Exploring the Realms of Manual Therapy

Exploring the Realms of Healing with Manual Therapy

The Vital Gathering Naturopathic Medicine Institute Scottsdale, Arizona—May 15, 2022 André Saine, ND For about four and half years in the early 1980s, I regularly visited *Dr. John Bastyr and watched him practicing like someone would be watching a great artist at work. *It was clear that patients came to be touched by him, as he would do spinal manipulation on many of his patients. *Actually Bill Mitchell once pointed out that healing would begin when John Bastyr would walk into a room, which is a characteristic of gifted healers. *John always encouraged us to learn how to use our hands for healing.

This is the subject that I would like to explore with you today, the realms of healing with manual therapy.

It is important to point out that *manual therapy, which is the use of the hands to support the innate healing process can be used to treat the sick with at least *two intentions, *one for the manipulation of tissues, and *the other one is for providing an energetic influence, and of course both can be used together. *Exploring the realms of the manipulation Manipulation has existed since time immemorial. For instance, *it is mentioned in one of the oldest medical texts, which is the Edwin Smith papyrus of 1552 BC.1 Manipulation is found in most traditional medical practices. For instance, manual therapy is called *Tuina in traditional Chinese medicine, which it is said to have been practiced for thousands of years.

In Western medicine in the fifth century BC, *Hippocrates said, “The physician must be skilled in many things and particularly in massage. Though called by one name it

1

Phillips, S-A., and L. C. Biant. "The instruments of the bonesetter." The Journal of bone and joint surgery. British volume 93.1 (2011): 115-119.

2 has not one and the same effect, for massage will make a joint firm when looser than it should be, and relax it when too stiff.” 2 The practice of manual therapy slowly disappeared in Western medicine over the century but the tradition was kept up by *bonesetters, which was a skill commonly practiced in many traditional cultures, and *which was often passed within the same families for hundred of years.

However, in Western medicine *the practice of manipulation began to reappear in the middle of the nineteen century, which prepared the way for *Andrew Still, a son of a bone setter, who presented in 1892 an alternative to conventional medicine with osteopathy through the use of manipulative therapy, which was soon followed in 1895 with *chiropractic developed by the magnetic healer David Palmer. *Later on naturopaths developed also their own techniques of manual therapy.

The main objective for the manipulation of tissues is to restore normal function to the part by correcting mechanical impairment.

In my experience, one of the most important parts of the body that can benefit from manipulation is the *head because of its complex osseous structure, *neuroendrocrine processing and *commanding centers, *the twelve pairs of cranial nerves and spinal cord existing from it, *the anchored meninges that is connected to all the tissues of the body, *the inner ear key to proprioception centers and *four of the five senses are located there.

Further the head and face are commonly subjected to adverse physical forces beginning *during the birth process and later on with recurrent fall and injuries that people commonly incurred through life from accidents and during sport activities. *Regarding the complexity of the skull osseous structure consider that there are 86 articulations between the 14 facial and *8 cranial bones or close to 40% of the 236 articulations of the body. This is without counting the ossicles of the inner ears. *Moreover the meninges that go around the brain and *spinal cord join with the *epineuron of each spinal nerve that attach to *the fascia forming a matrix covering the entire body and *the stress in one area is felt in the rest of the matrix.

This partly explains that by only manipulating the head we observe phenomenal clinical outcome in distant organs and parts of the body, such as better functioning of abdominal organ like the liver and digestion, decrease inflammation and pain anywhere in the rest of the body, including the neck, back and limbs. *Chiropractor Nephi Cottam (1883-1966) and *osteopath William Garner Sutherland (1873-1954) were two of the early pioneers to be interested in cranial manipulation.

2

Hippocrates. On joints. Loed Classical Library. Volume IV: 221.

Exploring the Realms of Manual Therapy The Vital Gathering Naturopathic Medicine Institute Scottsdale, Arizona—May 15, 2022 André Saine, ND

3 *Sometimes in 1920S, Nephi Cottam was at the bedside of woman who was suffering from an intense headache that made her insane. Cottam tried everything he knew in chiropractic but he was unable to help her. After 48 hours he saw her pull her hair and heard a voice telling him to free her cranial bones, which he did. In attempting to separate the frontal bone from the two parietal bones, a crepitus was heard and immediately her headache dissipated and she regained her sanity by saying, “Why didn’t you that before?” On his way home, Cottam wondered what had actually happened. Eight days later he was called to the bedside of nineteen-year old girl who was said to be at the point of death, as she had not slept without opiates for three months. She had seen all the specialists and many alternative care practitioners to no effect, including spending time in naturopathic sanatorium. *Again Cottam heard a voice to adjust her cranium which he did and she soon fell into sleep which lasted the most parts of ten days and nights. 3,4 *Cottam developed a technique that he called craniopathy. *John Bastyr practiced cranial manipulation that he had learned from Major DeJarnette, a technique known as SOT (Sacro-occipital technique) that DeJarnette developed in the 1920s similarly to Cottam and Sutherland. *More recently, the Irish osteopath Robert Boyd developed Bio Craniopathy (also known as Bio Cranial Therapy) and many osteopaths who practice this technique applied it to all their patients all day long regardless of their problem from birth onward. *The range of disorders for which Bio Craniopathy has been found helpful includes, but is not limited to, the following: *Acne Acne rosacea Aging (arthritis / joint degeneration/ osteoporosis) Allergies (psoriasis/ hay fever/ digestive issues) Angina Injuries (various) Asthma (respiratory complaints affecting both children & adults) Autism Back & neck pain (structural issues/ sciatica) Bell’s palsy Cerebral palsy Colitis Children: colic, ear infections, asthma, learning/behavioral ADDH, hyperactivity, dyslexia, Asperger’s, dyspraxia, etc.

Chronic fatigue syndrome Crohn’s disease Circulation (blood pressure)

Calvin Cottam, Erin MacGillivray Smith. The roots of cranial manipulation: Nephi Cottam and “craniopathy.” Chiropractic History 1981; 1 (1): 31-35.

4 Nephi Cottam. The Story of Craniopathy. Los Angeles.1963.

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Exploring the Realms of Manual Therapy The Vital Gathering Naturopathic Medicine Institute Scottsdale, Arizona—May 15, 2022 André Saine, ND

4 Cystitis *Depression (anxiety, stress) Digestion (irritable bowel/ gluten intolerance) Diverticulitis Dysmenorrhea Eczema Endometriosis Emphysema Fibromyalgia Goiter Hay fever Headaches (including migraine) Hiatal hernia Irritable bowel syndrome Meniere’s syndrome (balance disorders) Men’s health: fertility, prostate problems Migraine and headaches Menstrual disorders *Neck pain Neuralgias Neurological injury (trauma) Palpitations Pancreatitis (acute) Parkinsonism Peptic ulcers Petit Mal (Epilepsy) Phobias Prolapses Prostate Psoriasis Sciatica Skin problems (eczema, dermatitis, psoriasis) Sleeping difficulties: insomnia, apnea, tiredness Sports injuries Tinnitus (ear noises) *Varicose ulcers Varicosity Vertigo Visual infections/immunity: colds & flu Women’s health: fertility, PMS, menopause, pregnancy (breech babies) Food for thought. *Naturopaths also developed their own cranial manipulation techniques, suck as Lake’s endo-nasal and aural techniques.

However from experience, I think that the ultimate cranial manipulation is the *bilateral nasal specific (BNS) having practiced both, Boyd’s approach and BNS. Exploring the Realms of Manual Therapy The Vital Gathering Naturopathic Medicine Institute Scottsdale, Arizona—May 15, 2022 André Saine, ND

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*BNS was greatly popularized by Dr. Richard Stober, a chiropractor and naturopathic physician from Portland, Oregon. Dr. Stober became interested cranial manipulations in the early 1950s as he was interested in treating children with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus, blindness and mental retardation. He learned cranial manipulation from Dr. Wendell Diebold, a student of Sutherland and teacher at Western State College of Chiropractic and Naturopathy (WSCCN), and once he was visiting Dr. King in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, who had himself recovered from cerebral palsy and had specialized in cranial manipulation to treat handicapped children.

On his drive back to Portland, Dr. Stober wondered how a *technique he had learned at WSCCN to treat patients with sinusitis, which consisted of *blowing balloons into the nose, would compare to traditional cranial manipulation and fare in these children. He experimented with this technique, obtained absolutely extraordinary results and applied it systematically to all his children for the next 35 years.

I have been using BNS ever since I learned it from Dr. Stober in 1981 and like him I found it to be associated with extraordinary clinical results.

For instance, Dr. Stober had told us of a family of dwarfs that he had treated and reported that a 3 y.o. doubled its height in 18 months, growing 1 1/2 inches per month, and a 14 y.o. grew about one inch a month, going from 4 feet to 5 feet 3 inches for a total of 15 inches in 18 months with monthly treatment.

Adult mother dwarf who was also treated at 42 y.o. once a month and grew 2 3/4 inches in 13 months. Dr. Stober also reported that his secretary grew fives inches over the years.* *Betty Radelet, the first woman to graduate from NCNM and a student of Dr. Richard Stober, specialized in obstetrics and applied this technique to newborn babies for over 40 years, which can be read in the *chapter Nose Jobs in her book *Anecdotes and Antidotes. *David Jones is a patient who was born with cerebral palsy and his parents told him he would never see, speak or walk. His parents found out about Dr. Stober who treated him very early in his life. *Later on he continued receiving an occasional treatment with Dr. George Siegfried who also learned the technique from Dr. Stober. *David had developed a website to popularize the technique that turned his life around. *He also made a list of indications that were benefited with BNS: “The following is a list of dysfunctions that can be either eliminated or their effect greatly lessened with the use of Nasal Specific.

Accident related Allergies Alzheimer’s Exploring the Realms of Manual Therapy The Vital Gathering Naturopathic Medicine Institute Scottsdale, Arizona—May 15, 2022 André Saine, ND

6 Anger Anxiety Appetite changes Arthritis Asthma Attention deficit disorder Bad breath Birth trauma Biochemical trauma Bedwetting Bi-polar disorder Bell’s palsy Cerebral palsy Chronic fatigue syndrome Coma Confusion Dental pressure Disorientation Dizziness or vertigo Dyslexia Ear infections Easily frustrated Encephalitis (brain swelling) Epilepsy Falls Fatigue Guillain-Barre Syndrome Hearing loss Headaches Indecision Infant colic Irritability Insomnia or somnolence Learning disabilities Loss of attention span Loss of mental coordination Loss of smell Loss of visual acuity Medical procedures Mental retardation Multiple sclerosis Muscular dystrophy Muscular systems atrophy Neck and back pain Nervousness Neurological dysfunctions Obsessive compulsive disorders Parkinson’s disease, Exploring the Realms of Manual Therapy The Vital Gathering Naturopathic Medicine Institute Scottsdale, Arizona—May 15, 2022 André Saine, ND

7 Poor memory/memory loss Reduction in the ability to read Severe emotional Sensitivity to light and sound Sports injuries *And at the bottom of this list, he made another list, which is about the conditions he personally experienced benefit with BNS: “Over the years I have had tremendous success with nasal specific some of the more notable long lasting effects that this has had include: Ability to speak Decrease in anxiety Attention span Balance Decreased confusion Decrease in headaches Decrease in indecision Feeling throughout my body Greater vocal capacity Hearing Increased energy Increased mental capacity Muscular dexterity Muscular response Neck and back pain Nervousness Straightness of teeth Vision enhancement.” *A case of pituitary adenoma and acromegaly I would like now to report an interesting case that was treated with BNS, which happened to break new grounds in medicine. *This is the case of 71-year old man who was suffering from pituitary adenoma with acromegaly that was now threatening his life. Despite two resections surgeries the tumor continued to grow and the next line of treatment that he was offered was to burn off the tumor with gamma radiation, as he was then told that as the tumor will continue to grow he would become blind, the acromegaly would get worse, he would be in constant pain and he would experience a complete impairment of his life.

I saw him on July 1, 2019, asking me to only prolong his life by 18 months, as he was an internationally known scientists and university professor who wished to complete his life long project about regenerative agriculture. He had all the typical features and malfunction found in acromegaly, including *enlarged and discolored feet with

Exploring the Realms of Manual Therapy The Vital Gathering Naturopathic Medicine Institute Scottsdale, Arizona—May 15, 2022 André Saine, ND

8 thickened and hardened nails, *nevi and the café-au-lait spots, and *the growth forward of the nose, orbital arches, jaws and ears.

Some of you may have met him at the time of the AANP conference in Portland, Oregon, in 2019, when I gave a BNS in front of the class. This is the only BNS treatment he has received following which *****all the symptoms and features related to the pituitary adenoma and acromegaly regressed. We are now close to three years later and he has had no recurrence and he has since resumed his traveling around the world teaching his revolutionary agricultural approach to save our planet from environmental disaster. *I checked the medical literature, which is clear that *all the features of acromegaly are irreversible.

BNS is one of the most effective approaches to manipulative therapy but I don’t think that it is taught in any of our naturopathic colleges. *Incidentally, BNS has taken many names over the years, such as nasal specific technic (Finnell 1954), nasal specific technique, nasal specific, nasal specific inflation technique, endonasal technique, endonasal cranial adjustment, advanced endonasal therapy, endonasal balloon therapy, balloon nasal therapy, nose jobs, nasal release technique, endo-nasal facial cranial release, nasal release, nasal cranial release therapy, functional cranial release, neurocranial restructuring (a variation of BNS), inner opening technique, nose whispering, etc., and now I am calling it modified nasal specific (MNS) for having made it safer.

Each of these offspring has their own list of conditions that have benefited from their approach.

Aside from a history of concussions and trauma to the head and face, an easy way to know if someone would benefit from BNS is asymmetry of the *face and of the standing posture.

An interesting finding, one that I have never heard from Dr. Stober or anyone else who practiced BNS say, is the fact that the *standing posture of almost everyone who receives one BNS treatment is greatly ameliorated and very often close to perfect after a single treatment. Also most of the time peripheral vision improves after BNS. This means that many structural asymmetries are usually corrected after a BNS and show the importance of integrity of the cranial and facial bones.

Exploring the realms of hands-on healing Now let’s examine the second intention of manual therapy which is for providing an energetic influence.

The roots of hands-on healing are likely as old as humanity, as by instinct *we lay our hand on someone who is sick or *hurting.

Exploring the Realms of Manual Therapy The Vital Gathering Naturopathic Medicine Institute Scottsdale, Arizona—May 15, 2022 André Saine, ND

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*The imposition of the hands for healing is found in early Judaism, which was adopted by the early Christians and practiced by Christians monks and nuns through the middle ages and *was taken up later by royalty, and was known as the Royal Gift of Healing. *In the 17-century, Sydenham, who is known as the English Hippocrates, recommended the practice of recharging the energy of a depleted-sick person with a method called the method of treating diseases by lying down with children (De methodo medendi morbos per accubitum juniors).

However in European cultures, the tradition of hands-on healing slowly disappeared over the centuries until *Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), the Austrian physician revived it in the 1770s.

Mesmer preceded Hahnemann by about ten years in his rejection of the practice of heroic medicine while proposing at the same time an alternative to it for the prevention and treatment of most human ills.

Like Hahnemann, Mesmer was a reformist, as he wrote, *“I want to bring about a revolution in the art that has made the least progress, and yet the most necessary to mankind?” *He understood health as the free flow of the process of life through the body and illness was caused by obstacles to this flow.

Therefore Mesmer was apparently the first physician to introduce a concept unfamiliar to the 18th century Western medicine, which is the idea of the balancing of energy to restore and maintain good health.

The aim of mesmerism is therefore to aid Nature by overcoming obstacles to the free flow of the energy when it failed to spontaneously establish it.

When this free flow of energy is restored, crises occur, which is the beginning of the process for the restoration of health.

For instance, to cure an insane person involves causing a mild fit of madness.

Mesmer knew that he had discovered something important, as the first cures he obtained were in patients considered to be incurable, such as in cases of insanity and epilepsy.

Even though he said that mesmerism is applicable to all diseases not all were curable through it, *“For although it can be said that the application of magnetism is sufficient to cure all kinds of diseases, it would be foolish to claim to cure all sick individuals in the same way.”

Exploring the Realms of Manual Therapy The Vital Gathering Naturopathic Medicine Institute Scottsdale, Arizona—May 15, 2022 André Saine, ND

10 Incidentally, Mesmer said in his *Mémoires that he had found through experimentation that humans could be in contact with each other at great distance, 5 which is a sign that he had the gift of mediumship that is commonly found in gifted healers.

As far as I can see Mesmer was not a good teacher, partly because what he was practicing was difficult to teach.

In any case, mesmerism became very popular at the end of the eighteenth and first half of the nineteen century, and moved over time in the medical profession towards hypnotherapy and *Freud’s exploration of the subconscious, while the hands-on healing aspect of mesmerism continued to be practice less and less by physicians but was picking up by lay healer, similarly as with bone setter for manipulation.

Perhaps the most famous of these hands-on healers was *Harry Edwards (18931976), who would heal incurables very quickly in front of huge crowds.

He treated an average of five thousands people a year, of which most were considered incurable by the medical profession. He reported that about 80% of the ones who sought his care experienced improvement and ease of painless and disappearance of symptoms. About twenty five percent experience complete recovery.

He maintained throughout his life, *“There is no known disease irrespective of its cause that cannot be helped through the power of spiritual healing.”

In 1946 he founded a *sanctuary in Shere, Surrey, which were receiving up to 10,000 requests for absent healing per week. The Sanctuary is still running strong today with hundreds of healers helping out.

He reported that the disappearance of cancerous process was as a rule rapid. That polio stopped in his tract and affected limbs began to function again. He reported that spiritual healing was effective in growths of all types, paralysis, structural deformities, fractures, burns, mental troubles, neuroses, septicemia, other infectious conditions and gangrenous process. He demonstrated publicly how goiters would be dissolved on the spot. He reported that TB cavitations would filled up, fixed joints would unlock, hearing and sight were restored. *Being discredited by the medical profession, he decided to document every healing for the next four years up to September 1952. Every case has been mentioned in the book, The Evidence for Spirit Healing, which contains over 10,000 cases of which more than 6000 were considered incurable by the medical profession.

This large documentation of cases was used to introduce hands-on healing in the hospital system in the UK. 5

Mémoire, p. 6.

Exploring the Realms of Manual Therapy The Vital Gathering Naturopathic Medicine Institute Scottsdale, Arizona—May 15, 2022 André Saine, ND

11 *Here you can see Harry Edwards at work while straightening the spine of person with severe deformity of the spine.

One of the most extraordinary cases I have heard was that of a woman who suffered from extreme spinal deformity resulting from tuberculosis of the spine, also known as Pott’s disease. She had been helpless and bedridden since the age of three and, at the time of her healing at the age of thirty, she weight only 35 pounds. She received only one treatment and two days later the deformities began to straighten spontaneously and she began to be able to move her legs. It said that at that moment loud cracking noises could be heard in the room as joints became freed and the stiffness was overcome and her body length increased by seventeen inches. 6 This reminds me of our own *Ralph Weiss, The Reluctant Healer from Medford, Oregon, and Edgar Casey’s physicians, *who passed away at 95 years old in 2015.

He told me that he didn’t applied physical force when he would adjust the spine of his patients, as he just needed to put his fingers over the vertebrae in order for them to return to their proper place and functioning.

I would now like to address another aspect of *hands-on healing, which is about the work of Bill Bengston, a New York professor of sociology, *who has conducted numerous laboratory experiments demonstrating the almost certain cure of cancerous mice. *In a very well known laboratory model, mice are injected with 100,000 cells of mammary cancer. All mice develop non-metastatic cancer that kills them in the least than 28 days. Here on day 22 the tumor is well developed and has begun to ulcerate. On day 28, the tumor has greatly receded and on day 35 the tumor is gone.

Bill has made an incredible amount of important discoveries regarding hands-on healing which I have summarized in the PDF notes package that accompanied a webinar I had with him on March 18, 2022, and which can be accessed on the website of the Canadian Academy of Homeopathy (https://homeopathy.ca/homeopathy-and-hands-on-and-distant-healing-similaritiesand-differences/) *Bill Bengston described his journey through hands-on healing in his 2010 book, The Energy Cure, in which he wrote: *“Over the past thirty-five years I have successfully treated many types of cancer—bone, pancreatic, breast, brain, rectal, lymphatic, stomach, leukemia—as well as other diseases, all using a hands-on technique that is painless, noninvasive, and has no unpleasant side effects. To my knowledge, no person I have healed ever experienced a recurrence. *“In my experience, the people with the best prognosis for a cure are the youthful ones with the most aggressive cancers.

6

Harry Edwards. The Power of Spiritual Healing. 1963: 43.

Exploring the Realms of Manual Therapy The Vital Gathering Naturopathic Medicine Institute Scottsdale, Arizona—May 15, 2022 André Saine, ND

12 *“The effectiveness of this treatment has now been proven in ten controlled animalexperiments, conducted in five university medical and biological laboratories by trained, skeptical researchers.

“Mice bred for research were injected with a particularly lethal strain of mammary cancer that had always resulted in 100 percent fatality within fourteen to twentyseven days. Through hands-on healing, these results were completely reversed: 100 percent of the mice survived the disease to become cancer free and to live a normal two-year life span! This experiment was replicated once more at Queens College with the same 100 percent success. Eight other replications, with minor variations, at four other biological and medical laboratories produced comparable results. Just as amazing, mice that were re-injected did not get cancer, suggesting they had developed an immunity.” *He was also able to transfer the influence of hands-on healing to water or even cotton, which you can read in the long list of scientific papers he published in peerreview journals and which are accessible at www.bengstonresearch.com.

Currently, Bill and I have begun to work together to explore the possibility to reproduce and potentize this healing influence indefinitely.

From my part I will also try to find if and how the healing influence stored in water can be combined with our homeopathic remedies and explore its clinical effects. *I invite you to check out Bengston, by perhaps watching the two introductory videos on his home page: https://bengstonresearch.com *You can also check out his course on how to practice his methods that is available in a digital format.

Conclusion In conclusion, I will like to leave you with four paradigm-changing thoughts from the philosopher of Meissen: *“The physician's highest calling, his only calling, is to make sick people healthy—to heal, as it is termed.” *“The highest ideal of therapy is the rapid, gentle, pleasant, complete and permanent restoration of health in the surest, simplest and least harmful way.” *“When we have to do with an art whose nature is the saving of life, negligence in learning is a crime.” *“Physician, dare to know!”

Exploring the Realms of Manual Therapy The Vital Gathering Naturopathic Medicine Institute Scottsdale, Arizona—May 15, 2022 André Saine, ND