In Search of the Miraculous

the pulse (the second stroke or the "big heart") and G. had explained a great deal to me in pointing out that control over the "second heart" depends upon controlling the tension of the muscles, because we do not possess this control chiefly in consequence

of the wrong and irregular tension of various groups of muscles.

Exercises in relaxing the muscles which we began to perform gave very interesting

results to some of our company. Thus one of us was suddenly able to stop a bad

neuralgic pain in his arm by relaxing his muscles. Then relaxation of the muscles had

an immense significance in proper sleep and whoever did exercises in relaxation

seriously very quickly noticed that his sleep became sounder and that he needed

fewer hours of sleep.

In this connection G. showed us an exercise that was quite new for us, without

which, according to him, it was impossible to master moving nature. This was, as he

called it, the "stop" exercise.

"Every race," he said, "every nation, every epoch, every country, every class, every profession, has its own definite number of postures and movements. These

movements and postures, as things which are the most per-

manent and unchangeable in man, control his form of thought and his form of feeling.

But a man never makes use of even all the postures and movements possible for him.

In accordance with his individuality a man takes only a certain number of the postures

and movements possible for him. So that each individual man's repertory of postures

and movements is very limited.

"The character of the movements and postures in every epoch, in every race, and in

every class is indissolubly connected with definite forms of thinking and feeling. A

man is unable to change the form of his thinking or his feeling until he has changed

his repertory of postures and movements. The forms of thinking and feeling can be

called the postures and movements of thinking and feeling. Every man has a definite

number of thinking and feeling postures and movements. Moreover moving, thinking,

and feeling postures are connected with one another in man and he can never move

out of his repertory of thinking and feeling postures unless he changes his moving

postures. An analysis of man's thoughts and feelings and a study of his moving

functions, arranged in a certain way, show that every one of our movements,

voluntary or involuntary, is an unconscious transition from one posture to another,

both equally mechanical.

"It is illusion to say our movements are voluntary. All our movements are

automatic. Our thoughts and feelings are just as automatic. The automatism of

thought and feeling is definitely connected with the automatism of movement. One

cannot be changed without the other. So that if a man's attention is concentrated, let

us say, on changing automatic thoughts, then habitual movements and habitual

postures will interfere with this new course of thought by attaching to it old habitual

associations.

"In ordinary conditions we have no conception how much our thinking, feeling,

and moving functions depend upon one another, although we know, at the same time,

how much our moods and our emotional states can depend upon our movements and

postures. If a man takes a posture which with him corresponds to a feeling of sadness

or despondency, then within a short time he is sure to feel sad or despondent. Fear,

disgust, nervous agitation, or, on the other hand, calm, can be created by an

intentional change of posture. But as each of man's functions, thinking, emotional,

and moving, has its own definite repertory all of which are in constant interaction, a

man can never get out of the charmed circle of his postures.

"Even if a man recognizes this and begins to struggle with it, his will is not

sufficient. You must understand that a man's will can be sufficient to govern one

center for a short time. But the other two centers prevent this. And a man's will can

never be sufficient to govern three centers.

"In order to oppose this automatism and gradually to acquire control

over postures and movements in different centers there is one special exercise. It

consists in this—that at a word or sign, previously agreed upon, from the teacher, all

the pupils who hear or see him have to arrest their movements at once, no matter what

they are doing, and remain stock-still in the posture in which the signal has caught

them. Moreover not only must they cease to move, but they must keep their eyes on

the same spot at which they were looking at the moment of the signal, retain the smile

on their faces, if there was one, keep the mouth open if a man was speaking, maintain

the facial expression and the tension of all the muscles of the body exactly in the same

position in which they were caught by the signal. In this 'stopped' state a man must

also stop the flow of his thoughts and concentrate the whole of his attention on