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These articles are taken from one or more sessions with a particular person. They remain
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pointing out the tools of the LearningMethods work and explaining
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uncovering more about the underlying causes and seductive traps
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and revealing the knowledge about ourselves that we gain along this
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The LearningMethods Library
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Experience and Experiments
in the Alexander World
by David Gorman
The following was originally published in The Congress Papers by Direction Journal,
July 1992 and is a record of a masterclass given by David at the 3rd International Congress of the Alexander
Technique in Engleberg, Switzerland in August 1991
Copyright © 1992, David Gorman (all rights reserved)
As everyone who was at the recent Congress in Engleberg could see for themselves,
we are starting to grow up as a profession. Not only in terms of numbers, but also in the confidence
and willingness to look around us at our colleagues and to marvel at the range of talents and interpretations
of this work we do. Except for a few sourpusses who held themselves aloof in the mistaken idea that
their technique was the real thing and needed protecting from those who were either charlatans or fools,
we all got stretched and inspired, appreciated for what we can do and able to see what we might do.
This seems to me, having attending all three congresses, the first one which really
included and was representative of the entire community—by the entire community I mean all those who
are sincerely exploring the Alexander work and teaching others (and of course, therefore have something
to offer us all of their knowledge and their discoveries). It is precisely those who are farthest from
us in their background and their way of approach from whom we stand to learn the most. I was very pleased
to see so many people so excited by so many different understandings of the work. We still have a long
way to go, both in opening ourselves up to the people around us in our own profession and in developing
the potential of the work, but we're off to a good and promising start that feels more solid than ever
before.
It is a particularly good time for us all to be coming to this consolidation of the
meaning of the work through sharing and openness because the profession has reached the 'age' when those
who worked directly with Alexander are retiring or passing away and the mantle is passing to another
generation of teachers who do not have that direct remembrance of where the work originated. We have
only each other now and what we have learned from our teachers and discovered for ourselves, so it behooves
us to begin to make the best of each other so that we don't find ourselves slipping down the path to
discord and dissipation of the force of the work through conflict in a way that has afflicted so many
other nascent professions. Anyway, that's enough of a plug for tolerance and openness...
The congress was such a fullness of possibilities that few of us were able to attend
more than a fraction of the groups and workshops we would have liked. Perhaps as we read through these
Congress papers we'll be able to glimpse at least something of what we missed and whet our appetites
for Australia in '94. I had initially decided against accepting the invitation to give one of the second
generation classes because I've become less satisfied with the value of workshops where I show how I
teach by working with others and demonstrating how I do it. It has become much more interesting for
me to help others find their own way of teaching and/or what is stopping them from developing their
unique and individual expression. I couldn't quite imagine how to approach this in the time and format
available.
Then I remembered what one of the students on my training course had said about a
lesson she'd had with Peggy Williams. The student had asked Peggy what she did to get ready to teach
as she was about to work with a pupil. She said that Peggy had replied something to the effect that
"why should I do anything to teach, I am a teacher!" It made me realize, of course! Why should
we do things to get ready to teach if we've already integrated the work into our daily lives. We're
as ready as we're ever going to be. If we haven't integrated the work into our daily lives then we're
not suddenly going to get any better by preparing for a few seconds—we're only going to get a little
more prepared and less our normal selves. If we feel we have to get ready before coming into contact
with a pupil maybe we should work a little more on integrating our 'good use' into our daily lives so
that we actually are living what we suggest to our pupils.
So I decided to use the second generation class as a way to experiment with this
issue with the various teachers and trainees who attended. We kept it simple—just splitting up into
small groups, each person taking turns to come up to work on another as they 'normally' did, the others
observing to see if they stopped and got ready, or 'directed', or 'released' or anything special that
happened just before coming to contact and proceeding with the lesson. It was surprising for a lot of
people how much they put in between them and the pupil in terms of preparation.
The second part of the experiment was then to leave out all that intermediate 'Alexander
stuff' just to see what would happen. Here it was interesting how difficult people found it not to do
their usual 'teaching' stuff. They felt as if they were no longer doing the Technique, or that they
couldn't possibly teach, or that they would be no good without their extra 'Alexander armour'. It revealed
a lot.
But the most fascinating (and powerful) thing was what actually happened when the
'teachers' didn't do all their 'teacherness'. The 'pupil' being worked with and the observing group
all could see and feel the change. In their own way each person felt that the teacher was 'more with
them' as opposed to behind their teacherness. They felt more 'allowed', more 'space and warmth'. It
was as if the teacher by being more themselves allowed the pupil to be more themselves, which felt good
and was appreciated. The pupils found themselves less concerned with what was supposed to happen and
less anxious of what was expected of them. They were more present with the rest of the group and less
drawn in to some inner physical feeling process. For most participants this was all quite unexpected
and interesting. Once the teachers got over their difficulty in letting go of the perceived necessity
to 'direct', etc. they also felt more at ease and had more enjoyment in what they were doing. They didn't
have to do the teaching, they could be the teaching. In other words, they could be
teachers.
I think for many it was a surprise to realize that, indeed, they already were highly-trained,
sensitive beings embodying a lot more of the work than they had thought. That their preparation and
doing actually kept them from their own integration. It distanced them from the pupil and from the human
responsiveness between the two of them. I'm only sorry the time was so short (and that I had to miss
the other classes to do my own).
I think I'll go as a 'civilian' another time...
~~~~~~
There is a small biography of personal details about the
author below.
About the Author
 David Gorman developed the LearningMethods work out
of over 40 years of research and teaching experiences. His background is in art and science and
a fascination with exploring human structure and function. In the early 1970s he spent many nights
dissecting and drawing in the human anatomy lab. In 1981 he published an illustrated 600-page
work on our human musculo-skeletal system called The Body Moveable (about to enter its 6th edition) and in 1996, a collection of
articles, Looking at Ourselves (now in its 2nd edition).
He happened upon the Alexander Technique in 1972 and was immediately intrigued
by its power for change. After training as an Alexander Technique teacher with Walter Carrington in London, David has
been teaching that work since 1980, becoming well-known worldwide
for his innovations to the work and notorious for challenging the orthodoxy of the profession.
He has been invited to teach all over the world in universities, conservatories and training colleges,
at conferences and symposia, and with performance groups and health professionals.
In 1982, his teaching was revolutionised by his discovery of a new model of
human organisation — Anatomy of Wholeness — with its
profound implications about our in-built natural tendency toward balance, ease and wholeness. He
extended these insights into a new way of training teachers of the Alexander Technique and from
1988 to 1997 in London, England he trained 45 teachers.
His experiences with his own students and in other training groups made it clear
that a huge part of our chronic problems lay not in the 'body' but in our consciousness and habitual
way of seeing things and how we misinterpret our daily experiences and then become caught in reaction
to these misunderstandings. At this point it also became apparent that his discoveries revealed
new premises which in turn implied new teaching methods, so David developed the LearningMethods
work to teach people how to apply their in-built intelligence and clarity of perception to their
daily experience in order to understand their problems, solve them and more successfully navigate their
lives.
Since the beginning of this new work in 1997, David has trained a growing number
of LearningMethods Teachers, many of whom are now teaching the LM work in universities and conservatories,
and he has now begun a new modular training program
for LearningMethods, Anatomy of Wholeness and the Alexander Technique, pioneering new ways to learn and teach via online
video conferencing.
 DAVID GORMAN
E-mail:
Telephone: +1 416-519-5470
78 Tilden Crescent, Etobicoke, Ontario M9P 1V7 Canada (map)
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