Last summer I had the honour of taking a course with one of the great minds of our time in the field of embryology, Dr. Jaap Van der Wal. Dr. Van der Wal is a phenomenological researcher who specializes in the field of human embryological development, a field that can be confusing at best and a nightmare to even the most hardened anatomy students at its worst. The study of human embryology boils down to most students memorizing unending stages of cellular division and making sense of how a two dimensional cellular disc morphs into a fully functional human containing over 200 bones and a dozen distinct systems that ensure life goes on. But Dr. Van der Wal had every student hanging onto his every word during the 4 day seminar.
Because he is a phenomonologist, Van der Wal infuses his lectures of embryology with meaning. In this way he considers himself to study a field he has coined ‘embryosophy’. He looks at gestures as expressions of the soul in human development, and through this unique filter he paints a vibrant and engaging tale of the human story, and more importantly, what it means to be human. Throughout his review of anatomy and physiology, he weaves a narrative of the philosophical underpinnings of humanity, and it. is. fascinating. Hence the reason a couple of Canucks packed up a car, played hooky from work, and puttered off in search of a deeper understanding of human embryology by this master storyteller.
So what did we learn?
As the days unfolded, we started to see the human as an expression of a soul wanting to manifest itself in this time and space. We saw ourselves and others as the creative potential that is expressed with the help of our parents, the idea being that we come through our parents and not from them. We learned that each and everyone of us are whole from the moment of conception, since the definition of a zygote is that it is an organism. The zygote (the fertilized egg) is not a cell that divides and separates itself as we tend to think of it…it is a whole, functional organism that expands and grows and maintains its wholeness until the time the fetus leaves their placenta behind during the birth process
The placenta is also derived from the original zygote (something we often overlook) and thus when we separate from it we leave a part of ourselves. One half of us lives on, the other half of us dies. The placenta is an organ that grows from the original zygote in order to protect and nourish the embryo. Some cultures honour the placenta with ceremony and burial, other cultures sterilize and dry it for consumption by the mother in order to return minerals and iron to her in her time of breastfeeding. After considering that the placenta is derived from the zygote, it is spiritually fitting that it be returned to the mother so that she can return its essence to her baby through her breast milk, thus restoring wholeness to her child in a way, perhaps helping to replace the missing puzzle piece some people spend their lives searching for in order to attain a feeling of wholeness. Despite modern culture finding placental ingestion to be an unappealing act, the placenta is rich in iron due to its vascular constitution and helps temper the hormonal effects of childbirth for some women. It can also be very helpful during female menopause in this regard…But that’s another conversation.
Van der Wal looks at the human body as a process, always in movement, always creating space, always in transition. He believes that anatomy is the result of the process of life, therefore we can refer to it as a behaviour.
“Our anatomy is a condition dependant on realizing ourselves”
– Van der Wal, 2018
But perhaps more importantly than our physical form is what drives this whole prospect of embryological development. How does the blueprint of human development unfold time and time again, guided by invisible forces step after countless step until we are fully formed? Van der Wal believes (after observing human development for a lifetime) that it is the soul that directs human development, stating that if Spirit exists, than according to natural laws of polarity, it must be by definition the exact opposite of matter. The interdependent concepts of structure (anatomy) and function (physiology) are a core Osteopathic principle and one cannot exist without the other. They’re the Bonnie and Clyde of the human being. This lemniscate of structure and function create a dynamic process, and what happens between these two poles is what we call life.
“Structure without function is a corpse…Function without structure is a ghost”
-Van der Wal, 2018
That being said, we still need a little help from mom and dad to get started. Did you know that the ovum (female egg) ultimately chooses the sperm that will fertilize her? And if she doesn’t find any suitable genetic donors she will decline fertilization, essentially committing hari kari. In this way, she ensures the quality of genetic reproduction is as high a standard as possible. What a woman!
The Ovum: the OG or GOAT?
Most people think of conception as mom + dad = me. But Van der Wal challenges us to look at conception as the coming together of 3: mom + dad + our soul to create a unique human organism whose structure is animated (derived from anima, meaning to have a soul). All living things have a soul but not all living things are embodied. When the conditions are right, we are invited to this dance called Life, and if we accept, we are gifted a body to use for this experience. Some people get to experience life as John from up the way, other people get to experience life as Amanda Maier…if you’re really lucky, you get to experience life as Richard Branson.
But just because we get our genetic information from mom and dad doesn’t mean it has a whole lot to do with who we turn out to be. Van der Wal reminds us that genes do not cause differenitation, they serve only as memory which we refer to as heredity. The enzymes that surround the genes are responsible for activating the genetic codes…thus we create our bodies cell by cell, it develops from us and not the other way around. This topic moves quickly into the fascinating field of epigenetics and the ensuing debate as to how much our environment as well as other factors affect how our genes express themselves. So don’t dispair, if you will it hard enough you can still be Richard Branson. Kind of.
“The moment you change your perception is the moment you rewrite the chemistry of your body”
-Bruce Lipton
In Osteopathy, we refer to conception as an ignition, and fittingly, science has confirmed that a photon of light is emitted the moment of conception. Celebratory fireworks, you might think. Embyologically speaking, this is where life starts. Not before, not after. Many traditions maintain that consciousness is sparked at conception.
The fertilized egg (which I will henceforth think of as the zyGOAT), if successful in implanting, begins to xerox itself, going from an organism of one cell to end up as a 32 trillion cellular macrocosm. This natural unfolding of life follows the laws of nature, and like all other life on this planet, we come from the living organism that is Gaia. Every living thing expresses itself in movement, has a breath, has a rhythm. The human heart creates just such a rhythm on both a physical and an electromagnetic level, propelling the blood, circulating oxygen, directing life with every beat. We exist between the polarity of the heart beat. Life is suspended between systole and the diastole, between sound and silence, between the lub and the dub, so to speak. When the rhythm of the heart stops, so too does our existence in this life.
“What evidence have we, that is absolute and undebatable, that all physical forces of the body are not conceived, developed, and issued from the heart?”
– AT Still, 1902
Some cultures believe that the heart has chambers primarily to house the soul. Further to this theory, embryology teaches us that the human physically develops around the central fulcrum of the heart, making it the headquarters for construction of the body. It is the room from which the invisible Engineer creates matter from ether. The HeartMath Institute has mapped out an electrical language that is spoken by the heart which directs our physiological functions. In this way it isn’t hard to believe that if the soul finds a home within the confines our our meat suit, the heart is as likely a place for it to live as any.
The embryo continues to grow through the first trimester of pregnancy, curling itself protectively around its heart, back nestled into mom, snug as a bug in a rug. It grows the kidneys that will at one point end up migrating up toward where our ears will one day sit as well as the tube that will twist itself into what will become the heart, an incredibly complex act guided by unseen forces. Eventually the embryo will move into extension and even flip around, finally ending upside down as a fully formed fetus with everything we need to get us by including eyes and ankles that will fail us as we age.
“We are a process. We are still Embryos, they continue to live within us”
-Van der Wal
Van der Wal challenges us to look at the birth process as a certain kind of death…and for the fetus who is being pushed aggressively out of its warm, dark, weightless environment into this world, it would very much feel like the end of life as they’ve always known it. They essentially are moving toward the bright light, leaving behind everything they’ve ever known, including their protective placental world which is a part of themselves. So with that perspective, we can appreciate that the idea that birth and death are very much interchangeable. They are just two poles between which we exist. Nothing more, nothing less. There is a good possibility our Mother is waiting patiently for us just on the other side of the veil.
Life, as described by Van der Wal, is an emergence into this world as a being of pure potential. We existed before and will exist on some plane after our performance here is finished, just as a wave existed before and will exist after its brief emergence from the ocean.
Van der Wal reminds us that even when things are ending, when this life is coming to a close, it is merely the end of a scene, the end of a cycle, the parting of ourselves with this placental existence, in order to return back from whence we came.
August 8, 2019
Amanda is a Halifax-based Manual Osteopathic practitioner who has trained with the College d’Etudes Osteopathique as well as the British College of Osteopathic Medicine. Amanda practises a heart-centred approach to Osteopathy and enjoys working with humans of all kinds.