Perceptual Experiences of the Tides

CRI Level of Perception

Within the CRI, tissue structures may seem separate, as might their expression of rhythmic motion. It may seem as though tissue structures move independently rather than as a unified field of motility that arises everywhere at once as in the mid-tide. The rhythm will be perceived to be relatively fast and variable, anywhere from 6-14 cycles a minute. The practitioner tends to orient to tissue tensions, resistance, compressions and activation at this level. Here you may be more aware of the effects and results of forces, rather than of the forces themselves. The inherent Health is less obvious within the CRI and it is certainly not a level where resources can be accessed. Trauma activation is common at this level as is the unresolved emotional cycling of trauma held in the system. You may encounter shock affects, much resistance and inertia. It is truly like you are with waveforms blown by the wind and the deeper tidal resources may not be accessible.

As you begin to orient to client’s system the CRI may initially manifest and many tension patterns and eccentric motions may present in quick succession, as though the system is trying to show you all of its history at once. Here the practitioner must shift their orientation to the deeper tides, or try to help the client process any shock or trauma affects in their system, and resource the client to enable a shift to primary respiration via stillpoint facilitation and Long Tide awareness.

Mid-tide Level of Perception

At this level of perception, you are in the realm of the tidal potencies, the embodied forces generated by the action of the Long Tide. Potency functions everywhere in the body at once, as a whole. Thus as you settle into a mid-tide level of orientation, you may sense that a quality of wholeness arises. It will seem like you are holding a truly unified field of action and tissue motility will seem to manifest tidally everywhere at once. Things may seem amorphous, and it may seem like you are actually holding a fluid-tissue field. There is a clear insight here that the human system is whole and that any impact on the system affects the whole. Thus a site of inertia and resistance is not just local, but is a systemic process.

You may sense a clear expression of the fluid tide as a welling up and filling in your hands in what Sutherland called the inhalation phase and an emptying and receding in the exhalation phase. This will manifest as a relatively slow rhythm anywhere from 1-3 cycles a minute.
You may sense the tissues responding to the action of potency within the fluids as a change of shape within your hands. In inhalation, the cranium may be sense to widen transversely and narrow front to back, while in exhalation it may be sensed to narrow transversely and widen front to back. It is a rhythmic reciprocal motion that we will be exploring is some detail later. You may notice various kinds of fluctuation-like motions between your hands like spiraling and swirling kinds of motions and odd tissue movements and patterns. Simply let all of this be there - You will learn to more clearly discern what you are sensing as perception deepens and clinical skills are explored.

Long Tide Level of Perception

At this level of perception it may seem like you have really shifted to an alternative and primordial way of perceiving. You are in the realm of field phenomena and these may at first seem strange, yet at the same time familiar. Becker noted that the Long Tide seems to come from nowhere and return to nowhere. Its action connects us to a huge field of action and a universal intention to create and maintain order. The Long Tide can be sensed to be slow, deep and radiant. People seem to perceive it in different or multiple ways. Many people sense radiance, a light that moves through everything and seems to be centering and ordering form. As the practitioner widens her perceptual field, slower and slower rhythms and motions may be perceived. Some people directly sense the slow fifty-second inhalation and exhalation of its phases. Others seem more tuned into its expansion wave and sense endless expansion. Still others sense its centripetal action as it enters the midline and generates the ordering matrix. Some people are more oriented to the stillness or dynamic equilibrium of the field it generates. Any or all of these perceptions may come and go as you sense the Long Tide. The universal nature of inter-connection and the non-separateness of the human condition may be perceived here. This is no small thing. Indeed, it can seem like a sacred presence.

Practitioners have also noted its action within the inherent treatment plan. As you widen your field of awareness, you may become aware of the ordering matrix and the Long Tide. Inertial fulcrums may be sensed as vortex-like forms within the wider field. You may sense something coming into the client’s body from “outside-in.” Subtle yet strong wind-like forces may seem to come from a great distance, enter the midline, orient to a fulcrum, process forces and return to space. A sense of a wind-like, vibrant quality of shifting may be sensed to occur within the body. This shifting may be sensed to move relatively quickly from one fulcrum to another. Related fulcrums may be processed in a precise order.

I first had this experience as client. I was in the skilled hands of a colleague who works through Stillness. There was a very deep neutral accessed within my system. Within a depth of stillness, “something” began to shift through my system. This was very different from what I had experienced before, the shifting of potency through the fluids. That kind of shifting occurs like a force within the fluids and is definitely sensed as an embodied process. This new kind of automatic shifting had a wind-like quality to it. The nature of its shifting was more like air and fire. It seemed to come from outside the body and work very specifically and then leave. Becker notes that this is the nature of the action of the Long Tide as it expresses a healing intention within the system. (Becker 1997)