What Structural Integration Teaches Us About The Future of Our Planet

Structural integration is manual therapy, and in its protocol of treatment, we are attempting to bring the physical human body back into a vertical axis. Since gravity is here to pull us down all the time, the best way to interact with gravity is to know where your center is, to know where gravity is pulling you towards. When you are going into disarray within your body–via trauma or via accumulation of a pattern that has stuck and now is a part of you–the disarray in the tissue and the organization of the body is taking the body away from that vertical axis, the central point that we are so naturally organized within. 

There are anomalies, but the vast majority of the population of this planet is experiencing the disarray. By manipulating the tissues and utilizing the properties of elasticity and plasticity, remodeling and elastic recoil, we are guiding the connective tissue back into its vital and exuberant form of tissue that can actually support the body, and also allow it to move.

When you support something, you want to help keep it steady and tight, and when you move, you want things to be free. So this is the spectrum of life in the physical body, in terms of physical motion, stability, and mobility. We want somewhere in the middle: if you need more stability, you can take away some of the mobility; if you want mobility and the stability persists, mobility will be limited. We have to let go of some of the holding to move as freely as we desire. 

With this bit of accumulated experience in my life with my career in Structural Integration, I was searching for more indigenous healing arts and practices that could connect me with the natural world, and especially plants, because I am a farmer. I love plants, I love fruit trees– I am an orchardist. I wanted to connect with the plants in ways that I saw the indigenous people do, but I did not have the language or the practices. So in 2015, after my first experience with plant medicine, I received a clear message regarding my life's path. 

I began endeavoring into the shamanic world– mostly the Americas and South America, and then came across a Mystery School based in North Carolina, called the Eagle Condor Council. I have done two intensives at their school, and recently I have finished a teacher training. In this school, we endeavor to share the cosmology and the practices of Andean Paqos, the people of the Andes in Peru, practices of a reciprocal relationship with the natural world, and the cosmology.

The Paqos are not considering this life as solely physical. They are considering this life as a mixture of physical and spiritual. They commune with entities that are embodied in mountains and rivers and caves and the earth, and different locations on their land. They practice ceremonies to enhance that connection and reciprocity. There is no harm done within a process of receiving and giving if it is equal. If it is not equal, again, we have two extremes of a spectrum: one is clenched tight, and one is widely open. You cannot have both work well unless you find a dance to allow them to work well. 

What the Eagle Condor Prophecy warns us, and what structural integration teaches us about the future of our planet, is that we are at the cusp of the last dance on this planet. We have maxed out its resources. We have decimated an enormous amount of natural habitat and life. We are destroying it not only now, but for future generations– if there is a chance that they will thrive on this planet. That is the message that is at the core of the prophecy of the Condor and the Eagle flying together: to serve this beautiful planet, which we are very much undeserving of. 

Let's put it this way: the Earth serves us to the point that we can have the technology to speak to each other via the internet, that is how generous Pachamama is, but her time is limited and her limitations are there, too. So, she will either shake us off, and we will have to wait another cycle of millions of years to evolve to something that may look like this (and hopefully with a better understanding of what life is), or we will be able to save the little bit that is left and maybe build upon a model that can sustain her and sustain us at the same time.

I am very passionate about helping to correct the ways that humanity has been treating this planet and to bring back what we have lost for future generations to be able to thrive. If you are similarly passionate, I look forward to seeing you at our courses, events, and gatherings. The Eagle Condor Council is a beautiful community of like-minded people who are heart-oriented, hardworking, and of integrity. We have a great mission here. If you are passionate about life on the planet, please come join us.

Learn more about the Eagle Condor Council Healing Intensive Program/ The Mystery School.

About the Author:

Yaron Gal Carmel, LCMT, PSIP, has worked as a bodyworker for over thirty years. Yaron has studied with various masters and pioneers in the bodywork field, such as Tom Myers, Christoph Summer, Koei Kuwahara, Hugh Milne, Judith Aston, Gil Hedley, Jim Asher, Divo Muller, Ron Murray, and many others. An educator at heart, Yaron is a senior faculty member of the Anatomy Trains School for Structural Integration, where he teaches ATSI training and workshops in “Anatomy Trains," advanced regional anatomy, and application of fascial release techniques. Yaron teaches for " The Bodywork Education Project," where he offers certification courses in Traditional Thai Massage, as well as his own method, Somatologic Moves, which marries Thai Massage and Structural Integration. His teaching style is known for its liveliness, with experiential exercises, hands-on applications, and attention to therapist self-care. Massage and movement therapists alike are inspired and moved by learning experiences with Yaron. Yaron is the owner and executive Director of The Therapy Center for Mind and Body near Boston, where he maintains a busy private practice.

Since 2016, Yaron has led multiple private and group shamanic which incorporate the field of human Psyche-exploration and self-discovery path-work with this ancient body of Myco-Plant and Amphibian Master teacher’s knowledge. Yaron expanded his lifelong interest in Shamanic healing by studying extensively with Paqos, curanderos, and Shamans in the US, Peru, as well as the Lakota First Nation rites in Manitoba, Canada. Yaron is a certified Kambô Medicine Therapist from The Forest Medicines School.

Contact Yaron: yaron_gal@yahoo.com