Awareness Through Movement [Paperback]

The 12 lessons presented in the book were selected from as many as a thousand lessons which were given at Moshe's institute in Tel Aviv. In short, it was the first presentation of his mid-life years' ideas to the wide public. The book was very successful and was soon translated into French, German, Swedish, and, of course, English.

At the time of publication Moshe already had a very extensive experience in both private sessions and group lessons. For the an exposition of the first detailed description he waited yet another 10 years. Then he published "The Case of Nora" - intended to be the first in a series, a project which was not continued.

Admittedly, Moshe's writing is never "popular" in its style. It is best read slowly, almost sentence by sentence. He refers ( (usually unexplicitly) to many writers and a variety of theories, mixing them like ingredients into his personal concept of the conditions, attitudes and techniques aimed at revitalizing individual growth and development into maturity.

About one third of the book is dedicated to a general discussion. The other two thirds present the 12 lessons. However, theoretical considerations are interwoven in the lesson part. Nowadays many hundreds of authentic lessons can be obtained from a variety of sources, on audio and video cassets and on CDs. However, the careful juxtaposition of the instructions alongside with theoretical explanations shed a unique light on this text.

As for the theory part, it is neatly divided into subtitles, so that the ideas are very conveniently organized, and as simple to read as can be concerning a concentrated presentation of an unusually original thinker whose perspective is uniquly wide.

Self image - is the first concept dealt with. As the German psychiatrist Shilder had written in the 20s - and must have impressed Moshe - a scheme of our body is represented in our brain, and is the needed for all voluntary functions of the body. Did you know, for example, that some people who lost their brain scheme of the palm of the hand have gradually lost also their capacity to count? Moshe is more interested in the brain body image not as a static scheme but rather in its dynamic image, what he later termed "acture" rather than "posture". The dynamic, functional, image of the self very rarely if ever developed to its fullnes. There seems always to be something new to discover. But what is it that we may want to do and do not do? What are the real limits of our free will? Where are we restricted by heredity and where by society, i.e. education? What are the relative shares of normative education by society and individual self-education? The answer can only be found by continuous self-education. Here we already find ourselves in the midst of a discussion of the balance between individual and social, the terms and prices extracted for allowing self value, the suggestion to develop an "inherent self value", the choice of drives that may be fulfilled and such which need to be inhibited, etc. Moshe's goal is to find an effective method of countinous self improvement. He weighs the pro's and con's of some other methods of healing and educating, including the psychologist's option. He mentions our various states of awareness. He was intrigued by the potential of self-suggestion and hypnosis. In his early years he was interested in the achievments of Que (whose techique is perhaps reflected in Silva's technique); in his later years he claimed that he was doing in movement what Milton Erikson was doing in words. He lists 9 arguments in favour of using movement as a means for self-improvement and re-education. He was certainly inspired by Freud's psychoanalytical theory: in some aspects he created a physical parllel to it, involving his clients with a renewed experience of movements from the origins of development in infancy. His aim of course is to re-open the path for growth for the whole personality, the physical process being just a medium which lends itself most easily to effective change.

A short discussion of the neuroligical framework follows. What is unique in human potential which differenciates the human being from the rest of the living world? Ability for abstraction, fine differenciation, continuous learning, the variety of individual experiences (as expressed among other things in language and art) - these are key concepts. Awarenes is discussed in terms of co-ordination between intention and action. The finale soars high: Moshe believed that human awareness is still in its infancy, on the doorstep to the emergence of the mature human species. The process required is "harmonizing the various 'components' to one unified whole". In those moments in which an awareness finds a common denominator for feeling, sensation, movement and thinking, then Man - Woman - feels an organic union within itself and in the cosmos. Then loneliness is overcome.

That choice, however, would have been a huge mistake.

This book offers a series of "lessons" that take the human body through movements most children could do easily but had been pushed out of my movement repertoire. These are also movements most people, including my extremely strong and lean 30 year old daughter(who's a personal trainer I might add), cannot do with ease. The movement patterns provided in the book help me rollerblade without fear (well, a reasonable level of fear!) and increase the likelihood that I'll still be able to chase men when I'm old enough to know better but still too young--what's 95 anyway?-- to care. On a more serious side these strengths will be absolutely crucial if we want to be able to get into a shower or go to the restroom alone when we get older.

I've been a runner and fitness specialist for a LONG time and have worked from just about every angle in the fitness field that exists, from aerobic instruction to power lifting to yoga and the Awareness Through Movement theory was alien to anything I'd learned in the traditional "western" pursuit of fitness.

Instruction like this was not in any of my personal training courses. Though certified in anatomy and strength training for several years, this just didn't even appear on my fitness 'radar'. I wasn't used to working that hard for information. I wanted cut and dried instructions with pictures to boot. It was normal to use traditional exercise methods because they aren't very complex, are easy to teach and mistakes are fairly easy to see and correct.

Books that instruct bench presses, abdominal crunches, and squats also are easy to read and follow; unfortunately they miss the subtlties necessary to truly powerful human movement. No good athlete depends on exercises like those alone. That's where this book has helped. It has required some intense think and move sessions but all these movement lessons yield surprising results if you have the patience to stick with them. One note: you must have the patience of a baby learning to walk.

I read Feldenkrais' other books which actually gave Awareness Through Movement context and made it easier with which to work . Feldenkrais was a judo master as well as one of the earliest developers of cybernetic science and all of this shows in his book but it also means the book isn't light reading. Learning to do the method from written text will be as difficult as learning the basics of one of the martial arts.

I agree that the photos of wooden models are difficult to use, front and back are almost impossible to discern (I did some creative artwork..noses, ears, etc. once I figured out where they needed to be) and might make it difficult to understand the movement clearly. There is also no index or reference table which is a little frustrating at times.
Despite these drawbacks I wouldn't give the book to a family member unless I knew a replacement would be easy to find!

The greater difficulties I face this time force a different approach upon me. Before I might have studied the stick figures carefully and tried to reproduce the moves depicted. But I am not the stick model; I cannot act like the stick model except by force. What does my actual nervous system wish to do? Maybe afterwards I can compare what I did with the stick model, but ideally I should have been able to discover the move myself, given similar preliminaries.

It is difficult to capture this approach to learning in a book, and thus I judge this book against the limitations it faces. It is not an easy or simple book to use. Books can easily tell you what is "right" and "wrong" to do. They cannot do a good job of pacing alongside an active learner, or notice something unique in that person, etc.

But perhaps this book is the best there is with which to spark an appetite for such discovery.