20-U-6

NO. 19

THE FTLDENI(RAIS IOTJRNAL

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AWARENESS
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is September\ 2006. The theme of the next issue is, once again Ar,vareness. For
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 The Feldenkrais Iournal
number rg

Table of Contents

2 Letter from the Editor

3 Moshe Feldenkrais Discusses Awareness and Consciousness with Aharon Katsir

with an introduction by Carl Ginsburg

f3 lJeinzrrglt-zoo2 Dennisleri

25 Arvareness and the Light Shines in the Darkness Russell Delman

35 Moshe'sPromise MaryElizabethCoughlin

42 You Are She Said A Bending Person Carl Ginsburg

43 Awareness in Functional Integration Lessons Martin Weiner

52 Musings onAwareness Ralph Strauch

6r Book revien Carl Ginsburg

6Z Contributors
 SUMMER 2OO6
THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

Letter from the Editor

Dear Colleagues,

In this issue r,r,e have taken up a theme at the heart of our r,vork: Ar'r'areness. We
are fortunate to be able to listen in on a conversation on this subject between
NIoshe and Aaron Khatsir, a prominent Israeli biophysicist, almost forty 1'ears
1ater. In it we have a rare iook at Moshe in coliaboration rvith another scientist
rvith compatible views. In addition r,r,e have a number of substantial articles
from long-term practitioners. Marty \Ai'einer has r,r'ritten a provocative piece
taking on perceptions at the limit of our awareness and their role in Functional
Integration. Russell Delman finai1-v responded to years of prodding from me
and has put on paper some of his thoughts and experiences relating to his par-
al1el practice of Zen r,r,ith his deep commitment to the Method' Ralph Strauch
has combined theoretical musings rvith u,elcome examples of how he applies
some of his ideas in the context of his practice. Nlarv Coughlin brings in a more
personal perspective and delves in the moment-to-moment rvork r'r'ith aware-
ness as \\re confront difficult issues in ourselves and in our practice.
In this Journal lve are honoring Heinz von Forester r'r'ho died recentlv.
Heinz mentored me at a critical moment in m-Y derrelopment as a questing
human. I am proud and grateful to have kno',vn hirn. Dennis Leri has done a
r,r,onderful job in his article sitr-rating Heinz's r'r'ork in the context of our Method
and celebrating Heinz the man.
The Iournal is about to change radically. A change is overdue and we want
to rethink and rervork the publication. Directions that lve are considering
include: having tr,t o issues per Year, having more active reader participation,
going more international, blanching out beyond just the community of practi-
tioners, and many other options. I r,vill be stepping dou'n as the main editor,
but rvi1l stay involved for at least the near future as \\re gtl through this transfor-
mation. Gay Scott, the longest serving member of the editorial board and a fine
r,r,riter in her or,r,n right, r,vill be the interim editor. If vou have any comments
for us regarding this change u,e u,ould be happy to hear from vou. \\'e r'r'ould be
interested in l.rearing what has been meaningful for.vou from past issues, as
r,r,el1 as suggestions lbr the future.
I expect this to be my last editor's letter. It has been tr'r'enty-t$'o years that
I have edited this publication. High time for a change! It has been a rich and
rer,varding experience and I have especiall.v valued the various collaborations
that have emerged over the years. I r,r'ould like to deepl,v thank all the readers,
writers, editorial board members, guest editors, artists, Guild staff, and
designers (Marger'-v Cantor for twentY Years as of this issue l) rvho have contrib-
uted to this Journal since its inception.

ryry
Elizabeth Belinger
Editor

2
SUMMBR 2OO6 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

Introduction by Carl Ginsberg

Moshe Feldenkrais Discusses Awareness

& Consciousness with Aharon Katsir

INTRODUCTION BY CARL GINSBURG

Some years ago Roger Russell and I were discussing a book we were both reading,
Dynamic Patterns, by J.A. Scott Kelso (published by MIT Press, r995). This book in a
chapter entitled "Self Organization and the Human Brain," mentions the setting of
a research agenda in the early r97os to look into dynamic patterns as a way of under-
standing the integrative processes of the nervous system (p. zsA) . Kelso writes, "With
a few notable exceptions such as Berkeley neurophys-iologist, Walter Freeman, that
agenda died when its champion and biophysicist Aharon Katchalsky, was slain by
terrorists in a Tel Aviv airport on May 3o, tg7z." Roger then exclaimed as we discussed
this early history of the dynamic systems approach that he remembered Moshe talk-
ing about a scientist friend who was killed in this terrorist raid. Aharon Katchalsky,
who was also known as Aharon Katsir, was indeed that friend.
ln trying to trace down some information about Katsir and Feldenkrais in the
ensuing years, I found out from Myriam Pfeffer that she possessed a tape of a con-
versation between Feldenkrais and Katsir in Hebrew that was made in the late sixties
or early seventies. Myriam and Sabine Pfeffer arranged to have the contents of the
tape transcribed and translated into English, and Michel Salice Feldenkrais very
kindly gave permission to have this transcript published here. For that we can be very
grateful because the material they discussed is more than of historic interest. Their
theme lies at the very heart of the Feldenkrais Method of somatic education.
The taped conversation recapitulates between the two participants their previous
conversations in which they elucidated the essence ofawareness as each understood
the term. Dr. Katsir contributes from his background in biophysics, Dr. Feldenkrais
from his investigations, which led to the development of his method. The conversa-
tion is truly a dialogue, and through the interplay of ideas and conceptions a new
view of awareness comes into focus. They start with describing their own beginning
ideas. The evolving discussion leads to reformulations and clarifications. As you read
the dialogue be aware that this is a conversation between two curious thinkers and
that the result of their process does not become clear until the end. This final result is
a stunning statement of the intentions of Dr. Feldenkrais in developing the work that
has been passed down to us, his successors, and defines awareness as an evolutionary
step for humankind. lt is worth the struggle to follow the process.
I have edited the transcript for clarity and smoothness and eliminated repetitions.
I have also tried to make sure that what was difficult to translate is coherent in the
context of understanding the thoughts expressed. ln this I have taken editorial liber-
ties to be accurate to the thinking of the two participants rather than to stay within
the bounds of a literal translation. Where words and phrases were incomplete, I have
filled in to make for continuity and clarity of the text. These additions are indicated by
brackets surrounding the added material. I have also included some footnotes to help
clarify the discussion.
I thank Ravhon Niv for his transcription and translation from the Hebrew, which
proved to be a challenging task, and Chava Shelhav for checking the accuracy of the
transcript. I especially would like to thank Michel Salice Feldenkrais for his permission
to use this dialogue and publish itin The Feldenkrais Journal for the community.

3
 SUMMER 20O6
THE FELDENI(RAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

A CONVERSATICN BETWEEN
N/OSHE FELDENKRAIS AND AHARON KAISIR

MosHE FELDENKRATs I don't remember hor,vr,ve decided that conscious-

ness and awareness rvithout action is impossible. You say that you remember
the pathway. Would you try then to evoke the main stages.

aHARoN KATsIR Iwishto bringbackourrva-vof discussion. Ourpoint of

departure was, "What is an absolute knorvledge?" I think\'\'e asked ourselves
nrhat is the potency of one sentence. And then I claimed in one argument that
the certain knor,viedge is composed of trvo elements: the concepts and the cor-
relation ofconcepts. The elementarv concepts are perceptible concepts, cer-
tain images that come in via our sense organs to our cotlsciousness and are
joinecl in our consciousness into elements of knorvledge. I accept these ele-
ments as certain after the-y have become a concept' \lar-be -vou remember, we
r,r,ere taiking about hor,r,, sensation can be variable. I can see something as red
in one moment yet in a different light I can see it as ve1lon- or colourless or as
black. But after the concept of red is folmed in mv rnind, then the red is a cer-
tainty even at the moment the red image changes u'ith a sensational alteration.
Yes, we agreed that certaint-v is our capacitY to assemble the concepts with
the help of iarn",s, whatl,r,'e call the 1an's of Iogic. These lau.s might change, for
instance, under the impact of science, such as the 1au' ol causality. But in one
sense of fthinking], in a certain time period I assemble the concepts [until I
have] a certain lawfulness and rightfulness. The lau'fuiness becomes certain
for me just as the concept itself. I can say that concepts are then assemhled
[into] sentences.
We accepted that what is true in knorvledge are the concepts and the lawful
correlations of concepts. But then you claimed that knou'ledge itself is not the
same as awareness, not part of a ftrue] humau realit-v' \ou spoke of Know'ledge
that is dead, for exampie, the knor,r,ledge buried in books. \Ve can have a
library full of knor,r4edge but rve cannot consider it as au'areness. And so you
brought as an example of this distinction, and l believe a good one, that I can
come across this chair millions of times and I have an irnpression of it, and
yet I don't have awareness. That is because if vou ask me horv many slats there
are in the back of this chair, I may not be able to ans\ver. On the other hand
if I concentrate m-v mind to rebuild its image and then ans\ver You as to how
many slats comprise the back of the chair, rt e haYe another element, but a very
important one. This element turns consciousness into au'areness.

MF We can add here something that might not be verv important. In a

hypnotic state \,\re can reca11 this information. Thus this information u'as
registered bv part of the mind, but if the a\vareness rvas not modified during
the recording of it, it cannot be restored to consciousness.

AK And then I brought an example: Gurdjieff's1 claim that our consciousness

resembles very much a sleep state in rvhich I absorb manv things'vr''hich do not
become consciousiy fixed, and in which fmv atter-rtion] jumps from one place
to another. If a person tries seriousl-Y to measure fol hor'r' long he concentrates
on one fact, he finds out that it doesn't last verv 1ong. fAttention] jumps from
one topic image to another. A.,r,ateness on the other hand is a process of full
concentration, a process of clear analytic action on the points you deal rvith at
thar particular moment.
That brought us to think that the difference betrveen consciousness and
awareness is in foperational concepts]. Consciousness is a collection of images
organized in a certain manner into something that resembles a mechanical

1
 SUNI}IER 2OO6 THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAL NO. 19

operatiorl. A."r,areness is higher and freer, involving a real fuse of an opera-

tional procedure]. And then we agreed that the difference between awareness
and consciousness is the principle of activity.
Aftenvards r,r,e checked this question. What is the substance of an opera-
tion? On the one hand, people iike Bridgman2 claim that the great disco\.ery
of science is that errerv concept involves an operation that can be carried out.
Eir-istein's greatest insight is that in physics there is no meaning to concepts,
u'hich are not operational. For example, he put in place of the common
notion of tin.re, u.l-rich stands outside of phvsics [that is, a time existing as an
absoiute time-frame], a notion of time, which is integrated into physics, as it
is measured b1, lan instrument such as a] clock. It is fas if time is] thus inside
the c1ock. The clock does not measure something objective, absolute, but time
is [delined bv] the c1ock. And therefore, ifI cannot correlate clocks I cannot
correlate times. The relativity of time results from the relativity of its measure-
ment. The same is true for distance [measurements]3.
Horver-er, rve arrived at the conclusion that Bridgman's concept of an
operation is too narror,r, and that we cannot get very far r,r,,ith it. There are too
man\ concepts that Bridgman r,vould reject, and would claim that these do not
exist. He savs, for example, "For me God does not exist because I don't know
u-hat is tl.re phvsical operation needed to measure God." But rve arrived at
the conclusion that this is a kind of narrowness, a useiess limitation. I do not
have a specilic operation to measure r,r,isdom or goodness. Nevertheless in the
aesthetic rvorld, in the moral u.or1d, it is very easy for me to knorv fwhat is good
and rvirat is n,ise], although I do not have a physical operation for measuring,
or let's sa\. an operational system lbr this purpose.
Bridgrnan takes as another point a fictitious operation, which he ca11s,
"the paper and pencii operation." Whatever he can put on a paper is also an
operation. Of course the r,vhole thing is attained verbaliv. I can syrnbolically
pllt it on the paper, but then the content of this fictitious operation will be lost,
too. Or.r the other hand, r,r,.e introduced the notion of the mental operation
rvhich distinguishes awareness from consciousness. Moreover we said that
this operation involr,es the mind-body. Here is Bridgman's real mistake. He
thought that errery operation must involve movement that you can see, such as
that of the hands and 1egs. But lve said that the mental operation, the one that
lindicates alt areness], not necessarily the conscious one, is also manifest in an
operation of the muscles. It manifests itself as very small changes which can be
measured only with very sensitive methods.

MF I u.ant to add something on this issue in order to confirm your last rvords.
Nianv phvsiologists and those r,r,ho u,ork with electronic machines have dealt
n.ith this issue: How do we recognize something as a square? When a square
is clo se to the eye it has one form and rvhen it is far away a different for m all
together. \\then it stands diagonally we can stili recognize it as a square. How
does the er-e and the brain recognize the square? i found out by myself by
training my awareness to notice horv it depends mainly on the movement of
the e1,ss. If you check yourself, you r,vill see that r,r,hen you think of a square,
the eves do the movement of a right angle four times. Iry to think of a square
and if 1,611 learn to listen to your eve movements, you lvili clearly feel that the
eves make the movement r,rrith the four angies. Because this movement is velv
precise 1'ou slor,vly learn to sense the eyes' movement as a square rt hile you
think of a square.
I remember that at this moment in our discussion, we started to talk
about the difference betr,r,een the external world and the internal I,vorld as a
superficial distinction and one that depends on our short sight. Actualll,, our
nervoLls system receir,es information from the outside through the eves, the

5
 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19 SUMMER 2OO6

ears, and the nose, and from the body itselfthrough the interroceptive nerve-
endings, what rve call proprioception. In the moment of perceiving, our brain
differentiates among the inputs, which lvere received this way, and recognizes
those inputs it received from the eyes, ears, and nose as external information.
Horvever, irr actualitl,, our nervous system does not have a direct relation to the
outside world, but alr,r,ays reads whatever was registered inside the body on the
sensory 1eve1a.
Here I think you remarked that even this difference of inside and outside
blurs rvhen rve look at it closely, because we sense heat in our skin, in our
bones, even though the heat source can be at a distance, and not in direct
contact. Then we cannot discern fat the sensorv level] that it does not come
from the body itself but rather from the surroundings. So in fact, theoretically
\,ve can say that the nervous system does not have a direct connection with
the outside rvorld. The distinction is completelr' artificial ian artefact of the
nervous system itself ].

AK I am glad that you brought up the problem of the objective and the
subjective. The subjective part is the part from the reception ofthe sensation
until the conscious reception; this is the subjective rvorld. The aware image
is the beginning of objectir.itt,. After ai1, the objective also is inside ourselves,
an integral part of ourselr,es exactlv like the subjecti\re, and the capacity to be
alvare is the objective r,vithin the sr.rbjective. The instrument that objectifies
the subjective is the one, which enables a human being to upiift one's self.
And from this point of view the instrument of au,areness is an instrument of
freedom for the human being. As long as the human being is attached to the
subjective, one is completeiy taken by the sensation and its conscious image.
\iVithout it being processed by awareness, a person is enslaved and bound.
Awareness then frees the human being in the sense that it turns his
concepts to objectives. Therefore, developing a\vareness is increasing man's
objectivitv in order to liberate him from the limitations accompanied by
subjectivity. We both agreed that Gurdjieffis correct in saving that developing
awareness, the capacity to concentrate and the capacitv to analyze, enables
one to stand above one's own sense of limited subjectivitl'and unites one to
a higher unity; it frees one from personal ambitions and from centering one's
attention exclusively on oneself as his or,r,n subject. This enables awareness to
stand beyond or above the "I" and to look at this "I" fi orn the outside.

MF At this moment we found it necessary to find u,hat u'e mean n hen we

refer to a\,vareness. We need to find something much more perceptible, much
more plagmatic, on which we can have an influence.
I claimed that ar,vareness is that part of the thinking mechanism that Iistens
to the self rvhile I arn acting. We kept on iooking for the foundation of ar,r'are-
ness. Where is it? In which part of the system can we find it?
We debated for a long time this question. [I made this argument.] At the
moment a person loses consciousness, r,vhat does he lose? Filst of all he Ioses
orientation. For example, every person rvhen he comes back to consciousness,
the first thing he asks is "Where am I?" That is to sa-y at that moment he ceases
to knor,v lr,here he is, he ceases to know that he is thinking, breathing, lf ing
down, and so forth. And it continues. He can remember, for example, if he had
been hit, that the rest of the essential mechanisms can be rvorking, but not
the ar,r,areness. He does not knor,rr "r,r,here he is." It seems to me very important
because it opens a doorlvay as to where to 1ook. Actually I have a whole range
of phenomena which enable me to follorv awareness and open the u'ay to
developing it.

6
sut\I]! ER 2006 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

I aiso asked vou if it has ever happened to you that you fell asleep and
changed your position rvhiie sleeping so that when you rvoke up you could
not recognize at first urhere the door was or lvhere the ceiling was. And I
asked if at that moment you felt a kind of fear. Or it may happen that you have
fairrted partiall)., and did not know how. You find then no possibility to control
Vour thinking.
\bu told me it has never happened to you. Personally it has happened to
me. I remember clearlv that several times in rny life I lvoke up in a direction
in r,r,hich, at first, I did not know where is the head, where is the door, where is
up or doivn. I found myself suspended, head dor,vnward, and at that moment
1 kneu, very clearly that I could not recognize vl,here I rvas. I could not do any

mo\,ement until I adapted myself r,r,hile opening my eyes, and came baci< to
the more-or-less normal position of the head relative to space. At that moment
immediately I was back in control. In other words, I regained the awareness of
u,here I r,r,as, rvhat I was doing and rvhere all tiris happened. I do not remember
lr,hat l,ou said about that.

AK As a matter of fact the conclusion deriving from vour model that I abso-
lutell,agree $,ith is the following: the awaleness functions in categories very
similar to the Cartesian categories, and these categories are not absolute as
1 our demonstrations revealed but categories of the a!\rareness itself. And r,r,,hen
the ar,r,areness in some of its parts is blurred and its categories cannot !\rork,
the conception ofour world cannot exist.
\\ihat -vou told about orientation fits precisely the ar,r,are categories of space.
These are like the Cartesian categories of space. Here it r,vas revealed very
clearlr.that the spatial category [perception] is not absolute. Only r,r,.hen the
moment of ar,vareness would arise, would you [be oriented] in the absolute
lphvsical] space. Thus it became clear that our category of space is psycho-
logical and can be changed by interaction rvith frvhat] science ftells us]. If
science u'i11 change its spatial category then our psychologicai categories
u'i11 change, too. But here you really brought up the first spatial category, the
psr.cho-phvsiological data, rvhat is on the edge of the psychological and phvsi-
ologicai data of space. That a psychologicai state which modifies the organs of
equilibrium and modifies the conceprion Iperception] of space fexists], makes
it so that You cannot use the data of awareness to create an image out of them.
This is so until Vou create foryourselfthe spatial category.
Here is an example: Through experiments with chemicals like anosciin
[rnescalin] \,\re can modify the category of time and then the u,hoie time con-
ception of our life and the order of the aware data in time changes radically.
A person u,ho is under the influence of anosclin r,r,ill be in a state like yor-rr
example of rvaking up out of sleep without ha'r.ing an orientation of space. A
person under the influence of anosclin is not situated in the normal dimension
of time, but in a very different one. We can hypothetically imagine that if we
could go to the origins of psycho-physiological categories, we would remove
the u'hole philosophical fog about the absoiute and of etemit1,, and that the
operative-aware fexperiential] origins of the deep foundation of philosophy
u-ou1d reveal themselves.

M F I har.e no doubt about it. Let us continue with the subject of ar,vareness,
the orientation. First of a1i, this connection in itself enables the possibility for
clear research on the development ofalvareness. This is because the deveiop-
ment of ar,vareness and orientation goes hand in hand. The child from the
beginning does not understand \,vhat is up or down. It is ciear then that a\,\.are-
ness is something that grows with the child. It develops and is not given from
birth. In that case, it is controllable and because it is learned it can be learned
again. \\re can find out if the learning is done properly.
7
 THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAL NO. 19 SUMMER 2OO6

think the learning of awareness in most people is stopped much to soon.

I
Many of the scientists think that the human brain develops fully by the age
of r4, that the intelligence developed by the age of r+ is stable. It u,on't grow
any further. I think that is not fully true because by the age of r4 l,r,g keep on
developing our orientation capacities and the body's characters and traits in
gravity. Afterwards we neglect it. The one who neglects the improvement of his
own understanding stops the improvement of awareness at the same time. We
can, of course, do something with those elements, something experimental,
or something we can go with. But I developed this knowiedge in a much more
profound manner. But of course in our first conversation we touched only the
rudiments. I give the floor or.er now to you.

AK At this point I rvanted to remind ourselves, what were the questions

that rve asked ourselves? Are the categories of our awareness permanent and
unchangeable? Even if science obliges us to a change of categories, is our
awareness capable of adjusting itself? We came to the conciusion that our cat-
egories are not arbitrary but verbal and therefore \,ve can imagine an evolution
of the categories of awareness adjusted to the dynamic of arvareness itself.
This is because science in the first piace enlarges a\{areness and [creates]
new facts on the basis of the expanded ar,r,'areness. The problem is how to
adjust ar,r,areness to consciousness. For exarnple, until the "I" is registered in
the human being and becomes an integral part of his 1ife, a person cannot
accept a relative lr,orld. Until then our a\vareness should be Euclidean and
Platonics, rvhereas the experience to adjust our a\\'areness to a relatively toler-
ant world, which gives equal rights to all relation s\-stelns, to al1 coordination
systems, is something that requires the sarne kind of revolution as the Coperni-
can revolution.
Or as another example we have the principle of uncertaintvb and the renun-
ciation of absolute causality and the rvillingness to see variable causes instead
of mono-valent causes, causes from the domain of modern physics. According
to the dynamic conception, the evolution of categories themseh,es suggests
that there is hope that man l^",ill be able to change the categories of his mind
and soul. And out of this, a very important conclusion: It is true that from the
physiological and biological aspects man has gone through r,erv small changes
in the structure of his body during the iast 5o,ooo vears; that is to say from the
creation of homo sapiens. Considering only the coarse phvsical aspect, the
changes have been apparently small. On the other hand the impression we
have is that awareness has gone through an enormous evolution during these
last 5o,ooo years. There is no doubt though that the conscious abilitl', the ele-
mentary conceptual ability of the homo sapiens 20,ooo \-ears ago and today
was very much alike. On the other hand there is no doubt that arvareness fol-
lowing consciousness has gone through decisive changes. In that case, when
',ve talk about evolution, we talk about the evolution of arvaLeness, and tve can
even think of the basic direction of evolution is of au-areness, a consolidation
of man's orientation, the continual evolution of man's categories, a continua-
tion ofconcentration, and the creation offree objectivit)'. This last is the path
perhaps to what we can cali maturity, in the sense of the human being rising
above himself, becoming the objective person nho sees himself from a higher
distance and can develop without stopping, without 1imit. Within the limited
frame, the unchanging physical basis, the awareness does not have any limits
to its development.

MF And I agreed with rvhat you said and I can see very clearly that in our
awareness we use a very small part of the possible orientation of our body.

B
SUfI.\IER 2OO6 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

\Iost people, for example, look only to the front and to tlle sides but very fevr,,
look up and dou-n. And most of us do not pay attention; r,rre do not look at
ourselves, do not pav attention to others or to other organs. If r,r,.e trv to check
ourselr.es u e find afterr,r,ards that many parts of the body, in fact most of the
bodr', is not there; the person does not listen to himself in his arvareness while
acting. This is one of the rnajor things for awareness: to connect that r,vhich is
perceptible, the impressions rt hich are received. We can then supervise the
u-ar-in u-hich it is recorded in the body. Let us take a simple example: I am
rtalkirtg dou-n the street where I pass every day and ask myself, hor,r, many
u indou-s are there in the building next to me? Although I may have seen the
br-rilding a thousand times I cannot tel1. But if I go once rvith the intention to
see hou. I can remember, r,r,hile I kno.,r,n-hat I am doing, a part of my attention
is directed to m-vself -"r,hile I am acting and Iooking and thinking of rvhat I see.
And then I can see lr,ith such a clarity that I absorb the clarit1,, and come back
home and see things in a ner,r, rvay And this happens even though I sar,rr the
same things thousands of times -,vithout noticing anything.

aK \bu justlv remalked that lve use our a\,\''areness for only a r,ery small part
of the options r,r,e have. We agreed on much iess than one percent, perhaps
not e\-en one thousandth part. Bv the rvay, this remark reminds me of the
u.e11-knou.n observation about the physiology of the brain, that in the grey
merlbrane of the big brain, huge areas are empt)r and unexploited. Onl-vvery
sma1l parts of the greymembrane are connected n,ith a function; a huge area is
"blank." That is an imrnense potential you can fill rvith a1,\rareness, which at the
rromerlt does not e-risL.:
In addition to this r,rre discussed the topic of developing a free ar,r,areness
that enables a cliticai and free operation, which results frorn the needs of se11'-
a\\'areness. Frorl a certain point olview \\re can think of this as a process of de-
conditioning, that is to say "un-conditioning." And then we talked about the
culture, rvhich is stipulated by the possibility of conditioning. Because r,vithout
conditioning there can be no language, thele can be no mutual understanding
among people. No vaiid social concepts can exist. No behaviour couid exist
either. Not only from the social communication point of vien, but no behav-
ior.rr cor,rld exist, particularly in a technocratic society in r,r,hich all its actions
are stipuiated b\. vour ability to impose on vourself a system of conditioned
rellexes that enable you to live. But along rvith tirat rve knor,r, that the actual
conditioning caused a delay in the development of arvareness and also created
"blanks" of enormous area lr,hich could be used freel-v by norv.o
Theretbre the big problem is the problem of harmony bet\veen the condi-
tioned area r,r,hich rvas determined by social needs, and the de-conditioning,
the iiberation in rvhich r,rre develop a self-active part, r,r,hich liberates the indi-
r-idua1 from his subjective enslavement. We talked about some of the schools
of the Far-East, such asZen Buddhism or certain schools of yoga, r,vhich are
attempts at de-conditioning r,r,hile preserving a minimum of conditioning that
enables man to stay in societlr.

\I F I marr,el at your memory and your capacity to renerv the w-ho1e issue
about n,hich,,r,e talked the other time, but I thinkyou skipped one topic. I think
it u'as like this: I mentioned Professor Guthries and his theoly of learning, and
said that he is to mv opinion the onlv psychologist rvho understands the issue
of creating concepts and behar.iour and placing it absolutely r,r,ith muscles and
action. Accordir.rg to him, no action in the rt orld, no thought, no t'ee1ing, is
independent of muscle mobilit-v-, in the sense of a conditioned response in
each action. In his opinion everl,thing is being accomplished in each action.

9
 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO, 19 SUMMER 2OO6

Every action is absolute conditioning exactly as if it is done rvithin the limit

of the hands of time. That is to sa1,, the r-rnconditioned reaction..., the condi-
tioned stimulus..., the conditioned reflex..., I am confusing ever.vthing. If the
stimulus arouses a conditioned reflex, it must be approximately rvithin the
limit of : seconds. According to Pavlov's conditioning experiments, 5o repeti-
tions are needed to get the maximum flealning] from this phenomenon. But
these experirnents were r,vith dogs. With people, according to Gr,rthrie, every
action is a phenomenon of conditioning [association] but because the action is
repetitive, the next action can be done r,r'ith an opposite conditioning fassocia-
tion] so that gradually rve lose the capacit.v to fo11ou' the r,r,'a-Y of learning.'o [On
the other hand,] if the repetition is in a clear direction then the conditioning is
accomplished and this is the abilit-v... this is Iearning. But it is impossible to
knor,r, in advance r,vhether this action of conditioning r'r'i11 do the action of
Iearning or not. It is a matter of fortuitousness, of chance. \{e can see onlY
aftenr,ards. I think that after this vou said r,r,hat you said befole.

AK Ma-vbe I rvill complete your rvords. Learning is a verY complicated sys-

tem. The attempt to genelalize the learning process in a simple phrase like
"Learning is conditioning" is rvithout anv doubt oniy a partial truth. It is cer-
tain that a big part of the very elementary part of learning is conditioning' In
order to teach a person to r,r'alk, You need to create a whole system of condi-
tioned ret'1exes that rvi11 make the legs function harmoniously r,vith the move-
ment of the hands, the eyes, and so on. But even the elementary learning
includes a higher conditioning. The founder of cybernetics, Norbert Wiener,
claimed that one of the elements of learning at a higher level is the abilit.v to
correct on the basis of feedback. In a machine run by a conditioned reflex,
an impression is receirred, transmitted then to a coordination center, and an
operation results in a fixed trajector-v. But the sophisticated modern machine
has a feedback instrurnent rvhich receives intbrmation from the outer n'orld
and corrects the operation ceaselessll'. So ifthe operation does not lead to the
intentional result and purpose, it corrects itseif. Thus erren elementarv educa-
tion is not conditioning, namely a creation of fixed trajectories and tracks, but
also the ability to correct them ceaselessly. In other u'ords, above the tlack of
conditioning there is ah,vays a possible track of de-conditioning and of cre-
ation of ner,r,' tracks and trajectories. When you put a\,\'areness to the elements,
vou become sensitive so that you can shift the eiements.

MF Since you mentioned at the last moment the wotd ar,vareness, I have
almost nothing to add. Yet this is exactl-v rvhat I wanted to say. The last time
rve talked lengthily to establish that as long as there is no a\,vareness the condi-
tioning is cornpletely automatic. Only through feedback can an action hecome
a new habit in life, or at the contrary be rejected. But this is possible only
through the light of ar,vareness. Because awareness is a part of the correction,
it is turned into the action itself; it listens to the action. Such listening, I think,
is the first feedback.
In other r,r,ords, n ithout feedback it is impossible to condition or de-condition
a grown-up person. This ar,r,areness is, as a matter olfact, rvhat cybernetics
requires as feedback. All serr,o-mechanismstt require t'eedback' And r'r'hen
rve look at our system, r,r'e find that it is made of thousands of feedbacks.
When I lookl,r,ith m), e-ves at a book and read and I don't read the rvhole
page . . . and I don't knorv r,rrhat I read either. Then I go over it again and ask,
r,vhat is different at that moment? At that moment I listen to m-Yse1f and to what
I read. in other r,',,ords, I use f'eedback and therefore I read in a ner,v manner, in
a ner,r, light. So I can cleariy see rvhat I see, I can see rvhat I knor,r,'and under-
stand. And even r,r,hat I did not understand.

ro
SU]I}IER 2OO6 THE FELDENI(RAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

AK But there is something more and it is the important thing, in my opinion.

\\'e must distinguish betrveen human awareness and the automatic servo-
mechanism in the sense of c-vbernetics. Mechanical feedback brings back the
irnage to a readr-made schema and corrects the operation according to this
schema. That is to sa\', in every servo-mechanism, in every automatic mecha-
nisrn a fundamental pattern is installed, which guides, corrects, and directs
the rvhole tl.ring. The uniqueness of awareness is its ability to create schemas.
And perhaps the creating of schemas is the act of creation itself. In other words
ifrve asku,hat creation is, perhaps the deep content ofthe notion ofcreation is
the abilitr,to construct new schemas.

MF fhat is completely true yet I can confirm it only in my own r,r,,a1., which
is this: The arvaleness of most people is so undeveloped, so poor, that the
moment a person sees a ner,v phenomenon, he puts it in a pattern or a schema
like a machine. He relates it and compares it with the traits and quaiities he
alreadr- knor,r.s as if he refuses to look at it as a ne\,\r thing. That is to say he
makes no self-observation. Holt, do you say it in Hebrew? Self-examination
is not possible, is not done. In fact it is an iliusion if the person, r,vhile he is
listening, u'hile he is thinking and Iooking, he is judging at the same time say-
ing, ''this is good", "this is not good", "that's it", "that is not it." At this precise
moment he interrupts the ability of his au,areness to see clearly and correctly.
If u'e observe a little child while his awareness is developing, we can see that
u,hen he sees an unfamiliar object, he u,ill usually look at it and does not judge,
does not compare. We can observe that he becomes silent. He does not hear and
does not see an_ything else. It is impossible to divert his attention; he just Iooks
and sees u'hat he sees. And that attracts his rvhole attention. Of course, as we
said, it is the ability to observe lvhile he is listening to himself. He does not have
anr.other attention. All his awareness is drowned in it. We can obserrre this
ability onlr. in children or in those r,vho kept this childish virtue some of r,r,hom
rve call erudite, learned people. That childish virtue is namely the ability to look
at something urithout preparing the fixed mechanical feedback, but instead to
illurninate u,hat is found, to light it up in our ar,r,areness, to let the mechanism
be nourished and sated bv it rvithout any prior deliberation and judgement. This
is the clearest ability of awareness that rve are able to achieve up to norv. And I
think this ability can be learned and directed to the extent that it r,r,i1l not be a
rare moment in the life of human beings. \\,'e can make it something systematic,
a state u,hich r,r,e can learn and use most of the time.

AK To vour last rvords there are two points to add. Let's go back for a while
to the subject of human creativityrvhere we came to the conclusion that man
needs creativity. Erich Fromm described it in his book, The Sane Society.He
rvrote that the social iliness of the modern, developed, capitalistic regime is
the loss of tire abilit1,, the capacity, of the modern man to create. If r,r,e refer
to u.hat r,r'e said before, that modern man must adjust his operations to one
general schemat' in,"vhich he does not participate, and did take part in its pro-
cessing forganization], [we can agree rvith] Erich Fromm that modern man is
handicapped in his an are function by the deprivation of his higher function of
creating schemas, which is the highest manifestation of creation. This is r,vhat
is lost. \\'e can continue from there to the second dilection you mentioned, the
creation of ner,r, schemas. It is not conditioning, because conditioning is a fixed
track and not fthe same as those] combinations that are the essence of those
nen, schemas. We said the act of creation requires lability fflexibility] contrary
to the rigid stability of the conditioning schema.
Therefore the problem we are talking about is actually a different expression
of something common, the presen,ation of the labile system, r,r,hich enables

11
 SUMMER 2OO6
THE FELDENKRAIS ]OURNAL NO. 19

an infinity of new combinations, rvhich we wiil call the schemas of a creative

pattern. This mental labilit-y, which is the condition for creation, allort's for free
observation and new combinations taken from these unbiased and uncondi-
tioned observations. From this point of vier,r, the unconditioning takes place by
itself using the data, ivhich come to you from the external r,r'orld.

MF As much as I can remember rve actually had spoken about reversibiiitl',

which is connected organically to iability. \Ve spoke about Freud's model of a
rope, darkness, and awindorv, yes, ofthe unconscious and the conscious and
I claimed that one of health's dimensions is the ability to iisten through the
window to the room at such a speed and at such an ease that those tr'r''o things
are always connected together in action.
But right no1 / we do not have patience anvmore. \Ve \,vant to listen to \'vhat
lt e have been saying.

NOTES
r G.I. Gurdjieff (r8zs-rg+9J rvas a Russian teacher u'ho nloved to tl're \\'est n'ilh a number of
disciples after the Russian Rer,olution. His intent \\-as to bring his students from the "s1eep"
oftheir ordinarv conscious state to an arvake condition in 1\'hicl-t through the act of "selt'-
remembering" they could act t-ith self kr-rou-ledge.
z P.W.Bridgman:tgzT,TheLogicoflIodernPft-1'51.r, lrlacmiliar-rCo.,Ner'vYork.
g InEinstein'stheorvofrelativitythereist-ioabsolutetimebecausetocompareclocksor
distances requires sending signals u'hich move at a fired speed. If ciocks on one s,Ystem are
to be compared u,ith another, the speed of one svsteln relative to the other s)'stem, one n'ould
find the clocks on one s)rstem are slou,ed relative to rhe other in proportion to hon'close the
speed ofone system relative to the other is to the speed ofthe signals (speed ofligl'rt).
4 In terms of the internal connections of the nervous s-vstem all the sensory surfaces send
signals to the central nervous systeln and at the same time receive signals in return. In this
there is no distinction befiveen external and internal sensirrg parts and at the same time
the cells ofthe sensory surfaces are not distinguishable fronl ant'other cells ofthe svstem
in that they are part ofinternal loops.
s I belier.,e that what I(atsir means here is that in development the child needs stabilit-Y and
constanc-v. On1-v after the establishment of a stable sensc of self is it possible to consider
alternative n,ays of perceiving and conceptualizing.
6 KatsirisherereferingtotheHeisenberguncertaintvprinciple,rthichstatesthatmea-
surements at the leVel of the very sn'rall (the atomic level) are inrerlocked so that measu.ring
a position $,ith great accurac.v results in a lort'ering of accuracr- in the measurement of
momentunl, anJ t ice-t et sa.
7 The point of \riert that only a small part of the brain is used br an adult hun.ian is no
longer held by most neuroscientists toda!'.
B At the time of the discussion, it was still believed that conditioning u'as the best nrodel
for explaining basic human and animal learning. Todar-l'e rnight better describe fixed
learned patterrls as stong "attractors" in the ianguage of d1'namics
9 American psychologist E.R. Guthrie developed the cot-rtiguitv rheorr.of learning based
on association rather than on the conditioned reflex of Parlov in the r93os.
ro Guthrie'sideawasthatsimplelearningcouldtakepiacervithasingieexperience.lfthis
rvas repeated tvith consistency the learned action or movement l ould become a habit Com-
pler learning such as a skill involve a group of habits that acheive a result irl nlanv different
and varied conditions. Thus learning was ttot simple repetition. (Chapter'3. Edn'irr R. Guth-
rie in Psl,cltolog-v of Learn.i.ng,W.H. Sahakian, Chicago: N{ark}rarn Pub. Co., Gszo).

rrServo mechanism: A more complex feedback system rvhose variables affect one
another. It involves internal control as $,ell as external control.
rz "Schema"asusedbyPiaget,referstosomeformofcognitivestructure.Itcouldbean
action pattern or a perception or a concept. The term is not used very mtich todav but ill
dvnamic terms it can be designated as an "attractor pattern."

L2
SUTINIER 2OO6 THE FELDENI(RAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

Dennis Leri

Heinz, 1911-2o,o.2

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes .

PROUST
-MARCEL

If you desire to see, learn how to act. Act always so as to increase the number of choices.
VON FOERSTER
-HEINZ

1- peaking of his friend Warren McCulloch, one of the founders of the

t Science of Inforrnation, Heinz von Foerster said, "He was a creative
\ r...ptocle for every fascinating idea, whether it lvas logic, mathemat-
I ics, phr-sioiog1., neurophysiology, philosophy or poetry."l Heinz could
J/ l'raue been speaking about himself. He was one of the original founders
of cl,bernetics. He could have added to the list his own mastery of downhill
skiing and mountain climbing. He had an avid interest in family therapy and
Feldenkrais -,vork, both fields to which he made contributions. But r,vhen r,r,.e,
rvho had come into his sphere, spoke of Heinz, l,r,e thought of more than a
iist of his domains of expertise or a set of attributes: charismatic, honorabie,
inspirational. We rvould recall more than his distinctive and cheerful Austrian
accent or the kinetic ease and grace ofvirtually his every gesture and move-
ment. A meeting r,vith Heinz was a special kind of occasion. In speaking about
Heinz one could use "Heinz" as a noun or a verb. As a prelude to a meeting
rr,itl.r Heinz, one couid sav "Let's Heinz." \,\rhile his friend Bucky Fuller might
sar., "l seem to be a verb," u,ith Heinz everything and everyone seemed to be
in a becoming. To break the hold of Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" Heinz
might sav, "in becoming 'we' each of us realizes 'I'." Whether jistening to a
thoroughlv entrancing lecture or having tea and torte rvith him and his rvife
\1ai at the home he built on Rattlesnake Hill in Pescadero, Caiifornia, you just
felt present at something unique. It was a kind of homecoming that would
inevitablv become a departure, a journey of discovery and invention.
Heinz became palt of our Feldenkrais world, and the Feldenkrais Method
part of the r,on Foerster universe, in:-927. Either Thom Sturm (sr '77) or Patrick
Dotice (sr 'zz) brought Heinz von Foerster, Patrick's former mentor from the
Biological Computer Lab at the Champaign-Urbana campus of the Universitt'
ollllinois, to the San Francisco Feldenkrais Training in;97z. Whether itrvas
Thom or Patrick, it was rightly divined to be a fruitful encounter. Heinz entered
the training room just about at the start of an Ar,r,areness Through Movement
(rrri) lesson. He got on the floor and did the Iesson. After, he talked with
f Ioshe aird our training group and told stories and anecdotes, mostly familiar
to f,Ioshe, from science and cybernetics. He rvas quite engaging and seemed
to har.e a good grasp of rt hat we were there to iearn. His stories, r,r,hen linked
together, present a worldvieu, inclusive of science but evocative of a grander
scope, rvhat Heinz called Systemics (the content of his keynote speech at a
Feldenkrais conference in rgBg). Some of those stories r,r,'ere retold by Moshe in
his iater books lending another 1evel of accessibility and clarity to Moshe's own
ideas of Iearning and the role played b), one's nervous system.

r3
 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19 SUMMER 2OO6

The "nervous system," reified in the Feidenkrais community as an almost

alien entity controlling our everv behavior is, according to von Foerster, but
one autonomous svstem iinked inextricabiyr,r,'ith all the other systems com-
prising the unity that is the individual, organismically and socially. We should
realize that, for us, r,r,hen r,r,e invoke the nervous system \,ve are saying nothing
significant about the discipline of anatomv. We are really indicating a set of
practices congruent \vith the notion of "organic lealning," that is, Functional
Integration and Ar,r,areness Through Movement. Our use of the term nervous
system, in other r,vords, means something unique to us. As r,ve sha1l see, Heinz
and his colleagues not only re-\risioned notions of the dl,namics deterministic
of the biological individualit-v of the organism, but they also rethought howthe
organism's component s.vstems serve that individr-raiit-V.
I first met Heinz at a seminar in Big Sur in 1976. I forget r,vhat the seminar
r,vas about. Heinz's co-leaders rvere Chilean neurophenomenolgist Francisco
Varela and John Lill1,, exponent of consciousness expansion. Varela, fellow
Chilear.r Humberto Nlatulana, and Heinz von Foerster r,vere the main propo-
nents of u,hat came to be called the Santiago School of Neuroepistemology.
The Santiago School asked and ansr,r,ered the question, What is a living
entity? They coined the word autopoiesis (auto-self, poiesls-making, hence
self-making) to denote a truly novel rvay to distinguish the organization of a
living entity from the non-1iving. Out of their radical -vet pragmatic
position
toward the question "rvhat is a living entity"-rvhatis liuing? what is an entity
in its unitv?-there necessarily followed the need to re-cast notions of self,
language, and lealning. That is, to see things anewrequired a dis-stance from
the orthodox stance. For Heinz, et al, this new stance emerges from a collaps-
ing of the space betr,veen the observer and the observed. That is, the observer
is in relation to, "coupled" rvith, the observed and obserr.ing, f,ielding Heinz's
S-vstemics. In Heinz's r,r,ords:

As you may remember (in Science), objectivity requires that the properties
of the obserr.er shall not enter the description of his observations. With the
essence of obserr.ing, namelythe processes of cognition, beingremoved, the
observer is reduced to a copying machine, and the notion of responsibiiity
has been successfull.v juggled a\{ay. . . . hierarchies, objectivitl,, and other
devices, are all derivations of a decisior-r that has been made on a pair of, in
principle, undecidable questions. Here is the decisive pair:

Am I apartfrom the tLniuerse?

That is, nhenever I look I am looking as through a peephole upon an unfold-

ing universe.

Am I part of the tmiuerse?

That is, rvhenever I act, I am changing rnvseif and the ltniverse as lr,e11.
Whenever I reflect upon these nvo alternalives, I am surprised again and
again b-v the depth of the ab1.ss that separates the t\\ o fundamentall-v differ-
ent lr,orlds that can be cleated by such choices.2
It necessarily follorvs that the orthodox stance carries n'ith it an ethics,
an ethics at odds rvith that ofthe Santiago School. Hon is it that an observer
arises to observe? \Vhat happens rvhen rve shift lrorn obsetr,ers and things
observed to include oulselr,es in the question? That is, rvhat are the implica-
tions of the shift from observed systems to the obsen,ing sYstem entangling
itself lr,ith the observed, the observer and observing. For Heinz it is, "Either
to see myself as a citizen of an independent universe, r,vhose regularities,
rules and customs I ma-y eventually discover, or to see myself as the par-
ticipant of a conspiraclr, r,r,hose custolrls, ru1es, and regulations rve are now
inventing."s

L4
 SUNI}IER 2OO6 THE FELDENI(RAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

As u,ith ar.rr.really novel approach, the Santiago School at first met r,vith oppo-
sition, misur.rderstanding, jea1ous1., some enthusiasm, and mostly neglect.
Cr-rrlentlr- their u.orldr,ierv is gaining some acceptance even if it's through a lot
of unacknonLedged appropriation of their ideas.
Frorn the beginning I felt an imn'rediate kinship with the ideas of the San-
tiago School. I gave N,Ioshe my copy of Varela's book The Principles of Biological
,lutonontt, while I lr,as in Israel in 1979. In Bouldel in the summer of 19Bo
\loshe told Varela at their first meeting that Varela's bookwas one of the two
or Ihree most important books Moshe had ever read. The ideas in that book,
u'hile uniquelr.crafted byVarela, are part ofa larger set ofconcelns aiso held
br- \Iatulana, r'on Foerster, et al. Varela says ofvon Foerster:

-\s the dust settles urith time, the role olHeinz von Foerster in contemporarv
science becomes sharper and more vivid...
I cannot nrrite about Heinz r,vithout saying that I or,ve hinr a lot not only
intellectuallv but also personally. . . . In 196z he met Humberto Nlaturana, a
Chilean neurophysiologist rvho r,r,as to be mv undergraduate mentor in 1965-
68. Thanks to that (for me) luck_v encounter, I found layirrg on table counrers
articles b_v Heir.rz rvith such titles as 'A Circuitr-v of Clues for Platonic
Ideation" r,vhen I arrived at Humberto's lab in Santiago. . . . It sent m,v imagi-
nation fl\.ing into a hyperspace of ideas and style olrvork from u,.hich I have
ne\.er recovered. Besides, Heinz's st_vle is one of posing questions and main
principles in a concise form, lr,hich made his rvlitings intellectual zettels I
had in m\r pockets by the time I arrived as a graduate student at Har.,,ard in
r968. 81. then, the rvind had begun to blorv in the opposite direction: I found
virtuallr,nobody to talk to about these issues. McCulloch had already retired
from MIT, ar-rd the AI Lab n as under the dominance of Nlarvin Nlinsk1,, rvho
excelled at exorcising u,hat he sau, as "unproductive stllff" (from today's
perspecti\re, that is quite ironic). Heinz kindly ir.rvited me to come to Illinois
a ferv times during the time I was in Cambridge, and each time I r,rras touched
bv the hurnor and openness ofthis Viennese.
After returnilrg to Chile in r97o, u,e developed rvith Nlaturana the notion
of autopoiesis, and the fir'st paper published on it or,rres a tlernendous amount
to Heir-rz's comntents and corrections duling a long stay in Chile during
Jr-rne-August r973, -"rrhen the rumblings 6f 6i1ril 11rs11ryere only too evident.
Heinz u.as perl-raps the first rvho recognized immediately the interest of
this idea at a time n,hen almost evelyone else lrranted us to drop such idle
speculations. A similar experience n as to be repeated in r974 rvhen Heinz
rvas again instrurnental in making rny calculus of self-reference quicklv
accepted and disseminated, r,r,hen I rt as stranded in Costa Rica after escap-
ing Pinochet's Chile.
Since then and until today Heinz has been an untiring ear and friendly
advisor. His ethical and human qualities are impeccable, and they have
been a source of much needed inspiration. Thus, this is the right place for me
to Iestate all mv enormous debt tou,ards him. \\rithout his influence and his
presence for the last 3o years, mv life rvouid have lacked a deep, jolrotrs, znd
noulishing dimension. I call him Heinz the Great.a
(Sad1r., the rnentor rvas to outlive the apprentice as Varela passed auray
from lir.el cancer in zoor. The liver cancer was a consequence of his having
contracted hepatitis while in exile in Costa Rica from the repressive Pinochet
regime in Chi1e.)
Feldenkrais lessons evidence genius on virtually every level upon lr,hich
they are examined. While very practical in application the Iessons are rife
n ith theoretical implications that need pairing with a complementary
theoretical bio1og.v. Feldenkrais's approach chalienges most theories of how
rve learn and hor,r,. r,ve define optimal iiving. Ar,vareness Through Movement
and Functional Integration lessons prove their practicaiitlr and effectiveness

r5
 THE FELDENI(RAIS IOURNAL NO. 19 SUMMER 2OO6

over and over again everv day on virtually every continent. NIoshe explicitly
situated his method as a phase in the space betu,een the current scientific
zeitgeist and some future orthodoxy. And, von Foerster, \,'arela, and Nlaturana
have gone a long n,ay in developing a theoretical approach consonant -"vith
Functional Integration and Arvareness Thlough Nlor-ement. In the history of
science, sometimes theory plecedes practical demonstration and sornetiines
an experiment or phenomenon needs a nelt, theory to explain it. By lvay of
example: For the layman, Einstein r,rras the exemplar of a genius. Ir-r the popu-
Iar mind, the proof of the por,r,.er of Einstein's ideas came not in understanding
the beauty and elegance of his Special and General Theories of Reiativit.v but
rather in their seeing the power and destructiveness of the ;\tomic bombs
dropped on |apan during rvr,vtr. Einstein himself der.eloped his theories in
response to experiments lr,hich r,r,ere inexplicable in the ciassical mechanics of
Newton. And so it goes, sometimes theorv precedes practice and sometimes
practice precedes theory. Feldenkrais's Nlethod is his o'"r,n unique creation
and rvhile he could cobble together ideas to suppol't his insights and practical
implementations he knev". that there r,r,as not, and to this day stil1 is not, a
Generai or Special theory of Human Development.
At the Big Sur serninar Heinz read a sonnet by Shakespeare and asked us,
"What does it mean? " Can we say what the meaning of a particular set of rvords
in a particular order is by using another set of r,vords, in anothel order? It's such
a subtle _vet subversir.e question. The poet Louis Zukofskr-'' rrrote th at the test
of a critical svstem is how'r'r,e11 it matches the r,r,ord uith its subject/object. Can
the integrity of a poem, he asked, remain intact rvhen translated into or read
through the lens of a critical meta-theory? Zukofskv shours that the trueness of
rvords i n poems to the poem is not captured in rvords crboLrt poents. Therefore,
critical systems fail the test of poetry. Through a p1a1-lr-r1 discussion Heinz dern-
onstrated that not only is it not possibie to say the meaning of a poem (defini-
tion not being the name of the game) br-rt that some unerpected tirings happen
to such attempts. The philosophy of Heinz's famous t tncle Ludu,ig \'Vittgenstein
inlluenced Heinz's ability to parse statements and frame questions in a unique
r,vay. Wittgenstein rlade his mark on zoth centurv philosophv by, among other
things, developing the notion of lctnguage games.
For \\tittgenstein, language garnes are a kind of technique for exarnit.ring
uses of r,r.ords and sentences in ordinary language. Thev r'r,ere ernployed to
". . . battle against the ber,r,itchment of our inteiligence by means of oul
ianguage."6 We're not talking "r,vord games" here. Rather, \\rittgenstein sought
to determine the rneaning of a r,r,or d b.v considering its use in language as an
activity, aJbrm oJ liJe.It is a ruie-governed practice, Iike a game. Language
games sholvthe use of rvords in a context of human behaviors. Wittgenstein
calls the context and activities "tblms of 1ife." All human activities, simple or

16
SUM}IER 2OO6 THE FELDENKRATS ]OURNAL NO. 19

"z

complex, are forms of 1ife, part of human culture. Speaking a language or, as
in sigr.ring tbr the deaf, enacting a gesturai language, is part of a fonn of 1ife.
Philosophv should be understood as an actir,ity, not as a theorizing, but rather
somethir.rg more like "learning." Language-games are a \vay of getting at and
situating the meanings of words in any given language. Wittgenstein states,
"to imagine a language means to imagine a form of 1i1'e."? -Ihe total environ-
ment in rt,hich the language is used is part of the language game. "If, in any
given language, one cannot ask questions, girre orders, describe things, or
make requests, then these activities do not exist there. That is r,r,,hat seems to
be meant b.v saying that language games are expressions of a form of life."8 In a
passage that echoes Feldenkrais's insight that we are being heid hostage by our
incomplete, unquestioned, and even fraudulent self-image, \iVittgenstein says,

115. A "picture" held us captive. And',r,e could not get outside it, lbr it lay in
our language and language seemed to repeat it to r-Ls inerorably.s

Uncle Ludr,vig's purpose, not unlike Moshe Feidenkrais's, is simply to

help us see past these muddles. Wittgenstein says:

+6+. NI), aim is: to teach you to pass fi'om a piece of disguised nonsense to
something that is patent nonsense."'

\Vhile NIoshe r,vas developing his method he read \\rittgenstein u,ith an

eager thoroughness, the eft'ect of r,r,hich lr,as reflected in his own careful use of
language. The language game called the Feldenklais Method is an asseinblage
of plactices-descriptirre, mechanical, aestheticai, ethicai-that stands or fa11s
ot.tits ou,n logicalit.v or seif-coherence. The "foirn of life" that is the Feldenkrais
\Iethod todal- is best understood from the inside out. In the course of his
presentation Heinz r,rras able to show, echoing his famous uncle, that any par-
ticular ideological stance, be it Freuciian, Jungian, Marxist, deconstructionist,
etc., used to interpret a poem may occasionallv eiicit some ne\,v understanding
of the poem. Nlore often, horvever, r,vhat is reveaied is something more about
the interpreter and his or her ideological stance and less about the intelpreted.
Ultirnatelr'the poern absorbs the interpretation, metabolizes it and develops
"antibodies" to that interpretive mode. Again, the test of a critical reading is
in its ability to match n olds rvith the r,r,ork it critiques and pretends to expiain.
Heinz maintained that r,r,hile an intelpretation may carry the day or rvin the
battle, in the end, the poem outflanks said interpretation to win the r,r,,ar. A
more fruitful approach r,r,ould be to Iook at "hor,r," a poem lneans. At another
time rl e'11 ftilly explore the analogv betureen understanding a sonnet and
understanding an Ar,rrareness Through Morrement or Functional Integration
iesson. Iust as a poem generates nerv rneaning r,r,ith every reading so we can
see the same inexplicable lobustness in Feldenkrais lessons. Is that due to the

t7
 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19 SUMMBR 20O6

po\'ver of the process or to the r,r.eakness of our descriptive apparatus? Both?

Neither? Lessons and poems seem Io perpetuaJlr vield neu intet'pretations.
For Heinz, the question \vas not onlv "r,r,hat defines life?" but also hor't' it
is defined and b-v r,r,hom. Is life so generic that a list of attributes can be made
that exhaustir,elv contain it? \.Vou1dn't one need a kind of definition that
includes the pelson(s) doing the defining? To displace the model of phvsics
and its necessarill,rnaterialistic basis as the theoretical underpinnings for a
theory of iiving, Heinz first revisited Aristotle's four-fold notion of causality:
r) material cause-the matter from r,r'hich a thing is formed; z) efficient cause-
that rvhich actually causes the event; g) formal cause-the fonn to be realized,
and; +) final cause-the purpose to be realized. Aristotle r.rsed the example of
a statue to illustrate his point: the block of marble from r,vhich it is to be hewn
is the material cause; the sculptor himsell through the intermediary of his
tools, in his chipping ai,vay at the stone is the efficient cause; the form r,r'hich is
present in the sculptor's mind during the rvork is the formal cause; the destina-
tion or purpose of the completed statue is the final cause.
The first three causes refer to the thing itself. The fourtir cause, final cause,
evidences the very existence of a thing as the realization of a purpose. For Aris-
totle every living and every inanimate thing has purpose. Explanations r'r'hich
traffic in a thing's purpose are called teleological (relos-ends; logos-saving,
speaking; hence a speaking or saying of ends). Efficient cause is solelv the
one modern science emplol's. Science as rve knou' it purposell'excludes final
cause, or purpose, in its definitions. For Heinz's uncle Ludrvig \Vittgenstein
causalit-v (in its guise as efficient causalitl,) is a supelstition, the superstition
of rnodernity. But here ale Wittgenstein's on n rvords:

5.r35 There is no possible ivav of makit-rg an infelence from the eristence of

one situ ation to the existence of another entirell' different situation.

5.r36 There is no causal nexus to justify such an inference.

5.1361 \,\re connotinfer the events ofthe future from those ofthe present.
Belief in the causal nexus is superstitiotl.11(emphasis \Vittgenstein's)

And in the r,r,ords of Heinz's friend \\'arren NlcCtiiloch: ". . . let us be perfectlv
frank to admit that causalitv is a superstitiotr." We ale all, of course, familiar
r,r,ith Feldenkrais's railing again st "cause- eft'ect" thinking.
For Heinz, purpose and non-purpose are linked in rrerY complexwavs and
are both required in an-v descliption of a living s-vstem. To the traditional disal-
lowance of purpose in scientific explanations, Heinz rvould ask. 'Ah, but rvhat

1B
 SUNIIIER 2OO6 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

J ; ,i

ru ffi

is the purpos e of no purpose?" For the Santiago Schooi, any observer of any
phenomenon must have some sort of training, must, in other r,vords be trained
b), someone and therefore be a member of some tradition. And a tradition
such as science has a rationale, a purpose, for its being thought ofas unique.
In the scientific tradition the observer remains outside the observed event
or process. In the Santiago School the observer, lr,hoever she or he may be,
cannot stand outside of time and p1ace. And so, any description that includes
its describer cannot be reduced totally to a list of non-temporal attribi_rtes.
There is a history ofactions, rules, and plinciples and that historv is peopied
and those people constitute a tradition. On that Ntlaturana, Varela, and r.on
Foerster all agree. Holer.er, von Foerster and Varela braid together purpose
and non-purpose so as to give a place for the givenness of nteaning toward or
intention in everyda.v life. Horv rve link science and its prodllcts with science
as a human activitv is crucial for Heinz. He is an emphatic proponent of not
trivializing human beings rria scientific reductionism.
The import of Heinz's impact rests upon recognizing the difference
betr,neen trivial thought and non-trivial understanding. For Heinz the abstract
notion of a "machine" denotes any conceptLldl de\.ice used to contemplate
something. N{achines are mechanisms that Iink a system's external variables
to the system's internal states (if there are any) and its operations. N,Iachines
describe the form of such linkages and can be realized in flesh and blood or
on a silicon chip. Thev are not to be thought of as rvhat people or beings are
but rather machines are the generalized patterns of thought rvhich connect.
Heinz describes tlr,o types of machines: trivial and non-triviai. Heinz depicts
the implications of trivial rnachines to be like the schemas of a ligtrt sr,r,itch
or a soda machine, in that the_v characterize modes of thinking in different
domains that employ cause-effect thinking and the desire for predictabilitv.
Given the same input you get the same output. You have, for example, a cause
(the input), the larv of natur e (the transfer function), and then you get the effect
(output). With a trivial machine, say a soda machine,
-vou pr-lt in your monelr,
push the soda choice (Coke, orange, 7-Up) and getyour soda. The trivial
machine is designed to give a specific output to every specific input. Imagine
that the soda machine had "internal states" that biased or even determined
r,r,hat soda r,r,,ould come out despite vour selection. That is, pretend that the
machine had developed internal dynamics that made its output unpredict-
able. What if you are in the mood for a Coke and 1,611 punch the Coke button
but the machine is in a "7-Up mood" and so gives you z-Up? That kind of
unpredictabiiity would render the machine non-trivia1.

r9
 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19 SUMMER 2OO6

Heinz von Foerster: "the trivial machine is the mainstay, t1.re paradigm,
underlying our 'logical' working conditions in almost all fields of study." Some
examples from Heinz's biographl, The Dream of RealitltbvLynn Segal:

INPUT TRANSFER FUNCTION OUTPUT

r. Cause Lar,r, of nature Effect

z. Stimulus Central nervous system Response
3. Motivation Character Deeds
+. Goal System Action
5. N{inor premise NIajor premise Conclusion
6. Dependent argument Independent Argument Functior-r

These machines have the foilowing properties:

r) Thev are predictable.
z) They are history independent. Whatever took place in the past r'rril1 not
inf'luence the present.
3) The1, are s-vnthetically deterministic. You can plug them together. You
can synthesize them.
4) They are analvtically deterministic. If you want to find out horv thev r'r'ork, 1'611
can give them inputs, observe the outputs, and figure out the transfer function.

By contrast, the nontrivial machine is:

r) Syntheticalll, deterministic, i.e., ,vou can glue a nontrivial machine together,
just as you can do lvith a trivial machine. For example, You can w-rite dor'r'n a
transfer table.
z) Unlike the trivial machine, hor,r'ever, it is historicalll, dependent. What it does,
its output, is determined by its experience, its history.
3) It is analytically indeterminable; vou can't figure out n'hat the machine is doing
by operating it because it is too complex.
+) it is therefore analytically unpredictable.l2

She quotes Heinz: "If one wants to use the word'reality,'the nontrivial
machine models the realitv with r,r,'hich we are working. The trivial machine
is just a hope, a predicted wish for the r,vay we would like things to be, r've
trivialize them. We trivialize complex svstems so we can predict and explain
them."13 The trivial machine epitomizes our quest for certaint-Y.
A story: So, in one of his annual talks at the Somathematics Feldenkrais
Training in rgBB Heinz r,rras distinguishing between trivial and non-trivial
machines and fleshing out the consequences in various domains of science

20
SU]\tN{ER 2OO6 THE FELDENI(RAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

and thought. At a certain point, a student asked the question, "Heinz, are
vou sat'ing blah-blah blah or blah-b1ah?" Heinz graciously lesponded and
did not point out to the student that the very form ofthe question revealed
the entrenchment of a default trivialization in our thinking, the Iogicality of
eitheri or. To sa.vu,hat the Feldenkrais Method is one must be vigilant to dis-
tinguish the trivial from the non-trivial. There is a tendencv among students
and practitioners alike to want to trivialize the Feldenkrais Method by forcing
it through the very kinds of default thinking that Moshe worked so hard to free
himself from. N{ore than his colleagues Maturana or Varela, Heinz was sensi-
tir.e to the need to build a bridge from a cause-effect thinking to a thinking
orienteci tor,r,ard understanding Understanding. He r,r,anted to keep ,"r,hat lrras
radical and useful in the old and by revealing its inherent limitations use that
revelation as a ground to embrace the non-trivial.
The poet N1ichael Palmer: "Once I couldn't see for awhile, so I listened."
From the sequence of poems dedicated to Robert Duncan come these lines:

\ ou can bring dor'vn a house rvith sound.

\ot to understand this.
But n.e builded it.
\iot u,ith periods (the
senterrce) or any seltse ofdesign-
sight or sound.
Builded it u,hile blind.
Rain came in.
Noises not ours.'u

\\Ie build, construct, make, not by design, but by listening for something that
is not us, not ]'et, ma.vbe never. Heinz promoted poiesis, the making of a.,vorld
through its givens and through a mutual grasping and ordering of objects
n'here thev can be ordered and a letting go of a1l that can't be ordered. The
stance is neither to follor,v orders, nor to give orders but to act in order to. . .

tLnclerstcmd. The richness, complexitl,, and clarity reached in an understanding

goes bevond mere problem solving, solution generation, or conflict resolution.
\[hen one understands, one lives. For Heinz there r,vere human becomings in
lieu of human beings. One of Heinz's students Bob Zielinski says this in a short
piece entitled A Personal Story of N\, Encounter With Heinz uon Foerster:

Heinz shorved us hou., rvhen r,rre looked at the r,rrhole system, often the prob-
lems r,r'e studied r,".,ele really sohitiorrs, and that the apparent solutions rt ere
often the problem. But most of all, r.,rhat I learned, is horv the important solu-
tions that could benefit the lvorld rested on simple and obr,ious observa-
tions, and these rvere often the most elusive. liVe sar,r. in class horv people

2l
 THE FELDENI(RAIS JOURNAL NO. 19 SUMMER 2()O6

can \vork together in cooperation and that r,r'hen each individual is respected
and cared for, that the rvhole system r,r,i11 rt ork urith maximum efficiency-
demonstrated "synergy." \,\rhat a contrast to the "entrop-v" of the rvorld."

Heinz "shor,r,ed us hor,v". . . and w-hen one gives of one's self the way he did,
what can be said? In the lr'ords of Charles Sanders Peirce b-v consensus of
European philosophers, possibly America's greatest philosopher:

But just the rer,elation of the possibilitv of tl.ris complete self-sacrifice in

man, and the belief in its saving po'r,r,et, n'i1l ser-r'e to redeem the logicalit-v
of all rnen. For he r,r,ho recognizes the logical necessitv of complete seif-
identification of one's own interests rvith those of the communilv, and
its potential existence in man, e.,.en if he has it not himself, r'r,i1l perceive
that only the inferences of that man r'r'ho l-ras it are 1ogica1, and so vien's
his ort,n inferences as being valid only so far as theY u'ou1d be accepted by
that man. And that ideal perfection of knot ledge bt'u'hich rt e have seen that
reality is constituted must thus belong to a communitv in rvhich this identifi-
cation is comp1ete.16

Final11., Heinz spins yarns that make the fabric of his argument. In his telling
stories, stories life itself might te11 if it used Heinz to te11 them, Heinz piaces
human beings, all lir.ing beings, in a developing context that gives place for
order out of noise, human community out of so mant atrocities.
He and his r,r,ife lvere living incognito in Berlin during rvtvir as Austrians
of Jer,r,ish ancestry. Somehor,r,', Heinz said, he could recognize those like him
and they him. Whether the-y acknowledged it or iet it pass, survival depended
on them not getting it wrong. And amazingly the-y never did. Once, though,
Heinz said he recognized a r,voman r,r,ho rvas Ier,r,ish but r,vho didn't recognize
him. He said, "She didn't knorv that she didn't knor,v (that she knerv)." I(nowing
and "knorving not" are not on the same leve1. Horv can one know nor? How can
one tnour that one knol,vs not? Such stories and questions were part of Heinz's
Socratic path to understanding Understanding. He also tells the story ofa case
handled by his famous friend and concentration camp sutvivor, psychiatrist
Viktor Frankl. A man and his r,vife r,r,ho had also survived the camps r"'ere
living happii-v in Vienna shortly after the rvar. After' 6 months being back in
Vienna the n oman contracted a disease and died. The husband became a bro-
ken, despondent man unable and uni,r,illing to talk to anYone. After repeatedly
reiecting advice he consented to see Frankl. At the end oftheir session together
Frankl made the follor,r,ing suggestion. "Sa1,," Frankl said, "I have the power
from God to create a woman rvho is the exact replica of .vour rvit'e rl'ith her r,r,'ay
of speaking, who knon s ail the little jokes that couples have. She n ould have
all the little experiences you had together so she r,t ouid be identical to your
n,ife. If I had that po\ver granted me rvould you want me to make that replica?"
The man sat there awhile and then said, "No." He shook hairds n-ith Frankl
and left. The man, of course rvas functioning again. Hearing the stor-Y Heinz
\,ventto Frankl and asked, "lVhatrvas going on?" Frankl said. "Everyone sees
themselves through the eyes of the other. But u'hen she r,vas dead he rvas blind'
But, rvhen he could see that he r,r,as blind, he could see." I could conclude rvith
my understanding, my interpretation of those tlr'o incidents. But, if Frank1
asked you if he could construct a replica of Heinz, N{oshe, or someone lost to
you, r,r,hat would you say?
Alife passes. Loss. Life passes one by. Loss. The n'asting ofa iife, an odd
glimpse, tl.re entiretv of its unadorned fr-rti1ity, in an instant: a neighbor, friend,
relative or stranger, one's self seen in a moment emblematic of a life of naked
desolation. I(no-u'". that loss. A recognition, the seeing of that futilitr,', a seeing

o,
SUMMER 2()O6 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

that is r.rot futile, a seeing that is a renunciation of all that is futiie. Maybe by
accident, ma\rbe b_v design a moment does not pass us by. We are engaged.
\Ve participate and it leaves a mark. Alienation derailed (the train wreck
of a life), each moment nelvly re-marks, traces that heightened, deepened
engagement. A remarkable Iife. So said. A person remarking, remaking a iife
for themselr,es r,r,ith and for others. Such was Heinz von Foerster. Not u,hat
passes for life, no, rather a passion for living it. Heinz recognized his passion
through his seeing yours, in you, even ifyou didn't see it yet in yourself.

NOTES
r. Sega1, L:'nn. The Drearn o.f Reality: Heinz uon Foerster's Constructiuisrn. Ner,v York:
\\'. \\'. Norton & Compan]., 1986.
2. \-on Foerstel', Heinz. Metaphysics of an Experimental Epistemologist, at the u,eb
addre s s rvu,u,,r'ordenker. de/metaphysics/metaph-vsics.htm
3. r'on Foerster, Heinz. Ethics and Second-order Cybernetics. Opening address for the
International Conference, Systems and Family Therapv: Ethics, Epistemologl,, Nen
]fetl-rods. Paris, France, r99o.
.+. Stanford Electronic Humanities Rer.ien'', volume 4, issue z: Constructions of the Mind.
:. Zukofskr', Louis. I Tesl of Poetry. Middletown CT.: \{resleyan Uni\.ersit-v Press, 2ooo.
6. \Vittgenstein, Ludr'r.ig. Philosophical Inuestigatiot'ts, p. ro9. Malden, MA.: Blackwell,
1q98.

7. Ibid., pp. rt-rz.

8. Kennv, Arrthon_v. Wittgenstein, p. r,1. London: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1973.

g. Philosophical Inuestigations, p. 18.

to. Pltilct sctTtltic a I InLrestigations, p. 133.
rr. \\iittgenstein, Ludn,ig. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul, r96r.
rz. Segal, L.vnn. The Dreant oJRealit-v: Heinz uon Foerster's Constructiuism.
r3. Ibid.
llichael Pctlmer Introductiorz
t+. b-v Brighde N{u11ins at n,rvn.diacenter.org/prg/
poetrl'/06 o;./intrpalmer.html>
t5. Httntan Becoming Humctn\Nebsite at u/\\,\,v.univie.ac.at/constructiv-
-Becoming
isrl,' Hr.F,/festschrift/toc.html>
16.Collected Works of Charles Sanders Peirce 5.3s6, in a CD electronlc version: Intelex
Pr\ST NlASTERS, Charlottesville, \A zzgoz-o859.

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 THE FELDENi(RAIS JOURNAL NO. 19 SUNIMER 2OO6

{ i*

r .3s

24
SUMMER 2OO6 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

Russell Delman

Awareness........ o. o...and the Light Shines in the Darkness

I t ing on the floor in 1975, follolt,ing Nloshe's directions, something inde-

scLibable began to unfold. It nras a prodr,rct of the movements and the
I
I \rav of attending to these movements yet it was infinitel_v more than that.
I tf-t-rut rvas happening? What l,rras this openness, this presence, this effort-
l-l.rr sense oil.norr ing and being'/
\\'hat is au,areness?
Hou. does one know it?
\\Ihat does it feel like?
Hou, do t.ou knor,r,life right now? This is not meant as a theoretical question
blit one that
is vividly alive in this particular moment, distinct from anv other
moment. One could ask: "Hor,l, does life knorv itself through vour conscious
experience right now?" This "right now" is verv important because the living
expelience a1r,r,ays occurs in the timeless nether r,vorld called "norv" or "pres-
ent moment." Hou, do rve knor,r,, this? Any moment that you are consciously
alive simply askvourself "What time is it?" The ansrver r,vill aln,ays be "Norv."
Er,en this "norv" is elusive: As a concept it seems like a point between past and
future, as a living experience it Ieaves the realm of ordinary time altogether
and enters ir.rto the eternal present. The living experience never occurs in these
mental constructs ca1led past and future, or even the present (though that is
the closest that thought and language can get to it). lhe first distinction we can
make in investigating this quality of consciousness cal1ed awareness is thar it
exists outside of conrrentional time.
So again please take up the living question: "Horv do you know life right
norv?" Is it possible to ask this question with true innocence, not in thought
exclusively but as a whole Being, a complete organism? As Nloshe poir.rted out,
each experience is an integration ofvarious levels ofphenomena: sensation,
movement, feelings, and thought, or using more inner-oriented, process
language: sensing, moving, feeling, and thinking. As nouns these exist as
things disconnected from living experience, and as verbs these words point
directly torvard our living experience. Although every moment is unique, the
elements that comprise each moment are quite fer,v, just as a composer has a
finite number of notes r,r,ith u,'hich to create infinite song.

AWARENESS IS NOT ATTENTION

In rny uietLt, awareness, like loue, is a spontaneous, eJfortless arising that can be
encouraged but not created. This is tlte important distinction between owareness
and attention: The former is spontaneotts, effbrtless and Jiee while the latter
requires effort ctnd habir. Of course lve can make a distinction betureen the
conscious intention to pay attention and the type of attention drar,r,n by the
world, say in the form of a loud noise. The former is connected to conditioned
habits and the latter a reflexive reaction to stimulation. Neither is synonymous
r,vith arvareness. Although the intentional movement of attention can be an
important ground from i,r,hich a\,\.areness blooms, awareness itself requires no
directing and essentially can be invited but not controlled. Think ofa florver

25
 THE FELDENI(RAIS JOURNAL NO. 19 SUMMER 2OO6

growing. \\'e can tend the soi1, water it, protect it from predatols (these are acts
of attention), yet the blossoming itself is beyond our control. Actir..ely directed
attentioll is tire main modus operancli of ,A.r,r.areness Thlough Nlovement (eru).
More than any other movement, perhaps the dominant studr, in our r,t ork is
this: the movement of attention.
Said another way, the subtext o.f et,ety .-\Trt lessori is the cortsciotts mouement
of attention. Beyond the learning that occurs u,ithin anv particular lesson, rve
are guiding people tor,r,.ard greater mastery of their attention. Think of a scan or
even better, scan yourself right nou,. Can you read, processing the rvords as you
simuitaneously notice your right foot in the background? \\'hat a sophisticated
use of attention! In ATNIs, we are constantl-v taking velballv encoded messages
and translating them into both movements ol attention and, often, physical
action. In the scans, we might be asked to linger on the contact of the right tbot
or heei with the ground. We then mor,e into the sensations of the lor,r'er leg and
thigii (practice expanding your attention to include these physical phenomena
as you read and process the words right nolr,). After sensir-rg these distinct
parts, we might be asked: Hor,v do you sense vour r,r,hole light 1eg norv? Note
hor,r, different this question is, moving from a ratirer defined place like the foot
or heei to the r,',,l-role 1eg. Sorne of us are more adept at taking in r'rrholes, some
are more famiiiar with noticing parts-both are essential in the developrnent
of our capacity lbr attention. Mastery in the domain of attention includes the
capacity to go from r,r,holes to parts and parts to ."l ho1es \\.ith ease. Aurareness,
also called "the light of knowing," often arises as a result of diversif.ving our
rt ays of attending to a moment.
Nor,v, sense the surface that supports you. If sitting, notice the density and
texture of the chair', ground, or sofa. Hor^", does the surface yield to your weight?
Horv hard is it? Here, again, rve are making a l,ery sophisticated movement
from focusing on the body to shifting attention ir.rto the external rvorld. fhis
movement of attention from "inner" (inside the bodilv envelope) to the "outer"
world is one of the most important capacities for conscious humans. The
inabilitv to create clear distinctions betrl,een inner and outer rvorids is usually
indicative of a severelv dysfunctional condition in adults. \Vhiie some of us are
strongly biased toward either the external or internal rvorld, it is the comfort-
able movernent between these that is fundamental to maturation. \\te all knort,
people who seem perpetually out of thernselr.es and others rvho seem lost
inside. How valuable it is to have specific means for erpanding one's repertoire
in these domains to engender greater balance in our perceptual orientation
and encourage a\\,areness to blossom.
When Feldenkrais teachers assume the perspectirre that the movement
of attention itself is the most basic movement that we are exploring then r,r,e
w.ill include more non-kinesthetic phenornena as parl of our inr.estigations.
Connecting to the spatial, visual, and auditorl,u,orld and cultivating the
capacity to rnove gracefully betr,r,een the kinesthetic and these other domains
of experience helps us to deepen in ouL aurareness. To include one's sense of
position r,t ithin a room, the distance fi'om the door or the height of the ceiling,
for example, helps us to form a more complete self-image. After vears of focus-
ing almost excinsiveil, on kinesthetic questions n ith my students, I began to
notice that I was teaching internally oriented people to mo\,e erren more into
their interiors r,r,hen becoming rnore sensitir.el,v attuned to the external space
might have been mole irelpful. Horv fundamentai it is in developing ar,vareness
that this movement of attention betw-een the inner and outer lr,orlds be free
and spontaneous.
Further, as awareness deepens, this distinction betuleen inner and outer
errentuaily breaks dor,r,.n completely and one experiences that quality called
oneness. (Note that mor,ing be_vond inner/outer dua1it1, is not the same as never

z6
SUNI\IER 2()O6 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

forming this distinction). Said another way, once our essential ego capacity
to distinguish bet'"rreen an inner and outer world is fluidly deveioped, we can
enter the consciousness r,r,here all experience can be viewed as either inner
(u-hele u-e recognize that the outer world is ahvays experienced within the
closed s\.stem of our brain) and/ol outer (where subject/object breaks down
and the perceirrer r.anishes Ieaving onlv perception). These transcendent
experiences can be encouraged and facilitated through ourr,,,.orkwhenr,r,'e
are conscious of these distinctions. My friend Dennis Leri reminded me that
}loshe comments during the Pelvic CIock iesson in Awareness Through Moue-
tnent that svnchronizing the clock on the pelvis and the clock on the floor lets
one join the a,""-areness of inner and outer into "a single essential operation"
(p. izo). It is this joining that I am pointing tolr,ard. It is part of the inherent
spiritual or transcendent aspect of our work.

ONE }IORE EXA}IPLE:

FOCUS YOUR ATTENTION ON AN OBJECT IN YOUR VISUAL FIELD
. Take in the object in a wav that is sharp, clear, and distinct. Include
the color, shape, boundary, as many details as you can so that you can
reproduce it in memory. AIso, notice how the rest of your body fee1s, the
qualitv oftone, the breathing, etc.
. Close vour eyes and imagine the object for ro seconds.
. Norv put -vour palms over your gently closed eyes and let them rest by
gazing into the blackness for a fer,r, moments.
. This time gaze softly at the object attending as much to the
background, the setting r,vithin r'vhich it is placed, as vou are to the
foreground. Letyour eyes assume a soft, diffuse focus rather than creat-
ing a sharp image. This rnight l'eel more or less familiar than the former
practice. Again, include the sense of your r,r,hole bod-v.
. Finallr., close your eyes and recreate your entir e image.
. Hour do these \^rays of organizing your attention offer a different experi-
ence of both the rvorld and vourseif?

Some of us are more focused, precision types and some of us tend to be more
diffuse in our perception. This is different from the former distinction about
big picture/detail orientations. Also, notice hoi,v the attention to the visual
r'r,or1d infltiences kinesthetic experience. Often, people lr,ho are habitually
visuallv focused have significant parasitic contractions in their back extensors
and jarvs. By attending to the process of seeing and lr,'orking rvith the r/grasp-
ing" of the visual lvorld, we can often directly influence the entire organization
of the person. Intentionally changing what the Gestalt perceptual psycholo-
gists identified as the "figure and ground" (foreground and setting) radically
alters the experience ofthe perceiver. These are very significant distinctions
fol Feldenkrais teachers.
During erl,r Iessons \,ve are constantly asking people to make distinctions
such as these, tisually in the kinesthetic domain. \Me intentionally cultivate
our master\r of attention to create conditions ibr the spontaneous darvning
of this qualitv of consciousness, cailed awareness. Think of the emergence
of excellence in other activities. Nlusicians and athletes repeatedlv practice
certain movements so that, when the capacity is trul,v ripe, theyr,r,ill emerge
spontaneously and even effortlessly. This is mastery: Yehudi Menuhin rvhen in
his flor,.",, Michael Iordan in the zone. People in this state often describe a sense
of oneness, r'vhere the inner and outer world merge and effortless functioning
unfoids. Even in ordinarl, activity, r,r,e experience this state when all the levels
of the human being are functioning in harmony. This dar,r,ning of awareness is
the result of deliberate, intentional r,vork r,r,ith our attention

o-
 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 15 WINTER 2()()3

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\VINTER 20O3 THE FELDENI(RAIS IOURNAL NO. 15

Lr those moments when awareness succeeds in being at one with feeling,

senses, movement, and thought, the carriage lvill speed along on the right
road. Then rnan can make discover-ies, invent, create, innovate, and "knor,r,."
He grasps that his small rvorld and the great world around are but one and in
tl-ris unitr. he is no longer alone.
..._NIosHE FELDENKRATS, Awareness Through Mouement, p.s4,

THE FEELING OF THE LIVING MOMENT

\'Ve nou, can appreciate the colors comprising the palette of human experi-
ence. Each rnoment-in Moshe's Ianguage each action-is a collage of sensing,
thinking, feeling, and moving. What is most important is the fact that we
knorv ourselves through the enactment of certain actions rvhich include these
r-arious elements. The combinations of these basic elements are infinite. When
looked at with even more precision, we will see that what we call feeiings, in
the sense of the "fe1t sense" of an emotion is actually a combination of bodilv
phenomena (the broad sense of kinesthetic, including pulses, tingles, tem-
perature, tightness, lightness, etc.) and thinking. We can also recognize that
all mor,ement is known through sensation. Is it possible then that each unique
moment is a rveaving of these two elements-sensing and thinking (including
intentionality and imagery)-everything else being derivative from these? Is
the feeling of being alive an infinite combination of bodily sense and thought
(in its lalgest sense)?
It is irnportant to appreciate how feelings arise as a combination of emo-
tion and thought. In this context, I am using Damasio's distinction of basic
erlotions as biologically based responses designed to help the organism
sur-,.ir,e. In all animals u,ith limbic systems one can see the rudiments for
human emotional life. Basic fear patterns, inciuding Moshe's "Body Pattern of
Anxiet-v" (Bofii and Mature Behauior, ch. ro), dominance behavior, withdrawal
responses, attractions to others, humiliation, anger, and more, all developed
as organizers of behavior in the physical and social r,vorid. Just as reflexes
organize a more basic level of behavior, our emotions are bodily responses
to environmental situations and r,r'hen functioning well, enhance survival
of individuals and groups. Later we r,vill see how this can go amiss. Damasio
distinguishes feelings as the iiving experience of these emotions, how they
"feel" to the perceiver. In other words, a tight feeling in the belly, constriction
in the throat, erratic breathing pattern, cool sensations in the fingers, sense of
dis-ease and hvper alertness might be connected to the emotion called fear.
Of course, along rvith these sensations, lve have thoughts and images based on
memorl.that generate the r,r,hole feeling of the situation.
So r,r.e see that for human beings, these biological responses usually become
connected u,ith mental stories, thoughts, images, anticipations, which
together comprise r,vhat we can cali having a feeling. Ask yourself right now,
\\-hat arn I l'eeling? Take a moment to sense your feeling life. It is possible that
more than one feeling is alive in the moment, but it is not possible that you are
feelir-rg nothing, though it is possible that the feelings are vague and/or dif-
ficult to sense."vith any clarity. For example, are you interested, bored, curious,
upset, energetic, sad, or . . .? Now ask yourself, How do i experience this feeling
in mv bodl', holv is this feeling alive as embodied phenomena? At this moment,
as I sort for r,r,ords to express m-v ideas I feel excitement (increase in vitality,
hands mor,e faster, clearer vision, overall positive sense) along u,ith interest
(tingles in my tbrehead) and also frustrated (tightness in my mouth, subtle
contractions in my gut, an undesirable sense of threat) as the words become
elusive. Although there is a definite overall feeling, it is difficult to summarize
this felt sense in a r,r,ord right now. The feeling state is an appraisal of the desir-
abilitv of the moment (positive, negative, neutral), though it is infinitely more

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 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO.19 SUMMER 2OO6

than this. While its true basis is somatic, there is usually a detectable stor-vline
or series ofstories that relate to those sensations: "I this article to be of
"r'ant
interest." "N{aybe these thoughts are too esotelic." I suggest that Feldenkrais
teachers have much to offer the r,vorld in reiation to the feeling life of people.
By helping people connect more deeply to the kinesthetic roots of their experi-
ence the possibitity arises to enter the direct bodilv experience rather than
tbcusing on the storv. In mv experience, this allorvs the troubling emotious
to ser\re their function and mor,e quickiy through the organisrn as they do in
infants, rather than being reinforced thror,rgh unconscious internal dialogue
colloquially called "thinking." This is rvhele the arvakening of ar,r'areness is
essential for freeing ourselr,es lrom the behavioral and thought patterns that
sustain habitual, unfulfilling feeling states.
Often people',vho find their emotions overn'helming-r'r'ho feel like they
are ah,r,'ays going from one emotion to another-find great solace in learning
to "ground" thernselves in more neutral kinesthetic phenomena. Just feeling
their feet on the floor, the r,r,eight irr theil bottorn rvhen sitting, seems to allou'
the emotion to pass thlough theil bodr, rather than take up residence. Attend-
ing to the breathing and the parasitic contractiolls can also help this kind of
balancing.
There is another rtra-v in -,,r,hich kinesthetic ar\rareness can serve as a "miss-
ing link" in helping our students (and ourselves) uncover greater balance and
r,vholeness in the experience of lii'e. N{an-v people report being disconnected
from their feelings or, just as likel1,, their lo.".ed ones report this gap. Often
those nho alloiv feeling states to predominate have intimate partners who are
"heady" and seem to be out of touch r,r,ith their feelings. I har,'e noticed that
r,r,aking up to kinesthetic phenomena is often a doorr,t ay into the feeling life.
These people are often disconnected from the somatic base of feelings and
the constant intellectualization doesn't help them to feel r,r,'hat is going on at a
deeper level (deeper ref'ers to depth in the brain where thinking is higher and
emotion deeper). Learning to pay attention to these sensations, usually with
guidance, can help the da-,vning of arvareness of this other level of experience.
People often feel more r,vhole r,r,hen both the thinking and feeling lif'e are more
easily accessible. As Feldenkrais teachers we can function as guides lbr this
arvakening, including, though not focusing on, the emotional aspect. In addi-
tion to our usual questions (rveight, breath, n,hich leg is longer, etc.), it is help-
ful if r,r,e include othel distinctions, such as pulses, tingles, temperature, sense
of emptiness or fu11ness, constriction in throat, tightness in the belly, empty
feeling in the chest, etc. The use of language and imager.v that connects the
kinesthetic sensations to feelings can be rrery heipful tbr some of our students.
This integration of feeling, thought, intention, and action is the hallmark
of an are functioning. As Moshe points out, "\Vithout alt akened awareness we
perform u,hat the oider brain systems do in theit ourn'"rralr, even though the
intention to act came from the higher third system li.e., cortical]. Moreover,
the action often enough proves to be the exact opposite ofthe original
intention" (Awareness Through NIouement, p.+6-+7).Said another \va]', older,
emotionall-v based habits that derreioped u,hiie we were in a period of absoiute
dependence lvi11 dominate our behavior unless rn,e der,elop the requisite
awareness to cultivate altelnative possibilities.
Or.re of the key and essential distinctions betr,r,een our r,r,ork and that of
many other ar,vareness-based approaches is that rve include a functional
exploration of action, not simply learning to sense, fee1, or think differently.
This functional aspect seems to influence the capacity of human beings to
integrate the learning at a deeper leve1. I suspect that "just" sensing, "just"
feeling, or "just" thinking, while helpful, r-rsua11y fall short in creating lasting
transformation.

3O
SUMNTER 2OO6 THE FELDENI{RAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

la.':l

,ll,se t'l

AWARENESS & THE MOVEMENT FROM FEAR TO LOVE

l{oshe sa\\r the dal,r,ning of au.areness as a ne\\. stage in the der.elopmer-rt of
consciousness on this planet. It does not mean that awareness did not exist
in earlier times, it means that for the first time humanity has the capacity to
generalize this capacity, r'adica11y changing horvrve iive. Although lve don't
use the r,r,old love so often in our method, I call this change: the movement
from fear to love as the basic operating principle of humanity.
As rr.e said before, fear arises in evolutionary historv with the development
of limbic (mid-brain) animals. (Reptiies have protecrive, mating, fighti flight
behar,iors but no evidence of emotional 1ife.) The capacity for fear is essential
for surr,ir.al as are the basic flight-or-flight responses. N{any of our movements
torvard and ar'r,ay from things/beings in our environment are linked to basic
fear responses initiated by the sympathetic branch of the autonornic nervoLrs
s\rstern. This s-ystem, u,hich developed in a radically dift'erent enrrironment
fi'om tire one \ve live in today, often responds in -,vavs that are i1l suited to the
current \vor1d. Alarm responses to loud noises are effective in the jungle and
often, though not alrvays, unhelpful in Nerv York Cit-v.
A hvper-r,igilance of an overactive s-ympathetic nervolls system with the cor-
responding profusion of adrenaline, though helpful r,r,hen dealing rvith reaiity
based dangers, is olten counterproductive for modern humans. To r,va1k around
r,l,ith a more or less chronic startle reflex, complete r,rrith contracted flexors, tight
sphir-rcters, raised shoulders, contracted neck, inhibited breathing, fixated or

31
THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19 SUMMER 2OO6

darting eyes, is not conducive to effective survival responses in the world.

As one learns to gain confidence in both one's equilibrium and capacity to
recover gracefullywhen knocked down, the set point olthe autonomic nervous
system can change. Fullness in the lower abdomen, vitalityr,r,ithout tension in
the pelvic floor, freedom of the diaphragm, smooth movement of the head and
eyes are all reflections of this change. With neutrality defined both in terms of
Moshe's acture (the ability to move in any direction l,vithout a prior reorgaui-
zation) and autonomic balance, we can get a picture of a functional, respon-
sive, capable human beirrg.
Additionally, there is already a biological model for more parasympathetic,
cooperati\re responses to difficulties. Recent brain research has placed more
emphasis on the positive emotional circuitry in our brains. For years the
emphasis has been on fear and pain r,r,ith little interest in the neuroiogy of
love, peace, and happiness. Also, after a historv of extreme imbalance, recent
neurological research includes more women in manv experiments, and
reveals some surprising discoveries. When combined r.r,ith data accumulating
on Iong-term meditators, ner,r,. modeis are developing for the neurology of car-
ing, positive emotion, and various states of consciousness. For example, there
is a moiecule called oxytocin, nrhich seems to facilitate caring behaviors and
attachments betn een people (let alone penguins!). It is vely prevalent in 1ac-
tating mothers (all species r,r,ith oxvtocin shorv care fol offspring and usually
life-long monogaml,), as well as in men and r,r,omen during orgasm and deep
bonding experiences. While more polverful in females because it is facilitated
by estrogen, it also has an influence on male behavior. The theorv of a "tending
instinct" to go along with the fight-or-flight model grerv from this research.
Nurturing each other is also a significant part ofour survival strategies and
history. In fact, for numerous sociological, economic, and gender-based rea-
sons the "struggle for survival" is the dominant storvure hear about in popular
descriptions of evolution. Ner,r,er models norv include "the cooperation for
survival" as at least as strong an influence on the unfolding of life. Imagine
the cultural paradigm shift if this attitude acquires the same traction as the
competitive side!
Of course the svmpathetic nervous s_ystem is essential for sun ival and I am
not suggesting that its protective, defensive, and aggressive responses should
be eliminated. The issue is one of balance. Many people in the modern world
feel overr,r,helmed by constant, high-level sensory inputs. As nre get addicted
to louder, brighter, faster stimulation, oul threshold increases, requiring even
stronger exciters to make an impression. I wonder if rve are conditioning eon
in our children with the drive toward bigger, faster, and louder sensations.
Even in the last tr,venty years, I have noticed a huge increase in the number
of children who complain of boredom when electronic stimulation is absent.
Further, the mass media, knowing that the brain is rvired to pav attention to
danger, uses fear induction techniques to call our attention. \Vhen added to
the fact that we are rvired to orient toward the "ner,v" (in evolutionary history
"nelt," meant important and potentiallv life threatening) our obsession rvith
"nelvs" becomes understandable. Combined rvith large doses of caffeine and
sugar, \,ve glimpse a culture that is hooked on adrenaline and s_vmpathetic
autonomic stimulation. N{any dysfunctional and most disease states are
caused, reinforced, or exacerbated bv this imbalance.
As Feldenkrais teachers one of our main influences on culture is through
our effective means for helping to balance these autonomic responses.
Ultimatell,, this might be our greatest potential contribution to the rvorld
today. Nor,v, it is not easy to move from fear to lor,e (think of lor.e as a condition
of openness to life, an attitude of nurturance) as the dominantwa-v of meet-
SUMMER 2OO6 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

ing life. Whv is it so hard for people to change? \\rhy is a\,vareness such a key
component in such behavioral change? With any change of behavior t\,vo very
strong biological forces encounter each other: the conservative impulse to
keep things as they are and the irnpuise torvard growth.
As soon as water is poured dor,vn a slope the tendency for fllture water to
lbllor'r,the same path is already ernbedded into the hillside. Something sirnilar
happens in the brain and in behavior. An1, action that has not resulted in great
threat or pain has a greater chance of being enacted than a behavior that
has never occurred. There is already a series of neural nets that embodv that
behavior. Organisms are conservative in the sense that they repeat behaviors
that have not compromised sun ival and/or have had any life giving benefit, no
matter hor,r, situation specific and, perhaps, ultimately compromising for their
health and happiness. This is why habits can be so hard to change. Secondly,
there is a natural selectivity for cautious, but not too cautious, behavior. Most
of our ancestors rt ho were immune to f'ear did not survive.
On the other hand, healthv life seeks to grow (think of a dandelion grou'ing
out of a siden alk in a polluted city) and healthv human life seeks ner,r, experi-
ences, neu, learning, and new possibilities. Most infants enjoy exploring their
n orld and most heaith-v adults keep exploring life in one form or another. Even
in minor rva1,s, people l,vant to knou,what is ner,r,, what is changing, r,vhat is dil'-
ferent. This is curiosity in action. Those of our ancestors, who r,vere unwilling to
change and, for example, move to places with more abundant food sources and
protection, also did not survive.
These tu.o forces-the conservative, or Iil'e's tendencv to repeat itself,
and the grorr,rth-oriented, or the urge for change-are in a dynamic struggle
much of the time, the classic immovable object (conservation) meeting the
unstoppable force (gror,r,th). This dvnamic tension arises in heaithy systems.
Historicallr,, the tendencv toward the conselvative has dominated, with
change arising only under great pressure. Most evolutionary development
arose out of environmental pressures. Can r've continue to depend on cata-
strophe to create change? Can we survive this proclivity given our current
technological capacity? Protection patterns and the tribal consciousness that
historically resulted in only local destruction can now destroy the whole rvorld.
,{rvareness is the capacity that can irelp the human being uncover ne\rr
behaviors $,ithout the threat of imminent danger. It can help us overcorne the
fear-based orientation of our iorver blain when such fear is not congruent with
realitv. Through this u,aking up, rvhich literally means sensing the f'ear-based
patterns in our bodies, noticing the stories that arise in our thinking, deveiop-
ing the capacitl, to remain conscious prior to mobilizing action, as rvell as
learning alternative organizations, \ve can encourage our impulse to sustain
and nurture life to become dominant. As Moshe revealed so clear11,, lvhen we
har,e the capacity to stand on our o\,vn feet, to move comfortabll, and power-
fully from center and to breathe freely, we can have the confidence to approach
life lvith curiosity, openness and love. Ar,vareness is the inner condition that
alloi,vs this movement from fear to love.
What does a\vareness feel like? When sitting on a cushion practicing Zen
meditation, one begins noticing thoughts and sensations corning and going.
At first the meditator feels iike the subject perceiving thes e objects. The sense
of observing from '"vithin oneself (often from r,rrithin one's head) dominates.
Sometimes this sense of perceiving from a particular location gives lva1, to the
deep sense that the experience and the experiencer melt into each other. This
is not a thought; it is the perceived reality. There is an indescribable sense of
rvholeness, of knor,r,ing, and knowing that one kno\r,. I think something similar
can happen in eru.

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 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19 SUMMER 2OO6

I often ask my students and myself, "\\that are the signs of life you notice
right now?" \iVhat are your most basic sensations, as much as possible, free
from acculturated stor1,, evaluation and judgment?" This question is always
fresh, new, and innocent. Thinl< of a preverbal infant sensing the coolness of
the sheets underneath, the tingling skin, moving gasses, blinking eyes, shin-
ing colors, vibrating sounds, to appreciate this freshness. Yet does the infant
really know in the ."vay that adult consciousness can knorv? As one drops cleeper
into these liuing experiences as an adult, the capacity to simultaneously experi-
ence, and know that one is ex1teriencirtg, emerges. The know,er, the known, and
the capacityfor knowing all arise together. ln this moment one can scty aware-
ness has dawned. The light is on. One knows that one knows without thinking.
Afterwards, one can use thought and memory to report on the experience
(though experience might be the wrong n ord because in the actual moment of
experiencing there is no experiencer, just as there is no motnent). Though this
sounds somen hat esoteric, it really is known to all of us. The difficulty is that
the report that "we" make to "ourselves" on the experience happens so quickly
that unless rve attend quite intimately r,ve have the sense that "1" am doing it.
Once again lr,e can look to modern neurology for a model to guide us
through this confusion. The concepts of brain modules (somewhat autono-
mous regions with specific functions) plus the fascinating, almost spiritual,
question ofrvhether there is a central "I" that functions as the chiefexecutive
of these modules, are helpful. Is it possible, as many neurologists propose, that
the entity that lve call "I" is actually a reporter r,r,ho signais, after the fact, that
something has happened, that a decision has been made or behavior initiated?
While ive have the conscions image that the "I" lr,hich feels like "me" is the
chooser, the leader, the one r,vho r,r,ills these events, might this be the ultimate
self delusion? If so, then might it be more accurate to imagine the "True I"
as the light, the awareness, r,r,hich makes these inner.urrorkings kno,"vn? The
analogy of a film projector is illustrative. Whiie r'r,atching a movie, most people
identify the self with the characters in the film and/or the storvline. Perhaps
it is more accurate to think of the self as the "light" r,r-hich allor,r,s the character
and the story to be known.
Really, in the living moment, arvareness just dan,ns. It is quite impersonal
until owned by a particular mind as "my" experience. The deepest moments
that I know in e:rr,t have this quality, It feels like knorving u'ithout a knorver
and expresses an intimacy that feels very ancient vet utteriv ner,r,. Although I
couldn't have described this then, this was the first deepiv moving experience
I had rvith Moshe back in San Francisco. The lessons \\,ere not so interesting to
me and I did not appreciate the subtleties until later. I do lemember lving there
in the third or fourth rveek of my first vear of training in June of r975, effort-
Iessly inhabiting vast inner/outer space, the light on internailr', and the sense
of returning to mV true home.

REFERENCES
Damasio, A. Gsss). The Feeling of What llappens: Bctdl' nncl Etllotiotl irt tlte -\Ialtittg of
C onsciottsness. Harcourt Brace: Nerv York.
Feldenkrais, N'Ioshe. (r972). A utareness Througlt NIouenzerzI. Neir \brk: Harper ColIins.
Feldenkrais, Nloshe. (rg+g). -B otly ancl Mature Belruuiour: A Studl' oJ -\nriety, Ser, Grauitct-
tian ontl Lectrning. N{adisor-i: Intel.national Universities Press.

34
 SUMMER 2OO6 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

Mary Elizabeth Coughlin

Moshe's Promise

In the prefac e to Tlte Potent Self , Moshe Feldenkrais states,

Dedicated to
Do not try to forget the past; it is impossible to forget the past r,r,ithout forget-
David Zemach-Bersin,
ting oneself at the same time. \bu may imagine that y6u hzys forgotten one
or another unr,r,anted detail, but it is stamped in some part of your body. yet
Aliza Stewart,
that past experience, arvful as it mav have been, can be used nou, to make and the graduates ofthe
your present a vitai basis for a ful1er, more absorbingly interesting future. First Mid-Atlantic
When you have iearned to accept the past and you have made peace r,r,ith it, Professional Feldenkrais
then it n,ili leave vou in peace. (p. r,ii) Training Program

The first tu,o times I read this passage, I remember thinking, "oi< . . .
rvhatever. . . like THAT's gonna ever happen!" Nloshe's preface couldn't
have much to do reallv with The Feldenkrais Method of somatic education,
any\,vay, so it would not be necessary to bother processing the past, let alone
ever trying to make peace r,r,ith it. When the "awful" aspects of the past bubble
up, it is time to cut and run.
A somewhat complicated concept that Feldenkrais explored is the distinc-
tion betrveen thinking and speaking or language. \\'e can cement our version
of the past with words so that our version has iittle or nothing to do rvith what
happened. We will remember one angle of the past and that becomes realitlr
In The Elusiue Obuious, Feldenkrais states, "It is useful at this juncture to
mal<e the point that free choice is closely related to thinking and is gone when
spoken and communicated to somebodV else or even to oneself . . . [m1, ital-
ics]." He also says, "In thought, r,r,'e choose one alternative and communicate
it, although several other choices may have existed in our thinking before rve
decided to dress one of them up in words" (p. i49). So we limit the definition of
ourselves, of others, and of reality itself, when r,r,e choose to speak about onl-v a
few facets of the complexity that makes up a person or an experience.
It turns out that being shackled by the past is a fairly universal experience.
As Claudia Shear says in her one-u,oman Broadrvay short, "Everyone has a
story that will break your heart." Our storv lines are rvidely varied. Thev ma1,
include abuse that we wish to tbrget, experiences that made us feel like fail-
ures, or times when we felt rejected. The problem is that the process of ar.oiding
certain memories does cause one to move in a more iimited rvay. \\ihen r,t e
restrict -"vhere our minds can go when thinking, we also restrict our bodies.
And this is also heartbreaking, the rvay rve package the past.
Sometimes it is true that r,ve may be remembering something that did not, in
fact, happen. Mark Tivain, one of the great masters of language, had a variety of
comments about this particular habit. "I've dealt with many crises in my life,
few of which happened." "I am an old man and have knor,vn many troubles,
most of which never happened." "I find that the further back I go the better
things n ere rvhether they happened or not." We do not intentionally distort
our histories. The human mind, rvhen creating a story 1ine, picks up influences
that lesult in the distortion. Maybe we are told a story so many rimes in family
lore that r,r,e come to believe that we r,rrere there. \Ve may nurture a stoly line
out of fear and then think that it really happened. Possibiy, most commonly,

J3
 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19 SUMMER 2OO6

36
SUMMER 2OO6 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

we are told things about ourselves by parents, teachers, and prof'essionals that
are based on their perceptions and not on who we are and what our experience
was. We internalize these comments and then carry them as part of our past.
One of the most valuable results of practicing the Feldenkrais Method is
Iearning to be present. During Functionai Integration and during Awareness
Through Movement lessons we are being instructed to discover what is hap-
pening within us now. A very wise Buddhist teacher, Pema Chodron, states
that the verbal "is not in the moment. The story line is not in the moment."
lnThe Places That Scare You,Pemawrites, "Then, right on the spot, we can
go beneath the words to the nonverbal experience of the emotion. What's
happening in our hearts, our shoulders, our gut? Abiding with the physical
sensation is radicallv different from sticking to the story Iine. It requires
appreciation for this very moment. It is a way of relaxing, a way to train in
softening rather than hardening." 1p. 0s). It sounds here as if Pema is trying
to articulate the same thing that Moshe was saying, ie, some things cannot be
described in words.
The past will often aggressively surface during Awareness Through N{ove-
ment r,rrhen the mover is trying to sta-v present. As David Zemach-Bersin
constantly reminds us, "It is not the movement, but the attention to the move-
ment, that provides the key to Iearning." I also find that it is the attention to the
movement of my thoughts when I am remembering that the same holds true.
Feldenkrais emphasized that when rvorking n,ith ourselves, it is vital to Iearn
non-judgmental attention . . . but let's face it: N,Ioshe didn't sa-v non-judgmentai
because he rvas NICE. He said it because he realized that this is rvhat r,vorks. He
knew that our entire organism needs to be involved in the process oflearning.
The action of repressing our past urill interfere r,r,ith growth. Trvo definitions
of repression are "to put down by force" and "to exclude from consciousness."
The central nervous system will be quite busy with this task of repressing,
u,hich will ieave less of ourselves available to attend to our present status and
to the Iesson.
This phenomenon of thinking that is not limited to n ords is actually quite
complicated to ponder. First off, most of us forget that it is something that rve
need to practice. We can get stuck in the groove of stal,ing rvith language in
our thinking. I have met a number of verv intelligent and intellectual people
who refuse to acknor,vledge that thinking that is not related to language can
exist. Even when provided with examples of hor,v this can actually occur, they
continue to refuse to believe it. I realized that they do not practice it. It is not an
experience that they can remember.
Thinking that is not related to rvords has distinct characteristics. It feels
more precise and objective. Also, somehow the pre-verbal or nonverbal
thoughts are more experiential and not so emotionally Iaden.
When working with students in Functional Integration lessons, I have
found that the pelvis is often a blind place. It lacks movement sometimes, and
when movement does occur, the person has difficultyr,vhen trying to sense
hou, the movement goes through.
Conscious memories-perhaps memories that are verbally based-that
some students have relative to pelvic movements are related to sexuality.
Unfortunately, too many of these students experience a lot of shame in this
realm. I have had a few students who have abandoned a sexual life and express
a goal of being free from sexual desire. Limiting the rvay that the pelvis moves
can allow the person to reduce the awareness of the genitals altogether. This of
course wreaks havoc with the rest of the skeleton.
Simple pelvic clocks were disconcerting for one student and she essentially
stayed rounded in her spine so that "sitting on her sex," as Feldenkrais would
 SUNIN{ER 2()O6
THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

say, was impossible. As months progressed, something began s1-rifting and she
shared being molested as a ten-year-old. She had never betbre told anyone,
and she rvas over fifty years old. She did not r^rish to be perceived as sexy and
admitted that she had a negative attitude tor,vard men. RecentlY, horvever, she
chose to begin to study the topic of sexualit-v. She sees that she cannot clenY
that this is part of who she is. The pain in her back, neck, shoulders, arms,
and hands is linked to such limited movement in her pelvis. If she can come
to peace with her past experience and alior,r'more freedom in her pelvis,
her quality of life r,vill greatly improve. And to find this peace, she has to
sense-non-verba1l1,-the objective effects of pelr'ic movements, butu'ithout
the stories in her life that are associated with these movements.
While thinking that is not related to lr'ords is essential to organic learning
and also to creative breakthroughs, bringinglanguage to our experietrces
is essential as rvell. Language aliows us to clarify aspects of the expelience
for ourselves and then to be able to share our experience. Some dictionarv
definitions of thinking are as follolvs: Think-to have a conscious mind; to
employ one's mind; to invent or conceive. These particular definitions seem
to provide room for the concept that thought does occur separate from lan-
guage. If thought is alrvays related to language, rvhy do you often see pictures
in the dictionary?
N{anyyears agc, I read a book cal1ed \ltaitingJbr the Barbarians b.v I NI.
Coetzee. The protagonist ofthe novel is the magistrate ofa torvn that borders
on the frontier in South Africa. it is a peaceful job for him until one of I'ris col-
Ieagues arrives from the capital to investigate rumors that there is an impend-
ingrvarbeingplanned bythe barbarians ofthe frontier. The colleague goes
out to the frontier, rounds up a Sroup of "barbarians," and brings them back
to the magistrate's tou,n for an interrogation. The magistrate is not al1ou.ed
to participate. This interrogation leaves a man dead and his tu'ent.Y-vear-o1d
dar-rghter severely disabied so that she cannot return to the frontier n'ith her
people rt4ren they are released.
Ihe magistrate takes the girl in and wants to help her. But he is also
consumed r,vith a desire to knour precisely r,l hat happened to her. She refuses
to describe her experience. Both of her feet are broken and she is nor'v blind
and I guess she feels that it is obvious rvhat happened to her. Why trv to sa\r
anything? "They tell me you are blind," the magistrate says. "I can see," she
says, but she is staling at an empty$.all. "Look at me," the magistrate sa\rs.
"I am looking. This is how I look," the girl replies (pp. z5-26). The magistrate
persists. "What did they do to you?" She shrugs and is silent 1p. zo). "\\that did
they do to 1,ou? Whv don't yotl tell me?" She shakes her head. The magistrate
then mumbles, "Nothing is worse than what lve can imagine" (p' sr)' Ue is
imagining because he cannot knorv. Thele is no r,l'ay that the girl can verba111'
convey to him'"vhat happened. In our Feldenkrais training we \'vere often told,
"Yoti cannot l<now r,rrhat you do not knorv."
The magistrate Soes to the interrogation room iooking for clues to her
experience. He questions the soldiers rvho had stood rt''atch outside and the-v
reveal verv little of any significance. They convey to the magistrate that they do
not ultimately have an-v desire to knor,v ll'hat happened. "\'\rhen I came off dut.v
I would go arvay," says one guard. He also saYs, "There rvas nothing I could do, I
did not want to become involved in something I did not understand!" (n. s0).
The magistrate is the only one r,vho wants to kno\\', r'l-ho r'rrants to see . . . to
understand. Is he smarter or dumber than the rest?
The stor-v contiirues to evoive and the magistrate has an epiphanl'. He savs,
"No thought that I think, no articulation, horvever antonYmic of the origin of
my desire seems to upset me." "I must be tired i think. Or perhaps rvhatever

3B
SU]!INIER 2OO6 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

'a.
.a

*e;;),@*

e
.FG
:

39
 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19 SU]VINIER 2OO6

can be articulated is falsely put." The magistrate then goes on to another

realization and sa,vs, "Or perhaps it is the case that only that r,vhich cannot be
articulated has to be lir.ed through." 1p. 0:)
This book reminded me of a student who described a period of severe
difficulty l,vhen she r,vas diagnosed r,l'ith manic-depressive disorder. She
underr,r,ent a very stressful time, including dealing r,vith a brother rt'ho is
extremely mentally i1i. When her tror,rble passed, she r,vas carefull-v rerninded
that she still carried this illness and that she could expect "attacks" at random
intervals. Some would be severe, some might be mi1d, and she needed lots
of drugs. What did she knorv? She reported feeling very lonely and that her
prognosis r,r,as b1eak.
A felv years later, she met Aliza Stel^,rart and began leceir,ing Functional
Integration lessons once a n eek. It is not a practice in the Feldenkrais \"Iethod
to dig into someone's past right offthe bat so Aliza never pushed the student to
provide her with information, The student stated that she knen enough from
previous intervention not to try to describe herself or her histor-v too much.
But after four or six sessions, Aliza asked a question. She said, "Was this
your experience?" and she described a certain kind of experience. Aliza rvas
correct. The student first thought that Aiiza rt,as psvchic but that r,t'as not
the case. Aliza ivas able to make sense of something that the student could
not articulate. There is information that is gathered during the process of
Functional Integration that is not just about the pattern of movement, it is
also about the past and pr esenl experience of the person. It is vivid and it is
complete. This information does not narrow the person into a tight definition
because it is not girren in nrords and is not processed bv the teacher in u,ords.
Recentl1,, a man \,vas referred to me l,r,ith complaints of shouider pain and
lveakness. The diagnosis was acromioclavicular joint arthritis and rotator
cufftendinitis. Whiie getting to the bottom of his symptoms, he shared rvitl.r
me that he had been shot through the upper chest approximatelY z5 vears
ago. There had been some ner\re damage to the brachial plexus but, all things
considered, he feit fortunate that there had been minimal residual darnage.
During his third lesson, I asked him to notice the dift'erer.rce betn'een his left
and right shouldel. He got r.ery quiet, and then r,vith apuzzled expression
stated, "-Ihat's the kind of question I can ansu,er u,ith complete confidence,
and then find out that I am totally w-rong." In her book, When lhings Fall ,\part,
Pema Chodron rvrites, "Our habitual assumptions-all our ideas about hou'
things are-keep us from seeing anything in a fresh, open wav. \\Ie sar', 'Oh
yes, I knonr.' But r,r,'e don't knor,l. We don't ultimatel-v knor,r, anvthinS. tilere's
no certaintly about an-ything. This basic truth hurts, and rve \,rant to run a\\.av
from it" (p. se).
By practicing thinking and sensing that is not limited to n ords, \\re can
r,vitness that fresh, open place u,ithin our students, and thus heip them to
illuminate it. They can sense through their nervoLls svstem that r','e understand
something about their experience. fhe students have lbr-rnd the safe presence t
of someone r,vith a fu11 and optimistic perspective on their experience. Fina111,,
there is the opportunity fbr the deepest piaces to be seen and to be shared and
understood by anothel human being. Healing is greatly accelerated bv this.
One can be trapped, when reading the passage b1, Dr. Feldenkrais that I
quoted at the beginning of this article, into thinking that this process r'r'i11 be
neat and finite. Moshe teaches usin'Ihe Potent Self that organic learning is a
process that continues "as long as the Iearner keeps at it." A1iza Ster,vart used
to constantiy remind us that "It takes as long as it takes." When someone asked
Pema Chodron hon long she lr'ould need to practice becoming arvare, Penta
replied, 'At least until you die." These teachings are challenging for us to pass
on to our students because modern societv fools individuals into believing

4o
SUMMER 2OO6 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

that permanent, dynamic change can happen in a short period of time and
that no additional time u,i1i be needed to maintain and refine the results.
As is true in all effective grorvth, parts of the path are excruciatingly
painful. But once there is a r,r,hisper of that fresh air of freedom from the past,
it becomes impossible to retreat into the prison of the old story line. Retreat
is nor,r, more painful than proceeding. At this stage, progress acceler ates as
hesitarion begins to lifr.
This process can result in no ionger having the past influence our present
life. We do not have to be defined or lirnited b-v our history. The Feldenkrais
Method rvill provide us r,r,ith the deep sense that the definition of ourselves that
was imposed on us by family, friends, or prol'essionals r,r,as "falsely put"
as Coetzee would sa.v. As Moshe promised, rvhen r,r,e make peace.,vith our past,
it rea1ly rvill leave us in peace. We find that ability to finallv be fully present.
To practice thinking that is not encumbered by r,r,ords is a por,verful tooi
for improvirrg our o\vn lives and the lives of our students.InlVaitingfor the
Barbctrians, Coetzee rvas irnplving that the hardest experiences are bevond
articulation, and I tbr-rnd that to be true for me. Norv in my 1ife, r,r,,hen I can
practice thinking that is not connected to speaking, I also find that "that r,r,,hich
cannot be articulated" contains my greatest sense of joy . . . and that r,r,,hich
cannot be articulated is u'here my deepest Iearning occLlrs.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Clrodron, Perna. Tlze l|isdont ct.f No Lscape cutd llte Path of Louing Kinclne.s.!. Boston &
I.untlurr: sharnbhlLla Publ icarion., rq,tr.
Clrodron, Pema. Starl I{here YoLr 1re. Boston & London: Shambhala publications, rqq+.
Chodron, Penra. IlTlerz Iltings Fall Apart. Ilenrt Acluicefor DiJficult'l'imes. Boston & London:
Shambhala Publicatior.rs, r997.
Chodron, Penta. lhe Plctces Tltat Scare)bu: ACluide to Fearlessless in Difficult lll??e.s. Boston.:
Shambl'ra1a Publications, zortr,
Coetzee, l.\1. IlTtiting.fbr tlte Barbarians, Nen Yorl<, Ner,r, York: Irenguin Books, r98o.

Feldenkrais, NIoshe. Bod.r'nn cl -\.lature Behauior: A Studl,of Anxiety, Sex, Graliitation &
I-eorning,. N4adison and Connecticut: International Universities press, Inc, rg49.
Feldenkrais, NIoshe. llie Elzr sit,e Obt,ious. Capitoia, Calilbrnia: N{eta publications, 198r.
feldenkrais, \ftrshe. 77ze Porert Self. San Francisco: Harper & Ron, r985.
Hanlr, Thich Nh at. Breatlte; \'ot.t Are Aliue. Berkelel,, California: Parallar press, r996.
Llinas, Roclolfo R. i oJ'tlte lbrte-r. Carnbridge, Massachusetts irnd London, England:
A Bradford Book; The \lIT Press, zooz.

4r
 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19 SUMMER 2()O6

Carl Ginsburg

YOU ARE SHE SAID A BENDIN6 PERSON

"If oniy my back ...," I said. "If

I could move it like...," I said.
"If it rvould only do...," I figured,
Iike the trunk
speaking to the root.

& I am the doctor

head full of dead Ieaves,
no prophet
for myself.

Aneth, with pursed lips. Aneth

With black hair, green
eyes. Like a rvise snake,
she said, "That's

what you do - you

make your back
a foreigner
to yourself."

And r,vith that she

Whispered in my ear,
"You are a bend-
ing person."

"Hueva," I cried out, "is

that knowledge? Is it
naked

ness? "
And I bent
like a sapling in a stifflr,'ind.

42
SUMMER 2()O6 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. T9

MartinWeiner

Awareness in Functional lntegration Lessons

wareness is such an important part of our work that it would seem

to be an easytopic to write about it. While drawing on thirtyyears'
worth of thoughts and practical experience to write this article, I was
shocked to find that people were not at all clear about what constitutes
awareness. Even our own small communityhas no clear-cut defini-
tions or basic shared assumptions. Awareness seems to be one of those loosely
used terms for which we assume some kind of common understanding-or at
Ieast are polite enough not to chalienge someone else when they use the word
or concept. The various New-Age contexts in which the term crops up-where
"awareness" is a synonym for "awakening" or "realization"-further obscure
the concept.
Rather than exploring awareness generally, I want to limit my discussion to
aparticular understanding of awareness as it applies to Functional Integration
Lessons (rr). I will not be dealing with its meaning in the context of Awareness
Through Movement lessons (eru).
Moshe said on many occasions that in our culture, the mo\.ement appren-
ticeship we serve as babies is cut short at an early point. We are engaged with
chiidren's physicai development until they learn to crawi, walk, run, and hop,
but after they show some skill at these activities, we stop monitoring their
learning. We do not teach them to stand on their heads, do back flips, or any of
the variety of acrobatics or movements that a skilled dancer or gymnast can
do. Good enough is good enough and, besides, most parents don't knowwhat
they are doing in this arena any\vay. ATM takes up this apprenticeship again
and we continue to explore our body's movement potential. Clearly, Moshe
thought that we stop learning at an early stage; had we continued on with some
idea of our potential, we could all do some of the tricks we pay to see people
perform on the stage or in a circus.
Imagine for a moment that the same is true for interactive social skills and
our interpersonal alvareness. We apprentice children to be aware of their
senses, to name colors, objects, sounds, and smells so they can maneuver in
the external worid. We also teach them to be ar,vare of others and to have a
theory of other minds, teaching them to play nicely, share toys, feel empathi-
cally, and so on. When Mom tells us "How would you feel if someone did
that to you?" she is trying to give us a model for developing an interpersonal
consciousness. When children Iearn a few basic skills in this area and share
their toys rather than hitting their little friends over the head with them, we
figure they have reached a milestone and we usually stop the interactive social
skills apprenticeship. But what if we stop this training too soon as we do with
the physical apprenticeship? Suppose we all have capacities similar to those
speciai people we call "aware"-those people who have a sensitivity to others
and know things about them beyond the apparent. Imagine that Functional
Integration is a practical way of developing this socially interactive conscious-
ness further. In that regard Functional Integration would be to interpersonal
awareness what ATM is in the realm of movement awareness. It is this further
development of our interactive consciousness, which I believe constitutes
training in rI, that I want to explore here.

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 SUI'INIER 20O6
THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

Early in my training \ rith Moshe I r,vondered whether his remarkable success

with clients rvas reducible simply to the physical movements that he did
r,r,ith them or if there rvas something else that had to do with the rzay he was
arvare of and interacted with them through his touch. After all, he often said
it is not whathe did but hop he did it that made the difference in his work. To
explain what I mean, let me pose the question in the '"vay I did for myself at
the time. Imagine that you had an android that Iooked, l'e1t to the touch, and
acted exactly like a human being except that it was mechanical and had no
human awareness, in some broad understanding of this term. Suppose -vou
could program the android to do exactly the same lesson-that is, the same
movements-r,vith a client that Moshe had just done with that person. Suppose
also, that you could then erase from the client's memory the fact that s/he had
just received the lesson with Moshe. Norv we bring the client back and have the
android do the iesson. Wouid the results be the same?
This is a thought exercise and there is no definite ans\ver. It does serve the
very useful purpose of revealing which of two camps you fall into. In the first
camp, if you think the results of N{oshe's work and the android's would be the
same (and it will be clear in a moment that I do not), then the results of the les-
son are simply due to the mechanical effects of the movements on the client's
nervous system.
It may be an ingenious lesson, but if Moshe and an android devoid of arvare-
ness are interchangeable, then our rvork is ultimately reducible to a sYstem of
techniques; that is, a "list" of r'r'hat to do in different situations. A technique-
basecl methodology involves knor,r'ing hon'to "diagnose" (i.e., recognize r't'hat
category this particular situation or case falls into) and then follolt'ing the
prescribed procedure or movement or technique for that particular situation.
Technique-based methodoiogies ultimately take the individual situation (and
all situations are essentiali-v individual), finds some feature(s) it has in com-
mon rvith other situations, and te11s the practitioner which technique is ca11ed
for. In other urords, technique-based methodologies destroy the uniqueness of
the particular situation and fit it into a category for lt'hich there are prescribed
procedures.
In very sophisticated systems (say, homeopathy) in r'vhich there are man\-
possible categories to put things in, situations get close to being treated as
unique events. Hotvever, no matter how refined one gets, ultimatelv, \'ou are
not rvorking with this particular case but with the common feature shared bv
a collection of such cases. The response the practitioner makes is not the result
of a direct one-to-one relation with this particular, but with this particulal as
an instance of a class.
To think of Functional Integration as a version of this kind of methodologr-
is seductive because it is difficult to imagine that there can be a "therapeutic"
system that does not involve some kind of taxonomy of "pathologies" and
techniques, a way to determine what to do when. After all, hor'r' rt'ou1d )'ou
proceed with a client when you are confronted r,r'ith a brand-ns11', unique
situation for rvhich there are no existing categories? This is the question \{e
ultimately come to as practitioners r,r,hen'"ve try to move beyond techniqtre
into the realm of artistrv. I think the possibility of having a method that is not
technique oriented, like FI, has to do r,vith awareness and this is r'r'hat makes
our work so porverful, effective, and beyond an android's capacitv. (For further
thoughts along these lines, see the excellent, thoughtful intervieu'r'r'ith David
Zemach-Bersin in In Touch,2nd quarter zoos). Let's explore this possibilitv.
I think Moshe indicated in manY waYs that his work was not technique
driven. For example, he said many times, "If you do what 1'ou kno\{ you mav
not do what the client needs." It was clear that we have to be able to do the
seemingly impossible and provide for each person something on an individual

44
SUM}IER 2OO6 THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAL NO. 19

f ht
?

\
\ i1.

45
 SUMMER 2OO6
THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

basis. As he also said, "pI is tr,rro central nervous systems becoming one." What
could awareness be such that rve can become one with them and provide them
with the unique experiences that they need? How could our arvareness func-
tion so that rve can understand and engage meaningfully u'ith the particular?
The possibility I want to suggest is that an aspect of a developed interper-
sonal awareness is /he capacity or properqt of our consciousness to experience
another person's experiences directly and to know what is going on in someone
else's body non-inferentially and non-deductiuely. Viewed this wa-v, FI is a train-
ing to develop beyond our original social apprenticeship, even beyond empa-
thy, and become skillful, as Moshe said, in "attuning to another person" and
literally feeling their experience as our own. I believe that Moshe was a master
of this. On one occasion rvhen asked -,vhat he does in rI, Moshe responded,
"I attune myself to someone else. No, that isn't right. I let them attune me to
them." His correction gives us an important insight into this process.
I am suggesting here that it is possible to experience another person's
somatic experience directly and feel them over there in their body. One could
say that this is just not so and that it flies in the face of our ordinary experiellce;
that all subjective somatic experiences are "private" and that all our knou'l-
edge of rvhat is happening in someone else is based on some kind of inference
or deduction from our experiences of them or from what they teli us about
themselves. For example, ordinarilywhen we touch someone r,vith our hands,
we feel the impact on our sensory apparatus of the quaiity of their tissues and
bones. We use this tactilely acquired information to formulate some sense of
both what is happening in their body and, potentially, their subjective expe-
riential reaction to what is happening in their body. For me, although this is a
very sophisticated deductive process, it nonetheless leaves us r,r,'ith, literalll',
only arms-length information. I believe \,ve are capable of more and that the
reason the ordinary vier,r, is ordinary for us is because r'r'e believe and live in it
as an absolute truth and therefore don't experiment with alternative possibili-
ties. As I said earlier, l,ve have stopped our apprenticeship and explorations in
this realm too soon.
Holr,. did I get started on this track in the first place? Many years ago I
"t'hile
\\ras still in training r,,ith Moshe, I put my arm around a friend at a part-Y as an
expression of affection. As I touched her neck and shoulder I said, "This is pain-
ful." She said it was painful and observed that someone else ntould have said it
r,r,as tight, a description of their experience of the tissue rather than the subjec-
tive experience of the person. I stopped to examine my own experience in
that moment to see rvhy I said it was painful, and realized it n'as not tightness
that I felt (tightness being a quality of the muscles that I would have deduced
through the experience of the degree of resistance that I felt in my hand). \\that
I actually felt with my handwas pain in her shoulder. I felt her pain in her. I
have never found a simpler way to describe this experience even though I have
struggled for many vears to find one. I took this incident seriously and began to
explore and develop this sense systematically and intentionally.
Let me be clear: Aithough I am suggesting that we can be open to and expe-
rience another's sensations as if they',vere our own, I do not mean that r'rte feel
their sensations in our body. I mean that we access their sensations r'r'ith our
hands, in their body, r,r,here they feel them. We are able to feel not just the tight-
ness of their muscles, but the pain that might be their subjective experience
of this tightness. I would aiso say that we can feel their apprehension or other
emotions around moving their painful joints. This allows us to moYe them rvith
great mastery and sensitivitv because r,ve feei directly and immediatelr'r'r"itil
our hands the sensations our movements are creating and hor,r'the-Y are react-
ing. We har.e direct feedback about the effect of our action because it is as if n'e
are doing the movement to our self.

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Isn't this a version of what we do at a simple level when in FI r,r,e fit the worid
to the client and make them more comfortable with rollers and props? We
honor their subjectivity so that they can cease the struggle against an objective
world that doesn't fit. To do this well invoives subjectively feeling their experi-
ence as if it rvere ours. We can provide for them what we would provide for
ourselves were we having the same experience.
Although no one but a hard-core sense-data epistemologist would deny
that two people can literaily see the same physical object in space, we balk at
the possibility of sensations being just as public to our touch. But Moshe did
say that in FI when rve touch another person, we form a new organism with
two bodies, four arms, and four legs. Why not explore the possibility that in
this new entity in which two central nervous systems become one, one part
can experience rvhat is happening in the other part without taking on that
sensation? Since the consciousness of the practitioner now includes that other
entity as part of itself, the sensation is already there in the "shared space" of the
two but occurring in the body of only one of them. Isn't this what happens at
the finest levels of skilled love-making where each person seems to know what
the other is feeling and can heighten their partner's pleasures accordingly? Is it
not uncommon for two people to share a very private experience ("private" in
the sense that it is internal and subjective rather than public) and taik about it
rvith the mutual sense that they are talking about the samethingand that they
shared the samemoment and experience together? NIoshe often compared
FI to a form of lovemaking and I suggest that one look again at videos of him
working, keeping in mind the model I am suggesting, to see this in action.
I can also say from my personal experience of his touch during manv Ies-
sons with him that it literally felt that he r,r,as in my body experiencing it and
moving it from the inside. It was as if he was using his musculature and brain
to move my body directly as an extension of his, and this experience became
encoded in my brain as the experience of hor,r, I could feel and move even with-
out his assistance. He rvould often point outln,hen he r,vas moving someone
that you could not tell .,vhether he was moving the person or the person rt as
moving him. Theywere so connected that it Iooked ostensibly the same. As a
friend whom I brought for a lesson said, "He took over m1, body." It r,r,ould be an
interesting topic of discussion for practitioners who received r,vork from him to
describe the subjective experience of his touch and to hear the terms in which
they made sense of it.
In considering this possibilitv it is important to Iook at the issue of boundar-
ies between the practitioner and the client. There are several facets to this. First
is the issue of presuming that we knowwhat the other is experiencing and act-
ing on this as if it were true. I suggest that one not make this presumption. To
do so is arrogant and is not part ofthe experience I am advocating. To develop
and fine-tune our awareness in the direction I am suggesting, I recommend
that a practitioner ask a client often at first while they are working what the
client is feeling. In a similar way, we might be rvatching something public, like
a sunset, r,vith a friend and pointing things out that we are seeing to find out if
they are seeing them as r,r,ell. If the practitioner has a sense of what the client
is feeling, checking can heip calibrate the accuracy and develop confidence
in this skill. For example, for starters one may just feel someone's body to feel
where there is pain and ask, "Is this painful here?" You might then try moving
the limb as if it r,r,ere your own, staying in touch .,vith the sensation the client is
having and being careful not to produce or increase the pain. As a suggestion
for further development, it is often possible to feel horv "old" a pain is (roughly
when it occurred in their life), and even further, their emotional reaction to
having the pain. When I begin working rvith a person I often check out whether
I am in touch r,vith their sensations by asking them what they are feeling as I
touch different parts. It helps me adiust and attune to them more accurately.
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Secondly, one must be careful about invading someone else's space. I liken
the process of attunement to being invited into someone's home. You don't
jump in and start rearranging furniture or r,r,ander around into bedrooms and
other private spaces. Once you are in the front door you begin to see how they
relate to their space and act accordingly. It is the same working rvith a client.
Their part of the joint organism you har,.e formed is still their part. You have
access to it but it is not yours. It is an honor to be invited to touch someone and
the space of their experience is sacred. I mean that quite seriously. They invite
you in to help them become more themselves, not to rape, pillage, and plunder.
Respect for the person and humility and awe are the appropriate attitudes to
have rvhen doing rr.
Psychologists often refer rvomen to me r,vho have been molested and abused
as children. These r,r,omen often have ph.vsical problems with urhich I work in
conjunction with their psychotherapy. I let my sense of hor,v open they are dic-
tate the levei of intimacv I establish r,r,ith them. Often I ask permission even to
touch them and never presume from one Iesson to the next that I sti1l have this
permission until they te11 me it is unnecessary to ask. Throughout our sessions,
I am connected with them and their experience in a u,ay that generates how I
am shorving up to their conscious mind. It is an intricate dance.
There is the possibilit.v for sexual abuse or exploitation by a practitioner
in an1, kind of hands-on'"vork. It would seem that the modei I am advocating
incleases this possibiiity. Actually I think it is the opposite. The developed
sense ofinterpersonal a\Arareness I am espousing preciudes exploiting the
other for our own purposes. N{y experience is that the ar,r,aLeness I am talking
about carries with it the sense of horv to relate appropriately to another person.
It is a consciousness that treats the other person as center and it carries its or,rrn
built-in ethicai concerns and propriety. I do not think that one can honestly
be in this state of an areness and violate the trust and privacv concerns ofthe
other, because their issues, hurts, emotional lvounds, and desires become
ours. Not because r,rre take them home rvith us and "suffer" them, but because
they n1s theirs and ive have joined rvith them as one. Done well, FI truly is a
form oflove.
Experiencing a client with awareness allou,s us not only to knor,r, them
directly but also allows them to feei they are the subject rather than the object
of the lesson. \Me enter their r,t orld rather than insisting, as happens in many
therapies, that the\, enter and fit themselyes to our world, our presumptions,
and our n'iodels. If u,e shift our focus from feeling the client from the outside
and moving them as an object in space, to a kind of focus r,r,here we knorv and
morre them directly and are available to them as an extension of themselves,
something shifts in the client and the1, begin to focus on their or,vn experience
in a different way that is more conducirre to learning. You can see the focus in
their eyes go from being externally oriented to a focus that is internal and self-
exploratory. I suggest this happens because they are discovering themselves
through our engagement in discorrering them, and through our awareness in
serving their well-being.
The client's experience that we are engaged with them as the center is the
reason why the android cannot do pr. For a client, feeling that "they are being
done to" is radically different than feeling that someone has joined with them
so that they are the source of the movements. They seirse profoundly that the1,
are not alone in their difficultynrhen someone (a practitioner) shows up with
this intimate understanding and "gets" their world from the inside. Moshe said
that if rve touch a person properiy they sense that they have come to the right
place and that erren if rve do not bring relief to them right ar,r,ay rve r,r,ili have a
ciient for life because thev recognize that if anyone can solve their problem, it

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is us-a person caring for them and taking the time to discover them and their
uniqueness rather than someone applying a hit-or-miss technique.
I want to make some suggestions for how to explore and develop this
awareness. We are each a subjective world. We each have our own thoughts,
feelings, and emotions. We each move idiosYncratically, so much so that, as
has been observed, our walk can serve as a signature identifying us even from
a distance. In order to be aware of someone else, tr,e must start by realizing
that "that r,r,'or1d over there," the subjective r,r,orid of another, is different from
ours. It is not a question of good ol bad, right or lt'rong. It is simply a question
of appreciating that their subjectir.e experience is different.
Next, it is important to realize that we can turn down the volume on our
or,vn subjective experience, and attune ourselves to someone else. I recom-
mend simpiy sitting r,vith another person-it need not be a client-and appre-
ciating that you are sitting in the presence of a whole dift'erent subjective n'orld
that is experiencingyou as a being, as an "object" in their wor1d. You are in
their space, rather than they being in yours. Your actions and words have expe-
rientiai consequences lbr them. This is not hard to do. We all know holr'other
people show up in our lr,orld because it happens all the time. It is the nature
of human consciousness to primarily experience someone else as "other"
in our world. Usually, horvever, we tal<e our subjective world to be objectirre
and assume that it is the one everyone experiences. I am inviting You to harre
the experience of granting this same centralitY and authorship to others and
experiencing yourself as being an "object" having subjective consequences in
their r,vor1d. This is useful, not just in rI, but in having a successful relationship
w'ith a partner.
Then, allor,r, yourself to literallv feel lvhat it feels like to be them. You mav
start simply with how they are sitting, realizing that their sitting posture,
which is an objective artifact in the r,r,orld for you, has associated u'ith it from
their side many subjective sensations. Allow yourself to feel in fhem r,vhat
those sensations are and lr,here they are occurring. Some parts may look
"scrunched" and seem to feel a certain rvay. Others may look alive and full
and feel a different way. Stay r,r,ith this until you begin to have a sense that You
are in their space feeling rvhat they feel. This, of course, seems to beg the verv
question of houryou do that. It is not a linear process. At some point you simpll'
make a "quantum leap" to this awareness. You can only set the stage and the
experience uitimately jumps out. It is like Iooking at those pictures that look
Iike nonsense until your focus shifts and suddenl-v a vivid three-dimensional
scene springs out.
Imagining horv you rvould feel if you r,vere sitting that way is a step in the
right dilection. After feeling how you r,r,ould feel in that posture, begin to feel
that feeling happening over there in their body. When vou feel that lrou are
feeling their experience, ask them u'hat they are feeling. Fine-tune vour ski11
with feedback from them. [Ise your partner for guidance and confirmation. I
remember one lesson I had r,vith Moshe where he spent a long time touching
me under the lorn er ribs in the front. It rt,as unbelievably painful. Finailv he
said, "It feels like crabs pinching you, doesn't it?" Oddly enough, that'"r-as
exactly the thought going through my head and how I n'ould har,e described
it had he asked rne. That I felt he knelr,'this feeling rvith his hands made it safe
even though the pain rvas terrible.
Another important practice is simpiy to touch someone else r,r'ith the idea
that you can feel their pain rvith 1,ou1 5.ra. Explore them slor^"'lr' and gentlr-,
although filmly enough to make good contact rt'ith their skin and soft tissue.
Realize that )rou are touching a rvorid that has sensations going on in it and
you are trying to tune into these sensations. Realize that aside from feeling

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sensations already going on, your touch is creating other subjectir,e sensations
that you can feel. Notice places that feel different to you texturally and imagine
what it might feel Iike from their side. If you feel there is pain in a place ("feeI"
that there is pain, not "infel from data" that there is), ask them. Whether you
were right or wrong, move on and keep exploring.
I(eep an open mind and keep checking to see w.hether the information you
are getting about their experience is direct or inferred cognitively from other
data you ale receiving through your hand. I r,r,ould be interested in hearing
about the results from any practitioners experimenting in this area.
In ciosing, I want to speculate on what accounts for this capacity of aware-
ness I have been exploring and to offer a picture that may help. A lot is made
these days of quantum physics and its implications for consciousness. It has
been demonstrated that the movements of tlr,o particies separated by thou-
sands of miles are directly related in some way that u,e do not generally fully
fathom. So, unless we have a mathematicai understanding of the universe, we
create stories in order to make sense of what is not otherl,rrise understandable
to our ordinary consciousness given our cultural training. My story and hor,v
I understand my experience of feeling another person's sensations as mine
involves understanding mv consciousness as a field that is Iarger than the
physical bod.v. I attribute to this field an "inte11igence," a consciousness, a
capacity for experiencing. When another person's body is in my field and our
fields "intersect" my field has access to information about what is going on in
their body. Since their body is in rny field and my field permeates it I can feel
what is happening in it. I feel it in my field but over there in their body, not in
my body. It is an experience in the field and I have access to it as an experience,
but one they have brought to the party.

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 THE FBLDENKRAIS IOURNAL NO. 19 SUMMER 2OO6

Ralph Strauch

Musings on Awareness

INTRODUCTION
As Feldenkrais practitioners we talk a lot about aarareness. We see enhancirtg
awareness as a big part of what we do, embodied in the fact that r,r,e call r,r-hat
we teach 'Awareness Through Movement" rather than "Movement Through
Awareness." We use the term as if its meaning were unambiguous-as if it has
a clear operational definition that we all understand and can use to guide our
work. In fact, though, that doesn't really seem to be the case. We all understand
the term in some general sense, but what it really means is harder to pin dor,r-n.
So even though we talk ab out awareness as what's important and mouement
as the tool we use to get there, most Feldenkrais teaching focuses primarilv on
movement-as if the desired awareness will somehow foliow automaticallv.
Awareness Through Movement (eru) and Functional Integration (rr) 1es-
sons are powerful tools that can be quite effective even when applied mechan-
ically. But they can be even more effective when their appiication is based on a
good operational understanding of awareness, and of how the Feldenkrais
experience can support and enhance it in our students' ongoing lives. I hope
this article will enrich your understanding of an,areness and hor,r'our r'r'otk
affects it, and suggest ways of using that understanding to make -Yortt r,n"'otk
more effective.
I see ar,vareness as having to do with the accessibility and use of informa-
tion. I'il begin by describing myway of thinking about howwe drar,r'on the
information that constantly engulfs us to compose our ongoing experience.
I call thatwal, of thinking the perceptual process paradigm.I'll then examine
the role awareness plays in the quality ofthe experience the process produces.
Finally I'll discuss the importance of communicating these kinds of ideas to
our students, and describe some of the ways I do that.

COMPOSING EXPERIENCE
People tend to think of experience as something that just happens-the auto-
matic product of the events and situations in which we find ourselves and the
actions we take in response. But it's more complex than that. We each compose
our own experience on a moment-to-moment basis, by filtering and selecting
bits of information from the rich stream in rvhich u'e are constantiy immersed.
We combine those bits r,vith knowledge from our past experience to create the
stream of perceptual images that make up our ongoing experience.
The Feldenkrais Method of somatic education provides tools for enhancing
choice-in particular, the unconscious choices through which we compose
our perceptions of and interactions with the world around us. I became iuter-
ested in this way of thinking about perception before I met Moshe Feldenkrais,
and that interest was what Ied me to study with him. The paradigm presented
here grew out of my explorations of body/mind interaction through martial
arts, Chinese philosophy and the writings of Carlos Castaneda, and my
research as a mathematician concerned r,r,ith decisionmaking and choice in
the face of uncertainty. I was attracted to Moshe by the elegance of the tools he
offered for exploring these questions experientiallv. I wrote about this para-
digm in The Reality lllusiottt using the language of "creating your o\\rn realitv"

52
SUMMER 2OO6 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

as a centrai theme. More than trvo decades of Feldenkrais practice have fur-
ther evolved and refined mv thinking. I'm languaging it differentl.v now,
around the theme of "composing experience," and I'm working on a book that
explores that therne. This alticle drar,vs stiil evoiving ideas from that Iarger
project about ar,vareness and its place in the Feldenkrais Nlethod.

TIlE, PERCEPTUAL PROCESS PARADIGM

We are constantly engulfed in a massive stream of infbrmation,
depicted here as the perceptual stream. This stream includes infor-
mation coming in through our exterior senses-visual, auditory, Possibility &
Memory
& World
tactile, etc.-as well as the proprioceptive sensation generated Expectation
Knowledge
-,vithin the body. It passes through a perceptual /ens, schematically
representing the neuroiogical processes that filter and seiect elements
from the stream and compose them into lhe perceptual imagesthat
nrake up our cu rrPn t expericnce. Current
Experience
I'm using the term imagebroadly here, to encompass ail forms of
perceptual representation. This includes not only visual imagery, but
also the auditory images we hear and the feelings of texture, mass,
and pressure that result from physical contact. It further includes
emotional responses, our sense of our olvn po\ver and capability, and
other representations we make of ourselves and the r,r,orld around us. PERCEPTUAL PROCESS MODEL
As experience occurs it is stored in memory tor future recall, and
it informs our store of knowledge about the world, as indicated in the
upper right of the figure. These, in turn, inform the ongoing choices made in
the perceptual 1ens. I'11 refer to this basic model of perception asthe perceptual
process model.

ADDING THE SOMATIC DIMENSION

The model described above fbcuses on the interpretation of
incoming perceptual information. But human experience invoives
more. You are a physical being. You live in a phvsical body; you
move through space and you interact i,vith the world around you.
Your experience involves a variety of perceptual dimensions,
including touch and pressure, your movements Current
and positions in space, effort and resistance, your emotional Experience
responses, yollr sense ofyourself as a capable being, or not,
etc. You assess situations, make choices, and perform actions.
These, in turn create changes in 1,6s nrr4 in the rvorld, and you
experience these changes through all the perceptual dimensions
t
available to you. We can incorporate the information flolvs thus
generated as follows.
ffi
Hi
ft
:.r
Your central nervous system (ct,ts) sends a constant stream of
motoL cornmands to muscle fibers throughout your body-telling
them when to contract, horv strongl-y, and in r,vhat sequence. These motor THE SOMATIC DIMENSION
commands implement conscious actions, such as reaching for a glass or
rvalking across a room. They also manage ongoing background acti\.ities such
as breathing, balance, digestion, circulation, and holmonal activity. This con-
stant outflow of information is represented by the curved arrow from ctffrent
experienceto the bodylabeled motor stream.
Yolrr motor streamis the summation of many different (and sometimes
conflicting) motor colnmands. The act of walking across a room drinking a
glass of rvater requires simultaneous control of your gait, of the movement of
the giass to your mor-rth and the contractions necessary for srt,a11ort,ing, of your
breathing and its synchrony rvith your other actirrities, and more.

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Ideal11,, all components ofyour motor stream would be coherent and har-
monious. That is not always the case. Your intentions may be in conflict-for
example, r,vhen you have to do something that you don't want to do-so yolr
may do something and resist it at the same time. You then produce motor
commands for both conflicting activities, and you feel "pulled" betr,veen them.
This type of conflict can make life difficult, and can be the source of stress
and fatigue. The effort you feel in "r,'"'orking hard" and the counterproductive
actions Moshe described as "parasitic movements" result from tension gen-
erated by motor commands in conflict r,r,ith each other.
Your muscular activity feeds back into your ongoing experience in fit'o
rvays-through its effects in the external r,r'orld and through its eft-ects u'ithin
your bod1,. The expanded model reflects this.
The erternal effecls of your actions are indicated by the arror'v on the lower
left. Your actions produce change and you perceive that change through
vision, hearing, physical contact, etc. You throrv a ball and you see n'here it
goes; you speak and you hear the results of your r,vords in Your conrrersational
partner's response, you push open a door and you feel it f ield to your pressure.
The internal effects of your motor stream are constantly monitored b-v
proprioceptive sensors that measure and provide feedback about things iike
joint position and movement, muscle length and tension, etc. This information
together'"vith balance signals from the vestibular system and other informa-
tion about internal processes makes lupyour proprioceptiue stream.
\Vhat rve earlier called the perceptual streamhas now been split into tr,r'o
components -the exteroceptiue stream coming in from the outside r,vorid
and the proprioceptiue stream of information from r,t ithin your bod-v. The
proprioceptive stream commands less attention for most people, lying largelv
unnoticed in the background. Yet proprioceptive information plays at ieast
as big a role in your experience as does exteroceptive information, possibly
even bigger. The r.olume of proprioceptive information flowing through your
nervous system is probably greater than the rrolume of exteroceptive informa-
tion. Nluch of this information serves to keep things running smoothll- in rvavs
that hardly rise to consciousness-to regulate vour breathing, or to keep you
upright in the field of gravity.
Your ongoing conscious experience is a blend ofproprioceptive and
exter-oceptive inlbrmation, a mixture of externai sights, sounds, and smeils,
together with youl internal sense of balance, movement, and body position in
space. To pick up a glass of rvater and morre it to your mouth to drink, You must
integrate visual information (exteroceptive) about the position of the glass and
the movements of 1,our hands with your kinesthetic sense (proprioceptir.'e) of
your movements and of the effort required to move the glass.

AWARENESS
The term awareness is used $/ith different meanings, generally relating to
questions about the availability and use of information. One important
meaning refers to the relationship betr,r,een an organism and information of
potential use to that organism-the relationship of being atuare of,To sa.Y that
yoLt are aware of something means that information is available for use in
composing 1,our experience and vour actions. In terms of our modei, that piece
ofthe perceptuai stream is available to you. The term also refers to the faculil'
through rvhich you acquire information, as in broadening your awarer?e.ss to
take in more of your surroundings or narrowingyour awaren ess to focus on
a particular task. The totality of information available to you at a particular
time is sometimes referred to as vourTteld oJ atuareness. I'11 also use the term
perceptual fieldto refer to this totality of available information.

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SUMMER 2OO6 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

Your perceptual field can be broad or narrow-taking in a lot, or just a little.

You can simulate a narrow visual field by curling your fingers into a tube and
Iooking around the room through that tube. You can see everything in=the
room, but you can only see a iittle piece at any one time. Now take your hand
down and allow your visual focus to soften; consciously notice more of 1,our
peripheral vision. This is what a broader visuai field looks like.
This example is visual, while experience as a whole is rnultidimensional.
Your perceptuai field includes not onlyvision, but auditory, proprioceptive,
emotional, cognitive, and other dimensions as well. These various dimensions
tend to broaden or narrow in synchrony. Broadening your visual awareness
allows you to notice more sounds, or to sense more of your body and move-
ment. Conversell,, narror,ving one dimension will tend to narrow others as
well. Thus narrowing your visual focus to "concentrate" sn your computer r,r.i11
reduce your awareness of your body and howyou organize it.

MOVEMENT AS PATTERN
I said above that looking through the tube you could see anything in the room.
That isn't really true. You can see any localized detail, and in that sense you
can see the entire room. Butyou can't see relationships; you can't see patterns.
In a room filled with people you can see each person individually, but you
can't sense how they relate to each other. You can't see the group as a whole.
To see patterns you need the broader field your peripheral vision provides.
The perception of pattern is completely different from the perception of the
pieces making up the pattern. It requires a perceptual field broad enough to
encompass the entire pattern at once,
We talk about movement in terms of localized details-turning the head,
lifting a leg, or extending an arm. But the way you actually move as a human
being always involves yourwhole person. The motor stream doesn't contain
isolated commands to your leg, arm, or specific muscles. It contains a flux
of commands to your whole system-telling muscle fibers throughout your
body what to do simultaneously. Localization is an artifact of language, a
consequence of the fact that we find it easier to talk about the pieces than the
pattern as a whole. How integrated and coordinated your motor control can be
depends on the breadth ofyour perceptual field. You can only coordinate the
movements of parts of yourbodythatyou are aware of simultaneously.
When you initiate an action, the motor activities which manifest that action
will be integrated only within your current perceptual field. Outside that field,
they may be only dimly related to your intention, or even counterproductive to
it. If you turn your headwhile narrowly focused on whatyou are looking at, for
example, you are likely to stiffen your spine and your ribcage, and turn only in
the vertebrae of your neck. With a broader perceptual field that includes your
own torso as well as whatever you are interested in externally, you will be more
likely to include your spine and ribcage in the turning process. Your movement
will be distributed throughout more of your body, making it easier, more fluid,
and more comfortable.
Explore this yourself. Focus sharply on something across the room from
you. Keeping that sharp focus, turnyour head to one side. Notice howmuch of
you moves. In particular, notice how much movement occurs in your ribcage
and spine. You'll probably find that the act of sharply focusing your vision
tightens your torso, and most of the turning movement occurs in your neck.
Next, let go of the sharp focus. Allowyourvisual focus to soften, broadening
your visual field. Broaden your proprioceptive field as well by noticing your
breathing and feeling the support ofthe chair beneath you. Turn your head
again, keeping this broader perceptual field as you do. Is the turning easier
and more fluid? Does it involve more movement in your spine and ribcage?

55
 THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAL NO. 19 SUJ\I}IER 2OO6

Controliing an overali pattern of movement requires a\,\rareness of the pat-

tern as a whole, rtrhich in turn requires a broad alvareness.'Narror'r'' alr'aLeness
lies at the root of many of tl-re problems our students present to us. The repeti-
tive stress injury (nsr) an office r,vorker suffers from r,vorking at a computer, for
exampie, mav have roots in the rva-v she "concentrates" on her rvork, narrou'ing
her perceptual fieid to exclude arvareness of how she uses her bodv. Leaning
lbrward into the computer and stiffening her bodl', she focuses on the com-
puter screen and on her fingers typing, shutting out her body's messages about
the strains that posture and r,vay of typing impose on the rest of her' The strain
builds up, leading eventually to nsr.
Someone who experiences chronic back pain may focus on the rvolld in
front of him and experience himself only as afront haff With 1itt1e ar'r'are-
ness of the role his spine plays in his movement he rvill tend to keep it stiff
and rigid, imposing greater mechanical strain than if itr,vere more mobile.
He may then attempt to shut out the resulting discomfort by fr'rrther reducing
his awareness of his back, exacerbating the problem. The clumsY tennis plat'er
rvhose game only gets worse \^Ihen he "concentrates" on "doing it right" mav be
narrorving his perceptuai field r,r,hen he should be broadening it to acl'rieve the
resuits he seeks.
Our work invites the broader awareness needed to change these habits. The
slor,v, gentle, repetitive movements ilIe use in ATNI invite a gradual broadening
of the proprioceptive periphery, even as the instructions themselr'es poillt
primarilv to details. The student is encouraged to become ar,vare of, and thus
to allorv, larger and more integrated patterns of movement. His motor control
process gradually encompasses these larger patterns, so movement becomes
easier and rnore fluid. Something similar happens in pr. As the practitionet
shifts her attention from place to place, focusing on different parts and
connections, she invites the student to take in each ne1^r connection r'r'ithout
losing sight of the Iast one, This requires a broadening of arvareness, graclualirr
encompassing a Iarger and Iarger pattern of movement.
Our tools (eru and FI) are good enough so that this happens even u'hen
practitioners appl-v them in a fairly mechanical lnanner, u,ith a limited undet-
standing of the mechanisms involved. The better a practitioner understands
those mechanisms, though, the better she can appl-v the too1s, and the more
effective they become.

CONTROLLING ATTENTION
Given its disadvantages, why do tve narrow a\,vareness in the filst place? Hou'
has narror,r, focus become the norm in contemporary society? This happens
because narrorving awareness is a r,vaY of managing attention that receives a
lot of encouragement and sr-rpport.
Not everything in your perceptual field is of equal interest. Attentiott is the
faculty that you use to focus on what is important, to separate that from t1-re
background that matters less. Right nolr'you're probably attending more to
w-hat you're reading than to other things going on around 1'ou, or rvithin r-ou.
If something important occurs, though, if the phone rings, if there's a loud
noise nearb1,, or if the gradual filling of 1,our bladder passes the threshold of
discomfort, your attention will be drar,vn ar,r'ay frotn reading and tor'r'ard that
nerv stimulus.
William Shakespeare rt,rote "A11 the r,r,orld's a stage, and all the men and
women merely players." Within this metaphor, rve can think of atuareness as
how you light the sfage, and attention as where on the stage you look. Nlanagiug
attention is critical to functioning in the r'r,rorid' You need to attend to u'hat tnat-
ters and let the less important stuff fade into the background. To successfullr-

i6
SUMMER 2OO6 THE FELDENI(RAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

cross the street, you must attend to the traffic; otheru.ise you may not survive.
You can safely ignore the displays in store rvindows.
Narrowing a\vareness to a sma1l cone around the focus of attention is
a common \dray of managing attention. This is akin to a stage director, to
continue with Shakespeare's metaphor, managing the audience's attention by
lighting the stage urith a spotlight aimed rvhere he wants them to 1ook, leaving
the rest ofthe stage in darkness.

Think of the photo of a fruit stand on the left above as representing the
entire stage-the totality of inlbrmation available to you at a given moment.
The photo on the right represents what you actually take in u,hen you narro\,v
your a\\rareness to focus attention-in this case on the oranges in the center of
the picture.'Ihe narrou,ing cuts much of the information and severely attenu-
ates what rernains.

NARROWED A\MARENESS AS A CULTURAL PATHOLOGY

The practice of narrorving a\vareness to control attention is strongly condi-
tioned by contemporary society. People do it habitually and continually, never
realizing that there's an alternative. This keeps us in business as Feldenkrais
teachers. If broader and more open awareness \,vere the norm there.,r,ould be
no need for us. This generalized tunnel vision is one of the major pathologies
of civilization. A number of independent factors converge to support this
pathologv-a "pelfect storm," to use a currently popular metaphol.
When I rvas a kid, early reading provided tunnel vision training, encourag-
ing focus on a small visual area to the exclusion of everything else. Now tech-
nologv has adyanced and r,r,,e ha\.e better tunnel vision trainers-rv, electronic
games, and computers. These reinforce the Iesson tilat what really matters is
contained in a small visual arc. What iies outside that arc can and should be
ignored. We r,vere taught in school to block out distractions and "concentrate"
on the tasi( at hand, further reinforcing our learned tunnel vision.
Remember rvhat it was like to be six years old. You kner,v at six, though you
couldn't articulate it inte11ectual11,, 15u, sitting still was an unnatural act. So
they put you in a room with a bunch of other six-ye61- 616r and an adult author-
ity figure who told vou, "Sit still, don't squirm, don't look out the i,vindorv, and
raise your hand if you want to go to the bathroom!" That urge to squirm was
your a\vareness that sitting still is an unnatural acl attempting to get youl'
attention. Part of what you \,vere learning, then, r,rras not to listen to that inter-
nal arvareness but to block it out in favor of what externai authorityuras telling
vou. 'Ihat wasn't your first such lesson, and it certainlV r,r,,asn't your last, but it is
a clear example of the culturai conditioning against awareness.

57
 SUMMER 2OO6
THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAL NO. 19

Narror,r,ing of awareness is also an integral part of the flight/fight response,

the bod1,'s natural biological response to threat. It serves to quickly focus
attention on an immediate threat, but it should reverse itself as the threat is
dealt with. The reversal is less automatic than the initial narrowing, though,
and contemporary threats tend to be chronic rather than acute. Both these
factors encourage the narror,'"'ing to become chronic as well.3
We evolved in a natural enrrironment filled with predators and other
hazards-dangers necessitating a broad a\vareness. But these dangers are
largely absent in contemporary life, allowing us to survive with an unarvare-
ness that rvould have been fatal to our ancestors. Civilization has created
benign conditions where narrowed awareness does not immediatelv impact
survival, and ignoring its more insidious impact on the quaiitv of life is unfor-
tunateiy all too easy.
Emotional traumas, large and small, also encourage and support percep-
tual narrowing-particularly in the proprioceptive dimension. Emotional
experience manifests somatically through changes in neuromuscular organi-
zation, ripples through the musculature, so to speak.
Experiences that are too strong get shut down by tensing against them to
block those ripples. That tension blocks awareness, and that blockage can
become habitual and chronic.a

THE SPECTRUM OF AWARENESS

Tunnel vision lies at one end of a spectrum. At the other end is a broad open
focus that encompasses and gives you access to much more of your surlound-
ings, internal as well as external. A broader awareness in one dimension u'ili
encourage broader a\,vareness in others as well. Soft visual focus and broad
peripheral vision go along with more sensitive hearing and somatic a\\'areness,
and even broader conceptual problem-solving.
The breadth of awateness that people bring to their lives ranges ftom verY
narrow to very broad. At the extreme narrow end, perhaps, is someone so
sharply focused that he's liable to trip over his own shoelaces as he rvalks
across the room. Nearer the broad end is the martial arts master responding
to a multi-man attack, maintaining awareness of all attackers while continu-
ously refocusing his attention to deal with the most pressing current threat, or
the top basketball playsl, perceiving and responding to the florv of the game
around him. One of my favorite examples is a Chinese acrobat I once sar'r',
riding around the stage on a bicycle, pedaling with one foot and trvirling a hula
hoop with the other, juggling torches and knives with one hand and spinning a
plate at the end of a sticklt'ith the other, while balancing a ball on his forehead.
Even masters like these, though, mav not be the far end of the spectrum.

TEACHING GREATER AWARENESS

Most people won't ever get close to that end of that spectrum, but evert'one can
benefit from moving in that direction. We have the means to help our students
r,r,ith that, but to do it u,'ell we must go beyond eru and Fr per se, to enhance
our students' understanding of the value of greater awareness in Iife and to
support its integration into the rest oftheir lives.
etu and rr can provide experiences ofgreater awareness. These experi-
ences wil1, to some extent, generalize without further support, but there's a
strong tendency, as the student leaves a lesson and returns to the "rea1 rt'or1d,"
to move back toward habitual ways of being and to return to habitual percep-
tual narrolvness.
I received an important lesson about this early in my practice' I gave
an FI to a man rvho uras extremely tight and narrow in his everyday life.
He responded to the lesson beautifully softening, opening, and finding
-
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SUMMER 2OO6 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

freedom in his movement that r,vas wonderful to observe. The being who got
off the table at the end of the lesson was totally different from the one who had
lain down an hour earlier. Then he picked up his wa11et and put it in his pocket,
tightening a bit as he did so. He continued preparing to Ieave-pocketing
his change and keys, threading his belt through his belt loops, putting on his
glasses and his shoes and socks. With each step he lost some of rvhat he had
gained, graduall.v re-inhabiting the persona he had brought to the lesson. He
left my office r,r,ith a nice experience that he definitely wanted to repeat, but he
carried very littie of that experience out into the rest ofhis life.
Some argue that what the student experiences in the lesson r,r,ill "take" by
itself, that once the information is available the nervous system will automati-
callv choose the best wav of functioning. That sounds good but the reality is
more complex. The nervous svstern's choices are influenced by a lifetime of
habitual experience. That experience often sa1.s 11ru, a tight narrorv focus and a
lot of tension are necessar.y to get things done-that the softer more open way
of being is a great wav to relax at the end of the da1,, but not a r,r,.ay of being that
lvill work in the cold hard rt orld "out there." The lesson alone rvon't change that
belief; change will require a conceptual re-education as lvel1.
I sometimes tell students there's nothing nre can do on my FI table that they
can't undo by the the time thev get home-mavbe even by the time they get out
to their ca5 if the1, reallyl,r''ork at it. If they think that the lesson is something
they got from me, and think that nor,r, it's time to go back to the "real lvorld,"
thev can easily shift back into more familiar lr,avs of being and the change
will drift alt,ay I ask them to think instead about nhat they experience from
the lesson as a different n ay of being-a possibility that r,r,as there all the time,
that they don't normally access but can learn to access with practice. It can be
something that r,r,i1l change their life, but that w-ill require action on their part.
In talking with students about awareness and the value of developing it in
themselves, I look for language that's appropriate to each student's experience
and way of thinking about the n orld. I might talk r,vith a basketball plaver about
taking in more of the flow of the game, rvith a cop about awareness of potential
threats, or with a computer scientist about bandwidth, subroutines, and multi-
tasking. I discuss the importance of noticing, of taking in and registering new
information. I sometimes say that what really makes the r,r.ork effective is the
noticing-that the particular movements and manipulations are of secondary
importance, there primarilv to give them something to notice.
I encourage my students to become more conscious of the changes they
experience in lessons, and to incorporate those changes into life. The connec-
tion between visual focus and the broader perceptual field can be useful in
this. I may ask a student to notice holv the room looks different after a lesson;
often it is "brighter" or "bigger." I suggest that this is because she is taking
in more information. I might ask her to u,alk r,r,,ith a soft visual focus and
notice how that feels, then to shift to a hard focus and notice how- her walking
changes. She may notice that she becomes stiffer and more rigid. I then ask her
to shift back and forth, to consolidate the experience of that relationship and to
realize that she has a choice about nhich lr,,ay of being to manifest in life.
I often point out the greater sense of support from the ground at the end of
a lesson, even rvhile lying on the table. I observe that the table hasn't changed;
it still offers the same support it offered at the beginning of the lesson. What
changed was the student's r,viilingness to accept that support, due in part to
a greater awareness ofits presence. I then askthem to continue to notice the
greater support from the ground as they get up and I,r,alk around, and to regis-
ter it at different times during the day.s
I suggest wavs of reconnecting r,r,ith the changes thev experienced in the
Iesson in everyday 1ife, sucit as consciously registering the support from the

59
 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19 SUNIlIER 2OO6

ground or softening visual focus and noticing more of their peripheral r'ision.
I point out that they can use commonly occurring events as triggers to remind
them to notice-things like waiting at a red light or ietting the phone ring one
more time before ansl,vering it, and using that extra time to reground them-
selves and soften their r.isual focus.
I try to understand each student's life well enough to identif-v issues or situa-
tions that might represent particuiar chalienges or opportunities, and to tailor
my suggestions accordingly. With someone who sits at a computer much of
the time, I might talk about how easy it is to lose body awareness to computer-
induced tunnel vision and suggest nrays of retraining habits to retain more
self-ar,vareness at the computer. With someone who spends a lot of time bel-rir-id
the whee1, I'll suggest different r,r,ays of organizing awareness and attentiorr
while driving. I might offer a musician suggestions about things to notice and
ways to organize attention r,r'hile playing.
I first became interested in broadening my o\vn awareness at a time in nlv
life when I frequently attended briefings and other business meetings. I found
that those meetings offered wonderful opportunities to playwith and explore
my own awareness. I further found, to m-v initial surprise, that r,rrhen I kept a
broader focus, inciuding greater somatic a\vareness, I r,rras more present in the
meeting. I was able to contribute more and to leave with a clearer sense of rrhat
had transpired than I -,vas when I tried to focus more narror,vlY on the speaker
and the subject at hand. When it's appropriate I talk r,r'ith students about these
experiences and what they might learn from thern.
I'm not recommending that anyone else adopt these particular strategies,
any more than I'd recommend that anyone eise necessatiiy emulate an-vthing
else I do. It's more important, I think, that each of us come from our orvn
authentic selves, sourcing our work in our personal understanding of n'hat it's
about. I do strongiy believe, though, that our work can be impror,ed b-v think-
ing more clearly about the nature of awareness and about the conversations
- that we have rvith our clients,
about it verbal as u,ell as non-verbal and bv
- integration the into the resi
giving more attention to supporting the of change
ofour clients'1ives.

NOTES
t TheRealityllls:i61n [f6vtyournakethetuorldyotterperience,bvRalphStrauch.First
published b-v'Ihe Theosophical Publishing House, 1983. Currentl-v ptLblished bt' Sonr:ric
Options and available at $'\\,$i.somatic.com.
z Thisideaisdiscussedfromadifferentperspecti\reinmYarticle"Trainingthe\\rhole
Person," Gq8+). This ancl other referenced articies are ar,ailable atr'r'rl'rv.sonlatic.corn"
articles.html.
3 i'veu,rittenmoreonthisin"TigelsandTunnelVision:Isourbiologicaladaptationto
stress maladaptive in an urban society?" (r945).
,+ See "Functional Integration and the Feeling Sensc," FeLdenkrais Jottrnal,Issue .+, \'\'ilter
1989, pp 3o-35, or "The Somatic Dimensions of Emotional Hea1ing," (r993).
5 Thissenseofsupportisdiscussedinmyarticle"Connectingr,t'iththcEarth"(rqqr),

o zoo5 by Ralph Strauch, all rights reserved.

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SUMMER 2OO6 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19

The Importance of Daniel Stern, part u

A Review by Carl Ginsburg

The Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Eueryday Ltfe

by Daniel Stern,
W.W. Norton and Co., zoo4

1- ome years ago I proposed that the work of Moshe Feldenkrais crossed
L the barriers between invesrigating human experience as experienced
and investigating human action through objective methods of observ-
\
I ing (Ginsburg, rsss). Within the processes of the Feldenkrais Method
J of somatic education there is in effect no distinction. There is ahvays a
phenomenological aspect to what we do, and in presenting lessons the practi-
tioner is attending to him/her self as well as being an observer of the pupil or
pupils. Crossing the line is part of daily practice.
What are we experiencing as we undergo the lesson process and what is
our kinesthetic experience as practitioners? What is happening between
our-selves and our clients in the practice of touching and communicating
Awareness Through Movement Iessons? From the so-called objective stance
there are firmly established methods of investigating behavioral changes or
physiological changes. It is not so easy to establish the conditions demanded
for such exploration. We can try to document these public aspects of our work,
although the statistical methods used in practice tend to hide or obscure major
aspects ofwhat is relevant to the individual changes that can be observed. In
principle we should be able to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method
through obiective observation.
On the other hand the intent of what we do is only secondarily concerned
with improvements in the organization of our behavior and action. The signifi-
cant changes are in howwe find shifts in the experience of our-selves in acting
and doing, and how we find differences in our phenomenal experience. The
big story is how these shifts come about. To investigate this aspect of our work
involves some sort of investigation of experience itself. More to the point these
shifts are not just a consequence of technique.
Something happens within the experiential field of both practitioner and
pupil to indicate both the change and a kind of experiential agreement of affect
and mood so that each party ackno"t4edges the change even if only non-ver-
bally. There are phenomena involved that are now beginning to be recognized
as inter-subjective. Investigating these phenomenal aspects is also a tall order.
Methodologies have been proposed, but they have not been fuliy established
publicly in the way that the so-called objective methodologies are accepted.
Within normal science the arguments still rage about the validity of intro-
spection and phenomenological investigation (they are not the same); and
whether anyone can accurately conclude anything on the basis of experiential
evidence. Recently a major journ al (Journal of ConsciotLsness Studies, zooz,
nos. 9-1o, 2004, nos. z-B) has published two double issues on the theme "trust-
ing the subject" exposing both sides ofthe debate. The split betrveen those
who insist that any valid scientific investigation cannot involve data about

6r
 THE FELDENKRAIS NO. 19 SUMMER 2OO6
'OURNAL

conscious experience itseli and those who propose that such data as gleaned
from introspection or phenomenology are essentiai to sciences investigating
awareness and consciousness seems irreconcilable. The compromise position
is to study people's verbal reports as second-person data. These are often then
subject to statistical analysis to establish a public validity. But hor,v do you get
to experience it-sell and do so without the coloration of one's ideas and biases?
Phenomenology was developed by Edmund Husserl at the turn of the tr,r,en-
tieth century to create a program to do just that. Proposed as a philosophical
discipline, it was developed further in European philosophl,. Ver-v little practi-
cal work, however, r,r,as carried out to establish its possibilities.
Daniel Stern's remarkable book, under discussion here, provides a ne\{
opening to the possibility of valid and useful research into phenomenal expe-
rience. It directiy addresses the problem ofthe incorrigible subject rvho con-
fuses what is thought with experience. He calls his methodologl', developed
over fifteen vears, the micro-analytical interuiew. His process, rvhich involves
a detailed hour-and-a-half examination process of "present moments" and
three- to five-second slices of phenomenal experience, is radically different
from previous introspective techniques and different from other techniques
based on phenomenology. These have generalll, emphasized examining
perception. Stern's intent is to corner the basics of experience itself through an
investigative process in which the narrative of a present moment is explored
between subject and investigator repeatediy until there is a sense that the
developed and corrected narrative is an accurate description ofthe particular
present moment of experience.
\,Vhy investigate present moments? It turns out that to do so is much more
interesting than one would imagine a priori to the investigation. Present
moments are difficult to capture. The1, are nevertheless a kind of basic unit of
experiencing. And they are time bound. William James in his famous Prliz-
ciples ofPsychctlogy (r89o, r95o, pp. 6oB-610) discussed "the sensibie present"
and the difficulty in capturing such a moment of experience. He stated, "The
only fact of our immediate experience is what Mr. E.R. Clay has r,vell called
'the speciotLs present."' He goes on to state, "In short, the practically cognized
present is no knife edge, but a saddle-back, with a certain breadth of its orvn
on which we sit perched, and from which u,e look in trvo directions in time."
When psychoiogy shifted to its behaviorist ideology the concern r,vith direct
experience rvas abandoned. The subject ofthe "specious present" ."vas taken up
again more recently by Francisco Varela.
We know from Varela (rqqq) based on William James's description of
the "specious present" as well as Edmund Husserl's descriptions of time
consciousness, that a present moment in experience is extended at least 5oo
milliseconds in clock time. One can measure now the formation of the neu-
rological activity involved. The experienced time certainly is not equivalent
to clock time. As Varela noted (p. rrz), "its fullness is so outstanding that it
dominates our existence to an important degree." Husserl's investigations Ied
him to formulate that a present lived moment both includes a moment past
and projects toward the next moment. This is easily reflected to one's self in
considering any time-bound activity such as Iistening to music or a speech, or
writing a sentence or reading it, or playing football for that matter. Stern cites
the musical phrase as an example of a present moment and describes it thus:
The phrase stands as a global entitlr that cannot be divided up r'r,ithout losing
its gestalt. You cannot take a photograph of a heard musical phrase as it
passes. It is not a summary of the notes that make it up. The mind imposes
a form on the phrase as it passes. In fact, its possible endings are intuited
before the phrase is completed, while it is sti11 passing by.

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SUMMER 2OO6 THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAL NO. 19

Stern takes for his unit of present moments periods of a few seconds since
such a period reflects a coherency of activity before a shift to something else.
Let me describe briefly how Stern uses the micro-analytic interview for
investigating the experience of present moments of consciousness in precise
detail. The technique uncovers many unexpected insights. Although a special
kind of composite narratiue is co-created in the process, Stern is clear that
the term "present moment" refers not to the verbal account but the original
lived experience, what would be now in awareness in the moment being lived.
During the micro-analytic interview, the experimenter and subject examine
several sequential moments through an after-the-fact telling about a particu-
lar lived moment. The narrative is reviewed with the experimenter through
an exploration of the smallest remembered happening, feeling, thought, or
action, until the memory of the moment is exhausted, Additions and deletions
are made to establish preciseness. With this technique, present moments are
found to be rich in content, multimodal, temporally dynamic, and to have a
psychological function. Stern finds such moments rich in pattern content,
often revealing larger patterns in the life of the subject interviewed. He gives a
number of specific examples, which reveal the depth and value of the process
of taking seemingly ordinary daily life present moments for examination.
In his first interviews, four of which are summarized in his first chapter,
Stern explores small episodes of present moments gathered from subjects
taking seemingly innocuous and uneventful events of daily life for examina-
tion. TWo are breakfast interviews in which the subjects remember a present
moment sequence for review from the experience of a just-past morning
breakfast. The surprise is how richly layered the memories are with regard
to details of what passed through the subject's conscious experience in
a relatively short series of present moments. The layers include what was
seen, what action was experienced, what was thought, what feelings were
evoked in the sequence and shifted by the shifts in thought and actions in the
sequence. Aspects are then graphed in the time frame as to when each part of
the moment was experienced. This, of course is an approximation. But as the
narrative is reviewed repeatedlyuntil the subject agrees to its accuracy, one
can assume it is a good fit to the actuality. Stern deliberately chose to review
moments of ordinary life in which there was minimal emotional coloration
or charge. Despite this, the data proved extremely revealing of the subject's
psychodynamic patterns as reflected in these small units. It is as if the moment
of consciousness could be described in terms of a fractal pattern in which the
small unit is organized in the same way as the whole pattern. For example,
subject r after finding no butter in the refrigerator in the first present moment
goes through a sequence offeelings related to her thoughts about her diet and
howto balance her conflicting desires and imperatives. This fits into a much
larger picture in her life.
Stern breaks the sequences of about fifteen to twenty seconds into episodes
of one or two present moments of three to five seconds each. This timing is
different fromVarela's (rggg) Soo millisecond moments, which relate to the
dynamics of the formation of a conscious perception. Stern's choice of three
to five seconds reflects his interest in a coherent small sequence separated by
moments of shift (being on automatic) between related moments. This also
reflects his interest in psychodynamics (he was trained as a psychoanalyst)
and in inter-subjectivity. This later theme is an important element in the
book as it relates to significant shared present moments between therapist
and patient in psychotherapy. Stern speculates that such moments reflect
important shifts in perception and understanding, breakthroughs in psycho-
therapeutic practice. But he also recognizes inter-subjectivity as an aspect

6t
 THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19 SU}I}IER 20O6

of major importance in understanding consciousness in daily iife. This is

reflected in chapters where he describes the inter-subjective matrix and the
experimental evidence for it, and inter-subjectivity as a primary motivational
system. Implicit and explicit knowing are also discussed and these topics are
used to elucidate a novel theory of therapeutic change.
I thinkwe can agree that much of rvhat we do as practitioners of the
Feidenkrais Method depends upon impiicit knowledge and procedures rather
than explicit protocols and cognitive knowing. It is this aspect that creates
such difficulties in describing what we do and defining our so-called method,
This is not as unusual as it may seem. Becoming an effective medical doctor
also requires a great deal of implicit knowledge aithough medicine as a field
of study and practice consistently tries to eliminate the implicit'"t ith reliance
on physiological data and treatment algorithms. The same is true of psvcho-
theraplr. Stern strongly acknowledges the implicit, and points out that one
cannot function in relation to another human being r,vithout it. In other u'ords,
the inter-subjective aspect of what we call presence in our work is highl-v
dependent on the implicit and parallels equivalent aspects of other discipiines
similar to ours. Stern remarks that implicit knowing is extremelv rich ar.rd
"includes affects, expectations, shifts in activation and motivation, and sn'1es
of thought-al1 of which can happen in a fert'seconds of present rloment."
"Inter-subjectivity is a condition of humanness," he n rites introducing a
chapter on the theme. We now know as a result of recent research that it has
biological antecedents. New brain research has identified specific parts of the
pre-motor cortex of the nervous svstem (mirror neurons) that are actiYated in
identification with con-specifics where there is recognition that another being
is like ourselves in carrying out an action. Stern cites research rt'ith mother rats
and their pups that the actions of the mother in licking, touching, and vocal-
izing affects and helps regulate the pup's physiology including heart rate, bodv
temperature, digestion, and hormone levels. While the research is suggestive
rather than proving the case, the experiences of our work and similar modali-
ties involving human interaction tend to strongly support the notion that
inter-subjectivity is a crucial part of life and that interaction betr,veen humans
has a major influence on our physiological functioning, as r,r'el1 as our moods,
affective states, and \,veli being.
For Stern all of this shifts his focus on psychotherapy from the -"'erba1 realm
to the realm of action. He notes that in most psychodynarnic treatments "there
is a rush toward meaning, leaving the present moment behind. \,Ve forget
that there is a difference between meaning, in the sense of understanding
enough to explain it, and experiencing something more deeply." \Nith this as
background Stern proceeds to discuss the "moving along" process in therapt
giving specific examples of how therapy is blocked when an underlving
dynamic is not acknowledged, and holv something ner,v arises rvhen there is
an attunement between therapist and client. We too can recognize this ever-r
if we do not do "therapy" in our work. For Stern it changes the rvhole dt'namic
of psychoanalysis as a process. Stern goes on to discuss the intenveaving of
the implicit and explicit, and of the past in the present moment as he develops
this new model. In an appendix he describes in more detail the micro-analvtic
interview process.
Moshe Feldenkrais pioneered all of this in the development of his method
from r94o to 1981. He didn't have the language to describe his understanding
in the way that is possible now. But he imbued his students with an implicit
understanding of inter-subjectivity along r,vith conveying the implicit kno-'v1-
edge necessary to proceed. He made discoveries that are only nou, becoming
apparent as universals of human experience. His process of discover]'primar-

64
SUMMER 2()O6 THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAL NO. 19

ily depended on his cultivation and development of his awareness, and his
ability to convey that process to others through the ingenuity ofhis lessons.
Stern gives us now a way to bring language and order to what we already
have at our disposal. More importantly he opens the door for new kinds of
investigation of what we are doing in our practice and teaching .For me The
Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Daily Lifuis one of the most important
books of the new century, and for us an important stimulus for our thinking.

REFERENCES
Ginsburg, C. Gsss), "Is there a Science ofthe Feldenkrais Magic?" Keynote Address
in Report: First European Feldenkrais Conference, Heidelberg, iFF Publication. See
also C. Ginsburg (zoos), "First Person Experiments ", /o.l rnal of Consciousness Studies,
rz, No. z, pp.22-42.

Iames, W. Gaso) Gsso), The Principles of Psychologv. Ner,vYork: Dover Publications.

Varela, F.J. (rqqq), Present-time consciousness, Journal ofConsciottsness Studies, a, (Feb.-
N'Iar.), pp. rrr-r4o, and also see 'The Specious Present: A Neurophenomenolog-v of Time
Consciousness" in Petitot, Varela, Pachoud, and Roy (r999) eds., Naturalizing Phenomenol-
og1,. Starrford University Press.

65
 THE FELDENKRAIS }OURNAL NO, 19 SU]!ITTER 2OO6

66
SUMMER 2OO6
MaryElizabeth Coughlin, p.r., G.c.F.p., graduated from
the University of Vermont in 198,1 w.ith a degree in Ph1'si-
cal Therapy. \\ hile pracricing c.r. in varioussertings,
she began to realize that conventional physical therapy
could not help a sizable number of her patients. She
began studying The Feldenkrais Method in r99r, gradu-
ating from the First NIid-Atlantic Training Program in
zoor. She completed Certification in The Sounder Sieep
System in Februarv ofzooz. Maryhas discovered that
practicing The Feldenkrais Method, using the backdrop
ofher extensive medical background as a physical
therapist, can have a profound impact on facilitating
healing and enhancing human potential.
As part of a lifelong interest in human transformation,
Russell Delman began his study of Zen meditation
in r97o, and has been studving the Feldenkrais
Method since r975. In addition to leading Feldenkrais
Professional Training Programs r'vith Linda Delman
and maintaining a pri\.ate practice, he Ieads retreats
and seminars in "The Embodied Life^'" an integration
of meditation, movement, and inquiry into horv beliefs,
emotions, and thoughts live as embodied phenom-
ena. Russell lives in northern California r,rrith his wife
and r7-year-o1d daughter.
Feldenkrais Trainer, Carl Ginsburg, has beer-r rvriting
about the Feldenkrais Method since the beginning
of his training rvith Moshe Feldenkrais Gszs-zz) in
San Francisco. In his incarnation prior to his Felden-
krais career he taught chemistrv at the college level.
In addition to his many',r,ritings he also edited
Feidenkrais's book, The Master Moues, and lvrote
a book of short stories, Medicine Journeys. He culrentlv
lives in Germany.
Dennis Leri lives in San Rafael, California.
Ralph Strauch studied n ith NIoshe in Amherst (rqBg)
and practices in Los Angeles. He has a Ph.D. in Statistics
frorn UC Berkeley and r'vas a Senior Mathematician
at the Rand Corporation. Ralph has been exploring
awareness since the r96os, drar'ving on mathematics
and martial arts as well as his Feldenl<rais experience.
He has r,r,ritten fivo books and numerous articles, some
THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 19
Contributors
abouthisworkwith sun ivors of emotional trauma.
His u,ritings have appeared in The Feldenkrais Journal,
Somatics, Training and Deuelopment lournal, Sea
Frontiers, Critiq ue, and various technical journals.
He is working on a book about Composing Experience.
Martin Weiner, Ph.D., (r977), has spent the last thirty
years experimenting with the relationship, hinted at in
quantum physics, between the state of consciousness
of a practitioner and its effect on a client. In particular,
he has been interested in Moshe's dictum that "Fr is
tu.o central nervous systems becoming one." He is the
founder and president oithe Center for Explorations in
Consciousness through."vhich he offers workshops and
mentor programs. He lives in Ojai, ca, where he has a
full practice and sculpts in stone.
+
ARTISTS
Tiffany Sankary is a visual artist and recentlv gradu-
ated Feldenkrais Practitioner (zoo6). She is currently
working on a project to illustrate excerpts ofFelden-
krais'writing. Her drarvings have been published in
various magazines and journals including Tikkun,
TtrrningWheel and Street Spirlf. You can see more of her
lrrork at: !\.ww.movementbuilding.org/tiffany.
Marlene Tobias. "For the past fifteen years I have had
the privilege of exploring the human figure in charcoal
pastel, stone and clav. My dral'vings have been rendered
under the masterful eye offigurative artist Nlichael
Markorvitz in San Francisco, California. Our r,r,ork is
ah,r,avs r,r,ith live models, but our true exploration is
one of an inner journey. The timeless setting of artist
and model, chalcoal and paper, stilling ourselves to
find and uncover our authentic self. Where the images
u,ill emerge from a place of honest connection. Those
moments rvhen I can shor,r, up, stripped as naked as our
models, are exquisite times of pure energetic exchange.
What appears on the page is a surprise and a delight.
These are the moments that beckon me again and again.
So fleeting. So eternal." 1u11,, zoo6
6z
$
Editor: Elizabeth Beringer
Editorial Assistant: Elaine Yoder
Editorial Board: Elizabeth Beringer, Connie Butler, Isabel Ginot,
Carl Ginsburg, Pati Holman, Carol Kress,
Margaret Mayo, Dolores Ransom, Steve Rosenholtz,
Gay Sweet Scott
Design: Margery Cantor
Proofreading
a coPl,editing: Tobias Bodine, lan Hetherington,
ludy Windt, Elaine Yoder
Cover art: Tiffany Sankary
Interior art Marlene Tobias, dran in gsi 24t 28,31, 48, 68
Tiffany Sankary, photographs: 16-21, 36, 39, 66

JA\
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