Following the laws of life
Arthur Lincoln Pauls, the founder of Ortho-Bionomy®, believed that our bodies contain all the knowledge they need for self-regulation and maintaining health.
Through certain sudden or prolonged influences, the mechanisms of regulation can become distorted – Pauls referred to this as “confusion.”
He discovered that reinforcing the assumed protective posture gives the body an impulse for self-correction. By gently exaggerating the adopted body posture, the body becomes aware of its protective or guarding posture and releases tension from its own body awareness.
Ortho-Bionomy® supports us in unfolding our personal potential to the best of our ability, thus resolving the confusion that has arisen. The Ortho-Bionomy® practitioner does not follow pre-determined techniques but instead works individually according to the principles of Ortho-Bionomy®.
Arthur Lincoln Pauls
Born on February 12, 1929, in Laird, Canada, Arthur Lincoln Pauls suffered from chronic physical ailments since his youth. Through osteopathic treatments, he found relief.
In the early 1970s, he himself completed an osteopathy training in London, UK, and researched the different treatment levels of osteopathy. From the insights gained through the positioning techniques of osteopath Dr. Lawrence Jones, Arthur Lincoln Pauls began to explore more and more the path of working with the self-regulation of the body instead of corrective intervention.
From his own experiences and observations, he developed Ortho-Bionomy®. His foundations were not theoretical constructs but much more life itself. He always emphasized that he did not invent Ortho-Bionomy® but discovered it through his attentive observations of life.
From the mid-1970s, Arthur L. Pauls began to pass on his knowledge, first traveling throughout Canada and the United States and later throughout Europe. He quickly realized that he did not want to pass on his knowledge exclusively to an elite group of people such as osteopaths and physicians, but to all people interested in a gentle, nature-based approach.
In the 1990s, Arthur L. Pauls found his new home in the homeland of his life partner Odile Ciny in France.
During a residential in France in the summer of 1997, Arthur Lincoln Pauls passed away after spending some wonderful days with a large part of his students, his “chosen family,” the European Ortho-Bionomy® teachers.
“Energy has no boundaries; you hold a part of me in your hands,
and I am grateful that you have taken the time and effort to come so far.”
A. L. Pauls
The Sand Dollar
Arthur Lincoln Pauls chose the sand dollar as a symbol for Ortho-Bionomy®.
The sand dollar belongs to the family of sea urchins. At first glance, it resembles a fossilized flower or prehistoric creature. However, it is actually the calcareous skeleton of a specific group of sea urchins. Unlike many of its relatives, it is not spherical but flat like a coin.
What prompted the founder to choose this as a symbol for Ortho-Bionomy® is the fact that although the sand dollar appears to be a symmetrical figure, its center is not necessarily in the mathematical-geometric center. Just like with us humans, our center is different for each individual.
Another aspect of the symbol’s choice was that the respiratory structure located on the top of the skeleton resembles a symbolic representation of a human (similar to the depiction of the “VitruvianMan” by Leonardo da Vinci).
The sand dollar, in its symbolic interpretation, shows an opening of the head as well as the limbs, a representation that also points to the interconnectedness and energetic phenomena within humans and all living beings.
“…for within the inner self there is no space, no time,
no barriers save those which we create through misunderstanding.”
A. L. Pauls