniosecret therapy
can pack the immune system. Would you continue, please.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Yes, for sure, but just historically now, and actually it's
recent events we could say. So we are in the
age of the immune system, and one of the reasons
people are so sick is the disruption not only the
end of helium, but the lining of the intestines is
where the interface between the acquired immune system and the
(28:25):
innate immune system relocated the molecular signaling. So the disruption
of the intestinal lining, the epithelial lining then results in
the disruption of the endothelium of the blood vessels and
the spreading of inflammation and the spreading of disease process
metabolic syndromes. Depending on your repigenetics, depending on your family lineage,
(28:48):
you'll likely end up with that lineage dynamic. But the
immune system, what we're finding out and what the docs
are saying that we study with in your that this
immune system was already stressed. It was already stressed to
the max. So covid and vaccines and so forth just
(29:11):
took the immune system and overflowed the barrel of the
immune system. Now what does that mean. It means that
the immune system is oriented around trying to kill and
get rid of the cells and the viruses and all
that stuff we hear about that's not helping our body.
And when we have that level of inflammation, the immune
(29:33):
system can't work. And I'm sorry to use this analogy,
but because we used to have a septic tank in
the back, but septic tank starts to overflow, and basically
you see these levels of obesity. You see people's bodies
just starting to expand because their detoxification channels are blocked
(29:58):
and they can't get the toxicity from the cells because
cells have toxins that they're trying to get rid of
when they're producing energy. For us to be doing what
we're doing right here will but we also have to
have channels open to detoxify and get rid of these
waste products. When you can't, when that doesn't happen, and
(30:19):
it's not happening in most people, then the immune system
basically shuts down because it's overloaded. It can't work. And
we live in this age of a very very compromised
immune system and a very compromised cardiovascular system. So the
immune system can't get rid of the pollutants that it
(30:42):
needs to that's the simple answer right there.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
So how do you integrate Western anatomy and physiology with
Buddhist practices?
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Well, form is function, so you know in Buddhist practice,
it's really helpful because I mentioned it at the beginning
Buddhist practice if we just take the essence, so we
don't get into a lot of philosophy. Meditation is it,
you know, meditation, calming down, being able to sit and
(31:16):
contemplate and sitting meditation or Buddhist meditation might not be
everybody's cup of tea. I understand that, and that's why
there's many contemplative practices. But you asked me about Buddhism. So,
and meditation practice then requires a posture and it's like
a yoga posture. It's a sitting posture and has seven
(31:39):
points to it. And so what's happening now is if
your anatomy and your physiology is disrupted, which it is
in so many people. When I teach a meditation class,
now I have to spend half the class. Well, if
you can't sit this way, you're going to have to
sit another way. And if you're orthopedically challenged, you to
(32:00):
have to do this. Twenty percent of meditators or first
time meditators. This is stunning, This is very important research.
Twenty percent of meditators that try it for the first
time have a negative reaction. What does that mean. It
means they get into techycardia. It means they get into
a disruptive state within their nervous system, which is completely
(32:23):
the opposite of what's supposed to be happening with meditation.
So then it's how do we manage that? How do
we manage I tell people get up, leave walk. Buddhas
said you could do walking meditation. Buddhas said you could
do seated meditation. Buddhas said you could meditate while you're
lying down. So choose the dimension that is most comfortable
(32:48):
for you. Because anatomy and physiology are very very important,
and pain physical pain does not help the process of
meditation of calming your mind mind down because you're so
focused on the pain. So that's why anatomy and physiology
is so vitally important.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
So in your experience, how does meditation enhance the work
you do with clients?
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Well, well, if I can get my crazy mind and
my crazy emotions out of the way before I sit
down with the client, because this is what all my
teachers said, You got to place your ego outside the room.
You know, that's the teaching that it's given. But basically,
(33:35):
I need to be able to calm down, you know,
and if I want to give my best to the client.
So even for example, with this process that we're doing
right now, before we began, I sat down and did
a fifteen minute meditation. Before a client comes in, I
start to ratchet down. I turn off social media, I
(33:56):
turn off all of that. I start, you know, getting
a feel for who who I am, within my skin,
in what's going on in the natural world, and then
I start using meditation techniques because ultimately I cannot heal
the client. The client has to heal themselves. I have
to be able to sit with a clear intention of
(34:18):
being compassionate but not helpful in the way of getting
in the way of their instinct for self healing. I
have to completely get out of the way. So Buddhist
meditation has really helped me in that domain of just settling, stilling,
getting in my own compassionate response, and creating a clear
(34:39):
intention that the client wake up their own potential for healing.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
So how can biodynamic work help address trauma, both physical
and emotional.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Well, all God's children have trauma. I remember lit to
a lecture a couple of years ago by Robert Thurman
as a professor emeritus at Columbia, a real funny guy
and an he's a Buddhist teacher as well. And the
first thing he said, and it made perfect sense to me,
we are the trauma species. We are the trauma species.
(35:16):
So we and we have to understand that also from
from an instinctual point of view. As a human embryo,
we don't specialize. We don't have a specialized skill at
the embryonic period like all other mammals do. We're kind
of an open ended dynamic. And usually mammals are going
to have a specialization for how they're going to kill
(35:37):
and get their food at the end of at the
end of the embryonic period. But we kind of make
this up as we go along throughout our entire life.
And so trauma seems to be part of that dynamic.
So when a person comes to me, certainly I'm going
to want to know the history because I've got my
own trauma from the military and so forth, and I've
(35:59):
been trained now to make sure that I don't get activated,
and if I do get activated by listening to the
client's story, I have the skill of setting that aside
because I've got a therapist. I'll deal with that later,
but right now, it's all about the client. So the
biodynamic work is trying to bring down the autonomic nervous system. Tone. Now,
(36:21):
the autonomic nervous system is the system in the body
that makes our heartbeat, that helps digest food and all
of that. So it's a very important system and it
registers trauma first. So that system of the body. You
can see by blood color, changes in the client's skin,
(36:43):
any tremoring that they might make, blinking of their eyes,
breathing patterns, all the ways in which the therapist knows
that the client is going through an activation of their
autonomic system. And if we're gentle enough with the biodynamic war,
that activation will then change into a dissipation. We are
(37:06):
built to dissipate trauma, and like I said, with the
immune system, we're kind of plugged up, and so we're
also plugged up at the level of the autonomic nervous
system because it knows how to switch gears and it
knows how to take the trauma and to dissipate it
throughout the rest of the body and to settle. So
(37:27):
this is what biodynamic work really does quite well, is
to notice that switching and to set it up so
that that self healing instinct can be activated more fully
at the level of the nervous system.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
So are there measurable physiological changes you've observed during and
after a session you were speaking of some of.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Them, they're observable. I've tried to track a lot of
the literature on craniosacral therapy in general, and I haven't
been able to look at it or anything that's current
in the last ten years. I am familiar with how
the There is some literature that it's within the osteopathic
(38:16):
community where they've been able to measure. You can measure
the tone of the autonomic nervous system, and you can
measure that tone decreasing. So I would say, yes, there
are measurements that can be made from a research point
of view, but I have to rely as a client,
as a therapist with the client at the end of
(38:38):
the session, I have to find out from them how
they're feeling. But I don't want to bring them into
a cognitive place right away because they've gotten into their body,
so I can observe stillness, quiet, I can observe through
the tone of their voice and what they're reporting in
(38:58):
terms of their own experience, is the value of what
just happened or not? Because we also have to be
trained in side effects. What happens if the client said, suthences,
I'm not feeling so well, I have a headache, or
I have this, So we have to be trained on
how to ope. Let's get the client back down and
help them stabilize because maybe we finished prematurely. That doesn't
(39:21):
happen to me a lot anymore, but it happened originally
at the beginning, and it does happen to clients. So
when I teach, I have to teach how to treat
side effects. So there's no easy answer to that. There
is some literature, but you have to use your own
eyes and your own sensibility, and you have to rely
on what the client is saying to you and what
(39:42):
they're reporting, especially between sessions. So phone's on. If you're
having a problem tomorrow or the next day, let me know.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
So you've trained practitioners around the world, what qualities do
you look for in a great crenious eccho therapist.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Wow, a great craniosacral therapist. You know, I got to
tell you we live in the day and age of
you got to have a license, and you got to
be certified, and you got to be all of that.
And I worked in the field of pediatrics and I
was able to teach parents how to feel what I
was feeling in order to treat their own children. And
(40:24):
I've wanted to set up in various churches around the
state of Florida because I have nieces that are connected
with these churches ministries of laying on of hands. I
believe everyone is qualified to use their hands to heal
other people, especially with stillness and silence. How simple can
(40:45):
that be? So ask me that question again. I got
carried away with my nieces in church.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
I was asking what do you look for in as
an instructure, what do you look for a student to
be a good cranial sacral therapist?
Speaker 3 (41:04):
Well will, as I said, I'm willing to train anyone,
and I can't do that within the format that I
have right now. Now. My format is that I used
to do foundation training programs with that were seven hundred
dollars and I've set up a number of schools in Europe.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Sorry, we're going to We're going to have to pick
up on this on the other side of the station, Breg,
Please stay with This is Michael and I continue to
explore bridging spirit and medicine. This is Mission Evolution, Mission
evolution dot org. This is Mission Evolution, Mission evolution dot org.
We're continuing our discussion with Michael Shay his website shaheart
(41:42):
dot com. Michael, how do you keep traditional healing wisdom
alive while adapting to modern needs?
Speaker 3 (41:50):
How do I keep I was going to answer the
other question, so uh ask me that again. I was
already the previous question. I'm sorryiot ear.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
How do you keep traditional healing wisdom alive while adapting
to modern needs?
Speaker 3 (42:09):
Oh? Oh, I turned my TV off a long time ago.
I don't watch TV, so I mean I've got a
TV over there. But now I haven't turned the TV
in a long time. You know, I have to say,
fortunately that what the military happened in my twenties is
I didn't have TV and I got out of the
(42:29):
habit of watching TV, so I never owned a TV.
Now I own a TV just in case, just in case,
But I don't watch it. I don't follow any particular
social media in particular, although I have social media accounts,
but I don't. I don't, you know, do that scrolling
and obsessive amounts of time looking at any of that.
(42:51):
So the way I make that bridge with this tradition
is I make sure that I practice what I preach.
And that is the value of turning inward, the value
of contemplative practice. If I have spare time, I'm going
to be doing meditation. If I have spare time, I'm
going to be doing work with other people. I do
(43:12):
a lot of supervision work, so I don't really have
time for TV and that kind of thing, and so
I do a lot of supervision. I supervise therapists and
clients all over the world. And that's really what my
heart's desire is. So that's the way I bring it forward.
But I have to do my own practice. I do
(43:34):
my own practice, my own contemplative practice. I still have teachers,
Buddhist teachers and other teachers, contemplative teachers that I take
weekly seminars with, so that I'm always feeling like I
can stay grounded in my spiritual practice. Because the world
keeps changing, and I need to change with it, and
(43:57):
I need to be Michael as we go along, not
the same Michael, but I have to beat Michael and
evolve Michael as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
So could you talk about your work with pre and
perinatal psychology?
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Well? I was asked to Well, I was asked to
teach embryology at the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, So I
taught the basic embryology program and the pre and perinatal
doctoral programs out there. So embryology, of course, is going
to be related in terms of pre and perental psychology.
(44:35):
I don't know much about that field because I'm an
embryologist and not a pre and per psychologist. But what
I can tell you, because you mentioned it at the beginning,
is that I've got a lot of practical experience of
over forty years of working with infants and children who
have developmental challenge and that means modern to very severe
(44:58):
brain damage from birth or from during the pregnancy, or
metabolically or even trauma or attachment issues. I became an
expert in attachment issues as I got to know the
whole field of embryology that included fetal development, that included
the birth process. So I work with a lot of midwives.
(45:20):
I do a lot of consult with some midwives around
that period of time. I'm a specialist in helping people
and therapists in neonatal intensive care units and how to
manage their perceptual process. I teach meditation practices for parents
who have children in these NICU units, which is really amazing.
(45:44):
And I have to say, you know, back to that
question on compassion, is that these are the children that
taught me compassion. When you come out of the military
with the level of damage that I had, and it's
getting involved with these children, I'm getting, you know, chills
up down my body right now. It's these children that
taught me compassion. When you see a child like this
(46:06):
and they don't know their damage, they are whatever that
might mean, they don't know they're challenged. They're just communicating
one on one, a human being to another human being.
It almost brings a tear to my eye. Rate now
that these children, and this is pre imperinatal psychology. These
children are fully conscious, wanting to communicate. And these children
(46:28):
are here because they want to teach us compassion. This
is what I learned. They're not damaged. They're here to
teach us compassion.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
So how has teaching shaped your own understanding of this.
Speaker 3 (46:41):
Work teaching in general, Well, the work I would think.
You know, it's interesting because I always wanted to be
a teacher. I think it was my high school English
teacher that inspired me. And then I major. I minored
in education in undergraduate school, so I knew I wanted
to be a teacher. And then as an officer in
(47:04):
the military, you have to teach certain things which we
won't go into right now. So I always had kind
of had the teacher thing in me, and so as
part of my doctorate program, I also did a lot
of study and adult learning and development. So I wrote
a manual on adult learning and development and how to
(47:25):
be with the contemporary learner, the contemporary adult learner. I
taught high school English when I got out of college,
and let me tell you, one year of working with adolescence,
I was out of there. You'll never see me in
this school system again. Oh my god. But I like
working with adults, and I like the adult classroom, and
(47:47):
the adults have certain challenges that they do face, and
so I feel really good on that, and I stay
up with that, especially with the educational models necessary in
what's called trauma informed care or trauma informed teaching, so
really being able to relate to students in a wonderful
way whether or not it's time for them to heal
(48:10):
their trauma, because they're usually just coming so that they
can learn to put their hands on their clients and
learn something to help themselves better as well as the client.
But I love teacher. I'm a born teacher.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
So what are some common misconceptions student or the public
have about cranious eco therapy.
Speaker 3 (48:31):
I suppose there's a lot of different misconceptions. Some of
the misconceptions have to do that it's painful, or that
I don't I'm not able to direct the experience, and
again that's trauma and form care to let the client
know that they have absolute control of the session whenever
(48:52):
there's any discomfort. So those misconceptions are pretty standard. That
there's pain, or that I'll be emotionally upset, or that
I'm dealing with too many side effects, or this healer,
this therapist doesn't have a good reputation because I had
this side effect and it lasted for a week. There's
(49:14):
a lot of it's happens because it's natural. There's a
lot of doctor shopping in my world. It became clear
to me because I was doing forty and fifty sessions
a week, I couldn't fix everybody. And I maybe some
people could throw their crutches away at the end of
a session, but I couldn't make that the goal because
(49:35):
most people weren't. And I say that metaphorically. They go
on to see the next person that will help them,
that can match and synchronize their own needs body, mind,
and spirit. And I can't match everyone's needs, and nobody
else can either, So the contemporary client has to be
(49:57):
given permission to move on to find the person they need.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
So, for someone curious but unfamiliar, how would you recommend
they start exploring Cranty a psycho therapy.
Speaker 3 (50:09):
I think the best thing to do is because well,
here in the United States we have the spa industry.
So I've I've watched the whole massage industry more since
I got into it at the beginning, and so I'm
very familiar with the industry and it's become a spa
industry and that's okay, And that means my recommendation for
(50:31):
anybody is if you have never received manual therapy, please
receive a SPA massage first. Please go to a valid
un recognized licensed massage establishment or SPA that does legitimate massage.
(50:54):
Get yourself a minimum sixty to ninety minute it's got
to be I would recomon minimum sixty minute massage and
just see how your body responds to a massage, because
if you've not received anything, don't jump into crania works.
It's very light touch, it's done with your clothes on,
(51:16):
and it's just different. And the massage will help you
acclimate to lying on the table, to having hands put
on you, and to have a dialogue with the client
around your health and well being.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
So role the self awareness play in maintaining health and
well being.
Speaker 3 (51:36):
The role of self awareness again is related to the
spiritual path. All spiritual paths, I can't say all. So
I've done a major study of Eastern traditions and so
I'm really interested in what's called the spiritual path and
(51:58):
the way the spiritual path unfolds, and it unfolds in
a step by step process. I am certified as a
yoga instructor. I don't teach that anymore, but in the
Yoga sutras, the eight Yoga sutras of potentially there's an
eightfold spiritual path in Hinduism, and then in Taoism and
(52:21):
acupuncture there's a ninefold spiritual path. So it all involves
self awareness, the gradual turning inward, the gradual ability to
have a focal attention on breath and body sensation and heartbeat,
and open awareness. So self awareness means stillness and silence.
(52:45):
How much do you put a value on that once
you've settled your body in your mind? So self awareness
is linked to stillness and silence and making that accessible
and getting a relationship with your mind so that when
your mind is chaotic, you can recognize that and settle
(53:06):
into an open, self aware place. That's the key.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
So how do you see the future of biodynamic craniocircotherapy evolving?
Speaker 3 (53:19):
We are supposed to evolve as human beings, and our teachers,
my teachers, and especially Andrew Taylor still in this whole
lineage of ossiopaths, they all say the same thing, dig deeper,
evolve this work. And the reason the work needs to evolve,
GUILDA is that the contemporary client is constantly evolving themselves.
(53:42):
As I've mentioned throughout this interview, and that means I
hate to say this, they're getting worse. Many people are
getting worse. Some people are getting better. But in order
to understand you have to understand metabolism. Now, the human body,
aatomy and physiology is not enough. So the body and
(54:04):
its molecules are related to spirituality and cosmology, and this
is what the Eastern traditions are saying. So the contemporary
therapist needs to have better tools, better self awareness, to
evolve their touch, to evolve their perceptual process, and to
be able to synchronize with the client as they evolve
(54:28):
in the contemporary illnesses that are facing our civilization. We areation.
Speaker 2 (54:34):
I'm sorry, but we're out of time. It's just been
wonderful working with you. Michael. Thank you so much for
coming on the show. Our guest this hour has been
Michael Shay. Michael is the author of eight books in
the field of manual therapeutic arts. His latest book, The
Biodynamic Heart Somatic Compression Practices for Clear and Vital Heart.
(54:56):
To find out more about Michael where you can find
his books and all he has to offer, visit his
website shayheart dot com. This has been Mission Evolution with Guildawiyeka.
For more information or to enjoy past archived episodes, visit
w w W dot Mission evolution dot org. But please
be sure to join us again right here on the
(55:17):
x on t V channel x z t V dot
c A, where this mission will continue bringing information, resources
and support to our evolving world
Welcome to Mission Evolution Radio Show with Gwildawaka, bringing together
today's leading experts to uncover ever deepening spiritual truths and
the latest scientific developments in support of the evolution of humankind.
For more information on Mission Evolution Radio with Gildawaka, visit
www dot Mission evolution dot org And now here's the
(00:31):
host of Mission Evolution, Miss Gwildawiaka.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Spirituality and Medicine. Never the twain shall meet what's absent?
Because of this divide, is it possible to fully heal
without addressing our spiritual wellbeing? Mission Evolution Radio TV show
is coming to you around the world on the x
On TV channel x T with this is hour to
(01:03):
take a deeper look at the link between spirituality and
medicine is Michael Shay. Michael is the author of eight
books on the field of manual therapeutic arts. His latest
book The Biodynamic Heart Somatic Compression Practices for a Clear
and Vital Heart. He has advanced degrees in contemplative psychotherapy
(01:24):
and somatic psychology. Michael is in training to become a
Buddhist chaplain. He's also an international teacher focusing on the
reflection of the human embryo and the human body for health, healing,
and spirituality. Michael specializes in pediatric practice for severely disabled
infants and children. He has one hundred percent service related
(01:47):
PTSD disability with the Veterans Association. His website Shayheart dot com. Michael,
thank you so much for joining us on Mission Evolution.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Will the pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So Doctor Shaton, Can you share the story of what
first drew you to the healing arts?
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Well, I suppose that gets into a little bit of
my autobiography because when I was in the military shortly
after college, I was on a killing field. I was
in a terrorist bombing attack, and as a result of that,
when I got out of the service, I knew I
had a problem. There was no such thing as PTSD
(02:26):
in the seventies, no such thing, and I had to
get as far away from the military as possible because
it was the Vietnam era, and I got tired of
having my uniform spin on. So I got involved, fortunately
because of my sister in the alternative therapy field, it
was just beginning, so I learned therapeutic massage, I learned
(02:48):
diet nutrition, nature opathy, and I realized that I couldn't
go back to grad school right away that I needed
to have a profession. So I went to massage school
and got my massage license and that really started me
in on the healing process, my own healing process of
getting fixed, so to speak, or healed from that event
(03:10):
and it's still ongoing.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well, Michael, thank you for your service. Those were tough
times for sure. So you've studied under both the Dali
Lama and Navajo medicine. Man, how did those experiences shape
your path?
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Well, you know, I was raised Catholic, and so I
went to a Jesuit university and then I had to
go through a phase of atheism. And that event that
occurred in the military really brought me to an understanding
that I needed to look deeper, I needed to have
and take an inward turn. Events like that in the
(03:46):
military or even any trauma in life can can help
one take an inward turn, and it certainly did me,
and that inward turn got supported actually when I wanted
to get advanced training in manual therapy, and I went
to Boulder, Colorado, and I went to the Ralph Institute,
and Boulder at the time in the late seventies and
(04:08):
early eighties was a bastion of Buddhist work, and I
learned Buddhist meditation and the first time I sat down
on a meditation cushion, I never turned back. It was
like coming home for the first time in my life.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So what inspired you to pursue masters in Buddhist psychology
and doctorate in somatic psychology.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Well, once again exploring my own history of brokenness. But
I was just I really enjoyed manual therapy, and I, unfortunately,
because I had the energy in my twenties and early thirties,
I could work a seven day week, and I could
travel to all sorts of cities and do bodywork, rolfing
(04:55):
and cranium work and so forth. And I pinched a
nerve in my neck in overnight. Overnight, I lost complete
function on the left side of my body, especially in
my left arm. And if you're a manual therapist, you're done,
You're toast. So at the time I just switched gears.
I said, you know, why don't I just take out
(05:15):
a big student loan go to Naropa University because I'd
already converted to Buddhism and get a degree in contemplative
of psychotherapy. And little did I know that that is
the big thing right now, contemplative of neuroscience. But in
the process, I was in therapy three times a week
for over three and a half years, and it really
(05:35):
really helped ground me in terms of my own evolution
as a human being.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
So you're one of the first full instructors of cranial
sacral therapy through the upland jurists to less. How did
that opportunity come about?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Well, this is great telling my story. So you know,
there's nothing worse than it being a one armed manual therapist.
It doesn't work too well. But as I regain nerve
function in the left arm, I still could not apply pressure.
I took a class with John Auppledger, his first ever
(06:12):
you know, training in that domain. So what happened was
that I realized that I could swing my other arm
up on the table and I could hold people's heads
and be very still. I could hold their sacrum, I
could hold their feet whatever the protocol called for, and
I could work with a perceptual process that was necessary
(06:34):
without applying pressure. So I got pretty good at crania
work out of necessity.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
So how is your four decades in bodywork evolved alongside
the growing field of integrated medicine.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I feel like I've really been in lockstep with that,
although I will say that primarily manual therapy, you know,
obviously has been my interest. You know, I also teach
meditation and so forth, but I also integrate that into
the classroom. But because of being able to go back
and get a doctorate in my mid let me see
(07:09):
the mid nineties in somatic psychology, I got trained in
how to be a lifelong learner and how to look
at the literature, how to follow the literature, especially the
literature on spirituality and health. When I did my doctorate,
there were less than one hundred research reports on spirituality
and health. Now they're in the tens of thousands. But
(07:30):
the point being that I have this vivid interest in
lifelong learning, and I probably read ten to fifteen abstracts
a week. People send them to me. You've got to
read this, so I read it. I don't read the
whole research report, but I can get it from there.
So I've been able to stay updated on updates on
the anatomy of the body, on metabolic problems with the body,
(07:53):
which is really a primary interest in myself right now,
And what's happening in the alternative field in general.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Which takes us too. What is biodynamic cranial sacrel therapy.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Well, biodonymic cranial sacral therapy comes fundamentally, it comes out
of the ostiopathic tradition. The founder of osteopathy, Andrew Taylor
Still was the first Western oriented medical person that attempted
to bring spirit back into the equation of Western medicine
(08:29):
and at the same time at a manual therapy component.
His student William Sutherland, had a big revelation probably around
nineteen hundred that he was looking at the skull that
was disarticulated and he said, this must be able to
breathe because of all these different articulations. So it was
(08:49):
William Sutherland, William Garner Sutherland that actually started the cranial
osteopathic tradition osteopathy in the cranial field. And then it
was John Upplo that then took that he was an
osteopath and he brought it to the non osteopathic public.
So that's how I ended up studying with John Upledger.
(09:09):
So that's the typical lineage. And then at the end
of Sutherland's life and I think he was having a
senior citizen moment because he was my age. I'm seventy
six right now. And he saw a force in the body,
a light making a correction in the body, and he said,
you know, we've got to step back and one one
(09:31):
thousandth of a gram of pressure is all we need,
and we need to be able to see the light
and the breath of life in the body. And so
that's the essence of the biodynamic model is to really
step back, hold the client in their wholeness, in their wellness,
and be able to see how light the biophotons of
(09:51):
the cell function and work. And his student, doctor Jim Jellois,
then brought in what is called biodynamic briology. That's where
that comes in for me because I then was able
to mentor with doctor Jealous, a brilliant osteopath. He passed
away several years ago, but he had a deep, deep
(10:12):
interest in human embryology and how it related to health
and healing, and so I became very interested in that
and very much have followed that path as well, just
looking at our origin of when we were originally whole
as a single celled human being and here we are
this differentiated trillion celled being, always looking for wholeness and
(10:35):
sometimes without spirit.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
So how does Buddhist philosophy influence your therapeutic approach.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Well, it turns out this can be very practical, or
we could get very philosophical, and maybe we should avoid
the philosophical component. But you know, there's a big attention
in Buddhism just on meditation practice and calming the mind.
It's called calma biting. So if I were to just
say to the listener, you know, the essence as I've
(11:05):
learned it. You know, within Buddhist practice is just being
able to sit, to meditate, have a relationship with my mind,
and know how to calm it down. So that's the
essence of contemplative neuroscience as well. Well, it turns out
that there's eight categories of cells and tissues in the
human body that require quiescence. Is called quiescence cells. They
(11:28):
require dynamic stillness. So if the practitioner can be calm
with their state of mind and not active, and also
emotionally know how to settle, then that will actually create
a very therapeutic effect because cells work better in the
human body when they're quiet. When the quiescence cells when
(11:51):
that category of cells can be quiet. So that's the
way I link Buddhist practice to the metabolism of the body.
The absolute necessity at every single every single molecule in
the body has to go through a still point in
order to go through its transformation and transmutation. Buddhist practice
(12:12):
and contemplative practice. I'm not just singling out Buddhism, but
there are many contemplative practices that allow that type of
relationship that facilitates a deeper healing and perhaps a spiritual
healing within the client.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Would you mind briefly explaining what a still point is?
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Well, a still point when we look at the therapy
in general, of this manual therapy of craniocycuo therapy, when
the perception of the tissues and the human body of
the client. So I have my hands on someone and
I can actually perceive when things quiet down, in other words,
when their nervous system releases and relaxes around their stress
(12:54):
level and something gets very very quiet. The fluids of
the body, which is a major part of this work,
the cerebral spinal fluid and especially the blood and so forth.
There's many types of fluids, but they're all related to water.
We're ninety eight percent water, and so the waters calm
down in the body and they go into a still point.
(13:17):
And that's a threshold when this instinct for self healing
wakes up bypasses the trauma, and that instinct for self
healing then sends that the necessary vital force, whatever that
might mean for an individual practitioner. That vital force then
can revitalize the person at the level which they've come
(13:40):
symptom wise and otherwise it's a possibility. Does these work?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well, We're going to have to take a station break, Michael,
and I will return very shortly, so don't go away.
This is Mission Evolution Mission Evolution dot org. With is
this hour discussing the interface between medicine and spirituality is
Michael Shay, the author of the Biodynamic Heart Somatic compression
practices were a clear and Vital heart is website Shaheart
(14:08):
dot com. Michael, you often speak of primary respiration and
the long tide. Can you explain those concepts for us?
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Basically, these are just simply metaphors for when we can
perceive that something inside of us is slowing down. These
terms were developed and different osteopaths developed this terminology simply
as a description of their own experience when they had
their hands on a client and they felt that something
(14:39):
was connected to the stillness, that once the stillness was perceived,
that there was a slow movement in the direction of
the fulcrum that was symptomatic, let's say, for the client.
So that was very, very important for the understanding that
something slow is moving. So it's called the long tide.
(14:59):
It could be called primary respiration or simply the tide.
But the practitioner learns to synchronize their attention with that slowness.
So I have to come into relationship with that level
of stillness and slowness in my body, and it's a
universal perception. So the way I teach it is to
(15:21):
be able to look at the horizon and perceive just
slowness and movement of whatever it might be coming towards you,
but also from the heart, heart to heart with the client,
that you can make this level of connection with the
client and feel it as a slow movement sometimes called
chi and Taoism and acupuncture, or the vital force it
(15:45):
might be called. These are all metaphors for the same thing,
the value of slowness and stillness.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
So what does rolled its compassion play in hands on
healing work?
Speaker 3 (15:58):
You know, that's that's a super that's a super question, Gwilda.
So we have to understand that the basis the basis
of our compassion response, which is innate. So let's just
put this out at the beginning. Compassion is innate. It's
(16:20):
built within us. It's a responsiveness that we all have.
We see somebody fall on the street, we hear a
baby crying, whatever that is. Or if you're in the
therapeutic business, you know, a client comes in, they're suffering greatly,
your heart goes out to them. So there is a responsiveness.
But that responsiveness is based on the ability to recognize
(16:42):
our own personal suffering. Everybody has their own unique style
of suffering with their emotional upsets and their mental challenges
that they face. And compassion really means that I am
aware of and in touch with my own suffering and
this therefore I can connect with other people because everybody
(17:03):
has a basically same style of suffering. So that's the
essence of compassion. But how do we build it? And
the way we build it is the research is so interesting.
Just by feeling our heartbeat will it's so amazing to
consciously feel our heart beat without taking our pulse, although
(17:24):
you may need to take your pulse at the beginning,
builds empathy. So the very foundation for evoking this type
of responsiveness is the ability to feel our own heart beat,
and that heartbeat then allows us to give a direction
to the responsiveness of compassion. And we call that right
(17:44):
responsiveness because sometimes we have a response excuse me, and
it's not helpful. So right responsiveness by waiting and listening
for slowness and stillness, and then the moment emerges when
we feel our heart beat. We feel that connection and
we know how to respond appropriately and compassionately.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
So how do you see the body, mind and spirit
as interconnected in the healing process?
Speaker 3 (18:16):
You know, it's so funny when you know the history
of this, well, it's always been connected. It's always there.
It's the essence of who we are. It's only that
somewhere around the Renaissance, in this wonderful Western world of ours,
that we decided to split it off and give it
to somebody else, you know, the Catholic Church at the time,
(18:38):
so that the medical community would no longer talk about spirit,
but they would be able to dissect bodies and take
care of the body, and we've seen that that's created
a big challenge. But body, mind and spirit, then we've
been conditioned in a way in our culture to really
split it off as though it was separate from our body,
(18:59):
and it's not really. It depends on how you You know,
the Abrahamic religions are going to want to to find
spirit in a particular way around the notion of God
and Jesus and Allah, Muhammad and so forth. But all
of this is the essence of who we are, the
essence of what lives in our heart. As they say
in Taoism, the shen the spirit, the essence of spirit
(19:23):
lives in our heart and is flowing through our blood.
And so that's a very very important notion, whether you
believe it or not. But we've been conditioned away from
finding that within ourselves. And that is the turn inward.
That is the essence of contemplative neuroscience. In order to
reconnect the spirit which is already in us, we need
(19:46):
to turn inward. It's already there.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
So how does your approach differ from more mechanical forms
of cranios eco therapy.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Oh, I still do a mechanical work. You know, the
contemporary client is the sickest client that I've ever seen.
I got into bodywork in the seventies, and you know,
gradually the client had relaxation issues, and then they had
orthopedic issues in the eighties and nineties, and then they
had big time nervous system issues, and then they had
(20:19):
immune system issues. I'm telling you we are veryly, really
sick and challenge culture and that's why these dynamics are
so necessary. Repeat that question again. I want to hone
in on it a little bit more willed.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
How does your approach differ from more mechanical forms of craniosycotherapy.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
So with the evolution of the contemporary client, then there's
a necessity to develop a different skill set. One of
my teachers said that I needed to learn three whole
systems of therapy so that we could triangulate with the
client at any given time if one thing wasn't working. Well,
it turns out the mechanical work that I learned doesn't
always work, and gradually it worked less and less. I
(21:06):
still will use it periodically, but maybe only ten percent
of the time. But it's a tool. It's a necessary tool.
If somebody's had a concussion, and I specialize in concussions.
You need to be able to do some deep work
and some mechanical work, disengaging the bones of the cranium,
let's say, for a specific instance like that. But with
(21:27):
the contemporary client, they need a much softer, more gentle
biodynamic approach that it can reach more deeply into the
cells of their body and more deeply into the molecules
within those cells and get them connected in a more
universal manner.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
So you've written extensively on embryology. Why is understanding our
earliest development important and healing?
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Well, I've also studied anthropology and the anthrop of healing
and medical anthropology, and I think this is a very
important point. And that is that and you mentioned at
the beginning, I studied with the Navajo shaman for ten
years these traditional systems of healing. In order for the
healing to be effective, you need to create a ritual
(22:18):
that symbolically regresses the patient back to the time of
their embryo, because it's in the time of embryology, especially
after conception that we were a single celled, whole human being.
So the ritual is to take the human to take
this person, this client that they can touch the living
(22:42):
experience symbolically. It's not a regressive act per se. It's
present rate in our body right now, that level of
undifferentiated wholeness, and to create a dynamic with stillness and
slow movement that they can actually touch that and they
can actually feel that, and that that healing then can
come forward in their own instinctual process for self healing
(23:06):
and the instinct for self transcendence in this moment. And
it's beautiful the way this perceptual process works. So that's
the long and short of it with embryology. And then
we find out that the human embryo in our body,
it's incredible the way it develops. Psalm one thirty nine
(23:28):
says it wonderfully. You know, we're wonderfully created, and it is.
I'm full of awe every time I look at embryology.
And I mentioned Jim Jealous at the beginning, and he
taught me embryology, and I remember the first embryology book.
I started looking at it and I started to cry.
Why was I crying? This is me? This is me
(23:49):
at a sub microscopic level, and it's a beautiful thing
to observe and to be able to touch. That means
that we can also heal. We can heal from the
beginning forward.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
So what's the rule of artery is supreme and why
is it significant?
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Well, that gets us back to the founder of osteopathy,
Andrew Taylor Still, And that's a beautiful question because Andrew
Taylor Still, as I said, his fundamental principle is that
we are a unit of mind, body, and spirit. So
he brought spirit back in. It never really left, it
just got dissected for the purpose of Western medicine and
(24:33):
given away. But he also found out that as he
was developing these different manual therapies and his really his
dislike for Western medicine at the time, which was actually
pretty barbaric. And we don't need to get into that
just in terms of how healing happened, you know, in
Western medicine in the middle of the eighteen hundreds. But
(24:55):
he realized that any place in the body that was
stuck with the muscles, with the bones, that there was
also a restriction in blood flow, and that therefore it's
not just about relaxing the muscles, it's not just about
freeing the bones. But we've got to free the blood.
And so the blood became very very important. The rule
(25:18):
of the artery means free flowing, free flowing with the
proper stillness, which is actually in the middle of blood flow.
Doppler radar studies have shown that there's a zone of
stillness in the blood itself. So here we are back
to the necessity of feeling the stillness. And although blood
moves fast, there are also rhythms within the blood that
(25:42):
go very slow. And this is because the contemporary client
the lining of the blood, and here's kind of the
punchline of the rule of the artery. The lining of
the blood vessels is called the end of and it's
a quiescent cell state. We live in a world now
(26:04):
where ninety ninety five percent of us have metabolic problems,
and that means inflammation, and that means automatically inflammation in
the endothelial structures of the entire or almost the entire
carriguter system. When the end of thelium change is from quiescent,
from being a still cell to an inflamed, superactive cell,
(26:27):
then the blood starts to flow improperly, and we have
all of these heart problems. Now, ninety three percent of
Americans have metabolically unhealthy hearts, and it has to do
with the blood, the way the blood is built and
the way the endothelium is damaged because of inflammatory processes
(26:48):
from the food we eat and the disruption of our
metabolism at the level of the intestines.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
So how can craniopsychotherapy support the immune system?
Speaker 3 (27:02):
God, you were asking really good questions. I love this,
So we are we actually now we're in the age
of the immune system. I'm calling at the age of
the immune system. So for the past ten years and
then with the advent of covid in vaccines and all
of that. The medical doctors that I followed are mainly
(27:23):
Europeans and we teach you an alternative cancer clinic in Switzerland.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Well, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to interrupt and
we'll pick up on the other side. It is time
for a station break. Michael and I will be right
back to continue our discussion, So you stay right there.
This is Mission Evolution, Mission evolution dot org. This is
Mission Evolution, Mission evolution dot org. With this discussing biodynamic
(27:49):
craniocacre cranial sacrel therapy is Michael Shane his website shaheart
dot com. Michael, we were talking about how craniosecret therapy
can pack the immune system. Would you continue, please.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Yes, for sure, but just historically now, and actually it's
recent events we could say. So we are in the
age of the immune system, and one of the reasons
people are so sick is the disruption not only the
end of helium, but the lining of the intestines is
where the interface between the acquired immune system and the
(28:25):
innate immune system relocated the molecular signaling. So the disruption
of the intestinal lining, the epithelial lining then results in
the disruption of the endothelium of the blood vessels and
the spreading of inflammation and the spreading of disease process
metabolic syndromes. Depending on your repigenetics, depending on your family lineage,
(28:48):
you'll likely end up with that lineage dynamic. But the
immune system, what we're finding out and what the docs
are saying that we study with in your that this
immune system was already stressed. It was already stressed to
the max. So covid and vaccines and so forth just
(29:11):
took the immune system and overflowed the barrel of the
immune system. Now what does that mean. It means that
the immune system is oriented around trying to kill and
get rid of the cells and the viruses and all
that stuff we hear about that's not helping our body.
And when we have that level of inflammation, the immune
(29:33):
system can't work. And I'm sorry to use this analogy,
but because we used to have a septic tank in
the back, but septic tank starts to overflow, and basically
you see these levels of obesity. You see people's bodies
just starting to expand because their detoxification channels are blocked
(29:58):
and they can't get the toxicity from the cells because
cells have toxins that they're trying to get rid of
when they're producing energy. For us to be doing what
we're doing right here will but we also have to
have channels open to detoxify and get rid of these
waste products. When you can't, when that doesn't happen, and
(30:19):
it's not happening in most people, then the immune system
basically shuts down because it's overloaded. It can't work. And
we live in this age of a very very compromised
immune system and a very compromised cardiovascular system. So the
immune system can't get rid of the pollutants that it
(30:42):
needs to that's the simple answer right there.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
So how do you integrate Western anatomy and physiology with
Buddhist practices?
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Well, form is function, so you know in Buddhist practice,
it's really helpful because I mentioned it at the beginning
Buddhist practice if we just take the essence, so we
don't get into a lot of philosophy. Meditation is it,
you know, meditation, calming down, being able to sit and
(31:16):
contemplate and sitting meditation or Buddhist meditation might not be
everybody's cup of tea. I understand that, and that's why
there's many contemplative practices. But you asked me about Buddhism. So,
and meditation practice then requires a posture and it's like
a yoga posture. It's a sitting posture and has seven
(31:39):
points to it. And so what's happening now is if
your anatomy and your physiology is disrupted, which it is
in so many people. When I teach a meditation class,
now I have to spend half the class. Well, if
you can't sit this way, you're going to have to
sit another way. And if you're orthopedically challenged, you to
(32:00):
have to do this. Twenty percent of meditators or first
time meditators. This is stunning, This is very important research.
Twenty percent of meditators that try it for the first
time have a negative reaction. What does that mean. It
means they get into techycardia. It means they get into
a disruptive state within their nervous system, which is completely
(32:23):
the opposite of what's supposed to be happening with meditation.
So then it's how do we manage that? How do
we manage I tell people get up, leave walk. Buddhas
said you could do walking meditation. Buddhas said you could
do seated meditation. Buddhas said you could meditate while you're
lying down. So choose the dimension that is most comfortable
(32:48):
for you. Because anatomy and physiology are very very important,
and pain physical pain does not help the process of
meditation of calming your mind mind down because you're so
focused on the pain. So that's why anatomy and physiology
is so vitally important.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
So in your experience, how does meditation enhance the work
you do with clients?
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Well, well, if I can get my crazy mind and
my crazy emotions out of the way before I sit
down with the client, because this is what all my
teachers said, You got to place your ego outside the room.
You know, that's the teaching that it's given. But basically,
(33:35):
I need to be able to calm down, you know,
and if I want to give my best to the client.
So even for example, with this process that we're doing
right now, before we began, I sat down and did
a fifteen minute meditation. Before a client comes in, I
start to ratchet down. I turn off social media, I
(33:56):
turn off all of that. I start, you know, getting
a feel for who who I am, within my skin,
in what's going on in the natural world, and then
I start using meditation techniques because ultimately I cannot heal
the client. The client has to heal themselves. I have
to be able to sit with a clear intention of
(34:18):
being compassionate but not helpful in the way of getting
in the way of their instinct for self healing. I
have to completely get out of the way. So Buddhist
meditation has really helped me in that domain of just settling, stilling,
getting in my own compassionate response, and creating a clear
(34:39):
intention that the client wake up their own potential for healing.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
So how can biodynamic work help address trauma, both physical
and emotional.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Well, all God's children have trauma. I remember lit to
a lecture a couple of years ago by Robert Thurman
as a professor emeritus at Columbia, a real funny guy
and an he's a Buddhist teacher as well. And the
first thing he said, and it made perfect sense to me,
we are the trauma species. We are the trauma species.
(35:16):
So we and we have to understand that also from
from an instinctual point of view. As a human embryo,
we don't specialize. We don't have a specialized skill at
the embryonic period like all other mammals do. We're kind
of an open ended dynamic. And usually mammals are going
to have a specialization for how they're going to kill
(35:37):
and get their food at the end of at the
end of the embryonic period. But we kind of make
this up as we go along throughout our entire life.
And so trauma seems to be part of that dynamic.
So when a person comes to me, certainly I'm going
to want to know the history because I've got my
own trauma from the military and so forth, and I've
(35:59):
been trained now to make sure that I don't get activated,
and if I do get activated by listening to the
client's story, I have the skill of setting that aside
because I've got a therapist. I'll deal with that later,
but right now, it's all about the client. So the
biodynamic work is trying to bring down the autonomic nervous system. Tone. Now,
(36:21):
the autonomic nervous system is the system in the body
that makes our heartbeat, that helps digest food and all
of that. So it's a very important system and it
registers trauma first. So that system of the body. You
can see by blood color, changes in the client's skin,
(36:43):
any tremoring that they might make, blinking of their eyes,
breathing patterns, all the ways in which the therapist knows
that the client is going through an activation of their
autonomic system. And if we're gentle enough with the biodynamic war,
that activation will then change into a dissipation. We are
(37:06):
built to dissipate trauma, and like I said, with the
immune system, we're kind of plugged up, and so we're
also plugged up at the level of the autonomic nervous
system because it knows how to switch gears and it
knows how to take the trauma and to dissipate it
throughout the rest of the body and to settle. So
(37:27):
this is what biodynamic work really does quite well, is
to notice that switching and to set it up so
that that self healing instinct can be activated more fully
at the level of the nervous system.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
So are there measurable physiological changes you've observed during and
after a session you were speaking of some of.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Them, they're observable. I've tried to track a lot of
the literature on craniosacral therapy in general, and I haven't
been able to look at it or anything that's current
in the last ten years. I am familiar with how
the There is some literature that it's within the osteopathic
(38:16):
community where they've been able to measure. You can measure
the tone of the autonomic nervous system, and you can
measure that tone decreasing. So I would say, yes, there
are measurements that can be made from a research point
of view, but I have to rely as a client,
as a therapist with the client at the end of
(38:38):
the session, I have to find out from them how
they're feeling. But I don't want to bring them into
a cognitive place right away because they've gotten into their body,
so I can observe stillness, quiet, I can observe through
the tone of their voice and what they're reporting in
(38:58):
terms of their own experience, is the value of what
just happened or not? Because we also have to be
trained in side effects. What happens if the client said, suthences,
I'm not feeling so well, I have a headache, or
I have this, So we have to be trained on
how to ope. Let's get the client back down and
help them stabilize because maybe we finished prematurely. That doesn't
(39:21):
happen to me a lot anymore, but it happened originally
at the beginning, and it does happen to clients. So
when I teach, I have to teach how to treat
side effects. So there's no easy answer to that. There
is some literature, but you have to use your own
eyes and your own sensibility, and you have to rely
on what the client is saying to you and what
(39:42):
they're reporting, especially between sessions. So phone's on. If you're
having a problem tomorrow or the next day, let me know.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
So you've trained practitioners around the world, what qualities do
you look for in a great crenious eccho therapist.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Wow, a great craniosacral therapist. You know, I got to
tell you we live in the day and age of
you got to have a license, and you got to
be certified, and you got to be all of that.
And I worked in the field of pediatrics and I
was able to teach parents how to feel what I
was feeling in order to treat their own children. And
(40:24):
I've wanted to set up in various churches around the
state of Florida because I have nieces that are connected
with these churches ministries of laying on of hands. I
believe everyone is qualified to use their hands to heal
other people, especially with stillness and silence. How simple can
(40:45):
that be? So ask me that question again. I got
carried away with my nieces in church.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
I was asking what do you look for in as
an instructure, what do you look for a student to
be a good cranial sacral therapist?
Speaker 3 (41:04):
Well will, as I said, I'm willing to train anyone,
and I can't do that within the format that I
have right now. Now. My format is that I used
to do foundation training programs with that were seven hundred
dollars and I've set up a number of schools in Europe.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Sorry, we're going to We're going to have to pick
up on this on the other side of the station, Breg,
Please stay with This is Michael and I continue to
explore bridging spirit and medicine. This is Mission Evolution, Mission
evolution dot org. This is Mission Evolution, Mission evolution dot org.
We're continuing our discussion with Michael Shay his website shaheart
(41:42):
dot com. Michael, how do you keep traditional healing wisdom
alive while adapting to modern needs?
Speaker 3 (41:50):
How do I keep I was going to answer the
other question, so uh ask me that again. I was
already the previous question. I'm sorryiot ear.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
How do you keep traditional healing wisdom alive while adapting
to modern needs?
Speaker 3 (42:09):
Oh? Oh, I turned my TV off a long time ago.
I don't watch TV, so I mean I've got a
TV over there. But now I haven't turned the TV
in a long time. You know, I have to say,
fortunately that what the military happened in my twenties is
I didn't have TV and I got out of the
(42:29):
habit of watching TV, so I never owned a TV.
Now I own a TV just in case, just in case,
But I don't watch it. I don't follow any particular
social media in particular, although I have social media accounts,
but I don't. I don't, you know, do that scrolling
and obsessive amounts of time looking at any of that.
(42:51):
So the way I make that bridge with this tradition
is I make sure that I practice what I preach.
And that is the value of turning inward, the value
of contemplative practice. If I have spare time, I'm going
to be doing meditation. If I have spare time, I'm
going to be doing work with other people. I do
(43:12):
a lot of supervision work, so I don't really have
time for TV and that kind of thing, and so
I do a lot of supervision. I supervise therapists and
clients all over the world. And that's really what my
heart's desire is. So that's the way I bring it forward.
But I have to do my own practice. I do
(43:34):
my own practice, my own contemplative practice. I still have teachers,
Buddhist teachers and other teachers, contemplative teachers that I take
weekly seminars with, so that I'm always feeling like I
can stay grounded in my spiritual practice. Because the world
keeps changing, and I need to change with it, and
(43:57):
I need to be Michael as we go along, not
the same Michael, but I have to beat Michael and
evolve Michael as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
So could you talk about your work with pre and
perinatal psychology?
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Well? I was asked to Well, I was asked to
teach embryology at the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, So I
taught the basic embryology program and the pre and perinatal
doctoral programs out there. So embryology, of course, is going
to be related in terms of pre and perental psychology.
(44:35):
I don't know much about that field because I'm an
embryologist and not a pre and per psychologist. But what
I can tell you, because you mentioned it at the beginning,
is that I've got a lot of practical experience of
over forty years of working with infants and children who
have developmental challenge and that means modern to very severe
(44:58):
brain damage from birth or from during the pregnancy, or
metabolically or even trauma or attachment issues. I became an
expert in attachment issues as I got to know the
whole field of embryology that included fetal development, that included
the birth process. So I work with a lot of midwives.
(45:20):
I do a lot of consult with some midwives around
that period of time. I'm a specialist in helping people
and therapists in neonatal intensive care units and how to
manage their perceptual process. I teach meditation practices for parents
who have children in these NICU units, which is really amazing.
(45:44):
And I have to say, you know, back to that
question on compassion, is that these are the children that
taught me compassion. When you come out of the military
with the level of damage that I had, and it's
getting involved with these children, I'm getting, you know, chills
up down my body right now. It's these children that
taught me compassion. When you see a child like this
(46:06):
and they don't know their damage, they are whatever that
might mean, they don't know they're challenged. They're just communicating
one on one, a human being to another human being.
It almost brings a tear to my eye. Rate now
that these children, and this is pre imperinatal psychology. These
children are fully conscious, wanting to communicate. And these children
(46:28):
are here because they want to teach us compassion. This
is what I learned. They're not damaged. They're here to
teach us compassion.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
So how has teaching shaped your own understanding of this.
Speaker 3 (46:41):
Work teaching in general, Well, the work I would think.
You know, it's interesting because I always wanted to be
a teacher. I think it was my high school English
teacher that inspired me. And then I major. I minored
in education in undergraduate school, so I knew I wanted
to be a teacher. And then as an officer in
(47:04):
the military, you have to teach certain things which we
won't go into right now. So I always had kind
of had the teacher thing in me, and so as
part of my doctorate program, I also did a lot
of study and adult learning and development. So I wrote
a manual on adult learning and development and how to
(47:25):
be with the contemporary learner, the contemporary adult learner. I
taught high school English when I got out of college,
and let me tell you, one year of working with adolescence,
I was out of there. You'll never see me in
this school system again. Oh my god. But I like
working with adults, and I like the adult classroom, and
(47:47):
the adults have certain challenges that they do face, and
so I feel really good on that, and I stay
up with that, especially with the educational models necessary in
what's called trauma informed care or trauma informed teaching, so
really being able to relate to students in a wonderful
way whether or not it's time for them to heal
(48:10):
their trauma, because they're usually just coming so that they
can learn to put their hands on their clients and
learn something to help themselves better as well as the client.
But I love teacher. I'm a born teacher.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
So what are some common misconceptions student or the public
have about cranious eco therapy.
Speaker 3 (48:31):
I suppose there's a lot of different misconceptions. Some of
the misconceptions have to do that it's painful, or that
I don't I'm not able to direct the experience, and
again that's trauma and form care to let the client
know that they have absolute control of the session whenever
(48:52):
there's any discomfort. So those misconceptions are pretty standard. That
there's pain, or that I'll be emotionally upset, or that
I'm dealing with too many side effects, or this healer,
this therapist doesn't have a good reputation because I had
this side effect and it lasted for a week. There's
(49:14):
a lot of it's happens because it's natural. There's a
lot of doctor shopping in my world. It became clear
to me because I was doing forty and fifty sessions
a week, I couldn't fix everybody. And I maybe some
people could throw their crutches away at the end of
a session, but I couldn't make that the goal because
(49:35):
most people weren't. And I say that metaphorically. They go
on to see the next person that will help them,
that can match and synchronize their own needs body, mind,
and spirit. And I can't match everyone's needs, and nobody
else can either, So the contemporary client has to be
(49:57):
given permission to move on to find the person they need.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
So, for someone curious but unfamiliar, how would you recommend
they start exploring Cranty a psycho therapy.
Speaker 3 (50:09):
I think the best thing to do is because well,
here in the United States we have the spa industry.
So I've I've watched the whole massage industry more since
I got into it at the beginning, and so I'm
very familiar with the industry and it's become a spa
industry and that's okay, And that means my recommendation for
(50:31):
anybody is if you have never received manual therapy, please
receive a SPA massage first. Please go to a valid
un recognized licensed massage establishment or SPA that does legitimate massage.
(50:54):
Get yourself a minimum sixty to ninety minute it's got
to be I would recomon minimum sixty minute massage and
just see how your body responds to a massage, because
if you've not received anything, don't jump into crania works.
It's very light touch, it's done with your clothes on,
(51:16):
and it's just different. And the massage will help you
acclimate to lying on the table, to having hands put
on you, and to have a dialogue with the client
around your health and well being.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
So role the self awareness play in maintaining health and
well being.
Speaker 3 (51:36):
The role of self awareness again is related to the
spiritual path. All spiritual paths, I can't say all. So
I've done a major study of Eastern traditions and so
I'm really interested in what's called the spiritual path and
(51:58):
the way the spiritual path unfolds, and it unfolds in
a step by step process. I am certified as a
yoga instructor. I don't teach that anymore, but in the
Yoga sutras, the eight Yoga sutras of potentially there's an
eightfold spiritual path in Hinduism, and then in Taoism and
(52:21):
acupuncture there's a ninefold spiritual path. So it all involves
self awareness, the gradual turning inward, the gradual ability to
have a focal attention on breath and body sensation and heartbeat,
and open awareness. So self awareness means stillness and silence.
(52:45):
How much do you put a value on that once
you've settled your body in your mind? So self awareness
is linked to stillness and silence and making that accessible
and getting a relationship with your mind so that when
your mind is chaotic, you can recognize that and settle
(53:06):
into an open, self aware place. That's the key.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
So how do you see the future of biodynamic craniocircotherapy evolving?
Speaker 3 (53:19):
We are supposed to evolve as human beings, and our teachers,
my teachers, and especially Andrew Taylor still in this whole
lineage of ossiopaths, they all say the same thing, dig deeper,
evolve this work. And the reason the work needs to evolve,
GUILDA is that the contemporary client is constantly evolving themselves.
(53:42):
As I've mentioned throughout this interview, and that means I
hate to say this, they're getting worse. Many people are
getting worse. Some people are getting better. But in order
to understand you have to understand metabolism. Now, the human body,
aatomy and physiology is not enough. So the body and
(54:04):
its molecules are related to spirituality and cosmology, and this
is what the Eastern traditions are saying. So the contemporary
therapist needs to have better tools, better self awareness, to
evolve their touch, to evolve their perceptual process, and to
be able to synchronize with the client as they evolve
(54:28):
in the contemporary illnesses that are facing our civilization. We areation.
Speaker 2 (54:34):
I'm sorry, but we're out of time. It's just been
wonderful working with you. Michael. Thank you so much for
coming on the show. Our guest this hour has been
Michael Shay. Michael is the author of eight books in
the field of manual therapeutic arts. His latest book, The
Biodynamic Heart Somatic Compression Practices for Clear and Vital Heart.
(54:56):
To find out more about Michael where you can find
his books and all he has to offer, visit his
website shayheart dot com. This has been Mission Evolution with Guildawiyeka.
For more information or to enjoy past archived episodes, visit
w w W dot Mission evolution dot org. But please
be sure to join us again right here on the
(55:17):
x on t V channel x z t V dot
c A, where this mission will continue bringing information, resources
and support to our evolving world
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