Despite man having the same basic body structure as other mammals, he is the only one that is perfectly balanced in an upright posture.
The foundation for it is the increased role and strength of the buttock muscle. Upright posture has exposed the vulnerable parts of his body (stomach, neck, and crotch) to the world. Exposed, he began to understand his feelings and develop the ability to express them. At the same time, his front limbs gained another purpose and meaning. When you observe a violinist during a play, you believe that his hands have a life of their own. Man owes a highly developed touch to his hands, which is very important in the perception of reality and most influences the development and functioning of the mind.
Fortunately, we have become increasingly aware of how important the body is and that it is not an entity far removed from the spirit and mind. The Ancient Greeks used to say: A healthy spirit in a healthy body. Simultaneously, there is the fact that thoughts and feelings do not always coincide, and the mind and body do not go hand in hand. A person can think without moving. At the same time, the person can perform an unconscious movement. But are we aware that the state of mind can take its toll on the body, and vice versa? Understanding these two aspects of the mind and the body, their surface polarity and inner unity was brought to us by Reich with his concept: mind and body need both opposition and unity to function, as they work through common energy.
On the surface, the body and mind influence each other. The mind influences the body while the body’s feelings and impulses influence the mind’s operation. But on a deeper level, underneath the membrane, this separation no longer exists. In its place, we instead find a unique organism with a life energy collector in its core (which accumulates mainly in the organs of the abdominal cavity), which enables the functioning of both body and mind. The body responds to the energy with movement and action, while the mind creates thoughts, desires, and images that we can be aware of or not. The muscles create our biological energy by converting the chemical energy from food and liquids with the help of oxygen.
Chronic muscle tension creates blockades and distortions in the flow of this energy, which leads to permanent changes of sensations and impulses from inside the membrane towards the surface of the body and mind. This blockade only increases the separation between the body and mind and throws them off-balance. We consciously understand and believe that a connection exists, but because of the blockade, it does not work deep enough and, therefore, does not reach our basic unity. The blockade creates a division between the unity of personality and character, between ego and persona. Not only does it separate the psyche from the soma, but it also separated awareness, which is limited to the surface of the body. That way, a person can no longer detect the childlike spontaneity, which creates a separation between the past and the present.
