The Magic of Intentioned Touch and Blending

By John Upledger, DO, OMM

The power of intentioned touch and blending first came into my conscious awareness in 1954. I had just finished training as a hospital corpsman in the U.S. Coast Guard and was assigned to a patrol ship in the Gulf of Mexico.

I was only there a couple days when the captain's steward sent word for me to see him. He was unable to walk due to a sudden pain in his calf. He was lying on deck grimacing, holding his leg and writhing about. I was trained in life-saving procedures I really had no idea what to do here. Six or seven crewmembers were watching and, I felt, judging my ability. The pressure was on. I could make it or break it right then.

I tried to look knowledgeable as I took his left calf between my hands. I could feel a lot of heat and muscle contraction, but I had no idea what the problem was or what I could do about it, so I made my hands as gentle as I could. Then I envisioned everything relaxing. I pictured the pain leaving and all the blood vessels and nerves normalizing.

Within two or three minutes the steward smiled, said he felt fine and thanked me. Then he stood up, tested his leg, continued to smile and walked away. The onlookers nodded their approval. From that time on they called me "Doc."

I learned right then that if you intend to help the healing process and blend with the bodily tissues you're touching, things will usually get better. By "blending," I mean consciously envisioning the boundaries between your hands and the patient's body dissolving until your hands seem like they enter the body.

To better imagine how this might work, consider what happens when you have two bars of soap, one blue and one pink. You place one atop the other, wet them and wait. The two bars of soap merge at their areas of contact. Eventually the colors blend into each other. You may even see a lavender color as the blue and pink mix.

Similarly, the energies of our bodies mix and integrate when we consciously intend it to happen. When the relatively normal energy of the therapist blends with the problem, it dilutes the problem energy and moves it toward normal. At the same time if the therapist allows the problem energy to enter his or her body, an awareness of the problem can be perceived by the therapist. Since the entry of the problem into the therapist's body is consciously allowed by the therapist, it can also be consciously removed by intention.

I'm sure my intention to help the steward was very powerful during that first experience, but I wasn't aware of blending at the time. Since then I've applied the blending concept on a conscious level. Subsequently, I've used intentioned touch with blending to alleviate a heart attack for an airline passenger, to reduce breast cancers in size, to reduce inflammations and so on.

I believe with all my heart that we are born with the innate ability to use intentioned touch and blending to help each other. At The Upledger Institute, we teach it in our CranioSacral Therapy workshops. It is my belief that humankind is poised and ready to reclaim the ability to facilitate the healing processes in each other. Many of us have been brainwashed into letting go of this innate ability. It is time to reverse the trend.

Author's Note: My mission is simply to restore the process of self-healing to its rightful place rather than depend on invasive procedures and to teach others to do it as well.

We need to connect with each individual's self-healing process and their inner wisdom about their self-healing. People say to me, "You're a healer." But I'm not a healer! I am a facilitator of one's healing process. I'm sensitive enough to know people are going to heal themselves, and I'm willing to help do it.

Ideally, we should all be able to help each other heal. I believe that everyone on the face of this planet has at least some ability to do that. If you believe you can, and you are willing to open your mind to it, you have unlimited ability to facilitate healing. You can do anything that you allow yourself to do.