Two Brains, Two Selves: Logic vs Artist Within Craniosacral Work

Recently I’ve been reading and thinking a lot about the nature of creativity. What is it? Where does it come from? How can we release blocks to creativity? The hemispheric concept of left brain vs right brain has come up a lot in my reading. While my understanding is that neurobiology has moved on from thinking about the strict lateralized of brain function, I find the metaphor of Two Brains/Two Selves informative to my work. Recent reading of The Inner Game of Tennis, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and Monsters and Magic Sticks shows just how far these concepts have filtered down in thinking about the human condition, consciousness, and ways of being. My intention here is to explore how craniosacral work relates to the idea that our brains, our selves, are essentially divided into a Logic Brain (Self 1) and an Artist’s Brain (Self 2).

Self 1 vs Self 2 – a brief explanation

I’m exploring the idea that Self 1 – the Logic Brain – is essentially our acting and analysing self. It is rational, categorical, linear and neat. It also voices the thoughts of our Censor. The inner voice that comes out with our 2^nd 3^rd or 4^th thoughts, often silencing, criticising or belittling our first thoughts of inspiration or artistic expression. Its voice is verbal, knowledgeable & extremely convincing.

Self 2 – The Artist’s Brain – voices our first thoughts, those intuitive answers that seem full of childlike wonder. It is our self that makes connections, thinks metaphorically, is holistic, creative and insightful. It is intuitive wisdom. While the the Logic Brain is about knowing or rather thinking that you know, the Artist’s Brain is about trust. Its language is often abstract, visual, emotional and tonal.

Most of us spend most of our time in Self 1. Analysing everything, thoughts whirling around in our head unable to switch them off, worrying about bills, school runs, what our friends & colleagues think of us, re-running should haves and could haves over relentlessly. I call it the ‘washing machine’ and when I see clients like this I may talk about the Stress Response or the Sympathetic Nervous System. We start from here, making it safe for that SNS response to slow down thus allowing the body to relate to the possibility of stillness of something else.

The Felt Sense of Self 2 – Something Happens

And once it does go quiet, then what? How can I work with Self 2? I’ve often found in my practice that once we’re in Self 2 the sessions are mainly silent. We’re working in the deeper tides, the body is often relaxed, sometimes the client is conscious but seems to be in a deep meditative state. Some report seeing colours, feeling a presence in the room, others see dream-like images. There may be a floating feeling or the sensation of energy travelling through the body. Some notice nothing except a deep sense of peace. Something happens (SH) at a level where the ‘thinking’ logic mind has a hard time describing it. More often than not this part of the work is conducted in complete reverent silence.

As the practitioner my perceptions at this level are similarly ephemeral. Non-verbal. I find it very hard to put into words what I’m noticing here because at this level we are working with the phenomena of pure perception before the verbal, reasoning mind has had a chance to analyse, describe & label. The things I notice here are like vast soundscapes or fields of magnetic, wave-like currents. Coalescences. Tinglings. Bubblings. Sinkings. Evaporatings. I find that I can often draw or describe what has happened – only after the session – when I disengage from this deep, rich, creative space. There is a tendency here to “space out”. So I am constantly looking for tools that enable me to stay present with the client in this space (the treatment room) & this time (Wednesday morning at 11:30) with this pattern (that undulating tingling feeling coalescing under my hands in the left scapula) while still allowing an exploration of the wider fields of consciousness emerging here.

And then what? A little dissociation is not a bad thing

I don’t believe human experience is ever a purely, physical, embodied phenomenon. Learning to experience ourselves as we are includes an expansion of consciousness outward from the body to include the space around us, an expansion of consciousness back in time to include our personal narrative & an expansion of consciousness into the future to include a sense of possibility. It also includes an expansion of connection to those around us and a meeting of their experience of their physical, spatial and temporal selves. I don’t include a separate spiritual connection here because for me all connection is spiritual.

I sometimes feel at odds with lines of thought in the craniosacral community that stress embodiment above all else, constantly bringing clients back into a bodily awareness. I’ve often had clients in states of hyperarousal who are acutely aware of every minute detail of their body, the rocking of their sphenoid, the flexion and extension of their femurs, the tightness of their palatines. With the accuracy of an anatomist, they often can’t stop reporting exactly what they feel in their bodies. I would argue that a little dissociation is not a bad thing in these cases. The ability to expand out from the body would offer a welcome respite. It would allow the possibility of connecting with something that can’t be readily rationalised, categorised and known. It offers the possibility to trust a deeper nature of ourselves, a human truth that is intuitive, creative, wise and whole. This is the intelligence of the human condition that is so often referred to in craniosacral thinking. I find that the creative, healing, force behind Self 2 is already there the instant we get out of the way and let ourselves be breathed by it.

I’ve heard Michael Shea talk about dissociation as an emergence that wants to be reconceived and reborn, a consciousness of something different that might not be simply “back to the factory”. (Bernstein – Living in the Boderland) Dissociation in other cultures is a normal part of healing. I’m thinking here of trance-like states used in various healing & religious rituals. Ayahuasca rituals. Whirling Dervishes, Speaking in tongues, Faith Healers. Getting out of the body is something that is honoured, desired and considered sacred & healing. This is the space of sacred symbols where the images we see, lessons we learn, the messages we receive can have profound transformative effects. The management of these symbols is the job of the therapist.

Working With Self Two – Listening to The Story

The healer holds & manages the container and the centre so the client can be reborn in a ‘right relationship’.
Michael Shea

To me holding the container means allowing for this expansion outwards from the body but keeping it anchored in the hear & now – giving it a centre to expand out from. The therapist finds ways to acknowledge anything that emerges & gives the client the tools to explore this rich, new landscape. This means connecting on the level of metaphor, symbol & archtetypes.

Once we have reached this level of work we can deepen the experience by working with metaphor, symbols and the deep primal universal truths of the human condition. As a therapist we can shift from questions which bring the client into their bodies, to questions that engage the imaginative and intuitive mind. We can ask, “What is that like?” “Can you imagine a time before you felt this way?” “Can you imagine the first time you felt like this?” “If this (thing you are describing) were a symbol, what would it be a symbol of?” or maybe something like “It’s as if your legs have something to say.” “How do you feel when you see that colour?” “I’m wondering what that reminds you of?”

Working with Self Two requires that we suspend our disbelief. If a client says, I feel like a herd of pink elephants has just tap-danced its way into my brain then we say, “Oh, I’m wondering what it’s like for your brain to be danced on?” It requires that we meet the client where they are and allow the story to be told. One of the fundamental acts of human beings is telling stories and listening to stories. In a craniosacral session the way we listen determines how the story is told.

Can we allow this story to be one of creation and healing?

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