The polo effect - The Nature of Breakdown

"The Polo Effect" - The nature of breakdown.
By Alix Harrow.

For wholeness, the therapist must be concerned with all
Phenomena, from the dense end that corresponds to the most
Primordial, instinctual level of biology, to the least dense
Areas of pure spirit".
McNeely (1987:40)

If Research and methodology in Mental health practice progressed as fast as computerized systems develop, considering that the integrated network of the micro-chip is basically an externalisation of neural networking, there would be a substantial variation in practice and procedure governing the training of psychiatrists and mental health professionals


Western Culture in particular has affected the ability to be mere human beings. We find continually that we no longer feel comfortable with ourselves; something or someone distracts us from our very capable resourcefulness. Is this an easier option?

Passion, desire, and faith in human nature no longer seem to be priority. As we look around each day, we see the great need that the human being has, to express his/her physical, emotional, and spiritual life.

Life in its most basic form is energy and matter formulated into organic and non-organic atoms/particles. These are grown and expanded by time, into many shapes and sizes. Life is the length of time that organisms retain energy.

"This psychic communication depends on the action and re-action of electrons. An electron, an elementary particle that constitutes our bodies, is similar to a black hole in its structure, density, and its ability to bend space, enclose space upon itself, and form a new space-time-possibly the space-time of the spirit".
Johnston (1996: 323)

There are energies that are contained in non-organic matter; these do not appear to be living at all. Nevertheless, these materials have an energy that is related to their construction, whatever that may constitute in terms of our perception.

How can we connect these opposing energies (more-often-than-not) to create free-flowing movement, enabling the creator to be less inhibited by his ever-increasing sense of being isolated by life? Just because we live in a world with different types of energy, does not mean that there can be no harmony.

Let us think for a minute about the transference of energy through matter. The way that we perceive this is through our conscious mind and body sensation. What happens if this is disrupted in some way? Matter is so condensed into sometimes quite small and restricting areas (such as muscle tissue in the human body) that particles become blocked and mould into each other. How can we create a shift in order to re-engage the trapped energy?

It is possible to create an illusory sense of freedom through the use of drama which can be formalized and grounded in reality.

It is vital to maintain our organic qualities, instinct being a primary example of human neglect. This is vital to maintain a good healthy state of being. The consequences of ignoring our state of being may lead us into severe mental health problems and other dilemma's, of which we know little about in retrospect.

When these inevitabilities occur, we are forced into becoming dependent on other peoples remedies, we have been taught that this is acceptable behaviour. These corrective treatments can often be found within ourselves to a greater or lesser degree. Obviously, this is dependent on the severity of the condition.

In order to demonstrate what can happen, when we neglect ourselves in some way I have chosen to identify an "effect" or consequence. This I have defined as "The Polo Effect". The "Polo Effect" is caused primarily by repression of powerful energy.

Let us imagine that the Human Body is a planet. Contained within this planet is a mass of energy. Towards the centre of the planet, the energy is of greater density. If the energy then becomes so great that it can no longer contain the density, it must, by the law of physics disperse. If the centre explodes, it will, split the whole planet, which it cannot do for its own survival. Consequently, it must implode, creating internal combustion. This leads to the planet experiencing a loss or a darkening of energy, which, as an image might be seen as a hole at its centre. As Johnston says of the conservation of our inner planet:

"Existence as we know it consists as a flow of energy created through the maintenance of the polarity of subatomic particles. The positive pole in our body is our thoughts; the neutral pole is our emotions and the negative pole is our body. Psychological health is dependent on the state of the energy patterns of emotions and thoughts, which need to be arranged in a harmonious way.
Johnston (1996: 323))

We might construe, that if the whole planet disintegrated by exploding, there would be no way to rearrange the internal energy sources. By imploding, the planet still conserves something of its physical nature.

"However, we do not know much about how that core is reached, nor do we know how it is affected when emotions are discharged? Through muscular actions which may affect changes in deep body Tissue".
McNeely (1987:82)

One of the most basic forms of dramatheraputic input at this stage of being, could be grounding and embodiment work, this would help the client to refamiliarize himself with his surroundings and himself within the environment, moving on to re-member his body form. This process of implosion creates varying degrees of isolation from intense separation to equally intense engulfment.

Once we have enabled a client to recognize himself to some degree. We can start to work on re-energizing and balancing the imploded material, filling the loss with empowered realization of "self".

Thinking on cause and effect.
The Polo Effect inevitably disturbs the distribution of energy that is released. What is “’caused“, is a pulsating vibration that travels from the centre of the planet out to the surface. In an ordinary planetary shift, we might experience earthquakes, tidal waves, and volcanic eruptions. In the human body, this shift might be a surge of emotional release from the solar plexus. (Which is situated at a central point within the body)?

The pulse that is sent through the body, reaches the surface of the skin where the mechanisms of the nervous system, send messages to the brain. Messages are sent via the receptors on the skin. Usually, the receptors on the skin detect sensation and a message is sent to the brain and an appropriate "perception message" is returned.

In this instance of implosion, all of the receptors on the skin are activated simultaneously, which causes massive disruption in the body and mind chemistry. At this point the "Polo Effect" occurs.

At the point of what we might call a "breakdown", (which has many taboo's attached to it). Something occurs which ultimately makes it impossible to function in a "normal" (that is to say "normal" in the eyes of society) way. The person may think that the way they are behaving is perfectly expectable within their own re-ordering. When a person experiences a very great emotional release, of some kind, it is almost as if the place where it originates implodes and becomes literally a black hole.

"In the black hole, space and time become cyclical and information increases. Each of the billions of electrons that constitute our Bodies can be seen as a micro black hole as well as a micro-universe that contains a soul (Charon)."
Johnston (1996).

An aspect of the inner universe is revealed, and the recognized state of ordering is disrupted. If this happens over time, the body and mind experience several things. Memory loss, loss of time, lack of concentration, feelings of worthlessness, sleeplessness, loss of appetite, waking at odd times, nausea. In severe cases the human may experience delusions, feelings of great strength, visual images external to the body, heightened awareness, depression and many other variations of consciousness.

Depressive phases may last several weeks before strong emotions from childhood break through. It is almost as if the depression has held back the effect. (p.80)
Miller (1995)

What happens to the mind under these circumstances? As we know, the mind within its intrinsic nature, tries to attach meaning to all feeling and feeling to all meaning (one without the other cannot exist without disruption in the human being). Therefore what happens in the›› 'Polo effect'?

The mind experiences a void where it cannot find meaning or feeling, ultimately causing mental anguish and emotional panic.

Initially, time passes and the image of the "black hole"(a visual image of the solar plexus possibly) caused by the "Polo effect", becomes defined in the imagination, within the state of conciousness, waiting for an answer/explanation. At this point, there can be none, because in a sense the body has disowned the material that has emerged from the emotional/body, (The solar plexus) closing down the connection with the mind.

At this point, the imbalance sets in. Memory Loss as an example for equation. Emotion and memory are without question linked and because a memory is usually an emotion linked with an image alot of the images may be in the short term faint due to pushing out quantities of emotion. There are two polarities in this equation. This might be a great deal of imagery with no emotion or a great deal of emotion with no imagery. The first we might determine as a psychosis and the second as some level of neurosis.

If we try to defend the 'Polo effect' by introducing psychotropic drugs of some description, trying to re-align body and mind, we are in effect increasing the 'Polo effect' because the distribution of thought and feeling becomes muddled by externalising treatment. The internal imbalance/chaos is the point at which the process needs to begin.

We might assume that at the point of division (the 'Polo effect'), the mind elevates itself by leaping into another dimension, another part of the universe i.e. the part of the mind that we might call schizophrenic, for example. Might we say that incorporating psychotropic drugs into the equation adds to the minds, further imbalance in a sense? i.e. the external intrusion of stimuli aimed at re-balancing certain diagnosed illnesses.
As an example:

"There are good theoretical grounds to suggest that not all
Individuals who are labelled as having schizophrenia, or who get neuroleptics, actually have schizophrenia".
Healy (1997:45)

Therefore, more damage can be initiated than is present in the first instance. Because, infact, we are creating a re-alignment that in reality is not there. An illusion. Further unreality is not required. (We could say that using the illusion of drama is a far healthier approach than using the illusion of psychotropic drugs) What is required is someone to treat this other dimension as valid in the eyes of the person who has experienced this ' Polo effect.’

The person ultimately finding relief in the knowledge, that in fact, what has happened, is that their reality has been extended to a point that some of us will never reach.

At the instantaneous moment of the 'Polo effect’, the neurological or emotional re-balancing finds its place within various aspects of the human mind; aspects that within our everyday presumed reality do not exist. The possibilities of the human mind are infinite, so we must be ready and able to deal with any unusual occurrences such as schizophrenia. This is reality.

If we continue to disguise our very brilliance, we are denying an immense opportunity for growth within the source given to us by the "Polo effect ". It could be that, this may be a doorway into the next phase of human development. It is therefore possible for the human being to leap so far into this next phase of development (another dimension of the mind) that s/he may not be able to re-establish a sense of everyday reality. This notion of development in terms of psychic awareness must be considered of value to the experiencee and the experiencer for ground to be broken.

This division will become increasingly more acute because of our technical age, and the pre-disposition of creating a world of psuedo- comfort for us.

This, in our ever faster changing world, which does not allow us to face conditions such as the 'Polo effect' without shame and judgement, must inevitably sustain the inability and acceptance of a valuable gift in terms of mental health and treatment.

This will have re-occurring consequences if the issues of internal and external environments are not questioned.

The more falsified the external world becomes the more frightening and unreal the internal world becomes. Where, in fact it is more real. There are an increasing number of people with problems related to incompatibility with the external environment that we are creating.

Unless we choose to start to live an inner life and face our ever-growing human awareness problem, we are destined to destroy ourselves. The human being will rebel against pseudo-reality but not in the form that is logical to the 20th Century mind i.e. war, illness. He will rebel with his mind in some other form.

Cc. Alix Harrow 1998

Gray, H (1977)“Anatomy Descriptive and Surgical” New York: Bounty Books.

Gross, R (1996)“Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour” London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Healy, D (1997)“Psychiatric Drugs Explained“ London: Mosby.

Johnston, C (1996)“Quantum Images of Counselling Relationships“ The Arts in Psychotherapy, Vol.23, No.4, pp.321-332, 1996.

McNeely, D-A (1987)“Touching: Body Therapy and Depth Psychology“ Toronto: Inner City Books.

Miller, A. (1995)“The Drama of Being a Child“ London: Virago.