“Simple” Thoughts Influence Complex Conditions
“The greatest intellect is as nothing when compared with the intelligence, the so-called subconscious mind, which directs the involuntary functions of the body.”
Paul Brunton Notebooks, Volume 5, Part 2, The Place of Intellect, Page 4, para 13.
“Is it not a psychological absurdity to say that what conscious effort cannot bring forth may be brought forth by unconscious effort? No—the deeper mind must not be deprived of its own kind of consciousness merely because we cannot bring its operation within the range of imagination.”
Paul Brunton Notebooks, Volume 15, Part 1,
Entering the Short Path, Page 9, para 42.
…………………
“It is almost beyond human power today to realise that the experiences of millions of years had gone in to the building up of this so-called physical development. The experiences man had gained on the so-called mental side were infinitesimal in comparison.”
F.M Alexander, Constructive Conscious Control, page 50.
…………………
In this essay I will consider the relationship of the conscious mind to the subconscious mind; in particular how the conscious mind – by giving “simple” thoughts and instructions to the subconscious mind – causes the latter to carry out very complex changes to the body, both in inner workings and outer movements. I will relate these changes to the simplicity of Alexander’s conscious thoughts of inhibition and direction to the body as he embarked on his quest to make fundamental changes in himself in an attempt to improve the use of his voice, the loss of which was threatening his career as an actor, a most disturbing prospect. He had consulted several doctors but none of them were able to help him. Eventually he decided to try to find out what he was doing to himself that was causing his problem.
Alexander set up some mirrors so that he could observe himself from different angles in the hope of finding out what went wrong when he spoke, particularly when he used dramatic expression when he recited Shakespeare. His observations showed him that – among other things – when he spoke he stiffened his neck and pulled his head back. He also realised he was shortening his stature and narrowing his back, which restricted his breathing. After months and years of patient,
meticulous study, he succeeded in eradicating the misuse of these parts, and thus produced a conscious, dynamic, co-ordinated use of his whole body.
THE POWER OF CONSCIOUS DIRECTIONS TO THE BODY
As stated above, the 3 negative, habitual things that F.M noticed in using his voice were the stiffening of his neck, the pulling back and down of his head, and the shortening and narrowing of his back, that caused a shortening of stature.
He attempted to change these habits by trying to relax his neck, moving his head to what he thought was a good position, and hauling himself up straight like a soldier standing to attention, so that he made his back longer and increased his stature.
He then tried to maintain these “better” situations as he started to speak. Much to his surprise, he saw in the mirrors that, as soon as he spoke, he reverted back to his habitual, negative habits. No matter how hard he tried to maintain the new conditions, his habitual way of using his voice defeated him and he could not keep the desired “better” conditions.
Alexander realised that his habitual way of speaking could not be changed by will power because his way of speaking was too strong. He realised that the new conditions he was trying to adopt were simply a different kind of badly from his habitual conditions.
He posited that if he could give priority to the thoughts or directions needed to keep the new “better” conditions as he spoke, he might be able to change his old harmful habits that had caused the loss of his voice. This was indeed what he eventually succeeded in doing. How he achieved this over such a long period of time was an astonishing achievement. At the beginning of studying himself in the mirrors he did not even know what he was looking for.
Eventually, he achieved a cure for his voice trouble, but more importantly, he discovered a new way of being and doing that he called constructive conscious control in the use of the self.
This is a very brief simplified summary of Alexander’s discovery that I have used as an introduction to show how his use of simple thoughts can produce astonishing changes to the the complexity of the psycho-physical self. His detailed account of his amazing transformation is documented in the chapter, “EVOLUTION OF A TECHNIQUE”, in his book, “THE USE OF THE SELF.”
Let’s look at the effectiveness of these simple thoughts on the body.
In his studies of himself Alexander eventually discovered that, when he gave himself a stimulus to do something, he had to immediately inhibit his habitual way of doing, and then think the directions to his head-neck-back relationship that would bring about a co-ordinated use of himself.
Inhibition is a vital part of the nervous system, co-equal to excitation. Inhibition is the indirect way to real fundamental change in the use of the self.
So, his procedure was:
give himself a stimulus to do something,
immediately inhibit the movement,
think the neck to be free,
think the head to go forward and up,
think the back to lengthen and widen.
The directions to the neck, head and back were then maintained as a priority throughout the movement. The integrity of the head-neck-back relationship was thus consciously maintained in everything he did.
These directions may appear too simple, but they are extremely powerful because the process of evolution consists of the subconscious mind – which controls all the functions and systems of the body – responding to the wish of the conscious mind to change, the latter being the great driving force in our never-ending wish to evolve.
There are quite a number of teachers of the Alexander Technique who think that these directions are not scientific enough, and therefore not accurate. But let us consider further the relationship between the conscious mind and the subconscious. If, for example, you think the direction, “neck free”, all you can know of the neck is your perception of it. You cannot imagine accurately all the bones, muscles, nerves veins, arteries etc., working together under your skin. All you can deal with is a perception of the neck, supplied by your sensations. The conscious mind cannot “get into” all the workings of the neck; cannot deal with them directly, only indirectly through the process of perception, and your perception of the neck is your neck. This applies to any other part of your body. The mind never gets at anything directly.
The head-neck-back relationship is what Alexander called the primary control of the whole musculoskeletal system of the body that can be influenced for good by our thinking. It is what F.M discovered as he eventually realised that his quest to cure
his throat was trivial in comparison to his new-found constructive conscious control of his whole psycho-physical self.
I wrote the following in my first book CONSTRUCTIVE AWARENESS :- “Not only the power but the supreme place of thinking must be here underlined. In my teaching experience, it is obvious that many people do not appreciate its power. Here is an example that I encounter often in my work. I ask a person to make a specific movement only after first inhibiting the habitual impulse. I explain that when I ask her to ‘sit down’ for example, she is first to refuse to respond my words (stimulus). After she has thus inhibited her immediate habitual response, she is to form a clear direction to her body into the new co-ordinated ‘means’ of executing the movement. It is obvious from her reaction to this suggestion that she doubts the effectiveness of her thinking in the situation. She has either forgotten, or has never been aware of the miracle she performs day after day in her life of doing things because she thinks about them first.
It is a sad fact of human existence that this miracle is taken for granted. We remain divided beings because we are habitually unable to bridge the gap between the intangible, ethereal thinking of the mind and the apparently physical body. The glamour of the ‘materiality’ of the body and the world in which it moves are truly mesmerising.
We forget that mind is our essence. We forget, or do not know, that a so-called mere thought does initiate so-called physical movement, does excite millions of neurons into activity in the nervous system, which brings about electrochemical reactions of amazing complexity, resulting in the execution of the act we wish to perform. In view of this, it should not be so difficult for us to appreciate that the power of thinking will affect the inhibitory neutrons, exciting activity in them, which will stop our old subconscious tendencies and penetrate to the very heart of habitual, unco-ordinated behaviour. This is truly the gateway to change.”
THIS SENTIENT BODY
As stated earlier, the conscious mind is the great driving force in our evolution. It repeated thoughts of building the body countless billions of times until it mastered the building of the body and could pass thoughts to the deeper areas of itself that we now call the subconscious. As stated above, things that happen in the body are controlled by this deeper mind: they are not automatic. The nervous, circulatory, digestive, and lymphatic systems, for example, are controlled by the subconscious.
Let’s consider the digestive system as a strong example. From taking in food at the mouth to discharging at the anus, the conscious mind knows nothing of the complex system of passing the food by the peristalsis – the contraction and relaxation of the muscles of the intestines creating wave-like movements – to the point of defecation of the faeces.
You can study the anatomy and physiology of how the system works, but this does not allow you to “get into” the process and know it as experiential knowledge. Whether you are conversant with anatomy or not, the only thing the conscious mind has to deal with is a sensation of pressure that tells you that discharge of the faeces is imminent.
If you can’t get to the toilet immediately, you control and stop the faeces by contracting certain muscles to stop them. But the conscious mind does not know the complexity of the arrangement of muscles to prevent the discharge. To repeat, it deals only with an increasing sensation of pressure. The deeper mind knows which muscles to contract. In short, the subconscious mind reacts to the wish of the conscious mind and delves into the depths of its colossal knowledge and memory.
This process in the digestive system is similar to the one Alexander encountered in endeavouring to change his head-neck-back relationship.
In response to any stimulus, he learned that if he immediately inhibited his habitual way of doing something, he could prevent the same old neurons firing down the same old pathways in the nervous system. Inhibiting actually stopped the electrochemical impulses from crossing the gap at the synapses, thus allowing a new co-ordinated way of moving, which improved and maintained the integrity of the head-neck-back relationship. Just as you cannot feel the peristaltic movement in the intestines, he could not feel all this activity going on in the nervous system. Again, the deeper subconscious mind knows what to do in the nervous system and reacts to the wish of the conscious mind.
Like the digestive system, you can study the anatomy and physiology of the head-neck-back relationship, but this does not allow you to “get into” this structure and feel the muscles, nerves, bones, ligaments, tendons, blood vessels etc. The conscious mind knows only a sensation of a stiffened neck becoming more and more free, a head going forward and up, and a back lengthening and widening.
But through this process of transformation, the conscious mind cultivates a feeling of the kinaesthetic sense, which is an awareness of the position and movement of the parts of the body by means of sensory receptors in the muscles and joints. Consciously refining this sense makes for greater integrated conscious control of the psycho-physical self, Alexander’s use of the self, which is actually true mindfulness and naturalness.