Cerebrospinal Fluid Technique (CSFT)

Editor’s note: The following is adapted from the article "Yoga-inspired Chiropractic" that appeared in the Sept/Oct 98 issue of Yoga Journal.

Yoga-inspired bodywork links your energy systems

Fifteen years ago, when Dr. Don Glassey first read Autobiography of a Yogi, it changed his life. He learned yoga postures from his wife, Nancy, a yoga teacher trained by Swami Vishnu-devananda and began studying yoga techniques taught by the Self Realization Fellowship. As part of the kriya yoga breathwork, Glassey was taught to experience coolness going up the spine and warmth going down.

The sensation fascinated him. "Wow, this is remarkable! So I asked my spiritual teacher, Roy Eugene Davis: ‘What am I experiencing?’ And he told me it was the movement of prana. Well, that’s great, I thought, ‘but physiologically, what am I experiencing, Roy?’ And he said, ‘You’re the chiropractor, you figure that out.’ After some research, I realized I was experiencing the movement of cerebrospinal fluid up the spine and down."

Over the years, that inspiration produced more research, a few published articles about the role of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the nervous system, the meridians, and the nerve plexuses that correspond to the major chakras. Glassey also found that yoga has a profound effect on increasing CSF flow.

About a year and half ago, after a profound spiritual experience, Glassey started waking up at night grappling with how to work with the CSF. "These thoughts kept coming through from my inner voice, and I would get a certain part of the procedure and use it in my practice. I would have questions, wake up the next night, and have answers."

The result is a new form of body/energy work called Cerebrospinal Fluid Technique (CSFT) that gently facilitates the CSF through various strokes to encourage optimum flow. Unlike craniosacral therapy, where practitioners analyze for a craniosacral rhythm, CSFT practitioners look for impedance to the CSF flow—from the coccyx all the way to the top of the cranium—at every single vertebral segmental level. Many CSFT recipients have a spiritual experience after a 30 minute session. Reports of deepened meditation and yoga practice, and feeling healing energy are not uncommon after one or more sessions.

Because widespread anecdotal evidence about CSF’s role in the bodymind’s energy systems seemed to be confirmed by people’s experiences, Glassey assembled a team of holistic healers to prove his theory that the CSF is the connecting link between all the energy systems. Pre and post-checks for spinal tension, the flow of chi in the meridians and chakra spin after CSFT sessions indicate his theory may be on target.

Glassey says, "Cerebrospinal fluid is the life-force in the body. It’s the healing energy. It’s chi, ki, prana. So, once we make sure there’s no impedance to the CSF, the life-force flows in a tremendously powerful way and enables healing on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level. People who experience the work get exactly the healing experience they need in that moment in time."

There are almost two hundred CSFT practitioners on both coasts and in Canada, and teacher training has begun as well. For more information, contact Dr. Glassey at 1829 Bustleton Pike, Feasterville, PA, 19053, or call 215-322-6402.

—Louis S. Revesz

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