Osteopathy in the Cranial Field

Craniosacral therapy has its roots in osteopathic medicine. At the turn of the 20th century, an osteopathic medical student named William Garner Sutherland had an epiphany. Upon examining the greater wings of the sphenoid bone (one of the bones in the base of the skull), it seemed to him that they resembled the gill plates of fish. He wondered to himself whether or not the skull bones were mobile and involved in some sort of respiratory process. Since he had been taught, like every other medical student, that cranial bones were immobile, and that the sutures connecting them fused in early adulthood, he decided to test that bit of common knowledge out on himself. He hypothesized that, if the cranial bones were indeed immobile, he should not feel any difference if he were to somehow immobilize his skull from the outside. He constructed a special helmet with which he could apply pressure to various areas of his own skull.  In his experimentation, he found that he would develop neurological as well as gastrointestinal symptoms when pressure was applied in certain areas (of his skull), and he found relief from these symptoms when he applied pressure to other areas.  Based on these findings, he concluded that cranial bones do in fact move.  The practice of osteopathy in the cranial field began in this way, and was taught to any osteopath who wanted to learn it as a post-graduate course.

"The Breath of Life"

Dr. Sutherland further reasoned that the respiratory process he considered earlier was taking place within the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), and that the joints of the cranial vault were intimately involved in this process and facilitated it.  He believed that this respiration was a wave of energy which originated in the central nervous system and would flow outward to all the body tissues, and that the source of this energy was the body's life force, which he termed "The Breath of Life."  This concept of a vital force is the core principal of craniosacral therapy.

Craniosacral Therapy

After decades of ambivalent acceptance of cranial osteopathy (and with minimal interest) amongst the osteopathic community in America, Dr. John E. Upledger, D.O. began to teach its principles and techniques to individuals who were not osteopathically trained in the 1970s.  He coined the term "craniosacral therapy," mostly due to the fact that the original term "osteopathy in the cranial field (OCF)" could not be used by the non-osteopaths, rather than there being any fundamental difference between the two.  For all intents and purposes, OCF and craniosacral therapy can be considered one in the same.  However, there have been some elaborations on Dr. Sutherland's original hypotheses in more recent years.  For one, there have been some attempts to scientifically explain what exactly the craniosacral therapist is feeling when palpating the cranial rhythmic impulse (CRI).  According to the "core link" hypothesis of craniosacral interaction, there is an involuntary flexion of the brain and its meninges (3 tissue layers covering the brain and spinal cord), the force of which is transmitted to the sacrum and causes it to move slightly between the iliac bones simultaneous with the cranial bone motion.  The outermost layer of the meninges is very tough, and has strong attachments to the inner surfaces of the skull as well as to the sacrum (the meninges of the skull are contiguous with the meninges of the sacrum), and it is thought that the CRI is most likely transmitted along this tough meningeal layer, through the pulsations of the cerebrospinal fluid (the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord; it flows between the 1st and 2nd meningeal layers).  From the craniosacral system, the CRI is thought to pulse out to all body tissues like a wave.  In fact, it is often referred to as "The Tide." And so, because all body tissues eventually take part in this "primary respiratory mechanism," the CRI can be felt virtually anywhere on the body by a skilled therapist's touch.