“All great truths begin as blasphemies.”

““All great truths begin as blasphemies.” George Bernard Shaw famously said that, and he was right. His observation explains why so many truths must be very gently introduced, with voices soft and the truths themselves understated.” 

Reading this today in one of Neale Donald Walsch’s inspiring and deeply questioning books, I was set a-pondering..... Years ago, when FM Alexander was first teaching his ‘work’, people came to him with all sorts of ailments - pain obviously, fatigue, breathing problems, (and constipation seemed high on the list; all those corsets I guess!) and he taught them to become aware of their habitual stiff or floppy ways of standing, walking, sitting. He taught them the ability to say ‘no’ to those ways, and to ‘project a new set of directions’ (to their self) in order for their response to be one of both choice and a new found integrated and connected ease. His hands gave the experience of how this would be, offering a ‘picture on the box’ of how the default operating system you you were born with felt, affording you to know where you were aiming for when you worked on your self away from lessons with him. 

This was in the early 1900’s. FM knew, and often wrote about, the strength and importance of his work, of the basic principle of life behind it. Indeed I often think Wilfred Barlow’s early book on the work, “The Alexander Principle” (1973) carried a preferred name to ‘technique’, even if that is also what it is. I quote here an extraordinarily powerful page from from Frank Pierce Jones' book, "Body Awareness in Action". Bear in mind Alexander's words, taken from the preface to the British edition of his book, "The Universal Constant in Living", were written in 1946. "Alexander was concerned about the dilemma that had been dramatically thrust upon the world by the explosion of the first atomic bomb and the spilt between conscious and unconscious behaviour that marked the condition of civilised man. He believed that man's power over external nature and his ability to exploit this power for destructive purposes was increasing at an accelerated rate unaccompanied by by any increase in the knowledge of "how to control nature within himself" - that is to say, how to control his own reactions to the external world. In an age that demands the highest degree of rational and responsible behaviour, modern man "still rarely fails to react according to pattern (habit), no matter what the circumstances". Alexander hoped that the bomb had so dramatised the danger that the whole world faces that men would be forced to come to a full stop and realise that their only salvation lay in pushing the boundaries of human evolution further by "bridging the gulf between consciousness and subconsciousness in the control of reaction".* Knowing how to stop, he said, demands a technique of inhibition in which refusal to give consent to habitual (unconscious) reaction is the basic means for change. It is the only reliable means by which man can overcome the effects of "emotional gusts" which show themselves in "prejudices, jealousy, greed, envy, hatred, and the like". and ruin the chances for establishing the essential conditions for peace and goodwill in the world." Here Alexander was sharing with his readers the deep underlying power - in fact, imperative importance - of his work. How many read the preface in a book? And how many now know of this paragraph? Probably it is because of thoughts such as those of George Bernard Shaw, those with which I began; most thought it was a blasphemy, and possibly still do. It went right against how they believed the world worked best, and this way of thinking still abounds today - fixed rigid thinking about How It Must Be. Maybe FM and GBS discussed this over a meal; they were contemporaries and GBS had many a lesson with FM.

For now, just consider this.... "Knowing how to stop, he said, demands a technique of inhibition in which refusal to give consent to habitual (unconscious) reaction is the basic means for change." If we are unwilling to carry our handbag or brief-case differently to our habitual 'shoulder up' way, and not respond to mother-in-law or our boss without tightening the back of our neck, clenching our jaw and letting our breathing become shallow - and only "Because that's just how I do it, even if it causes me discomfort" - how on earth are we, as human beings, going to be able to change our reaction to the really, really big things in life? We can tell ourself to 'stop a habit' or 'save the planet' all we like, but we are so in love with the way we like things to feel that often nothing really shifts at all. We have to experience the difference, and then everything changes. That's where the Alexander Technique comes in - the new experience.

Neale goes on to say, “Yet there comes a time when truths can’t be understated any more. They bubble up to life’s surface and burst forth in all their glory. These are times of great moment for humanity, for it is through such bursting forth of great truth that our species evolves”. What we’re seeing now is the beginning of an explosion in the ways in which Alexander’s principles are being offered and received. No more just the one-to-one lesson with the hands being the ‘picture on the box’. Added in is more talking, more questions, much deeper enquiry, more giving the student the chance to really learn from within, which this is true education - educare: the bringing forth from within - discovering that they already know this principle and are just removing the dust sheets that hide it in readiness for its use.

So, what is this principle then? Fundamentally it is this: Our thinking as human beings creates our world. And our world is part of everyone else’s world. So be careful what you think. Be very aware of what you think, and allow your thought the flexibility in order to let them change according to current stimuli. What you think is what you get. The human being is a creator, not a victim. And this work is about realising what we are choosing, becoming aware of the fact that we are choosing, how these choices manifest in our lives, the agreements we made before we had the power of choice - the ones we took on board years ago about ‘How it is’..... Is it still? Was it ever? Now we can choose, and this work assists that discovery and the making of new choices. We took on other's 'Just how it is' without being aware of them. They were only how it was for them then, and most probably taken on board from someone else’s ‘just how it is’ that they absorbed from another’s.....and so on back into the shadows of time. It's time to make new choices from new thoughts.

How we move, how we live, always comes from a thought. Without pointing a finger, I will write this part using ‘you’ to try and make it clearer. How you are sitting now was preceded by a thought process - I am relaxed. I am tired. I am in ‘I do/don’t like this blog’ mode. Or the ‘I ought to be doing something else’ mode. The fact that you aren’t aware of this doesn’t mean doesn't exist. You do have a choice as to whether you meet anything in life with contraction and tightness, or with open flow. You can say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to this blog with this open flow. Or you can say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ with tight contraction. It’s not the ‘yes’ or the ‘no’ that tightens you, the blog, or me writing it, it’s your response to it. You tighten or release your self. No one else does it. You do it. To your self. With your self. In the work of Alexander you make this discovery, and then you experience what it can feel like to respond in open flow, and then you learn how to let that be for yourself away from lessons. You regain choice - conscious, aware, choice. The 'blasphemy' of which GBS speaks? The thing people don’t want to take on board? That you have this choice. We all that choice. In every moment. We always have. And that the choices you make affect every part of your life - physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

So when FM Alexander talks about something as huge as nuclear warfare, he is writing about when a government had a choice to make. He knew it would be far better for us all if that choice had been made by a group of self-aware, awake, conscious, habit-dropped, open-flowed, non-contracted, seeing the big picture, understanding cause and effect, response-able people. But the stiff necked, unfocussed, contracted, fearful, unconscious, ir-response-able, habit-ridden people chose to be involved in an act which most certainly did not honour others, or the planet.

It is time for this principle which he highlighted so long ago to be woken by us now and to be released in to the world For it to be seen, understood, and used. For it to “bubble up and burst forth in all its glory”. Yes, 'The Alexander Technique' brings about better posture, relieves back pain, RSI, headaches, etc, etc, etc. Eases the playing of musical instruments, creates greater flow in dancing and riding...... But the principle within it is world changing. And its time needs to be now; 1946 is a long, long time ago, and Alexander had been already teaching for 50 years by then. How much longer will we wait? 

What Alexander would say to this time-lapse film showing every nuclear explosion on earth from 1945 - 1998 I cannot imagine......
http://memolition.com/2013/10/16/time-lapse-map-of-every-nuclear-explosion-ever-on-earth/

* It might be best to clarify that the 'control' FM wanted, and his work offers, is not the suppression of, the caging in, of intention, but the same skilful 'driving' of someone who knows how to control a car, to drive, and who does so well in all conditions. "Controlling a car" is not the pulling on of the handbrake, locking it in a garage and not going anywhere. Neither it is in ourselves. It is 'being at our wheel' in flow, balance, and with full co-ordination - psycho-physical-emotionally-spiritually.