How FM Changed Everything and Nothing

Once upon a time (it’s a true story) I was learning in a workshop with a respected colleague, and as she was demonstrating how the relationship between head/spine influences behaviour, she commented something to the effect:

“This is just a truth about vertebrates. We haven’t even got into Alexander land yet.”

I was startled.

First, I absolutely agreed with her.

Second, I thought: “If that’s not Alexander land, what is?!”

As I was listening to her speak, I recalled Stanislavsky’s insightful description of how he came to evolve his “Method Acting”. So much of it reads like FM’s chapter “The Evolution of A Technique”, that you’d think one of them plagiarized the other!

Today, Stanislavsky’s “Method Acting” is as widely known to Western thespians as FM’s “Alexander Technique”.

Their insights are different, the process of its implementation is similar.

You see, I don’t think the “process” that FM evolved can be claimed as his original contribution. What’s original about it? Nothing. It’s a process that has been around since the concept of “scientist” first entered human thought.

John Dewey – in writing the forward to CCCI – acclaimed FM’s process as being an exemplar of the scientific method. Yes, we can praise FM for be able to apply this process to his human behaviour, yet many others were equally busy doing exactly a similar thing at roughly the same time, Freud being an obvious example.

These days people around me know I have a distaste for using the term “Alexander Technique.” I think the term misleads people’s thinking. It is implicitly asserting that this process is at the heart of FM's contribution to human evolution.

It isn’t.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say the reverse is true: FM’s original process has held back development!

At the core of the spread of FM's work is the simple, self-evident insight that head movements govern vertebral co-ordination, which in turn influences limb co-ordination. Primary Control.

As we all know, Coghill came to a similar conclusion in observing the behaviour of Amblystoma.

The process FM evolved was not an original creation. It was a version of scientific process. It was what every inventor, innovator, entrepreneur, teacher or change agent – in their own unique way - will do in pursuit of implementing an insight.

FM is special because of what he purposed the process to implement: restoration and development of the natural co-ordinating principle of all vertebrates.

This is not splitting hairs, this is fundamental.

This is why I am personally determined to destroy the concept of the “Alexander Technique”. Instead, my wish is to replace it with a narrative that more accurately describes the extraordinary contribution FM made to the evolution of human behaviour.

FM was like Copernicus: he stated a truth which changed everything and nothing.

The sun and earth had always been doing what they did before Copernicus called it out correctly. After Copernicus stated this truth – the earth and sun didn’t change. Nothing changed. Yet everything changed. The world was turned upside-down, and it’s still going on today. It marks a milestone of human evolution.

FM's discovery makes another milestone of human evolution.

It is a milestone of compelling truth. FM stated what had never been articulated – and demonstrated – in such an effective way before.

Walter Isaacson – in his book The Innovators – describes how many insights and discoveries led to our current digital age. Throughout the book, he keeps making the point that a real innovator does two things: first she has the insight; second she is able to implement that insight to demonstrate its veracity.

Isaacson cites many examples of an insight being discovered simultaneously, yet the plaudits went to the innovator who was able to practically implement the discovery to demonstrate results.

This, FM was able to do. Two things. The insight. The implementation of the insight.

It is because of FM’s successful implementation of his profound insight that his work endures.

And yet, the initial implementation of any insight is but a mere beginning of process development. Alexander was wise enough to know that himself* - yet those who follow in his wake are often confused between the insight, and the process that demonstrates the utility of that insight.

I know for many years I was confused.

It was not until Marjorie Barstow demonstrated a radically different implementation process that I began to be able to differentiate between the two. Tommy Thompson, in his unique way, has evolved a way of languaging the work that ushers students out of our enduring “psycho-physical” duality. Steven Shaw, with his “Art of Swimming”, has also innovated a process that makes more sense to swimmers than getting in and out of chairs, or lying on tables.

There are many examples of this in the Alexander world today. They are often mavericks and outcasts – like me – yet I think we own the future, if not the present. My mission with ATSuccess involves encouraging more teachers to explore strange new activities; to seek out niches and service new markets; to go boldly where no Alexander teacher has gone before…

In ATSuccess, you are encouraged to develop your own implementation process.

To be “uniquely you” – to brand your own version of FM's insight, by evolving your own process to implement it. Just as many teachers have already demonstrated with great success today.

The whole idea that FM's insight is dependent upon the process of getting in and out of chairs is so far from my thinking, that I have to restrain myself when I read teachers still trying to convince the world of that. What a limiting belief.

It is a valid way of teaching, I don’t question that.

I sometimes think it is akin to many Japanese disciplines such as tea ceremony or iki bana. Repeat the same thing over and over again, each repetition resulting in a deeper appreciation of the process. As FM remarked: "If you apply the principle to the carrying out of one evolution, you have learned the lot."

Therefore, I respect the work of those who continue using FM's teaching procedures in their lessons. After all, I did that myself for 10 years. You might still find me doing that if my trainees insist on it long enough.

However, I do challenge the thinking that tries to defend this as “the only way” to explore FM's insight.

I find that proposition preposterous. It is a spurious ipso facto logic that argues: FM did it this way, so should we.

ATSuccess is for those who reject this kind of reasoning.

ATSuccess is for those who are willing to see that FM's core insight – head movements govern vertebral co-ordination – is a truth upon which multiple skill-building processes can be evolved that make sense for different personalities, behaviours and intentions.

How you approach a musician, an Olympic athlete, a competitive dancer or an office worker involves innovating a process – in each and every session - that delivers the benefits of Alexander's discovery in a way that demonstrates your rapport with the behaviours that person has evolved.

How This Applies To ATSuccess

People think ATSuccess is just about making money. It’s not.

Yes, you will be put into an environment which holds you financially accountable. You could see this as being obsessed with money. I understand that.

However, in my world: marketing is communication, and money is the evidence you succeeded.

The world I live in universally expects that your students will pay for your services. Ipso facto – if you are earning money then people are being serviced then FM's insight is spreading. Where is the downside of that?

It’s so clear to me, I fail to understand why others don’t.

When you join ATSuccess, one of the promises we make is that we will work with you until you earn back the fee of the course. (Providing you follow the instructions.) This is a tough call – for both sides - and I can’t say we are 100% successful. Yet.

Some members have decided to opt out of this promise because of the pressure it creates – some even opt to leave because (I believe) the path to success challenges old, cherished ideas about writing, communicating and being with people.

Some teachers have told me that ATSuccess is like a second training – in this case, how to evolve you own unique process. A process that appeals to a community of people you decide to pioneer the work into.

Crack that egg, and you can make a living as a teacher.

There are teachers now, all over the world, benefitting from what ATSuccess is doing. You could be one of them.

To find out more about the ATSuccess 12 Step plan, join me and ATSuccess Director Peter Jacobson in three, FREE webinars this month. There are 76 teachers in AT Success’ secret Facebook community and many of these teachers will also join us in these webinars.

Click here to register. It’s free!

*In Chapter 1 of his book Use of the Self, FM wrote: “The idea of taking the control of the use of the mechanisms of the human creature from the instinctive on to the conscious plane has already been justified by the results which have been obtained by applying it in practice, but it may be many years before its true significance as a factor in human development is fully recognized.”