A Fluid Perspective by Ron Lemire
Living as Land Animals on a Water Planet
500,000 million years ago, the first spinal creature that developed a notochord was called a Sea Squirt. As cells divide they organize into a line called the primitive streak or midline. All vertebrates – that is, animals with a spine – began with a midline, with all else emerging from and returning to the center. Continuing this development journey, the midline, the notochord, the primitive brain, and the primitive tube unfold and enfold into what we commonly think of as our backbone or spine. This suggests that the origin of the spine emerged from the ocean and therefore our spine is an oceanic creature. Its movement is more like that of a fish than a steel rod. The very core of our being is not static, but dynamic, shaped by the mysterious element of fluid. Thus, we carry the song of the ocean within our very core.
The Concept of Buoyancy
Let’s consider a few things that provide a backdrop to our current condition. We live in a gravisphere, a water planet held together by the universal forces of gravity. Everything goes toward the center of the Earth. But what defies the connotations of gravity is buoyancy. All human life begins suspended in liquid and every cell is bathed in it. Fluid is imprinted in all living forms and it is by exploring ourselves as fluid beings that we enter into a resonance with all bio-intelligent life. At one with the fluid intelligence of the universe, floating in our mother’s embryonic waters, the resonating vibrations of sound create our first impressions. Buoyancy is the fluid medium that enabled the first bodies to neutralize the downward pull of gravity and play with it.
Movement in the Beginning Stages of Human Life
Before crawling, a baby will lie on its stomach, lift its head and face, and find the horizon with the searchlight of its eyes. While arching the spine, the back is strengthening as the arms push against the floor where gravity stimulates proprioception and invigorates skeletal awareness. The optic nerves for the eyes, the olfactory nerves just beneath for the nose and the hearing connect out of the temporal lobes of the brain forming the ears which are also facing forward. These three senses, known as the telereceptors, give the brain information on what is happening at a distance from the body.
The developing spinal column must be capable of rotating the head in whatever direction it needs to face. The baby is 70-83% water and by pushing against the ground, a ground reaction force will push back and begin to calcify the bones. While crawling, the child has a tangible connection to the ground giving mobility and creating autonomy as it leaves the mother and begins to explore. The opposite legs move simultaneously with the opposite arms. Gravity stimulates the fluid cellular growth of living bone.
The right hemisphere of the brain coordinates the left hemisphere of the body and the left hemisphere of the brain coordinates the right hemisphere of the body. The more a child crawls the stronger the bones become, articulating with both hip and shoulder joints. It stimulates both hemispheres of the brain increasing proprioceptive awareness and motor sensory learning. The crawling motion integrates, develops and coordinates the neural networks, especially the Vestibular system. When the Vestibular system is well developed a child will feel confident and safe during movement. While crawling we had a tangible focus with the ground, our arms and shoulders, upper legs and hips became strong enough to support our weight. The more we crawled the more coordination and movement learning developed. The bones in the joint area became strong and self sufficient in that the muscles didn’t have to carry the weight when standing. As the bones get stronger from crawling our tendency is to stand. Falling comes with the multiple attempts at standing and fortunately our bones are still soft and the height short enough to take the impact.
The earliest genetically given reflexes of human infants have to do with balance and upright orientation with gravity. A balanced, upright position means a balanced level of muscular tension. A normally formed skeleton will always be in symmetrical balance unless the muscles attached to it are distorting its balance.
The Central Nervous System
As far as brain balancing within a given medium, we on land are still evolving and developing motor sensory awareness. Should we travel down the ever-lengthening corridor of memory we could tap into our buoyant nature and supercharge the central nervous system, made up of the vestibular, cerebellum and cerebrum that still has much to explore in our gravisphere. Of course, this is easily done with movement, especially in the medium of buoyancy. All along the journey from the ocean to standing on Earth, our central nervous system has been gathering data from changing environments and evolving with greater intelligence with structure and function. The thousands of miles of neural networks continue to spark innovation and discovery.
Vestibular System
Located in the mastoid bone just behind our ears, is an organ whose three semicircular canals automatically control muscular contraction throughout the body. The sole purpose of the vestibular system is to keep the body upright. Should you slip on some ice, it’s the vestibular system that takes action and tries to keep you upright. In more practical purposes, experience from this system is called equilibrioception – your sense of balance. When the vestibular system is stimulated without any other inputs, one experiences a sense of self-motion like a person in an elevator will feel she is descending as the elevator starts to descend.
Cerebellum
From the vestibular system signals sent to the cerebellum are relayed back as muscle movements of the head, eyes, and posture. The cerebellum is located just under the back of the brain and like a mini replica of the brain with its left and right hemispheres, coordinates and balances the muscles of the whole body making sure that when the right foot is lifted the left foot presses down. This it does in cooperation with the vestibular system, which is concerned to keep the body in vertical alignment with the ever-present guideline of gravity.
Cerebrum
Coordinating with the vestibular system and cerebellum is the largest part of the brain, the cerebrum. Relative to movement and coordination, the cerebral cortex is that complex neural supercomputer that can program itself to learn complex and detailed things such as playing musical instruments, analyzing and performing intricate dance patterns, martial arts and yoga postures. It basically organizes all of the information that mixes with the inner and outer world.
The Beauty of Timing
Life is the movement of the body, and the body’s sensing of movement. When movement is organized, coordinated, and sequential, it is timed. The neural function of timing simultaneously takes every zone of the living body: the face and back, the head and tail and both sides, and efficiently integrates them into a unified, harmoniously adjusted sequence of movements, all designed to perform purposeful tasks. The function of timing is the fourth dimension of our living being, a superior neural function embracing the three dimensions of spaciality with which our bodies are constituted. Whereas consciousness turns in only one direction at a time, the timing function turns in all directions at a time. It is this omni-directed awareness that actively integrates, monitors and mobilizes our entire being. Timing is an essential life function that operates autonomously, involuntarily, and unconsciously, just beneath the restless searchlight of our consciousness.
