The Lies Our Brain Tells Us
by Jeremy ChanceIn their wonderfully informative book – "The Body Has A Mind of Its Own" – the Blakeslee family authors tell us the story of people with disorganised Body Schema.
Body Schema – as a quick primer for recent readers – is how you know you have moved. It is a collection of areas in your brain that reports sensory activity and confirms that, for example, you just moved your arm.
Alexander students often confuse the feeling of a movement (Body Schema) with the doing of a movement (Body Image) by trying to produce a movement that will feel a particular way. This confuses sensory activity with motor activity - creating the classic "Alexandroid" look – a stiff, robotic-like movement quality.
I am forever dealing with this in Pro classes with beginners. When pushed, I reveal this as the second, subtle discovery of dear old FM.
But what happens with Body Schema in denial of paralysis syndrome?
It's a riot, so for fun, I am quoting a dialogue between a doctor and patient (CC) with left arm paralysis taken directly from Blankslees' book. The doctor starts:
***
"Can you raise your right arm?"
"Yes."
CC's arm goes up.
"Can you raise your left arm?"
"Yes."
There is no movement.
"Are you raising your left arm?"
"Yes."
"Can you clap your hands?"
CC moves her right hand to the midline of her body and waves it in a clapping motion. The left hand is motionless.
"Are you sure you're clapping?"
"Yes."
"But I can't hear a sound."
CC replies: "I never make noise when I do something."
***
These people are the exception, not the rule.
However - as famed neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran points out - an anomaly in one person's brain is a fair indication of a universal brain mechanism gone wrong. It has often happened in the history of brain science – the anomalies have revealed clandestinely performing functions of our miraculous brain.
What does it mean in a practical, everyday sense?
Just this: your brain will lie to you.
Magnificently so.
And you have no idea it is doing that. None at all.
Denial of paralysis syndrome demonstrates your brain's capacity to stick to a belief despite overwhelming sensory evidence to the contrary. However, all is not lost.
First, you must recognise you are in denial. This is true at any level of human behaviour – without this permission, your brain will not admit the truth. Pain is the mechanism Mother Nature devised to beat open the door of your active ignorance.
Second, you can overcome your delusions by meeting with the truth.
This is why – at BodyChance – all our trainees undergo a rigorous program of Body Image restoration. Our BodyThinking course looks like an anatomy course – but it is nothing of the sort.
BodyThinking reveals how many lies your brain is perpetuating.
There are hundreds and hundreds of these lies going on. You never reach the final lie – but you can quickly overcome the massively dysfunctional lies that cause suffering in your head, back, neck, arms, legs, jaw and other moving parts.
Solving your postural discomfort is not a physical exercise: it is a subtle adventure into cognition; into your brain's ability to see itself and teach itself.
Teachers, trainees and students of Alexander's discovery now have an opportunity to join BodyChance’s BodyThinking course. Over a period of two years I assembled the eqivalent of two books into a modular, online program.
You can purchase one module, or you can purchase all three. And I will throw in a coaching session with me – worth $300 alone – if you book it this month.
Your adventure can start at any time:
Jeremy Chance's (sometimes) Daily
Alexander's Discovery v3.0