Let me explain something. When somatic education “takes off”, it will not do so, “like a gentleman” or “in a ladylike way”, saying, “Here we are, ladies and gentlemen,” like some spawn of academia or science. It will not introduce itself to polite society, asking for approval and acceptance. It will not play by the rules.
It will be explosive, viral.
You know how virii spread? They don’t spread “arithmetically” — by addition: “1 + 2 + 3 …” — not geometrically — by multiplication: “1 x 2 x 3” — but exponentially, like the expanding Universe — the longer it expands, the faster it expands, the only limit being “the maximum speed of information transmission”. If you can imagine it, it’s faster than that.
The difference: there’s no immunity to somatic education. It’s a cosmological imperative arising out of The Big Bang (of which Thomas Hanna spoke as our origin and nature). There may be resistance from the old order (as in Chris’ reference to the AMA attacking HSE), but that will “cave in”. There may be the inertia of obliviousness (as in people not recognizing what it is), but that will be temporary. Since we dealing in ideas, information and transformations deeper than acculturation, and since the need is cross-cultural, there’s no way of heading it off. It will not wait for us to keep up — or to catch up. It will come upon us like a tidal wave, when the time comes.
Think of the spread of cell-phones throughout the world, even to the poorest African nations. Faster and more pervasive than that. Think of our technological revolution (in progress and accelerating). Think of the information explosion (in progress and accelerating). Think of how yawning and laughter spread from person to person, involuntarily: Somatic Contagion. It’s built in to humanity.
What will “go viral” will not be merely “clinical somatic education”, like some form of medicine or bodywork. It will be full-spectrum somatic education. When it catches on, it will be a chain reaction, a wave that transforms everything in its path, every social sector I mentioned in a previous entry and more, every discipline, and from all directions.
I don’t say, “Be ready.” I don’t think we can “be ready”. That implies a “gentlemanly” or “ladylike” continuation of the status quo and “the expected rules”. It will go viral unexpectedly at the moment it reaches “critical mass”. The operative word, here, is “unexpectedly”.
What we can do is respond with the greatest integrity and competence of which we are capable at the moment when the effects reach us, when the world-wide information network carries the message broadly, starting first as small streams into local backwaters, and expanding — and the onslaught of public interest, fueled by need, begins. It will change our lives, as well. It will be “quite a ride” and it’s barely begun.