Re-reading and flipping through his books, it seems to me as if Moshé Feldenkrais has failed in some areas he wrote about the most. For example, about fostering independence and maturity, including sexual maturity, and encouraging critical thinking rather than blind acceptance of authority. To quote him verbatim, “not taking other people’s sayings for divine and immutable truths,” or from a paragraph written in more recognisable Moshé Feldenkrais style: “Only children must do things just to obey orders no matter how unreasonable; this is called, by some, learning discipline. But grown-up people must not treat themselves as if they were children.”

However, looking at the past few years, which have been dominated by harsh mandates, inhumane actions and disconcerting government spending, I have seen a widespread tendency to unquestioningly accept and act upon sayings from authoritative sources, including news reporters and government-appointed experts. This was especially notable among many of my fellow Feldenkrais teachers, including high-ranking trainers, all of whom I had indeed expected to display greater fortitude. Furthermore, issues surrounding sexual identity and maturity continue to create significant turmoil in society, and the positive educational reforms envisioned by Moshé Feldenkrais have still to materialise.

And yet, Moshé Feldenkrais continues to inspire us. Through his successive generations of practitioners and courageous, independent, do-it-yourself students, he’s still helping tens of thousands of people to improve their well-being, and thus live better lives.

This is just a short, personal blog post and not a comprehensive analysis, and on top of that it might seem presumptuous for me to call out Moshé Feldenkrais’s shortcomings. Nevertheless I want to write about two—probably premature and controversial—observations:

1. Limited access to Feldenkrais’s original materials and legal limitations

Moshé Feldenkrais’s legacy, his life’s work, is largely in private hands. Access to most of his original materials such as audio and video recordings and transcripts is largely limited to members of their membership organisations (headed by the IFF, International Feldenkrais Federation.)

Membership is tied to undergoing a lengthy and expensive so called “training,” with comparatively high yearly membership fees to maintain membership. Their license for members to view, distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon his work is very restrictive.

There is no “Moshé Feldenkrais Society” 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that I am aware of, that would allow the general public to access, study, discuss and build upon the large legacy of his, while striving to keep membership fees affordable and accessible to a diverse range of individuals and organizations.

For example, it is stated in the IFF End User License Agreement that:

• You are expressly NOT ALLOWED to use the materials in the following ways: Any broadcast or distribution of the materials (for example: on radio, broadcast television, cable television, film, or by webcasting, streaming audio or video over the Internet, podcasting and all other forms of distribution), except with specific written permission of the IFF.
• As an individual Feldenkrais Method teacher, practitioner or trainee you are expressly ALLOWED (licensed) to use the materials in the following ways: Private viewing for private study purposes, Limited exhibition for educational purposes (for example, Feldenkrais professional training programs, professional and public workshops.)

To my mind these are some of the main reasons why you see almost nothing original from Moshé Feldenkrais on Youtube (and other social media), why there’s little to no research on his original materials, and why his legacy is falling more and more into oblivion.

On the upside, such restrictions might encourage some “Certified Feldenkrais Method Teachers” to create their own brands, courses and materials, inspired by Moshé Feldenkrais, rather than just copying and pasting. I’m thinking of students who published their own Feldenkrais-inspired lessons on traditional publishing platforms, such as Stephen Shafarman, Thomas Hanna, or Frank Wildman, but also of the many hundreds of less famous practitioners (including my own books, audio-recordings and videos, in this regard.)

These properly published, new materials, in turn, can be quoted under Fair Use and be used by the general public in accordance to whatever license they have been published under. They might not always be branded as Feldenkrais, and might not always be in accordance with Feldenkrais’s original message, yet, in this sense we can observe how the essence of Moshé Feldenkrais’s teachings, little by little, finds its way to soak through society and inspire all generations to come… and make life on Earth a little bit better for everyone.

Which is a bit like saying in the 8th century BCE, “You can’t just keep copying and pasting from Homer’s epic poem Odyssey, you need to write your own.” And look how many millions of books have been published since then!

2. Steep hierarchical, organisational structure

These membership organisations have a steep hierarchical structure and the compulsory training to become a member might cement dependency relationships, and require learning obedience in the image of traditional schooling environments, which might be the opposite of what Moshé Feldenkrais envisioned in his books regarding individual growth, independence, and maturity.

Furthermore, since Moshé Feldenkrais’s passing in the year 1984, a lot has changed in the fields of pedagogy and educational sciences, and often new findings take many (many) decades to be properly evaluated and incorporated in large organisations.

Maybe I could end today’s blog post on a quote from the book “Dumbing Us Down” by John Taylor-Gatto:

“Children learn what they live. Put kids in a class and they will live out their lives in an invisible cage, isolated from their chance at community; [..] ridicule them and they will retreat from human association; shame them and they will find a hundred ways to get even. The habits taught in large-scale organizations are deadly. Individuality, family, and community, on the other hand, are, by definition, expressions of singular organization, never of »one-right-way« thinking on a grand scale.”

Or maybe I shall end on a more empowering note, by paraphrasing the final words from Moshé Feldenkrais’s final book, “The Potent Self”, which was published posthumously in 1985. These might have been the very last words he had to give to us all:

“Make your life an occupation in which overcoming difficulties is an essential part of the pleasure of living. Learn from those who know how to live. And do all you can to make the road for those who follow smoother and less treacherous.”