In part 2, Jaap and I discuss the development of the embryo, where consciousness begins, and speculate about what lies beyond.

Jaap van der Wal born 1947 has served as Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in Anatomy and Embryology at various universities and colleges in the Netherlands from 1973 (in which he received his medical degree) until 2012. As a researcher, he specialized in the functional anatomy of the Postural and Locomotor Apparatus with an emphasis on the organization of connective tissue (and later: fascia) and the significance of architecture and tensegrity in human movement and standing. Since 2009, he has contributed to modeling and research on fascia, continuously emphasizing that a one-sided anatomical approach of the body is a reductionist one that can be complemented with an architectural and a biotensegral view on the organization of the body where fascia can be considered as the 'fabric' of the body.

But his primary passion has remained human embryology and morphology, in search of the meaning of the forms of the human organism. For over 25 years he has been giving courses and seminars on what he calls The Embryo in Us. One of the themes is that our body is not a spatial structure built up of parts but a lifelong process and appearance in time. That also forms, that also anatomy is behavior. That we are not the product of our bodies but that our bodies are created and maintained by ourselves. That is "The Embryo in Us": we do not only have a body, we are our body. We are a being of mind and body with mind and body as indissoluble psychosomatic unity; the whole body therefore and not just a particular organ or domain like  brain or central nervous system. "With respect I can find in the embryo tentative answers to questions about the meaning of human existence".

All of this comes together in the concept, endorsed by him, of the triune nature of the human body, in all directions in all dimensions and directions, as a logical consequence of the idea that we are beings of mind and body. The so-called Triune Man -[ Man is Mind, Motion, Matter (AT Still).

On Jaap's website www.embryo.nl (in three languages) under the heading Knowledge Bank many articles, chapters and other publications of Jaap as well as some comprehensive PowerPoint presentations can be found and downloaded. Go to https://www.embryo.nl/831-ArticlesEmbryosophy-EN or download via https://bit.ly/3qLOpG1 (Dropbox)

Erich Blechschmidt – A Biodynamic Approach to Development from Conception to Birth