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 Ginsburg
explores 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 taught
this concept long 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.
Read excerpts from the book.
"Here is a book
that offers deep insight into the human psyche from the perspective of
how we move ... Engagingly written and filled with insightful exercises,
Ginsburg's book is an elixir for both mind and body."
-Alan Fogel, Professor of Developmental Psychology, and author of the
Psychophysiology of Self-Awareness
"The Intelligence
of Moving Bodies is a genuinely enlightening work, a revelation to anyone
who lightly passes over experience of his or her body and is thereby actually
unfamiliar with the subtleties of bodily experience ... An extensive survey
of recent work in psychology on feeling, perception, and motion runs in
tandem with the exercises and provides a much needed corrective to objective
models with ‘how the body works'."
-Maxine sheets-Johnstone, author of The Primacy of Movement and The
Corporeal Turn
"I especially enjoy the vast context, the strings linking this thinking
to so many diverse, creative Beings and the combi nation of humanness and rigorous
inquiry ... A true contibution for all of us."
-Russel Delman, founder, The
Embodied Life™ School, Feldenkrais® trainer and Meditation Teacher
