































Please cite: (First published in the) Feldenkrais Research Journal, volume 1; 2004.

Service marks: The terms Feldenkrais®, Feldenkrais Method®, Awareness Through Movement®, ATM®,
Functional Integration®, and FI® are service marked terms of the International Feldenkrais® Federation
(IFF) and Feldenkrais professional guilds and associations in many countries. In keeping with academic
conventions, they will not be service marked in the entire text as may be required in nonacademic use,
but only for the first and most prominent use of the terms. In recognition that these phrases are formal
terms referring to specific practices within the Method, and to the Method as a whole, capitalization of all
the words in each term has been retained.



     
IFF Academy 

Feldenkrais Research Journal 1 (2004) 
® 2004 by the author 

 
Finding Our Own Language 
Scientists meet Feldenkrais teachers. Thinking about a Necessary Dialogue 
by Werner Schacker 
 
In December 2002 leading scientists and Feldenkrais teachers met in Paris for a dialogue.i In an 
atmosphere that was both pleasantly relaxed and stimulating, a group of Feldenkrais teachers from all 
over the world listened to lectures with great interest. These four days were a beginning but not as yet 
a proper dialogue. The lectures and conversations with colleagues  prompted me to write down a few 
thoughts about the relationship between Feldenkrais and science. This is a personal response, founded 
on my individual and professional background as much as on what I experienced in Paris – and what I 
felt to be missing there. Others would respond differently; and thus a dialogue might ensue which 
could take us further. My thoughts are associative and fragmentary rather than systematic. They are 
intended to encourage discussion rather than trying to prove or justify something.  
 
Science and Feldenkrais 
During their training Feldenkrais teachers acquire “knowledge” which they rely on in their practice 
and continuously develop further as they engage in a mutual learning process with clients. It is 
obvious that this knowledge differs from what “science” traditionally considers to be such.ii That 
makes a dialogue both difficult and interesting 
 
The Feldenkrais Method is first and foremost an experimental practice guided by certain fundamental 
assumptions both explicit and implicit. These assumptions have been influenced by a variety of 
experiences/concepts/theories.....iii Up to the present such practice proceeds  largely unsystematically 
with personal preferences and chance happenings playing a major part. As Petzold critically remarked, 
“There exists relative stagnation with regard to research, development of theoretical models, and 
clinical tests.” (Petzold 2001, p.233) At the same time a degree of pressure towards achieving 
scientific legitimacy is to be felt - coupled with the hope that this may lead to greater social 
recognition; and there is also the wish (at least as far as I am concerned) that the Feldenkrais Method 
might be underpinned by a theoretically plausible concept which is both up-to-date and capable of 
consolidating and enriching our practice. I am not talking here about efficiency assessments which are 
surely of value and even necessary if the Feldenkrais Method is to become an integral part of the 
health system.  However, such studies do not contribute much to the development of a scientifically 
founded concept capable of stimulating dialogue. After all, demonstrating our work’s effectiveness 
does not necessarily mean that we have understood the mechanism involved. In “The Case of Nora – 
Body Awareness as Healing Therapy (originally subtitled: Adventures in the Jungle of the Brain) 
Feldenkrais wrote that the working hypothesis for this case study “is somewhere between intuition and 
future scientific gospel.” (Feldenkrais 1977) As yet we are still far from achieving this future science, 
but the conditions for its emergence have improved.  Such science can only be developed through 
dialogue. I am interested here in a number of possibilities and preconditions for such dialogue with 
different sciences. What Feldenkrais teachers and scientists can learn from one another is another 
important issue.  First I will focus on Feldenkrais practice and then sketch out how this practice could 
give rise to a language of its own.  
 
Different Forms of Practice, Experience, and Knowledge 
The Feldenkrais Method is a practice, a practical skill (art)iv, using movement to set in motion a 
fundamental learning process. Time and again it is emphasized that this involves greater self 
awareness and more mature behaviourv, alongside improved mobility (in terms of physiotherapy). 
  
It goes without saying that this practice is informed by scientific insights/findings/knowledge. 
However, any decision whether to do this or that in taking the next step does not depend on external 
laws, outer knowledge, and particular techniques; instead it emerges out of the living experience 
through contact between practitioner and client. This is an experimental situation. However, here it is 
not a question of coming up with data which can be objectified, as is the case in a scientific 



 
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experiment. What is really at issue is the next appropriate step in a process of continuous learning and 
growth. The knowledge evolving in this context derives to a considerable extent from (both 
participants’) precision of perception and level of awareness.vi It is intimately related to the existential 
processes which give rise to this knowledge. Whatever we take over from other sciences would need 
to be capable of both integration into this knowledge and anchoring within these very processes.  
 
In terms of directly experienced life - of a phenomenology of sensing and experiencing - all 
conceptual orders are secondary systems of differentiation.vii In attempting to create order by way of 
concepts, we organize and systematize the experiences we live from moment to moment. Whatever is 
transposed from an experiential to a conceptual framework is in principle poorer than lived 
experience. The conceptual systems within the natural sciences are rather far removed from the 
experiences accessible to us. For instance, there is an unbridgeable gulf viii between the experience of 
fear and its expression in words and scientific description of what is happening in the amygdala gland 
involved.ix  The conceptual structures of the natural sciences are thus not so easily incorporated in the 
practice of a Feldenkrais teacher.  
 
Every word, every sentence, every description we come up with for representing and embodying an 
experience makes this experience both poorer and at the same time clearer. That is why 
concepts/conceptions and language need to be continuously reconnected with what is being lived and 
experienced.....- with actual processes in order to keep evolving further. That would entail developing 
a specific language which originates in our practice, is systematic, methodical, exact, and 
empirical,....., and yet differs from the language used in a “third-person” science. I am convinced that 
among Feldenkrais practitioners there exists a rich store of experiences, knowledge, and perceptual 
skills still waiting to be discovered and discussed. This will also be of interest for scientists. 
 
Digression: Body/Embodied Life/Soma 
During the past two hundred years the natural sciences have owed their success to isolating and taking 
apart everything that became an object of observation and study in order to examine and measure this 
precisely and in great detail. The whole is then supposed to be reconstituted by putting its separate 
parts together again. The natural sciences treat the body accordingly – as a machine whose parts can 
be studied in isolation and then somehow reassembled. This has been a highly successful model in 
human history. The living body as we experience it from inside has no place in this approach.  
 
Systems theory, which focuses attention on coherence and interrelationships within a given whole, has 
subjected this successful model to fundamental criticism. The systems approach has thus become a 
second successful model and today’s science would be inconceivable without it. Since this new model 
offers opportunities for studying things that were previously completely ignored, it exerts great 
fascination - even among Feldenkrais teachers. However, I believe that we need a third modelx since 
the first two models, each in their particular way, have no place for our living and lived body.....as 
sensed from within.  
 
Each of these models contributes something to our understanding. It is not therefore a question of 
choosing between them, but rather of bringing all three jointly into play. The beginnings of such a 
third model and possible connections with the other models already exist. xi With that in mind I would 
like to propose a few ideas with regard to the living and experienced body in order to foster 
understanding why the Feldenkrais Method requires a broader concept of the human body xiithan is 
customary in the natural sciences.  
 
The living experienced body is a transitional form. In this body the history of evolution, of our species, 
and the particular history of the culture in which we exist are interwoven with our own individually 
lived history in a very special way which is as yet hardly understood. The body is memory. It 
preserves recollections of this history. Memory exists at all levels of evolution without being tied to a 
particular consciousness. Our lived body has greater depth than our consciousness. It is embodied 
history reaching into the very fibres of its physiology. That is not found in the body as object.  
 



 
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Living “systems” are continuously moving patterns of connections which exist and develop only 
within relationships. Any observable behaviour and any observable structure embodies ..... the history 
of relationships lived and experienced up to that point in time.xiii That also applies to the nervous 
system, the brain, and all other organs. Hüther, for instance, calls the brain a social organ. (Hüther 
2001, p. 18)xiv When we work with such a “system”, i.e. the living and lived body, the answer to what 
we do/say..... will originate in this history; and such a response will either further or impede a 
particular process. Every step is  a continuation of a certain history.  
This therefore calls for perceiving the living and lived body as an ever-changing pattern of 
relationships and also taking it seriously as such on a theoretical and conceptual level.  
Of course, new potentialities of life, new patterns in life and movement, always have a corresponding 
neuro-physiological foundation, but this does not explain/justify/cause..... these fresh possibilities..  
 
In his conceptual reflections Moshe Feldenkrais took an important step away from the model of the 
human body as a machine. “He put the human brain in the organism” (Wildman, p.9). Feldenkrais 
already tended to talk about human beings as if they were (nervous) systems.xv In his theory, therefore, 
Feldenkrais remained subject to the dualism of his time, even though he overcame this in his practice. 
 
Finding our own language 
If we wish to enter into dialogue with others, we must be able to say what is important to us in our 
work, what experiences we have, and what insights we gain. This requires that we develop  and 
practise using a language of our own. That can only be achieved through dialogue. We are not alone in 
this, nor at the very beginning of such a process. Other methods/approaches/sciences.....are or were 
faced with similar problems. For instance, Petzold’s Integrated Movement Therapy and Moegling’s 
Holistic Movement Sciencexvi  represent attempts at developing a distinct language through dialogue 
with different disciplines. Moshe Feldenkrais also developed his method through dialogue with 
various partners. Today we need to go a step further and try to overcome the gulf which continues to 
exist between the knowledge embedded in our practice and how we talk about and express this 
knowledge.         
 
How can we find a language which is capable of expressing the full subtlety of our experiences? A 
vital first step surely entails writing case studies, presenting written documentation of our work.xvii The 
practice of video recordings, which has spread in inflationary manner, has completely superseded 
verbal documentation of the work or prevented its emergence. Just imagine what would have 
happened if Moshe Feldenkrais had written many more case studies like “Nora” instead of entrusting 
documentation of his work to videos. 
 
Talking and writing are decisive in any serious examination of subjective experience. However, it is 
necessary to learn first of all how to remain as faithful as possible to lived experience and particularly 
not to lose patience, constantly guarding against precipitate formulations. This will make it possible to 
develop sensitivity to the subtle nuances between actual experience and verbalization. A language 
could thus evolve which originates in experience and always returns to it, instead of merely 
commenting on such experience. Also that always entails a further step towards greater awareness. 
 
However, language is not merely able to express what we already know. We can also use it to gain 
access to all that is implicit in our practice, all that may be sensed only vaguely but cannot as yet be 
expressed in words or even said at all. In this way new “data” and concepts  may arise which can then 
be brought into contact with familiar ideas.  In the realm of psychotherapy philosopher and 
psychotherapist Eugene Gendlin has developed a very interesting method which he calls Focusing. 
This is based on an everyday observation which every human being makes again and again – often 
without becoming conscious of what is involved. At present I am, for instance, writing a sentence and 
suddenly I get stuck. I have a vague feeling that somehow the sentence isn't quite right yet. I am trying 
out various words which I also reject. They still don’t quite express what I wish to say. This indistinct 
feeling  - Gendlin speaks of a “felt sense” – is obviously more precise than what I can write down at 
present, and contains more than what I have been able to put into words until now. So how do I know 
that I have found the appropriate sentence? I sense it in my body! Focusing is the methodically guided 
process of turning towards this “felt sense”, taking further what it implicitly contains. xviiiWhat has 



 
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been said about the interplay of bodily sensations and language can of course also be applied to 
movement. There therefore exists an implicit feeling for good movement, for the inherent rightness of 
a particular movement in relation to a specific situation. 
Gendlin also applies this model originating in psychotherapy to the development of theoretical 
concepts.xix 
 
Dialogue 
Dialogue flourishes on  differences, mutual recognition, and respect. It presupposes readiness on both 
sides to learn, call oneself in question, and let go of cherished habits. Are we ready for that? If we take 
the essence of our work seriously, we will be able to contribute something important to this dialogue. 
In order to do that we must, as already mentioned, be able to find adequate words for what we have to 
say.  
 
In recent years different disciplines have rediscovered the body, movement, and subjective experience. 
However, such discoveries often happen in a purely academic setting, i.e.without corresponding bodily 
experience. Feldenkrais teachers could become self assured dialogue partners here, contributing an 
abundance of relevant experience from the field of awareness and movement. 
 
Dialogue is many-voiced 
Reality is many-voiced. Every method, every concept, every theory contributes something different 
and specific. The many-voiced chorus which thus arises expresses much more than an individual 
voice. For us there are many possible dialogue partners. We should not only favour the natural 
sciences. Our practice is to some extent already interdisciplinary and many-voiced because we are 
always dealing with living human beings who cannot be fitted into the limitations and fragmentations 
of separate disciplines. That is our strength. Our credibility in this dialogue as Feldenkrais teachers 
will also depend to some extent on our capacity both to express how we experience ourselves and the 
world and also to live what we proclaim by being always ready to learn from our experience.      
 
 
  
Literature  
Feldenkrais, Moshe. (1993/1st 1977): The Case of Nora - Body-Awareness as Healing  
                                Therapy (former subtitle: Adventures in the Jungle of the Brain), Frog Ltd 
      “               “        (1981): The Elusive Obvious, Meta Publications 
     “               “         (1985): The Potent Self: A Guide to Spontaneity, Harper Collins 
Gendlin, Eugene T.: The Wider Role of Bodily Sense in Thought and Language. In 
                                (1992): Maxine Sheets-Johnston (Ed.): Giving the Body Its Due. 
                                 p. 192-207. State University of New York Press  
    “            “            (2003/1st 1978): Focusing – How To Gain Direct Access To Your Body’s 
                               Knowledge, Rider 
   “             “           (1999): Focusing in der Praxis. Eine schulübergreifende Methode für  
                               Psychotherapie und Alltag. Leben lernen 131.  
                               Stuttgart: Pfeifer bei Klett-Cotta (This book exists only in German)  
Hüther, Gerald.     (1997): Biologie der Angst. Wie aus Stress Gefühle werden. Göttingen: 
                               Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 
   “          “  & Bonney, Helmut. (2002):Neues vom Zappelphilipp. ADS: verstehen, vorbeugen 
                              und behandeln. Düsseldorf/Zürich: Walter. 
Johnson, Don Hanlon Ed. (1997): Groundworks. Narratives of Embodiment. Berkeley, North 
                              Atlantic Books. 
Le Doux, Joseph. (1998): Das Netz der Gefühle. Wie Emotionen entstehen. München, Wien: 
                             Hanser. 
Moegling, Klaus (Ed.) (2001, 2002): Integrative Bewegungslehre I-III. Kassel: Prolog  
                             Verlag. 
Petzold, Hilarion. (1988): Integrative Bewegungs- und Leibtherapie Bd. I/1 und I/2.  
                             Paderborn: Junfermann. 
    “            “         (2001): Überlegungen zu Praxeologien – körper- und bewegungsorientierte  



 
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                             Arbeit mit Menschen aus integrativer Perspektive. In: Steinmüller, W. / 
                             Schaefer, K. / Fortwängler (Ed.) (2001): Gesundheit – Lernen –  
                             Kreativität. Alexander-Technik, Eutonie Gerda Alexander und Feldenkrais  
                             als Methoden zur Gestaltung somatopsychischer Lernprozesse. Bern: Hans 
                             Huber. 
Wildman, Frank: Emotional Learning: Developing Emotional Intelligence. Feldenkrais  
                            Journal Issue # 4 
 
Notes 
 
                                                 
i Learning, Brain,  and Movement: A dialogue between leading scientists and Feldenkrais teachers. 
 12-15 December 2002, Paris. Participating scientists: Prof. Esther Thelen, Prof. Beatrix Vereijken, Prof. 
Blandine Bril, Prof. Klaus Schneider, Prof. Alain Berthoz. 
 
ii I am putting science in inverted commas here because I cannot go into the differences between the various 
sciences in this article. Science as such does not exist. Instead even within the “exact” sciences there is 
competition between concepts and theories which often involve different interpretations and evaluations despite 
being based on the same data. This applies particularly to new disciplines such as cognitive science and brain 
research. Anybody who is looking to the sciences for orientation and certainty will be quickly disappointed. That 
is another reason why we need to search for something of our own which is really appropriate for the Feldenkrais 
Method.   
iii Following Gendlin’s teaching, I frequently use a series of words instead of a single one in order to avoid 
limitation by a particular formulation, and also to emphasise open-endedness, probing, and incompleteness. The 
five dots.....indicate that there is space for other possible terms – including the reader’s own words, ideas, and 
associations In this way something new can emerge. (For the most important articles by Eugene Gendlin see: 
www.focusing.org.) 
iv Every skill (“art”) creates its own predominantly practical canon of knowledge. This needs to be experienced 
for oneself and is therefore acquired in direct practice. Such knowledge cannot be learned from books.  Take the 
art of cooking as an example. It is possible to be an excellent cook without knowing anything about food 
chemistry and chemical reactions as taught by the exact natural sciences. Otherwise food chemists would be the 
better cooks. The art of cooking is older than food chemistry and undoubtedly capable of making much more 
elaborately differentiated and subtle distinctions. Quality essentially depends, as in every practical skill (art), on 
the perceptual capacity to differentiate, on refinement, cultivation, and education of the senses. Of course a good 
cook will be interested in learning something about chemical processes as well and will integrate this knowledge 
into his work.  
v See Moshe Feldenkrais (1981,1985) 
vi That is precisely what Feldenkrais trainings are about. The process of professional socialization differs very 
much from that of scientists. Of course highly differentiated forms of perception can also be found among 
scientists from whose power of discernment Feldenkrais teachers can learn something too. 
vii  See Kersting, H.J.: “You only see what you see.” (Humberto Maturana) In: Second Degree Observations 
about the “feldenkrais zeit”. (Issue No. 4) 
viii This problem concerns both ourselves and other disciplines such as consciousness research. For instance: 
How can first person data be combined with third person data? 
ix The amygdala gland belongs to the limbic system and plays an important part in the development of emotions. 
See, for instance, Hüther (1997), LeDoux (1998) 
x See Gendlin 
xi See, for instance, Gendlin’s and Varela’s works, to some extent on the Internet. 
xii The same applies of course to other concepts that are of importance in Feldenkrais work, such as movement. 
How do we have to understand movement if Awareness Through Movement is to make demonstrable sense? 
Defining movement as locomotion is not enough. 
xiii If you know Maturana’s work you will probably notice that these formulations are re-translations of his 
reflections on autopoetic systems. 
xiv “I am still fascinated by all that can be taken apart, measured, and studied in such a brain. However, I no 
longer believe that this approach will ever allow us to understand how a brain – and especially the human brain – 
functions. On the contrary: This kind of research into the working of the brain is a temptation to attribute special 
significance to anything that happens to be particularly easy to take apart, measure, and study. “ (Hüther 2001, 
p.9) 
xv Interestingly it was Esther Thelen,  a renowned scientist, who had to remind Feldenkrais teachers during the 
congress in Paris that they work with persons and not nervous systems. 



 
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xvi Moegling, K. (Ed 2001 and 2002), Petzold (1988) 
xvii See, for instance, “Groundworks. Narratives of Embodiment”, a project by Don Hanlon Johnson et al. 
(Johnson 1997) 
xviii This is of course a very brief account. A good introduction to Gendlin’s thinking is to be found in 
FOCUSING – How To Gain Access To Your Body’s Knowledge ( Gendlin 2003) The book also contains 
detailed references. With regard to the body as it is lived and experienced in relation to language he writes: (a) 
The body is (has, feels, lives....) an implying of further events. (b) The body has intentionality, that is to say, it 
has (feels, knows, is, implies....) situations.  (c) The body has language implicit in it. (Situation and language are 
furthermore implicit in each other.) (d) Words to speak come to us in a bodily way, sometimes smoothly, 
sometimes after a..... If the words to speak don’t come, we are stuck, and must wait for them.” (Gendlin, 1993, 
p.702)  
xix “We don’t only need the felt sense and the concepts which are already implicit in it. We also need the 
systematic concepts and conceptual relationships. Many of us believe that there is an either/ or, as if one would 
immediately loose the experienced situation through terms/concepts. However, it is the other way round:  The 
sharper the terms/concepts, the more they are able to continue and take the experienced situation further. But one 
can only know whether they do this if one retains both, terms/concepts and experiencing. We need new 
systematic terms/concepts, which retain experiencing (...).” (Gendlin, 1999, p.129) 
 
 

Werner Schacker 
Dip. Ed. Trained in the Feldenkrais Method with Mia Segal.  Further training in Gestalt 

Therapy, Hypnotherapy (MEG), and Energy Psychology. Has his own practice in Darmstadt 
(and has taught the Feldenkrais Method since 1989). 


