The
following is a reprint of a recent article for the newsletter of the
American Polarity Therapy Association, describing a class experience
in Ranna's Inter-Dimensional "Yoga" Plus method:
IS
THIS REALLY “YOGA”?
I’ve
just walked into a peaceful, open, airy, spacious room, with lofty
ceilings, with only yoga mats, cushions, a stack of soft blankets,
some beautiful healthy plants, a teacher and participants. Soft music
is playing, maybe Steve Halpern or Anugama, or something like it.
I sit on one of the yoga mats.
Yes,
it looks like just another day in yet another yoga class.
The
teacher checks in with everyone in the group and asks them where they
are at, how they are physically, what else is going on. Some people
choose not to talk openly, but already everyone is in some sort of
process. I see them thinking, recalling, having their feelings about
their private musings.
The
teacher then says to the group, sotto voce, “Okay,
everyone, let’s get into our down-up, down-ups.”
“What?
Down-ups?”
The
teacher changes the music to something with bells, unhurried, very
measured, very steady, with an even dynamic and incremental, subtly
modulated tonal changes. “Lie back, knees up, arms this way,
feet...” She continues to describe the starting position, then
when everyone has more or less arranged their bodies and limbs, “Before
you start, allow your conscious awareness to go to anything which
has been bothering you - something on the front burner, maybe, or
even something lurking like a bandit which pops up unbidden when you
least expect it and least want it, that ‘something’ which
prowls around in your mind. Now consciously set it aside. Mentally
pick it up, kindly and gently, and put it in a beautiful, decorated
box for you to return to it later if you choose. Ask your system,
your body ‘Can this be resolved?’ Now choose something,
an image and emotion with which you can replace whatever it is that
you are setting aside. An antidote. Say to yourself ‘I am bringing
in ...’ Give it a clear, short name, phrase or sentence. If
you need a little nudge to get there, picture something about which
you feel unreservedly and unconditionally happy or loving. Now, hold
that feeling while you begin your down ups.”
While
she goes on to gently talk everyone through the how-to of the the
first “down-up” movement, I think, “Oh, for Heavens
sake! This is beginning to sound just a little too “New Age-y”
familiar - did the woman overdose on “The Secret” or something?
(she says it’s been no secret to her all her life) - but ‘Down-ups’?.
What is she talking about?”
The group begins an unfamiliar, yet cthonically known, rhythmical
movement. Before long, even though the teacher is verbally holding
a steady pulse to the movement, everyone in the class is at a different
place in the movement’s pattern. She says, “This is normal.
Your body is settling into its own rhythm.”
Really?
What is she doing? I don’t get it but somehow my body seems
to like it. I feel myself sort of settling, letting things go. Is
this ‘yoga’? Hmmm. Strange. There are sensations. My mind
seems to be going to some other place. It feels sort of open and receptive
and in my inner self. Yet I feel safe. What sort of ‘yoga’
is this?
Class progresses. We move through a series of movements, some familiar.
She says these ones are Hatha Yoga and traditional yoga. Some are
unfamiliar yet full of body-logic and my body recognizes them somehow.
She says these ones are Polarity Yoga and mentions some guy anmed
Randolph Stone. Other movements she guides us through I’ve never
encountered before, yet they seem to pull me into, and simultaneously
arise from, something deep within my own body.
None
of the movements or postures are static or delivered in that worn
old method of deepening into the posture then holding it, deepening
and holding. Instead, the music and sounds in the studio, and the
teacher’s voice hold a steady pulse throughout class so that
we seem to be tapping into some deeper rhythm, a place where we know
and recognize deeper aspects of our lives and experience, but it isn’t
always conscious.
While
we move, she talks about how phycisits have discovered that there
are photons of light in the Cerebro-Spinal Fluid and that this Randolph
Stone guy talked about the spine as the Ultrasonic core. She talks
about the infinity pattern being the same as a sideways figure 8,
and energy patterns, and mid-points, and energy pathways. I don’t
really get it, but my body seems to understand and there seems to
be a bio-intelligent progression carrying the movements from one innately
logical place to another.
Without
knowing why, or even minding that I don’t know why, I follow
and place my hands on precise parts of my head and body, passing through
steady cycles of repetitions that seem to make internal sense that
my body and mind recognize without analyzing. Muscles lengthen. Cranky
knots let go. My body suddenly takes a breath like my first breath.
Things are shifting. Things float up into my thoughts and float away.
What was bothering me? I don’t remember. What am I “bringing
in”? I don’t remember that, either. I am simply in my
body and in my experience. I feel... what? Well, I feel... Ooohh...
it doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t. How amazing. I just
realized how to resolve issue “X”. Yes. That ‘s
right. I know what to do about that. Okay, I’m still in my rhythm,
shifting my arm, placing my hand... I might need a snooze later but
for now I’m moving. Things are shifting. I feel. The natural,
steady flow into the next movements takes over.
Time passes, we are now doing some other slower rhythm. I feel so
different. This slow ryhthm settles me more. I’m not sure I
like slowing down this much but I feel connected. Things are shifting
still, even more. I feel a deep sense of restoration, as though my
system is re-organizing on some deep level that I don’t have
to capture and scrutinze. It really doesn’t matter that I don’t
consciously know. My noisy mind has relaxed. So has my body. I’m
alive. I’m awake. I’m at peace and I feel at one with
myself. Unified. Unified field. Union. Yoga. Isn’t that
what ‘yoga’ is about? Hmmm... Maybe this isn’t just
another yoga class.
******
You have just read a description
of a hypothetical participant’s experience in an Inter-Dimensional
“Yoga” Plus class. The teacher was guiding participants
through a process to access their own Cerebro-Spinal Fluid rhythms
and carrying that into progressions of movements based in 5 element
theory of Polarity Therapy. The descriptions of the sensations, progressions,
and awarenesses are as reported by class participants and the developer
alike.
What
are these rhythms, this Inter-Dimensional Flow? What are
the placement of hands on head and body that the “participant”
described?
Ah,
well, that is the stuff of a class or workshop in Ranna®-"Yoga"
- an Inter-Dimensional Approach.
PREVIEW
Video Clip - Ranna and "Yoga"
Video Clip - Ranna Is...
Ranna
was selected to present her Polarity Therapy and Cranio-Sacral
Therapy based Inter-Dimensional "Yoga" Plus™
method in an experiential workshop at the 25th Anniversary
conference of the American Polarity Therapy Association in Chicago
- apta (September 4 - 6, 2009).
