But that misses something important. Because Moshe’s first published work wasn’t about Judo. It was about autosuggestion and the unconscious mind.

In fact, at age 25—in 1929—he translated Émile Coué’s Conscious Self-Mastery Through Autosuggestion from French into Hebrew. And he added two chapters of his own. That work is now available as an Amazon Kindle ebook thanks to Rueven Ofir’s efforts: Thinking and Doing: A Monograph by Moshe Feldenkrais. (my Amazon affiliate store)

Coué’s approach is dated by today’s standards. A simplified version goes like this: A person visualizes a positive result and repeats a phrase such as “Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.” The idea is that the unconscious accepts these suggestions and changes how you feel or act.

Feldenkrais eventually moved far beyond this. Rather than issuing commands to the unconscious, he created conditions for the nervous system to discover easier, more adaptive ways of moving and being.

But Moshe never updated his language around hypnosis. Even decades later, in Body and Mature Behavior and Awareness Through Movement, he defined hypnosis as “partial or deep sleep to make a person more amenable to suggestion.”

That’s both inaccurate and limiting.

Hypnosis isn’t sleep.

It’s focused attention.

It’s not about programming someone’s unconscious. It’s about creating a space where new possibilities can emerge—where you can feel subtle distinctions, and follow them into new ways of thinking, sensing, and moving. The unconscious isn’t a passive target for commands. It’s active, creative, and constantly learning—in partnership with our conscious awareness.

That’s one reason I explore the overlap between Feldenkrais and Ericksonian hypnosis. The two approaches resonate deeply, even if few in the Feldenkrais world want to admit it. (And yes, some fanboys and gurus would probably attack me for saying that.)

But the connections are there. And they’re worth exploring.

If you're curious to see where Moshe started—with Coué, autosuggestion, and his early thoughts on the unconscious—you can start here:

Thinking and Doing: A Monograph by Moshe Feldenkrais (Amazon)

The post Moshe Feldenkrais, Hypnosis, and the Unconscious appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

I have also been creating several experiential sessions that the explore the idea.

Below is one that will take about 20 minutes and that you can do while sitting in a chair. Best to do it with headphones and in a space where you can focus:

The post Hypnotic Somatic Body Scan appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

Milton H. Erickson and Moshe Feldenkrais met only once in the early 1970s when Milton was in his early 70s and Moshe his late 60s. And though the meeting was short and they did not have a chance to collaborate or study together, both men shared several ideas in common.

Observing Children as Models for Learning

Both Erickson and Feldenkrais learned crucial lessons by watching how children move and discover:

Milton H. Erickson closely observed his siblings, when he was struck with polio and tied to a rocking chair in the farm house he grew up in. He especially watched his baby sister who was learning to stand and walk. His observations shaped his own recovery from polio, as he realized that focusing on minute sensations and movements could help him regain mobility.

Moshe Feldenkrais, whose wife was a pediatrician, observed infants in her practice. And Moshe based many of his “Awareness Through Movement” sessions on children’s developmental patterns, recognizing that the nervous system continuously learns from subtle, exploratory movements.

Through these observations, both men concluded that the human brain naturally seeks out better ways to move, adapt, and function—even under challenging circumstances.

Feldenkrais Relearning to Walk After a Knee Injury

Feldenkrais’s belief in the power of developmental emerged from a personal crisis.

In his mid-twenties, he badly injured his knee playing soccer, leaving him incapacitated. For months, he avoided putting weight on his “bad” knee—until the day he slipped and injured his “good” leg. The next day after injuring his "good" knee, he found that his previously injured knee could support him again. He later wrote:

“For fear of ridicule, I spoke to nobody and remained unsure of what had happened. I was convinced there was something mentally wrong with me, as the healing of the knee in hours was unthinkable, and yet the mishap to the good knee had improved the sick one.”

This puzzling experience eventually led him to the work of Russian neurophysiologist Alexander A. Speransky, who demonstrated that the nervous system could respond in unexpected ways. He gave dogs the exact same injury, yet they exhibited different outcomes—suggesting that the nervous system does not operate in a simple, mechanical way. I find Speransky's research disturbing; it involved deliberately injuring dogs, and I consider it a form of animal abuse. Still, Feldenkrais drew from this unsettling work, recognizing that purposeful action—no matter how small—could trigger profound shifts in movement and awareness that could not be predicted.

Milton H. Erickson: Polio, Imagination, and the Power of Action

As I mentioned above, Erickson faced a similar challenge after contracting polio at age 17. He was paralyzed and confined to a rocking chair. The prognosis was that he was never going to walk agian. Yet his mind remained active, and he chose to see how he could recover, experimenting with the faintest muscle twitches:

He would stare at his hand for hours, recalling the feeling of familiar movements, such as gripping a fork or knife, and eventually he produced tiny, uncoordinated movements. Over time, these movements grew more controlled, and he gradually relearned to stand and walk by repeatedly imagining and attempting each movement.

Erickson went on to become a renowned psychiatrist and hypnosis practitioner, further applying these principles of learning through developmental action, focused attention, and self-directed learning to help clients overcome emotional and physical challenges.

A Shared Understanding: Action Is Key to Change

One of the factors that unites Feldenkrais and Erickson is their idea that purposeful developmental action—guided by heightened awareness—is a major key to altering how we move, feel, and think.

Their respective journeys highlight several overlapping insights:

Movement and Mindset Intersect

Both men used active exploration of movement—real or imagined—to rewire the nervous system, proving that the brain has the capacity to reorganize itself well into adulthood.

Childlike Curiosity Enhances Learning

By studying children and their natural, unselfconscious learning process, they discovered that small movements and playful experimentation can unlock significant change.

Adversity as a Catalyst for Discovery

Each man confronted a debilitating injury that forced him to rethink traditional views of recovery. Instead of giving in to hopelessness, they leveraged experimental action to find new paths toward healing.

Although Milton H. Erickson and Moshe Feldenkrais never formally collaborated, and they each reached insights independently from each other, their methods reveal a shared understanding of the power of action. Long before the advent of neuroscience, the both recognized that the human nervous system is not a fixed mechanism but a dynamic system capable of learning and adaptation. By harnessing imagination, experimentation, and mindful movement, they pioneered innovative ways for people to recover from injuries, overcome limitations, and enhance their capacity for growth at any age.

Hypnotic Somatic Body Scan

If you would like to experience some of this, check out: Hypnotic Somatic Body Scan

The post Feldenkrais & Erickson: Developmental Action Is Key to Change appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

“No person is able to correct a movement that has been made because it is in the past. He could do an additional movement, a better one, a worse one, but it already is impossible to fix the same movement. In other words, it is impossible to correct mistakes, mistakes of action are lost.” (Moshe Feldenkrais, Alexander Yanai, ATM Lesson #359: Tanden with bending the knees.)

And here a similar statement from Milton Erickson. He is using it to end a hypnosis and psychotherapy session with a client, helping them to get deeply absorbed in a new way of viewing the world.

Well, the deed is done and cannot be undone, so let the dead past bury its dead. Bring me only one more good tomorrow and you will go home tomorrow with another good tomorrow and another and another, and all the other good tomorrows are forever yours.” (Milton Erickson, Collected Papers 1, The Nature of Hypnosis and Suggestion, page 354.)

The post Feldenkrais and Erickson on “Mistakes” appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

If you have ever had clients who struggle with obesity, anxiety, over eating, compulsive sexuality and masturbation and the like, you may find some helpful details in this free podcast by Irene on SoundCloud.

https://soundcloud.com/irenelyon/origins-of-the-ace-study

The post “But I dealt with that already!!” Sex, Addiction, Overeating, and… appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

To be considered a threat Feldenkrais needs to get better known and it needs to start growing exponentially. Then what? To be brutally honest, the work will need to start threatening the livelihoods of people. If thousands of people began cancelling their TMJ surgery or back pain surgery to do Feldenkrais, thereby costing medical practitioners millions of dollars - believe me - the attack dogs would come out in full force. And that is what we need; controversy, discussion and greater and greater cultural relevance for Feldenkrais ideas. It is great when books get written that mention "Feldenkrais" and when it gets mentioned in a national spelling bee (as it recently was). But we need more. Do you agree?

There is another idea that I am playing with, which is using Feldenkrais ideas to create new life scripts for people. The current ecological crises as well as the massive technology-driven changes in jobs (i.e. job loses and entire industries taken over by software) are slowly making many current life scripts irrelevant. It is a bit scary but it is a huge opportunity and need. What will happen when people spend their lives developing there awareness and ability to act and less on making money? More on that in a future post.

The third answer of what is needed to make Feldenkrais a threat is a little ephemeral, but just as real. It is something rarely spoken of. It centers on the fact there is a disconnect between the potential of the work and that of the people using the work. Feldenkrais fans spend a great deal of time talking about how great "the work is." That's fine. I agree that it certainly can be. But what is needed are the structures and processes to liberate the potential of people using the work. And that will require a massive restructuring of how people think of themselves in relation to work.

A Certified Person Is Not An Authority

As an example, consider this idea of "becoming your own authority". Well, talking about becoming your own authority and actually being your own authority are two very different things. Likewise, being "certified" and being an authority are also at odds. Think about it. Could anyone certify your sense of self? Could someone certify your personal agency and authority? If it has to be certified by an outside person or agency then it does not come from you and you do not have it. And if you do not have it, how can you teach it? Who certified Moshe Feldenkrais? Let him tell you:

Question To Moshe: "Who were your teachers?"

Feldenkrais: "Myself. I refused to go to the university to learn medicine. I refused to be wired in like everybody else. I said I don't mind making my own mistakes, but I don't want to learn by the authority of a known professor. He will convince me because he knows better and in half a year I will lose all my curiosity. I'll be learning like every body else and get a good diploma."

No one certified Moshe. And while I hope if you want to get a PhD or go to med school (or wherever) you go or not based on YOUR reasoning, not Moshe's, you still may want to consider the limitation of certification. No one can certify you as as an authority. No man, no woman, no organization. I will have much more to say about that in the upcoming webinar series on power literacy. It is a crucial piece needed for the growth of the work. And more importantly the growth of your work.

In the meantime, is not rather annoying that this potent and consequential work is seen by many powerful groups as peripheral, even inconsequential? Or...have we messed up and let the work become inconsequential? People see no need write editorials against Feldenkrais or protest it or pass laws banning its use. We could not even convince Obama to launch drone strikes against the Feldenkrais Guild nor any individual trainers. Hell, no one has threatened me at all the last few weeks. How lame is that?

But take heart. There is a solution. And yes, it involves awareness and action. But it will be scary to many people as it involves becoming aware of processes that are rarely written about. As I mentioned it, I am calling it "Power Literacy." It involves being literate in the processes that organize groups of people (and people within those groups). I am not talking solely about the Feldenkrais Guilds, but about any organization of humans whether a corporation, church or university.

I have never presented on this before, because I did not have the complete concepts to formulate it. And I mentioned, it is scary. But now I have the words and framework. Details on the upcoming webinars coming soon.

The post Will Feldenkrais Ever Be Considered A Threat? appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

What do you think? What would an app designed to connect people to practitioners do? What functionality would it need? Or is there something that you as a practitioner (of whatever modality) would like to do with your cellphone that you have not been able to do?

The post What Would A Practitioner App Look Like? appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

Many of you here expect posts related to the work of Moshe Feldenkrais. And my habit has been to post about the man and his work. But my "other" lifelong interests -practical philosophy and epistemology, psychology, Ericksonian hypnosis and brief psychotherapy, travel, language learning - are all crying out for more attention. And, for the love of god - please help me- I may start blogging about Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and politics.

So...It may be time to start writing about whatever the hell I want here, just like a personal blog, but more incisive (and offensive, I hope). If I do that, and my future thoughts do not interest you, no problem. Feel free to unsubscribe, no hard feelings.

Content and Process

That being said, I have been doing a great deal of work online but I have not talked to you about it. Why?

Because the "content" of what I am doing - events for psychotherapists - is likely not interesting to you. I believe in creating specific products and solutions for specific groups of people - and then marketing directly to those people. So when I launch a product not geared towards Feldenkrais folks, I rarely mention it here. For example, in August of 2015 I launched Ericksonian Strategies in the Treatment of Depression. It was a very large and very successful online event. A month ago, I launched a similar online conference called "Solutions for Anxiety." and again, I did not promote it here on ryannagy.com for similar reasons: Most of you reading this blog are doing work related to that of Moshe Feldenkrais not Milton H. Erickson. And though I see many parallels to the two approaches, I have not had much luck convincing others. And I have come to see that convincing others is a massive waste of time.

However the process or the "what" of what I am doing - creating online events - may be relevant to you. Why? Because you could do what I do, but create Feldenkrais-themed online events or events for your particular niche. But the process of how to do those type of events is not something that I have the time to write about and teach.

Anyhow...I am a big believer in creating momentum for change by making small changes and doing something small - taking some small action - sometimes the smaller the better. And here I am writing you a blog post to make a change, create to build some momentum for future blog posts and conversations (I hope) and to say hello, to let you know a bit (just a bit) of what I have been up to and .

Feldenkrais

If I do write some Feldenkrais-themes posts, I may share with you my reasons for no longer writing about the FGNA and related matters such as what is happening with the "Feldenkrais Trainers" Short answer: The topics have little relevance to my professional life and even less relevance in the larger cultural dialogue. I can do everything that I want to do personally and professionally without involving any particular organization, so...why bother? I may share some ideas about when I think Feldenkrais is indicated as a modality. And when it is not. That is, what things can we say Feldenkrais is really good for, and for what things can we say it is not very effective. It is a conversation that is long overdue.

Or who knows, I may start blogging about my expat life here in Mexico and my journey into becoming reasonably fluent in Spanish. You want to change your self-image? Immerse yourself in a second and third language. It may not give you a complete self-image make over (nothing does, not even Feldenkrais), but it will help you evolve and find the limits of what is changeable and what is not. Perhaps we might talk about lifestyle design and running experiments as practitioners that help us create the ideal lives for our unique personalities, situations and bodies.

Anyhow, I hope you are doing great out there! Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you are up to.

And here is a bonus photo for reading the entire post. The tattoo - alas -was temporary. It was for a "modern tribal" birthday party for a friend that lives in southern mexico where I was traveling at the time.

What are you up to these days?

The post I am rarely posting here. Do you care? appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

The Relational Self-Images

I am speaking to how people unconsciously represent their "self" to themselves and to others. In contrast to what some students of Feldenkrais believe, the key factor in creating lasting change is not always the self-image. At least not the one described by Moshe Feldenkrais. People can and do spend decades of their life using Feldenkrais sessions to expand and change their motor image, sometimes called the homunculus, and what Feldenkrais considered the major part of the self-image. That is very valuable work. I have done it and continue to do so.

But it is rarely - if ever - enough. One can dramatically change and expand the motor image and still not get what one wants from life. Or even make the attempt to get what one wants. Look around the Feldenkrais community. Do you find many that have achieved the success that they themselves want for themselves? Have you? Do you see people stuck in a certain place in the Feldenkrais community - some for decades? Have you been stuck? Well, if the Feldenkrais Method is so powerful why are so many people stuck?

The Self-Images

I do not expect most people to believe me right now, if ever. But hey, that is how it goes. I have had the experiences to prove it to myself and to a few others and more is on the way. What I have found is that most people in the various Feldenkrais communities have fixed their position in relation to others. This means that they continue to be "who they are" even if they want it to be different.

Why? It is actually very simple: People not only internally represent themselves, but they also internally represent themselves in relation to other people. Everyone carries around an image of his or herself, yes (more than one actually). These images contain but are not defined by the motor image. That is a critical point. But even more critical, people also carry around images of other key people within themselves. And how one represents one's self-image in relation to those others has a massive correlation with how one acts in the world.

Of the factors that people have under their personal control, the largest and most important factors for developing the self and life are these relational self-images. Again, without being aware of it, many practitioners have fixed their social position in society and in the Feldenkrais community. This means that continue to be "who they are" even in the midst of great changes that they have created with the work and even though they "want" it to be different.

You do not "act in accordance with your self-image" as Moshe stated. You act in accordance with your self-image(s) and relational images - those of yourself and those of others. All of which you have created internally and almost completely unconsciously. And all of which can be changed and re-arranged with the right strategy.

I realize I am writing in a largely abstract manner. More specifics will come in future posts and videos. For now, just be aware that if you have spent years trying to get a specific result with the Feldenkrais method and you have not been able to do so, it is not you that is the problem. The problem has been the strategies that you have been using. Feldenkrais can do some cool things. Some amazing things. Feldenkrais can change lives in ways that no other methods can. Yes, we can get biblical and say that sometimes Feldenkrais can "make the lame walk." But Feldenkrais cannot do everything. And some of the boldest claims put forth by some practitioners and trainers are unsupported. Emotional maturity? Economic independence? The ability to move without hesitation and preparation in any direction? There is much more to it than many people know.

More to come....

Ryan

The post Changing The Self-Image(s) appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

Nature prepares the baby for a life of defense and attack, for everything that is necessary so it would be able to survive without the police defending him, or the army defending him, because it is not always possible to depend on those brave people who are defending him. Each person needs to know how to defend himself. The world is built like this.

I personally do not look at a baby or child and think how "nature prepares the baby for a life of defense and attack." Nature prepares a baby for survival and that includes the connection, emotion, cognition, learning and in the main: adaptation.

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