The general definition of energy is ‘power’, ‘vigour’, ‘vitality’ or ‘force’; in physics the definition of energy is the work that a physical system is capable of doing. Energy cannot be destroyed but it can change form. The body’s processes utilize electrical and chemical forms of energy. Kirlian photography is a special form of high-voltage photographic process which apparently records the energy field around the body on light-sensitive paper. This process has demonstrated changes in the energy field before and after a reflexology treatment. The exact nature of this energy field is a matter of debate. Eastern and Western systems have tended to have different views on this.
Reflexology is a method of contacting the electrical centres in the body. It aims to create a smooth flow of ‘vibratory energy’ throughout the body. By contacting various points on the feet this energy is thought to travel to the spine and then out to the organs, glands or cells, following set paths, although these are thought not to correspond to the Chinese meridians. However, the nature of the energy is thought to be the same.
Polarity therapy is another therapy based on the Yin and Yang principles (see chapter 1). Its theory is that life energy flows between the two poles, one positive flowing to a negative pole and vice versa. This concept was applied by Doctor Randolph Stone to the general condition of the human body and mind. He likened the movement of energy in the human body as energetic currents; he referred to this as the ‘wireless anatomy of man’. The ancient Chinese looked at the living body as being one of the expressions of tension between two poles, heaven and earth. Heaven is found above the head, the Creative, awakening our higher nature, our source of ideas. Earth lies beneath the feet, the Receptive. The head and feet, and the hands, can be viewed as mediators channelling Qi energy to various organs or glands that need revitalizing.
The body field can be demonstrated by the following exercise. With your palms facing, rub your hands together quite gently, then move your hands very slowly a few inches apart, you should feel a sensation of warmth, or flow, or a magnetic type of pulling sensation in the fingers between the two hands.
Reflexology aims to stabilize elements lacking or unbalanced in a person’s basic energy; the touch of the practitioner’s hand on a person’s feet can also be thought to create a flow of energy between them. This particular technique of touch has a great ability to calm down and completely relax a person.
In reflexology the distribution of energy in the whole body is considered to correspond to the distribution of energy in the hands and feet. So by holding a person’s hand or foot you become very aware of their internal structure: the limbs, bones, joints, muscles, arteries, nerves, skin and nails. You also begin to feel you can ‘read’ the energy structure within.
Life energy can mean many different things to people working in different traditions. Perhaps we should not try to explain it, but be satisfied with being aware of its existence. We should also keep in mind that we not only touch tissue, muscle and bone but we also ‘touch’ the very life force of the body.
Receptors
We know that any part of the skin is sensitive to touch. Touch has been used therapeutically over thousands of years. The skin is also very responsive to heat, pain and pressure, whether by touch or by other means. Even pressure from air or water brings about a responsive action in the physical body. Each and every area of the body is connected to the incredible nerve network within the brain that acts like an overseer, guiding and supervising as well as modifying the output when necessary.
Study of the body’s anatomy and physiology tells us how these nerve signals are transmitted from the specialized sensory receptors and how they respond to different stimuli. Sense organs are groups of cells that are connected to the brain or spinal cord by nerve fibres (or neurons) running along particular pathways. Those sensory nerve messages originating from the hands and the feet are received in a relatively large area in the brain’s sensory cortex compared with those from other locations, showing the innumerable nerve endings that we have in these areas. An anatomical figure (figure 2.1) depicting the size of the sensory areas in one of the paired, halves of the cerebrum that contains the sensory cortex and associated areas shows how tactile the hands and feet are. The fingertips and toes are particularly susceptible to touch because the tactile receptors called Meissner’s corpuscles are in abundance in the uppermost part of the dermis in this area of non-hairy skin. The free nerve endings found in most parts of the body enable sensations of pain, touch, pressure and temperature also to be relayed to the brain. Even hair plexuses respond to pain and touch, while Pacinian corpuscles in the dermis immediately respond to pressure and send their messages to the sensory cortex of the brain.
Figure 2.1 Anatomical figure depicting the large sensory area the hands and feet occupy in the brain
If there is a stimulus to any of the simple receptors, including all the touch, pain or pressure receptors, this sets off an electrical impulse; a strong stimulus will produce a stronger sensation – for instance, we know how a headache can develop very quickly when we stub our toe. Pain receptors in the skin are known as nociceptors: these include many of the free nerve endings found in the tissues.
The sensory nerve endings lie in the corium, the true skin; they are found within the tiny projections of this deeper layer. Each nerve fibre enters a small rounded bulb. These Pacinian corpuscles, responding to deep pressure, are abundant in the palmar surface of the hands and the plantar surface of the feet, and in all the digits, also around the tendons and ligaments. The smaller corpuscles, the tactile corpuscles of Meissner, are richly abundant in the pads of the fingertips and toes and also in the palms of the hands and soles of the feet; these are in the papillae of the skin.
Every time we stretch the tissue or muscles we contact the group of cells called the mechanoreceptors, found in the basal epidermis, in the form of Merkel’s discs. They adapt very slowly to stimulation and they trigger impulses in the sensory nervous system. The reflex action helps to adjust the tone of muscles and the activity of the internal organs. (The isometric exercises carried out during a reflexology treatment session involve active voluntary contraction of muscles without producing movement of a joint. There is also a passive exercise known as neuromuscular facilitation, used to enhance contraction or relaxation of muscles.)
Nerve transmission
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