Conscious Control in Relation to Human Evolution in Civilization by F. Matthias Alexander.
I suspect this title (I’ll shorten in to CC) seems vaguely familiar to most Alexander Technique teachers and serious students because of it’s similarity to Constructive Conscious Control (CCC), Alexander’s second book. But this book was published much earlier, in 1912, very soon after the original version of Man’s Supreme Inheritance (MSI) appeared. Indeed CC is a sort of bridge between the two.*
It’s also surprisingly readable. As Richard Brennan, an Alexander Technique teacher in Ireland notes, it’s a book one could give to a new student who wants to get an idea of what Alexander’s work is all about. “It is probably the simplest and most easy-to-follow of all his books” writes Richard.
For reasons not totally understood, the book had only one limited print run and has been largely forgotten for over a century. But thanks to a chance encounter Richard had with a student on one of his workshops in Tobago, it is now back in print and can be ordered from this page on Richard’s site: http://www.alexander.ie/fm_books.html
Here’s a little more about the book from Richard’s site:
In this book Alexander methodically sets out his claim for his method, and then backs this up with his reasons for standing by that claim. He also includes some case studies to back it up. It is a very clear description of the method devised, which he calls ‘Conscious Control’.
He discusses various topics such as:
breathing and physical exercises
the cause of physical degeneration
chronic indigestion
means-whereby and end-gaining
increasing powers of resistance against disease
correcting harmful mental habits
The book includes some general notes and case studies.
If you order the book from Richard, email him from his site at the same time letting him know you learned about it from this blog, or from the podcast, and he’ll include a free Constructive Rest CD! (Offer good only until December 31, 2015.)
One day Mind and Body were having a chat about the challenges of their relationship. Body was annoyed that Mind had wandered while they were walking down the street, causing Body to hit a lamp post.
“If you hadn’t put all you attention on that dog across the street – and, I might add, the dog’s owner! – I wouldn’t have this huge bruise on my forehead.”
“Well Body,” replied Mind, “sometimes I think I spend my whole life looking after you. Last night I just wanted to chill out and watch a little TV, and before the show ended I realized you’d eaten a full quart of ice cream. We’re both still feeling the effects of that.”
“OK Mind, what do you suggest we do about these problems? You’re supposed to be the smart one. I just do stuff.”
“I’ve been thinking about it for awhile Body, and I recently came upon a possible solution.”
“Feel free to share it with me Mind – or are you just going to once again do whatever you want, and leave it up to me to adapt?”
“No Body, this is going to involve both of us cooperating in a whole new way. We’ll be equal partners.”
“I’m listening Mind.”
“Well I’ve been looking into the the ideas of a man named F. Mathias Alexander and I think they could help us a great deal.
“F. Matthias – how quaint. Where is he from?”
“Australia.”
“Australia! I hear that’s a happening place. Can we go there and meet him?”
“I’m afraid not Body – he’s been dead for 60 years. He actually grew up in Tasmania, an island off the coast of Australia’s mainland. It was home to prisoners and to convicts that had been shipped there from England. Although he grew up in very humble circumstances, he developed a method called the Alexander Technique that has helped many people around the world over the years. And I believe we could use it to fix our own relationship.”
“I’m liking this F. Matthias from what you say. Seems like he had just the kind of pluck that converted a penal colony into the Land of Oz. Tell me more Mind.”
“Well I’m no expert, but what interested me – and I think it will you too – is that his studies led him to to the conclusion that we are much more than closely connected. He felt we’re really two aspects of one self and his work was based on that concept. In fact his most readable book was titled The Use of the Self – the word “self” meaning what he thought of as a “psychophysical” whole.”
“Mind, I love that word ‘psychophysical’. Kind of puts us on an even footing, so to speak. I definitely want to learn more. What’s our next step?”
“I’ve looked online and found a teacher of his method nearby. If you’re agreeable, we can call and set up an appointment.”
“Sure let’s do that. This could be a sort of couple’s therapy for us, don’t you think Mind?”
“Kind of. But it’s not really a therapy so much as a teaching method. The teacher will work with both of us – really both aspects of our self – at the same time helping us to function as a fully integrated team.”
“OK, I’m totally with the plan. I bet we’ll become unified in a whole new way.”
The Earth can be a wonderful source of free energy – if we know how to ask for it.
A couple of weeks ago, I embarked on my usual after-dinner walk. I’d had a long day of teaching and was feeling a little tired and generally low energy. My inclination was to skip the walk, but decided some fresh air would be good for me.
As I started my walk, I did something that’s become fairly habitual for me – I gently paid attention to what I was doing to myself as I walked, without trying to change anything.
Just gathering data, as a scientist might say.
The first thing that jumped out at me was that my footfalls seemed a bit heavy and that they coincided with a general pulling down throughout my body. Not a surprising revelation, but one that I approached this time a bit differently that I might usually have – by using general Alexander Technique freedom directions such as “I’m free.” Or “My neck is free.”(1)
I knew from experience that these would be helpful, but I decided to focus instead on my low energy level and see if there were an appropriate direction that would help more directly with that.
I’ve been experimenting with the effects of the gravitational force on me, and my students, for a long time, and more recently with the effects of the equal and opposite upward force exerted by the surface on which I was standing, walking or sitting. And I’d been pondering the fact that force and energy are, from a physics standpoint, directly related.(2)
So for this walk, I decided to start with “I am free to receive the force of gravity.” Immediately I sensed a kind of energy centered around my center of gravity (2 inches below the navel, in the middle of me front to back and side to side) that seemed to tone and to energize my legs and feet.
Then I thought to myself if force and energy are related, why not say instead: “I am free to receive the energy of gravity.” Pretty much the same results.
I then switched to: “I’m free to receive the the upward force from the ground.” which resulted in an internal expansion particularly noticeable in the upper half of my body. The same with “I’m free to receive the energy from the ground.”
I played around with alternating between the gravity and the earth support directions and then the obvious hit me: Both the force (and the energy) of gravity and the force (and the energy) of the surface I was on were ultimately generated by the earth – or, really, the Earth!
They were different kinds of forces and they were being applied to my body in different ways, but both were sources of free energy from the planet.(3) So why not condense the two: “I’m free to receive force (or energy) from the Earth” which produced the beneficial effects of both directions individually applied.
As my walk progressed, I noticed that I was feeling a lot more energetic than I had at the start. My speed picked up a bit, my footfalls were lighter, my breathing was freer and I had a sense of overall physical expansion.
I’ve been experimenting with these directions myself and with my students in a wide variety of activities as well as sitting, lying in bed, doing Constructive Rest, and the results have been universally positive.
(Having said that, I do go through a bit of the basic physics with my students first, and they usually say that helps with their understanding. You can quickly learn about this in the blog cited in Footnote 3 below.)
If you’re intrigued, experiment with these directions yourself. Very likely your results will differ from mine in their details, and they will also probably differ at different times for you.
(2) Technically, Energy equals Force times the distance over which it is applied. As one physicist puts it, “A force exerted along a way yields energy.”
Habitual pain is unlikely to disappear on its own.
In my last post, No Auto-Correct for Habitual Tension – Part 1, I explored the fact that habitual excess tension in our bodies will not resolve itself. Some sort of intervention is required to release it.
This is quite different from the many self-correcting mechanisms we see all around us. I mentioned auto-correct on a word processing program, but a much simpler, and older, example is the humble thermostat. When the temperature gets too hot, it turns off the heat. When it gets too cold, the heat is turned back on.
Typically that cycle repeats many times a day without us being aware of it.
There are many other, more complicated, systems of self-correction have come into being to help with the complexities of advanced technology.
It might surprise you to know that modern commercial airliners can go from take off, to landing at the destination airport, completely on autopilot, correcting for changing weather, runway conditions etc. Pilots rarely use it this way, but autopilot is often used for long stretches of flying time.
Looking ahead, Google has suggested that once it’s driver-less car is perfected (test models are already on roads of California), human drivers will be banned.
Auto-correct extends to many functions in our bodies as well such as maintaining body temperature and the proper balance between acidity and alkalinity (pH).
But it does not extend to the neuro-muscular system when that system gets out of balance for an extended period.
Perhaps due to a traumatic event, such as an accident.
Or, more likely, when it’s due to unconscious imitation of people around us, particularly when we’re young.
…a child imitates its parents or nurses in tricks of manner and speech, yet we do not stop to consider that it will also imitate our carriage of the body, our performance of muscular acts, even our very manner of breathing. This faculty for imitation and adaptation is a wonderful force, and one which we have at our command if only we would pause to consider how we may use it in the right way. The vast majority of wrong habits acquired by children result from their imitation of the imperfect models confronting them. But how many parents attempt to put a right model before their children? How many learn to eradicate their own defects of pose and carriage so that they may be better examples to the child? How many in choosing a nurse will take the trouble to select a girl whom they would like their children to imitate? Very, very few. And the reason is simple. In the first place they do not realize the harmful effect of bad example, and, in the second, the great majority of parents have so little perception of truth in this matter that they are incapable of choosing a girl who is a good specimen of humanity, and are sublimely unconscious of their own crookedness and defects. – from the chapter “Race Culture and the Training of Children” in Man’s Supreme Inheritance
Elsewhere Alexander notes that the more bizarre the posture or movement pattern they are exposed to, the more likely it is for young children are to imitate, and eventually adopt, them.
Obviously appropriate education of parents could help matters. Most parents these days thoroughly vet potential nannies to make sure they aren’t hiring an ax-murderer or a child molester. But as Alexander observed, they are not likely looking for harmful posture and movement patterns. Indeed they are usually blissfully unaware of their own distorted physical use of themselves, not to mention the harm it is causing their children.
And so their children may find themselves unconsciously generating excess tension as they go through life. And, like their parents, they are much more likely to be aware of the results of that tension – poor balance, restricted breathing etc – than the underlying causal patterns.
These patterns can persist generation after generation – unless some sort of useful intervention is brought to bear to encourage conscious awareness and learning practical tools for releasing them.*
I know it sounds like a commercial, but that’s exactly what Alexander figured out how to do for himself – and what lessons in the Alexander Technique can teach you how to do for yourself.
***
* It may be the topic of another blog, but the question of just why this kind of intervention is necessary. In the Old Testament, God repeatedly admonishes the stiff necked people, but doesn’t provide a practical solution. (See, for example, Was God the first Alexander Technique Teacher?)
And when He hardens Pharaoh’s heart, he seems pretty sure that it won’t “un-harden” any time soon. One possibility: He created a non self-correcting system precisely so that we would eventually figure out how to do the kind of self-observation and self-directing that would allow us to learn how to change harmful patterns of tension, take responsibility and control of ourselves, and ultimately develop our higher consciousness.
This idea is hinted at in the titles of F. Matthias Alexander’s books. His first was titled Man’s Supreme Inheritance! His second was Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual, his third The Use of the Self and his fourth The Universal Constant in Living.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
Image courtesy of sixninepixels at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Auto-correct has made one area of my life easier. Others have required conscious intervention.
I’ve never been a good speller.
When I was about to graduate from high school and head off to university, our class was given a standardized test to measure our abilities across in a number of key areas.
I scored well in every category but one: my spelling ability was that of a sixth grader!
The principal called me into his office and expressed concern about how that would effect my future school career. I summoned up all my teen-aged bravado and assured him that it wouldn’t be a problem, that unlike high-school teachers, university professors would be interested in my ideas, not my ability to spell.
And as it turned out, I was right! Oh yes, a few papers would be returned with misspelled words circled on the first page or two, but it seemed that when instructors continued reading, and realized the enormity of the problem, they simply gave up.
Later, when I entered a graduate program in metallurgical engineering, the office secretary discretely added an extra “L” to “metalurgy” on one of the forms I had filled out and gently suggested it might be a good idea to learn to spell at least that one word correctly!
Over the years, my spelling improved a bit, but I was always asking whoever was around questions like “Are there two S’s in success” or “does the I come before the E in belief?”
Imagine my delight when word processors came along, and auto-correct kicked in. As you read this blog right now, you’re experiencing the benefits of that development!
But really my inability to spell well was neither a serious concern or problem for me. It could have continued forever with no serious consequences as far as I was concerned.
However in other areas of my life I wasn’t so lucky.
I didn’t realize it for a long time, but I had developed some very harmful ways of holding my self upright and of walking, which when I look at old photos, I can now see were pretty bizarre. Occasionally someone would make a comment, but I had no idea what they were talking about.
Those patterns would likely have continued throughout my life, and probably caused some serious problems had I had not by chance discovered the Alexander Technique.
My height increased almost an inch in the first month of lessons and my suit jackets, shirts and sweaters were now suddenly way too tight. My pants were all too short.
I was aware enough to realize that I must have been unconsciously pulling in on myself before.
Over the years lessons in the Technique allowed me to become aware of many interconnected constrictive patterns, often at the very time they were beginning to dissipate.
What I take away from these and many later experiences with the Technique – and the experiences of my own Alexander Technique students over the past 30 plus years – is that unconscious patterns of tension tend to remain unconscious. And the consequences of those patterns also remain unchanged, or more likely, worsen over time.
There is no automatic self-correcting mechanism for habitual tension in our body.
Releasing harmful tensions – not just re-arranging them – requires conscious and constructive intervention of the sort Alexander Technique students learn to use for themselves.
Part 2 will delve into this fundamental idea in a bit more detail. In the meantime, it’s worth contemplating this thought by F. Matthias Alexander, the developer of the Alexander Technique:
We must, as a book title from another field nicely suggests, “Use our Brain for a Change”.
Image courtesy of phanlop88 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Ellen is interested in the evolutionary development of humans, and what we can learn by observing other primates. In particular, she used this short video of a gibbon swinging through the trees to make an important point:
Here’s a little of what she wrote:
The term “brachiation” is derived from the Latin word for arm – brachium – and refers to swinging through the trees using only the arms. Children on monkey bars in a playground are technically practicing brachiation, and research suggests that we humans may have had an arboreal ancestor who traveled through the trees using this technique. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the gibbon reaches for the next branch with the outside edge of his hand and arm – the first thing to grasp the branch is his little finger. This reaching with the outside edge of the hand is one of the defining characteristics of brachiation, and it seems to be one of the major techniques that we humans have lost in descending from the trees. When we reach for something, we usually extend our index finger and thumb towards it. Why would a primate reach with the little finger, rather than the index finger and thumb as we humans do?
I found this fascinating and started exploring the possibilities of consciously extending my little finger to reach objects, and making it the leading edge of arm movements when walking. I also explored leading with the little finger with arm moments while swimming.
I was amazed by what I found. It produced a smoother, more efficient movement every time. You can easily try this yourself.
Naturally I started experimenting on my students, and found they had the same experiences. One student, an older lady who had great difficulty reaching objects on high shelves, found this task had become much easier.
Another student, an avid swimmer like myself, said it totally transformed his swimming form, giving him greater speed and power.
A violist I’ve been working with found it made a huge difference in how she used her hands and arms when playing, giving her greater ease and flexibility.
Even standing became more expansive when I shifted from just standing as I do habitually to gently focusing on my little fingers as the leading edge of my hand releasing down. That’s another experiment you can try right now!
A particular bonus for me was that this could easily be taught via Skype during my Posture and Movement Coaching sessions.
Here’s a podcast I did with Imogen Ragone on the topic that talks you through some of these experiments:
I’ll leave the final words on the topic to Ellen:
It may surprise you to learn that the strongest part of the hand is actually the pinkie-side, not the thumb. The muscles of the little finger connect through to muscles in the outside of the forearm much more strongly than those of the thumb side, meaning that the pinkie-side of the hand has a much more direct connection to the support muscles of the back and scapula. If all you’ve got supporting you is your hand, you’re better off grasping with the pinkie – it’ll give you a much more stable hold. This is the reason why martial artists who use weapons hold the weapon most tightly with the pinkie and most loosely with the index finger – it’s a stronger and more stable hold. Incidentally, martial artists refer to this hold as the “monkey grasp” – and no, that’s not a coincidence.
This concept of brachiation can be extremely useful for humans, particularly when reaching for an item above head level. By reaching with the pinkie first, we can keep the shoulders released and the support muscles of the back engaged, allowing for better control of the object once picked up. Just as it’s easier to carry a heavy load by getting underneath it than by hauling straight up from above, reaching with the pinkie connects through to the back and allows the muscles of the scapula to do the work from underneath, rather than relying on the upper deltoids to haul up from the top of the shoulders. This not only makes it easier to lift the weight in question, it also makes it easier to lift the weight of the arm itself.
Next time you go to a zoo, take a trip through the primate house and keep an eye out for brachiation. Watch how easily they move through their habitats, and look for the pinkie-side of the hand!
Please share your experiences in the comment box below and/or on Facebook.
***
I owe the title of this blog to Katie Fittipadi, an Alexander Technique teacher in Rochester, New York.
Image courtesy of tungphoto at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Check out the little guy in this 30 second video below. Known as a pond skimmer, he spends most of his life perfectly poised on the water’s surface.
In some ways his situation is not all that different from ours. We spend most of our lives on the surface of the earth.
The skimmer can leap up into the air for short periods of time. We can do that too.
The skimmer can push down a bit into the surface below him. We can do that too.
The skimmer is tethered to the earth by the gravitational force which draws it to the center of the earth. We are too.
When the skimmer looks around, it may notice that despite that downward pull, it remains far from the earth’s center. We can make that same observation.
What keeps the skimmer, and us, on the earth’s surface?
In the case of the skimmer, he’s pushed upwards by a force that exactly matches the strength of the gravitational pull. That upward push is provided by the surface tension of the water which reacts to his weight by trying to keep itself intact – that is by trying not to allow his weight to distort the water’s surface.
Just like the skimmer, we humans are pushed upwards by a force that exactly matches the strength of the downward gravitational pull. That “anti-gravitational” force is created by surface we’re on, whether it’s the earth itself, or the concrete sidewalk, or the floor in our home. Physicists use the term “hardness” to describe that force.
Any material, a wooden floor for example, has a certain degree of this “hardness”. Hardness means that when we stand on it, it deforms a bit due to our weight, but very strong internal forces try to bring it back to it’s original shape. We make a temporary “dent” in the floor– a very small dent – and the floor tries to repair the “damage” by pushing back up against our feet.
it does that with a force that’s exactly the same strength as that created by gravity, and in exactly the opposite direction. That’s what allows us to stay on the surface of the planet, and not disappear into it’s center.
The implications for human posture and movement in the operation of these two forces are enormous. When we’re standing, the downward pull of gravity operates on our center of gravity, a point about 2 inches below our navel and pretty much in the center, front to back and side to side.
The upward force of the ground – our support, so to speak – pushes up onto the soles of our feet. Between the soles of our feet (being pushed up) and our center of gravity (being pulled down) lie our feet, and our legs. Together, they can either easily receive the earth’s support, or they can interfere with it’s free transmission to our whole body by creating excess tension.
The skimmer seems to be doing pretty well with this dance between the two forces. We humans…not always so much so. In some ways, the Alexander Technique can be seen as a method of helping us navigate these two forces more effectively so that we can move about on the surface of the earth with ease.
Another related method, Up With GravitySM, does this as well, by using our understanding of how gravity works on us, and combining that understanding with Alexander Technique directions.
Here’s a little experiment you might want to try: Stand as your normally do for a few seconds, and then think, softly, to yourself, “My feet and legs are free to accept the support of the earth.” What did you notice. Take a walk with the same thought for a few steps, then throw the thought away and see what you notice. Then bring it back again.*
Here are two more experiments: Sit on a firm chair, locate your sitz, or sitting, bones (2 projections downwards from your pelvis. (You might want to put hands underneath your behind to help locate them.) Then softly think “I’m free to receive the support of the chair.” What do you notice? What happens when you toss that thought away?
Finally, when you’re lying down – either on a fairly firms surface as in Alexander Technique Constructive Rest, or on your bed, softly think to yourself, “I am free to receive the support of the table (or the bed).” Experiment with using that thought, tossing it away, and then bringing it back again.
I’d love to hear about your experiences with these directions.
*If you’re not familiar with using Alexander Technique directions, an earlier blog of mine, Throw it Away, provides some useful information on the topic. You may also find this podcast useful:
Other podcasts related to the topic can be found here
***
An interesting aside: The gravitational force we experience is created by the whole of the earth. The upward opposite force is created by the tiny bit of the earth on which we happen to be. It seems like the earth as a whole wants us to be tethered to it, while the spot we’re on wants to push us away. I’m sure there are some interesting metaphysical implications here.
Image courtesy of phanlop88 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
When I teach new Alexander Technique students, I almost always give them “homework” based on experiments in thinking and moving that I’ve talked them through in their lessons. These experiments typically involve using Alexander Technique directions (more on these below).
I emphasize that this homework need only take a few minutes a day and can be done while they are going about their usual activities. And that this can make a huge difference in their progress.
I’ve found that about half my students take to this project right away with enthusiasm. The other half may experiment a bit, but they will typically say something like, “I guess I just forgot” or “Too much has been going on in my life.”
As Woody Allen so nicely put it, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”
My students almost always know how to show up and they want to show up, but…well, they just forget. It’s a classic problem faced by Alexander Technique teachers and students.
My students have come up with some ingenious solutions like sticking post-it notes around their home and work place, or setting reminder apps on their computer or smartphone. These are effective sometimes, not not always.
I recently listed to an episode of Spark, the CBC podcast about Tech, Trends, and New Ideas, that featured a simple and elegant – brilliant, really – solution to the problem. It was developed by Mauricio Estrella and is based on, of all things, your computer’s password!
Here it is: Make your password a short affirmation about what you want.
The program’s examples were phrases like: “I am moving on from a destructive relationship.” Or, “I am losing weight.”
Of course this could just as easily be used for Alexander Technique directions.
I typically use Freedom Directions, and I’ll give a few examples below, but there’s no reason they couldn’t be used for other types of Alexander Technique Directions: Negative Directions, classic “let” directions, etc. (For podcasts about these directions, and how to use them, click here. For blog posts on this topic, click here.)
Here are just a few of the directions I use – all sweet and short and perfect for your computer or smart phone password*:
I am free.
My neck is free.
My torso is free.
I’m free to breathe. (or My breathing is free.)
I’m free to notice my ____ (fill in the blank: feet, legs, breathing, neck etc)
The Spark podcast suggests changing the password every few weeks, which makes a lot of sense to me.
I’ve had some of my students do this for the past couple of weeks and it’s proven to be extremely effective – not just for improving their posture and coordination while they’re using the computer, but for the rest of their life as well.
As Mauricio points out, you get to actually write out your affirmation (or, in this case, direction) as part of allowing you to access your computer or smartphone, so there’s an extra positive reward. Also, you’re both thinking and writing out the direction which I believe gives it extra power.
If you decide to experiment with this idea – whether you’re an Alexander Technique student or teacher, or any reader interested in exploring this idea – please share you experiences in a comment below.
*These are useful passwords for logging on to your home computer or smartphone. If you feel you need longer ones, you can repeat the direction, for example: “I am free I am free I am free..”
I would definitely not recommend them for online passwords, since they use actual words which can be hacked fairly easily. For online passwords, however, you could incorporate affirmations into this excellent advice about creating strong, yet easy to remember, passwords: Fix Your Terrible, Insecure Passwords in Five Minutes
One other reminder: If you change your computer password, be absolutely sure you know what the new on is if you want to make sure you avoid a word of trouble!
I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig in the mid-1970s, shortly after it was published and achieved instant fame. It may be the most popular philosophy book ever written, with over five million copies sold.
One reviewer called it “a novel that is meant to both entertain and edify” and it does both these things very well. I was so absorbed by it that I read it twice.
The title is a nice riff on Zen in the Art of Archery, a spiritual classic written in 1953 by Eugen Herrigel. That book approached zen the way most Japanese do – through ritualized arts of discipline and beauty, which may explain why it continues to be widely read. It has been popular with Alexander Technique teachers and students as long as I can remember.
Both books use their author’s experiences as a vehicle to impart some profound ideas about life, and how we can make the best of our own.
I recently listened to parts of a wonderful 1974 CBC Radio interview* with Pirsig and was struck again by the many resonances of his thinking with basic Alexander ideas.
For example, he talks a lot about quality as something worth striving for. That’s certainly an Alexander aim too. Indeed the Technique can be described as a way of learn how to sit, stand and move through life with the best quality we’re capable of.
Achieving that quality is in some ways a very simple process, but not necessarily an easy one. As F. Matthias Alexander said, “This work is so simple, you know. The trouble is, it’s too simple.”
Or as Marjorie Barstow, the first person to graduate from Alexander’s first training course in 1934 would say from time to time, “You people just won’t believe how simple this work is.” But she never said it was easy.
Was F. M. Alexander a closet Zen Master?
Alexander’s work was sometimes called a form of “Western Zen” – a description that Alexander probably would not have cared for. But certainly there are a lot of paradoxical aspects to the work – simple, but not easy for example – that have a Zen-ish quality.
And I have to wonder if Alexander had titled his third book Zen and the Art of Self Maintenance, instead of Use of the Self, he might have reached a wider audience. (I won’t mention his other three book titles!)
I’d love to hear what you think about these comparisons. Do you see any Zen connections with the Technique? What are the parallels, and what are the differences?
Please leave your comments below or on Facebook.
* The interview – which I highly recommend – was broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s Ideas series and you read about it, and listen to it here: The Motorcycle is Yourself
Here’s an interesting interview I did with Alexander Technique teacher Michael Frederick about the differences between the Alexander Technique and the Feldenkrais Method that includes several references to Zen in the Art of Archery:
Doubtless there are other examples. If you know of any that should be included, let me know. Clearly, there is a far more open attitude today, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more material about the Technique and sex.
Please consider making your own contribution to this important topic – perhaps contact me about doing a podcast interview or a guest blog.
About a year ago I came across an entry in George Trevelyan’s diary of his experiences on F. Mathias Alexander’s first training course. The January 27, 1934 entry begins with this:
Many of the failures in marriage, F. M. contends, are due to the failure on the part of the man to inhibit and hold back. In response to his excitement he stiffens, therefore often enough preventing the connection and response from a sensitive woman, and, again, he often finishes too soon for her satisfaction because there is no adequate control. CCC and the ability not to tense himself should in no way modify his strength of feeling or sense of pleasure and by giving her more chance of feeling should again bring a further response in himself. Thus a knowledge of use should not only make the man a better lover but will make the sexual processes, menstruation and childbirth incomparable easier for the woman.
Mighty powerful stuff from the Great Man himself!
Image courtesy Image courtesy of image courtesy ofjscreationzs FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Conscious Control in Relation to Human Evolution in Civilization by F. Matthias Alexander.
