Man's Supreme Inheritance

F. Matthias Alexander

• Publisher: Left of Brain Books
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781396320996
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Anesthesiology & Pain Management

This book will have you break free of all stress and glide among people like a feather carried by gentle breeze.It reveals the technique used by many actors and performers, like Keanu Reeves and Sting, to always seem comfortable and confident. How to break habit, conquer stage-fright, maintain a healthy posture, and look attractive all the time? All questions answered in this display of The Alexander Technique, still taught today, a century after its introduction.It's a routine that can be learned and applied by anyone. It teaches how to gain conscious control over movement and breath, eliminating physical pains and persistent fatigue.
"Every man, woman, and child holds the possibility of physical perfection."Instead of common methods, like medication or therapy, Fredrick Alexander aims to improve quality of life by creating better conditions for the body.
"I look to that wonderful instrument, the human body, for the true solution of our difficulty, " he writes.Although Alexander's methods were unprecedented, they continue to be one of the most used among elite communities, and this book hands them to you in their original, untainted quality."I know that I shall be regarded in many quarters as a revolutionary and a heretic, for my theory and practice, though founded on a principle as old as the life of man, are not in accord with, nor even a development of, the tradition which still obtains."

A Presentation of Principles and Laws

Exemplified in Mr. F Matthias Alexander’s Method of the

Re-Education of the Kinaesthetic Systems

(SENSORY APPRECIATION OF MUSCULAR MOVEMENT)

Concerned with the Development of Robust Physical Well-being.

B

Y this process of Re-education an effective installation is made of the reflex muscular systems involved through the creation of an intelligent directive power on the part of the individual, thus removing a crude and useless kinaesthesis, which must be regarded as either debauched or deformed, and establishing one of valid and unfailing function.

By the preliminary, and temporary, employment of a group of exercises of ideo-motor nature an induction is gradually assured of an automatic sensori-motor activity, by which correct and healthy bodily movements and poses are always certain without further attention on the part of the individual, except such as a very brief daily exercise may demand.

In explanation of the object, thus defined and of the mode in which that object is to be attained, the notice of the student is directed to the following postulates:—

1. That when defects in the poise of the body, in the pose of the chest, in the use of the muscular mechanisms, and in the equilibrium are present in the human being the condition thus evidenced is an undue rigidity of parts of the muscular mechanisms associated with undue flaccidity of others. This undue rigidity is always found in those parts of the muscular mechanisms which are forced to perform duties other than those intended by nature, and are consequently ill-adapted for their function.

Herbert Spencer writes:—

‘Each faculty acquires fitness for its function by performing its function; and if its function is performed for it by a substituted agency none of the required adjustment of nature takes place; but the nature becomes deformed to fit the artificial arrangements instead of the natural arrangements.’

2. That it is essential at the outset of re-education to bring about the relaxation of the unduly rigid parts of the muscular mechanisms in order to secure the correct use of the inadequately employed and wrongly coordinated parts.

In a previous publication, ‘Why Deep Breathing and Physical Culture Exercises do more harm than good,’ I have explained at length that Physical Exercises, as understood in present day ‘physical-culture,’ actually increase, in the defective subject, that rigidity of which the removal is primarily and vitally important.

3. That all conscious effort exerted in attempts at physical action causes, in the great majority of the people of to-day, such tension of the muscular system concerned as to lead to exaggeration rather than eradication of the defects already present.

I may cite, as examples of such defects, faulty poise of the body and pose of the chest, unstable equilibrium (inability, for instance, to maintain equilibrium during simple movements), undue strain or incorrect use of isolated parts of the muscular system (such as the constant crowding down of the structures of the throat by strain placed upon the larynx and undue depression of that organ), and the performance of functions by one part more properly discharged by another (as when the arms and neck are stiffened in performing acts which properly call for the perfect co-ordination of the muscular mechanisms of the back. The stiffened necks and arms of the people of to-day are outward signs and tokens of the imperfect development and lack of the co-ordination of the muscular system of the back and spine. Such a condition is still being fostered and developed day by day in the children of our schools.)

4. That a directly conscious effort in the performance of the exercise employed in the early stages of re-education (a) implies that the pupil relies upon his own faulty sensations (that is, he is realizing his sensations) for guidance in the correct performance of such exercises—guidance which it is not in the power of the incoherent and often absolutely misleading sensations of the imperfectly coordinated subject to give; and (b) produces, as a result of the tension induced by such effort, thoracic rigidity and breathlessness—the one making the correct performance of the exercises impossible, the other interfering with the controlling forces concerned.

5. That it is harmful for teacher and pupil alike if the latter is made to assume, during his exercises, what is usually considered the correct standing position. It is obvious that the same position cannot be correct for every human being, nor even for all who are properly coordinated.

Take the case, for example, of a boy who stoops very much, and combines a sinking above and below the clavicles with abnormal protrusion of the shoulder-blades. If he is told to ‘stand up straight’ he will at once make undue physical effort to carry out the order thus crudely given, with the result that the shoulders will be thrown backward and upward, the shoulder-blades still further protruded, and the front and upper parts of the chest unduly elevated and expanded. There will also be a narrowing, a sinking, and a flabbiness of the lower dorsal and posterior thoracic region, with corresponding fixed protrusion and rigidity of the front chest wall, undue arching of the lumbar spine, shortening of the boyd and harmful stiffening of the arms and neck; instead of a fullness, broadness and firmness of the back, with free mobility of the chest walls, resulting in normal curve of the lumbar region and comparative lengthening of the spine. With the arms hanging vertically, the relative position of that part of the thorax where the lungs are situated will be seen to be in front of the arms, instead of being, as it should be, behind them. In such a position, the boy feels helpless, and tires rapidly owing to the imperfect co-ordination, and any attempt to accustom him to this erect posture will ultimately result in deterioration rather than improvement.

Now the narrowing and arching of the back already referred to is exactly opposite to what is required by nature, and to that which is obtained in re-education, viz. widening of the back and a more normal and extended position of the spine. Moreover, if these conditions of the back be first secured, the neck and arms will no longer be stiffened, and the other faults will be eradicated.

6. That in order to obviate the evils enunciated in the last two postulates the teacher must himself place the pupil in a position of mechanical advantage, from which the pupil, by the mere mental rehearsal of orders which the teacher will dictate, can insure the posture specifically correct for himself, although he is not, as yet, conscious of what that posture is.

I append a simple example of what is meant by mechanical advantage. Let the pupil sit as far back in a chair as possible. The teacher, having decided upon the orders necessary for securing the elongation of spine, the freedom of the neck (i.e, requisite natural laxness) and other conditions desirable to the particular case in hand, will then ask the pupil to rehearse them mentally, at the same time that he himself renders assistance by the skilful use of his hands. Then, holding with one hand one or two books, as the case may be, against the inner back of the chair, he will rely upon the pupil inwardly rehearsing the orders necessary to maintain and improve the conditions present, while he, with the other hand placed upon the pupil’s shoulder, causes the body gradually to incline backwards until its weight is taken by the back of the chair. The shoulder-blades will, of course, be resting against the books.

7. That the orders to be dictated by the teacher and mentally rehearsed by the pupil are of two kinds:—

(a) Concerning definite inhibition.

(b) Concerning definite performance.

I may briefly explain (a) by stating that the teacher will have to deal with incorrect movements unconsciously performed. These movements, occurring at the moment when he dictates the orders necessary to bring about co-ordination of the different parts of the mechanism, assert themselves and become primary, and hinder the performance of the correct and co-ordinated movements as ordered. It is, therefore, as necessary to order the inhibition of incorrect and unconsciously performed acts as to give orders which will secure the co-ordinated use of the mechanisms involved. Therefore, when the teacher has discovered the errors unconsciously committed by the pupil when beginning to rehearse the correct orders, he will draw attention to them, and give a definite order concerning what is not to be done, e.g., the peculiar bad habit, perhaps, of a lifetime. This negative order must precede all positive commands. In other words, the order or orders concerning what is not to be done are to be considered as primary, and those concerning what is to be done as secondary.

8. That in order to secure the results desired, it is essential to teach the pupil to rehearse the dictated orders, not to do exercises, i.e., to devote his attention to apprehending the instructions of his teacher—those means whereby he is to gain what he requires, and not, as he will be apt to do, to concentrate his thoughts upon the end sought. The orders are necessarily prior to their execution, and if those dictated by the teacher are correct for the particular case in hand, the mental realization by the pupil will be automatically followed by their correct performance—a co-ordinated association with the ideo-motor impulses.

It is important to remember, however, that in rehearsing the orders dictated by his teacher, the untrained pupil will not merely assent to them, but will believe that he has carried them out as desired. Moreover, though his mental attitude may be correct, and also his rehearsal of the orders, the habit of a lifetime will prove too strong, and he will not be content until he feels conscious of impressions, however fallacious these may be, that he has fulfilled the instructions given him. This, of course, means that he is trusting to his own imperfect judgment again, and so reverting to his old bad habits. Now he must not put his own construction upon the instructions given by the teacher—since such construction will ...

Table of contents

• INTRODUCTION
• I. From Primitive Conditions to Present Needs
• II. Primitive Remedies and Their Defects
• III. Sub-Consciousness and Inhibition
• IV. Conscious Control
• V. Habits of Thought and of Body
• VI. Race Culture and the Training of the Children
• VII. A Postscript
• THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF A NEW METHOD OF RESPIRATORY RE-EDUCATION
• Introductory
• I. The Theory Of Respiratory Re-Education
• II. Errors to be Avoided and Facts to be Remembered in the Theory and Practice of Respiratory Re-Education
• III. The Practice of Respiratory Re-Education
• Concluding Remarks
• RE-EDUCATION OF THE KINÆSTHETIC SYSTEMS CONCERNED WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROBUST PHYSICAL WELL-BEING
• The Doctrines of Antagonistic Action and Mechanical Advantage
• A Presentation of Principles and Laws Exemplified in Mr. F Matthias Alexander’s Method of the Re-Education of the Kinaesthetic Systems