In attempting to write about my experiences in the water, and the connections it has encouraged me to make, I hope to inspire you to make your own journeys of exploration. Below I have collected together some of my writing on aspects of aquatic bodywork that are not widely acknowledged or understood.
A water dream: my aquatic journey
The movements and sensations experienced during bodywork in water allow me to open to the messages of my unconscious; it is a moving meditation. The experience can resemble a shamanic journey. I often have the sense of leaving "this world" reality to enter "other world" while in a state of ecstasy. Read more.
The age of dreaming has come
Dream recall is a relatively recent experience for me, and coincided with my introduction to aquatic bodywork around the millenium. Awake-dreaming in the water while receiving this buoyant form of movement therapy, seemed to give access to my night dreaming world as well. Read more.
Trance, dreaming and aquatic bodywork
I am being drawn by a series of occurrences in my life to attempt an integration of the concept of retreats that bear some resemblance to Asclepian sanctuaries, with the power of dreams, especially in association with aquatic bodywork which can provide a portal to a depth of experience that enables what I'll call soul healing. Read more.
An aquatic kriya: the bodywave
As a practitioner and teacher of yoga in addition to my training in aquatic bodywork, I have sometimes described aquatic bodywork to people as being 'like having yoga done to you'. And interestingly, Harold Dull, the creator of Watsu, invented a support practice for Watsu that he gave the less-catchy name of Woga. It involves adopting yoga-type postures while floating in water. But there is another aspect of aquatic bodywork that relates more intriguingly to yoga. It is rarely talked about, though I believe it warrants further exploration. I'm referring to a phenomenon Harold has called the 'bodywave'. Read more.
Omnipresent blue energy (aquatic healing)
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. Read more.
A return to the water
One of my most blissful early aquatic bodywork experiences was being held upside down and under water in the 'embryo' position where it seemed I accessed both my conception and my dying. It was as if everything came together in me and expanded beyond me at the same time: a paradox that made sense. This series of five posts was inspired by [another] recent session, and the two with other aquatic bodyworkers that followed it, during a week in mid-March when a similar shift in my consciousness occurred. Read more.
A path to aquatic ecstasy
This entry is a continuation of 'A return to the water.' It describes and elaborates upon my recent experiences as a receiver of aquatic bodywork at Harbin Hot Springs where I first came across and trained in this healing art (Watsu and other forms). Read more.
Diving deeper: shamanic, yogic, scientific and poetic paths
Is it possible that: the movements a person is guided through during an aquatic bodywork session; the way in which this alters breathing patterns; the occurrence of waking dreams and passing images and vocalizations; the synchronization that appears to occur between giver and receiver; and, not least, the medium in which this all takes place - water - have the potential to provide, for someone who is not a master of kundalini yoga, a beneficial experience of higher consciousness? Read more.
Pristine waters: murky depths
There is a overlying potential in aquatic bodywork that parallels shamanic journeying, yogic disciplines, and other sacred healing arts in its power to effect significant change on all levels of a person's life experience. Like Asclepian dream healing, which was often sought out by those for whom the medical practices of the day had nothing to offer, the purpose is not so much to cure by outside intervention as to heal by facilitating an inner transformation. Read more.
How to investigate aquatic altered states of consciousness
Altering a person's state of consciousness positively, restoring to vibrancy the subtle energy field around the human body, relieving someone of an adverse psychosomatic reaction - all these lack widely accepted conceptual frameworks and study models. They present problems of definition, measurement, reproducibility, evaluation, and so on. However, there are precedents. Some are offered later in this post.
