Early Days

“All I can say is by way of discourse, and nothing by the way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.” Michel de Montaigne

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For the next two weeks – from Monday to Friday - I will lay out the evolution of my understanding of Alexander's Discoveries, not in any particular chronological order.

I started my Alexander training in London in 1976.

I was the youngest of my class - full of ambition and almost fanatical enthusiasm for what I perceived as one of humanity’s great discoveries. I am less obsessive these days but even more convinced that Alexander's Discoveries are profound, far-reaching and consequential for the development of humankind.

Back in those days, everyone talked about the “hands-on” of each teacher.

It was almost like a commodity that people shop around for – trying to find the best…

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“Oh, have you tried Peggy’s hands?”

“Who is she?

“She trained with Alexander you idiot. Her touch is incredible!”

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So I hurried off to have lessons with Peggy Williams, one of the final crop of teachers trained by FM Alexander before his death on October 30th, 1955.

Peggy wasn’t the only one. In those days in London, nearly all of the 1st generation of teacher trainers that FM qualified were still alive – Walter Carrington, Wilfred and Marjorie Barlow, Elizabeth and Dick Walker, Peter Scott, Patrick MacDonald, and so many more. Most of them were already ancient, but still teaching every day.

Today, there is no trainer alive who qualified with Alexander. The last passed away at 96, still teaching until her final days.

Alexander lessons produce longevity and health in the later decades of your life. 2nd generation teacher Tommy Thompson – who will visit Japan next month – is already 80. In Japan, he will teach all day in Osaka and Tokyo for nine days. You can book Tommy’s workshops here - who knows if or when he’ll ever be back?

https://www.bodymindspiritresearchlab.com/workshops/775

Every great teacher also has a great touch – an almost magic “hands-on” power that was one of Alexander’s fundamental discoveries, and Tommy is no exception to this…

What is this power? Why is it so mysterious? How can it have such sweeping, instant effects on blood pressure, digestion, respiration and all the unconscious regulating systems of the human body, including eyesight, hearing and other senses? It can even change your sense of identity.

For the next two weeks – from Monday to Friday – I will explore these questions.

My precious teacher Marjorie Barstow (1899-1996) was the first to shed light on the mystery of Alexander touch. Marj’s hands were beyond powerful. She hardly used any pressure, yet my movement was always transformed. It was like magic, but when I tried to say that to Marj, she replied:

“The magic – if you want to call it magic – is your constructive thinking.”

She explained to me:

“Our voices are talking to your thinking apparatus;
Our hands are talking to your sense of feeling.”

In a workshop in Sydney in 1986, she declared that FM Alexander’s concept of Constructive Conscious Control meant this:

"CONSTRUCTIVE
because we are changing something in ourselves which is ineffective, harmful.

CONSCIOUS
because we become aware of what we are doing.

CONTROL
because we are redirecting energy and bringing freedom into the whole mechanism."

Over my last 50+ years, an understanding has slowly emerged that FM Alexander did not develop a technique – he made two discoveries which needed a technique to understand them.

In 1894 – as FM was trying to explain to others why and how he had changed so much – he had already made two of his most significant discoveries -but he still had no technique. His technique emerged as FM tried to help others utilise his profound discoveries to transform their lives. People around him started calling it “The Alexander Technique” because no one could fathom what he was doing!

The world had never seen anything like this before.

Today, FM’s original technique is continuously evolving in response to new discoveries in science, education and pedagogy, together with cultural revisions of language and ever-changing mediums for communication. The “Alexander Technique” can never be definitively explained – nor should we try.

The best teachers change all the time – because it is every teacher's responsibility to constantly evolve their own technique, and collectively, the Profession can benefit from this process.

Alexander teachers will gain cohesion and integrity as a profession when they can agree upon which of the discoveries of FM Alexander they are responsible for communicating to others. How they do that is their business.

In the next two weeks, I will set out my understanding of FM's three discoveries.