With the patient comfortably supine and the examiner comfortably seated at the table, the examiner's hands were laid palms up on the table so that the ulnar sides of the two hands approximated each other. The fingers were flexed between 60 and 90 degrees. The fingertips were placed in contact with the patient's occipital region in a (nearly) symmetrical fashion immediately caudal to the superior nuchal line. The examiner's fingertip contact was allowed to remain passive until the soft tissues relaxed and the examiner could sense the firmness of the deeper bony structures. Once this relaxation of soft tissue occurred, gentle traction was applied in a posterior-cephalad direction. As the occiput moved in compliance with this traction, a gentle laterally directed force was added to the traction by each of the examiner's hands. The resistances of the two sides of the occiput to this examiner-induced passive motion were then rated individually on the 1 to 3 scale.