FUNCTION AND EXPERIENCE, IN LEARNING, THROUGH THE
FELDENKRAIS METHOD
Monica Meilleur
Let’s begin with the understanding that behavior is an emergent property of the
brain. Here, “behavior” means two things. In one sense, it is human behavior or, how we
act in the world. In another sense, it is how brain cells behave to act out the biological
mechanisms within the brain itself. In both instances, structure and function are
intertwined in a non-linear relationship that emphasizes the dynamic nature of the brain
and supports the emerging understanding that the brain is highly plastic and capable of
change. If the structure of the brain is capable of change then, too, is human behavior.
Why would we want to change human behavior? To ask indicates that changing human
behavior is in our makeup: the expression of our genes, the structure of our brains, etc.
that goes beyond our individual histories and acknowledges the evolutionary nature of
what it means to act based on experience.
Moshe Feldenkrais, Israeli physicist, engineer, and judo master, understood the
complexity of living systems and the functional nature of the organization of the brain.
Dr. Feldenkrais noted that we act on our self-image, so to change the way we act in the
world we must change our self-image. Here, “self-image” is meant to evoke the
somatotopic arrangement of somatosensory inputs in the human cortex known as the
“homunculus.” This image of the body in the brain represents the innervation density of
the sensory nerve cells on the skin of different body parts, so that areas that are used early
and often, like the mouth and hands, occupy more physical space in the brain. Sensory
receptors in the skin generate receptor potentials through stimulus transduction, and the
homunculus demonstrates that there is a functional organization of the cortical circuits, as
cells in close proximity communicate closely with each other. White matter fiber tracts
provide physical evidence that these cortical networks extend from the cortex into subcortical structures, which are also related topographically. Therefore, the nervous system
continues to grow and change as we act in the world and as we encounter external
stimuli. Learning can be defined as this process of acquiring information from the
environment.
Feldenkrais posited that “learning is latent in the natural laws which have
produced our brain and our nervous system and our body and our muscles” (EO, 117).
Current models of these structures reveal computational models that engage both feedforward and feedback mechanisms as a means of self-organizing within an environment.
Each experience, then, is an opportunity to gather information and to decide what to do
next. Dr. Feldenkrais wanted to know, do we have the capability to create environments
that will enable this kind of learning? As Carl Ginsburg, a Feldenkrais scholar, put it:
“[Before Feldenkrais] no one had tried to put together the evidence from physiology,
psychology, and what was known from neuroscience to support a vision of how we could
improve ourselves through learning rather than seeking cures” (BMB, viii).
Dr. Feldenkrais designed lessons that guide individuals to become more aware of
themselves through a process of learning by doing. In a sense, this means that each
individual creates an environment within him or herself for learning. Known today as the
Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education, this philosophy takes into account what is
going on inside the organism and in the environment (BMB, viii), and therefore invites a
correlation between brain activity and behavior. Feldenkrais designed his lessons after
the design of the nervous system. He reasoned that if behavior is an emergent property of
the brain, then we could learn to speak back to the brain through our behavior, or through
the way we function, or act, in the world.
Action is an organizing principle for the nervous system. The neuron doctrine
describes the neuron as the basic elemental signaling system within the nervous system.
Signals are sent between individual neurons and between populations of neurons.
Neurons are a diverse population of cells but are largely organized into functional
components that include a cell body, axons, dendrites and terminals. Interestingly, a
great distance usually separates these parts, which allows two important features to
emerge: polarity and electrical excitability. Though not unique to neurons, “polarity and
excitability are developed to a higher degree [in neurons], permitting signals to be
received, processed and conducted over long distances” (KSJ, 67). Neuronal signaling
depends on rapid changes in electrical potential across the nerve cell membrane. During
an action potential, the all-or-none output signal of the neuron, the membrane potential
changes quickly. (KSJ, 105) Each action potential processes information in functional
neuronal networks so that every act within an environment evokes both top-down and
bottom-up processes.
This dynamic, multi-dimensional approach to information processing in the brain
led Feldenkrais to say that human action has four components: thinking, feeling, sensing
and moving.1 Though beyond the scope of this paper, each of these aspects of human
It seems to me at this time that “thinking” as a biological mechanism is most likely
referring to “perception.”
1
action can be discussed in terms of the biological mechanisms that generate them.
However, the nervous system processes information by way of action potentials in
functional networks. Function is an organizing principle for human action in a broader
sense as well because we act in an environment and constantly receive feedback from our
experiences. Feldenkrais posited that individual experience is more important in man
than any other animal because the adult human brain has “fewer ready-made responses to
external stimuli” (BMB, 54). Feldenkrais’s method of education is, in a sense, a project
about creating an environment where individuals can pay attention to their experiences.
Lessons in the Feldenkrais Method use movement to orient individuals toward this
purpose.
Why movement? In The Potent Self, Dr. Feldenkrais wrote:
We learn to suck, to drink, to eat, to turn the head, to speak, to sit, and to stand, by
facilitating some muscular pattern, and all the evidence of mental processes
comes to us through voluntary muscular activity. Thoughts concerning realizable
action are not any faster than the muscular action necessary to perform them.
Every time we speak abstractly of the mind, ignoring its functional whole with the
body and the external world, we reach conclusions that have little to do with
reality. My contention is that learning always does involve the whole frame, and
all learning that does not directly involve muscular activity is poor. (PS, 130-131)
Dr. Feldenkrais used his observations of common functional movements, like the ones
cited here, as a point of departure for his lessons. For instance, a lesson (which generally
lasts about forty-five minutes) might have a student explore how to turn their head to
look one way, or the other. Think about how often we engage this pattern to move about
in the world! If somebody calls your name from behind, you turn and look. This is a
functional pattern that we use to respond to stimulus and, like many behaviors within the
brain itself, is a “winner take all” response. When somebody calls, we turn and look. Of
all the thousands of subtle “routes,” so to speak, we choose one without thinking. The
movement lessons suggest many ways to turn or, in essence, to respond to this same
stimulus. Unlike classical conditioning, which relies on timing and repetition,
Feldenkrais lessons introduce options and provide a context for processing this voluntary
movement within the nervous system, thus strengthening neuronal pathways. In addition,
that the lessons signal certain functional activities such as walking, reaching, grasping,
swallowing, etc., means there is a context for the newly strengthened neuronal pathways
to be put into action in a person’s life. As a system operating on a policy of “use it or
lose it,” function is a key to learning.
Though movement is the orienting factor, it is not really the individual
movements that are important. Instead, the movements afford individuals the occasion to
pay attention to how they engage themselves to carry out the movement instruction.
Paying attention evokes the top-down processes in the brain, as the frontal and parietal
cortexes mediate attention. Meanwhile, we experience gravity as a force through our
vestibular apparatus, which evokes bottom-up processing. Remember that information in
the brain is processed by the generation of action potentials. As an all-or-none
phenomenon, success is measured in terms of whether or not an action potential is
generated. This can have an excitatory or inhibitory action on target cells, and different
amounts of excitation and inhibition can work together to enhance the stimulus and how
we respond to it.
To ensure successful generation and conduction of action potentials, Feldenkrais
laid out two important distinctions in how to move: First, do only that which is
comfortable to do and use the least amount of effort necessary. Second, rest in between
each movement so they are separate and discrete. The former instruction is based on the
Weber-Fechner law (BMB, 141) and allows individuals to detect much smaller
differences. It is these kinds of differences that allow the nervous system to incorporate
the new ideas into later action. The latter instruction provides an opportunity for the
nervous system to process the information completely during the rest. Both pieces
distinguish lessons in the Feldenkrais Method from repetitive exercise or classical
conditioning.
Feldenkrais lessons are meant to inform the nervous system and in so doing to
clarify the self-image. What does it mean to clarify the self-image? It means we learn to
do what we are already doing, but better. Feldenkrais wrote, “The human brain is such as
to make learning, or acquisition of new responses, a normal and suitable activity. It is as
if it were capable of functioning with any possible combination of nervous
interconnections until individual experience forms the one that will be preferred and
active” (BMB, 55-56). How well an individual functions in the world depends on how
well-equipped their nervous system is to respond to various stimuli in their ever-changing
environment.
Works Cited
Feldenkrais, Moshe. Body and Mature Behavior: A Study of Anxiety, Sex, Gravitation
and Learning. Berkeley: Somatic Resouces, 2005.
Feldenkrais, Moshe. The Elusive Obvious. M. Feldenkrais, 1981.
Feldenkrais, Moshe. The Potent Self: A guide to spontaneity. Ed. Michaeleen Kimmey.
San Francisco : Harper & Row, 1985.
Schwartz, James H. and Gary L. Westbrook. “The Cytology of Neurons” from The
Principles of Neuroscience. Ed. Kandel, Schwartz and Jessell. Fourth Edition.
McGraw-Hill, 2000. Pages 67-87.
Siegelbaum, Steven A. and John Koerster. “Ion Channels” from The Principles of
Neuroscience. Ed. Kandel, Schwartz and Jessell. Fourth Edition. McGraw-Hill,
2000. Pages 105-124.