the poetics of orthobionomy
–– a 'book' of beginnings ––
Don't Miss the Ortho-Bionomy Conference
Fun Global Educational
SOBI Conference - September 11-14, 2025
https://www.ortho-bionomy.org/aws/SOBI/pt/sp/conference_new
I will be presenting (9AM on the 13th)
The Neglected Phases of Ortho-Bionomy
(that would be Phases Two and Three)
I will be assisted by Bunter,
my AI amanuensis and butler.
Notes for the presentation
can be found here.
Phase 5:
where bodies speak without words,
presence is shared,
and both leave changed.
September 20-21, 2025
Stamford CT
An Ortho-Bionomy® Phase Five Class
The Haunted Body--The Spectrlity of the Body Schema
For Information and Registration contact
Giedre Kere
(203) 554-7249birthfeedlove@gmail.com
Cost:
$350 by July 1, 2025 , $380 after
This class will be co-taught with Cathy Krenicky. Notes for the class can be found forming here.
Phase 5 and the Body Schema
Our bodies carry an invisible map — a body schema — that quietly organizes how we move, orient, and heal. Most of the time this inner map keeps us in balance, allowing us to walk through a doorway without thought, or reach for a cup without calculation. But sometimes this map holds onto old experiences, carrying echoes of the past into the present.
Arthur Lincoln Pauls, founder of Ortho-Bionomy, once described trauma as a “misunderstanding” — the body interpreting a moment of overwhelm as if it were still happening. In effect, the body schema becomes haunted by patterns that no longer serve. A shoulder may tighten as if guarding against an old blow, or breath may constrict as if danger were still near. These responses are not mistakes, but the body’s best attempt to protect itself. Yet left unaddressed, they can become frozen habits of pain and limitation.
Phase 5 offers a gentle way to meet these ghostly patterns. Instead of trying to fix or force change, we engage the body schema in a kind of somatic conversation — subtle movements, gestures, and pauses that invite the body to notice itself anew. In this space of attentive presence, the “haunting” can loosen, and the body can re-map itself in real time. The practitioner doesn’t impose solutions, but follows the living intelligence already at work in the client.
In this class we’ll explore Phase 5 through experiential practice and discussion. You’ll learn how to recognize when the body schema is holding outdated trauma patterns, and how to invite release through curiosity, reciprocity, and presence. Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner or new to Ortho-Bionomy, you’ll come away with skills to support comfort, resilience, and the reanimation of the “wanton ghost of the living body.”
Itcho Hanabusa, Blind monks examining an elephant, 1888
The Blind Man And The Elephant
who went to see the elephant (Though all of them were blind),
that each by observation, might satisfy his mind.
The first approached the elephant, and, happening to fall,
against his broad and sturdy side, at once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the elephant, is nothing but a wall!"
The second feeling of the tusk, cried: "Ho! what have we here,
so very round and smooth and sharp? To me tis mighty clear,
this wonder of an elephant, is very like a spear!"
The third approached the animal, and, happening to take,
the squirming trunk within his hands, "I see," quoth he,
the elephant is very like a snake!"
The fourth reached out his eager hand, and felt about the knee:
"What most this wondrous beast is like, is mighty plain," quoth he;
"Tis clear enough the elephant is very like a tree."
The fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, Said; "E'en the blindest man
can tell what this resembles most; Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an elephant, is very like a fan!"
The sixth no sooner had begun, about the beast to grope,
than, seizing on the swinging tail, that fell within his scope,
"I see," quothe he, "the elephant is very like a rope!"
And so these men of Indostan, disputed loud and long,
each in his own opinion, exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right, and all were in the wrong!
So, oft in theologic wars, the disputants, I ween,
tread on in utter ignorance, of what each other mean,
and prate about the elephant, not one of them has seen!
"My wife and my mother-in-law" W.E. Hill. 1915
You can always come up with other ways of looking at things. That's what the Phases gives us, different ways to approach the Body, different portals, differnt perspectives.
Orthobionomy clarifies the bond between self, other, and world.
The Principle of Reciprocity: Care of the Other through Care of the Self: Care of the Self through Care of the Other.
Flaneur (Out for a Stroll)
Contact
Richard Valasek 1308 Ala Kapuna St. Apt 103
Honolulu HI 9681
+1 (808) 256-1646
richard.valasek@gmail.com
to e-mail form
I am I and my circumstance;
and, if I do not save it, I do not save myself. —JOSÉ ORTEGA Y GASSET
Changing the Conversation
I was born. I am always a vessel for something other than myself. The self is only a
vehicle for Foreign matter which comes from elsewhere and is destined to go on
elsewhere without me, whether it's words, smells, vision ––EMANUELE COCCIA Metamorphoses
The Story Teller
Now, more than ever . . . our place in the universe and the place of the universe in us, is proving to be one of active relationship. That is more than a scientist's credo. The separateness of our lives is a sham. Physics, mathematics, music, painting, my love for you, my work, the star-dust of my body, the spirit that impels it, my politics, clocks diurnal, time perpetual, the roll, rough, tender, swamping, liberating, breathing, moving, thinking nature, human nature and the cosmos are patterned together.
—JEANETTE WINTERSON Gut Symmetries
What you do, what you become, is not my concern. –ROBERT MCCALL
Yes, there is beauty
There is love
There is joy.
All you who suffer from
the world's miseries
Defend them.
––EEVA KILPI
"Don't immanentize the eschaton."
––ERIC VOEGELIN
For the god of writing is also the god of death. He will punish the imprudent who, in their quest for unlimited knowledge, end up drinking the dissolved book.…To drink the tear and wonder about the strangeness of its taste compared to one's own...
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