William Sutherland, D. O., discovered the craniosacral system in the early 1900’s, many years after graduating from Osteopathic school. Through meticulous study of the skull and almost 2 decades of self-experimentation, he gained enough insight to begin addressing the system in his patients. After another 10 years of study and practice, he finally shared his findings with the Osteopathic profession. Over the course of his 50+ year career as an Osteopath, Dr. Sutherland successfully discovered and mapped the craniosacral system and its functioning, and shared his findings with the profession.
At the time he attended Osteopathic school, the skull was presented as a fixed and unmoving structure. A fused boney complex that served to protect the brain and sensory organs. Many small bones fused together to create the cranial structure, and a careful and persistent hand could disarticulate a cadaver skull to study the individual bones.
During his school career at the Kirksville Osteopathic College, Dr. Sutherland had an unusual experience while walking past an expanded model of the human skull. The model was a beauchene skull — the individual bones had been separated from one another, expanded away from their neighboring bones, then mounted and displayed in correct relationship. Such displays allow the observer to see each bone of the skull, next to its neighboring bones, yet separated by a few inches of space. This presentation reveals the shapes and details of all the bones, including the inner ones which are normally unseen. It also allows the observer to
more clearly see the boney articulation of the cranial sutures (where 2 bones come together).
On this particular day as he stood looking at the beauchene skull he happened to notice the smooth beveled surfaces of the sphenoid bone. He then heard the phrase, “Beveled like the gills of a fish indicating articular motion for a respiratory mechanism.” (Sutherland, p. 13, “With Thinking Fingers”). No-one uttered the words — they appeared like a thought within his own mind.
The notion of moving sutures was so out of the ordinary that Sutherland dismissed the idea immediately. Yet the thought had a “particularly arresting and compelling” quality to it (Sutherland, p. 13, “With Thinking Fingers”). As much as he tried to convince himself that it was a crazy notion, it continued to come back to him in the years after graduation with increasing persistence. He finally gave in to the undismissable idea by trying to prove the commonly accepted notion that the skull was a fused structure.
He delicately and adroitly disarticulated a skull and studied each bone, its features and all of its surfaces. The more he looked, the more he discovered mechanical features that seemed to indicate movement. He found evidence for gliding, rotation, rocking and many other mechanical movements. He was able to visualize how each segment fit together as a unit, and how it functioned as a whole. The cranium was a working mechanism, yet no literature existed to back this up, and no one was talking about it.
The word will, as a noun, is defined as “control deliberately exerted to do something or to restrain one’s own impulses”, such as in ‘a stupendous effort of will’. To exert one’s will requires patience, persistence and conviction.
The notion “indicating articular motion for a respiratory mechanism” would not leave Dr. Sutherland. The more he tried to disprove it, the more he discovered its plausibility. And the more he studied and experimented, the more he grew to KNOW that he was one to something. His dedication to finding answers grew so strong that it guided the rest of his life. He was an impressive act of WILL.
To learn more about the craniosacral system, Mary Reis is offering her workshop: An Introduction to Craniosacral Work: History, Foundations, & the 3 Main Approaches on February 15-16, 2020 at FSM. The course offers 16 CEU’s. For LMT’s the course costs $250 if registered by Jan 15; Current FSM students pay $200.
