Theoretical Foundations There is something about humans that is absolutely impressionable. We come into the world with our nervous system wide open, and whatever we encounter, we bring inside and make it a part of ourselves. We naturally absorb the language, cultural norms, customs, and rules of our environment. There is the well-known story of a family that was vacationing in the wilds when their vehicle turned over, and everyone but the infant girl was killed. A pack of wolves found the infant, and a lactating she-wolf adopted the human baby and raised her as her own. (Yes, this sounds like The JungleBook, but it's a true story!) The little girl grew up with the wolves, scampered around on all fours, ate raw meat, and howled at the moon. As far as she was concerned she was a wolf. Some people discovered her eleven years later, took her back to civilization, and made every effort to remind her of her true nature. The question: was she or was she not a wolf? She was certainly wolf-like in her behavior--a true testament to the extreme impressionability of the human creature--yet in genetics and form, never actually a wolf. (It is interesting to note that the little girl died at the age of 13, the natural life span of a wolf in captivity!) Essence vs. Programming That story illustrates the difference between and the potential for misalignment between essence and programming, which to some degree holds true for each of us. As we grow up encountering and collecting life experiences, we adopt beliefs, cultivate likes and dislikes, and develop a sophisticated self-image and world-view along the way. Unfortunately, during this process, too often our underlying nature of pure, unburdened enthusiasm and happiness is forgotten and covered up. The notion of "learning" becomes the permanent filter through which life is experienced. Eventually, we "mature" to the point where all new input is routed through established memory circuitry, and the past ends up encroaching upon each present experience, by superimposing on it old meanings, associative emotions, and conditioned gut-level body responses. For example: a physically abused child placed in a foster home shirks away from the new genuinely loving touch of her adoptive family, and remains locked into abusive memory pathways. Her former negative conclusions, along with her knee-jerk self-protective body-responses, reinforce a reality long gone.             The past becomes our present. Non-integrated traumatic events or unmet needs tend to be continuously recreated and repeated with new players. It is as if the body gets stuck. I believe a person's current health problems may be a direct outcropping of unfinished emotional and interpersonal business, or in other words, the body's pantomimed response to internalized past programming. What started out as external stressors have been absorbed, becoming internalized stressors, flooding the system with damaging reactions long after the traumatic circumstances have changed.             The seemingly random process I am describing wrecks internal havoc, sometimes via blatantly traumatic events, and sometimes more subtly and incrementally. A sociological study, recording what the average three-year-old in the United States hears from significant adults in a day's time, showed most of the messages to be negative, limiting, and inhibitive. Just as the little wolf-girl grew up with wrong impressions that molded her sense of herself, we, too, absorb a myriad of negative and limiting impressions that occupy our nervous system (in the form of beliefs and mind-maps of reality) and make them the core of our self. It's In the Body The science of psychoneuroimmunology states that these negative programs take root in the physical body. In order to make it through overwhelming or painful situations (this can include physical, emotional, or mental pain), people tend to fragment their experience and "hide away" the pieces in the recesses of susceptible tissue and organs, where they are biochemically encoded in their entirety onto neuropeptide molecules. The network of neuropeptides and receptor sites located throughout the soft tissue of the body is what we refer to as "body memory," occurring at both conscious and unconscious levels of awareness. Arthur Janov, author of The Primal Scream, claimed that neurosis, or the splitting up of the whole-brain responses to painful experiences into fragments in order not to feel is one of our unique human survival adaptation methods. Once this splitting (which is basically a numbing of feeling) has occurred, a natural longing for wholeness remains, and it is this longing that mirrors the biologically driven centropic impulse to reintegrate what has been cut off.             After years of witnessing hundreds of clients undergoing  natural integrations in the emotionally unfettered environment of our workshops and Centropic Integration sessions, empirical investigation demonstrated to Dr. Clay and me that not only do the memories tagged with a higher emotional charge have a stronger impact on the psyche and the body, but that all experiences stored in memory can be retrieved. Cam's and my belief is simple: consciousness is the cure. Bring these hidden elements of the psyche, especially the heavily emotionally-laden ones, into awareness in the context of a loving, permissive, and embracing setting, and healing results. The Approach Centropic Integration as a therapy modality has a three-fold approach. First, a whole-brain, highly-charged desired outcome is instilled into the system, and then the process of accessing and releasing all earlier life-negating programming by encouraging the client to feel repressed pain is inaugurated. The third branch of this method is what we have come to call positive peer pressure, the life-affirming influence of a healing circle, or in the one-on-one setting, the therapist. Personal and individual deep feeling--comprised of meaning, emotion , and body response (reflecting the triune nature of the brain)-- is the key to Centropic Integration and the life-impacting changes it facilitates, and that which separates it from other emotional release-oriented therapies. Setting the Banks of the River Before the reservoir of suppressed or unconscious feeling is tapped directly, it is important to set the parameters within which the release is to occur, ensuring that not only will blocked energy be freed, but that the client will be propelled in an empowering direction, shifting from current reality (point A) to where he or she wants to be (point B). A release that occurs without pre-setting the banks of the river too easily ends in a non-productive breakdown, which is unnecessary. Focus on Feelings A typical session begins with a face-to-face encounter, with the therapist asking open-ended questions relevant to the client's medical and personal history, and then shifts to focus on emotionally charged material as it arises.             Common questions are: "What are you aware of right now in your body as you tell me about your brother?" or "What is the feeling being expressed in your voice as you mention the hospital?" or "If your heart had a voice right now, what would it say?"                         The client's disclosures about the unfulfilled or disappointing aspects of her current reality inevitably reveal underlying existential themes or messages linked to simple core feelings such as grief or loss of innocence. Simple questioning then easily reveals childhood conclusions linked to those feelings which over the years have diminished healthy self-esteem, trust, boundary-setting, and relationships in the adult context, and which of course are no longer relevant. Pain that has been unmasked exposes Point A in all its limitations, and makes letting go easier. An Aligned Statement of Desired Outcome The CI facilitator then helps the client to focus on and arrive at an aligned statement of desired and meaningful outcome. For example, "If you could have your life unfold in whatever way you desired, what would it be like?" Some examples of answers are: "I choose to be able to touch others with love without taking on their pain", or,  "I choose to know and feel my own heart even if it means feeling pain and disappointment", or, "I choose to consistently stand up for myself even in the face of others' anger and disapproval."  Point B choices bring about a sense of possibility of balance and integrity in particularly problematic areas of life.             With both Points A and Point B fully aligned with a meaning, emotion, and body response, the parameters for change (the "banks of the river") are set. Any additional emotional release in the next hands-on phase of the session automatically serves to move the person further along the path to his or her outcome. Accessing the Memory Centropic Integration uses sustained hands-on point-holding along acupressure meridian lines to access the body-component of stored fragmented memories.  The acupuncture lines of the endocrine system hook directly into the circuitry of the limbic "loop" in the brain where emotional memory is processed. The client lies in a supine position, while appropriate points are determined through a simple system that corresponds to the endocrine glands and various emotional states; we also can assess the client's body response with our hands, seeking points of trigger reaction, or  tenderness to touch. Points can be held by one or more participants, with one person taking on the role of facilitator. (Notice how I didn't say "therapist" this time. Cam and I have always felt that this work belongs to the people. A person can be an effective, sensitive facilitator of inner healing without necessarily being a psychotherapist by trade. What they do need is personal experience and some practical training.) Breathwork and Altered States The first 60-90 minutes of point-holding are devoted to deep synchronous breathing by client, facilitator, and other participants, accompanied by evocative and emotional music designed to activate and release the ab-reaction process.  Tapping into the long tradition of various cultures that use music to evoke trance states or deep feelings, ranging from tribal drums to a huge pipe organ in a cathedral, this phase of CI elicits both emotion and right-brain, imagery-infused thinking.  Heat, Resistance, and the Body Electric Just as the electrons in an electric heater generate more heat when we turn the resistor up, acupressure contact points reflect the client's resistance to change: as heat--physical heat! The points get hot to the touch. Resistance, a term often used in psychotherapy to mean the cumulative effect of inner defenses against feeling pain, manifests as a physical phenomenon. All the energy that has been devoted to repression of feeling, when forced to a head, burns. At this time the client may be experiencing images and/or body sensations that either symbolically or directly indicate the spontaneous re-emergence of stored unconscious information that may have to do with non-integrated memories.             The centropic impulse for resolution, coupled with the client's desire for a new outcome, brings the electrical potential at the resistance points up the scale enough to match and finally surpass the resistance.  The blocked portions of experience flood forth in emotional catharsis and/or realization, while at the same time biologically integrating the meaning, emotion, and body-response aspects of repressed pain.  Point-holding and evocative music thus help "flush out" hidden, peripheral features of experience, making the integrative results of CI dramatic compared to conventional "talk therapies'.  With conscious catharsis, the Gestalt achieves wholeness once more. (I imagine that if we could monitor the process microscopically we would see the fragmented pieces of the neuropeptides melting together and naturally flowing towards and settling into their proper receptor sites.) The electrical flow of corrected nerve conduction overcomes internalized blocks and surges into any body part where dysfunction had previously resided, often initiating a period of intense burning sensations (the kundalini of Eastern philosophy?), while at the same time the "mind" is flooded with insight about the original issue involved in the trauma or injury, and also about related patterns of behavior. The knowing and understanding of self from this experience is not interpretive, but direct. The In-Filling The final phase of the session, the "in-filling", which reaches beyond the abundance of insight and the burning inner fire, takes on a spiritual quality hallmarked by serenity and deep body relaxation. Clients report this as a time of integration, a sense of personal victory, and healing, full of recognition and connectedness. The amount of time that has elapsed is about two hours. The session ends with the cooling, pulsing, and releasing of the points, followed by a sense of "afterglow," which can last for hours and sometimes days. Final Notes The healing that occurs through Centropic Integration begins with a direct bodily encounter with one's own locked-up pain and resistance to feeling, and ends in renewing daily life with empowering choices and revitalized hope. Unlike the cognitive therapies that effect experience by consciously altering the thinking process, with Centropic Integration cognitive insight happens spontaneously, as a natural outcropping of deeply processed feelings. Follow-up sharing, especially in the intimate group setting of a Centropic Integration workshop, enhances cognitive anchoring. Changes and insights facilitated by a natural integration at the body level endure over time. ©2003 Spectrum Healing Associates