Aussie F.M. Alexander invented the Alexander Technique, which I study for three hours a day.
I was reading through his book "Man’s Supreme Inheritance" (initially published in 1910) because I heard there were some naughty bits.
What a motherlode I found!
I got so excited when I found these materials that I had to rush off to be alone for a few minutes with the sacred text.
From page 72: "The controlling and guiding forces in savage four-footed animals and in the savage black races are practically the same; and this serves to show that from the evolutionary standpoint the mental progress of these races has not kept pace with their physical evolution from the plane of the savage animal to that of the savage human."
And then this: "The inadequate relative progress of the mental evolution of the black races as compared with that of their physical evolution, when considered in relation to their approximation to the savage animals, cannot be considered other than a most disappointing result. It surely does not furnish any convincing evidence that mankind is likely to advance adequately on the evolutionary plane in civilization by continuing to rely upon the original subconscious guidance and control."
I’m not sure this excerpt from page 110 is racist, but it does feel naughty: "The child descended from a hundred kings will speak the language and adopt the manners of the East End should it be reared among these associations; and the son of an Australian aboriginal would speak the English tongue and with certain limitations behave as a civilized child if brought up with English people."
On page 161, F.M. talks about the primitive races: "Even the spheres of courage were limited, and when confronted with the unusual these people quaked like cowards, and fled, panic-stricken, from the unaccustomed, as in the case of the negroes in the Southern States of America when the men of the Ku-Klux Klan pursued them on horseback dressed in white."
It sounds like F.M. had just seen the classic film "Birth of a Nation."
I’ve not yet met any Alexander Technique teachers or students who echo these ancient sentiments. As far as I can tell, the Technique welcomes red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in our sight, so long as they can pay.
