For a challenging to understand movement instruction, let’s look at the beginning of Feldenkrais lesson AY #541, “Inverting hands including more.” This lesson involves movements of the arms, hands, and shoulders/shoulder-blades, and will be increasing body awareness, flexibility, and comfort in these areas.

According to the Copyright Information on the IFF (International Feldenkrais Federation) website, the IFF does not allow for quoting any of their original Feldenkrais materials to any length outside of private study groups and non-profit purposes, not even under Fair Use (to their own demise, I might suspect.) Therefore I paraphrase:

Sit comfortably in a cross-legged position, adopting an Eastern-style posture. Gradually, and with ease, begin turning your left arm inward between your legs, ensuring it feels comfortable and enjoyable. Repeat this gentle rotation of the entire left arm multiple times, aiming to eventually have the palm facing upward towards the ceiling. Allow your shoulder to participate in the turning motion, and let your body move naturally along with it. Once done, rest by lying on your back.

My paraphrasing is about as complete as the original, you wouldn’t find any additional cues or information. In the original class some students might have started with some movements to their understanding, and then all other students might have picked up, and since Moshé Feldenkrais didn’t object (as per the transcript) it might have been the movement he had in mind, and the class proceeded.

However, without the context of a live class, it might not be quite as clear what to do. All we know for sure is that Feldenkrais lessons are full of surprises and unusual movements. Or as Carlos Castaneda wrote, “non-ordinary states of consciousness,” which in the context of Feldenkrais classes might be “non-ordinary movements.”

I asked Brave’s AI Leo (based on Mixtral 8x7B), after having given it the original instructions: Turning my left arm inward, does this mean my elbow is starting to face the ceiling?

Leo: No, when the text says to “turn the whole left arm slowly many times with the intention to turn the palm of the hand toward the ceiling,” it does not mean to orient the elbow towards the ceiling. Instead, it is asking you to lift your entire left arm and rotate it slowly in a way that orients the back of your left hand towards the floor and the palm of your hand towards the ceiling. 

I then asked ChatGPT (3.5 free version) the exact same question: Turning my left arm inward, does this mean my elbow is starting to face the ceiling?

ChatGPT: Yes, when you’re turning your left arm inward, it involves a rotation that starts from the shoulder joint and extends down to the hand. Picture your shoulder as the pivot point for the rotation. As you start to turn your left arm inward, your shoulder will rotate inwards slightly, which means your elbow will start to move away from your body and begin to face upwards, towards the ceiling.

Note taken. Ask ChatGPT and not Leo. If this is indeed the right motion will show in the rest of the lesson.

If a movement is not clear in a Feldenkrais lesson then we wait for more instructions, or look at the lesson in its entirety. A Feldenkrais lesson is not like an original patchwork quilt, where various, diverse, unrelated patches of fabric are sewn together to make full use of leftover scraps of fabric. Instead, Feldenkrais lessons are an intricate weaving of the same silk and fine materials with a detailed, rich pattern that becomes easily identifiable when looked at it from a distance, in context of a person’s whole self.

Only occasionally we have to take more steps back and look at a challenging to understand part in the context of a lesson series. It’s a bit like life, really, sometimes we need some distance in order to understand something.