August 3, 2023

❏ Notes to Self 005 - Experience and Fascia

For the last four years I've been in training to become a teacher of The Realization Process, a direct path to embodied nondual awakening. Judith Blackstone, who developed this work through her own healing journey, has mentioned on several occasions that the fascia is likely the locus of activity for the constrictions, release, and opening that happens as we attune to ourselves more deeply.

So when I stumbled across this paper, my ears perked up. The explication of tanha as “grasping” or “clenching” certainly matches up with my own experience (as does “fast grabby thing” for that matter). When I can access the pervasive stillness of what Judith calls Fundamental Consciousness, I open to the awareness of how this grabby, graspy, grippy clenching thing happens. A kind of minute but consistent attempt to hold on to, control, or manipulate direct experience.

There is still much for me to comprehend about what Michael Edward Johnson is pointing to here, but there is enough of an intersection of thought and energy of excitment to warrent a brief note to self here. Especially as I gear up to offer my own Realization Process classes in 2024.

A few quotes from Judith on RP and fascia:

"In my work, I call the binding, organizing level (or function) of consciousness the “movable mind.” This refers to our ability to mold even the internal space of the body with our imagination. This aspect of consciousness seems intimately connected with the fascia that is everywhere in the body like an interconnected web. Reich believed that we create character armor in rings around the surface of our body. But we now know that this binding can occur anywhere within the internal space of the body, through the binding of the fascia and other physical tissues. Although it may produce an obvious postural change (such as stooping, or scoliosis), it is often a barely detectable density within the body. When we penetrate into the bound tissues with our focus, or through deep massage, we can experience the memory of ourselves in the moment of binding. - p. 49, The Enlightenment Process

"It is most likely the fascia of the body that is the shaper of the body in reaction to trauma. Fascia is the connective tissue in the body that surrounds all of our bodily structures. Our fascia is itself a dimension of wholeness. It is made of interconnected tissues that reach everywhere in our body. In the living body, it is a fluid medium that appears to react to both physical and emotional stresses, and then harden, over time, into those reactive shapes. Although this requires more research to establish scientifically, there is a great deal of anecdotal evidence to suggest that the fascia stores the emotional charge of trauma and even the memories of the trauma, or at least, provides access to those memories. In this way, working with the fascia provides a comprehensive approach to releasing trauma from all aspects of the physical body, as well as releasing emotions that are held in the body, and bringing to awareness the memories and beliefs associated with the traumatic events so we may resolve them. The nervous system naturally relaxes into its parasympathetic mode as well, as we release the constrictions within our whole body. p 6 - 7 Trauma and the Unbound Body

"Since the fascia is everywhere in our body as an interconnected substance, it is a dimension of our internal wholeness. This means that when we constrict the fascia in one part of our body, it pulls on other parts of the body. This is something like twisting a balloon—even a small torque on one part of the balloon will affect the overall shape. In a human being, there is not just a single twist, but a complexity of constrictions, each producing tension throughout the whole body. p. 14 Trauma and the Unbound Body