Sutherland was the first person to claim to feel a rhythmic shape change in the bones of the cranium.
From there, his teachings have since spread worldwide, including Australia and New Zealand by the SCTF of ANZ as well as in the UK and Central and Eastern Europe and Japan.
His wife, Adah, wrote his biography, With Thinking Fingers, which details his exploration of the cranial concept.
"Osteopathy in the Cranial Field," written by one of his students, Harold Magoun, DO, is the main textbook of his work.
It has been speculated that Sutherland borrowed ideas directly from the 1882 English translation of Swedenborg's writings on brain physiology.