Anatomy Trains

In my desire to be succinct in the summary of the second Fascial Research Conference (two posts ago), I slighted my old friend and mentor Jim Oschman (http://www.energyresearch.bizland.com), so let me hurry to correct and apologize:

When I said that Jim was not a researcher, I was dead wrong: he has done all the research listed in his CV reprinted below, much of the original research done in conjunction with the prestigious Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. As you can see, that research was prolific, as has been his writing output in our own field of alternative healing.

And of course his very extensive literature search of others’ research is in itself an act of research, one that has been both rewarding and enlightening for those of us who have followed his peregrinations through energy medicine summarized in his two books.

What I meant was that unlike many of the researchers there at the second FRC, Jim has not been stretching the lumbodorsal fascia of a pig under Ringer’s solution, or (fascinating study with a repellent method) the righting reactions of a decerebrate cat after a crural fasciotomy, but is rather being honored for his vision - well-deserved.

Compared to the mainstream researchers, Jim’s later output has indeed been in ‘left field’ (I’ll stand by that), but he has played left field so well, and hit so many balls out of the park when he was at bat that mainstream researchers like Helene Langevin are compelled to acknowledge it in public before a large crowd. I think that’s great, and it’s a long way, Jim, from when we first sat together with Ida Rolf in Bob Toporek’s living room on 1978, a mere 30 years ago.

A single career, a human lifetime, is so short to contribute to the long line of human culture, and no matter how good your work, neither its nor your immortality is assured. Much has been lost in the ascent of humans, and much continues to be lost even as we alternative therapists gain a foothold. We owe a lot to Jim Oschman for making our work acceptable to a wider range of the scientific world.

CURRICULUM VITAE

James L. Oschman, Ph.D.

Nature’s Own Research Association, PO Box 1935, Dover, NH 03821-1935, USA
Phone: (603) 742 3789; Fax: (603) 742 4695; Email: joschman@aol.com

EDUCATION:

1965 Ph.D. Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh

1961 B.S. Biophysics, University of Pittsburgh

CITIZENSHIP: USA

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

2005-Present Scientific Advisory Board for Neuro Resource Group, Dallas, TX
2003-Present Consultant for EarthFX Corporation
2002-Present Scientific Advisory Board, Natiional Foundation for Alternative Medicine
Washington, DC
2000-Present Education Consultant, Institute for New Medicine, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington DC
1992-Present President, Nature’s Own Research Association
1990 Acting President and Chairman of the Board of Directors at the New England School of Acupuncture, Watertown, Massachusetts
1986-1990 Director of Research, Dolphin Research Project
1982-1992 Faculty and Board of Directors, New England School of Acupuncture, Watertown, Massachusetts
1986 Citation Classic from the Institute of Scientific Information, Washington, DC
1975-present scientific consulting for a wide variety of organizations and inventors
1975-1979 Staff Scientist, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
1970-1974 Visiting Scientist, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
1970-1974 Summer research at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
1970-1974 Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences and Director of the Electron Microscope Laboratory at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, taught physiology, cell physiology, and electron microscopy.
1970 Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Medical Physiology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
1969 NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Developmental Biology Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
1967-1969 Postdoctoral Fellow, Developmental Biology Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
1997 Visiting Scientist, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
1965-1966 Postdoctoral Fellow, Neurobiological Laboratory, VA Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1965-1966 Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

MAIN RESEARCH INTEREST:

Academic research involved the structure and function of cells and tissues, with particular reference to fluid and ion transport and the role of calcium in control of cell functions. Subsequent research explores the scientific basis for complementary and alternative medicines.

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS:

Distinguished Service Award from the Rolf Institute
Founder’s Award, National Foundation for Alternative Medicine

“For your work in Biophysics and Biology and your distinction as an international authority on energy and complementary medicine; for your numerous articles and books on complementary medicine including Energy Medicine-The Scientific Basis that uses science to demystify this emerging form of healing; for initiating a scholarly discussion on complementary therapies and their potential to contribute to patient care; and for your service on the Scientific Advisory Committee of NFAM.”

Publications in major peer-reviewed scientific journals: Science, The Journal of Cell Biology, The Journal of Cell Science, The Journal of Morphology, Tissue and Cell, American Journal of Physiology, Journal of Experimental Biology, etc. Publication of several books, editor of several books, chapters in major books (see list below).

National Institutes of Health Research Grants: NIH Postdoctoral Fellow; NIH Research Grants AM-19189, FR-7028 and AM-14993.

MEMBERSHIPS IN PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS:

The Somatics Society
The Scientific and Medical Network (UK)
ISIS (Institute for Science in Society, UK)
Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine

EDITORIAL BOARDS:

Journal of Membrane Biochemistry
Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies
Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine
Clinical Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine International Journal

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD:
Scientific Advisory Board for the National Foundation for Alternative Medicine, Washington, DC; National Advisory Committee for the Center for Frontier Medicine in Biofield Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona; National Advisory Committee for the Center for Exploratory Center for Frontier Medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut, advisory board of the Neuro Resource Group, Plano, Texas..

UNITED STATES PATENTS:

Method and apparatus for temporarily debilitating tuna and other fish to facilitate capture. United States Patent 5,778,591, issued July 14, 1998.

Apparatus for assisting a heart. United States Patent 6,695,761, issued February 24, 2004.

LECTURES AND WORKSHOPS:
Stichting Opleiding Manuele Therapie, Amersfoort, The Netherlands; Concord Hospital, Concord, New Hampshire; Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, Dover, New Hampshire; Portsmouth Regional Hospital, Portsmouth, New Hampshire; York Hospital, York, Maine; St. Francis Hospital, Hartford, Connecticut; Rolf institute and Guild for Structural Integration, Boulder, Colorado; Upledger Institute United Kingdom; Nordley’s Massage School, Silkeborg, Denmark; Ergoterapeut-og Fysioterapeutiskolen, Holsteboro, Denmark; Massage Therapy Research Agenda Workgroup, American Massage Therapy Foundation; several presentations at Grand Rounds in Rehabilitation Medicine, The Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland; Harvard Medical School, Osher Group, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Center for Frontier Sciences, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; First International Conference on the Science of Whole Person Healing. Bethesda, Maryland; International Conference: Exploring the Physiological Causes of Stress. A new model for understanding the autonomic nervous system: The polyvagal nervous system. Copenhagen, Denmark; 15th Annual Green Nation’s Gathering, at Iroquois Springs, Rock Hill, NY.; a series of workshops at the Stanley Rosenberg Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark; a series of workshops at the Polarity Therapie Zentrum Schweiz, Zurich, Switzerland; a series of workshops at the Colorado Cranial Institute, Zurich, Switzerland; two lectures at international symposia on Frequency Specific Microcurrent in Portland, Oregon and Anaheim, California; a series of workshops on the therapeutic application of low level lasers; Norwegian Cancer Society Complementary Cancer Therapy Conference, Oslo, Norway; several presentations at ISSSEEM , the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine; a series of presentations at the DGEIM (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Energetische und InformationsMedizin) in Stuttgart, Heidelberg, and Kaiserslautern , Germany; Presentation of Spanish edition of Energy Medicine and a keynote lecture at the Ninth Argentinean Reiki Congress 9th Argentinean Reiki Congress, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Seminars on Philosophies of Healing. Sponsored by Videns- og Forskningscenter for Alternativ Behandling. Aarhus and Copenhagen, Denmark; presentation at Paradigm Shift at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine, Portland, Oregon; presentation on energy medicine at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine CME conference; 3 presentations to the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture; presentation on The Intelligent Body at the Sutherland Cranial College, London and at the British School of Osteopathy; Keynote at the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology, Baltimore, MD; Annual Conference of the North American Association for Laser Therapy. Presentation to the Maine Osteopathic Association in Rockport, ME; presentation on energy medicine at the Thomas Jefferson Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA; Grand Rounds Presentations at the Third annual Teton Wellness Festival at Jackson Hole, WY; presentation on energy medicine at the Windber Medical Center in Windber, PA.; Keynote at the Massage Therapy Foundation meeting on research at Albuquerque, NM; Keynote at the American Polarity Therapy Association National Conference, Potomac, MD; keynote at the International Association of Structural Integrators in Seattle, WA; keynote presentation for Morter HealthSystems, Rogers, AK; keynote at the American Academy of Osteopathy, keynote at the annual conference of energy kinesiologists and applied kinesiologists, master class in energy medicine for GEOS/FEMMO in Mulhouse, France.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

1 Oschman, J.L. and P. Gray, 1965. A study of the fine structure of Convoluta roscoffensis and its endosymbiotic algae. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society 84:368-375.

2 Oschman, J.L., 1966. Development of the symbiosis of Convoluta roscoffensis and Platymonas sp. Journal of Phycology 2:105-111.

3 Oschman, J.L., 1967. Microtubules in the subepidermal glands of Convoluta roscoffensis, Acoela, Turbellaria. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society 86:159-162.

4 Oschman, J.L., 1967. Structure and reproduction of the algal symbionts of Hydra viridis. Journal of Phycology 3:221-228.

5 Oschman, J.L., 1969. Endonuclear virus-like bodies in Convoluta roscoffensis (Turbellaria, Acoela). Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 13:147-148.

6 Oschman, J.L. and B.J. Wall, 1969. The structure of the rectal pads of Periplaneta americana L. with regard to fluid transport. Journal of Morphology 127:475-510.

7 Berridge, M.J. and J.L. Oschman, 1969. A structural basis for fluid secretion by Malpighian tubules. Tissue & Cell 1:247-272.

8 Wall, B.J. and J.L. Oschman, 1970. Water and solute uptake by the rectal pads of Periplaneta americana. American Journal of Physiology 218:208-1215.

9 Oschman, J.L. and M.J. Berridge, 1970. Structural and functional aspects of salivary fluid secretion in Calliphora. Tissue & Cell 2:281-310.

10 Wall, B.J., J.L. Oschman, and B. Schmidt-Nielsen, 1970. Fluid transport: Concentration of the intercellular compartment. Science 167:1497-1498.

11 Oschman, J.L. and M.J. Berridge, 1971. The structural basis of fluid secretion. Federation Proceedings 30:49-56.

12 Oschman, J.L. and B.J. Wall, 1972. Calcium binding to intestinal membranes. Journal of Cell Biology 55:58-73.

13 Berridge, M.J. and J.L. Oschman, 1972. Transporting Epithelia, New York, Academic Press.

14 Wall, B.J. and J.L. Oschman, 1973. Structure and function of rectal pads in Blattella and Blaberus with respect to the mechanism of water uptake. Journal of Morphology 140:105-118.
15 Oschman, J.L. and B.J. Wall, 1973. Binding of calcium to membranes. In: H.H. Ussing, Ed., Alfred Benzon Symposium V., Academic Press, New York, p. 237-247.

16 Oschman, J.L., T.A. Hall, P. Peters, and B.J. Wall, 1974. Binding of calcium to membranes of squid giant axon. Ultrastructure and microprobe analysis. Journal of Cell Biology 61:156-165.

17 Oschman, J.L., B.J. Wall, and B.L. Gupta, 1974. Cellular basis of water transport. In: Transport at the Cellular Level, M.A. Sleigh, Ed., Soc. Exp. Biol. Symp. 28:305-350.

18 Wall, B.J., J.L. Oschman, and B.A. Schmidt, 1975. Morphology and function of Malpighian tubules and associated structures in the cockroach, Periplaneta americana. Journal of Morphology 146:265-306.

19 Wall, B.J. and J.L. Oschman, 1975. Structure and function of the rectum in insects. In: Excretion, A. Wessing, Ed., Fortschritte der Zoologie 23:193-222, Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart.

20 Berridge, M.J., J.L. Oschman, and B.J. Wall, 1975. Intracellular calcium reservoirs in Calliphora salivary glands. In Calcium Transport in Contraction and Secretion, E. Carafoli, F. Clementi, W. Drabikowski, and A. Margreth, Eds., North Holland, Amsterdam, p. 131-138.

21 Berridge, M.J., B.L. Gupta, J.L. Oschman, and B.J. Wall, 1976. Development of the salivary glands of Calliphora erythrocephala. Journal of Morphology 149:459-482.

22 Gupta, B.L., R.B. Moreton, J.L. Oschman, and B.J. Wall, Eds., 1977. Transport of Ions and Water in Animals, London, Academic, 817 pps.

23 Wall, B.J. and J.L. Oschman, 1977. Osmoregulation in insects. In: Comparative Physiology of Osmoregulation in Animals, G.M.O. Maloiy, Ed., London, Academic Press.

24 Oschman, J.L., 1977. Structural correlates of transport. In: Transport Across Biological Membranes, Volume III: Transport Across Multi-membrane systems, G. Giebisch, D.C. Tosteson, and H.H. Ussing, Eds., Springer Verlag, Berlin, p. 55-93.

25 Gupta, B.L., B.J. Wall, J.L. Oschman, and T.A. Hall, 1980. Direct microprobe evidence of local concentration gradients and recycling of electrolytes during fluid absorption in the rectal papillae of Calliphora. Journal of Experimental Biology 88:21-47.

26 Oschman, J.L., 1980. Water transport, cell junctions, and “structured water.” Chapter IV, Volume II, of Membrane Structure and Function, edited by E. Edward Bittar, John Wiley and Sons, N.Y.,l p. 141-170.

27 Oschman, J.L., 1981. The Connective Tissue and Myofascial Systems. N.O.R.A. Press, Dover, NH.

28 Oschman, J.L., 1983. Structure and properties of ground substances. American. Zoologist 24(1):199-215.

29 Oschman, J.L., 1986. The Natural Science of Healing. A biology of whole systems. N.O.R.A. Press, Dover, NH.

30 Oschman, J.L., 1989, 1990. How does the body maintain its shape? A series of 3 articles that appeared in Rolf Lines, the news magazine for Rolf Institute members, ending with Vol. 18(1):24-25.

31 Oschman, J.L., 1990. Bioelectromagnetic communications. BEMI Currents, the Newsletter of the Bio-Electro-Magnetics Institute 2(2):11-14.

32 Oschman, J.L., 1993. A biophysical basis for acupuncture. Proceedings of the First Symposium of the Society for Acupuncture Research held in Rockville, MD on January 23-24, 1993.

33 Oschman, J.L., and Nora H. Oschman, 1993. How healing energy works. Convergence, a magazine for personal and spiritual growth and holistic health. Summer issue, pages 24-30.

34 Oschman, J.L., and Nora H. Oschman, 1993. Matter, energy, and the living matrix. October, 1993 issue of Rolf Lines, the news magazine for the Rolf Institute, Boulder, Colorado, 21(3):55-64.

35 Oschman, J.L., 1993. Sensing solitons in soft tissues. Guild News, the news magazine for members of the Guild for Structural Integration, Boulder, Colorado, Vol. 3, Number 2, pages 22-25.

36 Oschman, J.L., and Nora H. Oschman, 1994. New evidence on the nature of healing energy. Part I. Communication in the living matrix. N.O.R.A. Press, Dover, NH.

37 Oschman, J.L., and Nora H. Oschman, 1994. New evidence on the nature of healing energy. Part II. Coherence and healing energy. N.O.R.A. Press, Dover, NH.

38 Oschman, J.L., and Nora H. Oschman, 1994. Somatic recall. Part I. Soft tissue memory. Massage Therapy Journal, American Massage Therapy Association, Lake Worth, FL, 34(3): 36-45; 111-116.

39 Oschman, J.L., and Nora H. Oschman, 1994. Somatic recall. Part II. Soft tissue holography. Massage Therapy Journal, American Massage Therapy Association, Lake Worth, FL, 34(4): 66-7; 106-116.

40 Oschman, J.L., and Nora H. Oschman, 1994. Biophysics of energy medicine. Guild News, the news magazine for members of the Guild for Structural Integration, Boulder, Colorado, 4(1): 17-26.

41 Oschman, J.L., and Nora H. Oschman, 1995. Physiological and emotional effects of acupuncture needle insertion. Proceedings of the Second Symposium of the Society for Acupuncture Research, held in Washington, D.C. on September 17-18, 1994.

42 Oschman, J.L. and Nora H. Oschman, 1994. Book review and commentary: Biological coherence and response to external stimuli, Edited by Herbert Fröhlich, Published by Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1988. N.O.R.A. Press, Dover, NH.

43 Oschman, J.L. and Nora H. Oschman, 1995. Approaching the toes (theories of everything). Guild News, the news magazine for members of the Guild for Structural Integration, Boulder, Colorado, 5(1): 13-16.

44 Oschman, J.L. and Nora H. Oschman, 1995. Continuum in natural systems. Guild News, the news magazine for members of the Guild for Structural Integration, Boulder, Colorado, 5(2): 30-44.

45 Oschman, J.L., 1996. Whats in a handshake? A commentary on human energetics. Guild News, the news magazine for members of the Guild for Structural Integration, Boulder, Colorado, 6(2): 18-26. Reprinted in Rolf Lines the news magazine for Rolf Institute members, Boulder, Colorado , 25(2): 12-19, Spring, 1997.

46 Oschman, J.L., 1996. The nuclear, cytoskeletal, and extracellular matrixes: A continuous communication network. In: The Cytoskeleton: Mechanical, Physical and Biological Interactions, November 15-17, 1996, sponsored by The Center for Advanced Studies in the Space Life Sciences, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

47-52 Oschman, J.L., 1996-1998. A series of 6 articles entitled What is healing energy in Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, Harcourt Brace and Co. Ltd., Edinburgh, U.K.

53 Oschman, J.L., 1997. Interview with Jim Oschman for The Rainbow Body by Komala Lyra.

54 Oschman, J.L., 1997. Connective tissue energetics. Introduction to a presentation for the Stichting Opleiding Manuele Therapie, Amersfoort, The Netherlands, June 14, 1997. 11 pps. N.O.R.A. Press, Dover, NH.

55 Oschman, J.L. and N.H. Oschman, 1997. Readings on the scientific basis of bodywork, energetic, and movement therapies. A collection of 21 articles. N.O.R.A. Press, Dover, New Hampshire, 480 pps.

56 Oschman, J.L. and N.H. Oschman, 1998. Gravity, Lift, and Inertia. Part I. What do we know about gravity? Rolf Lines, the news magazine for Rolf Institute members, Boulder, Colorado, Winter issue, 26(2)10-19.

57 Oschman, J.L. and N.H. Oschman, 1998. Gravity, Lift, and Inertia. Part II. Lift and Inertia. Rolf Lines, the news magazine for Rolf Institute members, Boulder, Colorado, April issue, 26(2)10-19.

58 Oschman, J.L., N.H. Oschman, and K.E. Sommer, 1998. Method and apparatus for temporarily debilitating tuna and other fish to facilitate capture. United States Patent 5,778,591, issued July 14, 1998.

59 Oschman, J.L. and N.H. Oschman, 1998. Absolute certainty of the human energy field. Energy. The Newsletter of the American Polarity Therapy Association. Volume 13(3):1,6,7 (Summer issue).

60 Oschman, J.L., 2000. Energy medicine–The new paradigm. Introductory chapter for Complementary Therapies for Physical Therapists. Robert A. Charman, Editor. Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford.

61 Oschman, J.L., 2000. The electromagnetic environment: Implications for bodywork. Part 1. Environmental energies. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies 4(1):56-67.

62 Oschman, J.L., 2000. The electromagnetic environment: Implications for bodywork. Part 2. Biological effects. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies 4(2):137-150.

63 Oschman, J.L., 2000. Energy Medicine: The scientific basis. Churchill Livingstone/Harcourt Brace, Edinburgh.

64 Oschman, J.L., 2001. Exploring the biology of phototherapy. Journal of Optometric Phototherapy, April Issue, p. 1-9.

65 Oschman, J.L., 2001. Book summary and commentary on A New Physics and other publications of William Day. For Foundation for New Directions, Cambridge, MA.

66 Oschman, J.L., 2002. Clinical aspects of biological fields: an introduction for health care professionals. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies 6(2):117-125.

67 Oschman, J.L., 2002. An overview of subtle energies research. In: Proceedings: Bridging Worlds and Filling Gaps in the Science of Healing. A symposium organized by Wayne B. Jonas, Marilyn Schlitz, and Mitchell W. Krucoff and edited by Ronald A. Chez, The Samueli Institute for Information Biology, pp. 88-96.

68 Oschman, J.L., 2002. Science and the human energy field. An interview with William Lee Rand. Reiki News Magazine 1(3), Winter issue.

69 Oschman, J.L., 2004. Recent developments in bioelectromagnetic medicine. Chapter 6 in Bioelectromagnetic Medicine, Rosch, P.J. and Markov, M.S., eds., Marcel Dekker, New York, pp. 77-92.

70 Oschman, J.L., 2003. Energy Medicine: state of the art; state of the science. In: Science of Whole Person Healing: Proceedings of the First Interdisciplinary International Conference, edited by Rustum Roy, iUniverse, Incorporated, Lincoln, NE.

71 Oschman, J.L., 2003. Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance. Butterworth-Heinemann/Elsevier, Oxford.

72 Oschman, J.L. and N.H. Oschman, 2004. Electromagnetic communication and olfaction in insects: Commemorating the research of Phillip S. Callahan, Ph.D. Frontier Perspectives 13(1):8-15.

73 Oschman, J.L., 2004. Breakthrough in energy medicine and subtle energies. Bridges, Quarterly Magazine of the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine 14(4):, Winter 2003 issue.

74 Oschman, J.L., 2004. Guest editorial: Our place in nature: Reconnecting with the earth for better sleep. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 10(5):735-736.

75 Oschman, J.L. and J. Spencer, with David Minkoff, 2004. Best cases in biological medicine. Explore! 13(6).

76 Oschman, JL, 2004. Science and the human energy field. Interview with William Lee Rand. Reiki News Magazine, Vol. One, Issue Three, Winter 2002.

77 Oschman, J.L., 2005. Energy and the healing response. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies 9(1):3-15.

78 Oschman, J.L., 2005. The intelligent body. In: Bridges, the Quarterly Magazine of the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine 16(1).

79 Oschman, J.L., 2006. Trauma energetics. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies 10(1):21-34.

80 Chevalier, G., Mori, K., and Oschman, J., 2006. The effect of earthing (grounding) on human physiology. European Biology and Bioelectromagnetics 31(2):600-621.

81 Oschman, J.L., 2006. Quantum and Energy Biology: A retrospective on the contributions of Albert Szent-Györgyi. In: Proceedings of the 1st Metatheory Conference, Budapest, Hungary, 15-18 November, 2006, edited by Amoroso, R.L., Diens, I., & Varga, C., Oakland, The Noetic Press, in press.

82 Oschman, J.L., 2007. Matrix energetics and regeneration. Chapter 37 in Anti-Aging Therapeutics, Volume IX, Edited by Klatz, R. and Goldman, R., American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, Chicago IL, pp. 247-253.

83 Oschman, J.L. and Kosovich, J, 2007. Energy Medicine and Longevity: Biofeedback Combined with Frequency Specific Healing. In Anti-Aging Medical News, Winter, 2007, American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, Chicago, IL, 29-31. 65.

84 Oschman, J.L., 2007. Can Electrons Act as Antioxidants? A Review and Commentary. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 13(9):955-967.

85 Oschman, J.L., 2008. Perspective: Assume a spherical cow: The role of free or mobile electrons in bodywork, energetic and movement therapies. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 12(1):40-57.

86 Oschman, J.L., 2008. The science supporting the use of pulsing electromagnetic field therapy and ONDAMED® Part 1. Townsend Letter Issue #299, June, 2008.

87 Oschman, J.L., 2008. Charge transfer in the living matrix. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, in press.

88 Oschman, J.L. and Kosovich, J., 2008. Energy Medicine and Matrix Regeneration. Chapter 26 in Anti-Aging Therapeutics, Volume X, Edited by Klatz, R. and Goldman, R., American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, Chicago IL, pp. 203-210.

89 Oschman, J.L., 2008. Energy Medicine and Longevity. Chapter 27 in Anti-Aging Therapeutics, Volume X, Edited by Klatz, R. and Goldman, R., American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, Chicago IL, pp. 211-218.

90 Oschman, J.L., 2008. Mitochondria and cellular aging. Anti-Aging Therapeutics Volume XI, in press.

91 Oschman, J.L., 2008. Matrix communication. In: Proceedings of the 2nd metatheory conference, Budapest, Hungary, 16-19 May, edited by Amoroso, R.L., Diens, I., & Varga, C., Oakland: The Noetic Press, pp. 91; 95-110.

92 Oschman, J.L. and Kessler, W-D., 2008. Energy medicine and anti-aging. From fundamentals to new breakthroughs. Anti-Aging Medical News, Winter issue,pp. 166-171.

93 Kessler, W-D., and Oschman, J.L., 2009. Conteracting aging with basic physics. Chapter 23 in Anti-Aging Therapeutics Volume XI, Edited by Klatz, R. and Goldman, R., American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, Chicago IL pp. 185-194.

94 Oschman, J.L., 2009. Mitochondria and cellular aging. Chapter 33 in Anti-Aging Therapeutics Volume XI, Edited by Klatz, R. and Goldman, R., American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, Chicago IL pp. 185-194.

Starting a 500-hr KMI class is always a bit of a palaver, and one always wonders how it is going to come together, but by this time I have lots of support: Tammy and George at the office at home, and in this case JoJean the local organizer has found us a great place - the Mesa Arts Center. While the room itself could be said to be a bit enclosed and scruffy - it is used as rehearsal space - the whole feel of the place is vibrant with creativity. we are surrounded by outdoor sculpture (including a tensegrity shade over our heads) pottery, glassblowing, children trying out for plays, people taking photos of pretty boys from artistic angles, and the sound of a piano behind singing in the distance.

The students have come from all over as usual - Canada, California, Florida, West Virginia, Germany, as well as New Mexico and Arizona itself - and have a good mix of backgrounds and talents. Larry is here to host and run the class, and Peter to give lectures and assist, and we have been joined at the beginning by Thadd Dudrey and Noemi Chabot, both recent grads who are back to taste some of the teaching flavor.

I’ll be able to tell better after a few days, but it seems like a strong group.

In the aftermath… (uh, sorry, afterglow) of the FRC, here are a few thoughts on the context of the event and the development for the future:

The most publicly heartfelt moment was when Jim Oschman, fascial prophet and energy medicine guru (http://www.energyresearch.bizland.com/index.html), was honored by Tom Findlay and Helene Langevin at the end of the first day. You could feel their bubble and squeaky joy in giving him an honor, and his bark and woof of joy in receiving it. A somewhat odd choice, in that Jim has done no research, and his literature search has sometimes been out in the left field of unsupported speculation. But he has been so right on concerning several major points, and he held the lamp up for research for many, many years when no one else could seem to coalesce around its value - so I am glad my old friend got the honor.

This conference was not as electric as the first conference in 2007, and in some ways not as ‘good’. But it was very much in the directly unfolding line of this fascinating process of investigating fascial properties. It will take a number of conferences over a decade, I should think, to get the balance right, and even then it should be dynamically changing over time.

In the last conference, the gulf between the clinicians and the researchers was mountainous, and though it was clear that we were climbing the same mountain by the end of the conference, it was also clear that it would take some time to meet at the top. Perhaps the most important part of the 2007 conference was simply getting the scientists, many of whom were working on fascia from many different fields and thus did not know of each other, together to see each others’ work.

By this conference, major issues emerged:

• The architecture of fascia: particularly what is made to stick and what is made to slide, and how and why does that happen, and how does one switch to the other in pathology?

• Epi- and intra-muscular fascial force transmission is another big area of exploration that will have practical consequences to assessment and treatment.

• In terms of machinery, ultrasound imaging and computer modeling of fascial forces and remodeling shows great promise.

• The exact role of inflammation in fascial repair - when is it doing good, when does it go too far and over-correct - looks a good avenue for further study.

• And I personally am over the moon about van der Wal’s concept of the ‘dynament’, though I am not sure I can get many of my colleagues to jump so high in its favor - but I plan to champion it in an article or two.

A few suggestions for the next time:

1) One symptom of ’second conference-itis’ was too much of too little. While clearly every effort was being made to be inclusive of the many professional as well as scientific approaches, the review committee could perhaps be seen this time as being just a little too inclusive, It would be good next time if the short presentations could be a bit fewer but of higher quality research.

2) I suppose it is too much to ask that good scientists also be good presenters, and how would you screen for this anyway? but when we can read the slides that they are bent into the mike repeating word for word in a monotone of heavily accented English, perhaps these folks (and certainly the attendees) are better served by appearing as a poster presentation.

A word to the researchers: You have been given a short time to present your work. We know it’s short; you know in advance it is short. Practice. Leave out those 40 supporting slides, and get us to the conclusion before the last 15 seconds! The number of presenters arriving at this congress, for which we have all paid substantial money, who were confused about Power Point, and who allowed minute descriptions of their lab methods to overtake the presentation of their findings was disappointing.

3) We need discussion. So far the emphasis has been on ‘discussion’ between the scientists and clinicians, so that we find out about what each other do. This discussion is fairly fruitless, with a few exceptions, because of the gulf I mentioned above. There are three areas for discussion that I think would be more fruitful:

• A time at the end of the conference for digestion and synthesis of the conference’s main themes, but in terms of the science and the implications. I imagine questions along the line of: “If I put these findings over here up against that line of research there, does this mean…?”

• I would love to hear a discussion among the scientists as to what constitutes good research and where the holes are. Unarmed with the experienced inner skeptic of a Solomonow, I have instead an ‘inner gull’. Everything presented seems very sound and well-done when I hear it, and I am inclined to believe it, even though I know by now that I cannot take what happens to pig fascia in a petri dish and immediately apply it to my practice.

My common experience in this conference, however, was that in the break following a presentation, I could run across someone who had an equally convincing story of why the research I had just heard was weak, flawed, or simply not what shows up in the experienced practitioner’s common results.

Therefore I could use some critical review of what we have heard - not to ad hominem attacks, but asking the senior scientists to have the courage to correct the younger, and the courage of the younger to be willing to be wrong.

• Finally, it would be good to have some education for the clinicians. If the scientists need to talk to each other, then the clinicians need to learn to listen with a more practiced ear. This is not the time, my dear friends and fellow practitioners, to grandstand for your method. This is not a political movement manning the barricades of the resistance to our arts in the health care system, or a professional convention where touting your wares is more par for the course. This is certainly not the time to hog the bully pulpit. Mr Dommerholt, in the service of your small contribution to the whole, no matter how important you think you are to the healing of the world.

The fundamental ticket to enter this hall - be you researcher of clinician or both - is the willingness to fall, willingness to be wrong in the search for reliable truth. Evidence-based research, even good evidence-based research, even established findings - they all get overturned in the course of time, so the researchers, though understandably wedded to the results they obtained with so much perspiration, must come in open to a better method, turning toward the unexpected by being shown a salient factor they missed, or given an alternative explanation that fits more facts.

My experience was that the scientists are more imbued in that attitude, while (some) clinicians arrived in a more stuck place. Clinicians - be they rolfers, acupuncturists, myofascial release therapists or Bowenites - sometimes present more strongly held views on the rightness of their cause than they have any cause to. The scientists indulged the clinicians touching but naive faith in the ability of their particular method to invariably sort out intractable problems, based on no more than their unavoidably self-interested results in a self-selecting practice and a large body of healing lore’ that we all carry around with us in place of the science we do not yet have.

I am not willing to be so generous with my own group: Practitioners: shut up, sit down, listen, and if you don’t like what you hear, then put up some money or do the sweat work to get some answering research done. Don’t kvetch, and please don’t embarrass us further by kvetching from the place of such extreme ignorance of the special method of sharing that science is.

So I say to my fellow clinicians: Come humbly to the temple of science. No one is questioning that you do good in the world, that your work is worthwhile, that you are part of the solution not the problem. But likewise, however much you know it works, you (we, all of us) know so little about how it works. So these conferences become searches for clues, clues which may lead to established facts that fly in the face of some of our dearly-held beliefs, but will ultimately, I am sure, confirm the healing power of the structured touch we are so enthusiastic about. Coming in with a political agenda, an ego drive, or an unshakable conviction based solely on anecdote only slows the process of discovery, for you and everyone else. A little of the dispassion the Buddha showed would drape well over some of these angry and self-interested shoulders.

“Can you show me why I failed with this patient?” is a much more interesting question than “Can you confirm my prejudice about why I am succeeding with these patients?”

So some guided discussion among the clinicians would result in more precise questions for the researchers, to take some of some of the discrepancies I heard in the corridors and elevators, over a coffee or an outside break. The importance of these moments was mentioned in the last hour by the organizer Peter Huijing, but I believe much more use could be made of this process by bringing it inside toward the end of the conference, and organizing it into more incisive questions for what research would actually serve to answer clinicians’ questions and disputes.

The next conference will be early in 2012 in Vancouver. I plan to be there. There is enough discovery in these events, enough ‘being confused at a higher level’, to make the visit worthwhile, despite the frustrations I feel from both sides.

Moshe Solomonow (http://www.uchsc.edu/ortho/bioeng/faculty.html) stands out as perhaps the most interesting personality among the top scientists at the FRC. Look at the number of published research papers this guy has: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=search&db=pubmed&term=Solomonow%20M[au]&dispmax=50

I cannot speak to his science, having read little and understood less - though he has a pioneering reputation and a fierce dedication to good science and he is the world’s expert on ligamentous creep and hysteresis (that doesn’t sound good, does it?). A large and imposing man whose light brown suits cover a good 20 stone with a high balding dome and a deeply-carved face of a Levantine merchant that can go from haughty to twinkle and back again without warning.

In the first conference Moshe played the heirophant to the point of being papist - ‘just read my research, it’s all there’ . I didn’t feel he was entering the field of inquiry with the right attitude, and he quite put me off with his sniffiness and lordly manner. How different was my reaction this time! How different was he this time, marching to the microphone at the end of someone’s presentation, and how the presenters must have braced themselves when they saw him coming.

Some people’s backs were still put up by his attacks, sometimes quite forceful and occasionally bordering on belligerent, against the weakness in the science he saw presented in some of the sessions - and even at that he seemed to be restraining himself.

Seeing his large body slope toward the microphone, coattails flapping, would bring us all awake and bring the speaker to an autonomic sweat. Though the tone of the questioning could be a little badgering, the questions were always salient and often brilliant, looking around corners to the next steps in related research, finding the holes in the way the data was collected that no one else could see, or suggesting a new approach to the problem the research was meant to address.

Last time Solomonow was a brooding presence, who struck me as self-important and not open to new ideas. This time, he seems increasingly like a godsend, our Socrates of the Fascial Research Congresses; I hope he will stay in his position as the Court Jester, in its original sense of the only one who can bring the king down to account. Moshe Solomonow may seem a bit abrasive to some or even cut the figure of the Fool to others, but to me this man seemed key: showing the willingness to engage constructively with other scientists, to risk critical feedback in hopes of improving our knowledge and making more straight the zig-zagging course of scientific progress in our field.

Moshe is a sailor, I found out when I sat with him for a bit, who had a boat in New Orleans until Katrina blew it away. So, to honor his honesty and edginess and his hand on the tiller, my next post will attempt to speak to my group of practitioners in the same way.

Moshe has so totally earned his right to grandstand; the same does not apply to the clinicians.

The 4th day of the Fascial Research Conference was just a half day, so there was much thrusting of cards into hands, exchanges of papers and emails, deferred conversations now hurried. The presentations were interesting, especially that of Can Yucesoy from Turkey, who modeled a complex interaction of elastic and contractile muscle and various fascial properties to get a good model of Epimuscular Force Transmission (EFT) another of those three-letter acronyms you’re likely to be reading about.

One note though - I have long noticed the obliquely crossing fibers in the crural fascia (making every cadaver look like they are wearing argyle socks under their fat), as ell circumferential fibers. Why these oblique lines? Richard Nichols shows how they (might - always might, in science, but it looks pretty logical, like most lies) contribute to coronal (medio-lateral ) stability.

One other interesting bit: The GTO’s (Golgi Tendon Organs) are known for their inhibitory effect on their related muscle firing - in other words, stimulate the GTO’s to get the muscle to relax. This reflex action tends to go from down-to-up in the leg while climbing a hill, and switch to from up-to-down when descending a hill. In downhill walking, the ‘propelling’ muscles are inhibited, enhancing your brakes.

After lunch, Tom Findlay and Robert kindly invited me up onstage to be on the panel to help close out the conference. I continued my defense of the hand over machine, and hoped for some more ‘loose chaotic networking’ as Robert joked.

In the end, it was very much worth it for me. It did not have quite the same spirit as the first congress - second attempts often suffer for being just that. The science was not as good, some of the breakout sessions were just bad - badly presented, or bad science. The clinicians presenting their stuff to scientists were often worse - sometimes bum-scrunchingly so - self-aggrandising and reporting only their successes, and claiming far more than they actually could. Discipline of mind does not come easily to the therapist, it seems, and discipline of heart comes hard to some of the scientists.

But this is all part of the developing rapport among scientists in differing fields, part due to letting in more trades - surgeons and engineers as well as fascial researchers - and in part due to the confused but exploratory fingers of the therapists wiggling their way into the world of defined research. It’s a long journey, but so far a fun and rewarding one.

Not every day of these conferences can equal or best the previous, and this day was a bit weaker than the others, and Christoph was intuitively right to stay with Riccarda and head for the sauna and a restful day.

One frustration of delving into the science of myo- and fascia and stretch and healing is that the best-laid conclusion of rats and men are frequently contradicted by some expert I meet just outside the hall right after such nice conclusions are presented so cleanly and forcefully.

Yesterday morning a surgeon was talking about fascial force transmission in CP spasticity (mostly in kids) where they do a tendon transfer to turn a wrist flexor into a wrist extensor to counter the tendency of the flexors to overcome the extensors, a spasticity that leaves kids with chronically and strongly flexed and pronated wrists.

After describing the effects on the fascia of the surgery, the surgeon expressed his hope for being able to simply transfer the nerve, which would automatically reduce the spasticity by sending the flexion signaling to the extensors. This seemed like a great idea, but a neurological surgeon from Italy looked me up during the break because of his interest in Anatomy Trains and mentioned in passing that what the orthopaedic surgeon had mentioned would never work neurologically (they don’t know how to transfer a nerve and hook it up to the amazingly complicated and delicate architecture of motor end plates (which immediately made sense also - what do I know about all this?)

This conference, after a couple of 45 minute keynotes followed by a staccato round of 15 minute presentations of research. Everyone runs over, leaving no time for questions. And after every one I find a competing researcher in the hall, railing about how those results are skewed, or a competent clinician saying that the implications of that research are contradicted every day in her practice.

All the research suffers from limitation in that to pas muster as research design, the question asked must be very narrow, and the hunger from the clinicians is for the very broad. Too much TGF-Beta in a wound and it will go pathological and have too much fibrosis, but someone else says that can be solved by a 20-30% stretch for 10 min/day as part of the treatment plan, and then someone else says that only works on patients who …

One is left with a frustrating sense of circularity that should produce the excitement of being in a young field, but instead leave me grumpily saying, “Go away and figure this out, and come back and talk to us when you’ve got something definite to say!” Conferences like this, of course, are how that process happens.

How ‘normal’ is the inflammation process, the source of much structural pain? Are the NSAI’s commonly prescribed helping or hurting? Or more to the point, who do they help and who do they hurt? Many of these scientists never touch and look as though they are never touched. (There are exceptions - Willie Fourie, for instance, is ice-breaking for the rest of us: (http://www.csp.org.uk/director/members/newsandanalysis/frontlinemagazine/archiveissues.cfm?item_id=8FE96D74E465397197C9CD9CC90DDDD8&article=)

But ok, having expressed my frustration, here are few highlights from the day:

Filiz Ale found that stretching a muscle (of a rat) to its full length for a while left it weaker when it returned to resting length. suggesting (but not proving) to me what I had long thought: that sustained yoga would be a bad preparation for an American football game.

Robert Schleip was at pains to take myofibroblasts (MFB’s) down from the Superman status so many have given them since the first FRC. Even where they are prolific, as in the thoracolumber fascia (TLF - everyone loves their three-letter acronyms, or TLA’s), they generate only 1/100th of the power that the erector spinae can generate in a second - and these cells take 20 minutes to turn on and an hour to turn off.

A panel set up to allow clinicians to show scientists what they are doing for the scientists to comment on what research says about it went very badly, with the clinicians shoving each other out of the way to present only their successes (failures are so much more instructive), and the bewildered scientists commenting as they could on such incomplete and badly presented ‘case studies’. Bum-scrunchingly embarrassing.

Carmen Sacrista, an orthpaedic surgeon from Madrid, claimed in the pre-conference material to be healing (strong word!) fully separated ACL’s without surgery. I skipped out on Willie Fourie’s excellent second presentation to go hear this joker. First, she was in an untucked track suit and sneakers - ok, scientists are individualistic, but then she spoke in a monotone face down into the mike with a thick Spanish accent, presenting MRI’s that were inconclusive to me (but I’m not an experienced MRI reader - but the ACL only looked completely separated in one of the befores, and only looked completely healed in one of the afters. And she simply refused to be forthcoming about what treatment they were using.

She stated that the ACL had a number of elastic fibers and was a visco-elastic non-Newtonian fluid (a dubious statement about ligaments i the first place, ore true of the GAGs in between the fibers, but the ACL is pretty fibrous in my book), but then failed to address convincingly how what they did from the outside of the joint (and we learned only that it was ‘aimed at the back of the joint capsule to affect the synovium’) could overcome the tendency of the broken ACL to retract away from its
distal end. How could they bridge that gap without surgery?

My day ended with Chris Stein who spoke on the Typaldos’ Fascial Distortion model. (Stephen Typaldos was a DO who lived in Bangor Maine. I was always going to go up and meet him soometime, and then he upped and died before I took the chance. He has a lot of followers among the osteopaths of Germany, where he taught.) The system asks us to believe that patients the world over will indicate their exact diagnosis by the way they point to the pain, and treatment proceeds on that basis - do they rub, point, or sweep the area? Each points to a different type of facial distortion, and each requires heavy, old-Rolfing type pressure to resolve and restore. www.fdm-europe.com

It was quite a day for heavy pressure - the cupping that pulls the skin into bruising, the girl who received treatment with the Graston tools Warren Hammer is touting came to dinner with skin on the treated area that was bruised and broken out with the strength of the treatment. Some of you who have been treated by me are saying, “Tom’s complaining about heavy pain and pressure?” - but some of this stuff is just out there in terms of ‘destroy an area and it will normalize’. Sometimes it works, I suppose, but it seems a haphazard method of treatment, and I hope the pain I dish out has more meaning than that.

Here are some highlights from Day 2, though the coup de grace on the old anatomy was delivered by Jaap van der Wal, but more on him in the previous post.

The theme of the day was the sideways connections of the fascia within the muscle. Jst how does the muscle convey its force to the fascia and vice versa?

Carla Stecco of the famous Stecco family started the day by tracing the ‘trellis’ (I would say onion bag) arrangement of the fascia at rest, with additional ‘crimping’ in the tissue. Dense irregular tissue is not ‘irregular’ at all, but has a variety of directions at very precise angles for dealing with the forces. What slides, and what is fixed?

How much is the thoracolumbar fascia a sense organ and how much a force transmitter? asks Jonas Tesarz.

Jean-Paul Delage, working with Guimberteau, shows the cells in the paratendon (what we used to think of as the sheath).

Peter Purslow showed great pictures of the honeycomb of the endomysium, showing the same angle of fibers Stecco described, which go longitudinal when the muscle is stretched, and go circumferential when the muscle is contracted. Interestingly, while the endomysium is well-equiped to transmit force, the perimysium - which is continuous with the epimysium - is poorly constructed to transmit force - so what it is for?

I am hoping for an interview with this extraordinary man, whose prophetic voice 20 years ago (well before I wrote Anatomy Trains) was judged too radical and ignored, only to be brought back for this conference by the FRC organizer, Peter Huijing, who now recognizes how important Jaap’s work is.

Jaap did dissections way back then with new eyes and realized that the pictures in the anatomy books were 1) impossible, and 2) what the anatomists wanted to find. Recognizing way back then that muscles do not attach to bones, he dissected fasciae in way to show how the muscle fibers attach into the septa that eventually attach to bone, but that the ligaments are linked in series with the muscles.

We have long thought that muscles provide an outer, contractile force and (in eccentric) resistance to force, but that ligaments were local to the joint and acted passively and only at the extreme end of range of motion.

While there are a few true ligaments that act in this way; the cruciate ligaments, imbedded within the knee capsule, really joint bone without being in series with a muscle, but most of the rest, including the sacrotuberous (familiar to most readers as part of the Superficial Back Line), pubofemoral, and the epicondylar ligaments are in series with the muscles, and therefore can be engaged in any position of the joint (which makes much more sense).

At the other end of the muscle is the sliding tendon (n the case of the forearm or leg muscles, say) and the link into the periosteum of the distal bone, sometimes including other ligaments.

The point being - and here’s the revolutionary thought - that almost every muscle is set up as what van der Wal calls a ‘dynament’: a ligamentous strip, then a muscle, then another ligamentous strip, i.e. fascia-muscle-fasia. All the hamstrings are obviously set up this way: long strip of fascia, intervening muscle, long strip of fascia. This needs a diagram and expansion, so stay tuned for the references, but this is major and will change our thinking about how the body works and thus how to treat it when it doesn’t.

Van der Wal’s other major discovery is that there is no fundamental difference between muscle and fascial receptors: spindles, GTO’s, specialized endings and free nerve endings are all fundamentally fascial stretch receptors - just being stuck into differing types of fascia for different types of readings. That simplifies things, but I am not as sure of this conclusion yet. But the ‘dynament’ concept is radical, sensible, and sure-footed.

Although the conference will need to develop over the few days and I am majorly jet-lagged, here are a few highlights from the first day:

Helene Langevin has found an interesting puzzle in the areolar tissue where the cells, small but rich in lamellopodia (they are start-shaped) depolymerize (disassemble) their microtubules (cytoskeleton) and organize actin microfilaments (cytomuscle) to flatten outward like a pancake, collapsing vertically to help the fascil medium spread out. There is still viscoelasticity in the matrix, but it is helped by fibroblasts pancakizing in the subcutaenous tissue (but hindered, as we learned last time, by the myofibroblasts in the denser fascial sheets. My conclusion: the mesodermal cells are more a spectrum of a single cell type than than distinctly muscle or connective tissue.

More evidence from Hicks: Muscle cells are syncitia, each muscle fiber is originally many cells that blend, so each muscle fiber is multinucleated into a myotubule - at which point it starts becoming responive to acetylcholine and therefore conractile. No strain is needed to form a glom of muscle cells into a functioning myotubule, the presence of fibroblasts is enough. More evidence of the guiding role of the fascia in movement morphogenesis.

Lots of new evidence supporting Huijing’s contention of stress and strain being carried across muscle boundaries, and even how the intra-muscular stress is acrried by the endomysium.

Tomorrow the coup de grace to the concept of ‘muscle’ - stay tuned for the iconoclast Jaap van der Woll.

Google any of these names to follow the work, but I will publish full references when I get sorted.

Back in the Sates now from the Body Control Pilates Conference in London - actually it was held at the prestigious Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons at the edge of Regent’s Park (although it was the weekend, and no surgeons seemed to be about as the conference had taken over the whole building).

Lynne Robinson and her husband Leigh have developed a very strong and influential organization - the exercises on my flight home, the British Airways in-flight TV stretches etc. to save you from going stiff and swollen on the long haul flights had been developed by - you guessed it - Body Control Pilates.

The conference was large and fun. I got to meet Elizabeth Larkham who has been using the Anatomy Trains in Pilates, and saw Wendy Arbuckle, who did part of our KMI training to help her grasp of Pilates. With 7 workshops in three days, some with over 100 people, I am knackered, though everyone was very helpful. Thanks especially to Misty, Charlotte, Tim, and Jacqui.