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The Plot Thickens: The Alexander Technique — 3 Comments

  1. Hi Robert, many thanks for that. As a coincidence, just today, clearing and tidying my shed- workspace….. I came across the Moonwalking with Einstein book’, that I read a few years ago.

    I met Tony Buzan, also, a few years back when I was a member of his ‘Brain Club (!!) – no entry requirements 🙂 I’m still a keen mind mapper though….. Also Raymond Keene was there, a very fine, Grand Master chess player. He played simultaneous chess with all of us- quite impressive – I got a draw, which annoyed him, but he would have beaten me had he had a bit more time….

    We all had a drink or three together after, I remember. At the meeting beforehand, though, we all did the ‘civil service entrance exam’ as a kind of warm-up for the presentation on ‘learning maths without fear! Means whereby maths! A lovely new approach to doing figures. The bloke next to me finished the whole paper, in his head, after 5 mins!! Raymond Keene took a bit longer, maybe 20mins. Buzan, like the rest of us, a bit longer still, with the right answers. He had a good presence, though in a business sense I think he was a bit of an end gainer, selling a great principle too strongly and perhaps, like another interesting person, Edward De Bono, writing the same book x20! Perhaps that’s necessary in business, not sure.

    It’s great that he changed his life with the technique! Who taught him? At what level do you think he changed? If he thought so, then that’s enough maybe. He’s got a good mind and I’ve enjoyed his work, but do you think the specifically (very) clever people amongst us owe their skills in some way, to ‘good use’, or is it just an obsessional turn of mind that allows them to excel in specific ways. We often talk about the hierarchy of good use, but it”s clear, isn’t it, that at lower levels of integration, people do incredible things, without being whole. Nothing new there, of course, but it’s a point of tension in ‘our’ work as ‘teachers’…

    Ray Keeene was great company, also, but pretty heavy in our sense of that term! It would be interesting to learn more about his (Buzan’s) lessons.

    Incidentally, I’ve very much enjoyed the Delsarte series and, for what other reasons…maybe Alexander stuff expressed in French is a winning combination? Perhaps it’s the use of declamatory prosody that appealed to me. Entertaining with out a doubt and much to say…

    I’ll join in the conversation soon on FB I hope!

  2. Hi Robert, many thanks for that. As a coincidence, just today, clearing and tidying my shed- workspace….. I came across the Moonwalking with Einstein book’, that I read a few years ago.

    I met Tony Buzan, also, a few years back when I was a member of his ‘Brain Club (!!) – no entry requirements 🙂 I’m still a keen mind mapper though….. Also Raymond Keene was there, a very fine, Grand Master chess player. He played simultaneous chess with all of us- quite impressive – I got a draw, which annoyed him, but he would have beaten me had he had a bit more time….

    We all had a drink or two together after, I remember. At the meeting beforehand, though, we all did the ‘civil service entrance exam’ as a kind of warm-up for the presentation on ‘learning maths without fear! Means whereby maths! A lovely new approach to doing figures. The bloke next to me finished the whole paper, in his head, after 5 mins!! Raymond Keene took a bit longer, maybe 20mins. Buzan, like the rest of us, a bit longer still, with the right answers. He had a good presence, though in a business sense I think he was a bit of an end gainer, selling a great principle too strongly and perhaps, like another interesting person, Edward De Bono, writing the same book x20! Perhaps that’s necessary in business, not sure.

    It’s great that he changed his life with the technique! Who taught him? At what level do you think he changed? If he thought so, then that’s enough maybe. He’s got a good mind and I’ve enjoyed his work, but do you think the specifically (very) clever people amongst us owe their skills in some way, to ‘good use’, or is it just an obsessional turn of mind that allows them to excel in specific ways. We often talk about the hierarchy of good use, but it”s clear, isn’t it, that at lower levels of integration, people do incredible things, without being whole. Nothing new there, of course, but it’s a point of tension in ‘our’ work as ‘teachers’…

    Ray Keeene was great company, also, but pretty heavy in our sense of that term! It would be interesting to learn more about his (Buzan’s) lessons.

    Incidentally, I’ve very much enjoyed the Delsarte series and, for what other reasons…maybe Alexander stuff expressed in French is a winning combination? Perhaps it’s the use of declamatory prosody that appealed to me. Entertaining with out a doubt and much to say…

    I’ll join in the conversation soon on FB I hope!

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