FM’s Graveyard Friends

Many people who arrived at Alexander’s door were on their way to the grave.

He was their last hope, the desperate solution, the final wacky choice before the lid of their coffin was fastened over the top of their finally resting heads.

And of course – as we know – FM came through.

And only every time. Unbelievable.

I am having a lot of fun thinking about this stuff as I prepare my October 60Day.

My current thinking was stimulated by recent email from an Alexander Technique teacher in London who could not comprehend how groups could have helped in her case. Reading her dramatic story, I agreed. Yes – she needed intensive one-to-one (121) work given the health crisis she was experiencing.

This led me to reflect: Alexander got all the hard cases.

He produced all the miracle “cures” (sorry folks, but to ordinary people that’s how it appears). I remember reading in MSI a list of pathological conditions Alexander claimed his work could remedy, and thinking…

“Heavens. If you tried to put that list on a website today, you’d get an immediate ‘Cease and Letter’ from the government, and a lot of incredibility from ordinary consumers.”

It’s like going to a restaurant that advertises:

“We do Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese!”

Immediately, you begin to distrust them.

What’s weird of course – in Alexander’s case – it was absolutely true. His work really could remedy most of those conditions.

But how many pupils go you get like that?

Or – a better question – how many pupils like that do you want?

I’m a Buddhist and it’s my avowed aim in life to help others, and so sorry but: I really don’t want pupils like that! Perhaps because I know I am not good at rehabilitation, my temperament is too impatient. Being honest about who you are is part of the work in my opinion.

Which is why I was attracted to Marj. She suited my temperament better.

Marj’s work appeared to be less about helping the desperate and lame, more about helping her students realize their potential as artists. Not that Marj had any inherent preference – I saw her help many people in pain. It’s just that life didn’t throw her students in who were that desperate.

In a huge contrast to Alexander’s practise in London – with his network of impressed doctors – Marj was networked into University Arts departments (Acting, Dancing, Singing) in the USA. Her predominant audience was a bunch of young, purposeful, enthusiastic artistic types who were just beginning their lives, not on the brink of finishing them.

Do students like this really need a lesson every day? (which was FM’s teaching plan)

Do students like this need to be “reconditioned” (as Alexander put it in his last book 22 times) by being touched non-stop for 30 minutes?

Marj didn’t think so.

Besides, the bureaucrats at the University – unbeknown to Marj – had increased the size of her first group class ever –in Austin, Texas in 1973 – to 60 students.

“Oh my!”

(Marj told me years later as she was looking around at the 60 fresh, young faces eagerly awaiting for this old lady to explain why she was here…)

“I will have to figure out a whole new way of teaching.”

And she did. I first heard about the scandalous teaching methods of Marj while I was training in the late 70s in London. I strongly disapproved at the time.

“How can one person teach 60 people at once? It’s ridiculous!” I thought, as I headed off to get my daily 15 minute turn at the Highgate school of Betty and Paul Collins.

And yet, Marj figured out how. She really did.

And her extraordinary (revolutionary) teaching technology – that I still use today – began to be born. When you sign up for the October Course, for and extra $100 (instead of $297) you can sign up for my group teaching course also.

Let me know if you're interested - I will personally manage putting you in.

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