Exploration of the unconscious – 9

Body and awareness (II) – with an exercise

How are the different body techniques used in Psychosynthesis? We can consider three different ways of working with the body (Rosselli, 2003):

  • working on the body (body as object): acting on the body, controlling the body, “technical” approach;
  • working with the body (body as co-object): being with, together with the body, the self and the body, working with body awareness, as a state of being;
  • the work through the body (body as subject): re-appropriation of the body as a vehicle for being: “I am also my body, I am no longer afraid of my identification with the body, I become visible through my body, I am present in my body and express myself through it”, sense of synthesis, integration and unity.

Psychosynthesis undoubtedly favours a way of working with the body as a body-subject, rather than as a body-object. Its approach is holistic and integral and takes into account the physical dimension in all its multiple manifestations:

  • the physical body;
  • the energetic body (heat, cold, tingling, shivers, weights, blocks, waves, etc.);
  • the psychic body (emotions, impulses, desires that affect the body);
  • the symbolic or metaphorical body (symbolism of the various organs and areas of the body, metaphor of the body as animal, plant, object; also, drawing an image of the body may offer important insights for patients);
  • the body-memory (pre-verbal experiences stored in the body);
  • the relational body (the body with others).

Especially worthy of note are techniques derived from the field of awareness meditation which – training the body to remain still and present by contacting and befriending sensory perceptions – may help clients move from the phase of exploration of the personality, in its conscious and unconscious aspects, to that of mastery, or regulation, and organisation of the personality.

These tools, in fact, can take on different meanings and be utilised for different purposes. Depending on which stage of the psychosynthesis journey we find ourselves in, they may be used to: expand awareness and integrate unconscious aspects, practice disidentification-self-identification, promote interpersonal and transpersonal psychosynthesis, and, importantly, achieve that mental silence necessary for activating the intuitive function and contacting the superconscious dimension and the transpersonal Self.

Anyone interested in utilising these different body techniques in a professional role is required, however, to undergo in depth specialised training.

EXERCISE

The next technique is very interesting in that it remind us of and promotes a truly psychosynthetic attitude towards the body, which is viewed as a “living reality, permeated with psychic activities”, an awe-inspiring “intelligent unifying principle” where cells organise into tissues, tissues interweave to form organs and organs are coordinated in even more complex systems (Assagioli, 1991, p. 40).

  • The intelligence of the body (Andrea Schnöller)

Settle into a comfortable sitting position. Close your eyes. Now connect with your body as a whole, in its current form. What do you feel? What do you sense? What is the body? How does the body work? What is a sensation? How does the body react? What is this living, pulsating energy field that we call the body? As you listen to your body, I will read you a meditation text. Don’t think about the text, but let it help you develop an even more intimate and conscious connection with the body, its sensations and its functions. It is a meditation by a great yoga master, Gérard Blitz:

“I would like you to reflect on a fundamental question, it concerns the problem of consciousness, the perception of your life-principle, your life-energy, of what it is that you are actually living. Perhaps you think that you have only one form of intelligence and that your consciousness is linked only to your thoughts, to the workings of the mind. I shall pose some questions so that you may dwell on them. We have another form of profound intelligence in us. It is not linked to the superficial and mechanical workings of the mind, it is the beauty of our experience, the experience of the body’s presence, of its sensations. It is about entering the perception of this profound intelligence: we can call it the intelligence, the wisdom of our body.

We live. Our body pulsates; our blood circulates, oxygenates and renews the cells. For this renewal to occur, for this constant exchange to take place, we breathe; this is the raison d’être of breathing. We digest food, we eliminate, we have glands, a nervous system that coordinates and regulates all this. This is all very subtle and delicate; it works and is interdependent. That is why in science, today, there can be no specialisation, because when you touch one thing you touch all of them.

Its functioning occurs without your intervention, without your will, without your ego. And so, if it is not you who makes your organism work, if it is not you, your ego, your will, your decision, who is it?

It’s an energy. For anything to work there needs to be energy. It is an energy of life that makes this work, an intelligent energy that coordinates, regulates independently of your will, your ego. It is a form of deep intelligence that eludes you. It is not just subtle energy. It is also intelligence. We might call it the wisdom of the body; we might call it the cellular intelligence of the body.

Some call it prana, the cosmic breath, others ruah, the life energy that pervades everything. But the name doesn’t matter. Prana is this intelligent energy beyond your will. It is deep, intuitive intelligence, working at a slow, very slow pace. It is linked to silence, it is linked to immobility.

The whole practice of conscious presence to the body is about entering more and more into the experience of this deep energy, of its deep circuitry: to follow the body, to listen to the body, to follow its rhythm, to let the body lead, not to run ahead of the body. This applies to this practice but is also valid in relation to the whole of life.”

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