"Soma Time" #6 - After Hours

2008 opened with an astrologer telling us to beware the wrath of Pluto on JAN 26th...and it kind of went off on several tangents from there. In this look back at the shows from JAN to JUN, we explored the themes of the Naked Soma "I" Contact Radio Hour program from the 'enlightened' position of 20/20 hindsight. We had a wide of variety of experts join us, that's for sure. The audience, OTOH, had trouble connecting all the dots we put up there. When you see all the episodes in one place though, you can better appreciate how many worlds somatics impacts. Here's a quick guide to the shows from the first half of 2008. The red highlighted shows below were featured during our review show. You can always go to the BTR show page and download any show you like. Happy reflections!

Pamella Cucinell - Astrology Terminology - January 7, 2008

Lisa Lawless - Sexual Identity & Experimentation - January 9, 2008

Rubin Naiman - The Spiritual Nature of Sleep and Dreaming - January 16, 2008

Hieros - Social Networking in Pagan Space - January 23, 2008

Rick Leskowitz - Crowed Coherence & Sports Fan Research - January 30, 2008

Bob Fanelli - Muscle Memory and Body Design Dynamics - February 6, 2008

Hasita Nadai - YogaGaia - Yoga of Earth & Kosmic Consciousness - Februray 13, 2008

Dorothy Martin-Neville - The Institute of Healing Arts & Sciences - February 20, 2008

Amy & Kristy - Paranormal Experts - February 27, 2008

Robert Affolter - Redefining Health and Health Care - March 5, 2008

Dr. Blogstein - Radio Jesus! - 03/12/2008

John K. Harms - Quantum Physics Exploration - The Immortal Battery - 03/19/2008

Saundra Harris, AKA Sassy - Women & Their Daddy Issues - 03/26/2008

Patti Littwin - Creator of the Yackle Ball - 04/02/2008

Anna - Parapsychologist - The Tantric Experience - 04/09/2008

Carissa Star, Blogger, Screenwriter - Movies, Media & Meaning - 04/16/2008

Joe Dispenza - What the Bleep? - The Biology of Change - 04/23/2008

Amy Hausman - From Holistic Life to Holistic Service - 04/30/2008

Neil Slade, NeilSlade.com - Brain & Creativity - 05/07/2008

Karen R DesLandes, InstituteofSelf-Discovery.com -Women's Empowerment - 05/14/2008

Stephen Elliott, Coherence.com - Author of 'Coherent Breathing-The Definitive Method' - 05/21/2008

Richard Jorgensen, AwareComm.com - eMods for Learning & Living; 05/28/08

Rachel Lazar-Paley, Esq. ConsciousWoman.org & ConsciousLawyer.org - On-Line Empowerment 06/04/2008

Oh Father! - The Glorious Father's Day show 06/11/2008

Summertime - The Equally Glorious Seasonal Transition Show -06/18/2008

Steven Hayes, Ph.D. - Contextual Psychology - Acceptance & Commitment Therapy - 06/25/2008

Related TSM Links
Be a Soma Seller for our information/desktop products: http://www.somaspace.org/seller.html
Be a Soma Sponsor for our Live Workshops (we travel): http://www.somaspace.org/sponsor.html
Buy You Some Soma Now in our Webstore: http://www.somaspace.org/s4s.html
And in the store, pay special attention to the Somatic Companion for the ultimate emotional makeover.

For any detailed questions about TSM or our partnership opportunities contact Lota Samonte at (678) 701-8337 between 5pm and 9am ET (she's not from around here!) or e-mail her at lm_samonte@bellsouth.net - She'll handle most inquires with the day or in 24 hours at the most. If you missed the show, rip & sip it later - mp3- or just use the player in the sidebar now. In case you missed the show, I promised these two clips to the listeners...enjoy!

"Soma Time" #5 - After Hours

One Heart > Two Heads...Our 5th (and perhaps final) show in this format focused on the allopathic villain - ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION and well, as you can expect, we had some fun with our pathologizing pals. The first false God to address was the notion that ED was ED and not an SD or systemic dysfunction -- which it is. So we did the holistic chore of panning back and connecting all the dots that are not in the picture. As we explained, ED is just another example of how imbalances in the way the brain or heart (in this case both) regulate the body's function leads to the natural result, which in this case is a bout of impotency (sorry, 80's relapse). By understanding the social and deeper psychological issues that are the ingredients for this condition, the self-organizing nature of the biologicial/organic aspects actually seem downright intelligent on behalf of the body.

Wordsoma - The first choice word I uttered is something totally off the radar of the ED community. The process of tumescence (wiki) which is the engourgement of the 'erectile tissues' is not typically tied to the aforementioned - RED LIGHT REFLEX - which I'll save you the trouble of Googling and give you the relevant lines from Thomas Hanna's timeless classic "Somatic" book...

The Red Light reflex causes contraction in the perineal muscles through synergistic action. Contraction also occurs because of the increased pressure in the abdominal cavity, which causes the sphincter muscles of the urethra and the anus to reflexly contract. This chronic tightening around the blood vessels leading to the penis and clitoris prevents full blood flow and full innervation, thus prevent tumescence.

Impotence is common among persons chronically contracted in the abdominal-perineal area. And these same persons are, predictably, shallow breathers subject to anxiety feelings. The problem would seem to be a traditional psychological one, but it is not. It is more often a reflexive muscular problem in control has been lost." (page 56)

So by recognizing the fundamental somatic reality - self AND surroundings - we can get beyond the labels that stigmatize ED and demonize the biology behind andropause and free men from themselves.

I found a typical moo doctor summary of ED for the moo inclined - enjoy the horror story (1)

The rest of you sapes can move from one kind of red light...to another... ;)

We mentioned a few books and I recalled a few that I'd thought I'd pop in here since the holidays are upon us...

Survival Of The Sickest by Sharon Moelum

Pelvic Power by Eric Franklin

Dynamic Imagery by Eric Franklin

And finally, here's the link to Professor Val's mention of the article: 12 Things To Throw At Bush

Time Techniques - ED is a great portrait in the circular aspect of what we called your closed identity in TSM (oops, sorry Wordsoma). Just to save you the trouble, a closed identity is what makes you feel disconnected, separated and distinct from your surroundings. It's the more common way we orient ourselves in the world and as we age, this strategy works against us as we shift gears from the survival-based biological brain to the evolution-based social brain. The downward spiral to ED has many stops on the train. But to use time as an ally, I related a story of a client who found a way to use his non-ED past as leverage to re-focus his attention during the 'moment of truth' as it were. You'll have to replay the show to get the details. The general idea is spelled out here below.

If we frame any undesired event (or desired one actually) as THIS TIME, we create a wave in time. The downside of that wave is called the MEANTIME, a period between the initial and the subsequent occurrence of the original event. Whenever that occurs is called NEXT TIME. Most of us are conditioned to spend our MEANTIME dreading, ignoring, dismissing, or denying that NEXT TIME will ever happen. Since we have six different time frames to access during MEANTIME, we have an opportunity to support the outcome we desire. To do that, we must view time as cyclical not linear.

TSM allows you to use your MEANTIME wisely so that no matter what happens NEXT TIME you can recover, renew and refresh your outlook because you're aware another MEANTIME will follow it. It works the same way for desired events. Rather than anticipating or craving NEXT TIME, we can take a more reflective position and allow for an appreciation of the prior event so if NEXT TIME arrives that is what surfaces and not addictive high of instant gratification. Both patterns take practice...

in the MEANTIME...check out our info product - Tacit Journey for more on this approach.

Related TSM Links - We're still gearing up for the holidays and want to include you!

Be a Soma Seller for our information/desktop products: http://www.somaspace.org/seller.html

Be a Soma Sponsor for our Live Workshops (we travel): http://www.somaspace.org/sponsor.html

Buy You Some Soma Now in our Webstore: http://www.somaspace.org/s4s.html

And in the store, pay special attention to the Somatic Companion for the ultimate emotional makeover.

For any detailed questions about TSM or our partnership opportunities contact Lota Samonte at (678) 701-8337 between 5pm and 9am ET (she's not from around here!) or e-mail her at lm_samonte@bellsouth.net - She'll handle most inquires with the day or in 24 hours at the most.

If you missed the show, rip & sip it later - mp3 - or just use the player in the sidebar now.

In case you missed the show, I promised these two clips to the listeners...enjoy!

"Soma Time" #4 - After Hours

Charlie Brown! You Blockhead! Depression was the focus on this week's show - and man was this a boring frickin' topic. I compare it's afflicted to the people suffering from shyness. They both carry the assumption that everyone else cares about their internal experiences. And to top it off, once you're in the depressed perspective, you cease to relate or equate you internal experiences to anyone elses. So the downer sape is locked into a fixed way of interpreting life. But life doesn't care. It just keeps those waves of experience crashing down on you and soon your downer becomes a bummer, and then a bender. If you enter into a rut, the 'known misery' becomes your security blanket to the only thing a depressed sape lives for - the possibility it could all get worse. And why? Look!

The origin of depression isn't external. It's in the natural cycle of life. The square wave of our breathing shows us that when we're depressed it isn't due to a lack of inspiration but a lack of expiration. Depression is the result of a breathing rhythm that doesn't allow the individual to empty their lungs, to EXO or exit the body with both their attention and their breath. So just by placing more of an emphasis on breathing out just a little more we release the physiological grip of da blues. But realize that we pass through it each time we breathe in again. We HAVE to get depressed to make space to receive the air. So it's on the in-breath that all the anxiety rushes in. Then if we don't let that energy go and fail to release it on the out-breath, we're discharged and soon after that, we feel less energized. This gets imposed on our movement patterns and soon we're 'feeling' sluggish. So then we get the 'full metal jacket' - a short, shallow in-breath and a slow, shallow out-breath. Sigh!

Wordsoma - There really wasn't much to report on this front during this show. Like I said, depression is only a puzzle to the depressed. It's a solo flight into the darkness. I did mention an old somatic term that qualifies as jargon. It's called The Dark Vise and rather than tell ya, I'll show ya.



"If we reflect upon the collision of the Red Light and Green Light reflexes in the senile posture and their statically opposing contractions, we suddenly realize the potential fatality of the senile posture. The body's two major muscle groups are opposing one another involuntarily in a static, isometric contraction-a Dark Vise that causes chronically high blood pressure. As mentioned above, hypertensive arteriosclerosis is at the root of cardiovascular disease, a major cause of death in later life. Moreover, it is common for elderly humans to have high blood pressure. By putting these two facts together, we come up with a cause of hypertensive arteriosclerosis: the senile posture that occurs due to the unimpeded habituation of the Red Light and Green Light reflexes. If these reflexes occur often enough and strongly enough, they can become habituated, fading gradually from voluntary consciousness into sensory-motor amnesia-and the Dark Vise takes over." - excerpt from “Somatics” by Thomas Hanna p. 106-110

So in case you don't really care, what all this fuss above means is, if you're depressed for prolonged periods of time, you'll get locked into postural habits that put your heart in a pressure cooker from the loss of voluntary motor control of the muscles that allow you to move freely from a relaxed neutral posture. You've seen these people everywhere. The ones with the candy cane postures have their heads out in front of their chests, locked in flexion. They have literally failed into their old fetal C-curved spine, the one that has weak cerebellar development, which is a hallmark of both fetuses and the senile - translation - brain rot!. The jacknife sapes with the bubble butts are still trying to fight gravity and they are the ones who get the belly aneurysms when the system can't distribute the tension anymore & buckles below the heart. Either way, not good people. Will you breathe now?

Time Techniques - We talked about the two primary timelines we use to organize our experiences. The issues in depression isn't time, it's what's expected to happen next. Depressed somas are in a constant state of dread that they'll be a mismatch between what they anticipate happening and what actually does happen. So they carry two (or more) constrasting images about the future and as a result, refer to the past for guidance. This is why we say depression thrives on 'known misery' because if keeps circulating old images that allows for a low degree of security, but no freedom at all.

We talked about adopting the Raindrop Time Technique to get around this draw bridge & root yourself. By placing the future (what's next) above you, you feel more 'in the moment' and then as you exhale the past goes through you and into the ground. Try this one for a few days and then go call Prozac!

Related TSM Links - We're still gearing up for the holidays and want to include you!
Be a Soma Seller for our information/desktop products: http://www.somaspace.org/seller.html
Be a Soma Sponsor for our Live Workshops (we travel): http://www.somaspace.org/sponsor.html
Buy You Some Soma Now in our Webstore: http://www.somaspace.org/s4s.html
And in the store, pay special attention to the Somatic Companion for the ultimate emotional makeover.

For any detailed questions about TSM or our partnership opportunities contact Lota Samonte at (678) 701-8337 between 5pm and 9am ET (she's not from around here!) or e-mail her at lm_samonte@bellsouth.net - She'll handle most inquires with the day or in 24 hours at the most.

If you missed the show, rip & sip it later - mp3 - or just use the player in the sidebar now.

"Soma Time" #3 - After Hours

Check Out Anytime You Like - Tonight we tackled the Bronco Nagurski of the Allopathic Alphabet: CANCER. So if you have a 'Grossburger' in your cells I can relate. On the show, I continued my own personal experience of it that I had begun on SUN with my essay: Cancer Villain and got into the missing pieces of the puzzle that the somatic paradigm addesses. It was cathartic for me to take this reflective trip back through the maze I had to wade through back when it was still a little 'uppity' to question your doctor. We uncovered some hidden truths for you.

Wordsoma - Continuing our 'list-less' format here (help anyone?), here are some of the terms we tossed out there during the show that may have stopped your train of thought as you listened in. The first was this notion of stigmas - which CANCER has managed to maintain, despite over 40 years of a self-declared war on it by the conventional health care community. The culture determines was conditions are socially acceptable or unacceptable and our bodies eavesdrop on that conversation. In the 50's, the scandalous event like a teen pregnancy was enough to get you banished from your community. Addiction, even to socially sanctioned drugs like alcohol, has not seen as a disease at one time, it was a social outrage. Being pro or anti-war has been in and out of favor, depending on the decade we zoom in on. But CANCER is a different case. Since the 60's we've targeted everything, including the sun itself, as potential sources of cancer. We can't BBQ, get a tan or indulge in almost any vice without hearing about it's cancerous risk. Yet we're also given the allopathic shield of prevention - which if we follow that paper trail, it resulted in establishing a set of 'early interventions' to screen us all for the initial stages of - ya guessed it - CANCER. But as we've seen with women and PAP smears - the number of false positives sometimes outweigh the benefits of the procedure. This gets into the somatic aspect of all this. When cells are traumatized, they lose their shape and express dysplasia - the allopathic shorthand for funny-shaped cells. In the cases of the PAP smears, dysplasia can be due a yeast infection, but that never stopped the radical hysterectomies and radiation therapy that were being performed. But if we actually look at the life cycle of cells, we are provided with a nice map. Cells growth, repair and get replaced. Each tissue has a 'kinetic', an action-plan to accomplish this and sustain their integrity or wholeness.

On the show I mentioned the popular book "Ageless Body, Timeless Mind" by old Depak Chopra, which btw, he's updated and re-issued the book and coated it in the current popular woo pancea, quantum biology, in 2007. When we get out of that rhythm, the cells don't die and replaced so we get what amounts to 'zombie cells', necrotic tissue that leads dysplasia, dysfunction, degeneration and ultimately...trumpets -unregulated cell growth, which is 100% totally frickin' natural and necessary!

When replacement fails, repair and growth battle it out. If we learn to support the self-regulatory nature of cell regeneration, this overproliferation is now se-cured. Ugh. We also discussed how recent work by people like Peter D'Adamo in epigentics (adaptation biology) and Bruce Lipton in PNI (which deals with the primacy of the environment) and yet we still fear and dread the INEVITABLE experience of cancer. What we advocate in The Somatic Method (TSM) is not prevention, but prehabilitation, which we achieve by tonifying the integrity of the motor system through SIMPLES. There are no ways to bullproof yourself from CANCER. So stop looking. If we face the fears we have about dying by focusing on how well we want to live, when CANCER visits us, we know it's about a loss of rhythm, not a curse from some dead ancestor trying to swat us off the planet. Surf life sapiens!

Time Techniques - I'll go into the desert for one of my old friends on this CANCER trail. Somewhere in the 80's I crossed path with a sape named Carlos Casteneda, who's sort of the somatic Jimi Hendrix to me. He described a breathwork process to help us unravel the attachments we accummulate with our past (including all that fear conditioning) that mutes our existence...

Recapitulation is a term coined by Carlos Casteneda in his book, The Eagle's Gift, published in 1982. In The Eagle's Gift, Florinda, one of don Juan's apprentices, teaches Castaneda about the process and purpose of recapitulation. She explained that recapitulation consisted of "recollecting one's life down to the most insignificant detail" and that when a woman's recapitulation was complete she "no longer abided by the limitations of her person."[1] She further explained that in the process of recapitulation one recounts all the feelings they invested in whatever memory they were reviewing.

Florinda told Castaneda that recapitulation often began with a list of items to be recalled. One then proceeded to work through the list one item at a time staying with the item until all of the emotions around the event had been felt. The recapitulation was done with the breath. While recalling the event, one inhaled slowly, moved their head from the right shoulder to the left. The next breath moved from left to right and was an exhalation. The purpose of the breath was to restore energy. When breathing from right to left one would "pick up the filaments they left behind" and when breathing from left to right they would "eject filaments left in them by other luminous bodies involved in the event being recollected." [wiki]

Related TSM Links - We're still gearing up for the holidays and want to include you!

Be a Soma Seller for our information/desktop products: http://www.somaspace.org/seller.html

Be a Soma Sponsor for our Live Workshops (we travel): http://www.somaspace.org/sponsor.html

Buy You Some Soma Now in our Webstore: http://www.somaspace.org/s4s.html

And in the store, pay special attention to the Somatic Companion for the ultimate emotional makeover.

For any detailed questions about TSM or our partnership opportunities contact Lota Samonte at (678) 701-8337 between 5pm and 9am ET (she's not from around here!) or e-mail her at lm_samonte@bellsouth.net - She'll handle most inquires with the day or in 24 hours at the most.

If you missed the show, rip & sip it later - mp3 - or just use the player in the sidebar now.