The Osteopathic Code of the Brain E-Book

Alan Bergues

• Herausgeber: Editorial Autores de Argentina
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 428

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Can we approach the creator of our perceptions and images of reality? Can we do it through Osteopathy? Can we do it with our hands? "Of all the parts of the body, the brain should be the most attractive one," said Andrew Taylor Still. But, What did he mean by that? The science-fiction future already inhabits the present. The future has already arrived. In this era of augmented reality, neurosciences, cyborgs, nanotechnology, biotechnology, genetic reconfiguration, and laboratories ruling the world… What does Osteopathy have to say about the Brain? Is it possible to approach it through our philosophical and therapeutic paradigms? Is it possible to verify it? What did Still say about these matters? Do those old principles apply to this new world and "order"? Will we have to change Osteopathy, make it better, or return to the ancient foundational principles? Answering some of these questions -and reformulating many others- is the task of this journey through the pages of this book. It is impossible to know all the studies on neuroscience. But what is very possible (and also necessary) is to gather the principles of Nature into our satchel and use the Osteopathic Mind to approach the Brain. Welcome to this infinite journey…

Leseprobe

ALAN BERGUES

The Osteopathic Code of the Brain

Bergues, AlanThe osteopathic code of the brain / Alan Bergues. - 1a ed. - Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires : Autores de Argentina, 2025.

Libro digital, EPUB

Archivo Digital: descarga y online

ISBN 978-987-87-7014-7

1. Medicina. I. Título.CDD 615.533

EDITORIAL AUTORES DE [email protected]

Traducción: María Luna Bichara y Silvina Oda - Instituto Sunlight

Índice de contenido

The Author: Alan Bergues

Thank you!

Prologue: Approaching the Brain

Introduction: The Osteopathic Brain of the 22nd Century

I. THE EMPATHIC BRAIN AND MIRROR NEURONS (The Empathic Osteopath?)

II. Five Ideas About the Cerebral Brain. The Unitary Brain

III. The Brain and Dreams

IV. THE PESSIMISTIC CHAPTER (Or... REALISTIC?)

V. THE INTERFACE MODEL (Returning to the Source)

VI. Life, the Engine of the Brain (continuation)

VII. INTERFACE MIND–BRAIN

VIII. HOW OSTEOPATHS READ AND INTERPRET THE BRAIN

IX. Electromagnetic Philosophy (Theory) (Of the Brain?)

X. EXPANDING: WHAT ARE WE?

XI. OSTEOPATHIC BRAIN DIAGNOSIS (ONE)

OSTEOPATHIC CEREBRAL DIAGNOSIS (TWO)Brief Principles for Evaluating the Cranio-Facial-Cervical Venous System

XIII. EMPIRICAL APPROACH

XIV. THE REALISTIC CHAPTER(the true one)

XV. SO THEN, WHAT IS THIS CODE REALLY ABOUT?

THE EPILOGUE. Paradoxical

The Author: Alan Bergues

Alan Bergues is an osteopath, conference speaker, and writer. He was born (and continues to live by choice) in the beautiful town of San Martín de los Andes in Patagonia.

After publishing his first book, The V Law of Osteopathy, he dedicated himself to sharing the technical and spiritual concepts of this symbolic Law.

For nearly 15 years, he was part of the healthcare staff in the hospitals of Junín and San Martín de los Andes. He now runs his private practice and teaches courses and seminars on the themes explored in his books.

“I feel that the development of some of these simple ideas is my own, even though those ideas have always been quietly woven between the lines in the writings of Andrew Taylor Still, the father of Osteopathy. In that sense, I try to follow the teachings of the old doctor: An osteopath rows his own canoe. I imagine that rowing your own canoe means taking responsibility for your inspirations and striving to live in accordance with them.

That’s what I seek every day in my practice and in my life.”

Thank you!

Guillermo Bergues: PhD in Engineering, author, international speaker, researcher, father, and leader. My younger brother, and the object of my complete admiration. The busiest person I know took an interest in this humble book, and his advice helped refine some of its more controversial lines. Thank you, brother.

Erika, for your time, your loving presence, and your challenging advice that helped improve this work.

@laurirago, my star editor and incredibly talented designer. With your blue-fairy powers, you once again worked your magic on a simple idea.

Dr. Sonia Obregón, dentist, thank you for your top-level scientific guidance and enriching advice. @soniaobregon –

Tiki, magician of Photoshop. Thank you, my friend. A real privilege! @anfibiografica

Pipa @alepaez.g, thank you for lending me your brilliant mind and your great friendship. Obrigado, meu amigo!

María Laura Pena, dear colleague, thank you for your jugulars and for challenging me to take a significant step in life...

Silvia, your illustrations, humility, and spirit of service brought even more life to this book! @silviamadorna.arte – thank you!!

Dr. Estefanía Cotta, for the images you generously provided without hesitation. Dr. Diego Álvarez, for your kind disposition and the pictures you shared.

Jason Ross Haxton, Director of the Andrew Taylor Still Museum – your help has been incredible! Thank you for all the material you so kindly and generously sent me.

Christine Gran, Research Coordinator for the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine – thank you for your contributions and for providing the references. Generous people who help us along the way are out there... we find them as we walk...

Oxford University, for the incredible (and free!!) images.

To my mother, my love, my siblings, colleagues, patients, alpha friends, unknown writers and scientists... had it not been for their helping hands supporting this tiny dreamer, none of this would be possible...

To all those who share knowledge simply for the love of it... Thank you!

And to God, the Father of all men... Endless thanks for watching over me on this journey...

Prologue: Approaching the Brain

(If you skip this, you’ll have 7 years of bad luck)

“The future is not inevitable. We can influence it if we know what we want it to be.”

Charles Handy

“Every scientific book should be a kind of detective story, the account of the search for some holy grail.”

Umberto Eco

Many scientists and scholars have said that “Every scientific journey is a story.”

I aspire to the opposite—that this empirical story may one day become science. For that to happen, Osteopathy (and this book) will surely need the work of many Osteopaths around the world. That is my wish: to plant a seed in many critical minds, minds that will help grow and beautify the little bonsai of this approach.

In this “story,” I will offer ideas, arguments, and concepts that may at times sound like absolutes. Some I will try to explain, some I will not be able to, and others simply will not have an explanation. I propose an imaginary journey to decode the Osteopathic Code of the Brain—the Brain being approached, and the brain that does the approaching. At times, this will feel more like a coffee conversation with a dear philosophical friend we haven’t seen in a while than a lengthy compendium of scientific and technical studies (mainly because those kinds of things bore us and put us to sleep—my friend and I both. To that imaginary friend, I’ll speak of books I’ve read and the osteopathic lens I placed before them. There will be more philosophy than exclusive technique. (I believe Andrew Taylor Still would be proud of that—at least of a few lines.) Let the strictly scientific Osteopath not be alarmed! Much of the literature in neuroscience is based less on hard studies and more on questions, conjectures, and inner dialogues. No good neuroscientist is a poor philosopher... and we’ll need a bit of that here. No creator of historic advances for mankind has been a bad thinker—on the contrary! Ideas rule the world.

Today’s celebrated scientists were, in another time, excellent philosophers and questioners. Their brains share a common trait: an intensely curious mind. They say Einstein’s autopsied brain was pretty ordinary—even crude—not to mention his dyslexia and speech issues that persisted until he was nine years old... and yet... his mind was different. Perhaps the most brilliant, creative, and intuitive mind in all of history belonged to a brain that was far from perfect.

The duality of Brain and Mind has been discussed endlessly, without any persuasive conclusion. Still himself addressed this topic in his sermons:

“What is the value of a mind placed in the brain of a coward?”

We, too, will surf this murky, dense, and shadowy sea…Albert Szent-Györgyi, the physiologist who discovered vitamin C and won the Nobel Prize.

Prize in Medicine in 1937, once said: “There are people who are always seeking new formulas and variations to

conventional options; to discover something is to see what everyone else is seeing and perceive it differently.”

The Brain studies what someone else has already learned. The Mind seeks to give that same fact a new meaning—and to endow it with purpose and transcendence. That is our task as Osteopaths.

That is why, without a symbolic and spiritual perspective, the Osteopath will be lost on his path as a healer. To deny the presence of spirit in our work is to deny Osteopathy itself—and to deny Still himself. We won’t make that mistake—not here.

Our Journey as Osteopaths

Life is a journey. Whoever doesn’t know this will grow tired of waiting for something that will never come—because Life is continuous Movement, not a destination. If there is one pattern that expresses the Multiverse down to the smallest piece of matter, it is the pattern of kinetic energy and background music; in other words, everything that is the opposite of stillness. Life is not about having things—reaching that first million, a house, a car, a family, a wife, a husband, a vacation...Life is about Moving and Learning along the path toward a destination that never really arrives. We will discuss this extensively during the dense traffic of this journey as we attempt to understand the Brain Interface.

(Of course, every journey has stops—ours will be anatomical and maybe technical stops. We will observe them with Wonder, and then keep travelling.)

To begin and continue a journey—that is the purpose of this book.

Nobel Laureate José Saramago seemed to understand this well:

“The journey never ends. Only the travellers do. And even they can live on in memory, in recollection, in storytelling. The goal of a journey is only the beginning of another.”

If anything is running through the scarlet blood of this book, it is a burning desire that one phrase, one idea, one concept, or technique might lead the Therapist to begin their own journey—to awaken their own dreams and strengthen their own mind.

This book is filled with Inspiration, maybe even more so than the previous one. By that, I mean you won’t find too much “science” here, at least not in the conventional sense of that word. But what you will find is a bit of Nature and Philosophy. Interface Two does not end with this book—it barely begins here. Yes, you will find a great deal of information and ideas in these pages, but only enough to awaken the spirit of the reader. Perhaps, like a Kafka story, it is the reader who will complete the book and continue their own journey—sometimes alone, sometimes with others, but always with a patient, a colleague, and Nature by their side. Open your mind, and your Brain will be nourished.

There is no plastic, thriving Brain without an open and enthusiastic mind. Mind and Brain work together, feed one another, heal together, dance together. Let the reader do their part, and the Brain will do its own... And in doing so, they will be able to approach every brain in humanity, each with its beautiful singularities and extravagant oddities.

Interface One (Trigeminal) and Interface Two (Brain) share a philosophical and therapeutic continuity. Leave one unaddressed, and you will never reach the Fullness of the Human Being—or of the Machine. This small work is a continuation of the first. The V Law of Osteopathy has undergone significant evolution since its inception. The one you hold in your hands is destined for the same path—but this time, its growth is in the reader’s hands.

Intelligences?

We cannot approach the concept of the Brain without the idea of Intelligence fluttering nearby...In this regard, Howard Gardner, a neuropsychologist at Harvard University, wrote extensively on the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. They are:

1. Verbal-linguistic

2. Logical-mathematical

3. Musical

4. Visual-spatial

5. Bodily-kinesthetic

6. Naturalistic

7. Interpersonal

8. Intrapersonal

All human beings are born with all the intelligences, but we develop them in unique and alternative combinations. If someone were to ask me, I would say that an Osteopath chooses this profession due to a naturally gifted and refined blend of the last four: The ability to perceive the subtlest sensory stimuli and adapt them into a response; To know and unite with Nature while acting as an Observer; To relate to others in a healthy way; And to know one’s own inner life.

Intelligence is no longer measured by an IQ score, but rather by the order and strategy of thoughts aimed at a specific kind of action.

Purpose. Movement.

“Thus, mathematics and music are characterised by the early appearance of gifted children who perform relatively early at an almost adult level.

Personal intelligences, in contrast, seem to emerge much more gradually; child prodigies here are rare.”

— Howard Gardner

Albert Einstein once said: “I never discovered anything with my rational mind,” referring instead to his “creative imagination”, or saying: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Do these concepts apply to the Mind and Osteopathic Practice? Absolutely.

We are not merely anatomical operators—we relate and connect with people on different vibrational levels, across a broad spectrum of personality. We’ll talk a lot more about this...

Where did Einstein’s imaginative and creative capacity come from?

It is said that a friend once had the old scientist read the works of Kant, the most influential philosopher of his time... At just ten years old! Critique of Pure Reason.

How much of that philosophical influence on space and time must have shaped the teenager who, at sixteen, imagined himself riding on a curved beam of light?

How do I activate the Brain?

It’s not the one with the most experience or the most knowledge— It’s the one who asks the best questions and dares to overcome fear. That’s the key to activating the Brain. Could that also be one of our keys to Approaching the Brain? Could it be as simple as asking questions? (I imagine a good question is one that neither Google nor mobile apps can easily answer—perhaps because no one’s asked it before.) The Brain and the Mind may truly be unfathomable. Today, we have almost surpassed all biological, historical, organic, and even spiritual barriers; now the Brain—its nutrition, its diseases—will be humanity’s next battlefield. We will delve into that further later. That’s why this book’s task is also to ask many osteopathic questions—All of them connected to Life and the Brain.

What Does Osteopathy Have to Say in Today’s Futuristic World?

When we speak of the “Approach” to the Brain, we are not referring to “Treatment”. The Brain CANNOT be treated osteopathically- osteopática-Mente, but it MUST be approached. (We still have significant doubts even about its “medical” treatment.) With the Brain, we will only ever reach the Edge, never its depths. The very fact that it is so deeply concealed and safeguarded renders any direct approach unfeasible. Currently, no direct, indirect, functional, or fluid methodologies effectively address the complexity of the brain. Consequently, it is necessary to explore alternative approaches. Such exploration, however, should proceed with humility, guided by the recognition that our efforts may only allow us to reach the threshold of an almost boundless domain.

The Brain holds information from past generations as well as all our personal historical background. It contains, in principle, 100 billion neurons (and ten times more glial cells), with far greater capacity than any current or future supercomputer. Each neuron is a quantum processor, capable of performing multiple operations at once—a quantum neuron embedded in multiple quantum microsystems that perform millions of tasks simultaneously, consciously or not, with stunning speed and efficiency. That is the territory we aim to understand and explore. The goal of this book is to send a few spies to decode that unknown and mysterious land—a land said to flow with “milk and honey.”

So, to conclude this brief prologue:

With our simple techniques, we will Approach—we will reach the edge— of the enigmatic apex of Creation. We must be humble in the face of these concepts. The Brain only opens its doors to therapists who are sensitive, unassuming, and empathetic. Please, let us not pretend to manipulate the Brain—That borders on the impossible... even the profane. Seduction. Listening. Respect. Dialogue. Empathy. These are the attitudes that allow us to reach The Edge...

I am tall;

in the war

I weighed forty kilos.

I’ve stood on the edge of tuberculosis,

on the edge of prison,

on the edge of friendship,

on the edge of art,

on the edge of suicide,

on the edge of mercy,

on the edge of envy,

on the edge of fame,

on the edge of love,

on the edge of the shore,

and little by little, sleep overcame me,

and here I am, sleeping on the edge,

on the edge of waking.

—from Anthology and Suburban Poems, 1954

Gloria Fuertes

I only pray to God... that Osteopaths around the world may come a little closer to the Edge...Welcome to the discovery of the Osteopathic Code of the Brain...

Introduction: The Osteopathic Brain of the 22nd Century

“The history of science teaches us that every time we think we’ve understood everything, nature has a radical surprise in store—one that requires significant, and sometimes drastic, changes in the way we think the world works.”

— The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene

If there is one place—or structure, so to speak—where the axiom “everything is connected” holds absolutely true, it is, without a doubt, the human brain. The famous phrase “it’s all related,” as some of our patients might say, perfectly expresses the behaviour and nature of the brain.

The Brain is an almost infinite labyrinth inside another slightly less infinite labyrinth.

What a paradox. It’s “less infinite” not because of its structure, but because of the subtle shifts that continuously give it its Dynamic character. What’s curious about this labyrinth within a labyrinth is that it’s constantly and sinuously shifting. (If a regular labyrinth can drive you crazy, a maze that changes continually might kill you in no time.) This shifting labyrinth lives surrounded by a stormy, dense sea. A maze surrounded by heavy waters may well be the worst nightmare one could suffer. And the tragedy is that we’re only equipped with one arm, one leg, and a snorkel to navigate its depths. (And also... we have limited time. Approaching this mission won’t be easy.)

“...the heartisthe machine, the brain the dynamo,

and the nerves distribute the electricity.”

— Andrew Taylor Still, Father of Osteopathy

Those who study the subject say that 97% of the Brain’s mysteries remain undiscovered. No one can truly explain why, for example—and this is putting it simply—an innate or “dispositional” neural circuit makes us love dulce de leche ice cream and hate white chocolate, even though they share nearly the same ingredients. Nor can anyone clearly explain why certain types of people trigger our attraction—why specific neural microcircuits fire for some and not others...And even if someone triggers those circuits, we might still choose to remain faithful to our own partner—perhaps a little less dazzling than the one who just smiled at us. But two months from now, that same circuit may no longer dominate and could be inhibited by other dendritic signals that challenge our old values of fidelity...Such are the inextricable and complex complexities of the mind–brain relationship, according to neuroscience. So, it would seem that the brain has little to do with our human day-to-day experience... or does it?

We also don’t understand very well how microcircuits fire while we sleep, producing dreams and insights that help us face life...Dreams that sometimes change our world—and others that torment us. All are using the same neurons. The why and how of the dreams dreamt by those who build the world are still poorly understood by neuroscience. In fact, almost nothing is clearly explained by neuroscience. (Sorry, neuroscientists...) What is clear is that everything has to do with the Brain—some things are more, others less. But the phrase “we are our brain” is one of the most misleading truths in history. We are not brain-based beings—we are spiritual beings.

Osteopathy believes that. And so does agnostic philosophy.

So the real question is: Can a team of neuroscientists truly explain how the Brain and Mind are created and how they function? Can a few lab geeks explain why just seeing my partner makes my body soften and fills me with gratitude for having her in my life?

And can a couple of engineers also explain why, two days later, I might feel a strong urge to strangle her? (Figuratively speaking, of course!)

Is it really up to geeks and neurobiologists to translate, interpret, and explain the latest discoveries of the Brain? Or should that task fall to religious thinkers and philosophers? Can technology, which has both helped and harmed us in equal measure, ever truly understand the interplay between Nature and Spirit in relation to the Brain? Are spirituality, the Brain, and the Mind connected? Where is the boundary between them? How do they blend? And what about the Osteopath or manual therapist—what do we have to do with all of this? Will we ever truly understand the Brain–Mind duality, if that duality even exists as such? (Not to mention what happens when you add Spirit into the equation...)

That’s what we’ll talk about, in part, in these short pages. Spirituality, Mind, Brain, and Body are so deeply interwoven that it is nearly impossible to tell which one is operating at any given moment...Meanwhile... our osteopathic hand works over the body of a person...

Still said he looked for the Mind during dissections, but he could never find it. With irony and brilliance, he was teaching us that the Mind is not an anatomical issue. That it does not belong exclusively to the Brain. The Mind—and its extensions, Spirit and Movement—were central to the Foundational Osteopathic Mindset. And for us, the “modern” Osteopaths—are they still? Do the minds of the practitioner and of the patient have anything to do with our treatments?

Continuing with the V

I have already hinted that this book is the continuation of the first, The Fifth Law of Osteopathy. Back then, we explained that the number 5 held a particular mystery for Still.

His “Rule of Five”, as he called it, also applies to the Cerebral Concept. The five lobes of the brain represent the highest aspiration of the Fifth Law.

Today, the Interface Model provides a slightly more straightforward way to view it. Chapter 5 will address the matter.

Brainstorming: Tooth vs. Brain

If there is any organ that gives us our incredible and unique individuality, it is, without a doubt, the Brain. There are only two anatomical structures that are entirely different in every human being—even in identical twins: the Tooth and the Brain. The first was explored in our previous book, through the complex prism of the Trigeminal nerve; the second will be explored in these notes—if we can manage to approach it at all. Even though brains may all look the same, once we bring the microscope a little closer, we find that no two are alike. (Not even in identical twins!) Their wiring differs according to each person’s experiences, thoughts, habits, and dreams. Each in-dividual (literally: “undivided”) is neurologically unique. The brain of a person with autism is not the same as that of a psychopath, nor is mine the same as yours, dear reader, or your sibling’s. The Neuronal Pruning that occurs up until adolescence, along with the ongoing adult neuroplasticity, allows for this uniqueness: they make us each distinct among the billions of human beings. The dominant brainwaves in an athlete are not the same as those in a musician or an artist in a creative or athletic peak—even if both are in a state of absolute focus. Brain anatomy and function differ for each human being. That’s where the osteopath’s mastery lies: in approaching every type of patient, each with their own unique mind and spirit. In this book, we’ll consider the Equalisers—the principles and tools for approaching all kinds of brains.

So let it be known: You can have a rather ugly brain and still create the most beautiful works in the universe, and reach the deepest states of focus and concentration.

The Interface Model

We’ll repeat it ad nauseam: Without a pacified Trigeminal, there is no absolute health.

The same applies to the Brain. Two Interfaces, One Model. A model that expresses a human being integrated with themselves and their environment. That’s why we understand that Health is not merely feeling good or being free of pain or illness. The highest expression of Health is a human being who dreams and creates. We’ll also have much to say about this. Physical health without mental and spiritual dreams or symbolism is equivalent to an android carrying out tasks for the Market or the Matrix.

There’s a long-standing philosophical dilemma that even the greatest thinkers have failed to unravel: the reality we construct through our brains, and the way the brain interprets that “reality.”(In this book, “reality” and “simulation” will be treated as synonyms.)

Reality and its interpretation are not the same. It’s not so mysterious, the reality we construct from our own brain, but rather the one we interpret, with such variability between two brains. (Don’t even get me started on trying to compare 7 billion.) Or... perhaps this interpretative and exegetical task belongs not to the brain at all, but to the mind and spirit? But then... what does the Osteopath have to do with all this mess?

The Brain of Patient C

One of my regular patients—let us call them “C”—said to me a few months ago, literally:

“Whatever you did the other day really slowed down the revolutions in my head.”

(Revolutions? Like Matrix Revolutions, the Keanu Reeves movie?)

A,. Still also approached the Brain, and one of the terms he used to describe its function was “revolutions.” The old engineer saw the body as a machine; the brain as a dynamo.

But he understood perfectly the difference between approaching a Brain and considering the mind and spirit within that brain (within that person).

“How fast does he think?

How many revolutions do the wheels in his head make per minute...?”

— A.T. Still

The previous session with Cintia (Patient C) had focused on the Brain and its magnetic field. A bit of stress—unjustified in my view, justified in hers—had thrown her body into a kind of revolution, and she was feeling a little sensitive. Balancing the Field and applying a few additional techniques were enough for her to start feeling better...

“It is not the therapist’s job to make the patient better,

but rather to adjust a part or organise the whole system,

so that the rivers of life may flow

and irrigate the hungry fields.”

— A.T. Still

One of those fields that seems to be nourished is the Electromagnetic Field...

The Current Speed of Revolutions

With each passing day, we move faster and faster. What A. Still once called “cerebral revolutions” has increased, more than ever before in all of history. The new generation talks, thinks, and solves problems more quickly than the last. Results are expected instantly, transportation is faster, goods are produced and distributed in the blink of an eye. A 30-year-old today could say to a 20-year-old: “When I was your age, things were different.” Not too long ago, leaving for war or a religious mission meant being away from home for 2 or 3 years. When we returned, most things were still the same, generally speaking. Our wife hadn’t gotten pregnant by the neighbour, and she was waiting with the same love as always, in the same farmhouse. But now, our consciousness has changed. In a short span of time, we’ve gone from walking and riding in carts to flying in jets and boarding high-speed trains after booking tickets in 30 seconds on our phones. Years and days have become literal minutes. Humankind has walked on the moon and sent missions to Mars. It’s not unreasonable to think that crashing into the speeding train of History is a real possibility for this generation. (This sentence was written before the famous COVID pandemic.)

On this topic, some time ago, the prophet Amos foretold:

“The days are coming,” says the Lord, when the ploughman will overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;

The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.”

It seems that something said by a so-called madman 800 years before Christ may have come true... And that is indeed possible—because we’ve pushed our brains to move far faster than nature intended. Human beings and their dizzying brains are not disconnected from the ecosystem, from the melting of the mountains, from the excessive, artificial rate of consumption... (sugar in the wine).

(Don’t miss the Spanish film “The Platform” – El Hoyo.)

“The one who tills the ground will overtake the one who sows”—so much so that, in the process, we may have bent the very fabric of space-time itself. Since Einstein discovered General Relativity in 1915, the world has undergone dramatic acceleration. We’ve had two world wars, several local ones, detonated an enriched uranium bomb, discovered quantum mechanics, and now we’re exploring string theory. We know all—or nearly all—the fundamental particles. We’ve witnessed things that mathematics had predicted a century earlier. Almost every human on the planet has gone from smoke signals and messengers to being connected to a mini-matrix, speaking with the entire world in a single second...All in less than 100 years.

If someone were to fall asleep and wake up ten years later, they might not recognise the Earth they return to. A single, healthy person living to 100 today has witnessed more change than the 6,000 years of written history that preceded them.

What Is the Market for Manual Therapists?

“Isn’t it astonishing that the same elements that help form stars also operate in our brains to give rise to a thought?”

— Dr. Pierre-Marie Lledo

This same author states that over 10% of the adult population in France suffers from neurological diseases, and 20% from psychological and psychiatric disorders: anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, OCD, etc. About 35% of public healthcare spending in Europe is related to dysfunctions in brain circuits. Is that our “market,” as osteopaths? What did Andrew Taylor Still have to say about mental or cerebral illnesses? Can we address them today using manual approaches?

Suppose there’s one thing that still fills me with Awe about the old doctor. In that case, it’s that he treated every kind of patient and pathology: from meningitis to diarrhoea, from baldness to hysterical attacks, all the way to severe flu during quarantine. He was an actual kamikaze, fearless. He could treat all patients and achieve a 75% resolution rate in the most severe cases, thanks to just one thing—a detail: his vision of the Human Being was different from ours. And therefore, so was his technique. His school was not designed to produce osteopaths and send them into the market to earn good money. His school was a hospital for all types of patients. His concept was a healing centre, not a university. Still might treat a patient 3 or 4 times a day, twice a week, or just once, and that was it... he knew the difference: life or death, no exaggeration. There were no antibiotics or penicillin back then. One had to activate Nature’s full power within the patient. His concept of the human brain allowed him to achieve these astonishing results. We must urgently return to the foundational principles of Osteopathy... Soon we’ll mark 150 years since its founding (1874). It’s a good time to finally understand it.

(And let us say, with humility and pride, that this book may be the first in osteopathic history to discuss the brain in this manner.) French osteopaths have discussed it in terms of drainage, but no osteopathic book addresses the Brain like the one you hold in your hands. Even the classics spoke only of anatomy, lesions, and clinical observations—but not treatment. So we are in for an incredible journey together …¹)

¹Gentlemen, Matrix and Skynet Are Already Among Us

Today, we already have the real possibility of transforming thoughts into motor actions through a device called a brain-computer interface. Software, apps, and hardware now allow a neurological patient to send signals to a machine—straight out of science fiction—that enables them to eat, walk, or write. It seems that the dreams of one person and the science of another came together to create a device that fulfils a human need.

And in that “simulation,” there stands the Osteopath, with their modest and solitary hand.

According to neuroscientists, the Brain is the last stronghold of our ignorance. Not a week goes by without a new hypothesis or discovery in some scientific journal.

What amazes me most—again—is that Still was treating the Brain osteopathically 150 years ago. The question is: How?

From Neurology to Neurobusiness

Today, Neuroscience encompasses cognitive science, neurobiology, engineering, mathematics, and more. Its modern goal is to master neurobusiness: to develop neurosales, neuropolitics, and smarter, more effective neuropharmaceuticals. Friends and colleagues, we have stumbled—perhaps luckily—into the “Age of the Brain,” as former president Barack Obama once declared. Neuromania has taken over both scientific and popular spheres. Yet, during the COVID-19 quarantine (yes, I’m writing this now), we are still incapable of understanding the fundamental laws of Nature, or of winning the fight against plastic pollution, youth suicides, or synthetic sugar.

Clearly, we are still going off the rails...Every new technological step often distances us even further from Nature. We ate the wrong fruit, wore glasses we did not need, and began interpreting the Cosmos in bizarre, grotesque ways. We are not in Interstellar (yet), but we are already talking about: Repairing neural networks via nanotechnology, creating drugs that alter the microbiome, editing DNA fragments (genome editing) and re-evaluating behaviour, enhancing certain neurotransmitters, designing medication that eliminates fear and pain during warfare to produce cerebral euphoria, and modifying cognitive abilities. In short: to transcend Nature’s limits. Some countries are no longer aiming only to heal their citizens, but to “improve” their quality, not just a faulty cell, but the human itself. This is no joke or exaggeration. Manipulating genetics and reshaping human inheritance is the goal. Becoming mini-gods. Adapting citizens to serve as a superpower, an empire.

There will be no Neuroethics strong enough to save us from some liberal, independent, and unscrupulous nations.

Osteopaths of the 20th and 21st Centuries: Welcome to the 22nd

Meanwhile... Big Data has shown us that our behaviour can be shaped by social media, and that a machine can influence our decisions—without ever being implanted in our neurons. A tiny external, robotic brain shaping mass behaviour at the polls, in the market, in daily life. Once again, Hollywood underestimated the future with Avatar. We have paid a high price for being plugged into the mini-matrix. The result? Fear and lack of creativity in the face of even the smallest new challenges.

Philosophical and Cerebral Questions

To begin philosophising, we must ask a few questions—not only within the scope of this book, with its cerebral focus and energetic concepts, but also within Osteopathy as a whole:

1. Is it possible to feel, with the hand, the “wave trains” that the scalp transmits from the brain to the electrodes, and from there to a computer with complex algorithms? (Electroencephalogram)

2. If we can indeed feel wave trains, electric fields, or neural discharges... is it possible to “manipulate” those currents?

3. And if we are able to feel and handle those currents—so to speak—could that have measurable therapeutic meaning or significance?

4. If we scientifically confirm and unify these points, could we then turn them into dogmas applicable to all patients? Like antibiotics or vaccines for specific bacteria or diseases. For example: “This technique applied to the brain works for this or that condition...”

5. Is it possible to produce an Algorithm that verifies a correlation between our Cranial Manipulation and an X effect?

6. Could we afford the development of that algorithm?

7. Could we join forces—as osteopaths from one country, region, or the whole world—to develop and acquire that algorithm in the Neuro-Market?

8. Could we overcome selfish habits, commercial interests, and differences in approach between schools to achieve a universal Osteopathic objective like the one just mentioned?

9. And if we united, but failed to mathematically prove our approach to the Brain (for now) ... would we be disappointed? Or would we continue working empirically with the people who have been changed by our Art?

10. And if we did prove our algorithm... would it have any impact on the medical-industrial complex?

Or on the collective unconscious, or public opinion?

And on ourselves?

11. Another question arises: Is it possible to turn an Art into a Dogma?

(That is, if we understand our discipline as an Art.)

12. After all this... if it failed—who would be to blame?

13. And if it succeeded—who would take the credit?

Could we set aside our beautiful Egos to raise the flag of Osteopathy, without anyone pounding their chest in pride?

14. Returning to the Algorithm: Could it be used for all Human Beings?

Or, in order to be valid, do wave trains depend on each individual, on their learning, experiences, pain, and personal history?

15. Could an investor—believing in our idea and acting in good faith—invest in something that cannot be sold? (Ideas are not for sale. Products are.) (As you can see, our discipline is not for capitalist investors—but for selfless missionaries.)

Each Osteopath or reader will have to ask their own questions... The Brain awakens through questions, not answers. The Brain functions best in creative mode, not in repetition mode.

How can we create art if we are nothing but an algorithm (a sequence of steps)? Is there an algorithm for the creation of art? Would it make sense to develop one—or even to imagine it? Once art is algorithmized, does it cease to be art? Is creativity a mode of art, or can it, too, be reduced to an algorithm?

More patients and experiences

Some time ago, while treating a person, I managed to connect with the electromagnetic field (EMF) of their brain just three seconds into the session. As I did, I asked: “Are you in the middle of making a decision?” After a moment of silence, she answered yes...

I gently suggested, almost to the air, with great respect and as if saying something of no real importance, that it’s always better to decide than to never decide—or to delay the act endlessly; that we shouldn’t be afraid of being wrong. That, as Andrew said, is “finding health.” Any fool can find disease.

On another day, not so long ago, during the first few seconds of a session, I asked another patient: “Have you been thinking a lot lately?” (It sounds like a silly question, I know, but it wasn’t for him.) “I have to move in 15 days, I’m running out of time to finish some work we’re doing... and a couple of other things...” I keep that information to myself. His conscious and unconscious do too. I treat a viscera, a muscle, two bones, give him an exercise, and that’s it (meanwhile, his brain is in overdrive). At the end of the session, Juan asks: “How did you know what was going on with me?” I explain that his brain’s EMF was highly active in the left hemisphere, and that this, in his case, relates to a state of high mental activity—immediate logic. I give him a few simple tips to balance things (the kind of advice his neighbour might offer) and tell him to write to me if he needs to. The whole session takes 40 minutes. The process of healing had begun.

“After I saw you, my thoughts felt clearer.”

“Since the session, I feel better, and it’s not as hard to concentrate.”

“You really helped calm down the revolutions in my head.”

(One of these people is my younger sister, currently studying Psychology... so yes, it really works.)

These patients tend to be a little more sensitive and maybe more humble than others. They seem more connected to their brain, their body, or who knows what... or perhaps they were so disintegrated they were able to perceive even a small energetic change (we will learn not to fear that word). Without a doubt, we can add value to our conventional osteopathic treatment through the brain-based approach.

I promise that by the end of this book, your level of certainty will have increased—and so will your level of uncertainty. Is it possible to feel both? At the same time? Absolutely.

A.Still, in his book Philosophy of Osteopathy, reveals to the world how he sees and treats the person, the machine, the body... and he ends the book by asking forty questions that provoke new uncertainties. It seems that for the Old Doctor, questions mattered as much as certainties.

Jorge Luis Borges, unjustly denied the Nobel Prize in Literature, wrote in Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius:

“The metaphysicians of Tlön do not seek truth or even plausibility: they seek wonder.”

Paradoxically, I believe that without a sense of wonder toward Nature, we’ll never achieve any truly meaningful or plausible results. Verisimilitude and wonder embrace each other in our sessions...

Jorge Luis also left us a poem in honour of the labyrinth, one that applies perfectly to our Art:

The Laberynth by Jorge Luis Borges

There will never be a door. You are inside

and the citadel encompasses the universe

and has neither front nor back

nor outer wall nor hidden centre.

Do not expect the path you stubbornly tread

that branches out, again and again,

to ever end. Your destiny is iron,

like your judge. Do not await the charge

of the bull-man whose strange plural shape

horrifies the maze of endless stone.

It does not exist. Expect nothing.

Not even in the black dusk—the beast.

They say that several ideas and theories from the next century have fallen, by chance, into this one (for example, String Theory and its derivatives, among many others). Why does that happen? Because I believe that Nature gives us, once again, the chance to understand that concepts, ideas, values, mathematics, love... are more critical than the technology we build to verify or measure them.

As Andrew said:

“Nature must be our school.”

Welcome to this journey into the cerebral maze. The only way not to get lost in that maze is to carry in your hands The Osteopathic Code of the Brain.

Bibliography and References

References provided by the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine (https://momicoh.pastperfectonline.com/)

Health magazine, Vol 17, No 10, July–Aug 1972, American Osteopathic Association, Insufficient blood to the brain.

Questions and Answers on the Brain and Spinal Cord; 1913. Written by M. A. Boyes, DO, 69 pages.

Reticular Activating System, Wakefulness, Sleep, Attention, Brain Waves and endium of Regional Diagnosis in Lesions of the Brain and Spinal Cord, 11th Edition; 1940, 292 pages.

The Brain as a Store House, by A. T. Still, 1 page.

The Influence of Osteopathic Treatment over Cerebral Hemodynamics and the Bioelectric Brain; 2000 Jul 9, 6 pages

“I believe that jumping in is the wisest decision.”

Anonymous