We are vibrational beings living in a vibrational world. As such, we're really not separate from each other or our world. That's why we're so sensitive to our environment; especially so at birth. As newborns we're fully dependent on those around us and very focused on survival. One of the basic survival requirements is simply "fitting in." In order to survive we adopt the ways in which those around us distort their vibration. There are five vibrational distortions, or phases, as they are called in Network Care. Each of these phases supports certain structures (ways of holding our bodies and ways of organizing our lives), certain perceptions (ways that we filter incoming information from our world, things that we believe about our relationship with ourselves and our world) and certain behaviors (ways that we respond to our world) that we use to distort the expression of our true nature and support the illusion that we are separate from everything and everyone.
You may be thinking that Dr. Jay has been spending too much time, too close to Boulder. Is there any scientific evidence to support the ethereal sounding claim that "we are vibrational beings" or that the concept of our separateness is an "illusion?" Physics is one such science that supports these claims and concepts. At one time physicists thought that atoms, the "solid particles" that make up you and me, were made of even smaller, "solid particles." According to The Dancing Wu Li Masters (an exhaustive book for the layman written on the subject of physics) by Gary Zukav, in 1911 Ernest Rutherford developed the familiar model of the atom where electrons orbit around a nucleus in a similar manner as our earth orbits around the sun. The problem with comparing atoms to our solar system is that, relative to the size of the nucleus and the electrons, the distances between the nucleus and the electrons are much greater than the distance between our earth and the sun. For example, if we magnified an atom to the size of a fourteen story building, the nucleus in the center would be the size of a grain of salt and the electron, orbiting seven stories away, would be the size of a dust particle. Furthermore, subatomic particles like nuclei and electrons don't actually behave like large, planet sized objects. Quantum physics (the physics of subatomic particles) shows us that the nucleus and electrons don't really exist as actual particles of "something." They can be more accurately described as "probabilities" or stuff that is constantly blinking in and out of existence, since at the subatomic level, mass and energy are continually changing into each other as per Einstein's famous equation E=mc2. Simply put, atoms are mostly vibrating space...hence WE are mostly vibrating space!
I know. It boggles the mind to think that we are actually not solid when everything in the macroscopic world tells us we are. The nervous system, however, does actually display signs, on the macroscopic level, of its vibrational nature. Our brain and spinal cord has a structure that is well suited to moving information in the form of vibration. This can easily be seen if we take a moment to "dissect" that structure. I have had the opportunity to do just that, once in chiropractic school and once when I was growing up on the farm in Nebraska. On a cold winter evening when I was a kid, one of our steers had gotten out of its pen and made its way onto the dark road. It had been hit by a car. The driver of the car was fine but the steer did not make it. My dad did not want to let all that meat go to waste so we hung the steer by a chain from a loader bucket and butchered it on the spot. I will spare you the details but suffice it to say that the steer ended up being completely halved. This meant that the center of its spine and spinal cord were exposed. I reached up and pulled a portion of the spinal cord out of its halved spine. Suspecting the cord to be more substantial, I pinched it. I was surprised to find that my fingers pinched very easily through the cord as if it were a piece of gelatin. That's how delicate the tissue of the brain and spinal cord is; more of a viscous fluid than a cord. Fluid happens to be a very good conductor of vibration.
One might wonder how something so delicate can remain intact long enough to do its job. The skull and spine is part of an elaborate system that protects, suspends and contributes to the ability of the delicate tissue of the brain and spinal cord to move information in the form of vibration. As I learned in the dissection lab during chiropractic school, the skull and spine is lined with a continuous sack that covers the brain and spinal cord. This lining is called the meninges. In the space between the meninges and the tissue of the brain and spinal cord, is the cerebrospinal fluid. The meninges contain the cerebrospinal fluid and holds it against the brain and spinal cord so that the brain and spinal cord are constantly being bathed by the cerebrospinal fluid. The meninges are anchored to the bones of the skull and spine. The brain and spinal cord, in turn, is anchored to the meninges via thin threads of tissue in places in the head, neck and lower spine. The spinal cord basically floats freely everywhere in between the neck and tail bone. In this way the brain and spinal cord is fully encased inside of an ingenious liquid-tissue-armor-suspension system.
This gelatinous, fluid surrounded, suspended, protected structure is perfectly suited for conducting information in the form of vibration very similar to a stringed instrument such as a violin. The strings of a violin are suspended at either end just like the spinal cord is anchored, via the meninges, to the bones of the top and bottom of the spine. In much the same way as the tonal quality or frequency of a violin can be changed by putting pressure at different points along the length of the strings, we can alter the vibrational expression of our being by holding tension in different areas along the spinal cord. Said another way, a mechanical force on the tissue of our nervous system can affect a vibrational (emotional) change. The more mechanical aspect of this phenomenon has been documented by Alf Breig in his neuroanatomy text book Adverse Mechanical Cord Tension in the Central Nervous System: An Analysis of Cause and Effect. In it he refers to the spinal cord stretching that occurs as a result of defensive posture and notes the detrimental effect that is has on the tissue of the spinal cord and nerves. (177)
Psychoneuroimmunologist Candace Pert, in her book Molecules of Emotion discusses the relationship between spinal cord tension and our emotions. When we feel emotion there is a chemical cocktail that's being released into the body that is letting every cell know how to function; what to "do." So if we are happy or peaceful it's because the cells in the body are "doing" happiness or peace. Likewise if we are angry or sad, the cells in the body are "doing" anger or sadness. However, if a person is holding tension in some part of their spine and the nervous tissue is stretched, the information that can be transmitted and received by the nervous tissue cells in the stretched area is totally altered. So if a nervous tissue cell membrane is being stretched in a certain way it may prohibit the cells from transmitting or receiving the chemical messengers that represent happiness. Cells may be locked into receiving and transmitting only anger, for example.
This phenomenon can easily be observed and felt first hand whenever we find ourselves sitting on a busy mall engaged in people watching. It doesn't take long to figure out who is angry, sad, happy, fulfilled, confident, depressed, in love, who is authentically expressing their state of being and who is hiding their true nature from themselves. Everyone is communicating to everyone else about how they are being in the way that they hold themselves, through their mannerisms and expressions. These things make up the "vibe" that a person expresses. Most of us are constantly resisting our true nature. We're trying to squeeze ourselves into someone else's idea of who we should be. This is a major source of emotional pain that usually also translates into physical pain at some point. As Donald Epstein, the creator and developer of Network Spinal Analysis says, "If you're trying to be someone other than who you are, it's supposed to hurt and nothing is supposed to take that pain away." We begin playing this painful game with ourselves very early on in our lives in an attempt to fit in to our surroundings, to match the vibration of those around us, to please others out of the need to survive.
When we are born we go from the relative warmth and safety of the womb, as we are squeezed forcefully down the birth canal, into this cold, unforgiving, outside world. As infants we are completely dependent on others to supply our every need. Our first order of business is survival. One of the most basic survival needs is simply fitting in. Who is my tribe? Who must I make friends with to get my needs met? In order to fit in, or survive, we sense those around us and copy their ways of being (ways of vibrating). No doubt we benefit from some of their strengths but we adopt their vibrational shortcomings too. We adopt the ways that they distort their vibration - their being - in order to hide their true nature.
There are five fundamental, vibrational distortion patterns or defense patterns that are characterized in Network Care. These defense patterns, or phases, as they are called in Network Care, involve different parts of the spine because different parts of the spine are responsible for expressing certain elements of the person. There are certain behaviors or ways of acting that go along with each phase. In addition there is a perception, or way of seeing the information that we encounter in our world, associated with each phase. In this way our structure, our behavior and our perception is linked into the ways in which we distort the expression of our true nature and deny our connection to ourselves and everyone else.
What follows is largely my interpretation of the Five Phases of Network Care. Elements of my description of the Five Phases have come from information I've learned at training seminars and read in training seminar handouts. Other elements have come from my experience with my own growth, having received Network Care consistently for the past ten years. Still, other elements of my description have come from my experience in working with hundreds of my practice members during thousands of Network sessions over the past eight years as a Network Practitioner.
Phase One involves tension being held at the sacrum (lower back) and occiput (base of the skull). The ends of our spine carry the nearest memory of the moment of incarnation since they were, and are, the entry points for the Force or Intelligence that animates us to life. So holding defensive tension in these areas brings about a forgetting of that Intelligence.
Phase Two involves tension being held at the top of the neck and/or the bottom of the neck. The segments of our spine at the top and bottom of the neck have to do with our awareness of the present moment. When people or circumstances have shown us that they can not be trusted to support us from one moment to the next we learn to distrust uncertainty, causing fear, anxiety or worry about the future. To keep from feeling that fear, we hold tension at the top of the neck. When we perceive that we have been wronged by people or situations, we hold defensive tension at the bottom of the neck. This freezes that moment in time in our bodies causing some part of us to remain stuck in the past, repeatedly reliving the hurt of the past event. There tends to be some repressed anger, bitterness or frustration that goes along with this. Eckart Tolle refers to the Phase Two phenomenon in his book The Power of Now when he talks about the effects of "psychological time." He says:
"All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry - all forms of fear - are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence." (61)
Phase Three is associated with the lateral sacrum (lower right or left part of spine). This area of the body is connected to our own awareness of who we are; our identity. If we perceive that we will not be loved or accepted for who we are, holding defensive tension in this area allows us to suspend our felt sense of our own identity. Our own, true identity being suspended, we can then adopt the identity that will keep us in the good graces of those around us.
Phase Four involves the segments in the middle of the neck. The middle of the neck is connected to our ability to allow ourselves to be drawn to the things that we are naturally passionate about. Holding defensive tension in this area allows us to discount our natural desires, propensities and passions, marginalizing the messages that our soul is giving us in regards to our direction and purpose.
Phase Five involves our tailbone, or coccyx. This region of the spine is associated with our awareness of our intrinsic value. Our intrinsic value is energetically connected to our ability to receive resources from our world. If, at any point in our lives (and especially early on in our lives), we experience a shortage of resources: food, love, oxygen, money, safety, etc..., we may embody the belief that, on a very deep level, we are not worthy of being kept around. We hold tension in the tailbone to defend against the loss of resources and intrinsic value. This creates the false perception that if we give our resources away, we may deplete our supply and forever be without them. This keeps us from giving our gifts.
We all utilize these five ways of distorting our vibration in different ways and to different degrees. When we adopted these defense patterns we were doing it in order to protect ourselves. We did what we had to do and we did the best we could with what we had. These protective mechanisms served us and were necessary at the time. But as we grow and develop and become more autonomous we start to figure out that those old defense patterns are not serving us any longer. Our world starts to call on us to come up with some more advanced strategies for living. Compassion is usually a key component in transforming our old ways of being into new ones. As we begin to embody the vibration of compassion, the tension in our bodies starts to yield along with the limited perspectives and the unproductive behaviors that come with a distorted sense of self. Thus a new relationship is fostered with those defended parts of ourselves and we experience a deeper, more intricate, more expanded connection to ourselves along with greater access to our true natures. Naturally, this is followed by a deeper, more satisfying and more effortless connection with our world and those within it as we begin to experience the felt sense that we are not as solid or as separate as we thought we were.
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