This post is a second commentary on the audio text “Introductory Overview” by Dr. James Jealous. Quotations are from the audio file.
Jim said often that if you weren’t getting clinical results with what you were learning then you should move on – study something else.
He insisted that we proof out what he was saying, not take it as a truth. He eagerly sought his own mistakes, knowing that there was more to be gained in the fallacies of his thinking than in what he already believed.
And still this not knowing remains one of the largest challenges in the practice of biodynamic osteopathy. Even more so now that Jim is gone, it’s impossible to ignore the wanting, the longing, the intense desire to know. Yet we are in training, a life-long training, to grasp not-knowing. In the Introductory Overview Dr. Jealous says:
During the whole therapeutic process, the clinician consciously gives up their need to know what’s happening. The clinician does not see a lesion; the clinician does not see therapeutic motion; the clinician does not see a problem; the clinician does not see a neutral. The clinician stays with this dynamic stillness and even though there is transmutation and change in the whole of the patient, there is no augmentation, no interface with motion whatsoever.
This work, studying and practicing the biodynamic model, is the work of learning to not know. Our task is to learn more, while we become more accustomed to knowing less. The outcome should be two-fold – first and foremost improving clinical results. If you cannot be of service to your patients using biodynamics, stop using it. The second outcome, however, is a spiritual and emotional reward.
A continued dedication to the principles of osteopathy results in a a sense of peace in not knowing. At first, as Jim says in this audio text, the clinician will consciously give up their need to know. If we are dedicated to the practice, eventually the habit of giving it up becomes ingrained — it is a posture we embody automatically, with little effort. Over time, however, it stops being a conscious act and it isn’t even a habit. The Tide sweeps away the longing. The experience is sweet and gentle. As Dr. Still described it:
“Solemnity takes possession of the mind, a smile of love runs over the face, the ebb and tide of the great ocean of reason, whose depths have never been fathomed, swell to your surging brain. You eat and drink; and as you stand in silent amazement, suns appear (where you never even saw a star), brilliant with the rays of God’s wisdom, as displayed in man, and the laws of life, eternal in days, and as true as the mind of God Himself.”
Transmutation occurs in the clinician. This, from practicing osteopathy. Are you in?
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