2.7 From Moshe's Zurich Years

Lea Wolgensinger was born in Zurich in 1943. Moshe Feldenkrais had been a regular guest in her parents' home since 1949. She completed her Feldenkrais training with him in the USA in 1983. In 1984, in the meantime mother of three children, she opened Feldenkrais practices in Zurich and Tegna/Ticino. In 1984 she was also co-founder of the Swiss Feldenkrais Association. She was involved when a European Feldenkrais organization was founded in 1989 and a worldwide Feldenkrais organization in 1991. Since 1988 she has been teaching in training courses throughout Europe and is now an authorized Feldenkrais Trainer. 

2.7 From Moshe's Zurich Years 

The well-known Swiss photographers Luzzi and Michael Wolgensinger ran an open house in the center of Zurich for about 30 years after the Second World War. Artists, writers, musicians, and intellectuals from all over Europe met there. A special friendship developed with one of them, which was soon to have consequences for the Wohlgensingers' family life: Moshe Feldenkrais. He became, so to speak, an elective member of the family. 

Lea Wolgensinger, daughter of the photographer couple, grew up in this circle. She was infected with the "Feldenkrais bacillus" in her tenderest childhood, a bacillus that did her no harm but largely influenced her life, for she has been a Feldenkrais teacher herself since 1983. 

After completing her training, Lea Wolgensinger opened her own Feldenkrais studios in Tegna(Ticino)and in Zurich and, together with others, founded the Swiss Feldenkrais Association. 

Hanna Künzler-Schmidt spoke with Lea Wolgensinger. 

How did Feldenkrais come into your family? 

It was shortly after the Second World War. Franz Wurm, a young writer, was gaining a foothold in our family at the time, and it was he who first brought Moshe Feldenkrais to our house in the late forties. 

You call Feldenkrais an elective family member. What do you mean by that and what was his connection to your parents? 

Moshe Feldenkrais came to Zurich perhaps four or five times a year, sometimes for a few days, or for two or three weeks. Often he went from Zurich to conferences or seminars in Geneva, Munich or Paris. Since Moshe soon had his own key to our apartment, we sometimes did not know when he would come. For example, it could happen that he arrived at night and appeared surprisingly in the morning for breakfast. The joy was always great when he was there. 

My parents were unconventional thinkers and open in their hearts to those who thought differently, who were out of the ordinary, who did not fit in with mediocrity. Feldenkrais was a good fit for them. At the same time, they lived a regular rhythm in their daily lives with working, eating, working, and sleeping. And that, too, was balm for the constantly traveling friend. As with him, there was no strict separation between work and leisure. Work was fascination, research, creation, joy as much as obligation and earning money. Feldenkrais integrated himself into our everyday life as naturally as if he had always been with us. Many evenings were devoted to conversation, music and reading together. Especially when other friends were present, the conversations dragged on until the wee hours of the morning. 

What was this atmosphere like for you? 

As a little girl who later had to go to school, I didn't understand much about these evenings, but strangely enough I still had the feeling that it had something to do with me. The mood was exciting, cheerful, sometimes boisterous. This was about something that felt very different from anything at school or in the city. It was about living, surviving, living better, enjoying life. I must have picked up some of that. 

My mother, who grew up in Bucharest and Vienna, was an imaginative cook, always inventing new dishes for us and our friends. So the composition of her dishes could well be an evening-filling topic when the appropriate people were visiting. 

Moshe Feldenkrais was one of them. He had traveled a lot in the world since his youth and therefore knew many cultures. Food and drink were perennial topics for him, and at my mother's house he got his money's worth in this respect. 

Did Feldenkrais often talk about his work, and in what language did the conversations take place in your family? 

That depended on the situation. When Moshe Feldenkrais was alone with us, we spoke to each other in French. I also remember that for many years of this friendship, he and my parents called each other by their first names, which was a matter of respect. As soon as other friends joined us, we switched to English or German or spoke alternately in one of the three languages, depending on which was most suitable at the time. 

In principle, it was always about the same thing, namely the subject of man. As far as I could grasp it at that time, it was about how man thinks and feels, how he acts, i.e. functions, and how this becomes visible in his movements. However, such topics were not always discussed only in evenings, but they became part of our everyday life. When Moshe wanted to make something understandable to us, he did so by means of an example. Thus we learned many stories that he had experienced with his students. 

His unusual way of looking at people was unusual for us and always surprising. It was not the "problem" that interested him, but the way to a solution. 

The work from my own practice with a young architect, let's call him Philipp, is a good example of this. 

As a motorcyclist he was involved in an accident through no fault of his own and his right leg including foot was shattered. Operations, rehabilitation with physiotherapy, inability to work for many months, walking on crutches were the external signs of his misery. His self-image was that of a victim and inferior. That he was still unable to work, he attributed to himself. His goal was to get his right heel back on the ground, and he spent a tremendous amount of time doing that - several hours a day. So he spent all his time trying to overcome this problem, and as he did so, he fed it more and more, so that it grew bigger and bigger. Failure was inevitable and he felt it. 

Failure manifests itself in breathing and therefore increases the tone in the chest: breathing becomes even more difficult. In my first lesson, with him lying on his back, I showed Philip how my work on his left leg, which had to bear the brunt of the load, freed his chest from great tension so that he could breathe more easily. I involved his pelvis and head in my work in a way that allowed his nervous system to make new and clear connections to upright posture and walking. The last part of my lesson involved his right foot, which was his problem. It was my intention to turn what was now perceived as a lump and a bad guy into a living and differentiated perceptible piece of human being. This required fine detail work. The toes and the metatarsus became more flexible, warm and the ankle joints could be moved easily. In one hour, Philipp learned that he could do more than he thought. This opened up a great potential for him, which we were able to expand in further lessons through touch, hints and questions, sometimes even conversations. Since I didn't know where this collaboration was going, Philipp set the direction and the rhythm. The steps were small, but constantly they went in the direction of more attention and perception and therefore lightness. 

The lessons that followed were dedicated to affirming and disempowering fear, victimhood and feelings of inferiority, and building self-confidence. Philipp had to do the inner work to do this, my help was to show him how to do it. When Philipp began to take an interest in himself, another big step was taken. He understood that he was wonderful and worthy of love, and that the lessons continued to enter his everyday life even after they ended. An everyday life in which he had a lot of time due to the changed circumstances. And he now used this time to try out many new things. He experimented with his balance and applied the learned correlations in standing and walking in a meaningful way. 

Philipp experienced his becoming whole increasingly consciously, he thought about it, and his mood improved visibly. The idea of performance and exertion turned into play. The amazement, wonder and trust gave more and more nourishment for further questions. Philip began to feel competent about his own concerns and no longer relied on his therapists. 

Since this way of thinking and acting is so far removed from the common one and we have to discard so much that is familiar, I am glad to have been familiar with Moshe's way of thinking from childhood. 

Are there examples of conversations between Moshe and your mother? 

I have many memories of Moshe sitting at the table in my parents' small kitchen smoking while my mother - turning her back on him - prepared dinner. Whatever he had thought or done that day, he sought to formulate, to prove, or he simply asserted. As a broadly thinking scientist, he always had enough arguments at hand. This did not always go down well with my mother. She would listen, ask questions, he would start over and sometimes get into complicated arguments, while she continued to cut and fry the onions. She was rarely flustered. 

Finally, she could simply ask him what all this had to do with life. That could confuse him quite a bit. He usually returned the favor by closely studying and commenting on her movements - while cooking, she moved right and left in a radius of 1 to 2 meters, sometimes reaching up or down. This repartee often led to hilarity, resentment was broken, and Moshe could continue to spin his thoughts and carry out his proofs. 

When you later trained with Feldenkrais in Amherst (USA), did you recall topics that Moshe and your mother discussed at that time? 

Many. A funny memory of Moshe's Zurich visits came to me when he talked about "proper onion cutting" in training. 

In it, he explained that as a physicist, he knew that onions develop gases when cut. Even today, most housewives burst into tears when they do this. The reason for this phenomenon, however, was not the onions, but the housewives who leaned directly over the onions while cutting, instead of standing upright and with loosely stretched arms to avoid the gases of the onion. He had seen that with my mother, of course! 

Or the other scene with the little stick that didn't "want" to stand on its own. Many kitchen utensils of my mother had already been used in a similar way for Moshe's attempts to explain to her the "unstable equilibrium". Gravity was a constant theme for him anyway. When Moshe was with us, he often dropped spoons and other objects on the kitchen floor, from different heights, on different supports, etc. The same phenomenon became more differentiated through this visualization. I enjoyed playing along with these games and had a blast doing it. I certainly didn't recognize and naturally understand many of these scenes until Moshe's classes at Amherst. 

Moshe was clearly spacey and could totally hold the attention of those around him. 

Yes, sure, but he was genuine in what he did. For me as a child, it was usually difficult to break that dynamic. And even if I had just needed my mother coming home from school, it was a matter of waiting. 

I remember one scene in particular. I must have been a first grader when I once came running home to tell my mother something important. I rushed through the front door, the hallway, the living room and was able to stop just in time - a strange picture presented itself to me: the furniture had all been pushed against the walls, on the floor, surrounded by many hard cardboard rolls, lay my mother, my father, Franz Wurm and neighbors, all in bizarre positions, very still and moving in slow motion. Moshe sat on a chair and gave instructions. I felt I shouldn't intrude here, but my story was so urgent that I climbed over bodies and rollers and finally landed on my surprised mother to whisper my news in her ear. 

This was my first impression of something that would later be officially called "Awareness through Movement," and which I would later teach myself. 

How did Feldenkrais behave towards you? 

Very great! What I appreciated so much about him was that he never treated me like a child, but always addressed me as an independent person. I could clearly recognize this quality later during his work with children. Although he made many little jokes, he never used the baby talk often used by adults. He also knew that children know very well what they need. And his ability was precisely to make children learn when a function was difficult or missing altogether. 

You also met him in Tel Aviv. 

I was in Tel Aviv a few times. The first time as a 1year old with my parents when they made a trip to the Middle East for a photo book about the biblical world. As part of that trip, we also spent a few days in Tel Aviv and stayed with Moshe. While there we met his family, his mother Sheindel, his brother Baruch and his housekeeper, whose name I don't remember. Also his Great Circle of Friends, all beautiful people, marked by life, most of them from northeastern countries of Europe. 

Then later, as a 24 year old, newly married, Moshe helped us find a kibbutz where we could learn about Israel's then progressive agriculture. 

Was Moshe a different person in Tel Aviv than at your home? 

Yes, of course. As the oldest son, he was like the head of the family there. His mother had become a painter in her late years, but then she was ill for a long time and was cared for at home. His brother had a publishing business in the rooms of the Feldenkrais Institute on Nachmani Street. This was like a beehive where many people went in and out. Moshe gave many lessons every day. They were between 30 and 40 minutes and cost around $15 at that time. 

He also trained a group of students who followed his one-on-one lessons and whom he supervised. He also had nine or more ATM lessons a week in a basement pub on Alexander Yanai Street. The rest of his time was devoted to reading, answering endless letters, writing, and making phone calls. This was an incredible amount of work for years. Today it would be called double and triple workload. 

In addition to his institute, Moshe still had an apartment. Although this was not so far away, he always took his car. He had a blue American at that time, and when he sat in it, he could hardly see out of the window, because he was very small. I was terrified every time he drove off like that. His apartment had two rooms: a workroom full of books, tapes and piles of papers, and a living room with a sleeping alcove. There, too, you couldn't see the walls anymore because of all the books, and the floor was covered with them, too. 

His preference was for small utensils, such as ingenious knife-scissors combinations or mini flashlights, and later small electronic devices. 

In Zurich, he regularly went on his shopping spree on Bahnhofstrasse and always came home with a haul for us to admire. 

You received several individual lessons from Feldenkrais. How was that for you? 

Well, I was healthy and my parents had never made a special fuss about him and his method, as they had not done with other people. So I didn't expect any miracles or feel particularly honored. But after Moshe's first "Functional Integration" I stood up with a body feeling I had never known before; I felt an infinite lightness. 

Did Feldenkrais tend to favor FI lessons or ATMs? 

Neither. The main difference for him was primarily the time involved. He was able to reach many more people with his ATM groups. He had converted many of his ATMs from FIs already given so that several people could do them at the same time; that was important to him. He was also able to easily combine the two techniques. In individual work he phasewise had his clients do movements themselves and sometimes he touched someone in a group. For him it was Feldenkrais work, one through touch, the other through verbal communication, and I don't think he favored one method. 

Most practitioners know Feldenkrais only from the trainings in San Francisco or Amherst, the later ones even only from the videos from Amherst. There he was a man with white hair and well over 70 years old. In his classes, he changed moods constantly, could be funny, impatient, and sometimes angry. Did you experience him like that before? 

Not really. I remember him as I described him. He had a great sense of humor, was cheerful and could laugh heartily. That he lost some of his lightness was more in the years when he was fifty, sixty. As a good observer, however, I perceived very well that increasing age and the increased notoriety caused him a lot of trouble. 

What was the reason for that? 

There were certainly many reasons. He had to position himself in the circle of those who, in parallel with him, had made their mark on human development, such as Ida Rolf, Frederic M. Alexander and others. Although Feldenkrais did not communicate with them regularly, he knew them all personally and had also dealt with them in conversations and with their literature. Unfortunately, he was always compared to them and lumped together with them. This annoyed him, because he found his view of man and the resulting method by far the most consistent. His experience and his broad scientific knowledge as well as his ability to face every situation anew and with complete openness had brought him many successes. He was able to help people when others had long since given up on them. Because he oriented himself to everything they were able to do, expanded this ability and thus at some point also reached the part that did not work properly. 

No one else could show this approach and that is why he was convinced that his more advanced techniques were by far the most efficient. 

What was his relationship to success? 

Moshe depended on success like anyone else who has something to teach the world. He liked to talk about his successes for a long time, because to him they were signs that people were interested in his work. 

Were there people Feldenkrais mentioned particularly often? 

He always mentioned people who had touched him in some way through their way of thinking or acting. These could be his clients, his friends, scientists, in short people, capable people, as he called them, who were able to help themselves and others in decisive moments in a particularly imaginative way. He had a special admiration for Milton Erickson, whom he called a genius. 

What was the connection between Feldenkrais and Erickson? 

They both had a special ability which they consciously used and developed. This was based on their belief in the uniqueness and importance of the immediate situation. In concrete terms, this means that they had to invent something new with each client in every lesson, i.e. they did not allow themselves to work routinely. Such an approach requires a lot of creativity and courage, and the willingness to take risks, to be able to make mistakes and to learn by making mistakes. A view that was by no means common at the time. 

Feldenkrais only decided to pass on his method to others at a very late stage. How do you explain that? 

That was a difficulty that came out of himself. He was afraid to pass on his method, either by writing or by teaching it to selected people. This fear was very apparent to me, even as a young woman. Moshe did not want people to parrot him; nor did he want his statements to be taken as prescriptions. Everything he said or wrote, however, seemed to encourage this phenomenon. 

Did he comment on it?

Yes, the older he got, the more important this topic became for him. 

Again and again, he questioned his own way of thinking, and not just in private, but in public. He loved to contradict himself and thus achieved what he wanted: he unsettled others, became intangible. This required a lot of courage and, above all, standing by oneself. For him, to err was not only human, but fundamentally necessary for life. It was a quality that triggered movement and thus liveliness. I experienced this later in my Amherst education: many students could not comprehend his inner struggles, perceived him as capricious or put him - like a thinker - on a pedestal. Fortunately, I never had to do that, nor did my parents. 

Moshe had always remained tangible for me. A seeker, to be sure, but one of the few in this world who, on the one hand, could think clearly and, on the other, never forgot how to "wonder". 

Was your mother also a help for him in this conflict? 

Yes, but she did not make it easy for him. Critical questioning permeated all conversations between Moshe and her. He appreciated and needed her spirit of dissent very much. She was a woman who was very interested in philosophy and life issues, and who could think extraordinarily unconventionally. Moshe's challenge had a special appeal for her. She was strong enough in her nature and her own life experience had been very intense and accompanied by extremes that she had to balance again and again. She was one of the first women in Switzerland to learn the profession of photography. 

What kind of relationship did Feldenkrais have with your father? 

They had a very friendly relationship. They held each other in high esteem and could sometimes be like rascals with each other. My father accepted that my mother had no time for him when Moshe was in Zurich. The evenings were usually very long. While my mother and Feldenkrais juggled with words and their content, my father was more of a quiet listener. And everyone knew: At some point during the evening he would contribute something quite essential to the conversation, which could then take a new turn. 

In the summer of 1981, my father traveled to Amherst (USA), where Moshe was conducting his final training at the age of 78. My father photographed not only the classes with his ATM lessons and Talksvon Moshe, but also the daily three to four individual lessons with private clients attached after the classes. In the process, he took a series of over 1000 photographs that are important documentation for us today. 

When you took the Feldenkrais training at Amherst, you were already the mother of three small children. What were the reasons for you to become a Feldenkrais teacher? 

Moshe was part of my development and encouraged me in it. He must have empathized very well with my restless nature. In the meantime, my life had led me away from my parental home and onto other paths. I had learned to run a secretarial office, to bind valuable books, and had finally landed in the theater as an all-rounder. I shuttled back and forth between the office, the tailor shop I had opened myself, and the theater dressing rooms. On the one hand, 1968 brought me redemption from old values, freedom and new energy; on the other hand, I was looking for stability. In 1967 I married a student of agriculture, studied social pedagogy and founded a family, integrated in a Jura farm. 

In 1980, after separating from husband and farm and afflicted with a severe asthma condition, I found my way as a matter of course to Moshe's final professional training in Amherst. It took no long decisions, no long preparation time. I was suddenly there. How this could happen to me as a single mother with young children, living modestly on an invalid's pension in the south of France at the time, I later came to understand through Moshe's Talks. It was about the inner intention, more than that: about the clarity of the inner intention. 

What the inner intention has to do with movement, or action, I learned - among other things - during the four summers at Amherst. 

How did that happen?

The training was more of an open system for me. It wasn't a lot of magic, 

to recognize the connection between inner intention and movement. 

Contradictions, with each of which Moshe drove us students almost to despair, were a familiar memory to me from early youth. They were contradictions that could not frighten me. The man had always stood on the bo- den for me and continued to remain there. 

Moshe could talk and talk, and the more he talked, the more sophisticated he became. Most of the time it was left to us to figure out the essence from what was being said. We did this, of course, in the evening after class, and then went to bed satisfied. The next morning, Moshe was able to completely overturn his explanations of yesterday, even to the point of absurdity - we were the ones who were bruised. What he achieved with strong people was that they began to think for themselves and no longer relied exclusively on him. And that was actually what he wanted. In any case, it was very challenging and exhausting for everyone. 

There are about 2000 to 3000 ATM lessons. How did Feldenkrais keep "inventing" new lessons? 

Moshe had precise knowledge of human anatomy. Everything that goes on in our body he had learned. Everything that could be observed, felt, sensed and therefore expressed in a recognizable way was his second leg in the exploration of the human being. And in observing and combining he was a master. Where Moshe was, there were also his "test persons". He only needed to look around him and see. What could be improved was the occasion for a new ATM, which he invented and developed on himself, preferably at night, lying on the floor. As soon as possible he then wanted to try out his own experiences with others. In my parents' house, this happened as I have already described. Without much ado, one pushed the chairs aside and lay down on the floor. Often a tape recorder was then fetched and Moshe began. The lessons were repeated, changed, improved on other days and with other people. 

The technique" Awareness through Movement" is explicitly called "verbal". Did this term come from Feldenkrais himself? 

I doubt it. I noticed early on that Moshe had trouble with precise formulations. Perhaps they were not so important to him. In any case, it was not because of his language skills, since he had already done his studies as an engineer and physicist in French. It was much more due to the way his brain worked and his attitude towards language in general. He knew, saw and combined too much at once, that is, he thought very quickly, and translating that into language was a tremendous dilemma for him. Language, therefore, seemed to him, justifiably, the best means of misunderstanding. In Amherst he once said "The moment you say something, it's already wrong". What he meant by this is that we cannot think and speak at the same time. Thinking is a silent process, speaking is for communicating, but how? There is never the absolute right language for the thought, because when the language becomes audible, the thought is already wrong. 

Here I can insert a beautiful example from the early days of my practice: I received a phone call one day from a friend who lived far away in the upper valley. Her neighbor, a farmer's wife, had collapsed at her place and now she 

she asked me for help. 

Half an hour later they were both with me and I witnessed an incredible story. Maria Luisa, in her mid-fifties, was a peasant in a remote village. She was married, without children, and in addition to running her own household, she also did that of her unmarried brothers. Her husband was an early retiree, an alcoholic. So she was responsible for all the work in the house and yard alone. Three months ago, a heavy machine had fallen on her right hand, breaking her joint and damaging nerves, muscles and ligaments. The valley doctor in charge had put her in a cast, which caused her severe pain. Painkilling pills didn't help, so the doctor had to take the cast off her again and put her hand in a sling, not without telling her beforehand that she was only faking. Swelling and pain went down and Maria Luisa was immediately sent to physiotherapy for mobilization of the hand. There she fainted from pain during the first treatment, but then went again. She did not know what else to do. For out in the fields the grass was growing, and if she did not mow soon, the fodder for her cattle was lost. The brothers were angry with her, the husband disappeared for a few days when she went for help from neighbors, and Maria Luisa collapsed. 

By telling her story she had calmed down a bit and lay down trustingly on my couch. I fetched blankets and pillows and positioned her as comfortably as possible. Then I examined her injured hand with great care. She watched and when she was sure that I would not hurt her, she lowered her head again and let me take care of her. 

head again and left her hand to me. Through my work it changed color and temperature and the individual joints could be moved again. After about half an hour, Maria Luisa sat up again, looked at her hand and began to move it with the same care that I had taken. Here sat an intelligent woman with great vitality! Her immediate interest was only in how she could continue to come to me without her family, the doctor, and the physical therapist knowing. I was greatly impressed by this clarity and simplicity. And she conveyed this not through language, but also through her actions. In order to be able to tackle the six-hour journey to me twice a week, she invented ways and means that testify to a great capacity for life. 

Most of the lessons took place in my kitchen. Maria Luisa stood, sat, and relearned how to use knives and whisks. Everything that could help her to use her hand better again, she accepted naturally and immediately. 

Whether it was the way her feet were on the floor, the way she swung her pelvis to cut with the cradle knife. At home, after the work was done, she took time to wrap her hand in fine herbs and then she would sit and reimagine the first lesson with me. Everything she learned she continued to develop, silently and for herself, and kept it as her sweet secret. Through the accident of her hand, she had discovered love for herself. The social obligations she had, the unkindness she experienced at the hands of her family, no longer weakened her. She brought in a wonderful hay harvest and was the happiest woman in the world about it. 

Maria Luisa was not interested in consciousness, not in the use of her self, not in the differentiation of her movements. She was interested in her meadow - and it didn't need language. 

Never before, as after this experience, had I been able to better understand Moshe's ambivalent feelings about language. 

Nevertheless, language could not be avoided in "Awareness through Movement". How did Feldenkrais deal with this conflict? 

As with many of his conflicts: he cursed about it and then did it anyway. Franz Wurm provided him with invaluable linguistic services in the verbal communication of his lessons, because ultimately the audience had to be able to understand what was meant by the instructions Moshe was giving. 

It was also Franz Wurm who made the twelve-part ATM series possible through his work at Swiss Radio at that time. 

Yes. The series from 1968/69 on Swiss Radio was very successful and was later published as audio cassettes. They are each 30-minute lessons in "Awareness through Movement." 

To my knowledge, this radio program was the first and only broad public appearance of Feldenkrais and his method in the electronic media in the German-speaking world. 

What fascinates you so much about Feldenkrais? 

In the context of my parents' home, it was his self-evident way of being and acting. Because with his existence, a different life moved into our everyday life. People were carried up the stairs to our apartment in wheelchairs, people came on sticks, or they were led (the "Doris case" began at our house) and left the house again after an hour, usually visibly changed. Our living room became a waiting room and the waiting people were integrated into our everyday life in an uncomplicated way. 

Later, as an adult, I was fascinated by different things about him at different times. The fact that everyday life was for him an occasion for research, that he didn't need a laboratory, no scientific papers for it. Moshe's teaching style was not that of a rhetorician, he did not play a role and especially not that of a teacher, he always emphasized that. Nor did he need to present himself. He remained genuine, true to himself, simple, and risked mistakes. He was a bubbling spring. The fact that he was not a saint and a know-it-all, had to accept that many of his own questions remained unanswered, that he suffered, could be impatient, smoked, drank and ate a lot, that he had pain, anger, in short, everything that others also have, made him so human and so true for me. 

Later, as I became more involved with his work, it became more and more exciting. The more life experience I had, the better I understood his joys and sufferings. The more I got to know myself, the clearer, but also the more acceptable my own limits became. Only now could the question arise whether I was teaching "Feldenkrais" as a Feldenkrais teacher or "Lea Wolgensinger" using the Feldenkrais Method. 

Today, in a world so different from his, what fascinates me most is that Feldenkrais always thought scientifically and without compromise. In addition, he was a great humanist. And he succeeded, as only very few do, in combining both in a brilliant way as a practitioner. This means practical help for daily life - knowing "how" - in difficult situations where science alone cannot help. 

Through this ability he has left us a legacy which is open and which we can and must develop further today. And for that I am very grateful. 

Where do we go from here? 

(Lea Wolgensinger describes with practical examples how she has integrated and further developed Moshe Feldenkrais' ideas in her work). 

Working with the Feldenkrais Method satisfies all my wishes: it has to do with people, it is sensual, creative, exciting, varied, successful and therefore satisfying. 

I am able to help many people achieve a better quality of life, often in a short time, and have always been able to take responsibility for myself and my health. 

No Ben Gurion or Yehudi Menuhin come to my practice. The farmer's wife from the mountain valley, the pair of artists from the nearby small theater, the golfer from the neighboring elite club, the disabled dancer who is a housewife, the architect who has had an accident, the sick doctor and the depressed landlady all come to my practice. 

They all come with a problem, they all have already tried everything, they all put great hope in me - and if I were working on this basis, I would not be a student of Moshe and would not have thought further. In my work with my clients, it is therefore a great concern to me to immediately put this usual view into a different light. 

This comes very close to my attitude towards life: I rarely experience everyday life as boring, it is the source of my being. And that's what the Feldenkrais Method is for me: not to be smothered in routine, but to look for the special in every occurrence. To reinterpret the everyday and break new ground. 

Incidentally, one of Moshe's peculiarities was that he had great control over his need for sleep. He could get up very suddenly, sit down in another chair and fall asleep within 3 to 4 minutes. We could tell that he was asleep by the fact that he was snoring horribly loudly, breathing very loudly and very irregularly. Everyone who had lived with Feldenkrais knew this. After a quarter of an hour he was awake again and in top form, regenerated. 

Did he talk about his work? 

Feldenkrais always talked about his work. That was his theme. Always. He told us about his work with the English theater director Peter Brooks, wove in anecdotes about this and that, and he told us about his experiences at the Munich Children's Center. 

His relationship with physicians was very tense. On the one hand, he criticized them, on the other hand, he always sought access to them. 

Yes, he needed them. He sought ground in Europe, but it was relatively difficult for him to establish his method without scientific recognition where he would have liked to see it, namely in schools and hospitals. 

What was Feldenkrais doing at the Children's Center in Munich? 

He was invited there by Professor Reuter. He worked with the little patients. Once he told us how he gave an FI to a child in the presence of very many doctors, and obviously with great success. He worked with one of these children who had already been treated there for two or three years. When the child was able to do several things after Moshe's FI that he had not been able to accomplish an hour before, this hardly seemed to affect the watching doctors. Felden- krais had told us about this very indignantly and angrily. He said that the doctors simply could not jump over their shadows. They would see and perceive differences, but the only thing they would ask afterwards was something like, "And what do you do in cases of such-and-such disease?" On that occasion, Moshe expressed to us his indignation and anger at their inability to want to understand. Yes, of all things, there were experiences in the medical field where Moshe encountered people with extreme limitations. 

Today, things are moving in medicine. For example, a medical school for alternative medicine was recently established in Zurich. Much/maybe Feldenkrais could have made more of a difference there. 

Probably. Unfortunately, he had not met the right people at the time, nor had he developed the skills to present his work in a way that resonated with people. He then turned that around and ranted about doctors and physiotherapists for the majority of the time. Moshe had reason to do so, too. He saw how many mistakes were made and how many people did not return to a greater quality of life, and that many people were incapacitated by treatments instead of learning to take charge of their own lives. He saw the results of many misdiagnoses. 

Many people put the Feldenkrais Method into the alternative-medical corner. Do you think Feldenkrais, if he were alive, would have agreed with that? 

Who knows? Perhaps he would have had no choice but to accept this development. I think Moshe was always a scientist with skin and hair, and uncompromisingly so. That's why he got into a clinch with that kind of science that no longer questioned itself.