Antiuniversity - Wilhelm Reich talk

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Good luck with that!

I'll take a look at Lowen in that case. The link to the post about Willis, Regardie and Reich works, very interesting stuff ; only thing that doesn't seem to be there any more is the Willis pdf...ah OK, just found it here: http://reichiantherapy.info/book in pdf/Reich home Book.pdf

Interested to hear your thoughts about the exercises framing when you have time; I think I get what you mean, but (presuming I'm understanding you correctly) it's an interesting issue with analogues in other disciplines

And I will remember to start that thread about body therapies today...

Edit: This Willis book is great:
"If you find that emotion of any type is getting too strong, stop the exercises entirely until your emotions settle down. I MEAN IT. "
 
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DannyL

Wild Horses
I just meant that the work isn't "exercises" as such - it's therapy. And it should be approached in that spirit - with an open-mindedness, spontaneity, gentleness (when appropriate), and a lack of concern for reaching a pre-determined goal. It's a much more contingent process than what we'd normally associate with exercise (i.e. completing 10 pressups or working my way through to the end of a page in a book of "exercises"). That PDF does sound quite funny though, and I'm not saying one couldn't get a lot out of it.

There's a nice principle in the Alexander Technique which is to consider the "conditions present" and try and stay with them, this being something that probably will be new and unfamiliar rather than the "conditions past" - what's known, familiar and comfortable - or a overly fixed intention (which'd be called "end-gaming" in the Alexander Technique).
 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Definitely - from a quick flick through the pdf, I think Willis at various points mentions that the therapy/exercises aren't to be taken competitively and that doing less is preferable to overdoing it. Alexander Technique seems good - I know someone who trained in it, but haven't yet sat down myself to take a proper look at the principles, aside from what she's told me about them.

The overemphasis on results and achievement seems to crop up everywhere (unsurprisingly perhaps given our world) - blighting many a yoga class for example, and feeding into the idea of therapy as just another thing to tick off the list, "OK, I've done it and I'm well now" etc.
Even at the gym in fact - when I go, I see so many people with tunnel vision on completing a certain number of 'reps', with no concern for form or the fact that their back or knees are going to be completely shot in a decade's time (or less).
 

luka

Well-known member
it's all about finding something which is giving you good feedback so you can adjust your trajectory accordingly in my opinion. the writing gig gives me that in spades. i can tell when im tuned in and i can begin to figure out what affects that.
 

luka

Well-known member
getting into a state of flow and then working how to stay there/get there more easily in the first place?

more or less. what are the factors involved? this is what the whole game's about. becasue it involves everything.
 

luka

Well-known member
how can you get time moving forward. how to escape the time loops. how to keep the channels of communication open. how to keep the valve open.
 

luka

Well-known member
the attention poised. clarity. scope of vision and understanding. seeing the angles as carlito puts it in carlitos way.
 

luka

Well-known member
i would imagine things like yoga approached intelligently give you that feedback as well. the more tuned in i am the more aware of my body i am and the more supple it is. (it's never been very supple) i touched my toes for the first time in about 7 or 8 years the other day! i havent worked at it. it's a product of being 'on'
(and tbf, losing a lot of weight)
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Mind and body working together as they should do.

Re yoga - definitely gives mind and body awareness if you don't get caught in the trap of having to perform. It also provides what Danny talked about earlier with the Alexander technique - practice in staying with the unfamiliar present (which is why those variants of yoga where you don't hold the stretch don't make any sense at all, except as regimented narcissism) rather than slinking back to the familiar ways of doing things. Sticking with discomfort, and thinking and feeling about what discomfort means to you, until it becomes tolerable or starts to dissolve.

I'm guessing that your poetry gig, being asked to write something on the spot based on a theme given to you by someone else, gives some of the same benefits of pushing you into unfamiliarity and enabling you to stick with it? I'd be interested to hear about that - obvious links on all sides with the improvisation discussion we were having a while back too
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
You've still not started that thread have you Baboon?

Half way through watching this and it's great - did some training with this guy in Oslo:

 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
You've still not started that thread have you Baboon?

Half way through watching this and it's great - did some training with this guy in Oslo:

My bad. Will rectify today. Waylaid by England's rebirth.

Will give that vid a watch too, cheers
 
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