Phosphenism: Hemi-circumduction.

Combination of swaying and oscillation of torsion.
This way of practicing the sways is the deepest, most natural and most highly traditional.

The most natural because it is the primal movement of life. This is the movement of the sperm cell. As it advances, on one hand, it shows an oscillation of its head from right to left which is prolonged in a sinusoidal movement of its body and the flagellum; and on the other hand, it has an oscillation of twisting around its axis. Thus, for the person who is observing through the microscope from above, we could say that it shows at times the right cheek and at times the left. Now, this combination of oscillations, twisting and sinusoidal oscillations is very common in biology. For example, when we walk along a wall, if we project the movement of the hip on the wall, this movement traces a sinusoid; but in addition there is an obvious oscillation of torsion because at times one hip and at times the other hip is alternately in front and then in back. Thus, as in the advancing movement of the sperm cell, there is a combination of sinusoidal movement and an oscillation of torsion.

We say that the movement of the heart is a contraction-dilation. But, in medicine, we learn that the heart contracts like a dish towel that we twist to wring out the water, i.e. with a twisting movement at the extremities, the cardiac muscular fibers being arranged in spirals closed upon themselves. In other words, the heart is a kind of cloth having four links.

Let’s project this fundamental biological combination on the movements of our head, the sway from right to left (lateral head sway). The oscillation of twisting is the movement during which the axis of the head constantly remains vertical and the chin goes to the right and to the left. If we combine the two, the head will lie against collarbone on one side and then on the other side. It is indispensable that there is equality between the flexion and the twisting. It is more pleasant to practice this movement in the register of a basic rhythm of two seconds, i.e. on a rhythm of four seconds or on a rhythm of three seconds. In any case, it is necessary to use one or the other of these durations to create neurological pathways which are vectors of experiences.

In the end, these movements are the easiest ones to do, which is hardly surprising because they correspond to the original movement of life, the most pleasant one, the one during which it is easiest to continue to think and maintain a rhythmic activity in thought, whether it is a mantra or something else or the swaying of a point of concentration.

When you stop this movement of the head, the movement of the thought continues with great ease.

In the ancient paintings depicting Christ, such as those on ancient crucifixes, the head of Christ is always tilted to one side lying against the collarbone, half-flexion and half-torsion. In the past, it was always to the right because according to tradition he would have looked toward the west as he was dying. In more recent paintings, it can sometimes be to the left. Nonetheless, it was decreed by surgeons that this was not a normal position for a corpse attached by the hands, and since then Christ has been represented with his head tilting forward.

But if the artists of the Middle Ages represented the scene with the head tilted to one side and at the same time with a movement of twisting, i.e. the head lying against the collarbone, this is because in Christianity at that time it was still remembered that this movement had a great mystic value; in other words enormous potential for helping create rhythmic thinking, at the time called prayers or litanies, for helping repeat prayers and litanies on a very regular conscious rhythm.

The choir sloping onto the nave, in certain churches and cathedrals.
In certain buildings dedicated to worship, Gothic churches, for example, or Gothic cathedrals and even much more ancient small Romanic churches in the country, you will also notice that the choir slopes onto the nave.
In Quimper, for example, this is quite striking. In Saint-Malo, if we stand right in the middle of the steps at the entrance of the cathedral, we will remark the same thing if we pay a bit of attention. And, for example, in Monteton, a small village in Dordogne where there is a Romanic church, on the door of the entrance there is an explanation of this slight incline, and our attention is drawn to it: it recalls the tilting of Christ’s head on the cross.

At a certain period in history, if we marked this movement even in the buildings dedicated to worship, it was because we recalled quite well that it was extremely important from a mystic point of view. We mustn’t forget that up until the end of the Middle Ages, in churches, dances of gyrations were practiced as well as exercises of swaying the head and the body. Moreover, the Coptic Christians still rock back and forth as they pray. Consequently, this position of Christ in paintings and on ancient crucifixes and the sloping of the choir onto the nave indicates that we knew quite well that this movement of the head was a very important aspect of spiritual development.