Reclaiming Vitality and Presence: Sensory Awareness as a Practice for Life 978-1556436413, 1556436416

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SENSORY AWARENESS AS A PRACTICE FOR LIFE

"The work of Chadotte Selver and Charles Brooks is the inner experience of entire beiog, the pure flow of sensory awareness when the mind through calmness ceases to work-deeper than mindmade au/afeness."

Suzuki Roshr,Zen Master and author of Zen Mind,

-Shunryu Beginnw's Mind

"f consider the principles on which this work is based of grearest significance for the full unfolding of the personaliry."

-

Erich Froffiffi, author of The Art of Louing and Escape from

Freedom

"This book is uniquely valuable in giving access to the work of one of the great, yet little known geniuses of the trvenrieth cenrury: Chadotte Selver. Selver pioneered a growirg movement whose goal is to return an increasingly mad world literally to its senses."

-

Don Hanlon Johnsor, author of Body, Spirit and Dernorary and Eueryday Hopes, Utopian Dreams

"This remarkable book is the most definitive account of the lifelong work of Charlotte Selver. ft speaks articulately of that which is hard to put into words. ft is both interesting and profound."

-

Edward L. Deci, professor of Psychology, University of Rochester, and author of \Y/by We Do Wbat Ve Do: Undcrstanding Self-Motiaation

"Chadotte Selver conveys the actual sensation of some of the things I try to express in mere words-above all the organic relationship of man with the whole wodd of nature."

-

Alan \flatts, author of Tbe Visdom of Insecurity

recloiming Yitslity

snd presence

SEHSORY AWAR,ElIIESS AS A PRACTICE FOR LIFE

THE TEACHINGS OF CHARLOTTE SELVER AND CHARLES V.W. BROOKS aaatt

ffiirrrt$y Richard Lowe and Stefan Laeng-Gilliarr

North Atlantic Berkeley,

Boolcs

California

Copynght @ 2007 by Richard Lowe and Stefan Laeng-Gilliatt. All rights resenred. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means---+lectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or othemri5g-q/ithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books. Published by

North Atlantic Books P.O. Box 12327

Cover design by Gia Giasullo

Berkeley, California 947 L2

Book design by Brad Greene

Printed in the United States of America Reclaiming Vitality and Presence: Sensary Autareness as a Practice for L{e is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational

corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspec-

tive linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and heali.g; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.

North Atlantic Books' publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, call 800-7 B-3AOO or visit our website at www. northatlanticbooks.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brooks, Chades Van

\fyck.

Reclaiming vitality and presence : sensory awareness

as a

practice for life I

a

col-

lection of writings by Charles V.Sf. Brooks and Charlotte Selver ; edited by Richard Lowe and Stefan Laeng-Gilliatt.

p.cm. 13 : 97 8-I-5 5 643-641-3 (pbk.) ISBN-10: 1-5 5541-641-6 (pbk.) 1. Senses and sensation. 2. Awareness. 3. Consciousness. I. Selver, Charlotte. II. Lowe, Richard ,1944- III. Laeng-Gilliatt, Stefan,I9l9- IV. Title.

ISBN-

8F233.883 2007 15

8.1-

dc22

200603174r CIP

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 UNITED t6 I5 14 13 12

How

does it

feel to

be

at peace and

fully

awake?

You could be like this in perfect quiet

and ynu could

be

like this in the uildest danca

It's your birthright

-Chadotte

!

Selver

:

1,r..:..1,,,,.t;1,,..

.',' ,.1. "'... , 1,',.:,i,,,. . ' ,.tr.',,, :t "t.t .,..t. t

,.,.,,,,o' .

CONTENTS

t:',.

''- ,'' 1"t" , r'. . ..: r.:, '.::::::::.

' "

.r.

Foreword by Norrnan Fischer . . . ix

Editors' Introduction . . . xiii

I

Sensory Awareness and Our

2

Being in the $fodd . . . 5

3

Coming to Our

4

Natufe and "Second Natufe" . . . 18

5

Learnirg Through Sensing . . .2i

6

Thsting...28

7

The Search for Standirg . . .ij

I I

Senses . .

.

Attitude Toward Life . . . 1

L2

Standirg as Relaring . . .40

10

Gravity, Energlt and the Support of the Ground . . . 4i WholsStanding?.. .47

t1

Standirg, From Foot to Head . . . Jj

L2

The Wonders of the Organism . . . ig

13

Walking: Locomotion and Being . . .62

T4

H&f& . .. 68

15

On Breathing . . .72

16

18

An Experiment in Being Breathed . . .78 Finding Our Stanrre . . .83 Lying a$ an Activity . . . 8g

1g

Resting as Relaring . . .gj

20

Sitting...LO4

2L

Something in Us Can Teach IJs . . .

22

Slapping as a Stimulant . . . L22

L7

118

23 24 2, 26 27 28 29 30 3I 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

Simple Contact . . . I27

Active Contact . . . 138

Sflorkitg with Obiects . . . L4t $florking with Gravity . . . 116 Down and tfp . . . 162 t$Torkitg Out of Doors . . . 168 Sflorking Out of Doors-Continued . . . I75 The \$flord and the

Voice

. 180

The Connoisseur . . . 186 Yawning and Stretching . . . IgL Reaching and Serving . . . I97

Giving and Receiving . . .204 Giving and Receiving-Continued . . .2I2 Giving and Receiving-the Head . . .2I9 Playing with Balls . . . 226

Learnitg to Receive . . .234 Sensing One's Own Flead . . .237

Breath and Heartbeat . . . 242

Epilogrre...245 Appendices . .

.248

A

Charlotte Selver and Charles Brooks A Brief History . . .248

B

About Elsa Gindler (1885 -I96L) and Heinrich Jacoby (1889-1964) .. . 26r

C

Resources...264

About the Editors . . . 268

Credits...269

vill

FO

R

EV/ORD

by lVorm&n Fuc/eer

old 1970s photograph of Chadome and Charles that hangs in my house. Sepia-toned, it shows them in close view, Charlorre in frotrt, her gaze downward, absorbed in looking at somerhing beyond the frame, and Charles behind, handsome in his rugged, angular New England v?y,looking straight into the camera. They are fairly young in the photo. Charles' hair is light and wind-blown; There's an

Charlotte's a rich brown, pulled tightly around

he

r

face. They are

both dressed simply, in the earth-toned colors they often wore) and their house was decorated also in earth-toned colors from floor to ceiling,

that when you v/ent to visit everything around them and on them was the color of sand, earth, dried grasses, like the hilltop So

on which they lived, ovedooking the To be part of the earth, to love

sea.

it, to experience it, not as an object

outside the self, but as the essence of what the self is, connecred, intimate, vibrant, and alive, overflowing with life and with the essential kindness that is life's salient chancterisli6-16 reach,

explore, and demonstrate that in living: this was Charlome and Charles' work over the many years of their marriage and associa-

tion in the Sensory Awareness movement. My wife Kathie and I and our twin sons Aron and Noah knew Chadotte and Charles well, visited them often, and srudied with them from time to time over the years. They were, I suppose, surrogate parents for us, though they were anythi.g but parenral. In fact, they were a little

wild, always bursting with enrhusiasm over

RECLAIMING VITALITY AND PRESENCT

some new food or place or experience they had just discovered.

ner at their house was an adventure,

Din-

full of bright, sometimes gen-

tly contentious conversation (Chadotte and Chades often disagreed, and when they did wit and sparks would fly), and always surprising food. Charles v/as the cook, and he had his own ways of doing things,

which were always very particular. There was a similar wildness in their Sensory Awareness classes,

which they often gave together, and sometimes separately. Always new experiences ("experiments, not exercises," Charlotte would always, sometimes testily, point out); always an astonishing (this was a word that Chadotte used frequently)

insight or appreciation

for some usually overlooked aspect of sensory perception. Charlotte and Chades loved life and were constantly amazed by its possibilities.

This was what they explored in their classes, which were improvisational, quiet, but intense. This was what they called "the work," and

they engaged

it in class after class, workshop

after workshop, all over

the world, for many years. After Charles' death in I99I Charlotte continued for eleven more years, teachi.g full time until her last year, 2003, when she died at the age of 102, &n astonishing run

of

more than seventy-five years of teaching, exploring, and living. As a Zen studeot, I was especially moved by the work, and I experienced

it in the context of my Zen practice. (Indeed, the Sen-

with Zen, at first through Alan $fatts and Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki, and for many years through an association with the successive abbots of San Francisco Zen Center, myself included.) Like Zen, Sensory Awareness focuses on perceptioo, in the recognition that it is only through the full sory Awareness work has a long connection

experiencing of our organic life that we can grasp the deepest and mosr important human truths. The Buddhist Mindfulness Sutra,

which is foundational not only to Zen practice, but to virtually all

FOREWORD

forms of Buddhism, speaks of four "foundations" of mindfulness: the body, the feelings, the thoughts, and the deep parrerns of rcality. It teaches that Buddhist contemplation begins with subtle and thorough awareness of the body, of the breath, and of perceprions. On this basis the practitioner can find access to deep human rruths, and compassion and peace

will

arise. Though Charlotte and Chades

were no friends of conventional religion (they considered religion, and the soft ofpolite social life that grew out of sive) they felt kinship ods of silent

sittitg,

with Zen. Their

classes

it,

essenrially repres-

often began with peri-

and for years they were regulars ar the Sunday

morning Dharma lectures at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, where we lived. Each time I attended a Sensory Awareness class or workshop, I came away with a sense of wonder at the simple fact of being alive. Chadotte and Charles, as far as I could tell, wenr further than anyone ever had, in exploring and expanding the Buddhist teachings of mindfulness.

An important feature of the Sensory Awareness

classes was the "sharing" that took place after the group, in silence, guided only by Chadotte's or Chades' verbal instructions, had complered a series of "experiments" that might last anywhere from twenry to fifty minutes.

S7e'd sit down on the straw mats Charlorte and Charles always brought wherever they v/ent (the same straw mars that covered the floors in their home) and report what we had experienced. Chadotte

or Charles would respond to what we'd said, expanding, sometimes correcting, pointing out subtle aspects and implications that could

often be quite startling. S7e learned so much about ourselves, and what and how we were. There was always an intimate and quiet feelitg in these sharing sessions. Both Charlotte and Charles had an extremely subtle and precise way of expressing themselves in these exchang€s, especi ally Chadotte, whose native German locutions often

RECTAIMING VITATITY AN D

PRESE NC

I

felt in her ofren quite unusual use of English. It is odd that although the work itself is almost entirely nonverbal it admits of such cXarity and profundity of verbal expression. rnade thernselves

The srudy and pmctice that Charlofte and Charles loved so much still live on in various parts of the world through students of theirs

whorn Charlotte allFroved to be leaders of this wonderful work. It lives on roo in the pqges ahead. Although rEading this book is not the same ns enperiencing the

work directly, I think you will find that

aFllreciating Chades' and Charlotte's words will be a val.uable e4perience in its ourn right. These were two remarkable people, who ted

With the book you have in your hands you can hear them spealc-and possibly with their help rediscover how

remarlcable lives.

remadcable life actually is.

xtl

E

DITORS' INTRODUCTION

This book is an attempt to weave together in one volume the voices of Chadotte Selver and Chades Brooks, two unique and inspiri.g teachers who collaborated for some

thirty years in co-leading classes

and workshops in the deceptively simple yet profound study known

Just as they frequently alternated in the leadership of class sessions, So too in this book they will take rurns leadas Sensory Awareness.

ing you in exploring the living nature of reality through actual here-and-now experienci.g. That is to say they will be leading you in the invaluable study of sensing, a capacity we are all born with, yet

which most of us find too often diminished in our daily lives. Among the most influential and colorful pioneers in the Human Potential Movement Charlotte and Charles led classes and workshops together throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe in growth centers, universities, churches, dance studios,Zen

fr

cHARLoTTE sErvER AND cHARLES BRooKS

xill

RECLAIMING VITALITY AND PRESENCE

monasreries, hotel rooftops, and even a small New England schoolhouse. The unique type of som attc reeducation they offered has been

an imporrant force in the development of the Human Potential Movement, Humanistic Psychology, and various types of now popular mind/body disciplines.

It has also deeply touched and changed

the lives of hundreds of students over the years, among them Ruth Denisoo, Frrtz Peds, Alan \7atts, and Erich Fromm, to name a few.

Charlotte was modest in always crediting the origins of this approach to Elsa Gindler and Heinrich Jacoby,* with whom she had studied in Germany during the L920s and I930s, givi.g the greatest acknowledgment to Gindler as her primary teacher. Gindler had been a teacher of Flarmonische Gymnastik who gradually developed

her own special in-depth approach to body/mind integration. Jacoby was an innovative educator and musician who often collaborated

in

with Gindler. Both were interested in helpi.g people develop rruer authenticity and unfold their fuller potentials. In 1938 Charlotte emigrated to the United States to escape the Nazis, eventually

teaching

offering her own classes in this study in New York. As her

classes

gradually became better known she called her approach "Sensory Awareness ," a name she was never completely satisfied with, feelitg it was a bit too simplistic and limiting. "It is more than only the senses," she would say.

Shortly before she died rn2003 at the age of 102, almost totally deaf and blind and unable to walk more than a few steps, Charlotte was

still

passionately hard at v/ork doing what she had done

with

relentless dedication for more than seventy-five years: continuing

to help people reav/aken to what it is to be more fully alive and human. For her this was far more than just teaching; it was a seri*For more about Elsa Gindler and Heinrich Jacoby, see Appendix B. xiv

E

DITORS' INTRODUCTION

a great responsibility in helping her students rediscover and nurture the innate renewi.g powers of life within them. This work v/as her life, and indeed during her last few years ous calling. She felt

it seemed to sustain her life. Charlotte began co-leading her classes with Charles Brooks in 1963. Charles, a longtime student whom she had married that yea\ was an accomplished cabinet maker, a gifted writer, and the Harvard

educated son of American biographer and literary critic Van $[yck Brooks.

Duritg their

early years of teaching together they struggled

with the difficult challenge of just how to put into words this essentially nonverbal study. After collaborating on a couple of articles together it was decided that Chades, who was far more comfortable

with writing than Chadotte, would attempt to write a book about Sensory Awareness, & book that would serve as a good introduction

and overview of "the work."

In I97 4 after many years of diligent effort

and collaboration

Charles' book Sensory Awareness: The Rediscoaeryt of Experiencing was

published. The book was well received by critics and since then it has been republished three times in English and in addition has been translated into Germ&fr, Japanese, Dutch, and Spanish. Because this book has worked so well in helping readers gain a wider sense of the scope of "the v/ork," much of as a

it

is included in this volume to serve

framework into which Chadotte's words are interwoven. The

original artwork, which so beautifully complemented Chades' writitg, could not be used for this book with the exception of just a few photographs. \Wh took the utmost care to use images that

will

again

illuminate the text. For this, w€ chose new photographs, mostly from locations where Chadotte and Chades taught, from the Black Forest in southern Germ arrlt from Santa Barbara, California, and

from Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine.

RECLAIMING VITALITY AND PRESENCT

The material from Charlotte is based on tapes and transcripts from her workshops. Over the years ) artLcles drawn from these materials were published in various Sensory Awateness Foundation publications.* Chadotte, whose first language s/as Germ&D, had a unique v/ay of expressing hersell adding another dimension of immediacy

to her workshops. In this book, we want to let Charlotte speak in her own words as much as possible. However, because readin g a book is not like experiencing Chadotte in person, we cautiously edited some

it

In this book, Charlotte's words are italici zed, to distinguish between the voices of Charlotte and

of the text when

seemed necessary.

Charles.

Our intention has been to offer the reader the best of both wodds: Charlotte and Charles combined together in offering an updated, enhanced, and fuller guidebook for newcomers, beginning students, and "veteran" students alike.

Although Charlotte and Charles have both passed on (Charles died

in

1991) the study known as Sensory Awareness lives.

with their help the Sensory Awareness as a professional association

Leaders

In

1986

Guild was formed

for the mutual support and develop-

ment of those persons Chadotte had approved to be leaders. Today there are leaders of this study scattered in Europe , the lJnited States, Canada, and Mexico. Many years earlier the Sensory Awareness Foundation was formed to help educate the public about Sensory Awareness through publications, newsletters, and periodic conferences. Today

both organrzatLons work together to help keep this

legacy alive and developing.

The editors are most grateful for the support of many people who have helped get this book into your hands. \We wish to give partic*See Appendix C.

EDITORS' INTRODUCTION

ular thanks to John Schick, Bill Littlewood, Lee Klinger Lesser, Cathy Edgett, the Board of the Sensory Awareness Foundation, and the Institute of General Semantics.

This is a book not so much to read as it is to savor. It is best approached as you might a fine meaI, a walk through a gardeo, & collection of poetry an intimate meeting with a beloved friend. $fle hope you cun allow yourself the patience and fresh readiness to taste and sniff and feel your \May through each page. -'Rfu/aar?

fnwe an? Stefan Laeng-Gilliatt

XVI

I

W1 Sensory Awareness and

Our Attitude Toward Life

In our uork

of Sensory Awareness, we experiment utith

ities of daily life,

all

all the simple actia-

the tltings wbich we haae been d,oing since we were born,

or which ute haae learned

in our earliest infanry,

ing, sitting, lying, rnouing, resting,

such as rl)alking, stand-

seeing, speaking, listening, et cetera.

As

Elsa Gindler* said, "Life is the Playground for our work."

}ur daily

ltfe ghns us opportunity a;tough

f*

discwery: in cwnbing uur

hair

washing the disbes, in speaking to somebody, and s0 0n. In sucb "unimportAnt" areas 0f lrfe

u)e can

Areas, where u)e are

expuimce the same attitlldes ue ba.ae in " intportant"

rftto

too absorbed to feel clearly

what is happening,

Although practicing Sensury Awareness often has tlterapeutic effects, be

it would

a misundsstanding to tltink of our utork as therapy. Our purpose is not to

nmke liuing bealtltier but to make

but to let

it

come rnnre

it

mnre conscious; not to make

it bappiea

into accord with uur natnre, The rnure we arriae at

utff original nature, tlte rnore ue discruer that healthia and ltappier liuing and relating comes about by itself

uithin to experiences in lfe, Tbis can be dfficult, }ftm lf/e begin to discouer tbat

experiences

the organism are parallel ourselues

full

of feor not wanting to allaw cltanga, Through expaintenting, we ftMy

cume

face-to-face

ue

m.ay

find

with the reasnns for preuiously unexplained problems in uur

*For more about Elsa Gindler, see Appendix B.

RECLAIMING VITALITY AND PRESENCE liues. But with grau,,ing ability to permit what becomes necessary, nur elas-

ticity gruus, and 'We

so does nar security,

cannot knort hott much energy we baae as long as u)e kuP interfer-

iog with uar mtn actiuities, Ve cannot knmt) uur real abilitia until we haae freed ourselaes to such an extent that they can uffild mure fully, As Elsa Gindler used t0 say, "If we had the strength at our disposal that we use

in hindering ourselves, we would be as strong

Vhat

n)e are

lions."

lack of freedom, is our attitudn toward

creates our freedom, 0r uur

ultateuer rae rneet: the uay

as

liuing nur daily liues; the utay

u)e are

families and friends; the uay u.,e do uur work; the utay u)e read the rVhen it is undmstood that newspaper; in short, the way rte are in this world,

with

our

including the broad,er questions of uur attitude-toward-life, tbis uuill belp us much rnure than just working on what we call "the body," u)e are

So,

in the aery simple experiments

of a Sensory Autareness session, u0 can

make suffrc small steps to corne to ourselues and to awaken sume of the possibilities tahich are donnant inside us, For instance, we ruay utork to became so quiet

that ltfe can begin to whisper to us again,

so

that ue are not jast

seeing the

big, blunt things, but can be touched and nurtured by the beauty of what rnay be small and quiet,

But not only beauty to those difftculties in

becomes conscious:

lfe

thue is also an openiog of our heart

which demand our

presence

and maybe nur help,

Too oftto, we don't see and we don't feel uthat is happening around tts, Too

oftto, tte are only interested in ourselues, oar family, and *nybe our aery

friends, T0 becorne sensitiae enough and free enough to become actiue ber of uttr cummunity, countr!, and

world-tbis

as

a

close

msru-

is also part of awakening,

For ntc, Elsa Gindlgr taas a great example of this tlnough ha drcp inuoluement

in tt,hat uas happeniog in the r.uorld, During the Hitler time, although

she was inuited to liae

stayed

in Switzerland, uhere

in Berlin giuing help to whoeuer

she could haae been secure, she

needed

it, Her ltft uas in danger

from resisting Hitlea andfrom the constant bombings, but

she

did not leaue,

SENSORY AWARENESS AND OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD LIFE

This attitilde of responsibility

is

part of becoming artaFq

so

that we woald

part of the Me gentration, but rather of tlte We gentration, entbraciog eaerynne and eaerytbiog on this planet Do yna not feel that werynne has not

be

an eqilal right to liae a rye, unconditioned, fro from pressure and rejection, free frorn stantation and barassment ? Becontiog ffrnre and ffiure able to be tltere in situations, whether easy

uitlt

nur bearts,

important,

w dfficult; to be lnnre there witb nur mind,

uith nilr sensitiaitia, uitb

uur

snmgtbs-this is aerlt

aery

We /aape been tboroug/rly Tepriue? of w/air/a eac/a perdon /aat

w/aic/a we gra?ually /aaye

it, you will

Selver

t,

be aatonia/ae7

Ailn't know wcu t/eere.

-Charlotte

t

to Aig out an7 Tevelop.

by wbat comzd into t/te open wbb/e you

t/ae

in him- or /aerdelf.

There IiEd a. grea.t unute7 ric/anedd in

W/aen you get to

truating

inner witlom

w2 Being in the\ffibrld

Afrer horry rains last week, we planted seeds in our garden. They are sprouting already. f know from past exploration how deep and intimately the little roots are pushing their way, with the arnazing vigor

of infancy, down through the dense particles of soil; and as I look I can almost see the stems and leaflets unfolding in the same air that I feel bathing me inside and out, under the silne sun that beats on my skin.

RECLAIMING VITALITY AND PRESENCI

Does not all individual life, as with these seeds, begin

in mois-

rure-