History in Brief  by  Robert St John

The word "Metamorphosis" means a process of change whereby that which has existed is changed into a finer substance -- a new attitude of mind; we become a finer version of our former self.

My first understanding of that which later became Metamorphosis was in 1937 when, as a Naturopath, I was observing the "behaviour" patterns of our various ailments of the mind and body: I became aware that there were two attitudes of mind to the actions of life in our functions; these two attitudes should, ideally, be in unison; but in practice they became separate, producing an either/or attitude, with consequent malfunction.

These two attitudes --- in their true relationship --- were the guiding principle of life and the capacity of our body and mind to respond. In accepted terms, the spirit and the substance.

In their separated form they became two different functions, still working together, but producing chaos. In their separation there was an independence produced, and an identification with one or the other. This identification varied from one extreme to the other: the characteristic of the "principle of life" became an abstract and retreative attitude, away from physicality, and the mind and body became a self assertive, extrovertive attitude. In the most extreme identification they produced a function of retardness; the one being an extreme introvertiveness -- autism, and the other extreme being a total identification with the body -- Downs Syndrome.

I called these two attitudes of mind AFFERENCE and EFFERENCE: these two words applied accurately to the state of unison of the two; Afference being an action from the periphery to the centre and Efference an action from the centre to the periphery; Afference, the guiding principle, directing attention to the centre, and Efference, the substance, responding to the initiation of Afference.

The theme of the relationship of Afference and Efference was to become the main principle of the structure of Metamorphosis. Our problems in life are in relation to the imbalance of Afference and Efference, and Metamorphosis is the means by which we find harmony and unison of the two.

This was in 1937. There was the war and then getting back into my practice after the war. My interest in various therapies was drawn towards the Radionic Association and Dowsing, or the application of the principle of Dowsing in therapy. Both of these methods used the principle of the focus of the mind as a means of divination or of perceiving the balance of what I had already learnt in the relationship of Afference and Efference. From the point of view of diagnosis the dowsing principle was invaluable and became my primary method of understanding the condition of the health of my patients. But the most important aspect of this principle became the first lesson in the use of the hands and fingers in Metamorphosis -- -- -- the directing of THOUGHT from the finger to the reflex point. This did not come into use for several years; but it was developing through the years of the 1950s.