This article was first published in "The Power of How" by Daniel McGowan.
A Testimony to the Work ofF.M. Alexander
A genius, a true pioneer in
the “psycho-physical” progress
of the individual human being, and of all human kind.
The titles of the four books he wrote
brilliantly encapsulate his “method” of
constructive conscious control of the individual
by the individual:
MAN’S SUPREME INHERITANCE
CONSTRUCTIVE CONSCIOUS CONTROL
THE USE OF THE SELF
THE UNIVERSAL CONSTANT IN LIVING
A whole philosophy of life is shown in these titles.
His full name is Frederick Matthias Alexander.
He was fondly known as “F.M.”
The initials of his name aptly indicate
the consciously controlled way of being
that he appealed to us to learn, adopt,
and eventually master.
F.M.A: Forever Mindful in Action
We are not normally aware of our awareness, but could be – if we stop to think about it. Such process is constructive conscious control in the use of the self, the universal constant in living, which is man’s supreme inheritance. F.M’s profound appreciation of his own work is portrayed in the titles of the books. His work distinguishes him from that of a therapist, because it is an educative process that fundamentally and positively changes any individual who wishes to take responsibility for his own health and well-being, and deeper still, it leads to a new way of being.
In writing this testimony, I do so with great reverence for F.M Alexander and his work. This reverence is that of the deepest respect and veneration, and not some kind of excessive adulation. After thirty-seven years of learning and teaching his process of constructive conscious control of the individual – by the individual – I humbly, but confidently, state that my knowledge is authentic because it has been gained from experience – and hard experience at that. Nothing that comes easily is worth having. I am still learning.
If the individual were to take the trouble to analyse deeply enough, he would realise that in his interaction with the environment, he does not deal directly with the things around him, but only indirectly through the impressions in his body reported to him by the senses of touch, sight, hearing, taste, and smell. He cannot step outside of this bubble of perception, and deal directly with the things around him. The thing must be a known-thing, a thought-object known by means of the miraculous power his mind possesses – the ability to perceive. The great difficulty for him is to understand that the object does not stand alone in time and space: his perception of it is the object. This is self-awareness – not at the higher level of the Overself – but at the level of the personal self, the ego, the ‘I’-thought. This is the reality of dealing with the bodily sensations, not the “outside” objects. Normally, he refers to the five senses of touch, sight, hearing, taste and smell, and has no awareness of the sixth one – the kinesthetic – which tells him of the relationship of one part of the body to another, and the body’s relation to the environment. This is the sense that tells him about how he is using his body, and the vast majority of people are unaware of its existence. This is the sense that he can learn to bring up to the conscious level and use to improve the co-ordination of the body. This consciously controlled process is the how of doing. If he is living life in the five senses only, then he is not living it to the full. He will have little idea of what he is really doing with his body in his everyday movements of sitting, standing, walking, running, eating, washing, sitting at the computer, etc. If he wishes to live a fuller life by learning a more satisfying way of being, he must cultivate the kinesthetic sense, and learn constructive conscious control in his dealings with the “material” world. This world and all things in it constitute the realm of the ego. It deals with objects large and small that the individual interacts with via the six senses. It is a tangible world, a world that Alexander dealt with in the most practical, common-sense manner. In expounding his knowledge in his books, and in teaching it practically to others F.M never stepped outside the realm of the ego. If he believed in some religion that promised a better life after death, or if he dealt with paranormal states, discarnate realms etc. outside of the world as it was presented to him by his senses, he never mentioned them. He knew that this so-called “physical” realm was a great enough mystery in itself, and if humankind was to effectively progress in it, then it must concern itself with the conscious evolution of the most important tangible thing that we know, namely the self, the “psycho-physical” organism. He was a very pragmatic, realistic humanitarian whose work was truly scientific. During the many years of meticulously studying his use of himself in movement, any theory he posited that did not work out in practice was promptly discarded.
F.M’s acute powers of reasoning and scientific observation were allied with that deep inner fountain of intuition. What intuition unveils the keenest reasoning validates. Intuition revealed to him that the body works in a certain co-ordinated way that does not violate the laws of its use and functioning as a mechanism: for example, the modern individual’s habit of bending the whole spine too much, instead of articulating at the hip, knee and ankle joints, as the babies do, is a violation of these laws of movement in the body. This repeated excessive bending of the lumbar spine, in particular, causes damage to the intervertebral discs, and is, today, one of the biggest disabling and debilitating problems in the world. This balanced combination of intuition and reason resulted in the shrewd, practical application of constructive conscious control of his “psycho-physical” organism. He expressed this new way of being through art and in service to humankind. Alexander’s findings are an indispensable part of the evolutionary process, because the conscious mind has been brought to the fore as the great driving force in evolution, where it recognises a need and then uses its marvellous creativity to fulfil that need, by re-educating the subconscious mind to free itself from the slavery of its negative psycho-physical-emotional habits that beset the vast majority of the human race. His method of constructive conscious control, of indirect fundamental change, is the vital nitty-gritty of any attempts at evolutionary progress in the individual. The conscious mind – the ‘I’ – has thought itself into this present-day sorry situation of misuse of the self, but thankfully, can think its way out of it again. This is inspired egoism.
In the last paragraph of The Use of the Self, Alexander puts a question to humanity about the far reaching potential of his constructive conscious control:
“If a technique which can be proved to do this for an individual were to be made the basis of an educational plan, so that the growing generation could acquire a more valid criterion for self- judgment than is now possible with the prevailing condition of sensory misdirection of use, might not this lead in time to thesubstitution of reasoning reactions for those instinctive reactions which are manifested as prejudice, racial and otherwise, herd instinct, undue “self-determination” and rivalry, etc., which, as we all deplore, have so far brought to naught our efforts to realize goodwill to all men and peace upon earth?” ~F.M. Alexander
This article was first published in The Power of How by Daniel McGowan. You can download the PDF of this book for free here:FREE DOWNLOAD
