The Practice of Metamorphic Touch
(AKA The Metamorphic Technique)
Meta involves a light touch along the spinal reflex points on feet, hands and head. It may be either seated or lying down – whichever you find most comfortable. Some people go into a very deep space and may fall sleep, others prefer to sit up and chat. It makes no difference which you choose. Whatever else happens, most people find a Meta session very relaxing and enjoyable. It can be used by anyone – young or old, healthy or infirm, human or animal. Within the first few minutes of touching the feet, babies often go into a state of deep stillness with great attention and awareness seemingly focused within. There are no contraindications to meta as it is your own Life Force that guides the outcomes.
The practitioner practices an “active detachment” thereby allowing free rein to your own unique and boundless potential. If the practitioner was directing the process or manipulating energy in any way, the outcome would then be in the direction of their own expectations or desires. (We now know from quantum physics that even the act of observing particles will influence their movement.) With meta it is your own Life Force, at the deepest and most fundamental level, that enables transformation. The movement of transformation has to come from within ourselves. Only we hold the key to what we could become, to what is held within us. If we take the analogy of the seed, the earth doesn’t decide, “Ah, I think this seed should become an apple tree.” Rather, it simply provides an environment that enables the seed to make manifest the highest potential that is held within it.
So what happens with people? Everyone is different as you might expect. Most people notice some transformation over a period of receiving meta. Sometimes this can be dramatic and completely transformative, at other times it may be more subtle. Many people find that old negative patterns of behaviour no longer occur, that they respond differently to situations that would have been previously stressful or difficult. There may be significant improvements in physical, mental or emotional health or a noticeable increase in energy & vitality, or there may be an increased sense of confidence and wellbeing. Basically, the Life Force moves us in whatever direction is appropriate for us, taking us from who we are now, to what we would become….
The work on feet, hands and head brings into focus the fundamental time period of our formation – our gestation period, from conception to birth. At the point when conception occurred, all the energies and influences that we require to manifest our fullest potential as unique human beings were in place. However, once we begin to form as human beings, we are then subject to all the human influences that then surround us. From our earliest moments in the womb, we are affected physically, chemically and emotionally by our circumstances. Our cells, even at that stage, hold and reflect the memory of all our circumstances and experiences.
This sets up physical & neurological characteristics, and patterns of response and behaviour that we hold throughout our life. We know that alcohol abuse in pregnancy can cause physical anomalies as well as impaired neurological function and behaviour difficulties. We may not be so aware of the potential lifelong effects of emotional traumas on the baby. A study in Finland in 1978 by Huttunen & Niskanen followed children’s medical records for 35 years and found that those who had who lost their father while their mothers had been pregnant were at increased risk of mental diseases, alcoholism, or criminality. Interestingly, they had also studied an equal number of children whose fathers had died during the baby’s first year and found no increased risk in this group. This clearly demonstrates that the emotional state of the mother during pregnancy can have profound effects on that child throughout their life, and that the baby is more vulnerable to emotional influences in the womb than in the year following birth.
Other studies from Sweden, Prague and Finland looked at the long term effects on the children of unwanted pregnancies. They found that the degree of sociability of these children was lower than the control group, and that the differences were still detectable at age 35. The Finnish study found that the risk of later schizophrenia was significantly raised in the babies whose mothers had requested (but been refused) terminations.
Michel Odent (the wonderful obstetrician who introduced the concept of birthing pools) has gathered a database of research on foetal influences. He states that “An overview of the Primal Health Research Centre databank shows that when researchers explored the backgrounds of people who expressed some sort of “impaired capacity to love” – either love of oneself or love of others – they always detected risk factors in the period surrounding birth.
Our birth is the first time we take action in life. In the Metamorphic Technique this point is reflected on the heel, base of thumb and base of skull. The pattern of our birth sets the scene for our later actions. Basically, the way we were born is the way we act in life now, when it is important. We continually repeat these patterns throughout our life. From our birth to our first breath is usually the time we take between out thought and action. So, in a normal birth this will happen in an appropriate amount of time after reasonable thought and preparation. If, for example, you were born feet first, you will have a tendency to jump into things without thinking them through first.
Again, this has been backed up by scientific research. In a Swedish study of 412 forensic cases comprising suicide victims, alcoholics, and drug addicts, suicides involving asphyxiation were closely associated with asphyxiation at birth; suicides by violent mechanical means were associated with mechanical birth trauma and drug addiction was associated with opiate or barbiturate administration to mothers during labour.
Frederick Leboyer wrote about birth and how its effects follow us through life, how its traces are found “everywhere… in all our human folly, in our madness, our tortures, our prisons, our legends, epics and myths.” Wilhelm Reich wrote “civilisation will start on the day when the well being of newborn babies will prevail over any other considerations.” The burdens we carry from the prenatal and birth periods often keep us from finding out true place in life, from living fully, magically and spontaneously as the completely unique expressions of Life that we are.
In Metamorphic Touch, as the practitioners fingers work along the spinal reflexes which are mirroring that crucial time period from conception to the birth, the focus is on that time period. The practitioner holds an active detachment, providing an environment free of all direction. This acts as a catalyst to the Life force within you, allowing it to release old, unhelpful patterns and shine the light of your unique being more brightly through your life. It is often said that “the longest journey is the 13 inches from head to heart.” perhaps this is easier when we have travelled the route from toe to heel on our metamorphic pathway and let go of our prenatal handicaps.
How frequently should Metamorphic Touch be received?
That depends entirely on the circumstances. As a general rule, weekly is fine for people who have to function in normal life. For babies and children or adults off sick or on holiday etc. sessions may be daily. How many will you need? Allow your life force to guide you. Some people have a few sessions then have a break, others may continue for months or even years. You will know when it is time to stop.
Who can learn Metamorphic Touch?
Anyone. Although the principles may take a while to grasp, the practice itself is very simple. It is learned by parents, individuals, health professionals and complementary therapists. It has been used a great deal with people with physical & mental disabilities and in schools for children with learning difficulties, in hospitals, prisons, and with people with addictive patterns, eating disorders and stress-related conditions. It is often used by pregnant women and midwives as many people have reported an easier pregnancy & birth. Above all, it is used by people who are interested in realising more of their unfulfilled potential and becoming all that they were meant to be.
