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Aldous Huxley, English writer (1894
- 1963)
"Complete understanding of the
system can only come with the practice of it. All I
need say in this place is that I am sure, as a matter
of personal experience and observation, that is gives
us all the things we have been looking for in a system
of physical education: relief from strain due to maladjustment,
and consequent improvement in physical and mental health;
increased consciousness of the physical means employed
to gain the ends proposed by the will and, along with
this, a general heightening of consciousness on all
levels; a technique of inhibition, working on the physical
level to prevent the body from slipping back, under
the influence of greedy 'end-gaining,' into its old
habits of malco-ordination, and working (by a kind of
organic analogy) to inhibit undesirable impulses and
irrelevance on the emotional and intellectual levels
respectively. We cannot ask more from any system of
physical education; nor, if we seriously desire to alter
human beings in a desirable direction, can we ask any
less."
Ends and Means (1937)
George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwriter
(1856 - 1950)
“Alexander established not only
the beginnings of a far reaching science of the apparently
involuntary movements we call reflexes, but a technique
of correction and self-control which forms a substantial
addition to our very slender resources in personal education.”
Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch ethologist
(1907-1988)
1973
Nobel Prize in Medicine
“.. an extremely sophisticated
form of rehabilitation or rather of redeployment of
the entire muscular equipment and through that of many
other organs.”
Ethology and Stress Diseases - Nobel Lecture 1973
John Cleese, English actor and writer
(1939)
“I find the Alexander Technique
very helpful in my work. Things happen without you trying.
They get to be light and relaxed. You must get an Alexander
teacher to show it to you."
Sir Charles Serrington, 1932
Nobel Prize winner for medicine
“Mr Alexander has done a service
to the subject by insistently treating each act as involving
the whole integrated individual, the whole psychophysical
man. To take a step is an affair not of this or that
limb solely but of the total neuromuscular activity
of the moment – not least of the head and neck.”
Tony Buzan, author and inventor of
mind maps
" The Alexander Technique transformed
my life. It is the result of an acknowledged genius.
I would recommend it to anyone.”
Paul Collins, marathon runner
"Through the Alexander Technique
I was able to rehabilitate my running after 25 years
of being unable to run through injuries, to the extent
that I was able to set ten world records for veterans
in 1982."
Dr Bent Ostergaard, consultant cardiologist
“The Alexander Technique is
a realistic alternative to beta blockers in the control
of stress-induced high blood pressure.”
Daniel Pevsner, Fellow of the British
Horse Society
"The Alexander Technique removed
a long standing back problem, improved my riding position
and riding ability. Riders who take up the technique
always make a very significant improvement in their
riding.”
Professor John Dewey, American philosopher
“In the present state of the
world it is evident that the control we have gained
of physical energies, heat, light, electricity, etc.,
without first having secured control of ourselves is
a perilous affair. If there can be developed a technique
which will enable individuals really to secure the right
use of themselves, then the factor on which depends
the final use of all other forms of energy will be brought
under control Mr Alexander has evolved this technique.”
Dr Peter MacDonald
“It is accepted scientific opinion
that at the present stage of the evolutionary process
modern civilized man is in imperfect adjustment to his
environment. The importance of Alexander’s work
lies in his emphasizing the reality of this maladjustment
of man’s neuromuscular system, and in his having
devised a technique for teaching pupils a right, or
rather better, use of themselves.”
Raymond Dart, anatomist and anthropologist
How, then, is poise to be acquired
if lost or defective? The shortest road towards neuromuscular
education of the body is doubtless at the hands of skilled
people who practise an appropriate technique. The technique
designed by Alexander is appropriate because it is based
on the fundamental biological fact that the relation
of the head to the neck is the primary relationship
to be established in all proper positioning and movement
of the body. But, if we are not so fortunate as to have
an expert personal assistance, can the individual do
anything? Alexander himself holds little hope for the
unassisted person beyond the patient process of self-correction
relative to movement before a mirror which he followed
out himself in improving the use of his own body and
in discovering the importance principles at which he
arrived.”
Walter Carrington, Director of the
Constructive Teaching Centre, London
“I consider that Alexander’s
work is probably one of the most underrated achievements
of the 20th century. I think that it is surprising how
relatively unknown and unrecognised it is, because I
am convinced that it will prove to be as important to
humanity as the work of Newton, of Einstein and particularly
of Darwin.”
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