The Effective Use of Our Brain
On Awareness Lecture, New York University 1973
A Review by Jeff Haller, Ph.D., Certified Feldenkrais Trainer
In 1973 Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais gave a lecture to dancers and theater arts people at New York University. A video tape of this lecture was donated to the New York Public Library by Daniel Nagrin, formerly of the NYU Dance Department. The IFF obtained permission from the library to create a DVD of the lecture to sell for fundraising.
Before I begin this review of Moshe's lecture, I will simply tell you, “Buy this DVD from the IFF.” Not only will the sale of this DVD go toward the preservation and digitization of Moshe's materials, but also this is simply one of the clearest lectures I have heard Moshe give. The joy of this lecture is that the topic is Awareness.
In 1973 Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais gave a wonderful lecture on Awareness to dancers and theater arts people at New York University. This lecture is of the highest academic value and demonstrates the breadth, depth, and the prophetic understanding he had of brain physiology related to functioning. This lecture is well-organized, ordered, and his arguments expansive, persuasive and succinct. A virtuoso storyteller, Moshe spanned in this lecture evolution, history, music, Pavlov, brain physiology, Gurdjief, and his passionate dream of people learning to use their brains effectively and creatively. This talk might have been called “The Biology of Awareness.”
The supra-limbic, or forebrain, structures of the brain are about 40,000 years old, much younger than other brain structures. As Moshe notes, humans have little understanding of how to utilize the executive functions of this latest addition to our evolving brain. Points Moshe makes about the forebrain are the following:
- The forebrain is responsible for temporal and spatial relationships with the external world. When we are asleep our usual temporal and spatial organization is suspended and our dreams do not obey the rules of our waking organization. He mentions that our waking state is actually not much different than sleep; while we are spatially organized in keeping our orientation in space, our sense of temporality is continually changing and is more akin to sleep than being awake.
- One capacity of our forebrain is orientation -- determining where right and left are. Because we know where right and left are, we continually find ourselves in the center of our own universe. Wherever we turn, right and left are always to our personal rights and lefts and the universe is before us. Moshe cites Pavlov's research determining that other animals do not know where their right and left are even though they obviously move right and left in space.
- We can know what we are doing, a human skill superior to those of other animals. Our forebrain gives us the capacity to attend to the relationship between our inner and outer experience. In the talk, Moshe says we know what we are doing because we attend to the shifts we make in ourselves relative to the outer world. For example, we can know how many stairs there are going into our house or lamps in a room by counting the shifts we make in our muscular activities. While he considers these minor examples of knowing what we are doing, he uses this example in his talk as well as in his book Awareness Through Movement, Part I, page 50. Moshe's point is that this ability to see and know is what gives us the chance to become geniuses in our world by learning to harness the potential that resides in our brain.
- Our forebrain works more slowly than all the other levels of the brain. Because lower brain levels take care of our homeostatic, self-protective, procreative and emotional functions, they must be able to act quickly to ensure our survival in the world. Our forebrain reacts more slowly -- as Moshe states, on the order of 10 to 100 times more slowly -- than the other parts of the brain. Therefore, the forebrain can detect what is taking place in the lower brain and at times act to suspend its activities so we can choose how to act. Moshe cites an example of how he can stifle laughter that is politically incorrect because he can feel the preparation in his musculature to laugh while determining if it is appropriate to do so. Some things happen so quickly, such as slipping on ice, we can only react, and either we catch ourselves or fall. In either case, our reporting of the event takes place after the termination of the event. This capacity for choice, together with knowing the relationship between our inner and outer worlds, allows us to examine our conditioned habitual responses to the world. We can then learn to become responsible for ourselves and develop our own aesthetic sense for living in the world, free from what Moshe calls the “rubbish” given to us by our culture and parents, i.e., conditioning.
- Our forebrain is asymmetrical. All the lower levels of the brain are symmetrical, for obvious reasons such as bilateral orientation of the eyes and ears. Our forebrain is asymmetrical because it is, in part, developed by our using it. This feature gives us a significant potential for organic and academic learning and thinking. This potential goes largely unused because of lack of correct use. The “rubbish” interferes with spontaneity and creativity in addition to harming our ability to move in an efficient, pure manner.
In The Potent Self, Moshe gives three descriptions of mature behavior: the ability to separate our actions from our emotional responses, the ability to separate our intentions from achievement, and the ability to fit our habits to the present moment. Each of these abilities requires that we have the forebrain capacity to suspend our habit of action so we can respond in new and novel ways to the situations in life before us. To alter our behavior we have to be able to sense internally what we are doing relative to the external world. This “Awareness” is a mark of maturity and freedom. As Moshe said in Amherst, “Thinking that doesn't change our actions is no thinking. It's palaver...it's cerebration...it's dysfunctioning.” (Transcript of Amherst Training, Week 1, 11 June 81, page 39 of 43)
The above five points on the functioning of the forebrain are woven into stories about Pavlov's research, Franz Liszt the Hungarian composer, a movement symphony conducted by Gurdjief in Paris, the development of Arabic numerals and a few other tasty bits. This sample of Moshe's thinking on Awareness will significantly add to your understanding of how to teach the Awareness aspect of Awareness Through Movement®. Not only are you supporting the preservation of Moshe's materials with the purchase of this DVD from the IFF but you will be supporting yourself by illuminating the path into awareness for yourself. Your personal clarity will certainly affect your teaching.
