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Published: February 3rd 2006
How to? Bodywork with Buffalo
Lost the second new camera so here, um, is this
www.artbyeleanor.comOMG, flashback. When arrived at Fort Wayne IndiaNA airport "James" had already lost his new camera on the plane. This flashed him back to the camera he had lost in Guatemala. But before Guate, he lost his eyeglasses in the Houston airport. And before India, lost his eyeglasses in the L.A. airport. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE NOW? This is a useful question for all occassions, eh? Cameras, glasses. He just keeps losing expensive visual aids before new adventures. What's going on here, "James"?
The Fort Wayne airport is small. Bodywork with the Buffalo was north of Fort Wayne at Wild Winds Buffalo Preserve in Fremont, IndiaNA, just south of the Michigan border.
There were 6 client/patients and about 18 therapeutic facilitators, each with skills and talents in many different modalities, or bodywork approaches, but the main approach being CranioSacral Therapy and Somatoemotional Release (try and say that 3 times without smiling 😊 In other words, a form of whole body emotional release as defined mult-sylla-bically by Dr Upledger himself (scroll way down) bless his heart.
Wild Winds has a resident Buffalo herd and also a lodge. The Lodge functions as a Bed & Breakfast and has a lot of Buffalo hides, leather couches, wood, Native American Indian artifacts, and huge wooden Buddhas. We would sleep under buffalo hides on comfortable beds. Adn would put buffalo hides over the massage tables for work. The hides were nicer on the massage tables. On the bed, they were kind of big and heavy and it's was like, "Buffalo Man will now go to sleep in TeePee!"
We used several massage tables for the client/patients, sometimes with 3 therapist/facilitators working on one client on one table at the same time.
Folks went there who had not gotten as far as they had expected in craniosacral therapy. It was very much like the Mini Intensives that CraniOcean offers in LA and now in the Palm Beaches. It can lead, if done correctly, to a break-through. "James" ( ) happens to have been the orginator of the Mini Intensive, offered now by the Upleger Institute, and here also. It's a form that adapts to anyone that desires to use it, and all are welcome. "James" hereby freely contributes it to help build a functional home here on planet Earth without attribution, trademark, etc. This said after the Mini Intensive was freely taken by the Upleger Institute, without anyone asking James about it 😊 And other ideas and inspirations and James found out about all this recently and well, so what?
He wouldn't have trademarked it anyway.
Can hear the comments now, Attaway "James".
(And why not look at it like this for a moment? Could it be we are all about the business to build a home here?)
For more on Chas and Kat's work with the Buffalo, check out www.integrativeintentions.com (note this is not Ken Wilber's "integral" but "integrative" --due to the many therapeutic approaches involved)
Chas and Kat are awesome. There was a lot of talent in that lodge. We would work on relaxing massage tables but also take a tractor out to the buffalo herd and work with people there. The tractor would pull a flatbed on which we woujjld place two massage tables, one per client. The clients would have the top of their heads facing each other, with 3 or 4 therapist/facilitators working on each client. It was a bit cramped at first but as the meld happened and the blend settled in, worked.
The Buffalo are fenced in, but still considered wild animals. Buffalo can reach a speed of 30 miles n hour in 3 steps. They can kick laterallly from a standing position. The Buffalo seem to know what is going on, much like the dolphins we work with in the Bahamas but in a very different way. As we quietly worked, the Buffalo would gather around the flatbed truck. Some would start to butt heads or jump in the air as clients threw off trauma and/or went through deep emotional releases. It was as if the Buffalo somehow would mirror the events of the sessions.
The place is owned by a doctor who doesn't live there now. WILDWINDSBUFFALO@aol.com The crusty old fellow maintaining the lodge, named "Three Paws", says that to the Native American Indians, the Buffalo symbolize "MESSENGER"...they bring the messages from beyond. Also, they are here so that the people may live and continue to live, and give all of themselves. As in, "Give until it hurts"--Mother Theresa (scroll way down)
Three Paws pointed out that during the Buffalo dating and mating season, some of the women Buffalo scratch the fur on their heads under branches of trees to fluff up their hair. The men, called Bulls, do not roll in the mud at this time. It's as if they want to make themselves visually appealing!
The buffalo picture was made by a woman I met at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival in Delray Beach. Her name is Eleanor. Her website is www.artbyeleanor.com And thanks so much Eleanor because "James" lost his camera. She also does pictures of Bears. There are some stunning prints on her site for sale. Anyway, there were cute little buffalo and bear totems and such placed tastefully around the lodge. Along with the huge buddha statues from Indonesia. Point is, Mr. Three Paws says the Bear is the Healer. He says one thing the Bears did when they were sick was to eat branches that can form a derivitive of aspirin and the Native Americans caught on. So I guess bears are like...Herbalists.
Buffalo the Messenger. Bear the Healer. What will they think of next?
More about the Poetry Festival later perhaps. Especially about poet Sharon Olds. The festival featured poets, Sharon Olds and Gallway Kinnel. It was completely awesome. It was the week before the Buffalo adventure. And "James" did at least one open mic of his Jack Kerouac poetry!
"Attaway, James!"
In March is planned session with toddlers and kids also around the Buffalo herd with Integrative Intentions. But the March 1 - 5 pediatric program is not at Wild Winds. It is at the Potawatomi Inn in Angola, IndiaNA. The children will range in age from 4 to 12. James is considering the generous invitation to return...but it's pretty soon.
For now it is back to work here in the Palm Beaches at the cottage and in the ocean. And see what happens as we work to build a local client base here.
With a possible trip back to LA fairly soon (sans camera?)
Okay on a cerebral note...when properly applied, craniosacral therapy is performed with a very light, gentle, touch and sessions are non-directed and non-intrusive. Non-directed? For example, a therapist may be religious, or have a guru, but may not impose his or her own religious views on the session, or if the therapist is a hypnotherapist, may not impose a guided meditation on the session, etc etc. All the material in the session is to arise from the client/patient. And unlike massage therapy, there is no disrobe. The client/patient does not take off his or her clothes.
CranioSacral Therapy is an integral art. Not all can do it well, or live it as true healing artists.
At the office on Melrose Avenue in L.A., the receptionist of the moment describes craniosacral as "kind of a cross between chiropractic and massage therapy." The sessions at Wild Winds have been an ongoing experiment to work with those clients/patients who might possibly be resonant with other species and this includes Horses and the Buffalo, okay, with people who might actually like these critters!
Oh yes, in response to a comment, Buffalo Soldiers. Bob Marley?
No, one night at the lodge when no one was around, old Three Paws went into this deep throated all is in the good way ramble about how slaves escaped from the old south and ended up in the wild west and around the Native American Indians. Well, the slaves had natty hair that reminded the indians of the natty hair of the buffalo. Isn't that something? The Buffalo hair is really natty and dense and protects the buffalo in all weathers, from extreme heat to extreme cold. So the Indians honored the escaped slaves and called them Buffalo People. Later, in the Indian Wars, or Civil Wars, or some wars, there were black regiments and called the Buffalo Soldiers. So that's where Bob Marly, himself with Buffalo hair, got the song. Me and the other 2 therapists who 3 Paws said all this too were like wow, isn't that cool? The one craniosacral therapist was a guy from Ireland named James who didn't have much hair on his head and was bald but had a great smile and saw the Buffalo as Beloved and his friend was Terry, a fine massage therapist from Calgaray, but because this other guy's name was James, I was asked early on if I might possibly change my name to Jim or something and I offered, "JJ", so I was called "JJ" but whenever Three Paws or somebody said, something like, "James?" to James from Ireland, "James" got confused about it.
James became the alter ego of James for awhile.
Funny, huh. That's...funny. Anyway, it was a joke that circulated around the therapists between sessions.
And then Three Paws added with an up-pointed index finger that in the Buffalo mating season, some of the cows will put the tops of their heads under tree branches and put their hair up into Buffalo-Style-Aftros, so that their hair is all poofy. Buffalo and Native American Indians learned to like the Blacks who'd escaped more than the whites or "Anglos" who had non-buffalo hair. I think I've played this blog entry out. I have no idea what to say next.
Silence...works.
(long pause)
In any event, Chas and Kat and James will be back in the Bahamas under the Upledger Institute to work with the dolphins again this summer. If this blog is still up by then, well, other adventures to follow before then.
The dolphins like to laugh and play and have fun and do stuff. (Does anybody get that?)
Thank you for your time and attention in the share of consciousness here.
Peace
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anonymous
non-member comment
buffalo soldiers...
Laughed my ass off. ( the blog, the blog!!!) Are you sure you in the right business Bro? Even when you mean to be serious you are funny and don't take anything for a fact. I wouldn't want to be on your table (in a bad mood) James. Next to Buffalo? or somewhere in between? Just kidding. Miss you Bro.