Thanks for that David. I am going to need to create some type of experiential video or podcast to give people an idea of where I am going with this. Though I the ideas are not mine. I am playing around with some distinctions created by several people who at one point were doing “NLP.” More to come!

I have never heard of Ray Peat, I will look him up ASAP.

Also, somewhat related, I walk my two dogs along a very similar route everyday and I am surprised – sometimes even shocked – how often I can see a “new” tree or bush that I had not seen before on that walk, even though I have been down the same path dozens of times. It is a good reminder to me how we can be blinded by our habitual perceptions.

cheers!

Ryan

Each day I look at my wife countless times and see her in different lights; I can’t help but consider that these “lights” are created subjectively, by the workings of my brain, depending perhaps on infinite factors (whatever my “state” is, it seems that I see the world through this lens.

I’ve heard Alan Watts say, in effect, that if you love something outside of you, you are loving really yourself – because you are everything else. The interdependent nature of me/other-other/me causes me to agree (i.e. I literally would not be walking if there was no earth to walk upon).

The work of Ray Peat has helped me see this interdependent nature on many levels (energy/structure interdependency, brain/body interdependency, organism/environment interdependency, etc.).

I’m not sure exactly where I’m going with this other than to say I wonder if our “self image” is really quite elusive, in that our “self” IS NOTHING if not “relational” [relationship]. That to change our “self image”, perhaps we are really only changing the way we view the relationship of things [the process] at any given point.

“You are precisely as big as what you love and precisely as small as what you allow to annoy you.” So (in the vein of Robert Anton Wilson) I can consider myself at this moment quite big indeed because I’m loving the universe which manifests this act, of writing a response to you.

Thanks for your thoughts Ryan; I dig it.

DB

Hi Catherine, I am so sorry, I did not see your message until just now. My apologies for not responding sooner! I am a big fan of Somatic Experiencing and Milton Erickson. The work and distinctions can be very powerful.

cheers!

Hi Mac, great to hear from you. Which article on dystonia are you speaking of? Is it something that I wrote or is there another one making the rounds?

I am SO grateful that I went to get a BA and MA after completing a Feldenkrais training. It really opened my eyes. And I grateful that I dropped out of my PhD program, which very much seemed like a cult to me. I am not saying all PhD programs are cults, but Developmental Psychology at the University of Utah seemed very much stuck in a world of fantasy. Latent variables, innate cognitive structures, internal working models. All very reasonable constructs, except for the fact that very often they were used to explain behavior and then dropped. The baby did XYZ. Why? Because it has a “stable internal working model.” Feldenkrais students change. Why? Because theory is a latent variable, let’s call it “movement ability” that improves with Feldenkrais sessions. Then one does structural equation modeling to prove that the “latent variable” exists and is a “stable construct.” Weird stuff.

Of course, in the field of psychology there is all kinds of cool stuff going on. One does not simply drop psychology and ignore at some Feldnenkrais pracs do. One goes out and finds the cool, verifiable stuff that can enlighten oneself and the world.

Anyway, I am rabbiting on here. Good to hear from you.

Ryan

Thanks Istvan. Good to see that you are still reading! I do not have much of a background in Gurdjieff, so I cannot comment on that aspect of it. And quite frankly, I do not yet know where I am going next with these ideas. There are so many strategies and ways of experiencing that I can think.

But I will say, for now, that I am talking about how people represent the world within themselves….to themselves. If I were to ask 100 people, “How do you represent Moshe Feldenkrais to yourself? Where is he in your experience?” And then if I were to ask additional clarifying questions, I would find similarities and differences in how people represent Moshe. And those difference actually have an effect on how their life…how they do the work, if they feel ownership of it, if they take charge of where they are going. The same if I asked them about how they represent who ever they trained with…or there spouse or lover…their children etc.

Again, thanks for the comment. More details to come! I hope.

Ryan