2012 Feldenkrais Conference: Embodying Neuroscience
The Feldenkrais Guild of North America has announced its 2012 conference entitled, “Embodying Neuroscience: The Feldenkrais Method® in Human Development, Performance and Health.” They have made a call for proposals, due January 3rd, 2012: Conference Proposal Information.
According to the conference announcement, “The program will demonstrate that when we practice the Feldenkrais Method, we are embodying neuroscience.”
Hmmm.
“Embodying neuroscience” does not sound quite right to me. Neuroscience is a large field encompassing researchers in biology, psychology, genetics, philosophy and other fields. They publish papers, conduct research, come up with theories etc. Do we embody that when we do the work? I did a session from the New York Quest workshop this morning. It felt like I was embodying myself, not neuroscience. But perhaps I am missing something.
The chair of the Guild’s conference committee is Roger Russell, a Feldenkrais “Trainer” who practices in Germany. Roger has been focusing on science (as he understands it) related to the method (as he sees it) for quite a number of years. And though I can admire his tenacity, there is nothing in the conference description that particularly resonates. Yes, Roger Russell likes neuroscience, yes, he thinks it is important…and? I do not see an underlying focus on practitioners, practitioner’s needs and the needs of the public that would make the event a “must see.”
I will look forward to reading workshop and conference descriptions to see how they turn out.
In the meantime, I would like to leave you with a quote from one of the latest editions of my handwritten commonplace book. Perhaps you can see a connection.
The Serenity Prayer For System’s Theorists
“God grant me the serenity to exercise my bounded rationality in the systems that are structured appropriately, the courage to restructure the systems that aren’t and the wisdom to know the difference.” From Thinking in Systems: A Primer
Giuseppe Taddei: Building A Practice In Italy!
Watch this man for two minutes and you will be convinced! (Really). I especially love his infectious smile about 32 seconds into the video. A smile which he uses to great effect later in his presentation. And note that in the space of 5 minutes he does everything need to make the sale: Builds a crowd, demonstrates his credibility and authority, shows testimonials…here’s a translation of the first few lines, provided by Ken McCarthy on his blog:
“Good day dear friends! Come closer…can you all hear me?
Now then, I reckon you’ve heard of me. That’s why you’ve turned out to cheer me!
I’m doctor of posology and modern pharmacology of medical essentials.
I’ve heaps of top credentials!
I’ve cured so many terminal cases that I’m famous all over the world, and…and…in other places.
As one who loves the human race, my philanthropic feeling
requires my travelling place to place to share my gift of healing.
I empty out the hospitals wherever I arrive…”***
*** If you want to see and hear Moshe Feldenkrais saying similar things, read the introduction to his book, “The Elusive Obvious.”
Sex Outside The Guild: Evolutionary Processes And “The Method”
“A wild population of any species consists always of individuals whose genetic constitution varies widely. In other words, potentiality and readiness for change is already built into the survival unit.” – Gregory Bateson, “Form, Substance, Difference” in Steps to An Ecology of Mind.
In one of my favorite books of 2010, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
“Asexual reproduction is faster and more energy efficient than the sexual variety: you don’t need to go to the trouble of finding a partner in order to create the next generation.
One relatively well-known species that engages in asexual reproduction is the “fruit fly” more accurately called the “Daphnia,” a water crustacean that lives in ponds and produces offspring like crazy. And why not? The flies are all female and not having to find a partner each can reproduce at will, producing copious amounts of carbon copies of itself.
But not always.
When times get tough and the fruit fly has trouble finding food or water, some of the flies turn into males and they begin reproducing via sexual reproduction. Why is this important? Well, scientists argue about the “why” but from a genetic standpoint sexual reproduction increases diversity and the possibility of evolving new characteristics, behaviors and indeed new life forms. Using sex to mix together distinct sets of DNA creates offspring with greater variability. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. Some of the offspring’s new combinations will be “inferior” (given a particular context) and they will die. But some offspring may be better suited and they can thrive, passing on this new set of genes into the future.
Another way of thinking about sexual reproduction is to think of Leslie Orgel’s second law of evolution: “Evolution is cleverer than you are.” That is, given enough time, evolution finds a solution to any problem. Every combination is tried. New solutions emerge – though likely not the solution that you or I thought of.
The Riddle of the Sphinx (Be Careful What You Pretend)
What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?
- The Riddle of the Sphinx
“It is to the Riddle of the Sphinx that I have devoted fifty years of professional life as an anthropologist. It is of first-class importance that our answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx should be in step with how we conduct our civilisation, and this should in turn be in step with the actual workings of living systems.
A major difficulty is that the answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx is partly a product of the answers that we already have given to the riddle in its various forms. Kurt Vonnegut gives us wary advice – that we should be careful what we pretend because we become what we pretend. And something like that, some sort of self-fulfilment, occurs in all organisations and human cultures. What people presume to be ‘human’ is what they will build in as premises of their social arrangements, and what they build in is sure to be learned, is sure to become a part of the character of those who participate.
And along with this self-validation of our answers, there goes something still more serious – namely, that any answer which we promote, as it becomes partly true through our promoting of it, becomes partly irreversible. There is a lag in these affairs.”
Reportedly from Gregory Bateson, Innocence & Experience, 1987 p.178.
Moshe and The Medical Doctors
In The Betrayal of the Self: The Fear of Autonomy in Men and Women
Have you heard about the workshop or read a description of it?
According to Dr. Gruen:
“In two days, Feldenkrais brought a group of approximately one hundred specialists (doctors, psychologists, physical therapists) to the point of gaining control over their motility to such an extent that, sitting on the floor and pivoting in only one direction, they were able to encompass a visual angle of 360°. Our movements had been stemming from abstract concepts we have about the kind of actions possible for us, Feldenkrais enabled us to be so in harmony with our body that we could modify these movements once he reunited us with the bodily self from which we had become alienated.
Wonderful. I especially like Gruen’s insightful observation of how Feldenkrais was helping participants turn abstract concepts “about” movement into concrete experiences “of” movement. Though helping people begin to experience their own potential can have drawbacks. Gruen writes, “I report this episode because immediately after our experience of liberation, general dissatisfaction broke out in the workshop group. Participants became critical of Feldenkrais, directing anger and aggression toward him. It was as though the sudden freedom itself had produced disquiet and anxiety.
Gruen mentions Feldenkrais and his ideas in order to speak to his own thesis about developing spontaneity and awareness in human beings. His work is brilliant, if a bit painful to read at times. I highly recommend it: Arno Gruen’s Books
