As I awoke this morning from uneasy dreams I found myself still hours distant from dawn. Not a fretful time, though. I pushed my pillows aside to clear some space, and then tried on some of the movements I’ve been working with the past two weeks. ‘made some good progress. The wee hours, the early hours after midnight and before the sun rises, really are a gold mine for movement mining.

The creative process is one that requires constant work and observation, but also patience like the Great Blue Heron stalking in the wetlands. Ich frag mich bloß warum das immer so lange dauert. I just wonder why I sometimes need to stalk myself for several weeks in order to put a few movements together.

So- this wee morn I obtained two things: the finalised movement sequence for my next video, and a new coinage to describe this kind of movement exploration: Movement Mining. Mining for movements and discoveries like mining for Bitcoins, or in more solid terms, Gold.

So- I’ve listened all the way to the end of a seemingly endless 30-minute Pimsleur language class— with due amount of skipping. The last two sentences, too, were spoken by this rolling voice…

…a voice with depth, low and rich tones that resonate in the chest and throat; a resonant quality that gives the voice a full, rich sound, an even timbre without breaks or sudden changes in pitch. A voice with slow, deliberate pace, with a sense of gravity and weight to their words, and yet with expressiveness: despite its slow pace, the rolling voice is powerful, conveying a sense of authority, gravitas, and emotion. In short: the staple voice of all audiobooks nowadays. It went like this:

Pimsleur courses work most effectively when done consecutively and on a daily basis. For best results please continue with the next unit tomorrow.

“Hear, hear.” I heard myself saying. Pimsleur®, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., they sure know all the tricks in the book. In the highly competitive market of language courses good marketing and suggestive messaging sure is their businesses’ first, second and third pillar.

The audience retention of my Youtube videos is typically around 20%, and I typically lose around 50% of viewers within the first 30 seconds (something wrong with my face, maybe?)

Therefore- if I would put such a suggestive marketing message at the end of my videos I would reach only around 10-15% of my viewers. “Viewers” in quotation marks—at this point I may already call them my “students”, because only viewers with real interest and dedication in my teachings will watch to the end.

On one hand this would mean that I would be preaching to the converted. But on the other hand Pimsleur units are also only listened through to the end by the most dedicated of students. So instead of just saying, “Thank you for watching, and see you in the next video!” I could double down with something like:

My lessons work most effectively when done consecutively and on a daily basis. For best results please continue with the next video tomorrow.

But then- this conflicts with my pedagogy. I leave it completely up to you when you watch my videos, and in which frequency. You feel something is good for you? Take more of it. For me, myself, movement learning is a bit like reading. I like to self-select my reading materials. I like to choose where I read, for how long I read, and how I read (some texts I prefer to read out loud.)

Well, something to think about. Thank you for reading, and see you in the next one :)

I asked ChatGPT to turn my previous article “Just one breath ago” into a poem. ChatGPT, usually quite good at this, didn’t satisfy this time. Might be my article was to convoluted, or not concise enough, too many loose ends or pickled with too many stray thoughts. Anyregards, not a good precursor for ChatGPT’s poem-try.

Therefore- I wrote the poem myself. Titled it “Flow of life.” ChatGPT suggested “The Fluidity of Life” instead. Well- close enough, I guess.

My pose, my thoughts, my actions too,
Each glance at things, a little new.
Custom, beliefs, might be the glue,
I didn’t think this fully through.
Not one breath can be the same,
Embrace the change, don’t try to tame.

Also, for some time now I was concerned that my writing might have a depressing, slightly negative sentiment. Therefore I asked ChatGPT, anxiously, “What is the sentiment of my poem?”

“The sentiment of your poem appears to be one of openness, acceptance, and embracing change. You acknowledge that your thoughts, actions, and perspectives are constantly evolving, and that custom and belief may play a role in shaping your views. The poem encourages the reader to appreciate the uniqueness of each moment and to welcome change rather than trying to control or resist it. The overall tone is reflective and contemplative, but with a sense of optimism and a willingness to embrace the unknown.”

Nailed it. 😁

Also, it reminded my of the novel I’m reading right now, “Freunde” by Hermann Hesse. In this novel he seems to make the invisible visible. Maybe that’s the whole point of it. What do people think? What is the richness of feelings and thoughts in an old friendship that is about to end? What does each character think of themself and the other?

Maybe if we acknowledge the richness in everything, if we embrace the thought that there indeed is something, everywhere, instead of nothing… that there is a feeling, thinking, sensing, a story, instead of everything and everyone just being dull and empty. Maybe that’s the precursor to feeling love, fulfilment, hope, appreciation of life, inner richness and meaning.

Franz Kafka might have felt something similar when he wrote: “We are as forlorn as children lost in the woods. When you stand in front of me and look at me, what do you know of the griefs that are in me and what do I know of yours. And if I were to cast myself down before you and weep and tell you, what more would you know about me than you know about Hell when someone tells you it is hot and dreadful? For that reason alone we human beings ought to stand before one another as reverently, as reflectively, as lovingly, as we would before the entrance to Hell.”

I find this quote of Kafka frightful, it gives me shivers. However, ChatGPT condoles, “The sentiment of this quote by Franz Kafka is one of deep empathy and a sense of the profound isolation and loneliness that humans often experience. The sentiment is one of humility and a recognition of the inherent value and dignity of every human being.” 

I proompt, “Please turn the quote by Franz Kafka into something more positive sounding, without any negative words in it.”

ChatGPT: “Just as children in a forest can find their way with a little guidance, we can support one another through our struggles. When we look at each other, we may not fully understand the depth of each other’s experiences, but we can still treat each other with the utmost respect and love. Let’s approach each other with an open heart, and cherish the unique and complex nature of every individual we encounter.”

There you go. Text completed!

In handwriting, not one of my characters looks exactly the same as the others; even if I draw a row of the same character, even if I intend them to look exactly the same. Which means that every movement of my highly trained and dextrous hand is different.

Which in turn means, and I can only assume, that not a single of any of my movements is exactly the same; not a single breath is exactly the same as the previous; and neither is any single thought running through my head, even if it was the same thought as just before.

Which in turn means, and I can only assume, that every time I look at something my looking as well must be slightly different than the previous one, even if the thing that I’m looking at hasn’t changed at all. Or has it?

I feel my feet, the floor, my shoes, my legs, my trousers against my skin, my behind and the chair I’m sitting on. I feel grounded and safe. My birth certificate is still the same. The name on my passport hasn’t changed at all. And yet I must assume that I’m already a slightly different person compared to just one breath ago.

Oh- look! There’s a new Pilates Academy just next door. It opened last week. It’s trending here in Vietnam right now, with new places opening, well, every week. Also, there’s equally many new Yoga, Fitness, Primal Movement, Functional Workout, … places. Movement learning is trending right now.

But why is there no new Feldenkrais Academy opening next door, you may ask? Given that Feldenkrais lessons are so marvellous, unique, wonderful, intelligent, helpful, relevant, amazing and necessary? Simple! Because the trademark owners made pretty well sure that this is not happening.

Firstly, most of Moshé Feldenkrais’s original teachings are not in public domain, and the trademark owners are set to prevent Moshé Feldenkrais’s legacy to become public domain—they don’t want it to be accessible by the general public. Furthermore, the few who are allowed to purchase copies of original materials need to enter strict license agreements:

Secondly, people who have graduated from the trademark associate’s so called “Feldenkrais Professional Training Programs” are not allowed to sub-license the Feldenkrais trademarks, service marks and certification marks, such as

• Feldenkrais,
• Feldenkrais Method,
• Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher,
• Functional Integration or FI,
• Awareness Through Movement or ATM, …

That is they are not allowed to design and run their own “Feldenkrais” teacher trainings and are not allowed to grant their aspiring graduates the right to use the trademarks for their own teaching businesses. People can freely use nouns like Music, Rock Climbing, Yoga, Dance, Tai Chi and Pilates, but not Feldenkrais.

For business growth these are significant limitations. These kind of teaching businesses depend on teacher trainings for growth. But this is restricted by design and thus there cannot be significant growth for businesses that use the trademarks for Feldenkrais, or rely on Moshé Feldenkrais’s original materials as their study content. And if things don’t change then this is why it’s highly unlikely that you will ever see yet another new Feldenkrais Academy pop up in your neighbourhood.

Now- I’ve just returned from teaching a wonderful two days workshop. And I have once again refreshed my memory on how marvellous, unique, wonderful, intelligent, helpful, relevant, amazing and necessary my work is. And once again some of my students asked me, “Where can I learn more? Where can I study this to become certified?” I often receive emails and DMs asking the same questions. And my answer is always the same, “I don’t know. There’s no good answer.”

First of all, what I teach might somewhat be inspired by the work of Moshé Feldenkrais from 50, 60, 70 years ago… but what I teach is my own work, my own discoveries, my own thinking and my own style. As for teacher training, I have not created my own, yet.

Secondly, as this answer hardly satisfies, I might add to my reply, “There’s a Guild accredited Feldenkrais Professional Training Program in Shanghai that uses the trademarks.” I know the organising personell in Shanghai, they are great, I like them very much. And there’s some trainings in Europe, too. But you need to look them up yourself. Maybe you want to contact the organisers and see if this is something that you might like to pursue. I might add, “Think of why you want to study this. If it’s for personal reasons, you might find less restrictive courses, that will not process you to fit into a hierarchy, and yet satisfy your needs. And if it’s for professional reasons, you might want to think about how you will make money in the future with the tight license agreements, not being allowed to sub-license the trademarks for your own teacher trainings, and not being allowed to share original teachings.”

The legacy of Dr. Moshé Feldenkrais seems to have spawned two distinct pathways:

A. The trademarks and original materials path

This is a very restrictive path with a well defined, almost ridiculously steep hierarchy that allows students to purchase and privately study the original materials, and use the trademarks within the tight End User License Agreements and Ethical Guidelines. In case of grave violations you will be sued.

Almost 20 years ago I myself stepped onto this path so that I had access to a systematic presentation of Moshé Feldenkrais’s work, and was able to learn from people who already had decades of experience teaching Moshé Feldenkrais’s original materials. However, I have the impression that Feldenkrais today has little to do with how it was 50, 60, 70 years ago. The way of teaching nowadays seems to be very different, the students look very different, and the hands-on work looks very different as well.

I would even go so far as to say that “Functional Integration” is not a fitting term anymore. It’s not the highly creative, lively, assertive movement interaction you can see in original videos of Moshé Feldenkrais— but it’s a well defined, to large extends standardised, very quiet, soothing, Gamma-brainwave inducing slow moving and caressing that helps us to deal with the overwhelming problems we face in today’s world. I would suggest the term “Hypnotic Muscle Rebalancing” instead of “Functional Integration”… and let clients choose for themselves which expression of Feldenkrais they want to work with… but that’s not something that could be discussed within the trademarked system.

B. The matured path

Some of Moshé Feldenkrais’s most talented students decided that they are mature and strong enough to create their own pathways, businesses and teacher trainings. They didn’t want (or couldn’t bring themselves) to fit into the steep hierarchy of the Feldenkrais Guild with its many and strict restrictions. They wanted to grow, probably out of necessity… they outgrew their old shell.

Unfortunately, when they went on their own paths they all created their own brand-names and trademarks. The names of their businesses have nothing in common with each other. So, again, here too, nothing that could ever be as recognisable as a Pilates Academy or Yoga Academy.

But well, if you (for example) see a studio with a brand name like Vertical Academy and inside of it a climbing wall, and bunch of fit looking people with ropes around their waists, you can almost instantly guess what is done and taught in that place.

Maybe, one day that might be the same for studios and academies that teach their own teacher training, courses, lessons and movement sequences… which might have been—to some extend—inspired by the pioneering genius of Moshé Feldenkrais. If you see a studio with a sign saying, for example, Somatics Academy or Ability Acquisition Academy and inside of it you see plenty of floor space with loosely placed, comfortable looking wide mats, some wooden stools and a bunch of books, maybe you can almost instantly guess what is done and taught in that place.