The Primal Midline, the Dural Tube and More…

Recently, I received a question from a student in our foundation training in Craniosacral Biodynamics trying to understand the difference between the dural tube and the primal midline. She reportedly found my response so clarifying that I decided to expand upon it for this blog, hoping it might be helpful for you, too.

The primal midline is an energetic phenomenon; it is the ever-arising midline of the torus-shaped bio-energetic field that we understand to be a step-down, or change of state, from the field of light, established at conception. The dural tube is physical. Like all physical form in the body, it forms in relationship to the primal midline, which is why the primal midline is important in Biodynamics. The midline represents an essential formative force, being the midline of the bioelectric field in which structures apparently form prior to their physical appearance.

For example, a group of scientists recently studying frog embryos at Tufts University were surprised to observe a bioelectric interchange between cells as the shape of the embryo’s face formed energetically, before it took form physically. You can view this fascinating development on YouTube, where an energetic midline also appears to present before the midline develops physically. You can see the midline looking like a light rising up the body from tail end towards head end. You can then see the physical midline following suit (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Zv9kURzBk).

In Biodynamics, we understand the bioelectric field to form at conception. It is a phenomenon seen throughout nature. Our physical body can be perceived as suspended within a fluid field, suspended within the torus of the bioelectric field, suspended within the field of light. Each field has its own midline.

A TORUS

 

As further explanation, here is an excerpt about it from my forthcoming book, The Breath of Life: An Introduction to Craniosacral Biodynamics:

 

 

Meeting the Primal Midline

The primal midline is a constantly uprising midline apparent in the bioelectric torus-shaped field we sense at a long tide level of perception. It differs from the midline of what we call the quantum field, or field of light, also established in relation to the individual at conception. The quantum midline can be perceived as running straight down the center of the physical body from the crown of the head to the perineum. This quantum field is universal and essentially unaffected by the conditions of life. The very slow, very constant inhalation and exhalation of long tide widen out from and return in to this quantum midline.

In contrast, the primal midline and its bioelectric torus manifest as a universal phenomenon, as well as relating to the individual, guiding individual development in the embryo and throughout life. Rather than presenting as a straight, unmodified line of light, like the quantum midline, the primal midline curves forward in relation to the folding of the embryo in the fourth week after conception. It therefore runs through the base of the skull and then forward and out through the center of the forehead, often referred to as the third eye region.

Several researchers have noticed the universality of similar energetic fields and forces organizing everything in nature. For example, Austrian “water wizard,” Viktor Schauberger, noted that everything, in nature, including water, is organized within energetic spirals or vortices, torus-shaped fields, each with a central midline or axis of stillness. Interestingly, in his native German language, the word for our boney midline, the spinal column, is Wirbelsaule, actually meaning “spiral column”! (Bartholomew, 2003, p. 66). As in Biodynamics, Schauberger perceived that “creative energy moves spirally in the form of a vortex. The creative process takes place as the energy containing the blueprint of what is being created moves in whatever way it needs to in order to create the system it wishes. It draws down matter as a mirror image of the idea or blueprint” (Bartholomew, 2003, p.60).

He saw the vortex as “the key to creative evolution… a window between different qualities or levels of energy” (Bartholomew, 2003, p. 27). This resonates with Sutherland’s “transmutation,” or change in state, of the Breath of Life into physical form. We might consider this transmutation as transference of vital information from the Breath of Life down into the cells.

SCHAUBERGER SPIRAL (from SILLS, 2011, FIG 2.3, P. 23) Thanks to illustrator, Dominique DeGranges

Like all things in nature, we humans are organized within energetic fields. Medical science researcher, Arthur Winfree, was studying the heart in health and disease when he discovered energetic fields around the heart (Winfree, 1987). These seemed to be affected in heart arrhythmias, as well as being important in the formation of proteins and hormones, and in biochemical processes like chemical bonding. Both Schauberger and Winfree described movement rising up the center or midline of a torus-shaped energetic field. This is how the primal midline is often perceived. Based on its constantly rising nature, as well as its embryological significance, we also refer to this midline as the “embryological arising.”

WINFREE SCROLL RING – The Torus in Three-Dimensional Space (from SILLS, 2011, P. 290 FIGURE 19.2 BASED ON WINFREE, 1987, P. 214) Thanks to illustrator, Dominique DeGranges.

 

As in the Embryo

In the embryo, the primitive streak and then the notochord form along the primal midline. The notochord, being a bit denser than other tissues, then serves as a fulcrum for the organisation of the rest of the embryonic tissue. The path of the notochord is through the centres of the vertebral bodies and discs, and remnants of the notochord have been said to remain in the centres of the intervertebral discs.

The dural tube, which is around the spinal cord, forms posterior to the notochord and primal midline, but in relationship to it. The dural tube relates to the fluid midline, which runs through the spinal canal in the centre of the spinal cord. This fluid midline of the fluid body or field is posterior to the primal midline of the bioelectric field. These midlines are energetic. The physical structures are guided in their formation and re-formation by these energetic phenomena. We therefore often sense the primal midline in the reorganisation stage (of Becker’s three stages). Things seem to be reorganising in relationship to the primal midline, as if they have been able to remember it once various inertial fulcrums have been resolved. At this point, I often have a sweet sense of holding a tiny embryo in my hands.

 

To me, this return to our original embryological potential is the essence of healing, and is also the theme of my next book. Stay tuned for more on that soon!

 

Please note: The images in this post are all from my book, The Breath of Life: An Introduction to Craniosacral Biodynamics, now available to pre-order! Click here to learn more and to pre-order!