Thinking and Doing: A Monograph by Moshe Feldenkrais by Moshe Feldenkrais Reuven (Robbie) Ofir

Author:Moshe Feldenkrais, Reuven (Robbie) Ofir [Moshe Feldenkrais, Reuven (Robbie) Ofir]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B06XJTTSPQ
Publisher: Genesis II Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2017-03-09T22:00:00+00:00

—Professors Hans Kreitler and Shulamit Kreitler7 Tel Aviv, Israel, February, 1977

Thinking and Doing

Dedicated to the immigrants by the translator, Dr. M. Feldenkrais, Tel Aviv, 1929

The Unconscious as Executor

In the previous chapters we dealt with the unconscious and with autosuggestion insofar as they impacted on abnormal life: we saw their effect on disease, anxiety, crime, and generally on all distortions of normative behavior.

On the other hand, we have barely touched upon the ways we can perfect the healthy by means of elevating man’s inherent capabilities and improving them. We have occupied ourselves with the means needed by man to avoid living lives of misery. We tried to lighten the heavy burden weighing down the sick in any kind of illnesses.

In this chapter, we will explore this issue and see if we can take it a step forward. Using examples from real life, we will demonstrate that using autosuggestion we can achieve far superior results rather than merely being in a condition no worse than someone else’s.

We have already shown that in human beings the unconscious is far more in control of all aspects involving vital bodily processes. The unconscious knows all: what comes first and what comes later. It organizes digestion, assimilation, respiration and the like. In short, the unconscious is the final arbiter, the primary authority. However, when we touch upon the external aspects of human life, such as the struggle with nature and the need to control the environment, it becomes necessary to clarify this matter further. It is imperative to demonstrate that the unconscious mind has a significant role to play in the actions of the conscious mind.

Let us take a simple, familiar example: a person living on the upper floor of a walkup building ascends and descends the stairs many times daily. He never stumbles or misses a step even at night when the staircase is dark. He climbs the steps rapidly without stumbling or groping to find the next step down or up. If we ask him how many steps he climbs, we will not be surprised to hear that he does not know. This is common and we have all had similar experiences. If asked how we climb and descend these steps without knowing how many there are, we answer, “This is a simple matter, I just do it,” but such an answer does not explain it.

The unconscious records every movement we make, every thought that passes through our minds. As we repeatedly climb the steps from one landing to the next, our unconscious mind notes the number of leg movements we perform during each ascent or descent. We are not aware of this mental recording process, nor are we aware of how our unconscious utilizes its experience as it counts, albeit not by the use of numerical symbols. The proof lies in the fact that there are times when, even though we have not made any mental effort to count the steps, we can access this number and bring it to our conscious awareness. The unavoidable conclusion is that the unconscious learns from experience.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.