I reaffirm: Life is Motion. Even within our “solid, stable, and passively supported biomechanical network” are elastic responses to pulse, respiration, gravity, ambulation, and cranial rhythmic impulse.

Wheeler and I both acknowledge the existence of palpable cranial motion in the adult human. We disagree as to the role our sutures play in it, as well as specifics of the pattern itself.

Wheeler holds that sutural ossification precludes’ significant sutural hinging, and that ossification is a natural component of aging. He describes cranial bones as “thin hydrated structures …relatively soft and subject to being moved and stretched … passively carried along by the CSF wave…like a balloon which is slowly filling and emptying with water.”

I submit that sutures are even softer areas in the living cranium, with even greater ability to accommodate the mechanical stresses of the CSF wave, feel that sutures are kept pliant by this continuous motion and that ossification proceeds when disturbances in this rhythm occur over long periods. This ossification often proceeds asymmetrically, reflecting “disuse closure” of a functional hinge. I do not agree that “all points on its surface move towards and away from center”. The sagittal suture is tethered by the falx cerebri, and it depresses rather than expands with the filling phase.

I still suspect conclusions about living tissues derived from the study of dead tissues. I still suspect Wheeler’s logic that living human craniums lack significant hinging motion because dead animal skulls lack it. The relics of the Page Museum bear the same relationship to this issue that telephone poles do to living trees.

Wheeler is critical of my comparison of vertebral facets to cranial sutures. i did not compare them. I did compare their loss of motion with advanced age, and I continue to find the comparison both clinically and philosophically useful.

Wheeler’s letter included a statement from his wife that no one has ever objectively measured cranial movement. I refer her to the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, volume 70, May 1971: “A Study of the Rhythmic Motions of the living Cranium.” by Viola Frymann, D.O., F.A.A.O.

I would delight in continuing this discussion without Wheeler’s references to “faith oriented systems of healing” and “immature, magical thinking”. I want to limit discussion to the merits of the case and stop the accusations, peripheral issues, psychologic speculations, and rhetorical outbursts. If Wheeler indeed desires a solid, engineering-level type of approach to working with human structure, he would advance his cause with solid, professional (writing).

Tom McCombs is a Certified Rolfer (NAR) attending the Osteopathic College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.