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Daniel Enriquez de Guevara
The Sutherland Cranial College
THE INTELLIGENT BODY
Reflections on Energy Medicine and James Oschman
THE INTELLIGENT BODY
Reflections on Energy Medicine and James Oschman
by Robert Lever, after reading Oschman's Energy Medicine: the Scientific Basis and Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance.
The complementary and alternative medical professions (CAMs) have always had a troubled relationship with conventional science. To some extent, these unorthodox systems have rightly tried to incorporate established medical science as a base. This has been both valuable and politically expedient as any valid alternative has to take root in its culture and its society in order to be of use and of service. But this can lead to an over-emphasis on the principles and approach that are basically mainstream and the result is a very poor fit.
The problem in attempting to promote unconventional bases for any system is the risk of scientific and social ostracism; but in the end, there is no choice. We have to aspire to the perfect fit and therefore we have to embrace and integrate much that is unconventional and unproven whilst we develop it strongly enough to reveal its truth.
The great pioneers in CAMs have done this with varying degrees of sophistication as their systems have evolved through history. The thrill of validation as analytical scrutiny and scientific exploration, albeit sometimes on the fringes, gradually explore and explain the pieces of the puzzle is extremely satisfying. James Oschman, in his book Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance and its predecessor, Energy Medicine: the Scientific Basis, assembles an extraordinary array of such exploratory efforts, most of which are spawned by remarkable scientific minds attempting to break equally remarkable new ground.
Oschman's work is relevant to most, if not all, holistic CAM's but its relevance to osteopathy is what concerns us here. It is also inextricably linked to the bioscientific quest for the greater understanding of life, living matter, living organisms and even consciousness itself.
To these ends Oschman expounds on the living organism, its intrinsic functions and its relationship with its environment in truly exciting ways. And whilst embracing the enormous contribution of established scientific rationales, is fascinating in his account of their limitations and of the enormous chasm left by them in attempts to explain biological function.
Much of this material is sparked by one of the most important contributions of science in the last century and that is the profound biological significance of interconnectedness. This is a central tenet to any wholistic or 'systems' approach and was thrust into the scientific world with quantum theory 100 years ago. Although many have cautioned against the application of quantum theory to the 'macro' world, whilst condoning its relevance to the 'micro' or sub atomic, this represents an awkward denial of the significance of the 'micro' to the 'macro' in any system or study of systems.
With wholistic medicine and in osteopathy, of course, the subtle nature of interconnectedness - what we sometimes refer to as 'reciprocity' - and its manifestation through extremely subtle forces are, to many of us, axiomatic; whilst quantum theory itself proposes that particles only exist as manifestations of their relationship to others.
If interconnectedness is a vital component of our understanding of living (and other) things, it is natural to want to explore the nature and mechanisms that enable such functional interconnectedness to operate; how the bits communicate. And here Oschman gets very exciting, since the mechanisms that he explores and the research behind them not only underpin aspects of body function and intrinsic communication mechanisms but reflect emphatically on the ways that organisms communicate with one another and with force fields and patterns of energy in the environment and throughout our natural and sometimes unnatural world.
Oschman describes the limitation in the speed and quality of communication mediated by the nervous and circulatory systems (including the transport of chemical mediators) and examines the ways that the body's mechanisms, cells, even molecules transmit patterns of information between them. The largest anatomical medium for this communication and the arena on which the myriad elements comprising the body interact and interconnect is the 'living matrix' or the connective tissue matrix. How fascinating to explore the dynamics within this system as we recall Still and Sutherland in their emphasis on the fascia and connective tissue as the interface between so many aspects of structure and function. The significance of electro-magnetic and piezoelectric properties in both collagen and in water itself, and the patterned information formed by hydrogen bonding in water remind one constantly of Sutherland and his description of the 'potency in the fluid'. Despite Sutherland's emphasis on the CSF it was the fluid of the extracellular matrix that he saw as the repository for the vitality that created the 'healing within'. Distortions within this 'system' not only relate to a breakdown in structural integrity but also predispose to the physiological breakdown that we associate with disorder and disease.
Oschman examines the dynamics that help us to view the expression of this vitality and the distortions to which it is subject, linking structure and physiology in a far more sophisticated way than science allowed in Still's day. Even so, the vision of the early pioneers within osteopathy, (as well as other CAM professions), of the body as a rhythmically oscillating field within which there is an almost infinite interplay of interconnected elements, seems vehemently supported; whilst the principles of 'tensegrity' expressed throughout the connective tissue and musculo-skeletal systems (expanding the entire concept of biomechanics), complement the resonant quality of living tissues in ways that truly breathe life into structural function.
This interplay of forces and the interaction of force fields that Oschman explores with reference to soliton waves, quantum coherence, non-locality and numerous other phenomena often difficult to the non-physicist like most of us in the profession, illuminate aspects of the patient-practitioner exchange and the 'energetic dance' that underlies the treatment process as well as the complex interactions between ourselves and our world.
The paradigm shift from the mechanistic to the 'electrical', the emphasis on the subtle and the 'energetic' in Oschman's writing might suggest a relevance only to the 'cranial' sphere in osteopathy and subtle forms of healing. But this would be to misinterpret their significance. Oschman's material illuminates mechanisms that underpin all of osteopathy and its principles: mechanical interactions or reciprocity, the significance of the connective tissue matrix as the interface of structure and function, the wholistic nature of body function and the importance of the breakdown of integration and adaptation etc. The structural integrity of the body, the 'structure-function' relationships, the efficiency of arterial, venous, lymphatic, CSF and extracellular fluid dynamics, the integrated nature of nervous system functioning, all so much a part of the osteopathic canon, are expressions of Oschman's material in the field of 'structure'. Indeed, it is the yoking of the infinitely complex expression of the energetic fields under discussion to the model of the osteopathic method that gives our discipline great potency as a healing art. Each CAM system conjoins its own model in this way to give it its own flavour and value. But the energetic substrate not only gives our therapeutic systems greater meaning, it illuminates aspects of the human condition and our world that bring the spiritual, metaphysical and the scientific a tantalizing step closer to one another.
Finally, as a profession, we constantly crave research-based validation for our methods. Oschman's pages are crammed with research that powerfully proclaims its relevance to our work and the work of similar professions of CAM. In acknowledging its connection with osteopathy, we access a pool of information made available by extraordinary and expert scientific minds with the ability and resource to explore the minutiae of biophysics that are largely out of reach of most within the profession. But it is there for us to borrow and apply. Indeed we have an obligation to do so and partly through James Oschman's work, it is there for the taking.
Robert Lever BA(Lond) DO, November 2004
THE INTELLIGENT BODY
The Bones are the Prime Movers
Stephen Levin and Elisabeth Davies
This interview is a summary of conversations held with Dr Stephen Levin, recorded by Elisabeth Davies, immediately following his participation in the "Intelligent Body" conference. ED
Following your presentation at the Intelligent Body conference, could you say a bit more about linear and non-linear systems?
SL
Linear systems obey the common Newtonian laws of physics. They are usual in non-biological systems. If you introduce a stress into a non-biological system, as you increase the stress, the strain (the deformation, or resistance) will increase in equal measure, giving a straight line on a graph. Hence the term linear. However, if you introduce a stress into a biological system, this line will not be straight, but curved. As you introduce the stress, it is at first absorbed by the "give" in the system, so that initially the line stays almost horizontal, but as the stress increases, the system stiffens in resistance, becoming increasingly strong as the system is loaded. This exponential increase gives a curved line (the stress/strain, S/S curve) instead of a straight one, which becomes steeper until it is almost vertical. You can demonstrate this with stretch or compression. A linear spring springs back with equal force. If we functioned like that, when we run we would bounce up in the air as if we were on a trampoline. A good example of a non-linear spring is the earlobe: pull it down and you can feel the resistance increase to the point of limit (the steep part of the non-linear curve). Release it - it doesn't snap back in the opposite direction, but just goes back into place. If we look at compression, when a weight lifter reaches his limit, he's at his strongest because his system is at its tightest. This makes non-linear systems much stronger than their linear equivalent. It explains why weight lifters don't explode, as Newtonian laws would have them do, long before reaching their biological limit.
ED
And this non-linear stiffening comes from tensegrity.
SL
Yes. On this model here (a "tensegrity truss" with six struts suspended in a network of tension wires), when you shorten (by twisting) any one of these wires, you can see that the whole structure expands. Tighten one element and you tighten the whole network. It becomes stiffer. This is what happens under load. The greater the load, the stiffer or stronger the structure. This is true of any tensegrity structure, and it is true of the body, however light or heavy the load. Pick up that pencil there. What do you feel in your body, your diaphragm, your legs? The whole thing tightens up. The whole organism increases tension throughout the network, though if the load is light we may not notice this. The opposite extreme would be the weight-lifter. Before he lifts a weight, he breathes out and contracts his whole body inwards towards the centre. Then as he lifts the weight he expands.
ED
You said that in truss systems such as the biotensegrity (TM) model there are no bending moments, no shear and no torque.
SL
Right. Within the truss itself, there is no bending moments, torque, nor shear. They only occur at the interface. My interface is with the ground. In the giraffe's neck, when it stretches out horizontally, there is no shear, only increased tone in the balanced tension and compression in the tensegrity of the body as a whole. When you pick up that cup of tea, your wrist doesn't shear. But because your interface is the ground, your muscles will always pull you towards that. They always pull you to the ground. You can't pull yourself up by your own bootlaces. Even when you bend down and lift something up off the floor, you are really pulling down. And your relationship with the ground obeys Newtonian laws.
ED
If non-linear systems don't obey Newtonian forces, why do I feel shear and torsion in my patients?
SL
In treatment, your contact with your patient also has Newtonian laws. It's the meeting of two tensegrities. The interface. You are using your tensegrity to guide theirs. But there would be no shear or torque within their system.
ED
Why then do I sometimes feel force vectors in my patients? If there has been an impact, it can feel like a fulcrum somewhere inside or outside the body which is limiting motion.
SL
There is no fulcrum unless you create one with the structure. You may need to change your terminology and say something like "reference point".
ED
Another question directly relevant to what we teach: Sutherland said that the ligaments guide and limit the motion of a joint and also act as agents of correction. We utilise this potential when we apply Balanced Ligamentous Tension techniques to any joint in the body. Have you observed this and can you offer an explanation for why it takes place? There is very little in the literature about the proprioceptive function of ligaments.
SL
It has to do with energy requirements. The 'play' of a joint is at the lowest (flat) part of the S/S curve and what you have done is to help the body seek that level. The 'balanced ligamentous tension' that you feel is when the joint is at its lowest energy point and you have helped the body make the more perfect, symmetrical tensegrity.
ED
In your presentation, you said that the joint surfaces never come into approximation. How is this possible, especially under extreme circumstances such as weight-lifting?
SL
It is quite possible, as long as there is no loss of structural integrity. In the biotensegrity model, under normal circumstances, the bones are all floating compression structures, and don't come into contact. All the compression elements are held apart, they don't touch. But if you cut the tension elements (the ligaments) the bones come together. The articular surfaces of joints are not under compression unless there is some soft tissue degeneration.
ED
I understand the principle, but if I take a joint such as the knee, I find it difficult to see how this works in practice.
SL
The mistake is to look at any one joint in isolation. You have to see the whole system as a heirarchical system of icosahedra, small ones inside larger ones. When you look at a knee, it is hard to tell which precise parts of it provide compression and which provide tension. But whether it is under load or not, the synovial fluid is under minimal pressure. This has been measured. The compression on the fluid is nowhere near the amount of pressure needed to keep the two surfaces apart. Something else is holding them apart - the opposing forces of compression and tension in the tensegrity of the whole limb and of the body as a whole. The tensegrity may not be local - it may be in the interactive co-operation of several joints. You can't treat a joint in isolation. Joints are subsystems of a metasystem.
ED
Does this only apply to joints?
SL
No. It applies to the whole system. The kidney, all the organs, work the same way. Look at the sesamoid bones underneath the first metatarsal. They never touch it. They're soft and squishy, and would smash with every step if they were under load. The kneecap works the same way, it never touches the knee.
ED
What is under compression then?
SL
The bones. The bones are the prime movers.
ED
... The bones are the prime movers? Not the muscles?
SL
The muscles may initiate and modify movement, but once movement such as walking, running, cycling, has been initiated, the bones would be the most efficient prime movers. Principally the shafts of the long bones, the compact bone. The collagen is arranged in spirals of stacked icosahedra, and the hydroxyapatite crystals are also icosahedra and they just snap into place making a complex of protein and crystal. This makes the stiffest structure in our bodies. The stiffer the structure, the more energy it can absorb. The spirals in the bone give a soft landing that stiffens quickly. The energy of meeting the ground is stored in the bone. Once the energy has been absorbed it has to be released in rebound or the bone would get hot. As the energy is released, it springs like a non-linear spring, propelling you forward. This is the most efficient way of using energy. By the way, the fibula is exceedingly strong.
ED
I seem to remember you saying that the ligaments provided rebound too.
SL
They are the next stiffest structure, so they also provide rebound, but less. The muscles are the dampeners, more of a control thing. There are more muscles in the body, so they have a kind of bulk action. The greatest compression forces are absorbed by the bones; the greatest tensile forces are borne by the ligaments. The strongest ligaments in the body are the sacro-iliacs. They are strong at birth. So are the cruciates. The stresses in utero create the strength. Likewise the development of bone in utero is the result of the mechanical forces present.
ED
So once the muscles have initiated the movement, are they completely passive?
SL
To be the most efficient, they remain in isotonic, isometric balance. Take the quads and hamstrings for example. As you flex the hip and bend the knee simultaneously, the quads remain the same length. Likewise the hamstrings. Imagine you are preparing a cyclist for the Tour de France. Every last adjustment has been made to his bicycle, for optimum performance. His job is just to increase his overall tone, to just the right level, just like when I twisted the string on the tensegrity model. When you contract a muscle you squeeze the bone, put energy into it, increase its tone. When they train for the Tour de France, they hook up all the muscles to an EMG and set the tone to the perfect level of tuning, then all the cyclist does is let it oscillate. All things under tension vibrate and oscillate. Then he does some small slight thing to initiate action, to initiate the oscillation, and off he goes. After that there's no need for added contraction from the muscles, they just remain at that level of tone, and work like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. And he adjusts the tone and frequency of the oscillation according to the terrain. The goal is minimum effort to sustain isometric and isotonic balance. Energy input comes from various things - gravity, inertia - and it's the bones that provide most of the rebound which propels him forward.
ED
Is this what we mean by being "in the zone"?
SL
Yes. You can apply it to the martial arts, musical performance, and so on. It happens in the flat part of the non-linear curve. You can set the tone to different levels. In peak performance you have raised tone but minimal energy expenditure. The greater the tone, the quicker the response time. This means the non-linear curve rises quicker, but you still have that level part first. When you people talk about still points in treatment, I think you are operating in this same flat part of the curve, but maybe prolonging it. However, it can never get completely still, you never stop oscillating.
ED
When cyclists train, you said that just the right amount of tension was necessary. And earlier you said with a slight amount of tension, the structure expands. But you also described the weight-lifter contracting his body and breathing out before lifting. Is there a switch-over point at which the body goes from expansion to contraction?
SL
Energy transfer, again. Play with a model. There is a resting state of balanced energy, compressing it (energy input) stores energy which is then released as it expands, going past the resting state (which is in energy balance of tension and compression) requires energy etc..
ED
I remember you saying that tensegrities are natural oscillators. Am I right in thinking that an oscillation is a transition from one state to another and back again?
SL
Yes, it's a transition from a low energy state to a high energy state and back again, between open and closed structures. Everything in you is oscillating. You can apply it to any alternating states, from the beating of your heart, to respiration, to the gel-sol transition such as in synovial fluid - as I illustrated in my lecture, with shaving cream. In its resting, low-energy state, a gel consists of icosahedra, which are relatively - but not completely - stable. As stable as you can get. Compress it, and the icosahedra move into a transitional state which is cuboidal, less stable - it's a high energy state - it takes more energy to maintain it (triangulating the corners of a cube gives a cuboctahedron, which is closely related to the icosahedron in structure). This less stable cuboidal form collapses like a house of cards, allowing the gel to shear, become sol. Now you can smear it around. Remove your hand, releasing the compression, and it converts back to its low-energy icosahedral form. That's a great model. Whatever the energy input, the icosahedra will seek the least energy (more stable) form for that..
ED
Is the oscillation always between these two forms of icosahedron and cuboctahedron?
SL
The best answer I have is a quote from Buckminster Fuller: "The vector equilibrium is a condition in which nature never allows herself to tarry. The vector equilibrium itself is never found exactly symmetrical in nature's crystallography. Ever pulsive and impulsive, nature never pauses her cycling at equilibrium: she refuses to get caught irrecoverably at the zero phase of energy. She always closes her transformative cycles at the maximum positive or negative asymmetry stages. See the delicate crystal asymmetry in nature. We have vector equilibriums mildly distorted to asymmetry limits as nature pulsates positively and negatively in respect to equilibrium. Everything that we know as reality has to be either a positive or a negative aspect of the omnipulsative physical Universe. Therefore, there will always be positive and negative sets that are ever interchangeably intertransformative with uniquely differentiable characteristics." Synergetics, 440.05. A full discussion of this is in his book that can be found on the web: http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/synergetics/toc/toc.html. The icosahedron is a stucture that is fully triangulated, symmetrical, omnidirectional, closest packable, has the largest volume for surface area. It is not the lowest energy structure, (a tetrahedron is but it lacks some of the other properties such as being omnidirectional). Biologic structures will always vacillate between the vector equilibrium, which doesn't ever really exist but is an energy state, and the icosahedron.
ED
When we work with the involuntary system/primary respiration, we are aware of a change of state, like an inhalation and exhalation, throughout the body, varying from two and a half to ten times a minute. This must be an oscillation. Could we apply this changing state from icosahedron to "vector equilibrium" to this also?
SL
The base string oscillates at a different frequency than the violin string. Each sub system-system-meta system will have its own frequency. The respiratory system is an oscillating system on its own but also part of the whole.
ED
You said that icosahedra are self-generating, that they self-assemble. Could you say a bit more about this? From what do they self-generate, for example in the case of structured water.
SL
The self generation and self assembly is related to closest packing and the laws governing foams. What makes a bubble the shape that it is? Those laws govern the shape of cells and structures.
ED
If I try to assemble icosahedra into a close-packed model, there are still gaps in between. In the body, what would fill these gaps?
SL
Vacuoles, water, fractals. The forces that change the shape become part of the energy input-release and oscillations.
ED
Finally, have I understood you correctly in saying that the laws of physics can answer all conceivable questions and that there is no need for a mystical interpretation. What about quantum physics? Is tensegrity a kind of bridge between the "normal" and quantum worlds?
SL
If you attribute some mystical qualities to an event then you stop seeking what may be a simple physical property. For me, at this point in my life, the laws of physics are mystery enough and that is where my mystery stops. I leave it to the physicists to try and demystify those.
ED
So how would you suggest we interpret some of the more mystical experiences that some of us have from time to time in treatment?
SL
Information and energy transfer is at non-conscious cerebral levels, but this doesn't make it mysterious - it's a physical thing. The shaman gives quinine and does a dance, and we think the dance fixed the malaria. The miracle is the physical laws - why do I need other miracles? If we fully understand these laws we can use them more intelligently. The laws of physics are the laws that shape our world and its behaviour. I recommend an article by Harold Kroto called "Space, Stars, C60 and Soot" (Science, 242, 1139-1145 (1988)). Biologic organisms are not just bags of chemicals and electrical charges, but physical structures that obey physical laws. Organic chemistry, from the benzene ring to the most complex protein and assemblages of protein, is physical chemistry. The assemblage of chemicals that compose a biologic organism is a physical process. D'Arcy Thompson (1860-1948) said in his book "On Growth and Form": "Cell and tissue, shell and bone, leaf and flower, are so many portions of matter, and it is in obedience to the laws of physics that their particles have been moved, moulded and conformed."
Elisabeth Davies, May 25 2005
Tensegrity - its relevance to the human body
This article arises out a presentation given by Elisabeth Davies at the Sutherland Cranial College "In Reciprocal Tension" course, June 11-13 2004, at Hawkwood College, Stroud, England. It is intended to serve as a résumé of some of the available research on the topic, and is not claimed as original work.
To understand how our bodies support us, traditional thinking has drawn comparisons with classical architecture, seeing the body as composed of columns, beams and cantilevers, where the spine acts like a stack of bricks. But if bodies behave in the same way as this architectural model, we would not be able to bend very far before, like the leaning tower of Pisa, we would become structurally unsound. The kind of reinforcement needed to support just our own weight would be unwieldy, severely limiting our freedom and fluidity of motion. Bending or carrying additional loads would be out of the question.
Thoughts of this nature were in the mind of orthopaedic surgeon Dr Stephen Levin in the mid 1970's. He did an arthroscopy of a knee under local anaesthesia, with the patient standing, with help of a tilt table. He found that, as long as the ligaments are intact, the joint surfaces cannot be approximated. He later repeated this at the shoulder and at the radial head. Nothing in standard Newtonian mechanics could explain how this was possible. His quest for a greater understanding of human biomechanics led him to the Smithsonian Museum. Here, studying and measuring dinosaurs, he calculated that, according to accepted biomechanical thinking, they should never have existed, as they should have crumbled under their own weight. His Eureka moment came one day when he caught sight of Kenneth Snelson's Needle Tower, which stood opposite the museum.
Kenneth Snelson, born 1927 in Pendleton, Oregon, said "my art is concerned with nature in its primary aspect, the patterns of physical forces in three dimensional space." Snelson was fascinated by "the infinite perfection of connections" holding everything together. His curiosity about the structure of matter led him to study the two fundamental weave patterns: two-way fabric weave, forming squares, and three-way basket weave, forming triangles and hexagons. Favouring the three-way weave, which is infinitely more stable, he developed three-dimensional weave cells. These self-contained structural units, which he used as the components of his sculptures, consist of tubes and cables - rigid compression tubes pushing outward, held together by flexible tension cables pulling inward. These polyhedral units could be stacked together making larger "floating compression structures" which still maintained the characteristics of a single unit. The dynamic balance between the inward pull of the cables and the outward push of the tubes, which appear to float within the network, gives them enormous structural integrity, maintaining their shape in apparent defiance of gravity, whether vertical or horizontal. His Needle Tower is made from these components.
Although Snelson came up with the concept of tensegrity, it was Robert Buckminster Fuller who coined the term. The two met in 1948, when Snelson was in art school at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. They shared an interest in the geometry of structure, and when Snelson showed Fuller his early X piece, Fuller immediately saw the potential of this principle of opposing tensional and compressive forces, coining the term "tensegrity" (tension integrity).
Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983), "Bucky" for short, was an inspiring visionary, philanthropist, and passionate idealist. A multi-talented and multi-faceted radical thinker, and as much a philosopher as an engineer, he, like Snelson, was interested in what connects everything. In 1948 Fuller was already developing his ideas on geodesics and the geodesic dome. Geodesics is based on the mathematics of spatial relationships. Tetrahedra and octahedra combine to fill space, creating the Isotropic Vector Matrix ("Everywhere the same energy"). The dome is all or part of a sphere, the shell of which is made of rigid struts forming equilateral triangles. In fact all geodesic domes are based on the same mathematics as the icosahedron, Icosahedron model which consists of twenty equilateral triangles forming an angulated sphere. The surface can be broken up into many more triangles, smoothing out the curve into something more spherical. The "frequency" of a dome relates to the number of smaller triangles into which it is subdivided. The struts are under both tension and compression, giving "tensegrity", which means that the dome is extremely strong despite a relatively lightweight framework, fulfilling Fuller's ecological dream of "ephemeralisation" (doing more with less).
Fuller's thinking has had a wide sphere of influence, far beyond the world of architecture. Even a carbon molecule was named after him - the Buckyball, or buckminsterfullerene. The fact that his thinking goes way beyond architecture is underlined in his book written in 1975 in collaboration with E J Applewhite. It is entitled "Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking: The integration of geometry and philosopy in a single conceptual system providing a common language and accounting for both the physical and metaphysical". In it he explores the balance between tension and compression, synergy and energy, gravity and radiation, syntropy and entropy, growth and decay. "There is no up and down in the universe, only in and out". These counter-forces are both aspects of the same thing, existing only in relationship with each other. Compression components create tension and vice versa.
Fuller was developing the dome at the same time that Snelson was creating his tension-vectored sculptures, both different aspects of tensegrity. The geodesic dome is a tensegrity structure with an "exoskeleton" of struts on the outside, which are under both compression and tension. The compression and tension elements can be separated by "jitterbugging" the struts from the outside to the inside, resulting in Snelson's tension-vectored, "floating compression" forms, with an "endoskeleton" of compressive struts which no longer touch each other. In the same way, a rigid icosahedron can be transformed into one which is tension-vectored.
Tensity Icosahedron
Tension-vectored forms provide discontinuous compression in a matrix of continuous tension. The tension is continuous both in space (i.e. all tensional elements connect) but is also in time, as it is permanently pre-stressed, exhibiting "pre-tension". This is the ingredient which provides great strength relative to the actual weight and substance of the structure. When the structure is under load (including gravity), the stress is shared throughout the tension network, making the whole stronger than its separate parts. Furthermore, the greater the load, the greater the tension and therefore the greater the strength.
Transforming the geodesic form into a tension-vectored form makes the structure much more dynamic. By now it should be clear that this model has more application to the human body than any structure made of columns and beams. Ida Rolf saw its potential, and worked with Fuller in the 60's and 70's. She treated the body "as if" it were a tensegrity structure, and there are a number of articles written by Rolfers at that time.
Dr Stephen Levin took this thinking one step further, maintaining that the body "is" a tensegrity structure, with tension provided by a matrix of connective tissues - ligaments, muscles, blood vessels, nerves and fascia (in sheets, making compartments), giving strength, integrity and pre-stress. Compression is provided by the bones and incompressible fluids in compartments. The bones act like spacers, providing the divergent forces needed to hold the spaces open. He sees the body as "A soft tissue entity, with local bony spacers, rather than a hard tissue entity with soft tissue motor units".
Muscles induce motion and help maintain the pre-stress which we call "tone". When muscles shorten, they also expand width-wise, which puts more tension on the fascial/tensional element, increasing stability. We can deliberately increase tone by contracting muscles, increasing pre-stress before lifting heavy objects. Water in its structured form contributes to tone. Enclosed in fascial compartments, it provides shock-absorption and resists deformation. The fact that joint facets cannot be forced into contact in live subjects is compatible with what we know about the properties of synovial fluid, alternating in state between sol and gel. Viscosity determines the rate at which fluid responds to motion demands and how it performs its role in the tensegrity matrix. Levin also maintains that ligaments act like rubber bands, their elastic rebound contributing to the "spring" in our joints, thus also acting as"movers", e.g. in the foot and knee when walking.
Stephen Levin's website www.biotensegrity.com contains a number of articles explaining the physiological support systems of the body as a whole. He compares both the shoulder girdle and the pelvic girdle to the wheel of a bicycle, where the rim is under compression and the spokes suspend the hub by holding it under tension. This is different from a cart wheel, where the spokes are under compression. In the case of the pelvic girdle, the ring of the pelvis, like the rim of the bicycle wheel, is under compression and the sacro-iliac ligaments act like spokes, suspending the"hub" of the sacrum in a soft-tissue tensional network. The pelvis, as the "rim" of the wheel, has evolved to resist forces from any direction: from above, below, within, distributing the load in any and every direction through its tensegrity network.
In the case of the spine, the model here is not a "tower of blocks" under compression, but of a "tensegrity-truss system that will model the spine right side up, upside-down or in any position, static or dynamic. In a tensegrity-truss model, the loads distribute through the system only in tension or compression. As in all truss systems, there are no levers and no moments at the joints. The model behaves non-linearly and is energy efficient." The ligaments provide a network of continuous tension, with the vertebrae acting like bony spacers. The cranium demonstrates another version of tensegrity, with the compression elements on the surface and the tensional elements (the reciprocal tension membrane) on the inside.
The ability of tensegrity structures to resist omnidirectional forces means that in our bodies balance is modified, and integrity maintained, whichever way up we are, to cope with traction or compression in any dimension. Our tensegrity structure works whether we are standing, lying, or upside down, also in space or deep-sea diving (even if our fluid dynamics find it harder to adapt). Gravity has an interesting part to play here. By giving us weight, it increases the pre-tension in our ligaments and fascia. We have observed how pre-tension strengthens a tensegrity structure. Our ligaments and postural muscles have evolved to hold us in correct balance. Therefore, when the body is in balance, gravity, by increasing the pre-tension, provides support, enabling us to stand upright with minimal muscular effort. This is the basis of the Alexander Technique.
Stephen Levin's interest in biotensegrity extended from the macroscopic to the microscopic level. At around this time, Donald Ingber was researching cell structure at Yale. With the synchronicity which often arises in the development of new ideas, both had a common interest in tensegrity in the body, at both microscopic and macroscopic levels. In January 1998 Ingber published an article "The Architecture of Life" in The Scientific American, proposing a universal set of building principles behind the design of organic structures, from carbon compounds to complex systems. "In living things, form has less to do with chemical composition than with architecture. The molecules and cells that form our tissues are continually removed and replaced; it is the maintenance of pattern and architecture, I reasoned, that we call life".
Here he describes the property of living tissues called self-assembly - a phenomenon in which small components group together to form larger ones. Atoms self-assemble into molecules which self-assemble into polymers, into gels, into organelles, cells and tissues. Self-assembly refers to the way organic structures grow synchronously, all at once, as opposed to the way we would construct a building, starting at the bottom and working up layer by layer. A property of self-assembly is that the more complex forms have new and unpredictable properties which could not be determined by observing the behaviour of their constituent parts. Sodium and chloride combine to make salt, whose properties are very different from either of its components. Living systems are dynamic and non-linear, and this unpredictability is called synergy, as described by Fuller.
Ingber observed "an intriguing and seemingly fundamental aspect of self-assembly: tensegrity". He describes the cytoskeleton as a tensegrity structure. Here, molecules self-assemble into gels or protein polymers, which provide the cell's infrastructure. Ingber describes three different types of protein polymers: microtubules, microfilaments, and intermediate filaments. The microtubules provide the compressive "girders", holding the lattice open and stabilising against lateral compression. The contractile microfilaments provide tension, stiffening and anchoring the nucleus, while the intermediate filaments connect everything, including the nucleus and the cell membrane.
Integrins are molecules that pass through the cell membrane, linking the cytoskeleton to the extracellular matrix. A class of adhesion molecule that binds the cell in place, they give tissue its shape and position, also its relationships. They link the cytoskeleton to the nuclear envelope, nuclear matrix and genes, providing a continuous network through all body tissues from nucleus to skin surface. The nuclear matrix, the cytoskeleton and the extra-cellular matrix together comprise a tissue matrix system which Dr James Oschman calls the "living matrix".
At every level, from microscopic to macroscopic, we are connected by this living matrix, a fundamental part of our tensegrity. On the smallest scale, atoms can be visualised as geometric or polyhedral tensegrity structures, where the opposing forces of the positive and negative charges both hold the atom together and hold open the space within it. Arranging themselves hierarchically, smaller units close-pack inside larger ones. The way in which molecules arrange themselves by "closest-packing" of atoms, and the way one structure will "jitterbug" into another, is a whole study in itself. Thus a bone is a tensegrity structure within itself at every level, atomic, molecular, cellular, tissue. Yet it also behaves as a strut in the larger tensegrity of the body. The body consists of tensegrities within tensegrities.
Tensegrity is inevitably linked with the way our structure evolves during growth and development. At each stage of development, the evolving structure optimises so that it functions with the least amount of energy expenditure, self-assembling into the most expedient, energy-efficient form. The less energy needed to maintain form (resist entropy), the more available for growth, development and propulsion. Tensional and compressional demands determine the alignment of fibres in the self-assembly of both the cell and the extra-cellular matrix. Tensional forces naturally transmit themselves over the shortest distance between two points, hence nature's preference for geodesic forms. (By experimentation, Ingber found that increasing tension within a cell will draw it down into this stress-resistant form.) Geodesic, icosahedral forms crop up everywhere, for example in molecules including structured water, pollen grains, dandelion balls, bee's eyes, and viruses. The double helix consists of icosahedra stacked together.
Another explanation for nature's preference for icosahedra can be found in Fritjof Capra's "The Hidden Connections". He proposes that the earliest cells were formed as bubbles in the scum of the primeval oceans. Pushed together, they became flat-planed icosahedra, creating an internal environment conducive to life. Ingber suggests that biological evolution began in layers of clay, which is itself arranged geodesically. Gerald Pollack, in his book "Cells, Gels and the Engines of Life", theorises that the earliest life forms were gels, created in estuary scum. He outlines the important part that structured water (itself an icosahedron) plays in the body's tensegrity. One of its roles is to hold the negatively-charged surfaces of protein polymers together, thus forming an integral part of the cytoskeleton and contributing to tensegrity on a microscopic scale.
The manner in which a molecule holds its sub-components together, by virtue of its tensegrity, defines the way it will behave. Whatever influences structure will also influence chemical behaviour, triggering a cascade of similar changes in adjacent molecules. This means that"changing cytoskeletal geometry and mechanics could affect biochemical reactions and even alter the genes that are activated, and thus the proteins that are made". This is the meeting point between mechanics and biochemistry. Members of Ingber's group found that by modifying the shape of the cell, they could switch cells between different genetic programmes. Cells that spread flat were more likely to divide, cells prevented from spreading committed suicide and, in between these extremes, cells that were not distorted or restricted behaved in healthy, tissue-specific ways. This process is called mechanotransduction, and it has been shown to mediate not only pathological but also essential biochemical functions in the cell. Thus it would appear that the tissue matrix system controls and co-ordinates cellular respiration. This has vast implications for our osteopathic treatment, and makes us ponder on just how far-reaching the effects are when we bring the body into balance, in an interplay between geometry and chemistry, structure and function.
Our present state of dynamic equilibrium is a result of our tensegrity seeking balance. This dynamic equilibrium is self-maintaining as long as our bodies remain intact and in structural and functional balance. Structure and function are so inextricably bound together in maintaining homeostasis that it becomes academic to separate them. A perpetual dance of compression and stretch, a dynamic interplay of structure and function, continues throughout life, so that it becomes difficult to separate the process of our formation from our current form. This is a self-maintaining cycle, which can go either way: the more balanced and flexible the pre-stressed tensegrity structure, the more readily it absorbs shocks and converts them into information rather than injury, and remains healthy and maintains its shape. But if we lose either postural balance or structural integrity (or both), we lose our tensegrity and the compression becomes continuous, with ensuing wear and tear: disc degeneration, arthritic joints, scoliosis/kyphosis. Enter the osteopath!
However, Ingber argues that tensegrity may be responsible for more than just structural and functional integrity, referring to research at John Hopkins School of Medicine which found that tensegrity is capable of mediating information transfer, utilising the vibrational characteristics of the whole tissue matrix. Different cells and tissues exhibit characteristic resonant frequencies. Tensegrities are natural oscillators, and Inber reported that "transmission of tension through a tensegrity array provides a means to distribute forces to all interconnected elements and, at the same time, to couple, or 'tune', the whole system mechanically as one." Oschman describes a plethora of possible media by which messages can be passed round the living matrix at high speed, independent of the nervous system. Fritz-Albert Popp found that the body emits light particles called photons, which switch on the body's processes. The question is, what is co-ordinating all this activity? This inter-connected web has no part which reigns supreme over the others; its properties depend on the integrated function of the whole.
The answer may lie in quantum physics. Quantum coherence is the ability of subatomic particles to co-operate. Dr Mae Wan-Ho in "The Rainbow and the Worm" says communication is mediated by "the body consciousness inhering in the liquid crystallising continuum of the body.... a special kind of coherence or wholeness which is characteristic of macroscopic quantum systems". Herbert Froehlich of the University of Liverpool introduced the idea that some sort of collective vibration was responsible for getting these processes to co-operate with each other. He maintained that coherence is molecules vibrating in unison, taking on certain qualities of quantum mechanics, including non-locality (the ability of a quantum entity to influence another quantum particle instantaneously over any distance). (Froehlich H: "Long-range coherence and energy storage in biological systems", International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, 1968; 2:641-649. Also Froehlich H: "Evidence for Bose condensation-like excitation of coherent modes in biological systems", Physics Letters, 1975; 51A: 21)
The body's tensegrity, including its quantum dimension, may explain some of our palpatory experiences. Pretension, structured water, the dynamic relationship between the "outward" and "inward" forces of compression and tension on macroscopic and microscopic level, the collective action potential of every cell, must all come within our sensory scope. The communication network of the whole matrix may explain both the immediate and global response to small adjustments in the tensional elements and our ability to sense what is happening in the body as a whole. Whatever our treatment modality, an understanding of the body's tensegrity can only enhance our work. As osteopaths we are in a unique position to explore at first hand the implications of these discoveries at the leading edge of quantum physics.
Elisabeth Davies DO ND MSCC, October 3 2004
tensegrity@edavies.co.uk
For More Information
Go to Content
Tensegrity - its relevance to the human body
This article arises out a presentation given by Elisabeth Davies at the Sutherland Cranial College "In Reciprocal Tension" course, June 11-13 2004, at Hawkwood College, Stroud, England. It is intended to serve as a résumé of some of the available research on the topic, and is not claimed as original work.
To understand how our bodies support us, traditional thinking has drawn comparisons with classical architecture, seeing the body as composed of columns, beams and cantilevers, where the spine acts like a stack of bricks. But if bodies behave in the same way as this architectural model, we would not be able to bend very far before, like the leaning tower of Pisa, we would become structurally unsound. The kind of reinforcement needed to support just our own weight would be unwieldy, severely limiting our freedom and fluidity of motion. Bending or carrying additional loads would be out of the question.
Thoughts of this nature were in the mind of orthopaedic surgeon Dr Stephen Levin in the mid 1970's. He did an arthroscopy of a knee under local anaesthesia, with the patient standing, with help of a tilt table. He found that, as long as the ligaments are intact, the joint surfaces cannot be approximated. He later repeated this at the shoulder and at the radial head. Nothing in standard Newtonian mechanics could explain how this was possible. His quest for a greater understanding of human biomechanics led him to the Smithsonian Museum. Here, studying and measuring dinosaurs, he calculated that, according to accepted biomechanical thinking, they should never have existed, as they should have crumbled under their own weight. His Eureka moment came one day when he caught sight of Kenneth Snelson's Needle Tower, which stood opposite the museum.
Kenneth Snelson, born 1927 in Pendleton, Oregon, said "my art is concerned with nature in its primary aspect, the patterns of physical forces in three dimensional space." Snelson was fascinated by "the infinite perfection of connections" holding everything together. His curiosity about the structure of matter led him to study the two fundamental weave patterns: two-way fabric weave, forming squares, and three-way basket weave, forming triangles and hexagons. Favouring the three-way weave, which is infinitely more stable, he developed three-dimensional weave cells. These self-contained structural units, which he used as the components of his sculptures, consist of tubes and cables - rigid compression tubes pushing outward, held together by flexible tension cables pulling inward. These polyhedral units could be stacked together making larger "floating compression structures" which still maintained the characteristics of a single unit. The dynamic balance between the inward pull of the cables and the outward push of the tubes, which appear to float within the network, gives them enormous structural integrity, maintaining their shape in apparent defiance of gravity, whether vertical or horizontal. His Needle Tower is made from these components.
Although Snelson came up with the concept of tensegrity, it was Robert Buckminster Fuller who coined the term. The two met in 1948, when Snelson was in art school at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. They shared an interest in the geometry of structure, and when Snelson showed Fuller his early X piece, Fuller immediately saw the potential of this principle of opposing tensional and compressive forces, coining the term "tensegrity" (tension integrity).
Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983), "Bucky" for short, was an inspiring visionary, philanthropist, and passionate idealist. A multi-talented and multi-faceted radical thinker, and as much a philosopher as an engineer, he, like Snelson, was interested in what connects everything. In 1948 Fuller was already developing his ideas on geodesics and the geodesic dome. Geodesics is based on the mathematics of spatial relationships. Tetrahedra and octahedra combine to fill space, creating the Isotropic Vector Matrix ("Everywhere the same energy"). The dome is all or part of a sphere, the shell of which is made of rigid struts forming equilateral triangles. In fact all geodesic domes are based on the same mathematics as the icosahedron, Icosahedron model which consists of twenty equilateral triangles forming an angulated sphere. The surface can be broken up into many more triangles, smoothing out the curve into something more spherical. The "frequency" of a dome relates to the number of smaller triangles into which it is subdivided. The struts are under both tension and compression, giving "tensegrity", which means that the dome is extremely strong despite a relatively lightweight framework, fulfilling Fuller's ecological dream of "ephemeralisation" (doing more with less).
Fuller's thinking has had a wide sphere of influence, far beyond the world of architecture. Even a carbon molecule was named after him - the Buckyball, or buckminsterfullerene. The fact that his thinking goes way beyond architecture is underlined in his book written in 1975 in collaboration with E J Applewhite. It is entitled "Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking: The integration of geometry and philosopy in a single conceptual system providing a common language and accounting for both the physical and metaphysical". In it he explores the balance between tension and compression, synergy and energy, gravity and radiation, syntropy and entropy, growth and decay. "There is no up and down in the universe, only in and out". These counter-forces are both aspects of the same thing, existing only in relationship with each other. Compression components create tension and vice versa.
Fuller was developing the dome at the same time that Snelson was creating his tension-vectored sculptures, both different aspects of tensegrity. The geodesic dome is a tensegrity structure with an "exoskeleton" of struts on the outside, which are under both compression and tension. The compression and tension elements can be separated by "jitterbugging" the struts from the outside to the inside, resulting in Snelson's tension-vectored, "floating compression" forms, with an "endoskeleton" of compressive struts which no longer touch each other. In the same way, a rigid icosahedron can be transformed into one which is tension-vectored.
Tensity Icosahedron
Tension-vectored forms provide discontinuous compression in a matrix of continuous tension. The tension is continuous both in space (i.e. all tensional elements connect) but is also in time, as it is permanently pre-stressed, exhibiting "pre-tension". This is the ingredient which provides great strength relative to the actual weight and substance of the structure. When the structure is under load (including gravity), the stress is shared throughout the tension network, making the whole stronger than its separate parts. Furthermore, the greater the load, the greater the tension and therefore the greater the strength.
Transforming the geodesic form into a tension-vectored form makes the structure much more dynamic. By now it should be clear that this model has more application to the human body than any structure made of columns and beams. Ida Rolf saw its potential, and worked with Fuller in the 60's and 70's. She treated the body "as if" it were a tensegrity structure, and there are a number of articles written by Rolfers at that time.
Dr Stephen Levin took this thinking one step further, maintaining that the body "is" a tensegrity structure, with tension provided by a matrix of connective tissues - ligaments, muscles, blood vessels, nerves and fascia (in sheets, making compartments), giving strength, integrity and pre-stress. Compression is provided by the bones and incompressible fluids in compartments. The bones act like spacers, providing the divergent forces needed to hold the spaces open. He sees the body as "A soft tissue entity, with local bony spacers, rather than a hard tissue entity with soft tissue motor units".
Muscles induce motion and help maintain the pre-stress which we call "tone". When muscles shorten, they also expand width-wise, which puts more tension on the fascial/tensional element, increasing stability. We can deliberately increase tone by contracting muscles, increasing pre-stress before lifting heavy objects. Water in its structured form contributes to tone. Enclosed in fascial compartments, it provides shock-absorption and resists deformation. The fact that joint facets cannot be forced into contact in live subjects is compatible with what we know about the properties of synovial fluid, alternating in state between sol and gel. Viscosity determines the rate at which fluid responds to motion demands and how it performs its role in the tensegrity matrix. Levin also maintains that ligaments act like rubber bands, their elastic rebound contributing to the "spring" in our joints, thus also acting as"movers", e.g. in the foot and knee when walking.
Stephen Levin's website www.biotensegrity.com contains a number of articles explaining the physiological support systems of the body as a whole. He compares both the shoulder girdle and the pelvic girdle to the wheel of a bicycle, where the rim is under compression and the spokes suspend the hub by holding it under tension. This is different from a cart wheel, where the spokes are under compression. In the case of the pelvic girdle, the ring of the pelvis, like the rim of the bicycle wheel, is under compression and the sacro-iliac ligaments act like spokes, suspending the"hub" of the sacrum in a soft-tissue tensional network. The pelvis, as the "rim" of the wheel, has evolved to resist forces from any direction: from above, below, within, distributing the load in any and every direction through its tensegrity network.
In the case of the spine, the model here is not a "tower of blocks" under compression, but of a "tensegrity-truss system that will model the spine right side up, upside-down or in any position, static or dynamic. In a tensegrity-truss model, the loads distribute through the system only in tension or compression. As in all truss systems, there are no levers and no moments at the joints. The model behaves non-linearly and is energy efficient." The ligaments provide a network of continuous tension, with the vertebrae acting like bony spacers. The cranium demonstrates another version of tensegrity, with the compression elements on the surface and the tensional elements (the reciprocal tension membrane) on the inside.
The ability of tensegrity structures to resist omnidirectional forces means that in our bodies balance is modified, and integrity maintained, whichever way up we are, to cope with traction or compression in any dimension. Our tensegrity structure works whether we are standing, lying, or upside down, also in space or deep-sea diving (even if our fluid dynamics find it harder to adapt). Gravity has an interesting part to play here. By giving us weight, it increases the pre-tension in our ligaments and fascia. We have observed how pre-tension strengthens a tensegrity structure. Our ligaments and postural muscles have evolved to hold us in correct balance. Therefore, when the body is in balance, gravity, by increasing the pre-tension, provides support, enabling us to stand upright with minimal muscular effort. This is the basis of the Alexander Technique.
Stephen Levin's interest in biotensegrity extended from the macroscopic to the microscopic level. At around this time, Donald Ingber was researching cell structure at Yale. With the synchronicity which often arises in the development of new ideas, both had a common interest in tensegrity in the body, at both microscopic and macroscopic levels. In January 1998 Ingber published an article "The Architecture of Life" in The Scientific American, proposing a universal set of building principles behind the design of organic structures, from carbon compounds to complex systems. "In living things, form has less to do with chemical composition than with architecture. The molecules and cells that form our tissues are continually removed and replaced; it is the maintenance of pattern and architecture, I reasoned, that we call life".
Here he describes the property of living tissues called self-assembly - a phenomenon in which small components group together to form larger ones. Atoms self-assemble into molecules which self-assemble into polymers, into gels, into organelles, cells and tissues. Self-assembly refers to the way organic structures grow synchronously, all at once, as opposed to the way we would construct a building, starting at the bottom and working up layer by layer. A property of self-assembly is that the more complex forms have new and unpredictable properties which could not be determined by observing the behaviour of their constituent parts. Sodium and chloride combine to make salt, whose properties are very different from either of its components. Living systems are dynamic and non-linear, and this unpredictability is called synergy, as described by Fuller.
Ingber observed "an intriguing and seemingly fundamental aspect of self-assembly: tensegrity". He describes the cytoskeleton as a tensegrity structure. Here, molecules self-assemble into gels or protein polymers, which provide the cell's infrastructure. Ingber describes three different types of protein polymers: microtubules, microfilaments, and intermediate filaments. The microtubules provide the compressive "girders", holding the lattice open and stabilising against lateral compression. The contractile microfilaments provide tension, stiffening and anchoring the nucleus, while the intermediate filaments connect everything, including the nucleus and the cell membrane.
Integrins are molecules that pass through the cell membrane, linking the cytoskeleton to the extracellular matrix. A class of adhesion molecule that binds the cell in place, they give tissue its shape and position, also its relationships. They link the cytoskeleton to the nuclear envelope, nuclear matrix and genes, providing a continuous network through all body tissues from nucleus to skin surface. The nuclear matrix, the cytoskeleton and the extra-cellular matrix together comprise a tissue matrix system which Dr James Oschman calls the "living matrix".
At every level, from microscopic to macroscopic, we are connected by this living matrix, a fundamental part of our tensegrity. On the smallest scale, atoms can be visualised as geometric or polyhedral tensegrity structures, where the opposing forces of the positive and negative charges both hold the atom together and hold open the space within it. Arranging themselves hierarchically, smaller units close-pack inside larger ones. The way in which molecules arrange themselves by "closest-packing" of atoms, and the way one structure will "jitterbug" into another, is a whole study in itself. Thus a bone is a tensegrity structure within itself at every level, atomic, molecular, cellular, tissue. Yet it also behaves as a strut in the larger tensegrity of the body. The body consists of tensegrities within tensegrities.
Tensegrity is inevitably linked with the way our structure evolves during growth and development. At each stage of development, the evolving structure optimises so that it functions with the least amount of energy expenditure, self-assembling into the most expedient, energy-efficient form. The less energy needed to maintain form (resist entropy), the more available for growth, development and propulsion. Tensional and compressional demands determine the alignment of fibres in the self-assembly of both the cell and the extra-cellular matrix. Tensional forces naturally transmit themselves over the shortest distance between two points, hence nature's preference for geodesic forms. (By experimentation, Ingber found that increasing tension within a cell will draw it down into this stress-resistant form.) Geodesic, icosahedral forms crop up everywhere, for example in molecules including structured water, pollen grains, dandelion balls, bee's eyes, and viruses. The double helix consists of icosahedra stacked together.
Another explanation for nature's preference for icosahedra can be found in Fritjof Capra's "The Hidden Connections". He proposes that the earliest cells were formed as bubbles in the scum of the primeval oceans. Pushed together, they became flat-planed icosahedra, creating an internal environment conducive to life. Ingber suggests that biological evolution began in layers of clay, which is itself arranged geodesically. Gerald Pollack, in his book "Cells, Gels and the Engines of Life", theorises that the earliest life forms were gels, created in estuary scum. He outlines the important part that structured water (itself an icosahedron) plays in the body's tensegrity. One of its roles is to hold the negatively-charged surfaces of protein polymers together, thus forming an integral part of the cytoskeleton and contributing to tensegrity on a microscopic scale.
The manner in which a molecule holds its sub-components together, by virtue of its tensegrity, defines the way it will behave. Whatever influences structure will also influence chemical behaviour, triggering a cascade of similar changes in adjacent molecules. This means that"changing cytoskeletal geometry and mechanics could affect biochemical reactions and even alter the genes that are activated, and thus the proteins that are made". This is the meeting point between mechanics and biochemistry. Members of Ingber's group found that by modifying the shape of the cell, they could switch cells between different genetic programmes. Cells that spread flat were more likely to divide, cells prevented from spreading committed suicide and, in between these extremes, cells that were not distorted or restricted behaved in healthy, tissue-specific ways. This process is called mechanotransduction, and it has been shown to mediate not only pathological but also essential biochemical functions in the cell. Thus it would appear that the tissue matrix system controls and co-ordinates cellular respiration. This has vast implications for our osteopathic treatment, and makes us ponder on just how far-reaching the effects are when we bring the body into balance, in an interplay between geometry and chemistry, structure and function.
Our present state of dynamic equilibrium is a result of our tensegrity seeking balance. This dynamic equilibrium is self-maintaining as long as our bodies remain intact and in structural and functional balance. Structure and function are so inextricably bound together in maintaining homeostasis that it becomes academic to separate them. A perpetual dance of compression and stretch, a dynamic interplay of structure and function, continues throughout life, so that it becomes difficult to separate the process of our formation from our current form. This is a self-maintaining cycle, which can go either way: the more balanced and flexible the pre-stressed tensegrity structure, the more readily it absorbs shocks and converts them into information rather than injury, and remains healthy and maintains its shape. But if we lose either postural balance or structural integrity (or both), we lose our tensegrity and the compression becomes continuous, with ensuing wear and tear: disc degeneration, arthritic joints, scoliosis/kyphosis. Enter the osteopath!
However, Ingber argues that tensegrity may be responsible for more than just structural and functional integrity, referring to research at John Hopkins School of Medicine which found that tensegrity is capable of mediating information transfer, utilising the vibrational characteristics of the whole tissue matrix. Different cells and tissues exhibit characteristic resonant frequencies. Tensegrities are natural oscillators, and Inber reported that "transmission of tension through a tensegrity array provides a means to distribute forces to all interconnected elements and, at the same time, to couple, or 'tune', the whole system mechanically as one." Oschman describes a plethora of possible media by which messages can be passed round the living matrix at high speed, independent of the nervous system. Fritz-Albert Popp found that the body emits light particles called photons, which switch on the body's processes. The question is, what is co-ordinating all this activity? This inter-connected web has no part which reigns supreme over the others; its properties depend on the integrated function of the whole.
The answer may lie in quantum physics. Quantum coherence is the ability of subatomic particles to co-operate. Dr Mae Wan-Ho in "The Rainbow and the Worm" says communication is mediated by "the body consciousness inhering in the liquid crystallising continuum of the body.... a special kind of coherence or wholeness which is characteristic of macroscopic quantum systems". Herbert Froehlich of the University of Liverpool introduced the idea that some sort of collective vibration was responsible for getting these processes to co-operate with each other. He maintained that coherence is molecules vibrating in unison, taking on certain qualities of quantum mechanics, including non-locality (the ability of a quantum entity to influence another quantum particle instantaneously over any distance). (Froehlich H: "Long-range coherence and energy storage in biological systems", International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, 1968; 2:641-649. Also Froehlich H: "Evidence for Bose condensation-like excitation of coherent modes in biological systems", Physics Letters, 1975; 51A: 21)
The body's tensegrity, including its quantum dimension, may explain some of our palpatory experiences. Pretension, structured water, the dynamic relationship between the "outward" and "inward" forces of compression and tension on macroscopic and microscopic level, the collective action potential of every cell, must all come within our sensory scope. The communication network of the whole matrix may explain both the immediate and global response to small adjustments in the tensional elements and our ability to sense what is happening in the body as a whole. Whatever our treatment modality, an understanding of the body's tensegrity can only enhance our work. As osteopaths we are in a unique position to explore at first hand the implications of these discoveries at the leading edge of quantum physics.
Elisabeth Davies DO ND MSCC, October 3 2004
tensegrity@edavies.co.uk
For More Information
Go to Content
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