Body and Mature
Behavior
Moshe Feldenkrais
Foreword of Robert
Schleip for the German edition:
Originaltext auf Deutsch - Read the original
German version.
It
is 1943/ 44, in the middle of the second world war. In a remote part of Scotland
the British government has hidden a small circle of scientists away who are
considered as especially valuable to them. They are all without exception the
best in their field and come from all possible areas. Amongst them is Dr. Moshe
Feldenkrais. He has just had quite an adventurous journey getting here, having
landed recently in England via boat from France, with two highly controversial
suitcases in his hands. Content of those suitcases: the collected technical
information of the first French nuclear fission experiments on which he had
worked together with Juliot-Curie in Paris.
Since
there is a great lack of research possibilities and just about no materials at
this remote location in Scotland, the scientists spent part of their time by
debating with each other in the form of evening lectures. These scientific
lectures are usually followed by open discussions. The topics discussed vary
considerably. Not all of the speakers know how to fascinate their audiences,
and sometimes it happens, that listeners fall asleep. However there are also
those speakers who stimulate everybody and are very much in demand.
One
such speaker causes some considerable excitement with his lectures. His
lectures become more and more popular, leading each time to inspired and heated
discussions. He believes he has found a new way to stimulate the human brain
and help with its evolution. His proposed method of getting there appears as
almost ridiculous: simple, easy and slow floor exercises. He is able, however,
to back up this controversial system with convincing neurological proof. His
underlying theory and lectures cover such different areas as: human learning,
gravitation, anxiety, human sexuality, the special role of the human
balance-organ, and a new concept of human maturity. Not all his concepts are
readily accepted by every scientist present, but they are met with great
interest and a sense of excitement.
But
who is this lecturer who finally gets part of the audience to regularly roll
around on judo mats in the nearby school-building? It is of course the all
round genius from Paris, Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais. A sort of adventurer with a
sharp creative mind, and a man with a colorful background. Already as a 14 year
old boy he had left the home of his Jewish parents in Russia to help in the
building of Palestine. Later in Paris, he worked with the Nobel price laureate
Juliot-Curie on nuclear-physics. Here he also earned - as the first Westerner
ever - a black-belt in judo. There he also set up - on the request of the
judo-founder Jigoro Kano - the very first judo-club outside of Japan. Moshe
Feldenkrais' first published books dealt with martial-arts, self-defense, and
the work of the French hypnotist Emile Coue. Besides the two hot suitcases
which he had carried with him on the boat from France, Feldenkrais had
obviously also brought some different hot mental material with him to the
United Kingdom.
After
this time in Scotland, where he helped the British army in its
counter-espionage against Germany, he left to become chief of the
electronics-department of the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The movement and
brain gymnastics exercises, which he later called "Awareness through
Movement" were presented for the first time in those lectures in the
little village in Scotland. Later on he would teach them at leading
universities in North America, Israel, at the Sorbonne in Paris, and other
places in Europe. Brilliant figures like Moshe Dajan, Margaret Mead, Ben
Gurion, Charles Pribram and Yehudi Menuhin would become some of his most enthusiastic
pupils.
The
book presented here is based on the manuscript of those lectures held in
Scotland, in which Moshe Feldenkrais – than just 40 years old - presented the
basic ideas of his method for the first time, and which were so exciting,
provocative, and animating to many of his colleagues. Let me give you - dear
reader - just a little appetizer for reading these lectures: watch out for
these lectures are mental dynamite, they are profound stuff! These pages are
written to stimulate your brain. They are packed with information and often
with dense flashes of inspiration. The academically inexperienced reader might
first feel overwhelmed by some of the scientifically more elaborate chapters.
If that happens, you might prefer to turn directly to some of the more easily
readable chapters - for instance those about sexuality, learning or emotions -
and return then later to the other chapters. Yet my suggestion is that it is
worth to read them all. You will find in these lectures inspiring ideas which
later on became the ignition for many groundbreaking ventures; not only for
those around Moshe Feldenkrais, but also many other people.
One
practical realization of the early ideas of this book is what is known today as
'the Feldenkrais Method' world wide. This method comes in two modalities. First
there are the group-sessions, called 'Awareness through Movement'. These are
verbally guided movement explorations, mostly on the ground, yet also sometimes
in sitting, standing, or walking. Then there is the one-on-one application,
known as 'Functional Integration' in which the student is treated or taught on
a knee-high treatment-table with gentle manipulations by a qualified
'Feldenkrais Practitioner'.
Readers
familiar with the Feldenkrais Method will find in this book many of the basic
ideas, which were realized later in the practical work of the Feldenkrais
Method and also in his best-selling books (e.g. "Awareness through
Movement, or "The Case of Nora - Adventures in the Jungle of the
Brain"). A not yet so familiar reader will get an extensive and profound
introduction into the theoretical foundation of this work.
The
reader should please note that the lectures reprinted here were based on the
top level of science ... in the forties. Many ideas then regarded as 'state of
the art' have meanwhile either been modified or proven wrong. For example the
attempt to understand the nervous system as a mostly electric entity has since
been changed. Today the dynamics of the brain are rather explored on a
molecular-biological basis, in which "wet" regulatory processes are
seen at least as important as the 'dry' electrical wiring. When Feldenkrais was
giving these lectures the explanation for most of the neurological questions
primarily were placed around the electro-physiological processes of the nerve
cells, and the nervous system was somehow seen like a huge, centralized
telephone operator cable network of that time. Today the attention is directed
more and more towards the complex dynamics around the wet synapses and the interaction
of small liquid (and gaseous) neuopeptides in the body.
Back
in the forties - still fascinated by the so-called industrial age - the brain
was thought of as a rather passive mechanism responding primarily to
outside-impulses. Today it is seen rather as a permanently active, self
regulatory organism which is primarily occupied with itself. Yet this very idea
of the brain as a constantly active and creative organism - nowadays often
proclaimed as a revolution in our understanding - appears already in these
early lectures, revealing Feldenkrais’ role as a brilliant pioneer.
Nevertheless
there are also aspects of the book, for example his description of
"fatigue", which are primarily influenced by the idea of electric
current conduction in the brain which were dominant at that time. Today these
ideas are now obsolete. Another example where time has not stood still is for
instance in the field of comparative behavioral studies where the process of
early 'imprinting' is now seen as an intimate cooperation between inherited
reflexes and learned behavior. Feldenkrais however saw little connection
between the two and claimed a sharp distinction between genetic reflexes on one
side and freely learned behavior on the other side - as a clear cut difference between
animals and man.
Therefore
I as editor of this new edition have updated some comments and organized them
in footnotes in an appendix. While revising this important book, which is now
finally been published in Germany, it was my intention to keep the translation
as close as possible to the original. I have tried not to put anything into the
author's mouth, which he didn't say , but which might be "right" from
today's point of view. Instead the reader finds in the appendix three types of
footnotes:
For
the clarification of some scientific questions I have consulted several experts
from different fields. I would like to thank especially the neurophysiologist
Dr. Maria E. Moneta (Chile) and the neurobiologist Manuel Palitzsch (Munich)
for their cooperation. A big thanks also to the Feldenkrais trainers Garet
Newell (London) and Edward Dwelle (Munich) for their valuable support.
Who
ever has kept in touch with the breath taking developments in the life-sciences
(biology, medicine, anthropology, etc.) might think that the substance of these
lectures given back in the forties, would cause experts today to only shake
their heads. Surprisingly this is however not the case. Part of the explanation
for this lies in the fact that Moshe Feldenkrais was a true pioneer. He
discovered early on many trails, which later on became well established
highways. Several of his thoughts represented in this book, were later on taken
up, and put into action by others.
A
main part of those ideas has been utilized by himself in what became later
known as the Feldenkrais method. However it seems to me that the next forty
years of his life following these lectures were too short a time to allow
Feldenkrais to put all those creative insights into action. While studying this
book thoroughly I realized that not only can one find the original seeds for
his later work in those lectures, but one can also find several other germs in
them which have not yet been applied into work. This would have taken him
probably a few more lifes to realize them all. Today many of his thoughts which
are presented in this book have found resonance in the daily practice of a
Feldenkrais Practitioner; yet you will also find plenty of other brilliant
suggestions in the lectures, which have not been put into practice yet
So
it is my biggest hope - and I consider this to be quite possible -, that the
republication of this book will animate one or the other reader, to unlock some
these powerful germs and to develop them fruitfully ; whether that be either as
a new educational learning concept, or in the development of new toys and tools
to stimulate the vestibular balance organs, a new therapy for sexual
disturbances or anxiety attacks, a self defense method for women, a specific
application in the field of geriatric, or in a better way of handling infants.
Finally
let me tell you an anecdote related to all this, which I first heard from Franz
Wurm, the editor of the first German Feldenkrais books: The great Russian
neurophysiologist Luria had sent a telegram to leading brain surgeons in New
York, in which he proposed a new surgical procedure, which was based on his
newest findings. He suggested to remove a smaller than usual part of the brain
in the standard lobotomy operation in heavy cases of epilepsy. This telegram
resulted in a meeting of several leading neuroscientists to discuss this idea,
amongst them was the well known neurophysiologist from Stanford University,
Charles Pribram (who had been nominated for the Nobel prize for his concept of
a 'holographic brain'). As Luria´s suggested intervention was being discussed,
Pribram was suddenly struck by an idea. He saw how and why this intervention
would not at all be necessary, and how it was possible to achieve exactly the
same outcome completely non-invasively. For the explanation he briefly left the
room and then returned with a book in his hand, from which a specific passage
had given him the inspiration. The book was 'Body and Mature Behavior', the
book you have in your hands right now.
No
matter - dear reader - if you are a brain-surgeon, clown, body-therapist,
midwife, teacher, or dancer, or if you just simply like to conduct your own
"non-invasive brain-surgery" on yourself once a while, I am sure that
this book can give you several powerful and creative impulses. In spite of my
own obvious excitement for this book, I will nevertheless not be provoked into
claiming that "this book will change your life!" - ...yet I cannot
exclude this nice possibility either.
Robert Schleip, Munich, 1994