Myofascial Release: The Missing Link in Therapy

John F. Barnes, PT

May 2004

Something has happened. Something that is incredibly important! The Quantum Shift that I have been talking about has occurred and will have a massive impact on you and healthcare that will be so vast it will be beyond your wildest imagination.

First, allow me to step back so any therapist or physician that has yet to take my Myofascial Release seminars can better understand our Myofascial Release perspective. Myofascial Release is Therapeutic Artistry. In school, I was told that therapy was a combination of science and art. Then all that was talked about was the scientific aspect, but no art.

As I developed my Myofascial Release Approach there has been over 30 years of resistance, criticism and attacks. I understand that new ideas and leaders must be tested. "THE HOTTER THE FIRE, THE STRONGER THE STEEL!" However, these scientific skeptics did not allow any room for new possibilities. I gradually became aware of a huge flaw in our educational system. We were taught what to think, not how to think!

Our educational system taught us to memorize what others told us to be true. This is not education; this is mass hypnosis. True perception arises from our creative, intuitive, instructive and wise mind, which was ignored or ridiculed in school. Basically, we were put into a trance that we call consensus consciousness. Science stomps on anyone that is different, unique or attempts to be creative. Any therapist or physician who has chosen to grow and has entered into the world of Myofascial Release has experienced this harsh reaction. Unfortunately, some fearful of what their peers thought crumbled and reverted to the old form of therapy that only provided superficial and temporary results to appease others. Fear cripples some and motivates others.

Despite all of this negativity, the courageous ones persisted and strengthened and are now functioning as the most highly skilled therapists in the country. Myofascial Release is now considered to be the most effective therapy in the history of healthcare!

This is confusing; it may help you to understand that your success exposes the dark hidden underbelly of science. Science does not care if you can help others if it does not fit into its paradigm of reality, that one can only be cured through chemicals or surgery. This myth that science called the only reality has just been exploded.

My confusion in the early part of my development of my Myofascial Release Approach was compounded by all the research on the fascial system did not match my experience with my patients and myself.

I eventually realized that all of the scientific research on the fascial system was done on cadavers (dead people). The medical paradigm fragmented the human over 300 years ago and taught us that we are mindless machines. In other words, consciousness does not matter and was not important or to be included in healthcare. However, this refutes our moment-by-moment experience. My personal experience was that consciousness was the most important aspect of life and healing. I found that my patients’ fascial system was full of life, memories, emotions and consciousness!

It wasn't until the very end of 2003 that the breakthrough occurred!

Does this mean that traditional scientists will be pleased with this massive new evidence that turns what science told us was reality upside down and inside out and supports what you and I have known to be true? No! Does it matter? No! I have found most scientists to be good at criticism and memorization, however, not readily open to new ideas or capable of understanding new concepts.

Albert Einstein has said that most scientists are mere technicians, since all they do is memorize facts written by someone else. He believed a true scientist was one that utilized his or her creative genius coupled with the rational mind. He said that all of his incredible ideas came in an intuitive visual flash. He "saw" the total picture and then used the logical/linear side of the brain to write down the concepts that described the intuitive/visual experience.

Science views people as objects. The fundamental premise of science is objectivity. A rudimentary understanding of Quantum Physics clearly demonstrates that there is NO OBJECTIVITY. The foundation of science was built on quicksand.

Some interesting thoughts from Arthur Koestler's book "The Ghost in the Machine" may be relevant here. He states that science is based on monumental superstitions and argues that the pillars of science are cracked and revealing themselves as hollow. And that science considers terms like consciousness, mind, imagination and purpose to be unscientific, treated as dirty words, and banned from the vocabulary.

Koestler goes on to state that at first the intention was to exclude consciousness as objects of study, but later on this came to imply that the excluded phenomenon did not exist.

I have always and will always come from the stance of what is best for the patient, not what some obsolete paradigm or insurance company tells me to do. If you live your life trying to please others you will go crazy. If you backed off before because someone criticized you consider the new information to follow from Science Magazine's Breakthrough of the Year".

Never again allow anyone to discourage you because you were told Myofascial Release is not proven or "scientific". You will be a pioneer in the most effective form of therapy in the history of healthcare!

The following information was taken from the physics section of Newsweek, December 29, 2003.

"SCIENCE MAGAZINE'S 'BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR", THE CONFIRMATION OF "DARK ENERGY " AND "DARK MATTER" IS A MAJOR FUNDAMENTAL DEVELOPMENT IN PHYSICS. THE DISCOVERY OF THE VERY STUFF THAT MAKES UP THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF THE UNIVERSE".

"THE KINDS OF ORDINARY PARTICLES WE ARE ALL FAMILIAR WITH- ELECTRONS AND PROTONS MAKE UP ONLY 4% OF THE KNOWN MATTER. THE REST IS EITHER "DARK MATTER OR DARK ENERGY". AT ITS MOST BASIC, DARK ENERGY IS THE OPPOSITE OF GRAVITY. BEFORE THIS ALL THE OBJECTS SCIENCE KNEW ABOUT SHARED ONE ATTRIBUTE, THEY GAVE OFF LIGHT. DARK MATTER IS EVERYTHING ELSE THAT HAS MASS THAT WE CANNOT SEE!"

Scientist's arrogance and self-imposed blindness tried to ram us into a tiny box of reality that now turns out to be only 4% of the total reality. We were told that anything out of this tiny box was foolishness. How dare we consider other possibilities? We were told that consciousness had no place in science or healing, since we were just mindless machines, even though this refuted our moment-by-moment experience.

It is a paradox for conscious humans to deny consciousness. Yet generations of scientists influenced by behaviorism claim to study human nature while doing so. They claim to study perception without consciousness, attention without consciousness, learning, brain physiology, animal behavior, sleep, language, and healing without consciousness, the whole list goes on, all the while explicitly evading the common sense of 26 centuries of written human thought. Naturally, they were unable to deal with subconscious events either; you can't have a subconscious without consciousness. Yet they've experienced every waking moment consciously.

Albert Einstein has speculated that rational science reveals only the external appearances of some deeper reality. I believe that Myofascial Release allows us now to deal with that deeper reality.

Could it be that when one moves into a myofascial "still point" as they unwind into a position of past trauma, that the reason there is a change in the relationship with gravity (they feel lighter), has to do with the influence of "dark energy" the opposite of gravity?

Can the extreme high level of effectiveness of Myofascial Release be understood by considering that the essence of our essence is "dark matter" fueled by our dark energy? Can this explain how Myofascial Release can influence the core of the being of the human being?

I believe that the fascia is the container of the mind (dense energy) and that liquid light (consciousness) flows through the hollow core of the microtubules of fascia to all aspects of our being for authentic healing to occur.

Since science could not measure this energy that we have felt during myofascial releases, it was declared as silliness, instead of considering the possibility that the current instrumentation was incapable of measuring that which we have experienced as therapists and patients. Science's stifling little box has now been ripped open to explore a whole new world of possibilities.

Trauma and inflammatory responses create myofascial restrictions that can produce pressures of approximately 2,000 pounds per square inch on pain sensitive structures that do not show up in any of the standard tests (x-rays, MRI's, myelograms, CAT scans, electromyography, etc.). This enormous pressure acts like a "straightjacket" on muscles, nerves, blood vessels and osseous structures producing the symptoms of pain, headaches and restriction of motion.

The medical approach is to drug patients so they temporarily are free from pain, but it does nothing about the "straightjacket" of pressure that is causing the pain. Traditional physical, occupational and massage therapy treats the symptoms caused by the pressure of the "straightjacket" of the myofascial system, but does nothing about the "straightjacket" of pressure that causes and perpetuates the symptoms. This is why so many patients only have temporary results never seeming to get better with traditional therapy.

For more information on this fascinating subject read the chapters in my book "Healing Ancient Wounds, The  Renegade's Wisdom", E=MC2 and Our Luminous Essence and Dr. Carol Davis, PT, book titled "Complementary Therapies in Rehabilitation" chapters on Energy and Quantum Physics.

Commit to excellence. Your intuition and instincts were correct all along despite what others said. Never again allow the criticism and judgment of others too afraid to break out of the conventional "box" to stop what you intuitively have felt in your heart to be right! Honor your instincts and intuition.

To recap, Newtonian physics, the paradigm of traditional therapy, claimed things have energy. Unfortunately, traditional therapy ignored the physics proposed by Einstein that things are energy! This is the paradigm that Myofascial Release utilizes so successfully. Researchers continue to look for an objective cause for an objective disease or dysfunction, when modern physics has demonstrated that no such thing as objectivity exists, therefore you and I were trained to do the impossible.

Traditional therapy missed a key component for effectiveness, the treatment of the myofascial system. Myofascial restrictions occurs from trauma, surgery and inflammatory processes and can exert enormous tensile strength (approximately 2000 lbs. per square inch!) this crushing pressure on pain sensitive structures produced the symptoms that the vast majority of our patients suffer with.

The Myofascial Release philosophy, principles and techniques were developed years ago through the experience of trial and error, intuitive guidance and feedback from my patients, despite the fact that it didn't jive with what science said I should be thinking or doing.

Now that science is catching up to what our collective experience has shown us over the years allow this to give you added confidence. Myofascial Release expands your ability to help others suffering with acute and chronic pain, fibromyalgia, sports injuries, head trauma, TMJ, neurological dysfunction, spasm and spasticity.

Join the over 50,000 therapists and physicians that I have trained that are now successfully using Myofascial Release on millions of patients every month. Consider the possibilities.

For further information, check the source: www.myofascialrelease.com.