Man's supreme inheritance : $b Conscious guidance and control in relation to human evolution in civilizationAlexander, F. Matthias (Frederick Matthias)
Science
Man's supreme inheritance : $b Conscious guidance and control in relation to human evolution in civilization
Now, to bring about the correct performance of any act by the principles
of my system of teaching it is not necessary at the beginning to call
upon the pupil for any specific physical efforts. This very fact should
remove immediately any cause for worry or apprehension, but in many
cases it does not. When this is the case the teacher must explain that
the reason that the pupil is unable to perform the act correctly is that
he believes that there is something for him to do physically, when as a
matter of fact the very opposite is necessary. He _is doing_ what is
wrong. Obviously he should begin then by ceasing to do what is wrong,
not by endeavouring blindly to do what is right. The process is this:
Apprehensively he tries to do what he thinks his teacher desires him to
do. The old wrong subconscious orders follow in their usual channels,
and before he realises the fact he is performing the act in the old
wrong manner. Therefore he must learn to inhibit these incorrect
subconscious orders, which result in undue physical tension and the
imperfect use of his muscles. But instead of employing inhibition he
adds to his difficulties by renewing his efforts on the old basis to put
right what he is told is wrong, and he actually employs increased force
in accordance with his own estimate of the amount needed to perform the
act. And why so? Chiefly because the ordinary human being has lost the
habit of inhibition, and because he is guided here by his sense of
feeling, in this connexion the most unreliable guide.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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