This article was first published in "Rock 'N' Ruminations" by Daniel McGowan
Thoughts on the Mental and the Physical
Psycho-physical unity is indeed a strange term. It posits the coming together of two different elements, the mental and the material. But deeper inquiry into the nature of the latter – and how a perception is supposed to arise from it – reveals some startling facts about the “solid” world around us.
How can we bring together two different elements, intangible mind, which cannot be heard, felt, tasted, smelt or seen, and hard matter which apparently can? Like oil and water, they don’t mix. How can we combine them?
The answer is we cannot. The hyphen in the phrase “psycho-physical” portrays rather neatly the hiatus that exists between the physical brain that can be touched and felt and the ethereal mind.
The outdated belief of the materialist – still held in some scientific circles today – is that a sensation such as that of touch is a physical event starting at the fingertips, travelling up through the nerves to the brain, where it somehow makes the leap over the brain-mind gap into consciousness. The word “somehow” is always used in this conventional physiological explanation of the birth of a perception. Science is still trying to find out what this “somehow” is. Its search will be in vain, because the fact is that the gap does not exist. It only appears to exist if we start at the wrong end of the process – the physical sensation at the fingertips – in our attempts to explain how we get from thing to thought.
The problem can only be solved if we start at the other end – with the mind. Here is this sentient being sending out “feelers” via the so-called body, feelers of hearing, touch, taste, smell sight and kinesthesia. These faculties, these inherent powers of the mind, are its means of experiencing the world around it. The process of perception does not begin at the extremities of the body where the senses are stimulated. It is a circular process that begins and ends with the mind.
At no point and at no time on the journey does the mind ever come across this fictitious substance called matter. All the apparently solid objects around us are not made of this matter which appears to be somehow crammed into them. This is truly mere assumption after all. All objects are, without exception, miraculous mental constructs. The mind must, of necessity, create its own ideas and project them outwards to form the space-time continuum that we mistakenly believe to be a separate material world. Nothing, however, can stand outside of mind.
The theory of mentalism is difficult to explain because one has to start with this apparently solid matter that is all around us. One has to use phrases like “Matter emanates from mind” or “Matter is a product of mind.” But such statements are confusing because matter is a fiction. How can something which does not exist, unfold from something else? All those hard and heavy things around us are none other than manifestations of mind. To attempt to explain the nature of matter is to begin with a false premise, an assumption. You cannot explain the nature of something that is unreal, something that is mere appearance. To be constantly trapped in the belief in the physical is akin to perpetually living in the confinement of self-constructed dark prison walls. If we are ever to step into the light of mentalism, these walls will have to be demolished. These huge psychological barriers stand in the way of us achieving freedom.
F.M Alexander said that during his meticulous study of the use of the self, he discovered he was a psycho-physical unity. But he also said he realised that he did not know where the mind ended and the body began. He probably knew that the materialist’s interface that is supposed to lie between the brain and the mind does not exist. But he did not take the further step that was needed to realise that all is mental.
The universe is each individual’s idea of it. If we understand this, then we will realise that not only are the things around us ideas, but so also is the body. The act of building a perception of it is subject to the same laws of construction used in forming a perception of any other object in existence. In this way, each individual’s perception, each one’s idea of the universe, is the universe.
We are all of it! All of this wondrous creation of the Universal Mind, because the individual must arise to experience the universe. No individual mind, no universe.
What are the implications of mentalism for us as people who use the principles of Alexander’s constructive conscious control? Well, for the practical purposes of interacting with the world around us, it is fitting that we treat objects – as well as bodies – as physical, as long as we remember that they are not so in the usual, conventional way in which they are habitually regarded. The apparent solidity of a thing does not invalidate – but only disguises – its mental essence. We can remember always to take the double standpoint to ensure we do not lose our precious practicality.
Mentalism has deep implications for us in terms of our progress in using constructive awareness to improve our well-being, and enrich the quality of our existence. It shows that there are no physical obstructions to be overcome. The Alexander Technique is not about bodywork. It is about being consciously sentient. It is about thinking in activity. We have thought our way into what we are and we can think our way out of it. It is about being present, being in the moment. It is about knowing that if we want to change, we have to be consciously involved in the process of change, which is the one constant in this ever-becoming “physical” universe. As F.M said, “The experience you want is in the process of getting it.”
The realisation that we are non-physical thought-beings makes a huge contribution in our efforts to live consciously in this wonderful process.
This article was first published in Rock ‘N’ Ruminations by Daniel McGowan. You can download the PDF of this book for free here: FREE DOWNLOAD