Product Description

The Elusive Obvious deals with simple, fundamental notions of our daily life that through habit become elusive. Time is money is obviously a good attitude to have in business or work. It is not at all obvious that in love the same attitude is the cause of so much unhappiness. We often make mistakes. We carry over from one activity to another attitudes of mind that do not make life what it could be. romance is obviously a fine thing. Romantic love is enchanting, but not so good if one partner is money-minded and the other is romantic. In time, they will finish at the psychiatrist's or in court. Many troubled relationships come from inadvertently carrying over seemingly good habits of thought to where they do not apply. Somehow we behave as if good habits are always good. We think or rather feel that we need not bother about behaving otherwise. It is not so obvious that good habits can make us unhappy. It is an elusive truth. Yet habitual lack of free choice is often, nay, usually, disastrous. If you come across something obviously new to you, in its form at least, please stop for a moment and look inward. Working out new alternatives assists us to grow stronger and wiser. My editor tells me that I should free readers from having to think and look inward. I believe she knows what the average reader likes. I myself do not like predigested food. For you, the reader, I have added to the beginning and end of each chapter a short introduction and summary to facilitate your digestion so that you will find it easier to make what is elusive more obvious.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #310730 in Books
• Published on: 1981-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 158 pages

About the Author
Moshe Feldenkrais considers himself not a therapist but a teacher. In both his individual, hands-on body work and his group classes he guides clients to discover for themselves what normal or optimum movement feels like. This sensing will the reprogram or rewire the brain accordingly. This is a new kind of learning. There is no one correct way. Each pupil discovers his own correction functioning for hinself. It is a joyful experience, which works on body, mind, and feelings simultaneously. The changes are dramatically visible, not only in better functioning but in a whole new self image.

Customer Reviews

Insight, Instruction and Challenge
This book was published in 1981, three years before the master's death. It deals with "simple, fundamental notions of our daily life that through habit become elusive". In his foreword, Moshe says: "The material is new; it is the writer who is older". He tells us: "This book may help you to a happier road in the direction of your individuality...". It is about the "how"s of his technique (both of the individual session and his group lessons), and deliberately not about the "why"s. Some of the topics discussed are: The Human Being as an organism - what do we share with organisms in general and how are we unique? * The unique potential of a really human learning; * A discussion of the biological aspects of posture; * A rare presentation of Moshe's insights about the body patten of anxiety. In his later years Moshe never lost his wit and his legendary perceptiveness. His insight and originality, his many sided life-experience, his deep empathy with his readers, shine more brightly and resonate more deeply than ever.

Awareness through movement.
Oddly enough this genre is not my typical pick. Admittedly I read this book because a totally different type of guru recommended it for "inner game". He was particularly fascinated with the title "Elusive Obvious". In any case the book is written by the very talented Moshé Feldenkrais, who's method of awareness through movement transforms ones body into a state of total efficiency. He begins with walking through our earliest movements as infants, and how that movement ultimately creates our concept of awareness. Feldenkrais details his theories of how certain movements correlate with the nervous system. If your into Yoga or reflexology then you will appreciated this book more than me. As for my "inner game" I have learned that no movement should go to waste.

The book also has a pullout chart that illustrates the proper movements of which Feldenkrais speaks of in his book.

The Elusive Obvious
In my opinion, the most readable and interesting of Feldenkrais's books.
The best introduction to Feldenkrais work is really experiential but words can give context to experience and also broaden the range of that experience. This book offers that. It shows that Feldenkrais' interests were continuing to evolve later into life. The applications and explanations of his work resonate with me far more strongly than, say, the ones in Potent Self, Body and Mature Behaviour, or even Awareness Through Movement.
Those books have their own strengths(altough for me Potent Self and Body And Mature Behaviour are incredibly dull) but this book hints at a far more human approach to the work only hinted at in Awareness Through Movement.
There are some interesting anecdotes including an encounter with Heinrich Jacoby(whose work paralleled Feldenkrais's own) and the works of Milton Erickson, J.Z Young, and Schrodinger(amongst others) are reccomended.
For those wishing to experience the work find an Awareness Through Movement class near you(with a teacher you like) or try individual Functional Intergration sessions. To read Feldenkrais' own words about his method then his Awareness Through Movement book might be the first stop as it gives practical instruction and some of the theory surrounding the lessons. This should definitely be the next stop as, it is in my opinion a fascinating insight into Feldenkrais' thinking at a certain stage in his life and far more readable and enjoyable than any of his other books. It is sadly, out of print.