Q: Have I got this quote of Margaret Goldie right?
“The work is about building pathways throughout the body so that in time something can pass through.”
A: As you know, Miss Goldie rarely used Alexander language in her teaching, as in her view from what she had witnessed over the years the words had become meaningless.
Instead of talking about directions and non-doing, she used language such as “brain-thought level”, “giving and withholding consent”, “you are not up yet”, “let all the good working go on in the back.”
Thus if she asked you to move your arm-hand onto the upper part of the leg, you withheld consent to do so. Then through watch-fullness and sensing through brain-thought level/body, "Give consent and let it happen" (her words). Taking part of course in the movement, through this practice gradually "You are building pathways in the body along which in time something will travel." The pathways are of course not It; neither are they what we might call the directions.
For myself as I have been guided deeper towards the Work, I have found that one comes to experience that the channels are already there, in the spine and along either side of the spine, conveying energy to the centers of the body particularly at the base of the spine, abdomen, solar plexus, heart area, throat, centre of the forehead, crown of the head. But this is profoundly subtle and not something one can 'do' without guidance.
However, Miss Goldie's words on their own would probably have only confused me if I had not also the influences of good dance classes, Mr Macdoanld, Rose Li, Walter Carrington, properly guided meditations under worthy guides. But all these influences are wrought with pitfalls. It is best to be clear that the work practice is not the Work. I can only go on what has been said to me about the Work: "One becomes joined to it through grace." Intuitively I feel this is so.
Q: When you say " the pathways are of course not It; neither are they what we might call the directions," would it be fair to say that the directions are the means whereby we might recognise "the channels that are already there"?
A: Yes, as long as the directions are correct in orientation and in their bearing. Mr Macdonald would sometimes call upon us to bear up.
Q: I understand your statement “one comes to experience that the channels are already there” in relation to the exposure I’ve had to relatively many certified, practicing Alexander Technique teachers. Many that have worked on me seemed to be engaged in “releasing” tension without respect to the directions. This would often subjectively feel good (at least at the time; more recently, I do not experience it that way). Equally, I have experienced those who use force to pull the body in what they believe to be an upward direction. As Macdonald writes:
What is certain is that in civilized Man there is a growing tendency for force “A" to dominate force "B", and the results are (or should be) obvious to all. It is necessary, therefore, in order to bring the body back to a state of integrity, to minimize the effect of force "A" and restore that of force "B". This, though a fairly simple piece of re-education, is subtle and needs the help of a highly skilled teacher, otherwise the attempt to restore force "B" will almost certainly result in a strengthening of force "A".
For the most part, such people wind up simply “resculpting the body” as you have put it to me in the past.
My experience is that neither of these versions of “teaching”–i.e., a downward “releasing” of surface tension creating an inappropriate softness or a reshaping of the exterior of the body in a direction that appears to be more upright–consists in a usable, employable technique. Neither version gave me a way to inhibit and direct, and I believe that your statement “one comes to experience that the channels are already there” explains why.
If the directions are not, as you say, “correct in orientation and their bearing”, they are not directions at all in the parlance of the Alexander Technique. Without such directions, any attempt at inhibition will be relatively superficial. The few teachers who seemed to have received and are able to pass on “direction” (as I read Alexander) are marked by one feature: The direction I received from them is still accessible to me. So to follow on from your comment that “one comes to experience that the channels are already there”, it seems that those teachers who have shown me a “true direction” have simply awakened an existing channel that had gotten obscured rather than imposed an artificial idea of what is needed on the body.
A. With regards the concept of 'resculpting' the body one may find it of benefit to try and understand something of Wu Wei.
The Sage is occupied with the unspoken
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
- Tao Te Ching Chapter II
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