| A number of the gentlemen referred to studied the art of breathing under my direction . . . |
"The Prevention and Cure of Consumption" (1903) in Articles and Lectures by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1995, London), page 20 |
| It has been shown that when the brain of certain animals has been destroyed, the spinal cord, trunk, limbs, and their nervous connections with the cord remaining intact, that the limbs may still be excited by appropriate stimulation of the skin to execute movements which appear to be under intelligent direction. |
"Introduction to a New Method of Respiratory Vocal Re-Education" (1906) in Articles and Lectures by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1995, London), page 46 |
| There is a co-ordination of respiratory and vocal powers, unconscious direction having been engendered, or, as we say, use has become second nature. |
"Introduction to a New Method of Respiratory Vocal Re-Education" (1906) in Articles and Lectures by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1995, London), page 48 |
| By 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 . . . |
"Re-Education of the Kinæsthetic Systems" (1908) in Articles and Lectures by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1995, London), page 79 |
| For the time being, the pupil places his entire muscular system under the control of his conscious will, directing himself solely according to the suggestion afforded by the orders of the teacher. |
"Re-Education of the Kinæsthetic Systems" (1908) in Articles and Lectures by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1995, London), page 84 |
| And the process by which this is achieved is simply a re-adjustment of the parts of the body by a new and correct use of the muscular mechanisms through the directive agent of the sphere of consciousness. |
"Why We Breathe Incorrectly" (1909) in Articles and Lectures by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1995, London), page 92 |
| . . . the period when the slow process of evolution, which has resulted in the product of a new and marvellous instrument of self-conscious, directive powers, was becoming gradually superseded by that which it had brought forth. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 18 |
| . . . and from this it follows that our endeavours should be directed to perfecting the self-consciousness of this vital essence. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 27 |
| The process of readjustment in all spheres means immediate interference with the forces of strength and weakness, and in the case of the thief under consideration the force of strength was associated with mental and physical peculiarities in him as evil factors which had more or less controlled him; in fact, they constituted guidance and direction in his case. In all his physical and mental activities, which these evil factors stimulated, he experienced his maximum of confidence and directive power. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), pages 39-40 |
| . . . for subconscious control (instinct) is the outcome of experiences in those spheres where the animal senses exercised the great controlling and directing influences in the early stages of man's evolution; . . . |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 42 |
| This psycho-physical state does not indicate satisfactory progress on the evolutionary plane up to the present time, and, furthermore, it does not give promise of greater progress in the future under this same subconscious direction. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 43 |
| The brain becomes used to thinking in a certain way, it works in a groove, and when set in action, slides along the familiar, well-worn path; but when once it is lifted out of the groove, it is astonishing how easily it may be directed. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 65 |
| But it was very obvious to me that all these little dancers were more or less imperfectly co-ordinated; that the idea projected from the ideo-motor centre constantly missed its proper direction; . . . |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), pages 77-78 |
| In this rapidly changing world of the twentieth century we require, more than ever before, a system that shall guide and direct the child during his earlier years. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 82 |
| And these directions must be based on a principle that will help the child to employ his various mechanisms to the best advantage in his daily activities. These directions involve no interference with what the child has to express; they represent merely a cultivation and development of the means whereby he may find adequate and satisfying release for his potentialities. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 83 |
| For this very reason, all aid to progressive development must conform to the principle of the projection of guiding orders and controls in the right direction or directions, with the simultaneous employment of positions of mechanical advantage, irrespective of the correctness or otherwise of the immediate result. The result may be unsatisfactory today and tomorrow, or during the next week, . . . |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 87 |
| The result is a subconscious direction which in the imperfectly co-ordinated person is based on bad experiences and on the erroneous preconceived ideas before mentioned. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 114 |
| (a) Till now little or no attention on a practical psycho-physical basis has been given to the vital and harmful influence of this faulty direction (of subconscious origin) and of the erroneous preconceived ideas and faulty posture associated therewith. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 115 |
| We must have something more reasoned and definite than that which subconscious direction offers, and so we come to the need of reasoned guidance. Up to the present neither of these forms of direction really reaches the mind as a definite tangible idea consciously conceived. This is because of the fundamental principles upon which subconscious direction has been built up, and in consequence of the undeveloped condition of conscious guidance. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), pages 116-117 |
| . . . every muscular action can be consciously directed until the new and correct guiding sensations have established the new proper habits, . . . |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 118 |
| . . . and that if the true nature of this evolutionary stage could be understood, it might and should be possible to direct man's physical and mental progression . . . |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 121 |
| But in the physical economy of mankind this instinct is actually at war with, and is ever being controlled and superseded by, conscious, directive reason. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 123 |
| The method is based firstly on the understanding of the co-ordinated uses of the muscular mechanisms, and secondly, on the complete acceptance of the hypothesis that each and every movement can be consciously directed and controlled. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 124 |
| In order to establish successfully the latter (correct conception), we must first inhibit the former (incorrect conception), and from the ideo-motor centre project the new and different directing orders which are to influence the complexes involved, . . . |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 131 |
| He is simply deluded regarding his sensations and unable to direct his actions. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 133 |
| Perhaps I should add here that I convinced this pupil by practical demonstrations that the energy directed to his arm was wasted and misdirected; that, if this energy were correctly directed to the proper co-ordinations concerned with the mechanism of breathing and speaking, the process would represent the difference between correct and incorrect attempts in the direction of ultimate satisfactory breath and speech control. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), pages 136-137 |
| All his efforts to carry out his teacher's directions were made in accordance with his original preconceptions and former experience. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 142 |
| To this end we must break the chains which have so long held them to that directive mental plane which belongs to the early stages of his evolution. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 159 |
| He was unaware that these instinctive factors were delusive and unreliable as his directive agents. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 167 |
| These experiences indicate that in order to meet satisfactorily the new demands of civilization, it was essential that man should acquire a new way of directing and controlling the mechanisms of the psycho-physical organism as a whole . . . |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 28 |
| The change from a subconscious to a conscious plane of control would have involved a knowledge on man's part of the means whereby he would be able to command a conscious, reasoning direction and control of his psycho-physical mechanisms in all activity. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 29 |
| For the act of writing demands correct direction and control in the use of the Þngers, wrist and arm, and the standard of success reached in these particulars depends upon the co-ordinated use of the mechanisms in general. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 32 |
| The recognition of a need denotes a state of consciousness of a need, and the primary activity (or activities) which is the response to this consciousness of a need or needs involves new experiences in the spheres of direction and control. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 35 |
| An act of self-preservation is the response to a stimulus (or stimuli) resulting from a fundamental need, and a satisfactory response depends upon the satisfactory direction and control of the psycho-physical mechanisms which are engaged in the act or acts of self-preservation. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 36 |
| This all points to a general weakening in the psycho-physical directing and controlling forces of the human creature,* . . . |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 38 |
the standard of functioning depends
. . .
(2) upon the degree of co-ordinated employment of the guiding and controlling orders or directions, and of the mechanisms involved in carrying out the activities essential to the correct means whereby the act can be performed. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 41 |
| Thus we see that, whether he were well or whether he were ill, the subconscious guidance of instinct was reliable in the practically unchanging routine of his daily life, so that, because of its association with a reliable sensory appreciation, man would have no need of recourse to the higher directive processes. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 49 |
| In the early stages of his emergence from the savage state, any changes which took place in his environment would be but slow and gradual, and the consequent demands upon his newly developing, higher directive processes would be correspondingly light. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 50 |
| . . . he did not apply these reasoning processes to the direction of his psycho-physical mechanisms in the use of himself in the various activities of everyday life. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 52 |
| In other words, he would have realized that his primitive psycho-physical equipment must pass from the subconscious to the conscious plane of guidance and direction. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 52 |
| I merely look at the subject before me as a damaged machine, as it were, note the badly used mechanisms, the imperfect sensory direction and control . . . |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 78-79 |
| The teacher, having made his diagnosis of the cause or causes of the imperfections or defects which the pupil has developed in the incorrect use of himself, uses expert manipulation to give to the pupil the new sensory experiences required for the satisfactory use of the mechanisms concerned, the while giving him the correct guiding orders or directions which are the counterpart of the new sensory experiences which he is endeavouring to develop by means of his manipulation. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 111 |
| This linking-up of the guiding orders or directions is all-important . . . |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 111 |
| . . . he is almost certain to fall back into his old and harmful habit of blindly pursuing his "end," which means that he forgets to project his directive orders (the "means-whereby") and falls back again for guidance upon his unreliable and delusive sensory appreciation (feeling). |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 114 |
| The old faulty activity being prevented by the processes just indicated, the pupil will then proceed to give his attention to the different guiding or directing orders which the teacher considers essential to the correct direction and control of those psycho-mechanics (the correct "means-whereby") concerned with the satisfactory use of the organism as a whole in the act of sitting down. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 116 |
| And so, when pupils insist that giving orders is a difficulty, what they really mean is that because of their long-established habit of reacting quickly and unthinkingly to a direction, a habit fostered by years of training, they find it difficult to stop, to wait, . . . |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 116 |
| There is considerable confusion on the part of the pupil when he attempts to obey directions to relax some part of the organism. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 123 |
| In the way of correct direction and guidance, he is asked to order the neck to relax, to order the head forward and up to lengthen the spine. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 124 |
| Unless, therefore, the pupil remembers this subconscious tendency to shorten, and attends to the new directive orders which will counteract this subconscious tendency, his old habit will prove too strong for him, . . . |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 125 |
| To command success, correct experiences in sensory appreciation must follow the giving of correct directive and guiding orders. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 128 |
| . . . and, following this, will give the sensory experiences required in directing the upper parts of the arms (above the elbow) away from one another (the right arm towards the right and the left arm towards the left), . . . |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 129 |
| To this end the teacher will first name the preventive guiding orders or directions which the pupil is to give to himself in the way of inhibiting the deceptive guiding sensations concerned with the defective use of the mechanisms responsible for what we call bad habits in breathing. The teacher must make certain that the pupil remembers these guiding orders or directions in the sequence in which they are to be employed. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 140 |
| For example, suppose a person is in the habit of performing a certain act-the act of sitting in a chair, for instance-with a great deal of unnecessary tension, and suppose his teacher points this out to him, and reasons out with him the means whereby the act can be performed without this unnecessary strain, giving him the necessary directions (series of orders) to this end, and the reliable sensory appreciation which the satisfactory carrying-out of the orders demands. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 173 |
| . . . and he must then repeat and memorize the orders relative to these means before employing them in guiding and directing the mechanisms essential to the particular psycho-physical act to be performed.* |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 184 |
| . . . and their happiness in finding, for instance, that they can improve their games by a conscious general direction of themselves (a very different thing from the usual specific directions they receive in coaching lessons) is a happiness which increases with their psycho-physical improvement. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 190-191 |
| The new experiences concerned with the gradually improving functioning of the human creature, indicated in the foregoing, are primarily dependent upon a growing understanding, consciously developed, of the operations concerned with the direction and control of the psycho-physical organism in general during the waking and sleeping hours. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 200 |
| To begin with, the processes of reasoning and perception come into the problem, whether that stimulus is from without or within, and immediately it means the mental processes are put into working order, and the directions which result, act and react to the different nerve centres which influence the muscular mechanisms which lift the arm. |
Lecture: "An Unrecognized Principle" (1925) in Articles and Lectures by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1995, London), page 146 |
| The direction of the head and neck being of primary importance, he found, as I found, that if we get the right direction from this primary control, the control of the rest of the organism is a simple matter. |
Lecture: "An Unrecognized Principle" (1925) in Articles and Lectures by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1995, London), page 148 |
| In this connexion I would refer to the benefits derived by the children and young people in our little school where they learn to put into practice the technique for the direction of a improved use of themselves in all their "doings," in their reading, writing, etc. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page viii |
| From this I argued that if I put my head definitely forward I might be able to influence the functioning of my vocal and respiratory mechanisms still further in the right direction, and so eradicate the tendency to hoarseness altogether. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 12 |
| This led me to a long consideration of the whole question of the direction of the use of myself. "What is this direction," I asked myself, "upon which I have been depending?" I had to admit that I had never thought out how I directed the use of myself, but that I used myself habitually in the way that felt natural to me. In other words, I like everyone else depended upon "feeling" for the direction of my use. Judging, however, from the results of my experiments, this method of direction had led me into error (as, for in stance, when I put my head back when I intended to put it forward and up), proving that the "feeling" associated with this direction of my use was untrustworthy. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 20-21 |
| *When I employ the words "direction" and "directed" with "use" in such phrases as "direction of my use" and "I directed the use," etc., I wish to indicate the process involved in projecting messages from the brain to the mechanisms and in conducting the energy necessary to the use of these mechanisms. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 20 fn |
| "Surely," I argued, "if it is possible for feeling to become untrustworthy as a means of direction, it should also be possible to make it trustworthy again." |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 21 |
| Because he lacks this knowledge, the athlete, like the animal, has to depend upon his feeling for the direction of the working of his mechanisms, and as that feeling has become more or less untrustworthy in the majority of athletes (a fact that can be demonstrated), the mechanisms which he employs for his activities are bound to be misdirected. Such direction, being as unreasoned as that of the animal, cannot be compared with that conscious reasoned direction which is associated with a primary control of the mechanisms of the self as a working unity. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 23 |
| Once this misdirection was inhibited, my next step would be to discover what direction would be necessary to ensure a new and improved use of the head and neck, and, indirectly, of the larynx and breathing and other mechanisms, for I believed that such direction, when put into practice, would ensure a satisfactory instead of an unsatisfactory reaction to the stimulus to use my voice. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 24-25 |
| In the work that followed I came to see that to get a direction of my use which would ensure this satisfactory reaction, I must cease to rely upon the feeling associated with my instinctive direction, . . . |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 25 |
| In short, I concluded that if I were ever to be able to react satisfactorily to the stimulus to use my voice, I must replace my old instinctive (unreasoned) direction of myself by a new conscious (reasoned) direction. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 25 |
| . . . , I had believed up to this moment that if I thought out carefully how to improve my way of performing a certain act, I should be guided by my reasoning rather than by my feeling when it came to putting this thought into action, and that my "mind" was the superior and more effective directing agent. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 25-26 |
| I was successful in employing my reasoning up to the point of projecting the directions which, after analysing the conditions of use present, I had decided were required for the new and improved use, and all went well as long as I did not attempt to carry these directions out for the purpose of speaking. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 26 |
|
This experience taught me
(1) that before attempting to "do" even the first part of the new "means-whereby" which I had decided to employ in order to gain my end (i. e., vocal use and reciting), I must give the directions preparatory to the doing of this first part very many times;
(2) that I must continue to give the directions preparatory to the doing of the first part while I gave the directions preparatory to the doing of the second part;
(3) that I must continue to give the directions preparatory to the doing of the first and second parts while I gave the directions preparatory to the doing of the third part; and so on for the doing of the fourth and other parts as required.
|
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 28 |
| My daily teaching experience shews me that in working for a given end, we can will project one direction, but to continue to give this direction as we project the second, and to continue to give these two while we add a third, and to continue to keep the three directions going as we proceed to gain the end, has proved to be the pons asinorum of every pupil I have so far known. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 29 |
| In trying to employ a conscious, reasoning direction to bring about a new use, I was therefore combating in myself not only that racial tendency which causes us all at critical moments to revert to instinctive direction and so to the familiar use of ourselves that feels right, but also a racial in experience in projecting conscious directions at all, and particularly conscious directions in sequence. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 31 |
| I reasoned that if I stopped at that moment and then, without ceasing to project the directions for the new use, decided afresh to what end the new use should be employed, I should by this procedure be subjecting my instinctive processes of direction to an experience contrary to any experience in which they had hitherto been drilled. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 34 |
| Seeing, therefore, that it proved possible to bring about a conscious control of my reaction through a change in the direction of my use, the reader will understand why, in my opinion, the substitution of conscious for instinctive direction in the changing of use is of primary importance, and why I believe a knowledge of the means whereby this change can be brought about would be of inestimable value in all educational work. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 41-42 |
| If consent is given, the direction of the mechanisms required for the act of lifting the arm becomes operative, and messages are sent out which bring about the contraction of certain groups of muscles and the relaxation of others, and the arm is lifted. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 43 |
| Any sensory stimulus he receives is in the direction of repeating the familiar sensory experiences which accompany his faulty use, and this carries the day over any so-called "mental" stimulus arising from his "will to do." |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 52-53 |
| Where the direction is satisfactory, satisfactory use of the mechanisms of the organism as a working unity will be ensured, involving a satisfactory use of the different parts, such as the arms, wrists, hands, legs, feet and eyes. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 56 |
| It is not the degree of "willing" or "trying," but the way in which the energy is directed, that is going to make the "willing" or "trying" effective. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 57 fn |
| . . . we must recognize that the attainment of any desired end, or the performance of any act such as the making of a golf stroke, involves the direction and performance of a connected series of preliminary acts by means of the mechanisms of the organism, and that therefore, if the use of the mechanisms is to be directed so as to result in the satisfactory attainment of the desired end, the directions for this use must be projected in a connected series to correspond with the connected series of preliminary acts. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 58 |
| It is impossible to put down here more than a bare outline of this technique, because the sensory experiences which come to the pupil in the process of acquiring a new direction of his use cannot be conveyed by the written or spoken word, . . . |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 59 |
I began by giving him
(1) the directions for the inhibition of the wrong habitual use of his mechanisms associated with the excessive muscle tension;
(2) the directions for the employment of the primary control leading to a new and improved use which would be associated with a due amount of muscle tension. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 72-73 |
| If loss of control can he manifested only by means of the use of ourselves, it follows that a conscious direction of an improving use will bring us for the first time within striking distance of a conscious control of human reaction or behaviour, . . . |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 82 |
| This process of directing energy out of familiar into new and unfamiliar paths, as a means of changing the manner of reacting to stimuli, implies of necessity an ever-increasing ability on the part of both teacher and pupil to "pass from the known to the unknown";1 . . . |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 87 |
| Whatever training a navigator may have received on the management and control of his ship, he would be helpless without a reliable compass to determine his direction. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 102 |
| For the fact that the pupil receives from the hands of the teacher the actual sensory experience of the new use which he is consciously directing, . . . |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 104 |
| . . . , for in this process he is constantly brought up against situations in which, after receiving a stimulus, he has to decide what manner of use is the best to employ in reacting to it, and also to judge which of the directions for this manner of use is primary, which secondary, and so on. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 112 |
| A word about directions. When you are asked to sit down and you refuse to give consent, the old messages which have always been sent from the brain are not sent. We do not really know what giving or withholding consent is. We do know that when you have refused to give consent, it simply means that you have refused to indulge in the old habit. Instead, you say, "These are the new messages I have decided to send. I am going to give these new orders and directions, instead of the old ones I have always given," and you must all see that you cannot order your head back while you are sending it messages to go forward. |
"Bedford Physical Training College Lecture" (1934) in Articles and Lectures by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1995, London), page 168 |
| I cannot get any direction from my brain through to my arm until it comes through my torso, and the movement of the arm will be affected by whatever sensory and other conditions are present in my torso as [i.e. when] the direction is sent through [to] my hands. |
"Bedford Physical Training College Lecture" (1934) in Articles and Lectures by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1995, London), page 170 |
| If you look at a person, you know the wrong direction that is being given; you ask him to give the right direction and you, with your hands, give the correct associated activity, and repeat that until it is. |
"Bedford Physical Training College Lecture" (1934) in Articles and Lectures by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1995, London), page 180 |
| There is no such thing as a right position, but there is such a thing as a right direction. |
"Teaching Aphorisms" in Articles and Lectures by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1995, London), page 194 |
| Everything a person has done in the past has been in accordance with the mental direction to which he is accustomed, and it is his faith in this that makes him unwilling to exchange it for the new direction one is trying to give him. |
"Teaching Aphorisms" in Articles and Lectures by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1995, London), page 194 |
| I realized that if the result I wanted did not come about through the directions that I was giving myself, this was because the co-ordinated conditions present weren't yet such as could bring about this result, and that therefore the only thing to do was for me to go on repeating the directions until the right co-ordinated conditions had developed, so that the result would come about without difficulty. |
"Teaching Aphorisms" in Articles and Lectures by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1995, London), page 195 |
| We shall also see how important it is that every one of us should know how to estimate the degree in which our functioning is being influenced in one direction or the other by our manner of use, so that we can with confidence check any trend of this influence in the wrong direction. |
The Universal Constant in Living by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 2000, London), page 9 |
| This afforded proof that as soon as he gave consent to perform any act, messages were projected which resulted in an interference with his direction of the primary control, causing overactivity and a gradually increasing tension not only in the groups of muscles concerned, but also in others which were taking a too prominent part in the performance of the act. |
The Universal Constant in Living by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 2000, London), page 27 |
| This means a constant influence in the right direction, leading to change which will prove permanent, for it will become associated with a tendency for the defect or disease to be diminished, and when a given point of change is reached, the undesirable symptoms will disappear. |
The Universal Constant in Living by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 2000, London), pages 39-40 |
| The preventive messages projected serve to stop off the misdirection associated with harmful habitual use of ourselves in the performance of an act, and herein we have an activity which is primary to any other activity concerned with the act, and by means of which the way is cleared for the projecting of the new directive messages which bring about a new and improved use of ourselves. |
The Universal Constant in Living by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 2000, London), page 85 |
| If Sir Charles's study had led to this knowledge of the use of himself, he could have found out "the how of the body's doing these things," and should he then have become aware of any misdirection of energy and misuse of parts in his way of ''standing," sitting, or carrying out any other activity, he would have the knowledge of the "how" of restoring rightness of direction and right degree of action. |
The Universal Constant in Living by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 2000, London), page 119 |
| The next step is a volitionary one - that of consenting to employ the second procedure and also the succeeding procedures by a continuity of conscious directions in giving consent to new procedures whilst still withholding consent to the habitual reaction (the first procedure). |
The Universal Constant in Living by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 2000, London), page 182 |
