Tom Landini: Feldenkrais Method

Uniquely Human

Tue, 09 Dec 2003 17:03:21 GMT

It's not news that humans are a unique species. We have known this for quite a while now. But until recently, science hasn't been very specific on what makes us so unique. Science may be filling in some of the details for us now. Have a look at Humanity? Maybe It's in the Wiring for a look at some of the research efforts aimed in this direction. The article reports on two separate research efforts in which neuroscientists have gathered evidence of nervous system pathways in humans that gather and process information in ways that give rise to complex emotion and a sense of self-awareness. Dr. Arthur Craig of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix has detailed a network of sensory pathways from body tissues to the lowest and highest levels of the brain. The pathway finally feeds into regions of the cortex called the insula, one on either side of the brain. These are the areas of the brain that "light up" in the fMRI studies of people experiencing various types of sensory information. Craig says that the insula is "a system that represents the material me." It is in these insulae that information becomes feelings and self-awareness emerges. More precisely, it is in the front part of the insula where the realizations happen. Other research into nervous system circuitry: Dr. John Allman at the California Institute of Technology has found spindle cells in the brain that "function like air traffic controllers for emotion." He found that humans have many, many more of these cells in their brain than any other species. In fact no other species than humans or apes had any. Allman has found spindle cells in an older part of the brain that is part of the autonomic nervous system. Any intense emotion or difficult task activates this region. From there they send information all over the brain. The spindle cells aren't present at birth and develop during infancy and childhood. Humans are unique in their ability to sense themselves and process the complex emotional states that often arise from this sensory ability. But you don't have to have a person under an MRI machine to know this. As movement educators see every day, just observing the way a person uses themselves in movement tells you a lot about the whole person. Putting hands on them is even more revealing. This brings to mind a story of Moshe Feldenkrais working with a client who was a professor of physiology. After the lesson, she said something like "you just showed me the tonic neck reflexes in myself. I've taught them for many years, but I never thought about making that knowledge practical." [Moshe Feldenkrais: The Master Moves] So, while the research is interesting, even fascinating, the even greater challenge is the practicality that will hopefully arise from such knowledge.

Minding the Body

Thu, 20 Nov 2003 16:11:44 GMT

There's a lot of talk about learning in movement education. Learning how to learn is almost a mantra in serious Feldenkrais work. The learning takes place in the context of movement-based lessons designed to sharpen the body schema of students. But the term learning to learn implies a much broader context. Can the awareness/movement based learning transfer to other contexts and environments? What challenges the transfer? Educator Julie Cheville takes a stab at it in her book Minding the Body:What Student Athletes Know About Learning. Cheville based the book on observing a college basketball team in action over a two year period. The book delves into the startling differences in the athlete's on-court and in-classroom experiences. A sample chapter is available here.

Is brain imaging the neuro-Rorscach?

Tue, 18 Nov 2003 23:11:37 GMT

I've posted about brain imaging numerous times in the past. Some of this imaging has in essence confirmed the ideas that there are body images in the brain, and that they are remarkably plastic. They celebrate the remarkable notion that the human nervous system is almost infinitely adaptable. And that's really good news if you find yourself in an unfortunate situation that says, "adapt or else kiss your dreams good bye." The remarkable thing is that with stuff like the Feldenkrais Method and other approaches to somatic education, the adaptability can be coaxed out of the nervous system , sometimes without too much trouble. But brain imaging has not stopped with motor control and plasticity. Carl Zimmer today cites a Dartmouth study that goes beyond motor stuff and into social issues like how we feel about each other. I had seen the write up of the study on Nature Neuroscience a couple of days ago, but passed on posting anything about it. But Zimmer, rightly so I think, sees a kind of danger in using brain imaging for this type of thing (the studies are concerned with observing and testing for racial bias within an experimental framework), calling easy interpretation of these scans the neuro-Rorscach effect.

This neuro-Rorscach effect is only going to become more common. That's because neuroscientists are using their scanners to probe the social brain. Most people may not have a lot of preconceptions about how the cerebellum influences motor control, but when you get into the way we feel about one another, everybody's got an opinion. [The Loom]

It's easy to oversimplify even the most mundane stuff, let alone something as complex as human motor and social behavior. But the images will keep coming from the scanners and the interpretations will multiply like rabbits on speed. This is something worth continuing to watch.

The Biology of Action

Fri, 07 Nov 2003 23:58:31 GMT

Running across the video lecture on The Neural Mechanisms of Habit Formation that I mentioned yesterday got my curiosity flowing. Earlier today I was searching Google for "basal ganglia movement habits feldenkrais" when a most interesting and promising site popped up. It was the web site of Deric Bownds, a professor of Molecular Biology and Zoology at the University of Wisconsin. On Bownds site is the full text of his book The Biology of Mind - Origins and Structures of Mind, Brain, and Consciousness. It's a book the Feldenkrais would have loved, I bet. One of the basic ideas, highlighted again and again, is how our minds, body actions, and environment are linked in a seamless whole and how mind and consciousness might be defined from the point of view of movement. Chaper 9 of the book is devoted to movement and action. A couple of quotes:

Thinking can be viewed as the activity of deciding "what movements I make next." The most complex brains are found in animals that make the most complex motions.

Many of our habitual movement patterns contain extraneous contractions, and you can learn about this in an interesting way. You can sometimes sense more about what goes into a movement pattern by imagining that pattern than by actually carrying it out.

There are also some movement experiments that are a lot like Feldenkrais lessons. I'm also finding the bibliography and footnotes useful.

Neural Mechanisms of Habits

Thu, 06 Nov 2003 13:31:08 GMT

"Habits: it's hard to get the good ones, and hard to break the bad ones," according to Dr. Ann Graybiel of MIT. Hard to argue with that. Neural Mechanisms of Habit Formation is an accessible video lecture of Graybiel and others work in habits and the brain. Lots of implications and explanations of movement-related issues here. Graybiel spoke at a regular series of lectures at the National Institute of Health in Washington, DC. Video archives of other lectures are available, as is a schedure of upcoming video events.

fMRI on the Radio

Wed, 05 Nov 2003 14:24:48 GMT

In the previous post I referred to fMRI, or functional magnetic reasonance imaging. What the heck is that? A National Public Radio (NPR) audio clip outlines what it is and what is does.

Disgust in the Brain

Wed, 05 Nov 2003 13:35:26 GMT

In movement education work we all too frequently see that understanding and experiencing action can be two completely different things. But what about feeling, as in emotions? It turns out that, at least in the human emotion of disgust, both the experience and the understanding of it seem to trigger the same areas of the brain. European researchers have published a study of neural understanding and experiencing emotions in Neuron. The study's subjects first smelled a disgusting odor in a test tube, and then watched a video of someone else displaying disgust. fMRI images showed that roughly the same areas of the brain were activated. So there seems to be more evidence that the idea that the pain is in the brain, as I wrote about elsewhere, isn't just a clever saying but can be demonstrated.

Pain is Pain to the Brain

Thu, 30 Oct 2003 14:08:13 GMT

A study at UCLA released on October 10 finds that emotional and physical pain stimulate the same part of the brain. The study itself seems to be locked behind a pay wall at Science magazine, but news media coverage abounds. A good summary is at Discovery Health And Carl Zimmer's blog has a little commentary. From the Discovery Health article:

If you feel like you've been punched in the stomach after your lover walks out on you, that may be because that is what it feels like. Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), publishing in the Oct. 10 issue of Science, have found that emotional pain and physical pain can stimulate the same parts of the brain.

Although this is a newly news worthy concept, it harkens to the work of therapist Eugene Gendlin, developed when he was at the University of Chicago. The Gendlin work is called focusing, and is based on the idea that there are bodily felt senses for thoughts and emotions. Gendlin and others have trained their clients to tap into these felt senses and learn from them. And, of course, Feldenkrais' work is based on the idea of the integration of the organism. I think he might have been keenly interested in the UCLA study.

Dynamic Systems in Sports

Thu, 23 Oct 2003 16:59:12 GMT

I've referred elsewhere to the dynamic systems approach to movement education and the like, notably in the work of Esther Thelen on child development. Complex Systems As a Fundamental Theory of Sports Coaching is a presentation that takes a look at sports applications. It is a somewhat technical presentation, but there are a few good stories to be found. For example, a control parameter is a term referring to stuff that (strongly) influences the behavior of a non-linear. Here is a non-technical story from the presentation that illustrates control parameters in terms of adaptation and learning in a critical situation:

Another example with direct personal consequences is the practice of the Parachute Landing Fall ("PLF") that is supposed to protect a parachutist from injury in the case of high-velocity impact on the ground. It is taught with a great number of details in the sequence of movements that should ensure that the contact of the person with the ground follows the sequence foot-lower leg- upper leg-hip- side of the torso. The theory behind this sequence is that as much as possible of the kinetic energy of the linear vertical motion to be converted into the kinetic energy of rotational motion while distributing the area of impact as much as possible. During a paragliding accident I tried to follow these steps only to find out very painfully that I could not proceed beyond step one: By the time I tried to initiate the rolling movement my knees had already crushed my sternum and two of my vertebrae suffered compression fractures. There was a clear mismatch between the practice condition and the real-world requirement. During my first flight after recovering from the accident I got into turbulent air about 10m above the landing area with the consequence of a major collapse of my wing and the subsequent rapid descent. At that moment it became clear to me that the only rule that needs to be remembered in exercising the PLF is to avoid landing on ones feet while they are below the center of gravity. As soon as they are off center they will automatically produce the torque needed for the transfer of kinetic energy to rotational motion.

Learning comes in handy sometimes, eh?

If You Know What You're Doing ...

Thu, 16 Oct 2003 15:59:22 GMT

A Coach's Digital Tools Take Center Court. A California tennis coach, thinks that digital imagery can become a crucial teaching tool on the court. By Matt Richtel. [New York Times: Technology] The article focuses on a coach using new, sophisticated video techniques to coach tennis players. His main concern is one familiar to movement educators: the tennis swing is so fast and so complex that it's very difficult to see (and feel) exactly what's happening. Acccording to the article,

He would like to change the way people teach tennis, which he said is "an invisible game" because neither coaches nor fans really know what is happening. The trouble, he said, is that the swing happens so quickly that the naked eye cannot pick up what separates the swing mechanics of the greats from mere mortals or near-greats. "The basic issues of technique are in complete disarray, confusion and dispute among the so-called experts and authorities," Yandell said. "If you get the best coaches after a couple of beers, they'll tell you, 'I don't know what's really happening.'

Well, as someone named Feldenkrais once said, if you don't know what you are doing, it's hard to change it so that you're doing what you want. Looking from the outside, no matter how detailed, is not the same thing as making changes from the inside, or at least combining intention and observation as I've written about previously. And, of course, there is the issue of raw athletic talent. According to the article, "...whether the good players can become great by trying to copy the mechanics of great players is another matter. "If you don't have the goods, I don't care what you look at," Bollettieri said. Can you fulfill your athletic ambitions by looking at video images? It may help somewhat, but there are still the critical issues of clarifying intention and then turning it into effective action. I'm not holding my breath until the DVD for that one comes out. Another time, I'll write about my own (disastrous) experience with video-based golf lessons.

Tue, 14 Oct 2003 22:39:56 GMT

Mind and Brain Again I noticed in the bookstore today that The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force is out in paperback. I've written about it elsewhere. Although the intent of the book is talking about plasticity and Obsessive Compulsive disorder, it gives an excellent history of movement-based plasticity research. Highly recommended.

Monkeying with Robots

Mon, 13 Oct 2003 16:57:35 GMT

One the most fascinating elements of movement education is the incredible plasticity of the body schema in learning new movement sequences. We see it everyday in working with all sorts of clients. And it's not just the body itself that's represented. As I've written about elsewhere, the tools that we use are also included in this plasticity. In In Pioneering Study, Monkey Think, Robot Do, [New York Times: Science] writer Sandra Blakeslee reports on a new study that seems to confirm all this. At Duke University, researchers have taught monkeys to control robotic arms. The fascinating thing is that the monkeys do it with their thoughts. In previous studies, the animals could control robotic devices by moving their own arms, but in this one they were able to do so with only mental activity. Interesting, but it turns out that effective use of tools still depends on learning, and learning depends on recognizing the tool as part of the schema and then incorporating it. According to the article:

When the robot is first added, the monkey's performance degrades. It takes two days for the animal to learn the mechanical properties of the arm and to incorporate its delays into motor planning areas.

"By the end of training, I would say that these monkeys sensed they were reaching and grasping with their own arms instead of the robot arm," Dr. Nicolelis said. "Every time we use a tool to interact with our environment, such as a computer mouse, car or glasses, our brain assimilates properties of the tool into neuronal space. Tools are appendages which are incorporated into our body schema. As we develop new tools, we reshape our brains," he said.

This all reminded me of something that Moshe Feldenkrais said in one of his classic lessons:

... Those who can't (make the movement), it is enough for them to do it in thinking, but it is necessary to observe from outside, in the body, that the thinking is working and that the intention is good. That, by itself, will do everything. [Alexander Yanai lesson #68: Rolling the fists]

Experiencing Ourselves, Plus ?

Mon, 15 Sep 2003 15:59:27 GMT

Somatic practitioners routinely witness the "plasticity" of the human brain. That is, we and our clients can change the movement patterns and how those movements are experienced, sometimes fairly dramatically. We routinely facilitate the transformation from parts that don't work together well into well-integrated organisms that can live unavowed dreams. But what about when the parts don't belong to the organism, aren't permanently attached? Does the plasticity extend to these relationships?

Andy Clark thinks so and writes eloquently about it in Natural-Born Cyborgs. Clark is the Director of the Cognitive Science Program and Professor of Philosophy at Indiana University, where Esther Thelen also does her work. In his book, Clark talks about "cognitive prostheses and how plastic brains can learn to treat well-designed new tools as if they were parts of the person."

Clark cites how the dexterity of typing with the thumbs develops with text messaging on those tiny cell phone keypads. Perhaps more relevantly, he talks about a performance artist name Stelarc. In an interview you can listen to on Australian Radio, Clark says, "Stelarc ...has sometimes performed with a third hand attached, the third arm attached to his biological arm and in order to move that what he has to do is to give commands to his abdominal muscles because you know theyíre the muscles that are then wired up to control the electronic arm. But he says that now it doesn't feel like giving a command to his abdominal muscles. It just feels like telling the electronic hand to move. Other interesting quotes:

There are some things that are distinctive of the human race here. We've got a lot of cortical plasticity, a lot more than any other animal on the planet, we have a long childhood, longer than any other animal on the planet and in addition to that we've got language. And somehow I think the combination of those three things has set us on a track that no other animal has been able to go down.

Haptic touch is a kind of sense whereby you can take a tool, and you can very quickly come to treat it as if it was part of your body. For example, you can take a rake and during the raking motion, if they record from cells in the monkeyís brain the cells that would normally represent the fingers of the hand can very quickly come to map the area of the tines of the rake. So in a way, immediately on the spot the body mage of the monkey has been adapted to encompass the tool.

Strength Imagined

Fri, 12 Sep 2003 15:49:24 GMT
Strength Real or Imagined: Does It Make a Difference? Feldenkrais Awareness Thru Movement lessons sometimes involve imagining movements instead of doing them, and the effect can be quite dramatic. Often, a deep sense of ease and coordination follows the imagined movement. (To experience it yourself, try this sample lesson.) Now it turns out that imagined movements can also improve strength. The American Council on Exercise site carries a summary of a research study in which subjects were asked to imagine exercising their little fingers or biceps. And, with this being a legit scientific study and all, there was a control group that did nothing, real OR imaginary. Well, it turned out that the imaginary exercise correlated with real increases in strength of the little finger or biceps. There were no findings, however, on the gubernatorial aspirations of the newly-minted body builders.

Hubert Godard Theory

Tue, 09 Sep 2003 16:50:17 GMT

Similar ideas I had never heard of Hubert Godard before I stumbled across an article on his movement work. Although Godard is based in the Rolfing world, as is the article's author Aliene Newton, what was being described would be familiar to someone familiar with Feldenkrais or Alexander Technique work. Again, I'm struck with the structural and functional approaches becoming more comfortable with each other.

There were similarities between Newton's description of Godard's theories and my own understanding as a Feldenkrais practitioner. In particular, the focus on tonic organization and the ability to organize in relation to gravity, as well as the focus on the development process as the source of body organization:

You cannot inhibit a reflex, but you can modulate it.

But the thing that stands out most is the focus on the effect of sensory awareness on body organization and tonicity:

There are quite specific physiological, functional consequences to a change in sensory awareness accessed by putting one's attention to a particular image.

A problem in movement may not be the result of faulty motor function, but of faulty perception.

Godard's theory is that movement will be more efficient when we use the reptilian level as much as possible: i.e., allow stretch reflexes and

Since the reticular formation has a strong influence on the general tonus of the body, and sensory impressions have a powerful effect on the reticular formation, a change in sensory awareness becomes a change in tonic organization.

And on a different level, Newton's wording on the need to develop and state a theory of the work struck me as directly applicable:

If we do not want to adopt the conventional models for studying movement, we need to be able to offer a well articulated alternative. We need to be able to describe our perspective in words that make a bridge to the conventional world, while at the same time preserving the subtlety and originality of our experience. We ned an articulated theory in order to validate our experience, in order to evaluate our theories, in order to teach new students.

....by proposing a theory, we have something we can put under the scrutiny of evaluative research. We can begin to experiment to see if our theory holds up. One can do movement work without necessarily knowing the underlying mechanisms, but the more clearly we can understand them, the less tied we will be to myth and technique, the more we can be creative.

Kinetic Symphony

Mon, 08 Sep 2003 19:19:58 GMT

I've written before about the structure/function thing in working with movement and use of self. My first exposure was on the Robert Schleip web site, though he is trained in both Rolf and Feldenkrais. I'm now discovering more. An article on walking by another Rolfer, Aline Newton, takes a very functional approach to walking and celebrates the work of Serge Gracovetsky. The thrust of Newton's and Gracovetsky's take on walking is that it doesn't just happen in the feet and legs. The spine is the key. In fact, Gracovetsky wrote a book called The Spinal Engine. I believe it is now, sadly, out of print. Here are some quotes from Newton's article:

The legs play an important role, but it is in providing fuel for the dynamic spine which is the true engine of locomotion.

From the arch of the toes to the sub-occipital joint, legs, pelvis, spine and arms work as one system in a great work of energy transformation that lets us walk with minimal energy expenditure. The bones and soft tissues are involved in an elegant interplay that has the potential to transmit the forces with optimum ease. Far from the image of a passive trunk carried by strong legs, in this model walking transforms into a kinetic symphony.

Force closure, how all the elements involved create a coordinated movement, can only be observed in a dynamic context.

Structure and Function, or is it function and structure?

Fri, 05 Sep 2003 22:54:39 GMT

Structure, Function What's the Difference It's not that difficult for me to drift off into thinking in terms of dualism--that mind and body function separately, without interchange. Despite years of thinking otherwise, it's pretty deeply embedded in the culture I grew up in. Why was I thinking about this? It came up for me as I was reading a couple of articles by Robert Schleip, a Rolfer and Feldenkrais practitioner. These two articles, which can be found here, develop the idea that meat and brain aren't different things. If you are a bodyworker or healthcare provider, the distinction can be significant. The articles were directed towards bodyworkers, but I think it makes a pretty good systems perspective on that world and almost any other I can think of.

Here's a different perspective on structure and function quoted in the second article:

What are called structures are slow processes of long duration, functions are quick processes of short duration. If we say that a function such as the contraction of a muscle is performed by a structure, it means that a quick and short process is superimposed on a long-lasting and slowly running wave. [The Nobel laureate Ludwig von Bertalanffy]

Can transplants restore their brain representations?

Fri, 05 Sep 2003 15:46:18 GMT

Gettin' it back Amputation changes the brain's sensorimotor maps, as discussed by Ramachandran in Phantoms in the Brain, and posted here. But what if you could reverse the amputation? What would happen to those sensorimotor maps? Though impossible until recently, hands can now be transplanted. Such cases provide an opportunity to investigate the question. Based on observations of one patients' case, a team of neuropsychologists at CNRS in France suggests that such hand transplants reverse the amputation AND the resulting changes to the sensorimotor maps. The team used fMRI (functional magnentic resonance imaging) to peer into the sensorimotor workings of a man before and after bilateral transplant surgery. Evidently, this investigation provided some evidence for some pretty amazing plasticity.

The main findings of this study shows that grafted hands come to be recognized and activated normally by the sensorimotor cortex. This suggests that new peripheral inputs allow a global remodeling of the limb cortical map, leading to the reversal of the functional reorganization caused by the amputation. Furthermore, the spatial trajectories of these activations over time indicate that the cortical rearrangement takes place in an orderly fashion. Thus cortical plasticity follows the normal body representation, i.e. the plan the body used before amputation.

Full text of the press release from which this quote came can be found here.

It's the Brain, Stupid

Fri, 29 Aug 2003 16:53:36 GMT

Elsewhere I have written about unwanted changes in the brain of musicians and athletes who suffer from dystonia, a condition which makes it difficult or impossible to control fine movements. Turns out it's not just musicians or athletes; these changes show up in folks with chronic pain. In MRI Studies on Homunculus Plasticity on http://www.somatics.de/:

Based on functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)studies by Herta Flor of the Humbold university of Berlin, chronic back pain tends to lead to an increase of the representational area of the back and spreading into neighboring territory within the homunculus

And that ain't all. The Humbold team investigating also found that the brains of amputees showed pretty significant changes in the way they represent the missing limb:

In a joint study with several other universities Flor's team managed to also show that in patients with an amputated arm the representational area of the mouth tends to spread into the cortical area of the missing arm; yet only in those patients which tend to experience phantom pain.

For a well-written and fascinating account of brain plasticity in amputees, see Phantoms in the Brain by VS Ramachandran and Sandra Blakslee.

You can also listen to Ramachandran on the BBC archives at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2003/reith2003_lecture1.shtml.

Fri, 29 Aug 2003 16:15:50 GMT

How to Resolve Dystonias: A Movement Perspective is an interesting article on Bodymap.org. Among other things, it advises

"...all who are recovering from dystonia should work with a physical or occupational therapist or a Feldenkrais worker (side bar) or an Alexander Technique teacher (side bar)."

The site also offers books written from the body mapping perspective.

Thu, 28 Aug 2003 14:58:38 GMT

I thought as much! An interesting article from New Scientist magazine, The Strain is in the Brain on the Tadpole Music Studio website of an RSIed musician Thomas Beckner. The information will be familiar to practitioners, but it is interesting that it is coming from the medical community. Basically, the article discusses the idea that some focal dystonias involve learning and faulty sensory cortex mapping. In particular, the work of Nancy Byl and Michael Merzenich are highlighted. Merzenrich's work is a prominent part of the fascinating recent book, The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Force Here are a couple of quotes:

If inappropriate learning patterns cause these abnormalities to form in the brain maps and so lead to dystonia, then conventional therapies-rest, anti-inflammatory drugs, biomechanical coaching, and the injection of botulinum toxin to paralyse recalcitrant muscles-might be missing the point. "The only way to get out of it is by learning your way out of it. Anything else is not dealing with the cause," says Merzenich.

With this in mind, Byl is trying to treat focal dystonia patients using exercises that force them to make ever more delicate sensory discriminations with their fingers. This should, she believes, help them to relearn fine distinctions between neighbouring patches in the sensory cortex map. She blindfolds patients and asks them to identify numbers or letters traced on their fingertips or to play dominoes by feel. [New Scientist]

Thu, 28 Aug 2003 14:04:14 GMT

Yippy-eye-O The Mayo Clinic is studying the yips, a condition affecting the putting ability of golfers. In Yips: More Than a Putting Problem, the condition seems to be a combination of focal dystonia and performance anxiety. Unfortunately, there is not single simple, reliable solution, or any solution at all for some. And the condition doesn't just affect golfers. Musicians, performers, writers and others can be affected.

Studies show that when playing the same putts, golfers who have the yips have anxiety levels similar to golfers who don't have the yips. However, those who experience the yips also appear to have faster than average heart rates and increased muscle activity in the wrists. And they tend to grip the putter with greater force. [Mayo Clinic]

Could increasing awareness of that grip help?

Wed, 27 Aug 2003 17:13:29 GMT

How we stiffen Surfing around (OK, killing time looking at stuff on the Internet) this morning, I came upon a excellent piece on misuse of the self, this time from an Alexander Technique perspective. Why Do We Tense Our Necks at a different kind of site, Ateducationresearch.com. Although it's got a clear Alexander spin, readers from the Feldenkrais world will recognize lots of stuff here.

The author is AT teacher Michael Protzel. He basically argues that misuse is the result of how a person commits his weight in standing or sitting. This is very basic, according to Protzel, since weight bearing is an activity that goes on all the time and influences all use for good or ill. And, he says, we can learn to recognize how we are doing it and begin to experiment with changing it consciously.

Here are a few quotes:

Clearly, we want to maintain the ability to move in all directions, through the full range of all possible movements. We jeopardize this flexibility,however, when we commit our weight the same way, day after day for years, without conscious recognition of either the weight commitment or the reactions it engenders. [page 13]

Were we willing to simply fall to the ground when the force of our own body weight knocks us off balance, there would be no need to tense. Tensing is a direct result of our intention to be upright. We tense for the explicit purpose of holding ourselves up. Tensing in this fashion is the best we can do to maintain uprightness given the circumstances. What we need to do is to change the circumstances. [page 24]

Noticing ourselves doing ?wrong? is vital to learning how to do ?right.? Our entire lives, we have been doing wrong while not noticing. In spite of this, we have always been successful at gaining the end of remaining upright. [page 26]

It's a well done essay, worth taking time to read and experience this 40-page PDF document.

Tue, 26 Aug 2003 15:15:48 GMT

Hey, what is this Feldenkrais stuff about anyway? I'm always looking for verbal descriptions of the Feldenkrais Method that are concise and easy to grasp for the uninitiated. Maybe that's not going to work as well as I want it to. Look at this quote from Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder (and Grateful Dead lyricist) John Perry Barlow writing about the Burning Man project in Wired News

"The important thing about Burning Man is that it is the most experiential phenomenon I can think of ...It can't be turned into data in any useful way. You can't informatize it by blogging it, filming it or taking pictures of it, because so much of it can't be translated into information. "[Wired News]

So maybe that's the answer when asked: "Feldenkrais is an experiential phenomenon that can't be turned into data in any useful way. Now, please lie on your back and notice your contact with the floor..."

The Essential Lesson

Mon, 25 Aug 2003 14:21:12 GMT

What's the Feldenkrais Method about? Look at the last paragraph of Alexander Yanai lesson 28, the AY version of Balancing the Flexors and Extensors. Here's what the old man had to say to those who had just completed this lesson.

There is something very important to do at the end of a lesson. Many people think they are finished with the lesson when I say, "Stand Up and observe any differences." They think they need to run away. Seeing differences is one of the most important things. You will be able to recreate the same organization, without spending hours improving your body, if you find a difference and feel what it does to you. I find that many people become habituated to standing up as if they were in a train station. They need to run away as fast as possible. Anyone, who is in a rush, can finish a minute early. When you stand on your legs, wait, and truly listen to your legs, pelvis, head, and chest. If you listen you will see that there is a difference. If you don't recognize that difference, it disappears in a minute. It is possible for your body to recreate the difference if you listened and felt it. you should remember it and learn when the difference is comfortable. [Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais at Alexander Yanai, volume One part 2, page 176 Copyright International Feldenkrais Federation].