The Elusive Obvious - October 12, 2016

This coming Wednesday, October 12, we'll convene at The Feldenkrais^® Institute of New York for 2016's last meeting of Between the Lines, our Feldenkrais reading and discussion group. The subject of our discussion on Wednesday will be, The Elusive Obvious, the last book Dr. Feldenkrais wrote and published very late in his life.

In my blog post from June, referring to lesson numbers two and three from Dr. Feldenkrais's book, Awareness Through Movement^®, I wrote, "It's all here, folks. Nearly all the keys to the Feldenkrais Method^® are contained in these two lessons." Substitute the words, "…this book," for "…these two lessons," and you'll have an accurate description of The Elusive Obvious.

Dr. Feldenkrais tells us as much in his Forward: "[The Elusive Obvious] was written…in response to my students' demand for a work condensing the four years' teaching…that led to their graduation and the formation of the Feldenkrais Guild…."

Like most good treatise authors, Dr. Feldenkrais spends much of the first portion of The Elusive Obvious laying the groundwork, or establishing the basis, on which to build a case for the effectiveness of what are his unusual ideas about the improvement of humanity.

He "explains" how his method works mostly in the last four chapters, Awareness Through Movement, Functional Integration^®, The Obvious is Elusive, and, In a Nutshell. You could almost read just these chapters first and then, if you question his ideas or are simply interested in how he came to his conclusions, go back and read the beginning of the book in which he writes of his own research and that of others in a way that forms the basis for his later explanation of the Feldenkrais Method.

There are so many possibilities for topics of discussion that might come from the book that I'm going to enter Wednesday's discussion with no specific plan (but well-prepared for anything) and wait for the group dynamic to form and see where we go from there. I'm very excited about the possibilities for the evening and am positive that it will be an interesting and enlightening few hours.

As part of the evening, I'll lead the group through the Awareness Through Movement lesson that Dr. Feldenkrais gives instructions for in the book's chapter with that title.

I look forward to seeing you at The Feldenkrais Institute on October 12 at 6:30 pm. If you have questions about Between the Lines or would like to reserve a spot at Wednesday's meeting, please call The Feldenkrais Institute at 212-727-1014.