INTRODUCTION TO THE SELF-EMBODYING MIND BY JASON BROWN
The opportunity to introduce the republication of this book fills me with a very deep pleasure. About nine years ago I plucked it from a store shelf, half by accident and half by serendipitous instinct, and I have seldom experienced the kind of excitement it gave me as I read and reread, underlined and annotated. Here was a theory of consciousness that made sense out of everything I had been experiencing as a bodyworker, a meditator, and an inquirer into my own mind, a theory I was most anxious to discuss and explore with all of my students and colleagues.
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INTEGRATION:
WORKING IN BODYWORK’S BIG TENT: The Institutionalization of Human Potential
I strongly relate to this conference’s theme of working together in bodywork’s big tent, because that was the kind of venue in which I began my training and career in bodywork. It all started for me at Esalen Institute in the 70’s, when there was too much going on there to herd together under any sort of conceptual tent at all, other than the usefully vague phrase "human potential" (a term coined there, by the way). And the thing about human potential that I learned straightaway was that every single human has one. A valid one. An important one. How to bring this potential forward for every individual...
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MEDICAL MASSAGE: A MARRIAGE OR A MONSTER?
If you google "medical massage" you will turn up 3,210,000+ entries. Clearly something of a large dimension is developing in this potential sector of our rapidly growing profession. And, as is the case with any broad movement, their are a variety of motives and presumed goals in play. A largely grassroots phenomenon is beginning to institutionally encounter one of the most prosperous and prestigious – and most heavily regulated – organizations in the U.S., and it seems to me that careful thought will be required as to just what this may mean.
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WHAT IS A MIRACLE?
The eminent British biologist Gregory Bateson once said that "A miracle is a materialist’s idea of how to escape from his materialism." That is to say, miracles are the back-door explanations for events occurring outside the commonly accepted laws of natural processes. In two words, miracles are commonly viewed as "divine interventions," the hand of the Creator dramatically interceding in the normal operations of his (or her) creation. When an occurrence defies the logical analysis of presently known facts, we label it a "miracle," a unique, inexplicable – and capricious – act of God.
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REACHING THE MIND WITH TOUCH: Touch as Language in the Body’s Landscape of Perception
In my adventures as a bodyworker over the last thirty years, having touched thousands of bodies, I have come to view the opportunities of these contacts as something far deeper than pleasurable relaxation, far more than the relief of aches and pains, more than physical therapy and rehabilitation, more than what is usually meant by stress reduction. I have increasingly come to appreciate these explorations in touching as bridges connecting personal, private and deeply subjective worlds, messages of potentially profound meaning between myself and others. I have come to regard touch as a language, a language that speaks to our innermost sense of who we are, how we are, and what deeper relations are possible between us.
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