A revelation was the knowledge of the spinal column Dr. Matya Sickesz introduced me to through her system of ortho­manual medicine. At a very early stage, long before there are any symptoms, a dysfunctioning of the spinal column and its mobility can be observed. The spinal column is the central regulating body for the nerves and their connections with the brain. The nerves lead from the spinal chord to the organs and are in control of the muscles, the veins and arteries, and really of everything needed by that beautiful plant, the body. The inspection of the entire spinal column and the pelvis supporting it was a great help in the diagnostic process that uses only eyes and hands, especially when dealing with a patient who showed no clear clinical-chemical or radiological abnormalities, but who nevertheless had complaints. A restriction in the functioning of the spinal column could be diagnosed with the aid of simple mobility tests, with your eyes and your hands. In neuro-anatomy each level has been charted and it is not difficult to recognize the location of a dysfunction somewhere else in the body, once you see a blockage in the spinal column. That was one aspect.

But I still had questions. I noticed that there were many people who, while already showing a blockage in the spinal column, continued to function normally without registering discomfort. Sometimes years later, they would suddenly have symptoms, which could be traced to that blockage.

I therefore concluded that there had to be other factors present for a symptom to become apparent, not just a trauma, such as a fall down the stairs. This is how I arrived at the psyche as being the foundation for the unique human being. One person has a blockage while still young and lives to be eighty without ever having any real symptoms.  Another registers discomfort at the first sign of a blockage. There has to be something more than just a mechanical abnormality in the motor mechanism.

Knowledge of the psycho-motor system, i.e. mental activity in combination with muscle action, collected from different disciplines, also helped me develop the ability to recognize a person’s dysfunctioning at an early stage. However, I still could not answer the question why people register discomfort, why they suffer pain in the multitude of possible ways pain can make its presence known. Therefore, there had to be something unique in the human being, something that at a certain moment causes complaints to surface along with the demonstrated abnormalities.