Following on from the last posts* about aquatic bodywaves, I want to explore how Wilhelm Reich's work may be relevant to this body phenomenon and it's possible implications for some specific, though apparently unconscious need of the body/ mind for healing.
I welcome input from anyone who has experienced an aquatic bodywave or something similar.
The field of body psychotherapy evolved primarily from the work of Reich, an early twentieth century psychoanalyst who developed character analysis correlating certain psychological and physical patterns. Existential, humanistic and gestalt psychology, along with dance and movement therapy, family therapy, systems theory, biology, and Far Eastern philosophy, have since contributed to body psychotherapy.
These approaches take into account when problems began, and how they affect a person's development over the years, to help that person regain the healthy self-regulating function that has been disturbed. They are based on the underlying assumption that we are embodied beings and there is an essential unity between spiritual, psychological, and bodily aspects of being, that affects our health on an ongoing basis. It would follow that considering any one of these in isolation may not be as effective as considering the whole - that's the basis of holistic health.
All experiences, including distortions and denials of reality and other defensive actions, are reflected in how we move and breathe, and how our bodies and health change over the years as we age. Bodywork, with or without psychotherapy, can help us to become more conscious of these responses by connecting us with body sensations and the messages they convey about self-integration and health. Sometimes, just that connection is all it takes for the body to make a spontaneous shift.
Reich thought that the body and all of nature were subject to a 'primordial cosmic energy' he called orgone, perhaps rather like the prana, chi, and subtle energy of other alternative healing modalities. He believed orgone was blue in color, and responsible for everything from weather, the color of the sky, gravity, and the formation of galaxies, to the biological expressions of emotion and sexuality.
Reich's theory was that illness was primarily caused by depletion or blockages of the orgone energy within the body, which if adjusted might restore someone to health. He built structures called orgone accumulators to concentrate atmospheric orgone energy, and conducted experiments with laboratory animals and human subjects suffering from a variety of illnesses.
The effects observed were claimed to boost the immune system, even to the point of destroying certain types of tumors, though Reich was hesitant to suggest that this constituted cure. The orgone accumulator was also tested on mice with cancer, and on plant-growth, and the results convinced him that the benefits could not be attributed to a placebo effect.
What is experienced as a bodywave might simply be a heightened awareness in someone of the life force flowing through everything, including parts of the manifest world we consider inanimate (such as water). This life force has been transmuted by yogis to initiate the arousal of kundalini, channeled intentionally by healers of many persuasions, and harnessed in tantric practices to clear psychological issues.
Reich believed he had developed a grand unified theory of physical and mental health but he was severely persecuted for his views, which perhaps speaks to the cautious silence regards aquatic bodywaves. Maybe it is better after all not to try to investigate phenomena like these, which do not so much benefit from human interference but rather from a willingness not to interfere at all. They just are, and they heal without fanfare.
*Related posts by Sulis
