NEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE A Study of the Relations Between Mind and Body with Special Reference to Piano Playing By LUIGE BONPENSIERE $ Foreword By Atpous Huxtar PHILOSOPHICAL LIBRARY New YorNEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE Copyright, 1933, by Maria Bonpensiere Printed in the United Stes of America. Ab rights in thie book are reserved. No part of ashes t0 quote bri Sow in magasine or newspaper or radio broudcest. For "The Philosophical Library, Ine. 15 East Ath Steet, New York 16, N. Ys ok may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without he fom the older a hee ahs excent by @ nevi, wo pss In connection ath review writen oy in FOREWORD By Avvous HuxLey ‘THe worth is a continuum; but in order to act upon it sue cessfully, we have to analyse it into casily comprehensible elements. The cake of experience can be cut in many differ- ent ways, and none of the systems of slicing ean express the molar fact completely; each, however, may be useful for some particular purpose. ‘There have been literally hundreds of analyses of human nature, some excellent, others less good, others again posi- tively misleading. What follows is a very rough and per- functory kind of analysis which, while obviously inadequate to the total fact, may yet be of some value in the present context. For our present purposes, then, we may say that every self is associated, below the level of consciousness, with a notself—or, to be more accurate, with a merging and inseparable trinity of not-selves. There is first of all the personal and parily home-made not-self, the notself of con- itioned reflexes, of impulses repressed but still obscurely active, of buried-alive reactions to remote events and for- gotten words, of fossil infancy and the festering remains of a past that refuses to dic. Next comes the not-self of bodily Sunctioning—the vegetative notself of muscular activity, of digestion and respiration, of heart action, body chemis: try, glandular and nervous interactions. And finally there is the not-self whose manifestations are primarily mental— the notself which is responsible for hunches, inspirations, sudden accessions of insight and power, the not-self which Socrates described as his Daimon, which Christians call their Good Angel or even the Holy Spirit, which the Hindus equate with Atman-Brahman and the Mahayanists with Mind, Suchness, Buddha Nature. Di. f3-/705 07 PAYOR EE BO. nik TURCE eeNEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE A self can affect and be affected by its associated not. selves in many different ways, Here, for example, is a self which, like all too many of its fellows, reacts inappro- priately to circumstances. Such a self is apt to people the personal notself with all kinds of chronic fears, greeds, hates, wrong judgments, undesivable habits. Thus distorted, the personal notself reacts upon the conscious self, forcing it to think, feel and act even more inappropriately than be- fore. And so the game gocs on, each party contributing to the delinquency of the other in a pattern which is, at the best, a vicious eitcle, at the worst a descending spiral. Self and’ personal not-self have set up a mutual deterioration society, ef For the vegetative notself of bodily funetion, their ac- tivities are disastrous, Crazed by aversion and concupis- cence, haunted by the bogeys with which it has stocked the personal not-self, the ego starts to trespass upon the terri- tory which rightfully belongs to the vegetative soul. The result is that everything gocs wrong. Left to itself, the phys- iological intelligence is almost incapahle of making a mis- take. Interfered with by the craving and abhorring self, it loses its native infallibility. Bodily functioning is impaired and the ego finds itself saddled with yet another grievance against the Order of Things—an acute or chronic illness, none the less distressing and none the less dangerous for having heen produced by its own unvealistie thoughts and inappropriate emotions. ‘The ego and its personal not-self play their game of mutual deterioration, and the body res- ponds now with heart trouble, now with a defect of vision, now with gastric uleer, now with pulmonary tuberculosis, “You pays your money, and you takes your choice.” And whai, meanwhile, of the third not-self—the Daimon, the Good Angel, the divine Paramatman with whom, in es: sence, the personal Jiva is identical? The ego has power to ruin the hody, but can do no hurt to the spirit, which re. mains in all circumstances impassible, What it can do, FOREWORD however, and what it actually does do for almost everybody, almost all the time, is to eclipse the spirit, The self sets up a screen between the inner light and the waking conscious- ness—a sereen not, indeed, perfectly opaque, but so nearly light-proof as to render the visitations of the third not-self rare, fleeting and ineffective, _A fully integrated person is one who is at peace within his own being and at peace, in consequence, with his envi- ronment. He accepts what happens and makes the best of its and he knows how to make the best of it because his self and his personal sub-conscious are not insane and therefore do not interfere with the working of the vegetative soul and the spirit. Such fully integrated persons are very uncom- mon. To a greater or less degree, most of us are the victims of the ego and its personal notself, We make ourselves ill and stop up the source of all wisdom, And being sick, unin- spired and pathologically self-centered, we get on’ hadly with our fellows and live in a state, not of creative harmony with our fate, but of futile and destructive rebellion against it. All the world’s great cultures and religions have devel- oped their special disciplines of integration—integration with persons and integration of persons with their sub- human, human and spiritual environment, ‘Thus, in the Far East, we find the disciplines of Taoism and Zen; in India, the various yogas of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism; in the Near East, Sufism and its derivatives; and, in the West, the ‘ways of perfection’ Iaid down by the masters of Christian spirituality. For the last twenty-five centuries, at least, all the world’s seers, all its saints and wise men have agreed that the ubimate purpose of human existence is complete integration; and for the last twenty-five centuries the great majority of their fellow men have been content to say, “Amen”, and go about their business and pleasures as usual. Their attitude is all too comprehensible. Distant goods tend to shrink into insienificance when comparedNEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE immediate pseudo-goods. Common enough in times of crisis, persistent heroism is rare when things are going even tolerably well, For the average sensual man, the ideal of complete integration seems unachievable and the way to it, forbiddingly arduous. What is needed, if more people are to be led in the right direction, is the setting up of pre- liminary objectives, easily attained and, when attained, im- mediately rewarding. From the experience of such limited but very real goods men and women may perhaps be tempted to advance a stage further towards their ultimate goal and consummation. The present volume treats of one of these preliminary objectives. That its remarkably gifted author should not be alive to demonstrate his discoveries, and to pass on to others the methods he developed for his own benefit, is greatly to be lamented. We must be content with his legacy—this curious, interesting and, as I helieve, very valuable book. Let us consider a few familiar and yet astounding facts. Here, for example, is a parrot. It listens to a phrase spoken by its master and experiences a desire to reproduce it, Something associated with the conscious parrot-self—some amazingly intelligent not-sel proceeds to make the bird use its beak, tongue and throat in such a way that from these organs—organs, let us remember, radically unlike the organs of human speech—there issues a copy of the phrase good enough to deceive dogs, cats, children and even wary adults into believing that it was spoken by the person whom the parrot has chosen to imitate, ‘And here is a baby. We make a funny face at him, and the child is sufficiently amused to wish to do likewise. His second notself responds to this wish and the remembered image of what he has seen by manipulating the muscles of checks, jaws, mouth and forehead in such a way that the face as a whole reflects our origin: i Feats such as these cannot be attributed to ‘instinet’s for Sinstinet’ is a built-in tendency to perform some specific act » FOREWORD (such as nest-building in birds, or sucking and clinging in infants); whereas these activities of the parrot’s notself and the baby's vegetative soul are ad hoc manifestations of some kind of intelligence capable of adapting means to ends in the solution of unique and unforeseeable problems. In experimenting with himself at the piano Mr. Bonpeu: siere found that the not-elf, which can do these things for the bird and the haby, is able to perform feats even more remarkable. Distinguishing V (the conscious ego’s will to perform an action) from V2 (the vegetative soul, which sees to it that the body does all the hundreds of things that have to be done, if the action is to be carried out), he formulated the relationship between self and notself as follows: “V proposes, V2 disposes.” The infallibility of V2 in regard to such involuntary activities as digestion and respiration has always been recognized. So long as we leave it in peace, the second not-self does everything as it ought to be done. Interfered with by the anxious or greedy self, it does Tess well or even fails altogether, leaving the body a prey to psycho-somatic disease. Bonpensiere’s experiments led him to the conclusion that, even in the field of voluntary action, it is better to leave V2 to its own devices. He discovered “the paradoxical truth that, if instead of transmitting the per- forming volition, we withdraw it (another phase of specific volition) from any possible combination with the physio- motor apparatus, the act is inexorably bound to be per formed in the most ideal realization—that is, immediately and without the slow bnilding up of progressive conditioned reflexes; for, thereafter, the physiological guidance of the act is entirely assumed by V2, V having relinquished its interference.” In the physical life, precisely as in the spi itual life, the proper altitude ean he summed up in such phrases as, “Not my will, but Thine” or, “T live, yet not I, hut Christ liveth in me.” The highest, the most useful func- tion of the sell’s conscious will is to will itself out of the way, so that the beneficent and infallible not-self can workNEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE through the psycho-physical organism in the best possible manner. “So far as our conscious volitional life is con cemed, the physiological has become a negation. It is minus to the self of the individual. It is plus to life as whole.” The language resembles that which has been used by all the great masters of the spiritual life. Ils novelty resides in the fact that it refers, not to “union with God” or “Liberation”, but to every day bodily skill, Even in this field the function of V, the will of the conscious self, is to refrain from inter- fering with the not-self. Its positive action should be con- fined to proposing the end to be attained, either in the form of an image of the desired achievement, or of a symbol standing for that image. The difference between ordinary willing and what Bonpe alls IdeoKineties can be summed up as follows. ‘The unreflecting and untrained ego says, “I want to perform such and such an act.” ‘The more enlightened ego inhibits its first impulse and says instead, “I want such and such an act (represented by an image or the symbol of an image) to be performed by the not-self in charge of my body.” Among the teachers of every kind of skill there is a con- stant insistence on the need for letting go, for somehow combining activity with relaxation, not-doing with the most strenuous doing. The great merit of Bonpensiere consists in the fact that he has clarified and systematized notions that were previously obscure and even mutually inconsistent, and that he has devised and deseribed in detail a praxis hhased upon his theory. It is interesting to compare this theory and its related practices with the theories and practices developed by two earlier workers in fields less highly specialized than that of piano playing. I refer to Dr. W. H. Bates and F. M, Alex. ander. Bates, an oculist, was concerned with seeing. Could defects of vision, he asked himself, be corrected by other than mechanical means? Were spectacles the only or suffi cient solution to the problem? In the course of years he + FOREWORD worked out a method for the functional re-education of sensing eyes and seeing mind, The basic principle underly- ing his theory and practice was the same as that which un- derlies Bonpensiere’s: namely, that V must be prevented from interfering with V2, Perfect seeing is the work of the notself; the self merely gets in the way. The harder you, the ego, try to see, the greater the strain and nervous ten- sion and the worse the vision. The various drills and pro- cedures devised hy Bates and his followers ave the practical corollaries of this proposition. With F. M. Aloxandes’s work on ‘the use of the self’, ‘ereative conscious control” and ‘the fundamental constant of living’, we pass beyond the field of specific actions or single functions, The problem here is fundamental and general. What are the intra-organie circumstances in which the physiological not-self can perform its multifarious la- ours with the highest possible efficiency? Alexander estab- lished the fact that there is a certain relationship between the trunk and the neck and head, which is normal (in the absolute rather than in the merely statistical sense of the word). Given this relationship, functioning of the autonomic nervous system hecomes perfect and the body as a whole works (lo pul it authvopomocphicully) “as it was meant to work.” The circumstances of civilized life are such that most of us have come to adopt # wrong, unnatural ‘use of the self, ‘The head-neck-trunk relationship is abnormal; consequently the functioning of the entire organism is ab- normal. But abnormal habits, if persisted in long enough, come to seem normal. If normal functioning is to be re- stored, the debauched and deluded self must be taught to inhibit its tendency to unreflecting action along the accus- tomed Lines. (In Bonpensiere’s termivology V must be pre- vented from interfering with V2). The fatal habit of what Alexander calls ‘end-gaining’ musi he broken and the scious self taught to consider ‘means-whereby’, In the Incid interval created by voluntary inhibition of debauched im-NEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE pulse, the self can be taught to use the right means of doing ‘what it wants to dos and when this has been learned, general bodily functioning will be normalized, When the self is used wrongly, no act can be performed gratuitously: there are always psy more ot less high according to the nature of the act. For this reason nobody can obtain the fullest possible benefit from a system of specialized train- ing, unless he has first undertaken a basic training in the use of the self. Because they are based on fundamentally sound principles, both Ideo-Kinetics and the Bates Method can do a great deal of good even in persons untrained in the techniques developed by Alexander. On those who have mastered the proper use of the self, the beneficent effects of these specialized trainings are likely to be still greater. When, however, specialized physical training is based upon wrong principles and given to persons unacquainted with the proper use of the self, somato-psychie costs are unduly high and the net result is apt, in the long run, to be more harmful than beneficial. Vast sums are spent on education (nearly as much, if 1 remember righily, as is spent on alcohol) and, along with money, prodigious quantities of time and devotion. Are the ssulis commensurate with the outlay? Many people are in- clined to doubt it. Then how is the educational system to be improved? The Progressives have offered one solution; the advocates of Science mitigated by a year or two of the Humanities, another; the Hundred Great Books people, a third. All the prescriptions strike one as being curiously naive, inasmuch as they tacitly assume that fundamental improvements in human beings can be brought about by do- ing something on the surface of experience. Consider, for example, an education based upon the reading of a hun- dred, or even two hundred, of the West’s Great Books. What can this do for twentieth-ceniury pupils? No more, surely, than it did for those who actually wrote the Great Books, for those who used to read them as a matter of course be- FOREWORD 1) they had no alternatives in the way of comic strips and television, That it did something for these people is obvious; but no less evident is the fact that it did not do nearly enough. Half the chapters in the history of man are the chronicle of enormous follies and the most horrible atrocities, If we are content with behaving as peo- ple behaved in the thirteenth century a. p. or the fourth century B. C., then by all means let us pin our educational hopes on the reading of Aristotle and Aquinas and Dant But we would like to have something a litile better than the old conglomerate of slums and cathedrals, the immemorial amalgam of self-satisfied reason and systematic senseless- ness, of brutal squalor and the occasional sublimities of art. We would like something hetter, and our only hope of get- ting it Ties in devising a system of education, in which sur- face training in science, arts, handicrafts and Great Books shall be combined with a training in the means whereby such surface learning can best be accomplished. And this deep-level training in the use of the self and Ideo-Kineties would serve, so to speak, as an opening wedge for an even profounder training in dovility to the second and third not- selves—an education in the art of getting out of the way, of dis-eclipsing the vegetative soul and the Spirit, in remov- ing the barriers of ego-centricity and permitting Life to flow, unrestricted, through the organism. Of the procedures will have to be employed in this higher and deepe edueation of the human person T cannot write in this place. Suffice it to say that, between them, modern psychology and ancient autology (as Coomaraswamy called the traditional science of the Self) can be relied upon to provide the means whereby some real improvement in individual and (at one remove) social behavior might be achieved, Meanwhile let us be thankful for any contribution to the methods of thi more effective education of the future, Among these contri- butions Bonpensiere’s will surely find a place, cause (poor wretch xiiiACKNOWLEDGMENTS 1 Am pexpiy indebted to Mr. Alduus Iuxley for his Fore- word and also for his invaluable suggestions and encourage- ment. Also I am most grateful to Mz. Denver Lindley for his siv- cere, umtiring interest in my husband’s work and for his friendly advice. To Mr. Georg Hoy, my co-worker in the selection and ar- rangement of these excerpts from my husband’s Notebooks, T owe a great debt of gratitude for his profound, steadfast interest and assistance in putting these excerpts into book form. OF Mz. Hoy I can say unreservedly that he is an on- lightened exponent of my busband’s work; that he has a thorough comprehension of the science of Ideo-Kinetics and is fully conversant with its principles and its application to the technique of piano playing. Mr, Hoy first met my husband, Luigi Bonponsiere, in 1926 und # true friendship ensued hetween them. In 1939 Mr. Hoy retumed to New York after an absence of several years, and it was during this visit that Luigi Bonpensiere spoke to him about his discovery of Ideo-Kinetics and com: manicated io him his findings as of that period, At this time he instructed him in the actual application of [deo-Kineties to piano playing, and he is the only person, besides the present writer, who learned by word of mouth from the eu- thor himself the facts about his diseoveries. Maria Bonpensiere TABLE OF CONTENTS: Part I Tre Discovery ov Ipeo-Kinerics Introduction... CaapTer I DEFINITIONS Mechanics Dynamics. Kinetic Volition V and V2 Defined Physio-Kineties Volitional Ideation Pre-Ideation Symbols . Self Release. will Crapren I ‘Towanos Inso-Kuveric CONSCIOUSNESS Cuapren UI ‘Anarysis For Finsr Inzo-Kiveni¢ Exerninents.. Cuapren IV Horrise 4 Manx in Pavsio-Kinertes Cuarran V Hrrrine 4 Mark w Ipzo-Kinencs.. Cuarren VI Basic Exrsnaman7s 1x Syaponianion ann Hrrrinc THE MARK ern . Caapren VIL ANALYSIS oF a First EXPERIMENT ON THE PIANParr II ‘Tis Screnex oF Inxo-Kinstics AveLinp To THE An oF Piano PLaviNG CHAPTER Ts Cuaprer TT “Giemine vie Mark” Apprizn To 715 PrANo... Cuarrer HD Ruyrua ano INTENSITIES... Cuaprer IV Syamors Charter V Sysrmus oF Pours i Space. Cnaprer VI RELease Guapter VIL IDEATION AND VOLSTION nue Crrarces VIL Pracriciné witn Ong Hano Aton BeNRwts THE OrneR ss CHAPTER PRACTICE ennvne ne Carrer X FINGERING osomnomnnnin Cuaprex XL SruptEs IN SIGHTLESS PLAYING Caper XID READING sceroncnnnnn Cuapren XUT Iuprovisnsc, Memory AND Hanir Cuarrer XIV Conciusions INDEX eenseanann Excerpts from the Notebooks of Inigi Bonpensiere, selected and arranged by Maria Bonpensiere and Georg Hoy.INTRODUCTION Giwar principLes are not discovered for the glorification of the individual man, He who would cherish this thought would be, indeed, a poor servant to the Power of Life. In- stead of launching a challenge to his fellow men and de- clating his primeey in the field, it would be much wiser and moze practical for him to say, “Here is this new thing, What can we do with it? I feel that if a new bit of knowl- edge is to be of extended use and benefit, it must be pre- sented with utmost simplicity. Come, Help’ me,” Therefore, nothing, in Uhis treatise is prosented with a elaim of finality as to definite theories or unassaileble hypotheses, On the contrary, all of the experiences and, at times, astonishing statoments of facts are offered only as a contribution to fur. ther study and investigation, Even the terminology of phenomena had to be improvised for the convenience of discussion sud any appropriate revi- sion of the temporaty ierminology will he welcome, We have been obliged to study the unknown in texms of things known-—in terms whose symbols recall other established meanings, Much to our ike, we have had to use and to abuse such terms as mind, consciousness, volition, will, thinking and intelligence, All of these terms might be taken as synonymous of the same psychic activity, only differing among themselves in their funetionel aspect, ‘These discussions ave also Full of assertions which seem to bo taken for granted aad in complete defiance or igno- ance of the latest verdicts of bivtogieal observation and of scientific and philosophical inquiry in geneval. The trith is that they heve been compiled in the spivit of deepest humil- ity and of reverence for everyone's effort iowards the ad- vancement of knowledge, The absclute and direct possibilityNEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE of demonstrating the postulates of this study experimentally js indeed a grace. Otherwise they might be deemed fantastic or impossible and refuted a priori. This study jinplies three different steps in intimate se- quenve: the discovery of a new aspect of the forces of Nature, the foundation of a new branch or sub-branch of science and the invention of @ method by which both the new principles and the nev science ate applied to @ widely extended activity of man, We have discovered, in our human physiology, special aspects of energy which are tho immediate projection of our thoughts, By thinking alone, our hands, with utmost faithfulness and without the least conscious effort, can re- produce the most elusive and complicated products of our mnusicel volition. ‘We designate this system of dynamics by the name of Heo-Kinetics. Tt was discovered during an exploration of Yolitional acts and motions, especially motions requiring Jong training and leading to the attainment of great skill. Tdeo-Kineties, in itself, would amount to very little if it were Limited to the few experiments available (a peculiar behaviour of volition as applied to ranscular motions). Tt is hweauce it can be applied to one of the geeatest skills attain~ able by man (and because of the fortuitous coincidence that that ekill is exercised on @ man-made instrument, the piano, singulazly adapted as a luboratory of the highest endow: ment) that Tdeo-Kineties ean reveal some of the deepest se- crets and unsuspected capacities of the nervous system— that it ean, in other words, offer suck an immense field of investigation to both psychology and physiology, apart from iis sublime contribution to the art of mus Scientife investigations based on individual Feelings and expericnces are possible only becanse a degree of mutual agreement has bec rcacked about the specific meanings of peycho-physiologieal values, A reciprocal help, through @ Foforence to standard values, is not possible until individual = INTRODUCTION experiences aro studied end correlated. The addition of a convenient vocabulary, grown out of a coramon understand. ing, becomes of immense value. Until such a stage of knowl edge about Ideo-Kineties is reached, the scholar must be- come his own psychologist amd physiologist and build his systom diligently ont of the baste and positive data, whick are, unequivocally, sufficient to illumine im about the new categories and dynamics, Man will get in deoKineties whatever dynamic possibilities he may happen to knows and whatever marvels he ignores will he lost to him. A spark of the very fire which Prometheus brought can not be handled with a too ostentatious simplicity—not swith out a reminder of what that fire was and is, If a new Dis pensation is looming on the horizon, whick will deliver to man a great many graces, he must make himself eady or is, This principle is elealy ilustrated in all of the func- tioning of Ideo-Kineties in relation to the mind of man. Ideo-Kinotice gives an unlimited amount of help in attain- ing what would, normally, be considered impossible; but, in order to get all of the benefits, man must think of them, When the Scriptures say “God is no respector of persons”, besides many other Uiings, they convey the thought that man does riot deserve more than he makes himself worthy of; end he shall get no more, There is no rubbing of talis- mans in the regions of Life. Here is anounced the Beginning of an ers when man can he, spontaneously, what he thinks he is. Encouraged by the first findings, we should explore the fields where man has only to think and Life will realize his thoughts. Here. the Eternal Poet, the One whom beauty feeds in light and in darkness alike, in dearth and in plenty, sings an appeal to all mystics, men of good-will, men who have surrendered their ego and who are ready to work for the glory of God and Life stone. Iuigi Bonpensicre xxiINDEX Ab aeternam—5 Acoustic—58. Activator—6 Activity—xix, xx 3, 4 5, 21, 27 Acts—xx, Anachronous—8 ‘Anatomy—122 Anthropomorphic—37, 120 ‘Appogeiatura—64 Arm, arms—12, 44, 73, 112 Arpeerio, arpeggios—§8, 61, 75, 76, Art, artist—ax, 11, 69, 83, 86 Aspect, aspects—xix, xx Attainment—12, 123 Attitade—19, 20 Antomatic—17 Automutism--115 ‘Antonomie placement—107 Autonomy-~14, 103 Awareness—4, 17, 112 Ball—22, 25, 27 Beanty—xxi, 20, 54 Beethoven, Moonlight Sonata—82, 97 Behaviowr—5, 119 Behaviourist—119 Biology—13, 110 Body and mind—10 Bondage—49, 53 Born—18, 83, 123 Bow—76 Capacity, functional—64 Causation—27, 43 Cause and effect—3 Cause, dynamie—4 Chord, chords—33, 36, 47, 48, 49, 57, 91 Chromatic series—70 Circumference—35 Competence—7, 16, 95 Complex, psychic—7 Composer—99 Comprehension, perfect—48 Concept—20, Conditions, mental—19 Conseiousness—22, 23, 75, 76, 79, 88, 9 Container—22 Contraction—42 Control—15, 76 Cooperator—6 Coordination—16, 48, Cross—33 Culture—16 Curiosity—52 Data, sensory—4 Determination—22 Diagram-—-L5 Difficnity, obstinate—53 Diffraction—7 Discovery—xx Dispensation—xxi Divide, great—14 Dominion—1 Dynamics—4, 5, 19, 47, 89 Dynamism—4 Elfort—xx, 4, 13, 17, 36 Ego—xxi, 23 Electric lamp switch—27 Electro-magnet—48 Flements, anatomical—48 Emergency—20 En masse-~23 Encumbranees—11 End-results—7, 8, 24, 26, 74 Endeavour—26 Energy—51 Entity, empirical—10 Entrails—11 Epiphenomena—& Equation, porsonal—112 Execution—64 Exercise, exercises—48, 49, 71, 74,91 Expectation—73 Expedient—10 Experience, 17, 19, 121 Experiment—19, 72 Tdeo-Kinetically—25 on a circle—35 ‘with a moving abject 35 Experiments on the piano—33 Experimeater—19 Expression—77 Eye—23, 32, 61, 63, 70 {125}NEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE Bye 25,8, 81.94, 44 4687,78 Factor, faster 3,13, Foih 1735 28,42, 06 104 121 atigne—1 Fear 49, 85, 91, 95 Fa B29 25,26 28 16 Field, physical Finges,finges=—22, 52, 69,71 Fingering, , 82,56, 15,81, #2 chotee of 98 ffculies 17 Dregceupation—101 well-planned 100 esting 48 Fire—at Fixing, mental—33 Flower, flowers 33, 4 Force frcesxs, 6,3 Fortssimo pesformance—87 Foundation ax, 19 Freedom—20, Sh Functionalism 5 Functions, involuntary —16 Gotting « habie—111 God, glory of ax Gooi playing, conception of 54 Good will—sexi Grace, graces—nx, xi, 18 Grail, Holy, Grail, The 12, 88 Grouping "99 Groppetto— 11 Guidance 4, 8 6 12, 25, 28, 44, 56, 57, 103, Hiabit—20, 24,117, 119 Hand—2, 23, 80, 46, 52, 55, 56,66, let—76, 86, 90 ight ~76, 8, 90,113 Handicaps, physical elimination of— Handeoa 9, 1, 22,18, 21,27, 18 54, 5, 56, 02,6, 668,75, 87, Hrmony—s0 Hearing sense of 123, Homility19) Lego—26 ‘eation,acoustice!—103 ‘dynamic, power of 13, flowing 99, 94 incorrect —42 pure25 ‘altonal—5, 7,25, 28 1s principles of ~45, 52 ‘Kinetio— concept, concepte—21, 25, 80 ‘consciousness 13, 4 1 Fingsring-96 guidance 36 orientation ~82 reading 112 Feleses 20,13, technique 26 unite 32 Teo Kinetios—exy ax, 8, 12, 16, 19, 3 eology—A5 Image, eraphio—29, 58 mental—25, 45, 41 ocular—t2, 78 Images phonetic 75, limpet, epatal—B1 Inproviagil6 iteation— 193. Ioan 13 Initiator Tnqutyate Instrument, man mnade—ox Integration 9, 16,17, 47,58 Intelligenco—ai, 16, 8 Invention—ax involuntary—13, 16 Kebourd—9% 44 45, 86 1, 12, 76, pattern--5, 58 Ki taper es on ae Pe regions of--xxi 1126) NEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE Light—3,27 Limb, limbs—11, 108 Location —9, 77 Look at—118, 114 Loops—25, 26 Machine—3 Man, xxi 19, 28, Mankind 23, 42 ack 3,2, 30 3, 83,54 father Mind-ais, xxi 10, 27, 33, 94, 43, 4, 50, 53, 79 Moonlight Sonats, The, Beethoven-— 2,97 Motion, motions—ax, 4, 13, 52, 95 Motor éncray—6 Busi get ofa Musig Malan s0, 66, 18 ‘Moles —16, 2, 42 Mystic, mya ax, 18, 2, Naguro§, 2,1, 1 13 15, 16, 17 22, 23, 38, Negation —14, 15, Negativity, principle of—20 Note, notes, musiesl~25, 52, 58 Nomm—3,7 ‘Observation, biological ‘Obstacle—17, 82 Octaves—$7, 71,91 Ovientation—-6,52 Oneaism-—16 Organs—24 Physiodyeaniar—6, 8, 10,12, 13,15, 8,8, 109 Physiolégist—~B9 ‘Phalology—xx, 12, 36 "ier aa st laying Biasine 8h of 3, pianists 11,74, 85 Pie Pras Debts space—16 Power, powers—xix, 3, 4, 22, 24, 48, 5,93 Practice 6, 16, 8, 70, 71, 1. Prayer Procept—21 Precision 88, 92 Preideation8, 8,98, 94,96 Presissino Tt peine’plor—eie, x, 54 8, 6 1, 12, 96 Progeesion-pattern--67 Projection” 20,25 Prometiow ai eychologist—axd Prrchology——a, 110 Pall—48, $9, 75,108 Pash—13 Tefle, reflexes 23, Refutation—9 Life, regions of ax Release 19, 25, 27, 42, 86, 74 81, 85, Rendering, interpretative 68 Resonance 86, 87 Roverenco—xlx Riythm—51,81 Seale, chromatio~$1 Scholas—xai Selene, selonees—ex, 10 Seripturen-axd 1 Sensation, Kngesthetio—73 equence—9, 99 ‘Shifting, mentsl—46, 47 ay a anita aaa ies eit {127}NEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE Sound—49, 111 Thought, thoughts—xx, 8, 20, 48 Sound, integration of —74 Thumb—52 Sources—32 Time—8, 83 Space-location—123 Tools—36 perception of —26 Staff, left hand—114 right hand—113. Stimulus—10_ Stratagen, mental—92 Stretch, muscular—99 Topography—79 Touch—4, 25, 35, 61, 110, 123 ‘Training systematic —16, 119 period of —-I ‘Transcendenee—100, 123 ‘Translation—113 Strength—16, 87 Treatise—xix String instrument players —86 Troth-23, 38 Structure—44, 52 -building—i2 Student—57 Tune in—121 Stunt—74 ‘Twice born—83 Sub-complex-—7 Substratum, musical—117 ‘Typewriter—729 Sugesystem—77 Ultima thule~12 Suntise—97 Uktra-physiological—24, 104 Sunset—97 Unit, units—16, 22, 26, 76 Supremacy, man’s—24 Universe—I2 Symbol—9, 10, 25, 80, 55, 87, 73, 103 Symbols—44, “yn, CV EP5, 6 arbitrary—9 “V" PROPOSES, “V2" DISPOSES cumpulsory—8 7 Exchangeability of —29 exchangeability of 29 expedient—10 Values—xx Vigilance—55 Violin—76, 86 mental—28, 82, 46 Virtoso—86 numerical—29 Visualization—25 systematic—8, 9 Visualize—58 Symbolization—12 Vision—33 Syachronous—-B System, nervous—xe, 7 dichotomous—71 inner—123 Systems, A, A1—31, 32 Table—29 Talismans—xxi Tau—9, 10 Teach, teachers—16, 50 Technical data—18 Technician—75 Technique—9, 16 Vocabulary——xxi Volition—xix mnsical—xx activity of —10 conscious—§ evolving—11 individual’s—28 initial—20 pure—5, 26 Voluntary—13, 16 Terminals—42, 112 Wards—21 Terminology—xix Will—xix, H, 13, 14, 17, 21, 23, 37 Testament—14 Wisdom—16, 46, 47 ‘hinking—xi: Withdrawl—6 {128} World~-19, 26, 33, 122Cuapter I DEFINITIONS IN ANALYZING the activities under study, we feel obliged to state our definition of terms. We feel obliged to do it even at the cost of making our definitions arbitrary. Mechanics We designate by mechanics the study of an activity inde- pendent of its generative power. For instance, if a machine is put into motion by electricity, we would not consider the source of motion but we would be interested solely in the reciprocal action of every part of the machine and in prob- lems of pressure and the elation of time to the length of motion and to stress. Then, if we analyze the problems of the piano, which afford an interesting field of observation for physiological mechanics, we find that all waining and technique is reduced to the application of principles of strict mechanics. In other words, in a mechanistic process wwe study the sequence and interrelation of cause and effect. Both cause and effect are always considered as quantitative factors related to and depending upon distance, velocity and variations in the amount and angular direction of stress. ‘We may state definitely that all preoceupation with such problems is totally aban from the field of IdeoKinetics. jot that the machine is, by a miracle, suppressed but be- cause a process of transmission from part to part of the ma- chine is disregarded, The mechinery is excluded from all volitional activity, It is this paradoxical exclusion from anything mechanically active that makes the explanation of terms especially necessary. What we are accustomed to cone ceive as mechunistic, being extraneous to all 1deo-Kinetics, [3]NEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE cxeates the necessity of giving a new definition of what dynamism and kinetics can mean in Tdeo-Kineties, In a site ple statement we can assert the truism that there ean be no talk of mechanics in a field where effort is entirely ex- cluded. Then, there being na mechanies of transmitted effort in Tdeo-Kineties, we must now analyze kow the concept of Kineties is affected. If we arrive at this concept through our awareness of motion in general, we must see what this con- cept ean become in a system of activity where there is mo- tion but no computation nor awareness of transmitted effort. Dynamics ‘We shall call dynamics any activity which expresses Laws and principles and which brings motion ané change, In this guise, dynamism is interpreted as a cause of molive power which brings motion and change as its effect. Kinetic We shall call kinetic any actual motion as expressed in the physical field, Kinetics, then, are imterpreted as the re- sults of a dynamic cause. Volition In the course of analyzing the chain of processes leading, towards the development of skill in voluntary motions, it is, clearly shown that volition behaves like guidance during the realization of ideated end-results, To determine what voli- Hon is or when its specific function starts or ceases is, for the moment, beyond the scope of our analysis. ‘The only specifie meaning of volition, in our case, is its particular aspect as guidance, However, all through the process of acquiring skill in various voluntary motions, we become aware that the management of our canscious guidance is limited to the control of our sensory dala—eyesight, Louch, kinesthetic sensation and intensily of effort—but that the actual processes of physiological activity—neural impulse, (4) DEFINITIONS muscular innervation, selective neuro-muscular connections and coordination—are beyond the reach of our volition and, consequently, beyond our conscious guidance. This latter group of phenomena is only a response to our initial voli- tion, If we designate our conscious volition by the symbol “y*, we can conveniently designate by “V2” the complex of activities responsive to the stimulus of “V”. We are then facet with the interplay of two guidances. “V2" is the governing activily of each living creature, Tt is the guidance perennially bestowed by Nature under the aspect of an individualized being and somatic funciionalism, Tdeo-Kinevics, not only in its advanced stage but in its immediate manifestations, rushes to claim that a new status be acknowledged for both "W” and “V2”. We have assigned to “¥” and “V2” the symbolic role of guidances. Guidance, in objective analysis, would designate their compliance with immutable biologieal and physiological necessity. Tn an ss- sertive flash “V* shows thst it enn transcend from its ab acternam ussigued role aud arouse an cqwally transcending response in “V2”, This statement implies an unexpected revelation of physiological (somatic) behaviour; new neuro- logical dynamics giving rise to systemic neuro-activitys new pathways to action. ‘The concept of “V2" es guidance, so elusive when pro- jected from the taken-for-granted source of normal psycko- physiological functionalism, is vividly asserted when the norm is transcended at the mere bidding of “V's" new sta- tus: that of pure volition, or volitional ideation, Psycho- physiological functionelism is at once upset by the assertive- ness of imrushing new physfologieal hehavioue. ‘The undis- puted permanence of a norm fades as the delusion of a cosmic dream, and the reality of a far wider norm emerges. Now for the practical purpose of establishing the relation of “V" to “V2" in the analysis of voluntary, physiological mator acts, we shall neglect all of “W's” aspects offered by [5]NEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE the psychic complex end utilize only its aspect of volition as activator and cooperator to “V2”, Before we had a knowledge of Ideo-Kineties we were justified in assuming that “VW? was merely a by-product of “¥2's? own activity: and functionalise, Now, confronted with the new facts, “V" emerges as an independent force, entitled to impose aliera- tions along the whole course of “V2's” activity. Accord- ingly: ‘A. “VW ean choose to alter the motor energy. B, “¥” can cause radical innovations in the work of the terminal performing organs. ‘The ascent of pure volition, though possible in every voli- tional motion, is to be glovifled in the special practice of arts requiring superlative skill, As to “W” selecting the ap- proach to “V2” rather than to the habitual uormal activity (Puysio-sinzri¢s), there is a developed technique whose first step is the withdrawal of “WV” from the paths of physi eal volition, The response is immediate, once the basic prin- ciple is grasped. The difference etween the two ve approaches is fairly summarized by the following ideotag- {cal orientation: Tn habitual Physio-Rinetics, “I want to perform this act.” (I shall uso V2's machinery which is et my disposal.) In Tdeo-Kineties, “I want this act to be performed” (By V2 entirely). If we try to analyze the process of a volitional motor act, especially ‘an act tending towards the development and re alization of high skill, we discern al ones two distinguish. ablu avtivations: A. The conscious guidance of the individual's volition, which we have symbolized as “V", B. The guidance of the complex of involuntary processes, which we have symbolized as “V2", All moter aets and skilled snotor activity is, than, a c0- operative process between the two guidances, “VY” end “V2", “V" is characterized by the striving towards or pro: To) DEFINITIONS posing the realization of some ideated, physical (motor) end-resuli, “V2" is characterized by the physiological hid- den processes of Nature offered towards the realization of those ideated end-resulls. It might be formulated that “V” proposes, “V2” DisPosEs, Volitional Ideation In the case of Ideo-Kineties, the transcending of the norm is brought about at the bidding of “W*. Yet the initiator of all thoge innovations is not, cannot be, the “V? we know empirically in the habitual performance of volitional acts. Volition is a complex (or if we prefer, a sub-coraplex of the wider psychic complex) not a specifically isolable ac: tivity. We ave, of course, adhering strictly to the eoneept of volition which relates to motor acts, barring all other psycho- logical issues. Should we try to find a single, irredueible element in this volitional sub-complex, there would be but one: the idea of expected end-results, which we shall call volitional ideation, This ideation is (he sole contribution of “V" to the motor act. The rest of the unfathomable proo- esees of transmission, transmutation and neuro-physiological mechanics are the work of “V2", Yet the action of “VW” does not slop at the issuing of the volitional ideation, It continues to follow closely the doings of *V2" (V continu ing ils guidance aver V2; V2 carefully obeying V's guid- ance) within the limits of possible physiclogical mechanics. Tdeo-Kinetics is a transmutative process of the volitional motor acts through the diffraction of volition itself, Ac- cordingly, the sole aspect of volition which remains valid and active is the volitional ideation. ‘The aspect which in PhysioKinetics follows the physiological processes (the processes of performing volition) is withdrawn altogether. This leads inevitably to the discovery that, owing to this, diffraction of “V” (the volition), the behaviour of “V2” is, altered and its competence extended; while the entize ne: ous system reveals transcending facts hitherto umoticed, 7NEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE In spite of its simplicity, the basic principles of Ideo- Kinetics would have remained chscure had they not been verified through actual experience. Volitional ideation, by its own sovereign power, determines the extent of its field of action, ‘The nature, power, capacity and extent of cancepts held to be active, therefore, determine the extent of Ideo- Kinetics. What the volitional ideation knows of Tdeo: Kineties and what it accepts and helieves and wants to re: alize is automatically selected within the acting dynamics, What it ignores or dismisses or fails to include will be ex: eluded. Pre-Ideation The dynamic action or power of ideation is not neces: sarily atilized at the moment of its origin, Tt is not like the radiation of Light that ean cast shadows only in its nascent state. T can ideate an act not for immediate performance and keep it in storage for any amount of time; then the moment I release it for action the whole get is performed, while my thoughts can either wander elsewhere or be kept attentive in watching the release of the pre-ideation, This is not figurative speech. It can be reproduced at will, with all the accuracy of method adopted in ony dynamic experi ment, The extreme significance of these facts not only shows that ideas are no longer to be considered as mere epiphenomena but that they are, in the strictest sense of the word, dynamic forces. Also that their dynamic value can be extended, heyond their origination in time. They ean be both synchronous and anachronons with theit end-tesults—a fact entirely foreign to Physio-Kinetics. Symbols ‘The adoption of symbols, in Liew of abstract concepts of reality, is also an act of volition. In Ideo-Kincties we use lwo kinds of symbols, We use systematic symbols, or com pulsory symbols, as we find them alzeady established in the {3} DEFINITIONS very subject-matter of our activity. For instance, we have nmsical notes (their names and graphic representations are either written or visualized in our memory) and the visuali« zation in our memory of their corresponding keys on the Keyboard; and we have, from Nature Herself, their sound values, ‘These all serve the purpose of finding in space the Joci which they represent, We use a second kind of symbols: the arbitrary aymbols. These the individual chooses at will, in order to assomble a group of aystematic symhals and for the purpose of increas- ing the efficiency of his ehoren symbol. For example, the use of TAU" lo represent our refutation of willful contribution to physical effort. We use arbitrary symbols only in order to bring shout a process of integration; i, ¢., when we have to learn or act quire mastery over a heretofore unfamiliar bit of kineties or technique, When the integration is complete (when we play what we have mastered, or read, or improvised, using only the now-[amiliar kineties) we employ only systematic symbols, Tt is not heceuse of some particular power of a symbol that we recur to its kelp, Tis use seals our volition against the interference of other volitional thoughts. This is illus. trated when we find that the reeding of a musical sequence away from the piano is far more effective than actually try- ing it with our hands on the keyboard. Tt is on this prinei- ple that the whole method of learning iu Tdeo-Kinetios is based. ‘When we extoll the Ideo-Kinetie virtues of a visual sym- bel (an azbitrary symbol, for instance, Tau) and recognize in it the greatest fundamental help in mastering location on the keyboard, we may aske why we rely on 2 symbol which requires a mental effort to reprarince (asa mental image) and not have it written before us to Took al. The answer is * The Author used the Geecl Tetler Tou, ox sometimes Phi, to represent the whole concept of RSLEASH, (9)NEW PATHIPAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE that the psychological operations involved in the two cases are not the same, During the holding of a mental image, if you hold it at all, the volitional activity of intruding thoughts is deviated frum our consciousness, Wherens, if the symbol is read, it acts as anything coming from the out- side, s0 to speak, and does not differ from any other sen- sory stimulus. In one case it is a perceived image from the onside: in the other, it is erented (reprodnced) from within and belongs, consequently, tw the activity of volition, In the prompt resort to ‘Tan, we suspend, a once, any cooperation swith physiological effort. We refuse to act. We play dead. We remember that for the display of perfect Ideo-Kinetic dynamics we must not rontribate even the least effort. While Tooking hopofully towards the attainment of final IdcoKinetic mastery, let us take every advantage that the systern, so providentially, has to offer and let us, by all means, he helped by expedient symbols. Consequently, Jet tis each devise a symbel that ean bring, as immediate result, the Ideo-Kinctie concept of a shifting self. Self In order to grasp the concept of physio-relesse, we must horrow the concept of self as a prop for the full understand- ing of the leading prineiple of IdeoKinetic release. We avoid the philosophical entanglement into which the subject of self would inevitably lead us. We merely adopt this con- copt as an expedient. Even when we use it as a convenient distinction between ane individual and all the rest of indi- viduals, we are apt to give the terra gradation in meaning, aceording to the number of activities or traits we mean to include. We speak of the self as the empirical entity com prising the whole of man—body and mind. Ox, from a sub- jective point of view, we Limit the self to the activities of thinking and fecting, We consider, in such a ease, that the physical organism belongs w the objective collectivity of Nature, We are not attempting to exhaust a classification of [10] DEFINITIONS the many ways to interpret the self: we are just giving & few examples in order to illustrate our point. We are struck by the possibilities of our will, as against the seemingly evident fatalism of things within and wilhont the individual, Whatever can be willed we consider es ap- pertaining to the domain of self; whatever remains inde- pendent of our will is outside the self, Consequently, all the yoluntery motions belong to the self. Even the phystcat Jims and members are considered as part of the soll ite 60 far as they respon to the will; exelusion is made of cheir subordination to laws and conditions of Nature, This last conceived self we should call the volitional self. All the in- voluntary orgins, which da not fumction at our bidding, we consider as helongings to another eollective self—Nutare’s. Thus, while our entrails (of whose existence, when all is well with us, we axe not even aware) can in no way belong to the volitional self, we consider our hands (over which we are 80 concerned and which we tain to excess in order that they may faithTully express our will) as the greatest ox- ponents of our volition, Now we are talking to the pianist—to the man whe so earnestly wants to express himself through bis hands, No matter what his philosophy is, he will Guow overboard all eschatological encumbrances so long as he is playing. Whit he knows is that his playing is going to poritay the mest ine timate features of his inner self, He has translated all of the recondite resources of the self into his own hands. His hands are his very self. But, should we he enrious ta know the seoret of this so complete estension of the self, from mind to limbs, any great artist would relate 4 long tale of tribula- tions and of toil. It is the tale of an evolving volition which has to be physiologically and gradually msnifested. ‘The initiated in IMdeo-Kinetics knows that his ideation can follow two courses: A, Either he eutrusts the ideation to his physiclogical flyNEW PATH AYS 10 PIANO TECHNIQUE will and, in so doing, he makes his hands work— Physio-Kinetics. B. Or he must entirely disconnect his hands from physio- volition of his awn and limit his activity to his idea- tion—Ideo-Kincties. In A, he must be conseious that his celf is extended to the physiology of his hands, In B, he must be thoroughly convinced that the physiol- ogy of his hands is entirely beyond the dominion of self. Tt is through the realization that his hands are acting une der the influence of sume vther guidance that he must con- sider them self-less. It is the surest way of neatly cutting any gossible tie linking them to his physio-volitions i, ey the surest way to realize complete physio-releace. So, let us find a symbol able to convince us that the dynamics of our hands are already beyond ihe. reels of self. We know very well how, Uxough competent symbolization, we ean render any concept dynamically actives i. e,, capable of generating Tdeo-Kinetics. Of course, the recurring to expedient symbols must always he evaluated as a means to an end: as a means to establish permanent conditions, ‘The ideal to cullivate ig the altainment af a psychology built entirely upon 1deo- Kinetic convictions. For, as we must repeat, the mastery of Tdeo-Kineties depends on @ truth-building process, with truths derived from direct experimentation and aimed at an Altogether novel outlook on life and Nature, Evidently consciousness is not the altima thie of the self, So long as we insist in shaping the Universe according to what we believe we aro handlin ‘ithout making rev- erent reservations for the greater possibilities of incognitae, our work of packing and unpacking our intellectual Tug gage will always interrupt onr quest for The Grail, Release ‘There is an analogy between an act of Ideo-Kinetic re- Jease and certain other eommon instenees of bebaviour re- 12} DEFINITIONS Jated to biological experience, Every time we need a change or correction or improvement in our organism and we either entrust ourselves entirely to the redeeming forces of Nature, or we try artfully to bring about more favorable conditions in order to reaeive her help, wo are committing an set anal- ogous to Ideo-Kinetic release. For example, this is truc when impedimenta to physiological welfare are removed and we commit ourselves to the working out of universal principles, We call an act of release any problem of biology (hav- ing chosen thr problem ta he solved, with data of our own free choice) the solution of which we entrust to the cares of Nature, The word, release, can be used until another word is found to indicate the dynamic factor of perfeet physio. release, To make one jump ftom Physio-Kinelics ino Tdea- Kinetic conscionsnoss is asking oo mach, unloss the indi- vidual is especially illumined, So it is expedient to reach the unknown through the few means available from the al- ready knows, What everyone already knows is Physio- Kinetics based on effort. [t is, then, expedient to evolve so gradually the idew and experience of eflort towards a new direction that in following this new direction we must, per- force, find our goal, If the concept of absolute release seems, in the beginning, beyond our grasp, let us reach it through gradual steps—by departing from tho idea of phys- ical effort, We have interproted release from the beginning as a de- taching of the will from physiological preoccupation, Here is the pivot of the whole system. In procuring release, we are simply transforming a voluntary motion into an involun- tary one. One can speak with authority shent release only when the free flow of his ideation finds immediate kinetic realinae tion, without the least preoccupations when his hands, sith- out the least mental push, go about their business of seru- 113]NEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE pulous tzanslation, just as though they were not kis own hands (when they do not give him the least hint that they are any of his concern); when he feels sure that nothing can possibly go against this realization; when he feels not the slightest sense of fatigues when he feels sure that finally he is at home in a world of sublimated laws; and when he is surprised at the past awkwardness of toil and its ecope, Then he can speak with authority of having grasped the full meaning of release. Then, when his physiological practicing scams to be: at the end of its resourees, ke can, by a delib- erate act of ideation, declare his mental autonomy. A whole library can be filled with hooks on the princi- ples of Tdeo-Kinetics, but it will he just as useless as a Jie brary on how to become an artist, a poet, a mystic or a saint, We are reminded that: “To those who have, it shall be added, and to those who have nol, it shall be taken away.” Even if we are not among the chosen, it is a great blessing to be in the midst of the called: for we have be- come acquainted with an inkeritance which, by some strange turn of life, has been overlooked in the reading of God's testament to man, Fill A little reflection will make us realize that in the very act of negation (plunging into a physio-volitional nothing) we are. summoning the sudden services of an integral will, ‘There is nothing absurd or savoring of a caprice of Nature in the fact that we must not will in order to will, When we make a plunge into release, into negation, we actaally subtract our will and its hold on the physiological. But, as a matter of fact, oar volition is always flowing in the milder aspect of ideation, We ideate our end-results in 4 process of flow; but, at the same time, we ideate our ab- solute uneoncern with the ways and means to obtain them. We gather the whole of our cognizant and conscient self on this side of the psycho-physiological great divide and re- tay DEFINITIONS Tinguish our control on the physiological. We release it to the forces of Nature. So far as our conscious volitional life is concerned, the physiological has hecome a negation. It is minus to the self of the individual, It is plus to life as a whole, £15}Cuapter II TOWARDS IDEO-KINETIC CONSCIOUSNESS Ipzo-xinerics is a technique which grants to voluntary acts the wisdom and competence displayed in the involun- tary functions of the organism, We find it easy to explain that competence as being mechanistic in the involuntary, but we regard it as disquictingly abnormal in the voluntary. Is it possible that the same Nature who has planned the most miraculous functional coordinations within our own bodies; who always modifies them and reconditions them in any emergency and accident; who knows our.real needs and tries to overcome all the obstacles that, through accident or neglect, are put in the path of her wisdom—is it possible or eredible that she be eo tardy in preparing an integration of our voluntary motions? It is not a matter of metabolical new needs that causes the delay and slowness. What is needed is only an activity of integration, for which we de- pend entirely on Nature’s seoret bounty. Intelligence and culture may simplify matters a great deal, physically, but, in the main, we rely on Nature’s good grace. Many competent teachers will insist upon reminding us that we have no strength—we must develop our muscles— even when we possess muscles capable of doing twenty times the amount of work implied in that skilled task. After long training and practice, the sense of effort is gone and we re- joice in our developed strength and muscles. Tt is the coor- dination of a rightly selected group of units, adequate to the chosen task, that brings success. We could never select those units. We do not even know what they are nor where they are. We only know that some muscles are used; and often, in the attempt to use them, we choose the wrong ones. {16} TOWARDS IDEO-KINETIC CONSCIOUSNESS But after doing many tentative motions, and with the help of some motions with which we were previously acquainted in our past heterogeneous experience, we begin to feel the incoming coordination. The process is clumsy. What is wrong then? Have we any authority to suspect that something must be wrong? If so, have we any reason to believe that there must be a remedy? What should we ra- tionally select as a guidance to find the cause of the error? First, of course, we should make an analysis of the per- fection of functional involuntary motions. Second, a comparative analysis of both skilled motions and involuntary functional motions. Third, a comparison of the three classes of motion— voluntary, skilled voluntary and functional involuntary. Nature offers the highest service of involuntary functions with ready-made integrations, but she seems to follow an ideation of her own. In the voluntary motions, she leaves the choice of ideation to man’s mind. Nonetheless, in man’s progress towards skill, it is Nature who selects his psycho- physiological integrations, Furthermore, once the skill is acquired, we see how the voluntary motion comes close to resembling an involuntary motion. The physiological index of effort disappears almost completely. The will need not assert itcelf with great intensity, which, in tue, diminishes the effort—the motion becomes largely automatic, without care and awareness of the means employed. So, we see here clearly, if we sharpen our insight, a great shifting from the status of the ordinary vohintary motion towards the privileged status of the involuntary. Your period of training in Ideo-Kinetics has only one meaning—you must develop an intimate, experimental knowledge of the dynamics involved, and upon this knowl- edge build your faith. Remember that if we are trying to overcome an obstacle (deciphering a score, correcting, fin- gering difficulties, etc.,) and we acknowledge the obstacle, it is tantamount to idesting it volitionally. Your ideation 7}NEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE must be an act of Faith, rather than an objective outlook on technical data, As for this faith, do not mistake it for a severe test of your intellectual makeup. It is not like the Paith of the mystic that fells on the elect, discarding the lumen of his proud reasoning. It is not the expectation of Grace that is required of you. It is not based on @ psycho- logical mystery coinvolving being born again, You simply have to know what it is you want and to know that the dy- namies do respond to your ideation, {18} Crapter Ti] ANALYSIS FOR FIRST IDEO-KINETIC EXPERIMENTS In weo-KivETICs, because of the very fact that we are not concerned with physiological implications, we live in a world where ideas are realized into acts and we have every chance to examine all of the most subtle nuances of those same ideas projected faithfully into the realm of facis. The more we insist on this analysis, the more we find that our facts are our ideas. If we put so much stress on the practical way to render our ideas dynamic, it is because there is no precedent, in the complex experience of our external and mental world, which would serve as an example, The only experience of kinetics known to man is the physio-dynamics of effort— the very thing we are striving to forget. If you want to succeed at your very first experiment—any simple volitional experiment—you miust try to avoid certain mental conditions which are always present in the attitude of 2 first experimenter. In an objective experiment nothing of your mental attitude would matters but in a subjective experiment there should be nothing present to conflict with the very nature and purpose of your mental dynamics. Tn all probability, you will wonder or doubt whether the act will be performed. Or, even if predisposed 10 believe, or even willing to believe, you might be watchful to see when the act is going to start, This latter attitude would be greatly contradictory to your purpose, for in watching when it is going to start you have entirely changed the problem, Tt is you, your will, that must deliberate on the act quently, nothing is ever going to happen if you w something to get busy. Keep entirely relaxed and decide to 19}NEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE will the act down to the end, Then, supposing that you start with the correct state of mind, at the very beginning of the motion surprise will get the best of you and you may turn your attention into a sudden attitude of watching, You should prepare yourself beforehand for this emergency, and decide that you will keep your volition active to the ends for you know that everything is going to happen according to schedule, Give a great deal of attention to securing the passivity of the hand until the phase when you will the act to be per- formed, Here your attention is focussed on the willed act, and your hand will jump without your being conscious of it. Tt is on this principle of negativity on the part of your Timbs—remaining inert as if refusing t¢ move—that the whole training to develop consciousness of release is based, When it becomes a habit or a permanent attitude, you do not even need to remind yourself of it, let alone recur to expedients in order to secure it. From a state of conscious enileavour to be xeleased, in the beginning, you proceed towards a desire for gentle neutrality, where you greet your hends as a counterpart of your ideation——as organs deserving to he entrusted with your hopes, but needing complete freedom even from your own thoughts. So, just as you wish for great agility and efficiency of ideation, you cultivate the feel of your hands as ethereal agents which can carry out the beauty of your ideation, even if you for- get that there is anything physical in them. The age-long consciousness of a physical volition is grad- ually undone, until there is scarcely a trace of feeling about the physical nature of your hands. There are two concepts concerning them: One is the physiological concept. It is the oldest of all the concepts which man has been aecustomed to held since he developed a consciousness. By this concept you, and only you, feel responsible for every motion of the hands and that it depends on you and on your willingness, awake or [20] ANALYSIS FOR FIRST IDEO-RINETIC EXPERIMENTS jn a condition of reflex, to make the effort causing the mo- tion, ‘The other is the concept that your hands ean move by @ will different from your physiological will. You refuse to make the effort, As we shall see, this is the Ideo-Kinetic Concept. By this concepl, you consider your hands as out Siders to your integrated, conscious self—they axe your wards, You may wish for a certain behaviour of, their power, but you relinquish any right of physical bold over them. They axe simply appended to you, although they par- take of your own biological activity. Thinking of your hands is not incompatible with Ideo-Kineties, for there is no semblance of magic in 1deo-Kineties. You can look, watch ‘md even think of the special motion of your hands, The precept or Tay is to consider and to govern your will so as te avoid Physio-Kinetic effort in connection with your hands. {2u}Cuaprer IV HITTING A MARK IN PHYSIO-KINETICS I HAVE before me a common object—a dome-shaped con- tainer with a small ball on iis top. I place the container on the table at some distance from me, but within my reach, and I decide to hit its top ball with the tip of one of my fingers. I do it first in the usual manner: according to Physio-Kineties, 1 look at the ball with the determination to hit it with my middle finger. In the meantime, [ summon (that is what my attention implies) all the physical units that should bring success. My feeling is indefinite and com- posite. I know that Tam tying. | know that there are chances of success or failure. I hope 1 shall be successful. If L have had experience in the exercise (done or tried to do it before), my sense of trying will lessens my hope will increase. If | am self-reliant, and I remember that self- reliance will help, I begin to stimulate this feeling. But the very fact that Iam relying on something adventitious reas- seris in my consciousness that, after all, I am depending on chanee and not on principle. It is possibility versus faith. In Physio-Kinetics, all of this process of thinking will accompany the various phases of the intended action, and will be distributed to all of its concurring factors—my arms, my fingers, my eyes, my sense of general well-being. Even a bad sitting posture or a fold in my clothing will be held responsible in case of failure. What happens when 1 manifest the determination to accomplish the act? There is an assembling of forees and principles at my fiat, Two sets of those forces are at play. One is composed of the eternal principles of Nature, always ready and automatically drawn into the fiat; the other consists of the individualized powers (22} HITTING A MARK IN PIIYSIO-KINETICS T have inherited from life, which are limited hy my eapacity to discern them, value them and deliver them in the right amount to my fiat. Most of the laiter proceedings do not Joom in my consciousness. | only perceive them en masse under the aspect of effort. Here is the thinking individual, ‘who summons Nature to bring about his will, engaged in the contradictory task of demanding, on the one hand, and checking and selecting the goods on the other. Upon his ‘capacity for checking and using will his suecess depend. The Tess he wastes of Nature’s offerings, and the more he sub- merges his individval ego, the more his chances for success. ‘All the experimental knowledge of mankind seems to have taught this immatable law. ‘The trath is that, in principle, the will of man identifies him with the will of Nature while the volitional act lasts. And the root of this truth is exhib- ted in the labours of Nature to develop reflex actions, ‘shere consciousness of will is obliterated and the individ- ual is identified with Nature. ‘What happens, in Physio-Kinetics after the fiat has sum- moned Nature to work? My arm moves to help the hand to help my finger. I rely on the eye to supply me with a sense of direction and spatial valuation, But I am not sure, ‘The conflict between the various elements is evident. I may reach beyond my Mark. I may reach short of my Mark; more on one side than on the other, My aim can be too high or too Tow. Ie my eye deceiving me about the valuation of dis- stances? on is my hand incompetent in translating my con- cept of straight motion? However, all of these units ate do- ing their best to second one purpose; but in a kinetic action the more factors involved, the more the need for coordina- tion, Here we are at last, the exigencies of coordination are nanifest, If T repeat my trial many times, the only help Nature can give me, since I insist on asserting myself, is to transform, gradually, the Kinetic act into a conditioned re- flex. How are the different energies acting du (23) ing. our Physio-NEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE Kinetic experiment? They come from our eyes, from our nerves and muscles and from other faculties of perception, They make their eppearance and try to agree upon the course to follow. The process is not one of pre-established infallibility, as one would expect from the Majesty of Nature, but one of experiment by trial and error on the part of the individual. When they are more under the juris- diction of Nature (reflex actions and conditioned reflexes), we become responsible not only for the physical end-results but for the failings of the organs themselves. So, I have blamed my eye for its deception, little knowing that my eye is blameless; my hands for being incompetent and for get- ting tired, unaware that they can neither err nor get tired. Are they the same eyes, the same organs—those that err and those that are without blame? Apparently, in a physical sense, they are. Physiologically they are either governed by the individual or by Nature, Either they remain physiolog- ical or become ultra-physiological. It is like having the most perfect apparatus of precision, planned and built for a highly efficient operator to use, and then relinquishing it to a poorly trained engineer, who, in the end, will complain of its Timitations. Reiterated action, habit and training for skilled motion seem to be the necessary consequences of faulty or incompe- tent volitional ideation—a kind of remedy offered by Na- ture to compensate for the loss entailed in the wrong use of a power which alone should prove man’s supremacy in the world, {24} CuapTer V HITTING A MARK IN IDEO-KINETICS We nusumE our experiment Ideo-Kinetically. I have before me the ball. I look at the ball. Then I close my eyes. After this, someone may be calling me, asking questions which T answer; I may fumble in my pockct for an object of which I have just been reminded. I may perform scores of acts entirely foreign to the unity of the proposed experiment. Now, I decide to go on, having kept my eyes shut all this time. Accordingly, I recreate the mental image of the ball or of any symbol I choose to assign to it, It may be a visual symbol, or an object, or a numeral, or the most un- spatial symbol possible—a musical note. Of course my symbol comprises, in addition to the Mark and its position in gpace, all of my Tdeo-Kinetic concepts—concepts of voli- tion, volitional ideation and of my release from physiolog- ical effort. My physiological connection with the Mark, s0 far as I know, is severed. I do not know where in geometri- cal space the spot is, My choice of a symbol, substituting the object, has taken away even the chance of conscious visualization, I only know that at @ certain moment I shall sing “C”, for instance, (if I have chosen a musical note for my fiat) and that my hand will proceed with accuracy. Before hitting, I may agree that my hand make one or two loops in the air. Or, for greater caution, I may refuse to see the Mark at all, being satisfied to just touch it before symbolizing it. Thus, the chances of subconscious visualiza- tion (if that means anything) are eliminated. So, I have had only one clement of Physiological connection—a touch of the Mark, shielded from any chance of other sensory guidance. It is the least possible connection between my in- (25)NEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE ner solf and the outer world, From the beginning right to the end-resulis, nothing has happened in the process of ap- prehension that I could call of a sensory-physiological na- ture, as experience defines it. Only volition in an unspecific way is expecting the hitting—a hitting, any hitting. But this activity of volition has no contribution to the data of the problem. My perception of space is non-geometrical, Indeed all points of reference are past. I am moving within a space where some determined points are to be located infalliblys but without sensory help in the geometry of distances ot angles or curvature, If I have to find my way back to the only elements which solve the problem of retracing a lost point, I should conclude that the more physical data I ab- jure, the nearer I come to the solution. The only data T know is pure volition, The more I succeed in integrating my will to the stage of pure ideation, the more the latter finds realization. So complete is the resemblance between idea and action that it comes quite natural to identify the two as one and the same thing, just as if nothing bad passed be- tween ideation and performance. My fiat is proceeded only by an informative process. ‘Any other concurring work to perform my fiat lies beyond the insight of my conscious /—ego. Within this kinetic unit ig included the element which must take care of the infor- mation that my thought has given. Whatever the informa- tion is, it is carried out with scrupulous precision. Any lack of clearness or accuracy, on the part of my thoughts is faithfully reproduced. ‘What is this faculty in the link of coordination which is capable of externalizing itself in the outer world and of tak- ing account of dimensions, not in a rolling, straight tape- measure but in making the most astonishing jumps and oops, without ever failing by a fraction of a centimeter? Before my fiat I can decide upon such extravagancies as oops or arches, on any curvature, but the horizontal pro- jection of the motion will always be respected. [26] HITTING A MARK IN IDEO-KINETICS _ Put down as an absolute principle: The precision in hit ting the Mark is strictly proportional to your stage of re- lease. Translate as release your absolute unconcern about the hands and what they are going to do. Let them go with unshaken assurance that they are realizing your volitional ideation. Do not guide them, even mentally. Let your mind function only as ideative (creative) causation. ‘The mo- ‘ment you are even unwillingly helping the hands—thinking of where they ought to go—you are reviving, unconsciously, physiological processes which are subtracting from the free- dom of Ideo-Kinetics, Let the hands go by themselves and be willing to risk wrong hitting. When you sincerely do not care whether they hit wrongly, but you have a greater re- gard for your ideation, you save yourself, automatically, from the danger of doing wrong hitting. T hold my symbol mentally. I decide to strike (fiat). There it goes unmistakably. Yet, one of the elements of the kinetic action—the initial looking at the ball—had been superseded by many other actions entirely unrelated to its but the link between the first and the subsequent elements of the Ideo-Kinetie motion has heen resumed as if nothing of a heterogeneous nature had happened. This simple experiment is just an elementary example of the unconditioned, self-creating activity found in Ideo- Kinetics. What is the point of departure of all this activity? We have not heen able to find a cause for it other than the special orientation of the activity of thinking; the acknowl edgement of an absolute autonomy of motion dynamically synchronous with an integrated volition. I know that my hand is going to move accurately (just as T know that light will follow my turning an electric lamp switch), but T think only of the effect brought about by the hands without par- ticipating in their motion. ‘What, then, establishes the shifting from Physio-Kineties to Ideo-Kineties? Evidently a simple difference in the con- ception of the volitional act, which difference suggests a {27}NEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE distinction between a volition long since adopted by man and the volition Nature expected man to use, especially when his actions need to rely on virtuosity. We call the one Nature’s volition (V2), the other, the individual’s volition (V). When I use “V2” in Ideo-Kinetics there is only one fiat which suffices to cause the initial movement, and the very quality of my volition (V) is extended to all and each of the elements concurring to the consummation of the act. So, with Ideo-Kinetics, Nature has delivered us from the obligation of supervising our voluntary acts. She has de- livered us from effort and fatigue. She has emancipated us from the need to supply ourselves with sensory guidance. She only expects us to provide a few mental symbols, around which she will build the fulfillment of our volition. We start our study of Idco-Kinetic technique with the assumption that ideation, being a cerebrative process, is en- tirely furnished by psycho-physiological activities as we al- ready know them. How ideation reaches such a state, before becoming a leading factor in Ideo-Kinetics, belongs to other fields of investigation already occupied by scientific and philosophical endeavour. What behooves us now is to follow ideation under the new state of volitional ideation, where she acts as sovereign upon a vast field of activities closely responding to her bidding. Since ideation up to and with her entrance into the Ideo-Kinetic field has shown the limi- tations of a cerebrative psycho-physiological process, there is no reason to suspect her of having been sublimated, sud- denly, with the capacity for activities far beyond the range of psycho-physiological structure. Consequently, we are at once led to the conclusion that hitherto hidden sources of Nature, which still remain hidden during all Ideo-Kinetic activity, have restored a long-lost allegiance to ideation the moment she becomes volitional—the moment she relin- quishes physical effort. [28]CuapTer VI BASIC EXPERIMENTS IN SYMBOLIZATION and HITTING THE MARK 1. To DEMONSTRATE the exchangeability of symbols, let us try an Ideo-Kinetic experiment on the table. Let us take four or five objects, even varying their level on the horizontal plane, if we wish to make the experiment more interesting. We have found objects with closed eyes, after holding their mental image. Now Ict us deliberately covenant with our- selves that cach object is to be designated by numerical symbols, So, the five objects become 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, respec- tively. Repeat here to yourself the previous recommendations regarding Ideo-Kinetic concepis. Close your eyes and start counting, predisposed to hit. Be careful to remember that it is not the ordinal concept of one, two, ete., that you want to follow mentally. You must see the graphic image of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, in succession. So long as you realize the image of each sign, you will he completely successful. If you allow a dis- traction, and the counting of the numeral is not accom- panied by the visualization of the cipher, you are bound to fail. After you have succeeded in the above experiment, which gives you confidence in the truth of the principle, should you want to experiment as to whether the image of the in- dividual ciphers is indispensalsle, after all, covenant with yourself that each one of the five objects shall be desig- nated as 5 (the 5 being chosen as a reminder of the quan- [29]NEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE tity of objects to be hit). Accordingly, you start on your quest (remind yourself of the same Ideo-Kinetics concepts, as usual). After having visualized the image of the cipher, 5, you will hit the five objects, one after the other, so long as the image, “S”, is vivid in your mind, Repeat: five, five, five, five, five, accompanying the word by the mental image of 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, It is not the symbol in itself that counts, but the act of thinking of the symbol, which is equivalent to keeping on thinking of your intentional covenant. In other words you are simply confirming, endorsing, your original. intention. 2. Neither a straight line nor even the shortest curvilinear line is necessary for the location of points in Ideo-Kinetics. Indeed, if, without locking, I place an obstacle between me and the Mark—a sheet of cardboard, etc.,—my hand goes over or under the obstacle in order to reach the Mark. You will also notice the loops, at will, even in piano playing when placing the notes in a wide stretch. 3. Here we have two objects, one at the right and one at the left. If the Mark, not yet seen but known to be there, is at your right, look at the object at your left, turning your head to the left and so avoid looking to the right, The 1. Fither consider the two objects, right and left, as if they were related, abstractly, and, looking steadily at the object to the left, say to yourself “I am hitting the other ond.” You will hit the mark at the right while looking at the object at the left, 2, Or, if you look at the object on the left, with the pur- pose, in advance, that the Mark at the right be hit, while your left hand hits deliberately the Mark at the left, your right hand will also hit the Mark at the right. You will hit £30] BASIC EXPERIMENTS IN SYMBOLIZATION the seen Mark at the left and the unseen one at the right. 3. Ox, you need not hold an image, Looking first at the two objects, right and left, you propose to hit the two. After closing your eyes, both Marks will be hit, using, of course, both hands. 4, Divide the distance from starting point to the Mark into several stretches, represented by numbers, assigning a de- termined number to the Mark, Assign, for instance, 5 to the Mark. Count 1, 2, 3, 4, and hit on’5. Then, extend to a second Mark, etc. The image need be held only before the Mark numbers—5, 7, ete. Beample!. Mark start od. and Mark ee oe. “6 Oe . 7 OF 2 5. Beample 2 A/B/CDIE]F [e]H AB] CD]E|FG]R 1 o 1 Oo 21 lo 2| [oO 3 3 4 ° 4| oO A Al If I establish in my consciousness the System, A, where I can hit all the Marks with closed eyes, and, if I am led to place one Mark of the System, Al, I shall then hit its Marks with closed eyes. The necessary condition is that Sys- BoNEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE tems A and Al be parallel and analogous in structure and orientation. Principle. Two or more systems of points that are anal- ‘ogous and equally orientated to an established system can be retraced in space, provided one point in each system is sen- sorily apprehended. Tr is well here to formulate other principles of symbols. Ist Principle. In all Ideo-Kinetic units, the contributional value of all sensory elements can be reduced to that of mental symbols. . 2nd Principle. All of the various mental symbols of the kinetic element, originated by different sensory sources, are interchangeable among themselves. For instance, in piano playing musical notes can be rendered on the instrument without sensory guidance: 1. by the mental image of the topic place, 2. by the mental image of the written note, 3, by the mental image of the name of the note, 4. by the mental auditory piteh of the note. Probably any other symbol, artificially established, would substitute for the above mentioned ones, If any of the 12 sounds could be related to as many perfumes, and if a memory of the different perfumes could be developed, one might render music by thinking Tdeo-Kinetically of per- fumes. 3rd Principle. All of the montal images involved in an TdeoKinetic act can be substituted, at will, by eny other sensory symbol. 6. When I want to hit the Mark without looking at it, T need not close my eyes. I can look elsewhere, provided I keep its mental image. So, I may be looking at something with my physical eye, while T see another object in my memory. This fact, of very common occurrence in our . {32} BASIC EXPERIMENTS IN SYMBOLIZATION everyday life, tends to show in this case that it is not the vision of the vision of the object that determines the mo- tion, but the mental fixing of a point in space where the end-results of the motion must take place. So, while my physical eye sees, passively, the objects of the outer world, my mind is interested only in a certain point of space sym bolized by a mental image. Indeod, if by prearranged un- derstanding with myself J substitute the symbol of a small cross Example 3. + to the Mark, so that there is no doubt as to what I mean by thinking of the cross, 1 shall then hit the Mark just the same, even having lost its mental image in the fog of conscious- nese, Again, for the cross I may substitute the graphic sign Example & o and the right result will always be secured. This reinforces the demonstration of the principle of the interchangeability of mental symbols. 7 I tried similar experiments on the piano. I decided to substitute for the C Major Chord Example § the images of a flower for cach note—a rose for C, a lily for E and a violet for G. Then, I forgot about musical notes and their corresponding piano keys, which was an easy [33]