SET - Bringing Balance and Harmony for Health and Wellness

My name appeared on the list of presenters at the American Polarity Therapy Association’s 20^th Anniversary Conference. Then I was asked to write an article in our premier Association magazine. My quandary, “how do I put in a few words, something that I am already questioning how to present in a 1 ½ hour workshop called, “Introduction to Polarity Therapy.” I sat contemplating both tasks, and then asked myself, “What is Polarity Therapy?” The next morning……..

I put on a new pair of walking shoes for my morning exercise routine which includes a one hour fast-pace walk. You guessed it, the blisters on my right little toe got blisters on the blisters. Now how can such an insignificant part of the body affect the entire body in such a “hurting” way? That little toe, Earth toe as we call it in Polarity Therapy, was getting attention that it had not received in weeks, maybe months. It was now saying, “look what you have done to me. Don’t ever mistreat me again. I may be small, but I can do tremendous damage.” It got my attention.

This experience was a wonderful lesson for me to understand once again that “the part affects the whole.” If one part of the body is out of balance, then the entire body is lacking harmony. Have you ever gotten a hangnail and noticed how uncomfortable it was. Did you notice that no matter how you tried to protect it, it was the finger that always jumped out in front of the others as you picked something up or accidentally hit your hand against a doorway. It’s the hand when greeting someone with a handshake that is squeezed the hardest. Gives a new meaning to the words of Jesus when he said that whatsoever you do to the “least” among you, you do unto ME!!

So, blisters on my Earth toe or a hangnail on the Water finger may seen like no big thing to you, but tell that to ME!! The entire body becomes focused and absorbed with gentle, casual movements when it comes to these areas of the body. The entire body goes on high alert (in DC, we would call it a Code Orange) to make sure that the hangnail finger, or blistered little toe, is protected. In Polarity we learn that these seemingly insignificant parts really are significant to the efficacious functioning and movement of the whole. But wait I am getting ahead of myself. This is about an introduction to Polarity Therapy, not the entire 675 hours needed to become a Registered Polarity Practitioner. So, let me continue with an explanation by continuing to be …….. personal.

My first exposure with Polarity Therapy was the experience of receiving a Polarity treatment. I don’t know what led me to call for that first appointment. Because, this type of bodywork was not what I had been accustomed to receiving. But I had just read a little book called, “Your Healing Hands” by Richard Gordon and I was slightly intrigued. So I called a practitioner and scheduled the appointment. I got off the table with an eerie feeling that this work was familiar. I also had the keen awareness that I remembered the protocol down to the minutest detail. I still do to this very day,

I asked the practitioner what had just happened? I wanted to receive an explanation for this unusual experience. I am a Pisces, with a Capricorn rising and an Aquarius moon. So, I wanted the details. I wanted to be able to give verbal meaning for this experience. The practitioner gave me a slight smile with a tilted head, and as I watched her lips go, “bla, bla, bla, bla, bla” I knew this was one of those times in my life to which I assigned a benchmark. I knew I would come back to this memory and upon it I would build a castle; not a castle in the sky, but a castle of brick and mortar.

I wanted to know, “what is Polarity Therapy?” I wanted to learn all that I could about this interesting work and the experience that I had just had with it. That afternoon and evening, I re-read Mr. Gordon’s book, maybe twice more. “The facts Ma’ma, just the facts,” that is what I wanted. The Monday following my Friday treatment, I began with my first client who proceeded to tell me about an experience that he had had the previous week with a practitioner in North Carolina. He told me that he had received some kind of bodywork, but it was called some kind of “energy work.” I was amazed that he didn’t crinkle his nose, roll his eyes or laugh when he said that word….”energy.”

It had a strange name and he didn’t really remember, but if I said it, he might recognize it. “Polarity Therapy?” I asked. His reply, “yes, I think it was.” I got up and locked the door to the studio and said, “You, Mr., are not leaving here until you tell me EXACTLY what he did and what it means!”

Actually, the previous sentence is a fabrication, but I could have and would have done it. And, I would not have had one bit of shame. I did want the client to tell me everything he remembered and asked if he had received an explanation for the work. “Nope, I just felt wonderful afterwards,” was all he said. I realized I was not getting anywhere with him so I told him that I wanted to try some new work with which I had been experiencing. He said OK.

I decided that this guy would be my “energy guinea pig.” I remembered the protocol that I had received on Friday and proceeded to duplicate it. I was somewhere lost in the memory of my personal treatment and the realization of what was happening with my client. I became aware of the action and interplay under and between my hands. I saw the client respond in ways that I had not seen previous clients respond. I felt movement, in stillness. I felt fluidity in solidity. I experienced fire and thought, “surely his body will have blisters that resemble the imprint of my hands.” There were no blisters, only relief from pain. On future treatments, this client always made sure that I saved time to work more energy on him. Finally, deep tissue work was less effective for him than the gentle manipulations that I was incorporating from, “Your Healing Hand” and that first Polarity treatment that I had received.

By now I was reading whatever I could about Polarity Therapy, but I could not understand the “language.” I might as well have been reading Russian. The language did not make sense to me. I am far from being an “intellect snob,” but this was very unsettling. I had a masters degree in adult training and was working on my doctorate. I surely could not be that dumb. I soon realized that this new language had a Spiritual foundation to it. I had grown up with an entirely different Spiritual language and even though I didn’t currently “speak it” it was still my foundation.

Now, I had to incorporate a different Spiritual language into my vocabulary. I remember the time that I was able to complete a conversation and formulate my own thoughts around concepts with a group of people who were already fluent in the Spiritual language. The experience reminded me of a student in my first Polarity training class. For nine months at our monthly weekend classes, she always said, “ I don’t feel anything.” Every day of each class she would say she didn’t feel what others were saying that they were experiencing. On the next to the last class during one of those “Sattva” moments of students working on each other, from the other side of the room I heard in her booming voice, “I FEEL IT!!” That was the way that I felt when I was able to communicate in the new language.

I have been reading Dr. Stone too much. Again I got off the subject at hand to chase a few rabbits. So back to my story. “OK, OK,” I said. “I must find a teacher and study this work.” I found a local training and began classes in Polarity Therapy. The first class, I knew I was where I was supposed to be. My castle in the sky was now taking form. Thus began my quest to answer the question, “what is Polarity Therapy.”

Since that first class as a Polarity Therapy student, I have had the opportunity as a teacher of Polarity Therapy to teach several students, including my “energy guinea pig” client and the “I feel it” client, about Dr. Randolph Stone’s beautiful Polarity Therapy.

“What is Polarity Therapy?” I think this is one of the hardest questions to answer. It is difficult because there is not a simple “do-re-mi” response. Every teacher of PT is constantly trying to define and simplify the definition. I remember the first time my teaching partner and I taught an Introduction to Polarity Therapy at a local massage school. We were so insecure and wanted to give a precise, simple and correct definition of PT that we read a five-page definition. I am surprised that the class of 30 came back after the first break and even more amazed to be asked to return after the students gave such high and favorable remarks in their evaluation form for the class.

You know, it is easier to tell students what Polarity Therapy does, rather than what it is. To tell the student, or prospective client for that matter, that PT facilitates balance in all the systems of their body through the alignment of their energy body is one thing. But to explain that we have an energy body that must stay in balance is quite another thing. To explain to the public that Dr. Stone said, “energy is the real substance behind the appearance of matter and form,” or that it is the “energy in matter that makes matter seem alive.” Like the water hose of a firefighter, it only becomes useful and energized when water (energy) is flowing through it. It is the water that animates it and gives it life and purposefulness. Without the water, it is just a long piece of limp, hollow tubing.

Energy affects the human body like the example of water through a hose. As long as the energy is flowing through the systems, the body performs the tasks that it is supposed to do. But energy can be “pinched” or “crimped” and the body will perform in an unhealthy manner that can eventually lead to death and destruction. Likewise, if the fire hose gets crimped or twisted, the water flow slows or stops completely. This results in undue pressure in some part of the hose or its support areas. Eventually, the pressure overpowers the energy container and damages or destroys the system, in this example the hose.

In his book “Health Building” Dr. Stone explains Polarity Therapy as an art of correspondences of body spaces and function through the Hermetic Principle of Attraction and Repulsion. Polarity Therapy incorporates the study and manipulation of electromagnetic fields in, around, and through the body. By systematically manipulating these electromagnetic fields, body systems and functions maintain an internal healthy balance. But if the external energy fields are not assimilated and incorporated with the internal energies, health cannot be fully achieved.

We live in a world of duality. Everything has a positive or negative charge. Beginning at the very cellular foundation of the human body, we find that these electromagnetic waves are working in negative and positive charges to facilitate the interaction of attraction and repulsion principles. If every cell of the body is bipolar, then it stands to reason that the entire human body also maintains bipolar charges.

The practitioner of Polarity Therapy understands the concept of the dual polar body. A client’s energy body can be manipulated with therapeutic energy application of a practitioner’s hands. Each hand has a charge; the right a positive and the left a negative. The hands of the practitioner are positioned on the client’s body to stimulate and encourage energetic movement toward health and wellness. The practitioner’s negative charged hand is always on an area of the client’s body that projects a positive charge. The client’s negative charged areas are met with the practitioner’s positive charge. The practitioner’s negative and positive hands create a complete electrical circuit. When the positive hand is positioned on an area of the client’s body that has a negative charge, a Polarity contact is completed. The reverse is also true.

This system does not restrict nor limit the practitioner from working on any part of the client’s body since the human body’s positive and negative charge works in three dimensions of space. The top of the body is positive and the lower half is negative. The right side is positive and the left is negative. The front of the body is negative and the back is positive. The practitioner needs constant awareness of these simple rules of dual polar charges on the client’s body. They can facilitate energy exchange and balancing by the correct positioning of their left and right, or negative and positive, charged hands against the client’s negative and positive charged body. Now, we are beginning to get a more complex definition of Polarity Therapy.

So, to define Polarity Therapy we can start by saying that it is a health science system that creates balance and harmony within the systems of the human body and their interrelationships. This is done through the manipulation of energy forces that exist within and without the body. This natural life science stimulates wellness and health to bring energetic systems of the human body into a state of harmony through the principles and laws of nature. As a therapeutic system it can ease joint discomfort by helping with developing better structural alignment; it can positively affect cranium headaches and stress by providing increased space in the head and hips; provide physical space and flexibility to allow for alignment in vertebrae and other bones; sooth and eliminate headaches; assist with digestion and elimination; help one to feel more connected with their inner core; sooth emotional stress and make one feel balanced and harmonious not only within, but also without.

To better understand Polarity Therapy, one must know that it is the energy currents that stimulate and support healing, wellness, and general health. Polarity Practitioners work with different qualities of energy that correspond to specific areas of the physical body. As esoterically as it might sound, practitioners are able to distinguish the energy in the body according to the qualities of the currents. In Polarity, we work with three main currents that we call Transverse, Long Line and Spiral. Suppose some area of the body is in pain, for instance, the right side proximal to the inferior ribs. The Polarity Practitioner begins by evaluating the currents to detect if there is imbalance within any of them. This gives the practitioner information to determine possible causes for the pain. It could be the lack of activity in the Spiral current, which governs all the digestive processes in the body. It also governs mental and emotional digestion, as in how an internal thought, concept or idea is “digested.” Also, there could be a “pinching” of the Transverse current which might indicate a lack of movement within the digestive system, or a particular digestive organ. For example maybe the bile in the gall bladder is not moving. This lack of movement hinders the ability of the digestive system to perform its healthy function.

Each current also directly influences one of the three Nervous Systems. The Long Line Current influences the Central Nervous System; the Parasympathetic Nervous System corresponds to the Transverse Current and the Spiral Current to the Sympathetic Nervous System. Since the Nervous System is the first line of defense into the physical body, the Practitioner of Polarity can use the skills of energy awareness to help balance these systems.

“Fingers are more powerful than needles.” Dr. Stone recognized the currents as the Three Principles of Polarity Therapy. He stressed the power of working with the currents to facilitate healing. As we have discussed earlier, one dimension of the body divides the positive and negative energy, according to the right and left side of the body, respectively. So, the right side has a positive charge and the left a negative charge. Then to delve deeper in this concept, each of the fingers possess a charge. Beginning with the thumb, which is neutral, the other digits alternate from negative to positive. The index finger, Air finger, has a negative charge; as does the ring finger, Water finger. The middle finger, Fire, and little finger, Earth, both have positive charges.

Dr. Stone said that what needles can do, the hands can do better. This is true, he continued, as long as a battery of consciousness, plus an awareness of “an intelligence” for the direction of currents accompany the hands. The right hand is the positive, sun action, radiating, disbursing outgoing energy. The left hand is negative, cooling, toning, soothing, gathering and attracting incoming energy.

Some times the remedy for pain, the physical imbalance, is not always easily detected and evaluated. The practitioner can then approach the body’s other energy patterns to detect the source of the physical discomfort. These other energy patterns are found in what ancient text call chakras. Some sources estimate that there are as many as 360 chakras in the human body. These writings tell us that some are considered to be major chakras and others are minor ones. These swirling wheels of energy perform like power generators in the body located in specific areas for specialized functions.

Polarity Therapy Practitioners work with five major energy patterns that can be detected in five specific areas of the body. These energies spiral and undulate out, projecting from a focused center. The moving pattern emanates from the center to reveal the health condition of the chakras and the body part that lie beneath its energy path. These chakras are named and characterized according to the elements that make up our external environment. There is the Earth Chakra, which influences and animates the energies in the lower trunk of the body, inclusive of the coccyx in the spine. This energy can feel heavy and possess a solid, equal, grounding pulsation when in balance. Like the energy of the Earth itself, it works with the gravitational forces to help the body anchor in its grounding. The trained Polarity practitioner knows when the Earth Chakra energy is experiencing too much of a pull or too much of a pushing away. Either activity is indicative of an imbalance in the Earth’s energy field. The imbalance may result in pain, discomfort, numbness or any other number of physical reactions. If left in its state of imbalance, it can and does result in destruction to the affected systems and eventually the entire body.

Polarity is unique in that it does not address the major seven chakras of the body. Dr. Stone developed the work to address only the five elemental chakras because he taught that these helped us in our journey through this life as human beings. Through their balance and harmonization they either lifted us to the heights of heaven or condemned us to the Hades of the Earth bound. He positioned the other two higher chakras, the Third Eye and Crown, as being those that dealt with our connection to Spirit. He felt that when we could balance the lower five physical chakras that their resounding energy of balance and harmony would reflect back to the Source from which our energy originated. The Earth Chakra and the other elemental ones are explored in-depth in an approved Polarity Therapy training. Due to space limitation, suffice it to say that the other Chakras are also named according to environmental elements; Water, Fire, Air and Ether. They each have sense connections. They resonate with a particular color. They vibrate according to a musical tone and ancient mantra sound. Each of the elemental chakras has unique and distinctive qualities that correspond to the element from which it derives it name. They also influence glands. For example the Earth governs the gonad glands.

Polarity Therapy teaches the practitioner to use three modes of motion for energy. These three modes are continuously in use throughout a Polarity session. Taken from the ancient Ayurvedic Medicine texts, these three modes are called “gunas.” All energy begins from a point of neutrality called Sattva. This energy in balance is light, expansive, gentle, and is usually strongest when applied off the body. From this point of neutrality, Sattva, the energy projects out, generating a positive charge in the energy path. It is characterized, among other descriptive terms as outgoing, activating, moving, and directive. This is called Rajas. The third, and complete, charge is Tamas. It holds the negative charge for energy. It is the attracting energy that builds a container within which energy can exit and manifest into form. The practitioner is always aware of containing Sattva with one hand while generating, or allowing, Rajas or Tamas with the other hand. The two hands are never both Rajas, nor Tamas. But both can be in Sattva. Because that is the mode from which all health and healing occurs.

The journey to discovering “what is Polarity Therapy” is a “long and winding road.” (To quote the Beatles.) The path is filled with many wonderful experiences not for only helping others, but to also find communion with your Truth and inner self. Remember, according to the American Polarity Therapy Association’s STANDARDS, to explain or describe what Polarity Therapy is requires a minimum of 675 hours. The APTA website lists approved trainings and schools in your area. (www.Polaritytherapy.org.)

In actuality, the study of Polarity Therapy is a life long pursuit. I learn daily about Polarity Therapy, either from a session with a client or in the class structure from a student. Just as energy must always be moving toward balance and harmonization, so does the study and application of Polarity Therapy. In one of Dr. Stones’ 1960s lectures, to the physicians for which he developed this beautiful work, he said, “Polarity Therapy is caught, not taught.” This is a perfect way to describe Polarity to a perspective student. As I tell students, learn the rules and then learn how to break them in order to make them better and move toward perfection. In my search to discover “what is Polarity Therapy” I learned that it is a modality of experientialism. I believe that the more experience one has in hands-on sessions, after learning the basics from an approved training or school, the better equipped one is to become a Polarity Practitioner.

No definition of Polarity Therapy would be complete without emphasizing one of its most unique aspects. It is a natural healthcare system that umbrellas energy touch protocols, energy nutrition, energy movements and a development of higher consciousness. No other modality instructs how to work with a client on both the energy level and the physical level simultaneously. No other modality offers such a complete opportunity of facilitating harmonization in the body’s many systems through energy awareness and balance. Practitioners learn how to encourage the client’s energy fields by incorporating these four spokes of the health wheel.

Students are encouraged to bring to the “discovery” of the Polarity Therapy party those things that make them unique and special. They are asked to bring those things that will draw to them those individuals who have been out there waiting for them to step into their ability and Truth. One secret of discovering what Polarity is and to become a Polarity Practitioner is to understand that you must simply move out of the way. Remove from the process, your self-will and ego, and the healing takes place. The practitioner is only a facilitator of the energy and the healing, not a healer. Only the client’s innate healer can heal them. Healing comes from the ability to let go and open to all possibilities. As John Lennon wrote “ Let it Be, Let it Be, Whisper words of wisdom, Let it BE!!”

Johnny Henderson, Ph.D., RPP, RPE

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