FALLING AS A STATE OF BEING

Fall into the falling and consider falling as a state of consciousness. Such a twisted semantics is more than an allegory, it appears as a planetary condition in the inescapable relationship with gravity. Thanks to a constant falling that we may have the privilege of feeling the body weight, the presence of the bones and generous tangible support offered by mother earth beneath our skin. If it weren't for the permanent gravitational influence we would be in a state of eternal fluctuation and spatial disorientation, with no possibility of experiencing a more intimate and solid relationship with the earth that generously cuddles us.

It is precisely by living within the gravity’s field that a neural relationship in our human bipedal condition gradually takes shape and settles over time. Once having reached a vertical axis, humans must spend the rest of their lives in negotiation with gravity, reaching for a delicate sense of balance that turns out a fragile and precarious relationship. At the beginning of life, small children are not equipped with physical strength and necessary muscular tone to barely function in gravity. Fighting gravity is not a possibility but a gravitational humbleness, the only way to get around, the unavoidable mental tuning each of us could start our adventurous exploration in gravity. You can just observe how playfully a little child  responds to a falling situation, oftentimes with a graceful smile, prompt to yielding to gravity joyfully. As we grow older, the relationship with gravity transforms itself in quality and texture. Adults fight gravity vehemently, albeit unconsciously. The resistance source lies in an internal mental battle stance against themselves. Virtually every single individual ends up being locked up in a mental state of “bracing for impact” oblivious to it. The very subconscious mechanisms to manage the structural balance through resistance has also the effect of becoming blind to innate fear of falling. In this phenomena, none seems to be able to escape from the fate of being trapped into a gravitational resistance and burden.

Fighting gravity becomes, therefore, the silent language inscribed in the nervous system of every grown up person, a condition that casts the whole of humanity into a quality of potentially dysfunctional behavior. Over time any point of reference to become aligned with gravity harmoniously, working with it as opposed to against it, fades away.  As we acquire enough muscular strength to hold ourselves up, the falling vulnerability disappears from our conscious radar, becoming barely recognizable. Compensatory mechanics, instinctive reflexes and movement patterns that express fear reactivity are considered the norm, after all we have no other embodied alternative, albeit we have the tools to conceptualize and speculate about gravity. Gravity resistance becomes irrevocably the corporeal tongue everybody speaks, not only in the face of fall but as a permanent state of being. That becomes a huge human blind spot until the moment when the body begins to present signs of weakness, clearly visible in the elderly or those with their physical balance impaired. The inner concealed fighting breaks lose, gets externalized and manifests at each given step, at each motion reaching for life. 

GRAVITATIONAL FIELD PRINCIPLE (GFP) AND THE LOST LANGUAGE

To accept the falling, to fall into the falling and embody free-falling on land as a permanent state of being is a powerful way to deprogram those conditionings and habits on the nervous system which no longer fulfill the original evolutionary purpose to grant the survival of the species. Imagine someone learning to speak a language that got lost throughout human history. Analogously, studying GFP is akin to learning a language lost in time, a gravitational language whose records and references get lost from the human library once we grow up. Entering into the gravitational field is like inhabiting a parallel reality. The learning process moves through an exceedingly fine somatic study which also calls for a self-inquiry commitment. GFP also opens up a path for self-discovery on ontological and existential reflections and considerations.

The most important premise is that, as aforementioned, humans are not born inherently fighting gravity but inevitably develop patterns of resistance towards it, as we become adults. Much of that as a way of coping with the fear of getting hurt and/or the dread of an existential eternal falling or failing whilst striving for equilibrium and for a sense of self-preservation. The way in which the kinesthetic intelligence derived from a conditioned nervous system addicted to gravitational resistance has enormous implications for humanity. As long as the underlying causes, the repressed traumas and the mental resistances are not identified as the source of those dysfunctional mechanical behaviors in relation to falling and gravity, any attempt to release oneself from gravitational burden will inevitably fail. To embody falling as a state of being as opposed to a merely physical action or practice, might sound a rather radical perspective, one of which is deconstructive in nature. Studying gravity from this perspective casts light of awareness into those blind spots that prevent us from seeing what has been hidden in plain sight. Aligning oneself with the gravitational field principle not only goes beyond the retrieval of an optimal body-mind functionality but it has the potential to spark a game changing realization:  the understanding that deliberately stopping the inner gravitational fighting at will is nearly impossible. It would be like expecting someone to learn a foreign language without ever hearing one word or sound from it. Falling as a state of being becomes a language of the absurd and a full commitment to GFP studies allows anyone to potentially become proficient in such a tongue. On top, GFP has the potency to profoundly transform one’s perception by facilitating a merging of oneself into the gravitational field where seldomly any other human is to be found navigating out there. In the end, the simplicity of totally surrendering to the existential falling and yielding and integrating gravity as an ally, an old friend, poses an invitation to contemplate the interplay between gravity, falling, earth, support, fear, integrity, relationship, imagination, perception, freedom, purpose, love, attachment and death.

Text by Bruno Caverna

UNBURDENING GRAVITY - LEARN TO UNLEARN

Bruno Caverna is holding for the first time a 4 week training course aimed to certify GFP practitioners. The educational program is going to take place in Barcelona over the whole month of September. Although the event hasn’t been released yet you are welcome to fill the pre-registration form on the link below, in case you are willing to befriend with gravity and share it with others

GFP - Pre-Registration