Carl Ginsburg, Luci Schuette-Ginsburg, AWAREing Inc., Feldenkrais Trainer, THE INTELLIGENCE OF MOVING BODIES. A SOMATIC VIEW OF LIFE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

The Intelligence of Moving Bodies:
A Somatic View of Life and its Consequences

by Carl Ginsburg, Ph.D.,
with the participation of Lucia Schuette-Ginsburg.

Look at the cover of this book. What do you see if anything? There is an image here that many people will not see on first viewing. It is simply not perceived. If you spend some time without trying to figure out what the image is, you probably will not see it. But if you contemplate quietly letting the pattern sink in, the image may suddenly become clear. In the book there will be a resolution of the image, which will help you organize the image. Once you see it, it will be hard to lose it again. In other words perceptual learning can be very rapid. It
does not require repeated going over the process. This is a strange phenomenon compared to what we think learning entails. Watch a baby suddenly learn a new pattern of moving such as rolling over or rolling up to sit. Sudden success makes a strong input. The pattern becomes available for the baby to begin to act in completely new ways.
In this book we explore these phenomena and ask questions. What does the fact that we are autonomous self-moving biological creatures have to do with learning to perceive and become mature? How can we recover our functioning after injury or illness? How can we continue to improve our ability to act? Movement is not just an adjunct to being human. In the words of Moshe Feldenkrais, who inspired us through his profound teaching about how to know ourselves: “Movement is the key to life.” Exploring movement with attending and listening to ourselves brings us to a higher awareness of ourselves, and our surroundings. We find even as adults that we can continue to learn and increase our brain’s capacity. Moshe Feldenkrais was teaching that before scientists began to study these seemingly newly discovered capacities based on the phenomena of brain plasticity and coordination dynamics. Today science is catching up with the pioneers of the somatic practices. That is the theme and message of this book.