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500 Hour Program
Class Outline Form
Class Title: 54a Brain and Autonomic Nervous System I
Course(s) and Hours:
Class Description
Learning Objectives
This class and 56a on Autonomic Nervous System will cover the
following:
Lecture/discussion on Evolution, Structure & Function of the Central and Peripheral
Nervous System & Special Senses
Experiential & Conceptual Intro to the autonomic nervous system
Lecture/discussion on massage and the nervous system
Beginning to understand self-image (and experience of your changing), nervous system
overall, autonomic nervous system, massage' effects on nervous system
Instructional Objectives
Students will learn to observe and effect (thru experiential exercises - breathing,
movement, meditation, if time - massage) their energy and structure through the
nervous system.
. They will be able to relate that to their growing understanding of the nervous system as observed in discussion and through their answers to questions on the final.
Students will, on the final exam, be able to answer questions on the nervous system and
massage's effects on it.
Class Outline
Time
Description
9:00
Assignment/Resources
Attendance - Opening meditation
this class covers the first 46 plates of the power
point.
April 28, 2017
MT: 610-632
9:05-9:15
Lecture/discussion on Nervous System Review and Overview
Materialism - we are fabulously wealthy in terms of
things. How can we create similar levels of
understanding and richness in terms of Spirit?
Relaxation - deeply experience - is inner peace.
KEEP IT SIMPLE> GO SLOW - THE POINT IS
FOR THEM TO TRULY UNDERSTAND THE
NERVOUS SYSTEM. TO MAXIMIZE THE
EVOLUTIONARY LEVERAGE IT GIVES US.
LET THEM KNOW THIS.
How does it work?
The nervous system is a cord with wires
attached to it and a bulb at the top for more
complex processing. The central cord and the
bulb are the “central nervous system”. The
wires outside of the center are called peripheral
or “peripheral nervous system.”
How did this evolve?
In a multicellular organism, the organism must
respond as a whole, in a multicellular way. So
the organism evolved a special cell to
communicate what's happening to the cells and
coordinate all their responses to changes in the
inner and outer environment. The cells which
do that we call neurons.
The system which includes all the neurons and
their groupings together we call nervous
system.
Ultimately, it creates a map of our inner and
outer world (what’s out there/in here) which is
continually revised on the basis of new
experiences. And it stimulates responses to
inner and outer changes.
We are touched by gravity, pressure, light,
April 28, 2017
sound, chemicals (taste, smell, etc), pain,
tension.
We orient to these touches. The brain then
creates a map of the inner and outer world:
inner = self-image; experience of self. outer =
“knowledge of the world”. In any case our
map is a map, not the territory. The closer it is
to the territory the more effective and useful
are our actions.
We are the authors of our lives; we make it up
as we go along.
possible example:
So what happens when I, for instance, yell.
The air vibrations trigger neurons in the ear
sensitive to changes in air
pressure
that impulse is conveyed to the temporal lobe of
the brain which produces the sensation of hearing.
The sensation is quickly routed as well through
the limbic system to check our memory of sounds
like that and, to
if appropriate, inititate neurological (and
endocrine response). by motor nerves affecting
visceral organs and muscles in our body
and, if appropriate, we may also rout the emotions
and sensation to the cerebrum for cognitive
processing
if it represents a difference from what we
expected, it may actually change our map of reality
to some extent
Review of components
9:15-10:00
talk about functions first and show where
they are on a kind worm diagram; the give
the name e.g. stored movement programs cerebellum
Peripheral Nervous System
Peripheral nerves/Special senses
Spinal and Cranial nerves
(dermatomes)
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Central Nervous System
Spinal cord – see handouts re ascending and
descending tracts
White matter = myelinated axon bundles on the
outside
Gray matter = cell bodies & unmyelinated
axons. In H shape inside.
Ends around L2 but continues as cauda
equina to S5
Anterior “root” is motor neurons
Posterior
sensory “
Brain - medulla oblongata, pons, midbrain
diencephalon - hypothalamus, thalamus
cerebellum
cerebrum - r. and l. hemispheres, corpus
callosum
Continue lecture on nervous system
"Looks like it's dancing to the Rolling Stones"
Cerebro-spinal fluid/ventricles
Rest of this below will be covered
in 56a
Intro to Autonomic Nervous System
Learned reactions –
Activating – relaxing
Learned and innate Spectrum of how we
react to inner and outer world.
How we react.
What is activating? What is relaxing?
We have a sense organ that is designed
to sense the emotions of other
animals.
Opening - autonomic n.s./relieving
stress - muscles don’t relax,
the nervous system relaxes
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motor system coordinating most vital
visceral functions according to organism's
sense of relative emergency or safety of
inner/outer environment
go over chart in their packet
How our autonomic system works –
We sense something from within or
without. We remember what it like or what it
is close to compared to past similar experience.
We react on the basis of what our memory tells
us. We rather automatically have a feeling and
an impulse. We can choose if we become
conscious of our feeling and impulse - how to
act.
We as therapists help clients
Let go of the past by giving them a
strong experience of the present.
We overall help them be more relaxed
(more parasympathetic tone).
Give them new autonomic options by
helping them let go of the rush to re-action.
Bring more circulation into viscera,
digestion, assimilation, re-building.
Help take old tensions (autonomic
inclinations) out thus freeing them
to relax more or to mobilize more of self
and more quickly.
We give them an experience of being in
balance – neither too parasympathetic or
sympathetic – in body, mind (letting go of
compulsive, reactive thoughts and confusion),
emotion (more balanced, more tolerant of full
range of feeling (e.g. feel angry and relaxed),
and spirit (it’s easy to be equals when you’re
not,.e.g. blaming yourself or someone else.)
also more production of endorphins.
April 28, 2017
Pleasure-stimulated hormones that help you –
anti-depressants.
“Touch also increases serotonin during
massage and decreases pain levels, improves
sleep patterns, decreases fatigue, anxiety,
depression and cortisol levels in fibromyalgia
patients, according to the International Journal
of Neurology.”
Neither asleep nor awake.
Help conscious and unconscious have a
more active and productive
Interaction.
explain how we are looking for touch to
1) expand the client’s autonomic range of
motion. So that they can inhabit the
whole spectrum and each place along
the spectrum of from deepest sleep to
hyper alertness.
2) To facilitate the experience of autonomic
balance (appropriately within a given
context)
To, in advanced work, see the specific
challenges an individual may have with their
feeling habits, their habitual patterns of
thinking and believing, the way these are
manifest in chronic body tensions,
misalignments, movement imbalances and find
ways to help these things change.
e.g. through massage and in life to facilitate a
coordination of the diencephalon and the
cerebrum.
Massage is a communication. What message
are you sending?
Hands-on communications - exchange chair
massage.
April 28, 2017
Massage' effect on the nervous system
Closing remarks
Assignments
MT: 610-632
April 28, 2017