Embodied Wisdom

This article is part of the Legacy Feldenkrais Books Archive.

INTRO

Embodied Wisdom: The Collected Papers of Moshe Feldenkrais brings together many of Moshe Feldenkrais’s most important English-language articles and interviews. Carefully edited by Elizabeth Beringer, the book offers readers a rare opportunity to encounter Feldenkrais’s ideas in his own words.

These writings span several decades of Feldenkrais’s work and provide clear insights into the scientific and philosophical foundations of the Feldenkrais Method®. Through essays, lectures, and conversations, Feldenkrais explores the nature of learning, the relationship between mind and body, the importance of awareness, and the remarkable adaptability of the human nervous system.

This page provides an overview of the book along with a short excerpt illustrating Feldenkrais’s thinking about awareness, learning, and human development.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Embodied Wisdom gathers together some of Moshe Feldenkrais’s most influential writings about human movement, awareness, and learning. Unlike his longer books, which develop ideas over many chapters, the pieces in this collection present Feldenkrais’s thinking in shorter and often more direct form.

The articles explore foundational concepts such as self-image, the relationship between sensation and movement, the unity of mind and body, and the central role of learning in human development. The interviews provide additional insight into Feldenkrais’s personality, humor, and intellectual curiosity.

Together, these writings reveal the breadth of Feldenkrais’s interests—from martial arts and neuroscience to theater, psychology, and education—and show how these fields informed the development of the Feldenkrais Method.

KEY IDEAS IN THE BOOK

• Human beings learn through movement and sensory experience.
• The organization of movement reflects a person’s self-image.
• Awareness allows people to recognize and change habitual patterns.
• The nervous system possesses remarkable capacity for learning and adaptation.
• Improving movement organization can transform thinking, feeling, and perception.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword
Editor’s Introduction

PART I — ARTICLES

Bodily Expressions
Mind and Body
On the Primacy of Hearing
On Health
Man and the World
Awareness Through Movement
Self-Fulfillment Through Organic Learning

PART II — INTERVIEWS

Image, Movement, and Actor: Restoration of Potentiality
Feldenkrais Revisited: Tension, Talent, and the Legacy of Childhood
The Extraordinary Story of How Moshe Feldenkrais Came to Study Judo
Moshe Feldenkrais Discusses Awareness and Consciousness with Aharon Katzir
Movement and the Mind
The Forebrain: Sleep, Consciousness, Awareness, and Learning
An Interview with Moshe Feldenkrais (The New Sun)

Notes
Photograph Credits
A Biography of Moshe Feldenkrais
About Elizabeth Beringer
About David Zemach-Bersin
Resources

EXCERPT

Editor’s Introduction

Embodied Wisdom contains some of Moshe Feldenkrais’s most concise and accessible descriptions of the Feldenkrais Method. Several of the early articles, particularly “Bodily Expressions” and “Mind and Body,” clearly present the fundamental principles underlying his work.

In these writings Feldenkrais develops his concept of self-image, a central idea in his approach to human development. He explores how the way we sense ourselves—our posture, movement, habits, and perceptions—forms an internal map that guides our actions and choices.

Throughout the collection Feldenkrais returns repeatedly to the theme of learning. He viewed the human ability to learn as both our greatest challenge and our greatest potential. By improving the way we sense and organize our movements, he believed that people could expand their capacity for adaptation, creativity, and awareness.

Taken together, the articles and interviews form a diverse and textured picture of Feldenkrais’s thinking and offer multiple entry points for readers interested in understanding the principles behind the Feldenkrais Method.

CLOSING REFLECTION

Embodied Wisdom provides one of the clearest windows into Moshe Feldenkrais’s thinking about movement, learning, and human potential. The collection brings together writings that reveal both the scientific curiosity and the practical insight that shaped his work.

For readers seeking to understand the ideas behind the Feldenkrais Method®, this volume offers an accessible introduction as well as a rich resource for deeper study.

RELATED READING

About Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais
What is the Feldenkrais Method®
Research on the Feldenkrais Method®
Other books by Moshe Feldenkrais