Zen Saying

About Moshe Feldenkrais

He moved to Paris to study, earning a degree in electrical engineering and a doctorate in Physics from the Sorbonne. He later worked in Joliot Curie’s laboratory. Whilst in Paris he met Jigaro Kano, the founder of Judo, and subsequently trained in that discipline. In 1936 he became the first European to earn a black belt. He subsequently founded the Judo Club of Paris and later the Judo club of France.

He was evacuated to Scotland during the Nazi Invasion of France and was housed with a group of scientists whilst the British government decided how they could use them. To amuse themselves the scientists each gave lectures on their research. It was here that he began to synthesize his experiences into a theory of human development.

A knee injury from a soccer game in his teens was a catalyst for many of his discoveries. Whilst working on submarines developing radar for the British navy, his knee began to give him trouble. He realised there were some movements that caused pain and others that did not. He lay in his hammock at night experimenting with what to avoid. He found that it wasn’t just movements of his leg that could cause pain but that the way he organised his whole body also had a major influence.

He found as a result of his explorations that he not only was avoiding pain but that he also felt generally better and more able. The process seemed to affect the way he perceived himself and his world. Not only that but he found that if he applied the same principles to the way he taught Judo, his students learnt more quickly.

He continued his explorations drawing on his knowledge of physics, neurology, cybernetics, martial arts, body mechanics and psychology for the rest of his life. He not only solved his knee problem but also discovered fundamental principles of movement and learning that became the bedrock of his ingenious method.

Feldenkrais trained his first teachers in Israel in the1960’s. In the 1970’s he did a training in San Francisco. In the 1980s he did another training in Amherst Massachusetts. Today there are several thousand practitioners around the world whose professional development and regulation are administered by affiliated societies in twenty separate countries. Training is regulated by Training Accreditation Boards in Nth America, Europe and Australia.

Feldenkrais wrote six books –

Judo- The Art of Defence and Attack

Higher Judo - Groundwork

Body and Mature Behaviour (A study in gravity, anxiety, sex and learning.)

Awareness Through Movement

The Potent Self

The Elusive Obvious