Contents copyright © 2010 – 2017 David Gorman
ISBN 978-1-927437-25-4

All rights reserved worldwide.
Book design and illustrations by David Gorman

This publication is a free booklet but remains copyrighted and protected by the author as above. The booklet may be reproduced and distributed freely to anyone PROVIDED that it is not changed in any way — that is, by way of additions, deletions, reformatting or any other form of change. The contents may not be reproduced or published in any other compilation, book, magazine or other form, whether commercial or not, without explicit written permission from the author. Permission requests must be addressed directly to the author (details at www.learningmethods.com/contact.htm).

Trademarks: The “LearningMethods”, “Anatomy of Wholeness”, “Patterns of the Body”, “The Body Moveable”, “Standing on Top of the World” and “Liberating Performers” names and their respective logos are all trademarks of David Gorman and may be registered in some jurisdictions.

First published on the web in 2013
This ePub / Mobi e-book
version is published 2017 by

LearningMethods Publications

Toronto, Canada — www.bodymoveable.com

Also by David Gorman

– The Body Moveable –

Blueprints of the Human Musculoskeletal System
Available as a colour version and in
two different black & white versions

– Looking At Ourselves –

Available in both black & white and colour print
editions as well as in various e-book formats

– Anatomy of Wholeness –

An online course in 18 parts (almost 27 hours) about
our structure and function – how our marvellous
human system works when it is working well

– Standing on Top of the World –

An online course over 12 hours of graduated
experiential explorations on the principles
and practice of balance and support

By Intention Alone

by
David Gorman

and
Marion Day

This article is also available as a web page:

www.learningmethods.com/by.intention.alone.htm

Note: This article was extracted from a LearningMethods Online group
dedicated to applying the work to performance — August 2nd 2012

David:
Marion, this is where you have the advantage over me because you’ve been acting for a long time at a high professional level and have lots of experience in bringing the LearningMethods approach to your acting. I’ve taught many theatre people but I’m not an actor myself so I haven’t had to learn lines and do rehearsals and play it out for real in the business.

So I wonder if you have any stories or insights as to the real nitty-gritty of how to apply it… That is, experiences you’ve had applying your knowledge to certain situations in acting that gave you new insights into how things work, especially in the sense of difficulties people might run into when they’re trying to apply it in the middle of their work and run into one obstacle or another…

Marion:
I’m trying to think of the example I can give you that is close to home and relatively recent so I can give you all the details.

OK, this isn’t specifically an acting one but over the last two days I did some background recording, laying in vocal tracks… not spoken, but sung… I’ve never done that before. The guy who is doing the mixing wants to learn how to compose and mix, and I’m interested in learning about the recording part.

Let’s see, I just want to get this in the right order… As the point in the song came up where I was going to start singing, I noticed self-consciousness and tightness and all kinds of things that I considered to be low-value experiences. I also felt that my voice was very thin and coming out kind of pinched.

When I listened to the playback I thought, “Yeah that sounds pretty pinched and pretty small.” Before doing the LearningMethods approach I would not have seen that moment so clearly as a fork in the road with different choices I could make. Before that I think my focus would have been on how do I get a “bigger sound”, or how do I get a “better sound”. Or I might have gone into the territory of how do I sound more like, you know, pick a singer who has those sorts of qualities.

But instead of going down that road, I thought, “OK, let’s look really closely… I know I’ve had lots of experiences where I really enjoyed singing and I know that I like singing.” People in general say, “Oh, great voice… I love to hear you sing.” So, it’s not like good stuff has never happened… But it wasn’t happening now. So I thought what am I doing differently now in contrast to those high value experiences.

And I saw a few things. Like I was imagining that the moment of singing was sort of three feet out in front of me and that it was something I had to get to. So my system was organizing itself around the narrow point about three feet in front of me.

I recognized this is something that I brought up in our group last year, feeling that the scene was about five feet in front of me and was about the size of a deck of cards — a sort of “getting ready to act”, and I want to do a good job in “the scene”, and the scene is a small thing out in front of me. I was surprised to hear from David that this sort of thing is not that unusual.

It’s absurd, because of course the scene is not an object, it’s not five feet in front of me… None of that’s true, but because I had already got that last piece out on the table before, I recognized that I was looking at the singing as an object in front of me and so, of course, everything is organizing itself around that.

So I thought, “Well, I’m not doing anything to get that organization, that idea, but the part where I do have a decision is when I notice that I’m imagining the point of singing as being this small fixed point, I can notice that and I can not react at all to that. I can inhibit the reacting around it, then just hold it as a question — the point in time when I start singing, is that actually this little thing out in front of me?”

And I know enough now to allow for repeated experiments. I mean, time was absolutely cheap — it was not a rented studio. With two or three repetitions, keeping in mind my notion of the point of singing as a small thing… I didn’t have to do anything to get rid of that… gradually it just started to appear as more and more funny, like, “OK, it just isn’t… That isn’t even real…” but I didn’t have to talk myself out of it. I just said, “Let’s question this, let’s keep repeating the experience”.

And one thing that I did, I mean actively did, is I thought that I can’t NOT have this thought jump into my head, because I’m not doing anything to get it — it just jumps into my head, “Oh, here it comes, here it comes…” But what I can do is that I don’t have to react further. I can go, “Oh, here it comes, here it comes… isn’t this interesting?” And not do anything different because of that…

I told the guy I was working with, I said, “It’s small and tight right now”, and he said, “Yeah, it’s tight, you’re held back…” and whatever… So I said to him, “I’m going to have a couple of repetitions with this while I play around with something.” And after about three of them, that whole concept of small object in front of me (sounds bizarre when I talk about it now)… that wasn’t happening anymore, so I had much more awareness of the entire room, I had more awareness of my friend who was doing the mixing. I was also able to imagine relationships with people who I might be trying to express something to in the song, or, wouldn’t it be neat if I was singing with so-and-so and communicating something with them. You know, a lot of good coordination to do with communication just came up naturally once I wasn’t doing that other “the singing is out there and I’m trying to get into it” thing.

Then I did get a direction from the guy doing the mixing, “Can you let it out more?”, making a gesture of widening the distance between his hands to show about making my singing bigger. We are really good friends and I am at ease communicating with him, but I really stopped myself because I really don’t want to “do something” to get a bigger sound. I know I don’t want to do that because I know that once I do that it means that I’m going to have to do that every single time if it’s successful. I just don’t want to get busy with that.

So I thought this is a good chance for an experiment, it’s totally no pressure. What if I … because this is what I do in rehearsal when a director gives me a direction and I think, “Oh, how am I going to do that?” … I’m literally going to ask my system, “I would like a sound that sounds bigger to Chris”, and I have no idea beyond that; I’m just going to stay with that’s what I’d like.

I thought of the thing we talked about recently [in our regular training group] how the important thing is if you’re going to do that experiment you really have to be willing to have it not happen. If it’s really an experiment where you have to say, “I’m going to want that but I’m not going to do anything to get it. And that includes that it might not happen, I’m just going to see”.

And again, two or three repetitions, and he was like, “Oh, yeah, it’s totally different. Listen to the playback.” And this is the neat thing because it was recorded I could listen to the playback and I thought, “Wow, that sounds very different!” He said, “Look at the wave pattern. It is completely different.” I could see, “Oh, yeah, it is”.

Because I was still sort of hung up on sound and because I had the headphones on and I can see the wave pattern while I’m recording, I wondered what would happen if I try a sort of biofeedback thing of wanting the wave pattern to be even more like that. I’m not going to try anything to get it and I’m not going to worry about the sound. I’m just going to see what happens if I do it visually.

I ended up with this totally cool gospel-ly sound that I didn’t even know I could do! I didn’t tell Chris what I was doing because I wanted to try it. All I was doing was looking at the wave pattern and going, “I’d like more of this… in the pattern… I don’t know how I’m going to do that and I don’t care what it sounds either. I’m just going to see…

I certainly got the big sound but because I’m not a practiced singer in that way one thing that did happen is that I became “pitchy”; the pitch was not exact. And when I was wanting to get my pitch exact, I was not getting the big sound.

But I was able to go — well, how many times have I actually done this? How many times have I done a recording session? I’m not a professional singer. This is where I’m at right now. A bigger sounder than I thought is available to me, with more interesting color in the tone. But right now that plus exact pitch don’t go together. That’s okay. That’s something that comes, I think, when people practice. To get that now would be asking a bit much for a one-off.

I thought, “That’s interesting. I should clock this.” And, were I to keep repeating this experiment it would be interesting to see, a year down the road, would pitch still be an issue?

In this moment, my friend is working the program and he said, “Don’t worry about pitchy, it’s ridiculously easy to correct pitch because of the magic of Melodyne” [a sound manipulation program]. And as long as I don’t get hung up on it with my ego he can correct it, and honestly I can’t tell the difference and I have a pretty good ear. So I actually really had permission to get pitchy. But what he can’t change is the actual sound quality and that’s what’s already working.

David:
There are a couple of things in here. The first is just to remark on how amazing it is that “just by intending”, without actually “doing” anything at all directly, your marvelous system coordinated you towards that “bigger sound” intention with powerful results. Just like your previous “the moment of singing is out there and I’m trying to get to it” intention coordinated you in that “held back” kind of way. Your coordinating system is always doing a great job organizing you according to the “reality” you think you are in.

The other thing is that I bet it wouldn’t even take a year if you were to stick with your experiment of knowing what you wanted and not trying to get it directly by doing something, I bet your system would refine what you’re doing much quicker than that. Even in weeks, if not quicker.

Marion:
Yeah? That would be great.

David:
There’s something here to bear in mind to as you’re working with people and that is this whole thing about, for lack of a better term, the attention space — that is, where you are, and what you’re up to. You were talking about how you thought the sound is out there in front of you. Maybe that’s because there’s an actual microphone there, but however people are thinking of it, notice something interesting… He said it sounded like you were back in yourself, and you felt the song was out there, so relative to the out there you were back here.

Marion:
Ohh! That’s interesting! Yeah…

David:
So from his point of view he’s seeing you back there and you’re seeing the song out there in front of you.

Marion:
Oh that is interesting — there’s a correspondence. Yeah, he was saying something like you’re held back. And I remember thinking, “Okay now really get clear that I’m not doing anything to pull back, so there’s no point in me trying to let go because I’m not trying to hold back…” So… I’m back here thinking about the thing out here, and… I literally am!

David:
So you’re back from it, which is out there from you. This is part of the way we project things in space. You can see this in workshops when someone is trying to figure out something that I’m saying, and they think the answer is over in me so as they struggle to try to understand and they get pulled out so their head is out in front of their shoulders, but their attention is way over in me trying to “get it”. Or they go back into their memory to try to recall something by going way back into the inside of the “memory space” in their heads and you can see they are not here with you, they are way back in there somewhere.

So once you realize this, sometimes you can just, without trying to do anything, you can move these attention spaces around and play with it. For instance, when you are seeing the sound out in front of you, what if you just go out there into the middle of the sound?

Marion:
Wow ! That sounds like so much fun…

David:
You can move the space, that is, you can move yourself around into space. And it’s not so much that you are doing things, you’re just recognizing that, for whatever reason, you had projected or narrowed the space here or there — it is all a very elastic awareness space like a bubble — so if you can just move that bubble of attention space back around you and let it open out you’ll be centred back in the present almost as if it is a movement of where things actually are in space.

Marion:
That’s really neat, because a couple of times in this session I had a really high-quality experience when I was just kind of noodling around and I got immediate “Oh, yeah, love that” feedback and I thought, “how cool, mark this, and what’s going on at this time,” and that was my experience…

At those times I’m just “in the music” which is all around me here. I’m hearing the horns here [gestures to one side] and hearing the bass here [gestures to the other side] and I’m having a nice 3D experience of sound. And within that I’m just playing, as if I’m climbing around on a jungle gym inside it.

However I describe it, that to me is a high-value experience, so just to notice that and refer back to it, that helped me a lot once I had a few of those. I thought, “Okay, I know that feels good.” So that’s kind of like…

It would be really interesting to talk about this in terms of the actor working on a monologue or something, because you never hear that kind of talk about this. See, I can talk about this for myself from my own experience, but talking about it with somebody else, I’m not sure.

David:
Well, it’s an odd one because most people aren’t paying any attention to where they are in space. They often don’t really know whether they’ve narrowed into themselves to feel something or narrowed off to think about something or narrowed into the computer to get as much work done as they can. They know the experience they have because of doing it, but they don’t realize the connection with their attention. And it’s not an easy one to get at in teaching. But if you have people coming to you on a week-after-week basis you can start to get at it bit by bit.

In a similar way you can see someone who’s very centred in standing where they’re in the centre of their space and they’re open rather than narrowed or pulled out in front of them or back behind themselves, or off into the future in what they want to have happen, or back into the past in all things that have happened.

You can even see it when people move off from standing. You can see which part of them moves first. For instance, maybe their hips move first. So from this you can get an idea of how they feel themselves and how they conceive of their movements. For them, that is their idea of the movement reinforced by how the movement feels to them which in turn reinforces the ideation of the movement. Or when they begin to sit, you can see people’s attention leave you and go back and down and, in fact, they do move backwards off balance and down to the chair. You can see it, you can see the flow of how they are directing the movement by their the way they use their attention.

To them that is just what the movement is, but, of course, that perception of themselves is what organizes them in the movement. It’s a very spatially organizing factor. “I am back here and I want to go out there, so I’m going to have to do something to get out there because I see out there as somewhere that’s not where I already am. It’s not included in my whole openness, it’s another place out there, and I’m back here. So I’m going to have to do something to get my ‘back here’ all the way ‘out there’.”

But they’ve never had much in the way of experiences of change so they don’t know how they’re pulled around in space. They have no basis of comparison like the one you were just talking about.

Sometimes you can get at that by asking people, “Where are you right now?” “Where’s your attention?” If you do this in a class, once you have one or two examples like this and you can get people exploring it won’t take long before everybody will begin to get a sense of what you’re talking about. And then they will be able to find it for themselves when they go about their rehearsals, their performance, and in their daily life.

And it is fun… As well as important. The ability to notice when you find yourself pulled here and there in your attention space in daily life, and ultimately to have the capability to liberate yourself so you can move around at will in your attention space is an essential element of freedom.

Appendix

About the Author

About the LearningMethods work

Find out more about LearningMethods

More Information on the Alexander Technique

LearningMethods Publications

About the Authors

MARION DAY is a Canadian actor and a graduate of the National Theatre School in Montreal who has performed at Canada’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival for seven seasons and in new work at the Blyth Festival for seven seasons. She performed in two productions for the 2017 season at Canada’s Shaw Festival. Marion is also a LearningMethods Senior Apprentice Teacher.

DAVID GORMAN developed the LearningMethods work from over 30 years of research and teaching experiences. He has a background in both science and as an artist and has always had a fascination with exploring human structure and function. In the mid-1970s he spent many nights dissecting and drawing in the human anatomy lab at his local university.

David has been studying and using the Alexander Technique since 1972 and has been teaching since the late 1970s becoming well-known worldwide for his innovations to the work, and notorious for challenging the orthodoxy of the profession. He has been invited to teach all over the world in universities, conservatories and training colleges, at conferences and symposia, and with performance groups and health and medical professionals.

In 1980 he published an illustrated 600-page work, The Body Moveable and in 1997 the first edition of a collection of articles and essays, Looking at Ourselves. David has also been deeply involved in the professional organization of the Alexander Technique. He was one of the founding members of CanSTAT (Canadian Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique), chairman of the founding committee of NASTAT (now AmSAT, the American Society for the Alexander Technique), the architect of the Affiliated Societies mechanism for Alexander Technique professional organizations to recognize each other, and the author of the original Sponsorship and Certification process of ATI (Alexander Technique International).

In 1982, his teaching was revolutionised by his discovery of a new model of human organisation with its profound implications of our in-built and natural tendency toward balance, ease and wholeness. He extended these insights into a new way of training teachers of the Alexander Technique and from 1988 to 1997 in London, U.K. he trained 45 teachers. However, further explorations in his own and other training groups made it clear that a huge part of our problems lay not in the functioning of the “body” but in our consciousness and our way of seeing things — our underlying belief systems and how we misinterpret daily experiences and then react to these misunderstandings. At this point it also became apparent that his discoveries and the changed teaching methods they implied no longer could be squeezed in under the premises and pedagogy of the Alexander Technique.

Recognizing the need for a new and effective approach to help people uncover and liberate themselves from these circular traps, David developed the LearningMethods work to teach people how to gain command of their exquisite in-built clarity of perception and powerful tools of intelligence so they can successfully navigate their lives.

Since the beginning of the work in 1997, David has completed the training of a growing number of LearningMethods Teachers, many of whom are now teaching the LM work in universities, colleges and conservatories. He continues to evolve the Apprenticeship Teacher Training Program and since 2010 has added live online video-conferencing as part of the training as well as running online post-graduate groups for Alexander Technique teachers and groups for those who want to learn to use LearningMethods in their own lives and work. He also gives in-person workshops in Europe, North America and Asia as well as writing about the work and raising another young son.

Anyone interested in the work, upcoming courses, training as a teacher, etc. should visit the LearningMethods website for more information and contact details (www.learningmethods.com), or e-mail David directly at david@learningmethods.com.

About the LearningMethods work

We are the most amazing learning creatures on the planet. We have a wonderful in-built intelligence, an exquisitely sensitive awareness and a wealth of experience. Yet we still suffer from so many chronic and completely unnecessary problems.

Why?

Because only a few people have moved into their full heritage as humans and learned how to bring their intelligence to bear on their experience to understand and solve their problems.

How do I know this?

I see it every day in my teaching. Once people learn the simple yet incredibly powerful tools of how to unravel what’s happening to them they can change far more easily and quickly than they dreamed possible.

How can this happen?

Because everything you need is already within you — the only thing missing is learning how how to use it.

LearningMethods teaches you how to use your intelligence to explore and understand your daily experience, to make sense out of your issues and problems, and how to change them. In other words, LearningMethods gives you the set of tools to navigate your life successfully — to find your way back to your natural wholeness and presentness; to be free of chronic tension and effort; to be more effective and stress-free at work and to be more at ease and in harmony with others — in fact, the tools for solving any problem that’s solvable.

It is not a far-off dream — it is in your very human nature to be able to learn from experience and liberate yourself from problems. It is your birthright to gain wisdom about life and to feel at home in the universe. And, there is no time like the present to start !

David Gorman, founder of LearningMethods

Find out more about LearningMethods

Studying and upcoming workshops, finding teachers, reading on-line articles, publications and online store, teacher training and professional development:

LearningMethods homepage — www.learningmethods.com

What is LearningMethods? How it can help you; what you’ll learn
— www.learningmethods.com/lm-engl.htm

The principles of the work How does it operate? What is it based on?
— www.learningmethods.com/question.htm

How do I study it? How LM is taught and the various ways to study it
— www.learningmethods.com/lmstudy.htm

Finding a Teacher List of LM teachers and apprentice-teachers
— www.learningmethods.com/lmteach.htm

Quotes and Testimonials How LM has helped people and what they have said
— www.learningmethods.com/lmquotes.htm

Online Library of Articles Exploring and solving various problems
— www.learningmethods.com/lmarticle.htm

Online Store Buy printed publications, e-books, audio and video recordings
— www.store.learningmethods.com/

Professional Development Online learning and professional development for teachers, practitioners or performers
— www.training.learningmethods.com/

Training as an LM Teacher What’s involved in becoming a LearningMethods or an Anatomy of Wholeness Teacher
— www.training.learningmethods.com/

More Information on the Alexander Technique

Information about the Alexander Technique on the Internet

The Complete Guide to the Alexander Technique is a good general Alexander Technique Internet resource with many resources on the Alexander Technique — articles, audio and video recordings, podcasts, interviews and more: www.alexandertechnique.com

Alexander Technique Professional Organizations

Here is a listing of the current Alexander Technique professional organizations beginning with ATI, the international professional body with branches in 12 countries and members world-wide. All these bodies have a mechanism for assessing the competence of teachers and for granting Teaching Certificates and/or Teaching Membership. All have a Code of Ethics to which all Teaching Members subscribe.

Alexander Technique International (ATI)

Web: www.alexandertechniqueinternational.com
E-mail: office@alexandertechniqueinternational.com

Most of the other Alexander Technique professional organizations are local groups comprising the teachers in separate countries. As of the publication of this book these national organizations can be found at: www.alexandertechniqueworldwide.com (this link is to the web site of the UK-based STAT).

LearningMethods Publications

For a complete list of LearningMethods Publications:

– books & booklets – downloadable e-books
– audio recordings – video recordings

visit the LearningMethods Online Store: www.store.learningmethods.com

– descriptions of the publications – details of costs and shipping
– secure ordering by credit card – instant downloading of e-books

Here are a few examples of what is on offer:

The Body Moveable — A detailed study of the structure, function and dynamics of the human musculoskeletal system with thousands of beautiful illustrations and clear and detailed text. See sample pages at link below.

First published 1981, now in its 6th edition. Size: ( 8.5” x 11” / 21.6cm x 28cm )

In three different formats. all with the same content:

— Single-volume Colour hardback (above left) - ISBN 978-1-927437-01-8

— Single-volume B&W hardback (above middle) - ISBN 978-1-927437-00-1

— Three-volume B&W hardback set (above right) - ISBN 978-1-897452-90-5

All versions have a laminated hardcover for years of long-lasting use.

Full details, sample pages and ordering at www.bodymoveable.com

Looking at Ourselves – Exploring and Evolving in the Alexander Technique

Print edition: 2nd edition, 176-page paperback (in Colour or B&W)
Size: 6.69" x 9.61" / 17cm x 24.4cm

Ordering: www.learningmethods.com/lmpub-looking-at-ourselves.htm

E-book: (same content as above) for PDF and various e-book readers

Ordering: www.learningmethods.com/ebooks/gorman-looking-at-ourselves-ebook.htm

In Our Own Image – The elastic suspension system

This series of 8 articles is part of the Looking At Ourselves book above, and has been extracted to its own e-book.

E-book only: for PDF and various e-book readers

www.learningmethods.com/ebooks/gorman-in-our-own-image-ebook.htm

The Anatomy of Wholeness – An online course on our innate coordination of wholeness and ease; its implications for daily life, performance, recovery and healing.

Video - Online course (stream to any Internet-connected device), 25+ hours

www.learningmethods.com/lmpub-courses--anatomy-of-wholeness.htm

Standing on Top of the World – Experiencing the Fundamental Freedom of Support and Balance

This graduated series of practical and experiential follow-along demonstrations was developed over the last 15 years by David Gorman to teach the principles of support and balance and how to live them in everything you do. This video course is also aimed at helping teachers learn how to teach this material themselves.

Video - Online course (stream to any Internet-connected device), 12+ hours

www.learningmethods.com/lmpub-courses--standing-on-top-of-the-world.htm

Liberating Performers – Eliminating Performance Anxiety (nervousness, self-judgment, doubt and fear)

A recording of the “Liberating Performers” series of workshops helping performers to see through the misconceptions that generate fear and nervousness, and how to get rid of it permanently.

Audio - Online course (stream to any Internet-connected device), 19+ hours

www.learningmethods.com/lmpub-courses--liberating-performers--audio.htm

Sounds of a Provence Summer – Day & Night

Live recording of the quintessential sounds of the hot Provençal summer – the cigales (cicadas) by day and the crickets at night, plus a summer thunderstorm and soothing rainfall. Listen to a sample of the CD at the link below.

Audio CD, 76 minutes – 1 CD (playable in any CD player)

www.learningmethods.com/lmpub-cdcigales.htm

Free e-books to download — Browse a large collection free e-books versions of various articles. Download, read and send to friends . . .

www.store.learningmethods.com#ebooks

And More Books Coming in the future . . .

Revealing the Obvious – The Anatomy of Wholeness
A new book, still in process, on the coordination of wholeness and ease and its implications for you, the whole thinking responding being. Extracts will be available in e-book format soon.

www.learningmethods.com/revealing.htm

Standing on Top of the World – Experiencing the Freedom of Balance and Support
A book about a series of practical demonstrations that will put you in touch with your own system’s signals about support and orientation so you can be supported, whole and easy, responsive and present in every aspect of your life.

www.store.learningmethods.com

Liberating Performers – Escaping the trap of nervousness, self-judgment, and fear
An upcoming book on why we get trapped in performance and social anxieties, how these fears are based an interlocked series of misconceptions, and how understanding and using your in-built “value register” will liberate you permanently.

www.store.learningmethods.com