The Three Bodies
There is a very useful orientation in biodynamic osteopathic practice that helps orient practitioners to the dynamics of primary respiration called the three bodies. They are: (1) the physical body (2) the fluid body and (3) the tidal body.
The physical body:
- is composed of the body’s cells and tissues
- includes the deeper organization of these as embryological form and development.
- The mid-tide is sensed as motility within the cells and tissues of the physical body at a rhythmic rate of 1-3 cycles a minute
The fluid body:
- includes all of the body’s fluids as a unified field of action
- is the medium within which the potency of the Breath of Life is expressed.
- can be sensed as an energetic form up to 50 centimetres/20 inches or so around the body
- The mid-tide is sensed as the fluid tide within the fluid body at a rhythmic rate of 1-3 cycles a minute
The tidal body:
- the wider tidal presence of the Long Tide as the root of primary respiration within which the midline, ordering matrix, fluid body, physical body and body-mind system is suspended and breathed
- has its midline through the centerline of the physical body, extends into space as a vast torus-shaped field that seems to suspend the fluid and physical bodies in the vastness of the universe.
- The tidal motion within the tidal body is sensed as a stable rhythmic phenomenon of 100 seconds (50 seconds of inhalation and 50 seconds of exhalation) oriented to a person’s midline.
