LIFT IN THE BODY

Perhaps a close look at the ways living organisms have solved the problems of gravity can teach us about physics in action.

A recent article by Rolfer Austin McElroy’ explains the concept of lift as it applies to the Rolf work. His model, reproduced here in Figure 1,demonstrates with helium balloons the lift in the upper part of the body that “supports life.” The two opposing forces, lift and gravity, meet at the lumbo dorsal hinge area. The body is supported by tension between lift and gravity.

McElroy’s discussion of lift has practical implications for the day-today work of organizing and integrating human structures. Dr. Rolf’s maxim that “gravity is the therapist” could become “gravity and lift are the therapists.” Precisely what causes this lift?

Most of you, and your clients, have had experiences of lift after Rolfing® sessions. What is the nature of this lift? Is it a trick our kinesthetic senses play upon us when we suddenly experience the effortless uprightness of a balanced structure? Or does an actual lift take place? Or is something else happening?

The following is a snap-shot of an inquiry that has gone on for many years, and that is by no means finished. There are portions of the presentation that you may find challenging, unbelievable, or inspiring. Feedback is welcome.

We begin by looking at the question of lift from the perspective of an important but mysterious physiological process, the return of the venous blood to the heart. If we can understand one kind of lift in the body, perhaps we can understand others!

THE OVERALL PROBLEM OF BLOOD CIRCULATION

Before we discuss the lifting of the venous blood, we need to consider the overall problem of the circulatory system. At present we have a physicological model in which the heart serves as a mechanical hydraulic pump. This model is widely accepted, and is an unquestioned foundation for modern physiology and clinical medicine.

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Many questions about blood circulation have been with us since antiquity, and are by no means answered, in spite of the widespread agreement that can be found in current physiology texts.

In 1995 a distinguished team of medical researchers summarized the problems with the concept of the heart being a mechanical pump.’ It is a challenge to discuss this information in an environment in which the mechanics of the circulation are considered to be a solved problem. Everyone has seen water pumps, and the idea that the heart is a pump is easy to grasp. We credit William Harvey with this discovery, although there is abundant evidence that the Chinese reached a similar conclusion many centuries before Harvey’ What would happen if we suddenly discovered that this perspective was incorrect? While the idea of the heart being a pump is easy to grasp, consider its difficulties. Here are some:

In 1921, Rudolph Steiner of the Goethenaneum in Switzerland lectured to medical doctors that the heart is not a pump forcing inert blood to move. Instead, he suggested that the blood is propelled with its own momentum. Blood pressure does not force the blood to circulate. Instead, blood pressure arises because the of the resistance the flow encounters in the capillaries .4

In 1932, a scientist at Harvard, Bremer, filmed the blood flow in very early embryos. Before the functional heart had formed, blood circulated in two separate self-propelled spiral streams. Bremer was so engrossed in describing the spiral flow pattern that he did not realize that his findings were contrary to the pressure propulsion concept.5

Bremer’s findings were confirmed in 1969, when ManteuffelSzoege demonstrated that the blood continues to circulate in the chick embryo for about 10 minutes after the heart is removed .6

In 1975, Pomerance and Davies described a mutant embryo that lived to term without a heart .7

The heart weighs about 300 grams, and is thought to pump some 8,000 liters of blood per day, at rest. This is equivalent to lifting a 100 pound weight a mile. The blood is 5 times as viscous as water, yet the heart is supposed to force it through capillaries, some of which are smaller in diameter than the red blood cells.

The aorta does not respond as it should to the flow of the blood. If water is forced through a curved garden hose, the hose will tend to straighten out. During systolic ejection, when the blood is supposedly ejected from the ventricle, the aorta bends more, rather than less.8

In a pressure driven system, pressure builds up and then the fluid moves. When pressure and flow are measured in the aorta, peak flow actually precedes peak pressure.9

During the second half of systole, the pressure in the aorta is actually higher than the pressure in the left ventricle. The gradient is such that blood should flow back into the ventricle, rather than into the aorta.10

LIFTING THE VENOUS BLOOD

Physiology teaches that the heart pumps the blood around the body. The left ventricle ejects a powerful pulse of blood into the aorta. The branching arteries, arterioles, and capillaries resist the flow of blood (this is called peripheral resistance) so blood pressure gradually falls off with distance from the heart. By the time the blood flows through the capillaries and into the veins, most of the energy imparted to it by the heart has been spent.

What motivates the venous blood to return to the heart? Physiologists agree that the atria are relatively weak pumps, and cannot suck venous blood into themselves. But blood must somehow return to the heart at the same rate that it leaves, or the “pump” will fail. Physiologists can calculate the amount of energy required for this process, but the source of this energy is elusive.11

Gravity aids venous return downward from the head and neck into the superior vena cava and, thence, into the right atrium. However, gravity must be overcome to return blood upward from the trunk and lower limbs in the standing person. Actual measurements of the pressures in the veins of the lower limbs indicate that there is not enough pressure to cause the blood to flow upward.

To be specific, during each heartbeat, the left ventricle squirts out some 70 ml of blood into the aorta. The pressure can be measured by inserting a capillary tube directly into the blood vessel. The tube is connected to a mercury manometer, and the pressure is measured as the height the column of mercury rises. Systolic blood pressure in the aorta is about 120 mm Hg. The pressure gradually falls off to some 16 mm Hg in the capillaries and only 4 mm Hg in the inferior vena cava, which returns the blood into the right atrium (Figure 2).

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Figure2. Blood pressures measured at various points in the circulatory system. The mercury manometer employs a capillary tube that is inserted into the blood vessel. The pressure is measured as the height, in millimeters (mm) the column of mercury rises in the U-tube of the manometer. The pressure in the veins is much lower than in the arteries. To account for the lifting of venous blood from the trunk and lower limbs, physiology teaches that muscular movements force blood upward, past one-way valves in the veins.

The mechanism by which the venous blood in the limbs is returned, against gravity, to the heart, is an unsolved problem in physiology. The textbook explanation is that there are one-way valves in the veins of the legs. Some of these valves are shown in Figure 2. Supposedly, contractions of the skeletal muscles squeeze the veins and force the blood upward past the valves, which then do not allow the blood to flow back down. In theory, this mechanism is augmented by a “respiratory pump.” During inspiration, the intra thoracic pressure drops, creating a suction that expands the lungs and that draws the column of blood upwards. At the same time, the downward movement of the diaphragm creates a pressure in the abdomen that forces the blood upward in the abdominal veins.

It is easy for you to demonstrate for yourself that these mechanisms are totally inadequate. While checking your pulse, stand still and hold your breath.

[It is actually impossible to stand perfectly still. Sway is always present, due to oscillating stretch reflexes in the ankle extensors and flexors. Like any other physiological “constant,” standing still is actually a dynamic phenomenon, a variation around a set-point.12]

While standing perfectly still is impossible, voluntary effort can reduce but not eliminate sway.

When you stand as still as possible, and hold your breath, the textbook mechanisms for lifting the venous blood from the legs are virtually eliminated. Your pulse should stop because of lack of venous return to the atria. That your pulse does not stop, or even slow down, indicates that some other mechanism is involved in returning the venous blood to the heart, against gravity. Perhaps Steiner’s seemingly outrageous perspective is correct-the blood is actually propelled by its own momentum.

Perhaps the lift experienced in the Rolf work and the return of the venous blood against gravity involve a common mechanism. Information from a variety of sources suggests an energy exchange between the arterial blood spiraling downward in the descending aorta and the venous blood flowing upward in the ascending vena cava. This type of energy transfer is called counter-current multiplication. To understand this concept, we begin with a simpler system, the counter-current exchanger.

COUNTER CURRENT EXCHANGERS

Counter-current exchangers are used in biology and technology when matter flowing in one direction imparts some of its energy to matter flowing in the opposite direction.

Some examples from technology and comparative animal physiology illustrate the phenomenon.

In efficient air-tight buildings, counter-current exchangers are used in cold climates to provide ventilation without losing valuable heat. The mechanism is shown in Figure 3. In the exchanger, warm air being exhausted from inside the building is used to heat incoming cool air from the outside.

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Figure 3. A counter-current exchanger. This device is used to provide ventilation for energy-efficient buildings in winter. Warm air from the inside is used to warm cool air being brought in from the outside.

A similar mechanism is present in the limbs and tails of many birds and mammals. Major arteries are surrounded by a network of thin-walled veins called retia or venae comitantes. Heat is conserved or dissipated by adjusting the circulation through thissystem. 13,14

A counter-current exchanger in the gills of fish and sharks is responsible for their remarkable efficiency in extracting oxygen from the water flowing over them. In the trout, the effectiveness of this extraction process approaches 100%.15

In rabbits and humans, oxygen supplies to the placenta are enhanced by a counter-current exchange set up between parallel fetal and maternal arteries and veins .16

In each of these cases, there is a “down-hill flow” from a warm to a cool place, or from a high to a lower gas concentration. Other systems, called counter-current multipliers, involve the building up or amplification of a modest counter-current exchange effect to create a large effect.

COUNTER CURRENT MULTIPLIERS

A counter-current multiplier in the mammalian kidney makes it possible to form a urine that is much more concentrated than the blood plasma. This enables the body to conserve water (anti diuresis). The process is accomplished because of the remarkable anatomical arrangements of the loop of Henle, renal capillaries, and collecting ducts (Figure 4a).17

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Figure 4.Counter-current multipliers. The mammalian kidney. In anti diuresis (water conserving mode) the kidney is able to produce a concentrated urine. This is accomplished by a counter-current multiplier involving the loop of Henle, renal capillaries, and collecting ducts. In the drawing, the density of the dots depicts the concentration of salts in the fluids involved. (b) The rete mirable found in deep dwelling fish. This organ helps the fish accumulate gas (e.g. oxygen) in its swim bladder, so it can control its buoyancy. Blood coming away from the swim bladder, in the veins, contains gas dissolved at high pressure. Because of the high surface area of the capillaries, there is a tendency for gas to diffuse over to the incoming arterial blood. The rete therefore prevents gas from escaping from the swim bladder via the blood supply. (c) Detail of the gas gland. The gland generates lactic acid, which flows away from it in the veins of the rete. As in muscles, lactic acid reduces the affinity of hemoglobin for oxygen. This increases the oxygen concentration in the veins flowing away from the gas gland, and also increases the oxygen diffusing into the incoming arterial blood. More and more oxygen therefore accumulates at the end of the loop nearest the swim bladder. The precise manner by which the gas is forced into the bladder is unknown. The loop structure is a counter-current multiplier that builds a small effect into a high gas pressure.

A second example occurs in the swim bladder of deep dwelling fish. At a depth of 1000 meters, for example, the water pressure is 100 atmospheres. To fill its swim bladder, and thereby control its buoyancy, the fish must pump gas (usually oxygen) into its swim bladder, against an enormous concentration gradient. In most fish this is accomplished with a gas gland and a vascular system called the rete mirabile (see Figure 4b). The structure and function of this system was described in 1929 by the great Danish physiologist, AugustKrogh.18

The important point, which we shall return to, is that counter-currentpressure arterial blood spinning and spiraling down the aorta and its branches, to the nearby low pressure venous return in the vena cava and its branches.The descending aorta and the ascending vena cava, and their branches, lie parallel and adjacent to each other over much of their lengths (Figure 5b). While the counter-current effect may be subtle at any one point in the system, it is multiplied all along the length of the loop to create a substantial effect.multiplication has two prerequisites: a movement of matter or energy “uphill” or against its gradient, and a loop structure in which two streams flow past each other, in opposite directions.

COUNTER CURRENT MULTIPLICATION AND LIFT

Now we suggest that the circulatory system uses a form of counter-current multiplication in which there is a transfer of energy from the high pressure arteraial blood spinning and spiraling down the aorta and its branches, to the nearby low pressure venous return in the vena cava and its branches.

The descending aorta and the ascending vena cava, and their branches, lie parallel and adjacent to each other over much of their lengths (Figure 5b). While the counter-current effect may be subtle at any one point in the system, it is multiplied all along the length of the loop to create a substantial effect.

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Figure 5.Summary of the hypothesis that the circulatory system uses a form of counter-current multiplication in which energy is transferred from the high pressure arterial blood spiraling and spinning downward in the aorta to the low pressure venous return from the trunk and lower limbs, thereby effecting the lift that returns blood back to the heart. What couples the downward vortical flow in the aorta to the upward flow in the vena cava is a lift or vital or “core” or levity or spin field. This field corresponds to the “moving Qi between the kidneys” described in Oriental Medicine. The field facilitates lift by reducing the inertia of the blood in the veins. (a) the pattern of the circulatory system. (b) the parallel arrangement of the arteries and veins. (c) the origin of the spin or levity field that reduces the inertia of the venous blood and therefore facilitates its return to the heart. Insets show that the directions of spin of water molecules may differ in the descending aorta and the ascending vena cava.

Spiral flow in the arteries is related to spiral grooves in the arterial walls. These grooves have been demonstrated by direct fiber optic angioscopic examination of the inner surfaces of arteries in living specimens.” Interestingly, the grooves are only present in living organisms, and therefore seem to be created as a consequence of blood flow dynamics. If Steiner was correct-the blood is propelled by its own momentum, and not by the pumping action of the heart-these spiral grooves are a consequence of, and not the cause of, the vortical flow pattern.

THE LEVITY FIELD

The lift or levity hypothesis (Figure 5) is based in part on little-known concepts developed by an oceanographer, Ray Stevens, who has conducted extensive research on the origin of waves on the ocean.20 In essence, Stevens has postulated that when the wind blows over the water, the water molecules at the surface spin, and the spinning of the water molecules gives rise to a spin field, which he refers to as a levity field. The process and the shape of the field is analogous to the magnetic field created by the spin of electrons, but on a larger, molecular scale. The levity field does not create a lift, or an antigravity effect, but, instead, reduces the property called inertia. This is the tendency of objects at rest to remain at rest, and of objects in motion to remain in motion.

An important suggestion of Stevens is that the way to detect a levity field is with a pendulum. It is the inertia of the pendulum that causes it to swing back and forth in an arc. In a levity field, inertia is reduced, and there is a tendency for the pendulum to describe a rotating arc rather than a planar swing, back and forth.

There are two basic ways of defining a field, and they result in entirely different physical realities. One is based on force, and the other on motion.

DEFINITION OF A FIELD:

Objects modify the space around them in such a manner that another object entering that space will have a force exerted upon it;

or

Objects modify the space around them in such a manner that another object entering that space will experience a change in its motion.

What we are suggesting here is that the second definition applies to the lifting of the venous blood and the lift experienced from structural bodywork. We shall see below that this definition may also apply equally to the motions of all orbiting bodies, from atoms to solar systems to galaxies.

By this logic, the levity or spin field does not exert a force on the venous blood to cause it to be raised from the feet back to the heart. Moreover, the experience of lift, as in the Rolf work, is also not caused by an upward force. Instead, the inertia of the blood, and of the entire trunk, is reduced. The reduction in inertia makes it much easier for the venous blood to flow upward. The reduction in the inertia of the trunk and limbs makes it much easier for the body to move in any direction. This is one of the reasons structural bodywork enhances the performance of athletes and other performers.

SPIRAL FLOW, SPIN FIELDS, AND LIFT

Figure 6a shows the double spiral arrangement in the ventricles of the heart, and Figure 6b shows the spiral blood flow that arises in the aortic arch during mid to late systole. The latter illustration is based on magnetic resonance velocity mapping done by Kilner et.al.21 As we discussed above, the vortex either is caused by, or causes, the spiral grooves in the arterial walls.

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Figure 6.Resonating spiral systems in the body that are affected by structural work. (a) The double spiral arrangement of the ventricles in the human heart described by Francisco Torrent-Guasp, MD. (b) The vortical flow in the aortic arch described by Kilner et.al. in 1993, using magnetic resonance velocity mapping. (c) The orientation of fibers in the various muscle and fascial layers of the body. (d) The double spiral arrangement of the musculature in the human body as described by R.W. Dart in 1950. Illustration (d) is by Yoshio Manaka, MD, and was provided to us by Steven Birch.

Water molecules in the blood plasma spin because of frictional interactions with the walls of the blood vessels (see the insets at the top of Figure 5c). The effect is analogous to the spin of water molecules at the surface of the ocean, created by the wind, as suggested by Stevens.

We now suggest that when the body is appropriately organized, the same field that facilitates venous blood flow back to the heart can spread to the surrounding tissues to create the lift experienced in Rolfing. This resonance phenomenon is enhanced by the double spiral musculature of the heart ventricles (Figure 6a) and by the corresponding double spiral myo fascial system in the heart, both of which have been described by Francisco Torrent-Guasp, MD, of Spain .22

Appropriate organization of the various fascial layers (Figure 6c), and particularly of the double spiral musculature described by Dart23 (Figure 6d) allows a resonance between the heart, the circulatory system, and the surrounding myofascial planes. Myers24 discusses the clinical significance of the spiral “anatomy train” and shows how it extends down into the legs.

The double spiral arrangement arises from the muscles and fascia of the external oblique muscle, extending from the pubic symphysis and iliac crest upward through the external intercostals, ribs and scalene musculature to the transverse processes of the cervical vertebrae, and then through the deeper lying sheet formed by the semispinalis, to the cervical spines and occiput. Dart suggested that the arrangement is such that the pelvis is SUSPENDED from the occiput and neck vertebrae. The diagonal suspension system is completed across the midline through the deeper-lying internal oblique sheet to the perimeter of the pelvis on the opposite side of the body. When followed around the body, the sheets form two interwoven spiral layers.

Why should organizing the fascia affect the phenomenon of lift? Bringing the great vessels into appropriate relationship with each other, with the vertical, and with the various fascial layers may create a resonance effect in the water system of the body. In our other articles, we have described the importance of structural coherence and its effects on the energetic coherence of the body.’ Resonance effects will extend to the molecular level, as DNA, actin, myosin, and collagen are also helical molecules. What is important is that each of these molecules is surrounded with several layers of water. As the fascial layers become more ordered, the layers of water associated with them also become more organized. Water molecules are electrical dipoles, and therefore have a tendency to rotate in a magnetic field. Likewise, when water molecules rotate, they tend to set up a magneto/levity field.

MOVING Q1 BETWEEN THE KIDNEYS

In his article on lift, McElroy refers to a lift “that supports life.” Michael 0. Smith (reference 11) looks at this from the perspective of Chinese Medicine, and suggests that the elusive (from the perspective of Western science) phenomenon called Qi is responsible for the venous return, a phenomenon that is also elusive from the perspective of Western science, as we have seem.

But just what is this Qi? One form of Qi that seems particularly relevant here is the Qi that moves between the kidneys. The classical description of this energy can be found in a book by Matsumoto & Birch (1988).26 This Qi arises in the vital energetic center in the abdomen, the hara. It is described in the Nan Jing (Canon of Perplexities) attributed to Qin Yue-Ren (born about 100 B.C.):

The Yellow Emperor asked, “The pulse can be normal, yet sometimes people die, why is this?”

Qi Bo answered, “Each of the twelve meridians has a relationship to the source of the vital energies [the living Qi. The source of the vital energies is the root origin of the twelve meridians, it is the moving qi between the kidneys. This means that the source of the vital energies is fundamental to the…. organs …. the root of the … meridians, the gate of breathing. …This is why if the root is dying, the … meridians and organs … will be dying (drying out), yet appear normal.”

We believe this passage from the 2000 year old classic Nan Jing simultaneously describes Rolfer McElroy’s “lift that supports life,” the Rolfing concepts of “core” and “lift,” and Smith’s “Qi responsible for the venous return.” The descending aorta and the ascending vena cava pass between the kidneys (Figures 5a and 5b).

Please note the “drying out” mentioned by Qi Bo. We think this refers to dehydration and/or to reduction in the resonance effects just described, in the connective tissue and its associated water system. These effects reduce the ability of the connective tissue to conduct energy and information. 17 The great effectiveness of the pelvic lift and pelvic rocktechniques arises from their influence on the core or vital flows between the kidneys.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF “POSTMODERN PHYSICS THE WORK OF WILLIAM DAY

Postmodern physics can shed light on all of the biological phenomena that have been brought up in this essay; and, just as important, how the biology can be synthesized with the physics, for the benefit of both.

One of the foremost contributors to the physics that is now emerging is Dr. William Day, of the University of Mississippi. Day has written 2 major books on his work .28 A summary, entitled “Holistic Physics,” is available from a new organization created by Marvin Solit and his colleagues, called the Foundation for New Directions .29

Those of us who attempt to integrate the sciences with our experiences of being alive are surrounded with sources of exciting and relevant information. For us, the work of William Day seems to stand at a crossroads.

INERTIA IS A KEY

It appears that the “lift” phenomenon experienced in Rolfing is not due to an anti-gravity or lifting force, but to a phenomenon that reaches to the very heart of our conceptualization of our place in nature and our relation to the cosmos. It has particular significance for those who focus on movement, and its liberation.

What is most profound about Day’s work is that it accounts for inertia, the tendency of objects at rest to remain at rest, and of objects in motion to remain in motion. A fundamental question, which neither Newton nor Einstein was able to answer, is why objects have inertia.

Newton called gravity a force. No one had ever looked at things this way, and Newton’s equations worked perfectly. The concept of forces creating motions has been essential for engineering the machines that gave rise to the industrial revolution. Day suggests that Newton’s basic premise was wrong, and that gravity is not a force. Equations, and machines based on them, can work perfectly, even when the underlying premise is incorrect.

Fundamental to understanding inertia is Day’s conceptualization of the importance of space as a medium. The idea that space is filled with a medium, called the luminiferous ether, was basic to Newtonian physics. But this idea was rejected with the incomprehensible Michelson-Morley experiment of 1887 (see Day’s writings on this subject). As a result of that experiment, Einstein rejected the ether. It is widely assumed that the theory of relativity resolved the Michelson-Morley paradox, and the problems of space. They did not.

Day’s holistic physics is based on two fundamentals: space is a medium, and motion. In Newton’s physics, being at rest is the natural state, and motion occurs when a force acts upon an object to overcome its inertia. But there is no way to explain the cause of inertia. In Day’s system, inertia arises because objects center themselves in their space environments. Once centered, an object tends to retain its position or motion, unless other objects move into the region and modify the space environment.

Day states that motion, and not rest, is the natural state of objects. Moving objects do not attract each other via a force of gravity. Instead, objects modify the space medium around them in a way that causes nearby objects to change their positions, in order to remain centered in their space environment. The only reason an object can be at rest is because its motion is obstructed.

CONCLUSION

The essays in this and the previous issue of Rolf Lines show that a number of practitioners have an abiding interest in sorting out the physics of gravity. The diversity of opinion, and the tension between the views of the inquirers, foreshadows a breakthrough in our understanding of the world around us, of the way the living organism is situated within this world, and of the meanings of life, disease, disorder, and healing.

This article covers a number of unsolved problems and shows ways they may be related. We discuss the classic problem of the circulation of the blood, and the problem of the venous return. (A comparable problem exists in plant physiology: how is water lifted from the root system through the vascular system to the leaves, which can be very high in tall trees). These problems relate to the experience of lift and core in the Rolf work, and the origin of one of the forms of Qi described in Oriental Medicine.

More questions arise. If Steiner was correct, and the heart is not a pump, what is its true function? Since the heart is a muscle, what causes it to contract? And what is the real function of the other muscles in the body? What are the deeper physical meanings of spin and vortical motion? Precisely how do spin and vorticity modify space, and affect inertia? How do the spin fields created by blood flow give rise to the spins at the Chakras, which can be detected with a pendulum? How can close study of living systems relate the mysteries of gravity?

References:

1- McElroy, A. 1997. A lifting, three – dimensional model of human structure. Rolf Lines, spring issue, 25(2
): 20-23

2- Marinelli, R., Fûrst, B., van der Zee, H., McGinn, A., and Marinelli, W., 1995. The heart is not a pump: A refutation of the pressure propulsion premise of heart function. Frontier Perspectives 5 (1): 15-24

3- Temple, R., 1986. The genius of China: 3.000 years of science, discovery, and invention. introduction by Joseph Needham. New York, Simon and Schuster.

4-Steiner, R., 1990. Psychoanalysis and spiritual Psychology. Five lectures held in Dornach and Munich between February 25. 1912. and July 2. 1921. Anthroposophic Press, Hudson, NY.

5- Bremer, J., 1932. Presence and influence of spiral streams in the heartt of the chick embryo. American Journal of Anatomy 49: 409-440.

6- Manteuffel-Szoege, L., 1969. Remarks on blood flow. Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery 10:22-30.

7- pomerance, A., and M., Davies, 1975. Pathology of the heart. London, Blackwell Scientific Publications, pp. 538-539.

8- RushmerR.F. and D. K. Crystal, 1951. Changesin configuration of the ventricular chambers during cardiac cycle. Circulation 4:211-218.

9- McDonald, D., 1952. The velocity of blood flow in the rabbit aorta studied with high speed cinematography. Jounal of Physiology 118:328-329.

10- Noble, M. I., 1968. The contribuition of blood momentum to left ventricular ejection in dog. Circulation Research 26:663-670.

11- Smith, M. O., 1995. The nature of Qi. Western and Eastern paths to the source of life. Proceedings of the Second Symposium of the Society for Acupuncture Research. Georgetown, Maryland, September 17-18, 1994. Society for Acunpuncture Research, Brookline, MA, p. 49-54.

12- Hellebrant, F. A., 1938. Standing as a geotrpic reflex. The mechanism of the asynchronous rotation of motor units. American Journal of Physiology 121:471-474.

13- Scholander, P. F ., 1955. Evolution of climatic adaptation in homeotherms. Evolution 9:15-26.

14- Selkurt, e. e., editor, 1971. Physiology. Third Edition, Little, Brown and Company. Boston, p. 358.

15- Randall, D. J., Holeton, G. F., and E. D. Stevens, 1967. Respiratory efficiency in trout. Journal of Experimental Biology 46:339-348.

16- See Prosser, C. L., 1973. Comparative Animal Physiology. W. B. Saunders Company, Philiadelphia. p. 343-345.

17- Berridge. M. J. and J. L. Oschman, 1972. Transporting Epithelia. Academic Press, New York, pp. 34-39.

18- Krogh, A. 1929. The anatomy and Physiology of capillaries. 2nd edition, Yale University Press. New Haven, Conn., 422 pp.

19- Stonebridge, P.A, and Brophy, C.M, 1991. Spiral flow in arteries? The Lancet 338: 1360-61.

20- Inquiries about the levity concept may be directed to Ray stevens, Apartment 111. 138 Teaticket Highway, Falmouth, MA 02536.

21- Kilner P.J., Yang, G.Z, Mohiaddin, R.H., Firmin, D.N, and Longmore, D.B., 1993. Helical and retrograde secondary flow patterns in the aortic arch studied by three directional magnetic resonance velocity mapping. Circulation 88 (5) {Part 1}: 2235-2247

22- Guasp, F.T, 1980. La estructuracion macroscopica del miocardio ventricul;ar. Revista Espanola de cardiologia 33 (3): 265-287. Also a recent private publication entitled Macroscopical Structure of the Heart.

23- Dart, R.A., 1950. Voluntary musculature in the human body. The double-spiral arrangement. The British journal of Physical Medicine 13 (12NS): 265-268.

24- Myers, T., 1997. The Anatomy trains. Part 2. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies 1(3): 134-145.

25- Oschman, J.L., and Oschman, N.H., 1997. Readings on the Scientific Basis of Bodywork, energetic, and Movement Therapies. N.O.R.A. Press, Dover, NH, Oschman, J.L., and nora H. Oschman, 1994. Book review and commentary: Biological coherence and response to external stimuli, Edited by Herbert Frôhlich, Published by Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1988. N.O.R.A. Press, Dover, NH.

26- Matsumoto, K., and Birch, S., 1988. Hara Diagnosis Reflections on the Sea. Paradigm Publications, brookline, MA, p.12.

27- Oschman, J.L., 1981. The connective tissue and myofascial systems. N.O.R.A. Press, Dover, NH.

28- Day, W., 1989. Bridge From Nowhere. A Story of Space, motion, and the Structure of matter. House of Talos Publishers, East Lansing, Michigan, 1996. Bridge from Nowhere II. Rhombics Press, Cambridge, MA.

29- Day, W., 1998. Holistic Physics. Available from Foundation for New directions, 93 Belmont street, Cambridge, MA 02138: phone 617-547-6621: Fax 617-864-1816.