Spiritual Forum

Body memory is the body itself capable of storing memories, as opposed to only the brain. This is used to explain having memories for events where the brain was not in a position to store memories and is sometimes a catalyst for repressed memories recovery. In order to gain a body memory, according to the theory, one simply needs to go through experience and the body may store this memory in any place in the body that participated in the event - such as the arm, if it got burnt etc.

The concept of ‘body memory’ is of essential importance to our understanding of formation and dissolution of physical, emotional, and mental habits.

Memory is not only what we can consciously recall – there is a vast, relatively colossal store of information held in our implicit memory. This is the memory that makes us improve at physical tasks, such as learning a new skill like driving a car, playing a game, making sounds for speech, or walking. It is the critical basis for all of our acquired habits, which are almost exclusively unconscious.

There is no fundamental difference between the triggering of a physical response, such as sweating or muscle tension, and an emotional response, such as anxiety or stress; in fact, they are very closely related, often activated by the same systems.

 Both are truly physical, cellular processes. Cellular memory necessarily must exist – it is the basis of all life. Life existed long before the emergence of mental consciousness, living, cohesive, fully – functioning Organism, of which life has an infinitely expanding variety. Therefore, cell must be fully capable of life functions independent of mental consciousness.

In order to make change on the cognitive and emotional levels, we must address the difficulties of resistance to change on the physical level – without a method of reconditioning the cellular processes, the increased tendency toward the habitual response, which constitutes the body memory, will not be removed form the cells. The ultimate goal is not to eliminate the capacity of the body to habituate on the cellular level – it’s quite the opposite. The goal would be to maximize the plasticity and sensitivity of the cells, so that we can adapt to any environment, and change of conditions, with a minimal amount of time clinging to past, which is no longer exist. This resistance is the source of our body’s suffering: an inability to let go of the past and adapt to new circumstances, a resistance to forming new cellular habits. This is the same as the goal on the conscious level, to free oneself from clinging to past experiences, to be able to be entirely present, sensitive, and response to present circumstances and conditions. ~ Alex Freedman~

Excerpt from: http://books.google.ca/books?id=_ShHwxMuU1AC&pg=PA289&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false

Body memory on a phenomenological level has three spheres: Habitual, Traumatic, and Erotic body Memory (Casey 1987). Habitual body memory is defined as the active presence of the individual’s past in the body. Habitual body memory contains the embodied experiences of everyday routine activities and movement repertoire. This essentially builds the sense of coherence, continuity and familiarity. It supports orientation in the present situation. The habitual body memory, as it carries our movement repertoire and embodied ways of coping, can foster a sense of safety, mastery, and agency. Traumatic body memory, according to Casey, holds sensations and kinesthetic responses from moments of trauma and pain, whether emotional or physical. These moments may have been personally lived, or observed in others. In traumatic body memories the integration of the body is violated and the experience of embodiment becomes fragmented. The third sphere of body memory, erotic body memory, is the storage of embodied experiences of pleasure. Casey suggests that erotic body memories are essentially interpersonal. As secure and attuned interactions are nurturing and empowering to us, they also bring pleasure, which is experienced in the body and is then stored there. This has a positive impact on the general state of the body –self.

The tri-partite model of body image differentiates the body image into the elements of body-self, body memory and image properties. The body-self is an active, responsive element in the body image, the body’s quality of being present and in interaction with the environment. The body –self is actualized in the present through connectedness with the sensory, kinesthetic and perceptual information in the body. The image-properties are perceptions, thoughts, judgments, and value related to the physical appearances of the body. The image-properties evoke emotional responses in the person and these are experienced through the body-self. Body memory is the name for the embodied information storage function of the body.

In an interdisciplinary exchange on the concept of body memory, the shared consensus was that body memory is a bodily resonance in relation to some lived experience. However, as the nervous system and the brain integrate information, body memories may become associated with olfactory information, visual imagery, sounds and /or words that are related to the situation. Body memory is a hybrid of time, space and kinesthesia. It has potential to make the past present through embodied reminiscence, and yet it also may enable the personal to recognize that the present moment is distanced from the past. Body memory influences the state of the body as it has an impact on how the present moment is experienced. Importantly, body memory shapes the person’s perception of his/her window of tolerance; what she/he feels she/he can hold in his/her body and not to break.

The contents of body memory arise from how we are in relation with the other – how the body-self interacts with the other and what kind of imprint that leaves into the body. Not only are body memory shaped by the interactions with the other and our experiences of ourselves, it is also shaped by our interactions with nature and environment. The patterns that the body repeats in the tension cycles and body-attitudes in its relation to space and environment are contents of body memory. Body memory stores our experiences; what we have learnt through our experiences on the embodied level. The contents of body memory are created through the interactive body-self.

Kandel (neuroscientist) differentiates two kinds of memory: implicit and explicit memory, both of which can function in either short-term of long-term storage of information. He defines conscious memory as explicit or declarative memory: conscious recall of people, places, objects, facts, and events. Unconscious memory refers to implicit or procedural memory: habituation, sensitization, classical conditioning, and perceptual and motor skills. Implicit memory guides us through well-established routines that are not consciously controlled. This unconscious, implicit memory seems to equal with the content that has been related to body memory: ‘constant repetition can transform explicit memory into implicit memory”. Implicit memory often has an automatic quality. It is recalled directly through performance, without any conscious effort or even awareness that we are drawing on memory. This is particularly true for habitual body memory, but also for traumatic and erotic body memory. Implicit memories of kills, habits and conditioning are stored in the cerebellum, striatum and amygdala.

Could we assume then that the body-self, i.e. our sensory and motor systems, act and respond, and when some more permanent transformation happens in the configuration of the connections between the neurons in the systems, the a new body-memory trace has settled into the system? It may be very relevant to recognize that the nervous system is in a state of constant change in its almost infinite connections.

In a lived experience, it is clear that the body-self and body memory are closely connected. The body –self responds and acts in the here and now, and it its responses it is informed by information stored the body memory: the habits, the learnt thresholds and response patterns. But in our actions, do we only repeat what we have already learnt? If we place the functions of sensitivity, kinesthesia and attention to the body-self, there opens up an option for choice and the creation of new activity. So body – self creatively shapes the response from the information body-memory offers and on the basis of the present sensations and information from the environment. It becomes essential, what is the focus of attention, and how much consciousness plays in.