Fascia as an Organ of Intelligence

May, 2025

My deeper sensory experience of Emilie’s powerful insight has spiraled over these years from fascia as a “body part” to sensing the elastic breathing fascial matrix of my fluid body from foot to head and hand as a transformational condensing and expanding journey.  I’d love to share some of that experience with you.

When I was first studying classical anatomy, fascial tissue was introduced as a discrete medium to be removed by the anatomist in order to view the more “important” muscles, bones, nerves, organs, etc. From this biomechanical perspective, the musculoskeletal “system” existed as separate elements (bones) connected by (joints) that are moved by (muscles) that are attached to the bones and moved by a governing (brain).

Attending the First International Fascia Research Congress at Harvard Medical School in 2007 was a transformational experience.  It was mind-blowing when Dr. Jean-Claude Guimberteau, a French surgeon, presented his “living fascia” video Strolling Under the Skin, unveiling the fascial matrix as a vibrant, crystalline bodywide network, supporting the glide of muscles, nerves, blood vessels, veins, and so much more! Before his ground-breaking video, fascia had only been viewed and dissected on cadavers.

What came alive with this awareness was new research highlighting the global, crystalline nature of fascia, as a vital communication and energy transmission network for our living architecture’s internal and external forces. When one part of us moves, our whole being moves in concert – which is at the heart of Continuum!

As our fascial body is at least 75% water, it is the ideal medium to conduct sound waves, and as Emilie Conrad demonstrated in her creation of Continuum – our body does not know muscles – it knows movement, sound and breath.

We are a resonant, harmonic network, where sound, quality of attention and breath can tune our fascial matrix musical body like a finely tuned instrument.  So how does sensing our relationship with earth’s support through the field of gravity and spatial orientation help us to fine tune ourselves in our daily practice?

As pleasure is a guiding principle of Continuum, can you become curious of how your body can feel the support and nourishment of the natural world? How does it feel to sense the earth’s grounding presence in whatever position you are exploring - standing, sitting, lying down?  Is there anywhere in your body where you might feel an interruption in the fluid resonance of your body’s fascial relationship from foot to head and hand and exploring the sensation with curiosity.  In this way, we are planting seeds of loving kindness in our self-awareness which can then ripple out to our living environment as a community song.

I would love to share with you a sensory experience my body loves to play with and encourage you to make it your own.

This movement awareness can be explored standing, sitting or lying.  It is a spiraling, fascial matrix movement of sounding with a lemniscate (figure-eight) foot to base of spine to hand and head motion.  Lemniscate is an archetypal pattern of interconnectedness.

Listen for what your musical body wants as you explore the world of Continuum with your innate biointelligence guiding you!

EXPLORATION

Pre-movement Baseline – Standing, sitting or lying on your back
How does your body feel at this moment?
What is your sense of grounding through your feet, sitting bones or back?
Is there tension or holding somewhere in your body that you are noticing?

PRACTICE

From this awareness of standing, sitting or lying, what is your perception of weight in your sitting bones, on the chair, and your feet and/or back, touching the floor?

Gazing at your right hand, spiral your palm up and palm down, sensing the figure-eight motion– a fluid motion of your elbow and hand’s relationship with your whole fascial body

Play with a gentle figure-eight motion as you spiral your right hand with palm up to the right as you inhale, allowing your body to follow the motion

Then exhale, coming back to center by rolling your hand with palm down

Play with the figure-eight pattern - spiraling out and in several times on your right side

What do you notice as you spiral out as you inhale and spiral in as you exhale and HUM?

What changes when you reverse your breathing pattern and exhale as you spiral out and inhale as you return to center?

Can you remember your fluid nature and relationship with your living environment?

Come to Open Attention and see what you notice

Refresh your sense of grounding through your feet, sitting bones or back before repeating the spiraling sequence to your left side

Come back to center after exploring your left side and take another Baseline of awareness – standing, sitting or lying
 
What is your experience of your fluid body at this moment?