Overview – this post will blend spiritual awareness of higher states of being with the experience of Craniosacral Therapy (CST). I have been practicing CST since 2005 (biodynamic CST and biomechanics CST), I have done lots of meditation, attended multiple Dharma teachings and retreats and done a number of Womb Surround Birth Process Workshops. In other words, I have a unique background as a spiritual practitioner and bodyworker.
What is Craniosacral Therapy? There are two lineages (primarily – although there are also classes taught by osteopaths as in cranial osteopathy): biodynamic CST and biomechanical CST.
What is Biodynamic CST? This is more recent of the two. It comes from the principle that everyone has inherent health in their systems. There is even an inherent health plan in our being. And as practitioner, we connect to this inherent health – the health which is never lost. We reinforce it, strengthen it, spend time with it, nurture it and provide a safe container for it to become more robust. This is the more subtle of the two systems which has its benefits and drawbacks.
My personal preference these days is Biodynamic CST hands down! The altered state you get into when your Cranial Rhythm goes into long tide (the most regenerative of the 3 rhythms) is indescribable. It is liquid potency, warm, clarity, luminous, robust, healing, boundary-strengthening, etc. So potent!
What is Biomechanical CST? Primarily started by DO John Upledger, this system has protocols where the practitioner shifts parts of the body – whether diaphragms in the torso, bones in the pelvis or cranial bones – while the client often goes into a healing trance. Less subtle of the two types, but it has its benefits – especially with working with first time CST clients. (They do not benefit from the extremely subtle work right away.) Some types of birth trauma benefit more from biomechanical CST as well.
Having access to both lineages of CST is helpful – then we have more tools to work with different types of individuals!
Resonance – Resonance is the ability of a practitioner to feel in their body what a client is noticing in their own body. Over time, this begins to happen. Especially if we are doing our own work, leading a clean and healthy lifestyle and keeping our psycho-spiritual body in harmony. As one of my teacher’s says, “get your hands on a 1000 bodies as a bodyworker and you would be surprised how much you can feel.” This allows me to track what is happening in my client’s bodies as we are doing the session. (It also allows me to make certain that they are staying present with the session if that is their intention. Dissociation has a certain feel to it and I can bring people back if they start to check out.) I must admit, it is fun to notice this next part happening for my clients – because then it is almost always a spiritual experience as well as a pleasant and healing bodywork session.
What is the brahma aperture? 8 finger widths above the hairline, the 7th chakra, it signifies connection to Source and greater intuition. Let’s unpack this a bit. The brahma aperture is the crown chakra, the heavenly gate. It is the “door” we want to leave through at the time of death – which leads to higher rebirths. As it is connected to the pineal gland, it is highly associated with our innate intuition and guidance, along with our connection to Source and our Higher Selves. We want to have this gate open.
However, there are many reasons why this gate is closed off. It can be physical – one aspect of the compression of birth is that the vomer bone gets jammed up (the bone above the hard palate in the mouth leading up toward that said crown chakra). It can be emotional – if we learn to sweep emotions under the carpet and continue to do so into our adult years, then there is a good chance we are not willing to see aspects of the truth, we are not willing to face our truth, which keeps our Higher Self effectively hidden. It is also closed for psycho-spiritual reasons – if we have a significant amount of negative karma, we must work to purify said karma before we can hope to open this heavenly gate. One way of doing that purification is through meditation or chanting mantras (having an appropriate spiritual guide is necessary for both of these to be efficacious).
CST – both Biodynamic and Biomechanical – can lead to the opening of the brahma aperture. Now, this is not a light concept that I am presenting. This has amazing ramifications – so read on! I’m not saying CST will open our central channel (a subtle energy body component that meditators are working to clear and work with). I am saying that CST is one condition to open the crown chakra once the causes to do so have been established. And opening the crown chakra (often for the first time) feels like someone opening a sunroof. Light and openness start to pour in.
There are a number of techniques in various Craniosacral therapy protocols that can lead to the opening of the brahma aperture. Including working with the vomer, the CV4 technique and more.
This sounds like it is too good to be true. And actually it might be. But hear me out. When we put the causes and conditions into place, the results will be guaranteed to follow. So these spiritual benefits of CST do not come about out of thin air. Rather, there is a reason some people love CST so much and others get very little from it.
In my experience, people who meditate a lot are doing a lot of psycho-spiritual purification as it were. They are moving their spiritual bodies along the path at an accelerated pace compared to non-meditators. However, we still need to keep the physical body in good shape, in harmony. This is where yoga or qigong or bodywork comes in.
Someone who has done a lot of personal growth work on themselves but has not encountered the conditions to shift their physical body out of old patterns, will remain stuck for a long time. But when they encounter the conditions to release old habits and patterns, they are willing to do their personal growth work, they are yearning to change. Then change via Craniosacral Therapy is easy. Their cranial bones can start to spread and the sutures between those bones can become lubricated as the bones start to float and drift. Their cranial rhythm strengthens and balances out, and more space is created for their brains – it might be micro-meters, but you can still feel it!
And if you are attending a CST practitioner who has done their own personal growth and spiritual work, then the sky is the limit in terms of how far they can lead you. You can open your “skylight” as it were (the brahma aperture). You have to create the causes however, the practitioner can only ever be the condition.
In the past year, I have had not less than 10 CST clients tell me that they had a spiritual experience on the table. Sometimes it takes less than 30 minutes (those are the clients who have good karma and / or have done a ton of personal growth work on themselves). I am very fortunate to be apart of this process, grateful for the opportunity to benefit others and to watch their lights get turned on.
May all beings meet with the causes and conditions to rest in liquid potency and drink in the bliss of present awareness.
Thank you for reading,
KM
Meditation Informs Healing Facilitation 
Excellent—-