Alexander's Story
Text only version, italics indicate quotations from Alexander...
Alexander's story as outlined below was, in the main, derived from the first chapter of his book "The Use of Self". Italics indicate quotations from Alexander. For a serious understanding of the process he went through, I recommend reading "The Use of the Self". Biographical material drawn mainly from "The Alexander Principle" by Wilfred Barlow, appendix 1.
Alexander's Story...
Australian actor F.M. Alexander began his journey of discovery when he found himself challenged by a recurring throat and voice problem which was seriously affecting his reciting.
In addition to having trouble with my throat and vocal cords he was concerned that people could hear me 'gasping' and 'sucking in air' through my mouth.
When he was unable to find a solution in the voice training and medical approaches of the day, the problem developed to the point of hoarseness which from time to time culminated in a complete loss of voice.
Observing that his hoarseness diminished when he rested his voice from reciting, and worsened when he recited again, he concluded, in conversation with his doctor, that it was something I was doing ... in using my voice that was the cause of the trouble.
The doctor agreed, but was unable to say what it was that Alexander was doing to cause this trouble. Alexander began a intensive program of observation and experimentation with the assistance of a mirror to try and find out.
Beginning with his observations in a mirror, Alexander discovered several unexpected things about himself...
I saw that as soon as I started to recite, I tended to pull back the head, depress the larynx and suck in breath through the mouth in such a way as to produce a gasping sound.
He discovered that these things were also present in his ordinary speaking, though in lesser degree.
With further observation, Alexander found that he could to some degree prevent the pulling back of his head, and the improvements that resulted led him to conclude that it was this that was somehow causing the other things he had noticed.
The way he used his head and neck was affecting the functioning of his vocal and respiratory mechanisms. The close connection that exists between use and functioning was a significant discovery.
Convinced that he was on the track of a solution, he continued to work. It is impossible to describe here in detail my various experiences during this long period...
He came to notice that any use of my head and neck which was associated with with a depressing of the larynx was also associated with a tendency to lift the chest and shorten the stature.
He began to discover that his misuse of himself extended far beyond his head and neck, and was in fact, an integrated pattern of coordination (or mal-coordination) involving his whole body.
Tightening the neck, pulling the head down onto the body, in a way that causes a shortening, tensing and distortion of the whole body is a common misuse that is easy to see. Most people do a similar thing to themselves in activity.
This is a serious problem, because it shows that in order to change coordination, to relieve pressure or improve performance, not only is it necessary to prevent the misuse of the specific parts, but in order to do so, it is necessary to prevent the misuse of the whole body.
By now Alexander had reasoned out that he needed to create a lengthening of his stature, and that in order to do this he must allow his head to release forward and up from his body. He was later to call this the "Primary control". The Primary control is usually stated as a series of connected instructions or directions, to be projected in sequence:
Let my neck be free so that
My head moves forward and up, in such a way that
My spine lengthens and my back widens, and
My knees release forwards
Take a moment to sense how you are sitting as you are reading this. Are you experiencing pressure, collapse, heaviness, twisting? Or are you tensing and arching your back, holding on to your neck to hold your head up? How does the way you are using your feet, relate to how you are using your pelvis, your back, your neck and your head?
Did you find you immediately wanted to change what you are doing? If so you are in good company...
When anything is pointed out, our only idea is to go from wrong to right. In spite of the fact that it has taken us years to get wrong, we try to get right in a moment.
It is a common experience, that anyone who tries to stop a harmful habit that has been established over time, will find it takes time and work to change.
Having reasoned out that he needed to create a lengthening of his stature, and that in order to do this he must allow his head to release forward and up from his body, Alexander proceeded to attempt to put these conditions in place while he was reciting.
He did not succeed. Even when he felt he was doing what he intended, he could see in the mirror that every attempt seemed to involve an involuntary tensing and 'downward pull' of the body.
Alexander went on to practise patiently month after month. During this period of work, it became clear that there was a condition of undue muscle tension throughout my organism.
During his training in the use of his voice Alexander had practised certain adjustments of his body as instructed by his teachers. In particular he was tensing his legs, feet and toes and he came to see that what he was doing with these parts was exerting a most harmful general influence upon the use of himself as a whole.
Alexander concluded that there was a combined wrong use of the whole of my physical-mental mechanisms. This combined misuse constituted a general habit, the 'habitual use' of myself, and was present to some degree in all his activities.
He reasoned that any attempt to use specific parts of the body differently must be seen in the context of how the whole self is used generally. As the stimulus to use this part in the new way is weak in comparison with the stimulus to use the other parts of the organism, which are being indirectly employed in the activity, in the old habitual way.
But Alexander had never considered how he used himself as a whole before. The general process had been in the background, while he focused on the specific changes he wanted to make.
Now he began to pay attention to that background feeling which was determining the coordination and balance of his whole body together, and was something which, up to this point, had simply felt natural to me.
He realised that it was this feeling of the movement that he, like everyone else, depended upon to know whether he was doing the right thing or not. His experiments showed conclusively that his feeling, the only guide I had to depend upon for the direction of my use, was untrustworthy.
This indeed was a blow.
At this stage in his investigation, Alexander thought that this problem of untrustworthy sensory appreciation in relation to his coordination was peculiar to himself, but he was soon to discover that virtually everyone was using themselves on the basis of feelings that were misleading them.
As you are sitting there, without looking at your feet, try lining them up on the floor parallel and even, without touching each other. Now without moving your feet again, take a look. How did you do? If you look carefully, you are likely to find (like most people) that they are are either pointing slightly away from each other, or slightly towards each other, and that they are not exactly level with each other. Yet they feel parallel and even.
Your interpretation or appreciation of the feeling of position is dependent upon what you usually feel, that is, your habit of use, and so will vary in accordance with your habit.
The belief is very generally held that if only we are told what to do in order to correct a wrong way of doing something, we can do it, and that if we feel we are doing it, all is well. All my experience however, goes to shew that this belief is a delusion.
Alexander began to see the potential his discoveries were opening up. 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.
He returned to his study of his own habitual use with renewed vigour.
Revisiting his original discoveries, he decided that misdirection of himself that led to the problem occurred as soon as he decided to recite, in other words it was my instinctive response (reaction) to the stimulus to use my voice.
Therefore, he reasoned, if he was able to stop this immediate instinctive response, he would then be able to consider and apply a different response - and improve the way he used his voice.
He decided to give up the attempt to do anything in response to the stimulus to speak, that is, to decide to speak but to refuse to do anything immediately in response to that decision.
This eventually proved to be the key to success in the whole process.
He stopped his immediate response, and instead considered how he was organising the whole of himself, projecting each of the organising directions for the primary control. This he practised many times before making any attempt to use the new conditions of balance in order to recite.
Yet even then, when he finally decided to move on to reciting again he failed far more often than I succeeded.
Alexander was still unable to prevent the dominance of his old habit over his consciously chosen process, and he felt, for some time, that this was a personal failing of his own.
Persevering however, he began looking for proof of what was actually occurring right at the moment when he decided to act - and found that he was, at that critical point, still reverting to his old way - despite all his intentions to the contrary.
He realised just how significant his earlier insight about how movement feels was. The new experience, he reasoned, would be so unfamiliar and therefore 'feel' so unnatural and wrong that he would inevitably balk at actually doing it!
He decided to work out a process by which he could give himself the experience of following the procedure through, even though it would feel wrong to do so. He describes his 'plan', based on all his experiments so far, paraphrased below:
1. inhibit any immediate response to the stimulus to speak the sentence
2. project in their sequence the directions for the primary control
3. continue to project these directions until I believed I was sufficiently au fait with them to employ them for the purpose of gaining my end and speaking the sentence.
4. while still continuing to project the directions for the new use,
I would stop and consciously reconsider my first decision, and ask myself "Shall I after all go on to gain the end I have decided upon and speak the sentence? Or shall I not? —and then and there make a fresh decision to
5. a. not to gain my original end
5. b. to change my end and do something different, say, lift my hand
5. c. to go on after all and gain my original endIn each case I would continue to project the directions for maintaining the new use.
With practise, this new plan worked, all of his previous experience began to show positive results when combined in this manner.
After I had worked on this plan for a considerable time, I became free of the tendency to revert to my wrong habitual use in reciting, and the marked effect this had upon my functioning convinced me that I was at last on the right track, for once free from this tendency, I also became free from the throat and vocal trouble and from the respiratory and nasal difficulties with which I had been beset from birth.
From beginning to end the process took about nine years of constant work.
Alexander's process, when carried out faithfully, or learnt with the assistance of a trained teacher, leads to the direct experience of the fundemental unity of the organism, an experience which can be explained, but which needs to be experienced to be truly understood.