The Body Schema is, physically, not a substance, in the way, say, mucus is a substance. And the Body Schema is functionally a substance, very similar in function to a mucus.

There is a fun little set of words that are called contronyms. These are words that mean one thing and its opposite. Same spelling can mean this or the opposite to this. Mucus is like a contranym. It is like the word cleave, which can be used to mean adhere too or it can mean to split off from. Mucus cleaves to and slides on. Body Schema is a thing and not a thing.

[I should have known better. I had not realized how long was the break I took. I came back to continue writing and did a whole brilliant page, paused for breath and up possed the little box telling me I had timed out and need to log lin again. Everything I'd written had vanished. Perhaps (unlikely) I could write the same words again. A phrase that sounded grand at that time, in running out again might sound overblown, too cute with the wordplay (my nod to Heraclitus) and that's exactly what I'm talking about. Get back to what's most important to communicate, to explore this thing called Body Schema. I take another run at it, another tack.]

The term has been rumbling around the Scientific Wordhoard starting maybe 1911 for sure solidly there by 1920. There's many an interesting story in there. Rummage about in the History of Science wing. There's a big war tucked in that range of years.

Looking through the published literature, I sort into two big catgories: Scientific (journal articles, texts) and Popular. The first room is rather full, the second near empty and waiting to be filled. This requires hermeneutical work, taking texts written in obscure mathematical language and highly technical jargon, and transform them into something that makes an equivocal sense in common parlance.

And more than that, What can I do with this?

In getting a BS degree at a university and a nursing degree as well I have had to take a fair amount of Anatomy & Physiology. I remember the stuff pretty well, do regular brush-ups. In no academic setting do I recall having come across this term, Body Schema. In years of studying various forms of bodywork, taking trainings, reading writings, do I recall stumbling over the Body Schema. I have searched the set of standard Anatomy & Physiology texts and not find it indexed.

I get a hint of the sickly-sweet scent of avoidance.

I recall from what I had written on the wind that the topic of magic* came in about here, or a bit further down.

The Scientific Literature I refer to can be found scattered through many Scientific specialties and subspecialties. The Body Schema is of obvious interest to neuroscience; you might say they own the word. It's of interest in several other disciplines, like cybernetics and AI. Cognitive scientists are paying attention.

Perhaps this is the detonation squad, carefully unwrapping this curious package. A limb could get blown off, or worse.

There's magic* spoor all over this. There is this gap and mind the gap. The junction of thought and deed. There is a seeming boundary, a line to cross and what had been mere thought, substanceless, is now action, agency, purpose, and even meaning. The mysterious relationship between mind and matter. Be careful falling into the gap.