Continuing the collection of raw data, using Body-Mind Centering principles, with Cara Heerdt.
The way in.
Lying supine in a quiet and unpressured environment worked well. In prone position, the nervous system was too noisy, too exposed/activated to allow for the profound quieting of the mental layer of consciousness needed to connect with the body’s fluids.*
There are different means of accessing fluid embodiment. First, there’s the uncomplicated technique of allowing mind chatter to quiet and then, dropping beneath the thinking mind to the body consciousness. From here, continue to expand deeper until you arrive at your destination, in this case, inside the cells’ membranes that have been permeated by cellular fluid or, in the interstitial fluid that bathes the body’s entire inner architecture in it’s fluid net. A second,and perhaps more accessible option if you’re new to embodied meditation, is to opt for a method with greater proprioceptive feedback. For example, attune to your circulatory system. Feel the heart’s rhythmic pumping, the life sustaining activity of it’s valves. Next, broaden your awareness to the full network of arteries and veins as it transports the blood with determined undulations. Follow a stretch of the arterial circuit down to it’s tiniest capillary, at the endpoint of which, the blood within transforms into an expanse of interstitial fluid; spreading like ink absorbed into the fabric of a page. You have arrived at you first destination. To arrive at the cellular fluid from here, encounter a living breathing cell wall and via osmosis, take a trip inside! You are here.
Lastly, being general seemed to work well as a rule. Being general, that is, in regard to the imagery of the location of cellular structures employed to enter the consciousness of the fluid body. In other words, we seemed to drop more easily into the consciousness of the cellular and interstitial fluids by connecting with a general sense of the cells or of the fluids at first, rather than holding onto specific details of particular cells in a particular place in the body with its specific tissue terrain. It seemed that being general facilitated an easeful slip into the wholeness, the connectedness of the vast cellular network that comprises and energizes our bodies. Whereas, trying to imagine specific cells engendered a more cerebral attitude which prohibited the relaxedness required to gain this intimate knowing of the fluid self. The fixed definition of a cell embodied as a rigidity of the cell membrane prohibiting flow.
*I’d like to make a note here that it is my presumption that as this practice is deepened, it will be possible to access this fluid-state of awareness more immediately and under the pressure of a variety of circumstances (e.g., in different positions, in authentic movement and in living).
The terrain.
In the cellular fluid there is a profound sense of stillness; a pure state of rest. I am aware here of my total unity; that being in one cell, I am simultaneously embodying all my trillions of cells. I am these cells. The cellular fluid has no direction yet infinite depth. Regular plunges to the depths of the cellular fluid consciousness could promise deep healing potential and vital doses of rejuvenation.
The interstitial fluid, while in a continuous state of transformation, is calm and peaceful. In comparison to the being of cellular fluid, intercellular fluid is broad, sideways, encompassing, spread-eagle. It has a viscosity, an unctuous quality like super salty seawater, buoyant and slick. This fluid moves and is effected by the body’s innumerable internal rhythms (not to mention the external rhythms we are subjected to), a continual transmission of rippling wave forms moving through it’s oceanic stretches. In this state of being, the body feels whole, fully conscious of itself. Within the vast interstitial space there is room for enormous insights.