Archetype, used in the context of human movement, refers to postures that emerge from, or are embedded within, the interaction of many joints and muscles.
Modeling
The ability to model – be it the flow of traffic or a climate system, or in this case human movement patterns – is essential to understanding its emergent complexity. Without a model there is no real understanding. Thus the modeling process is essential to this quest for understanding human movement, rehabilitation, and the meridians of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Embryology
Embryology describes the process from conception until the end of the eighth inter-uterine week. What takes place during those eight weeks is mindboggling. Embryology underpins every aspect of the Contractile Field model and the decoding of the Traditional Chinese Medicine meridial map. We have all personally experienced this genesis of shape and form.
Evolutionary biology
Just as embryology is our individual life experience, evolutionary biology traces our historical experience as a species. Our vertebrate history spans more than 500 million years, therefore a coherent model of human movement must be informed by both our evolutionary and embryological histories as they create the context we live within.
Border AWARENESS
As biological domains meet a border is created. Borders in all spheres of life are feisty and interactive meetings. The Contractile Field model and the meridian decoding hypothesis require an awareness of borders, and hence we are able to consider their tension and control.
Shape
All organisms have shape – shape is both typical of a species and yet is also reinvented in every example of that species. Muscles and meridians are implicated in shape change. Are you in good shape?
Whole organism perspective
My mentor, Professor Brian Goodwin (1994), states the Whole Organism Perspective is; “…what constitutes biological reality. I take the position that organisms are as real, as fundamental, as irreducible, as the molecules out of which they are made. They are a separate and distinct level of emergent biological order, and the one to which we most immediately relate since we ourselves are organisms”. We must keep this perspective central to our quest for understanding movement.