The only thing permanent about our behavior patterns is our belief that they are so.
Moshe Feldenkrais
Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, (1904-1984), distinguished scientist, physicist and engineer, was born in Russia. He moved to Palestine at the age of thirteen, and in his early twenties began his university studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. He earned a D.Sc. in Physics and was a close associate of Nobel Laureate Frederic Joliot-Curie, at the Curie Institute in Paris, where they conducted research and published numerous papers together. He was one of the first Europeans to earn a black belt in the Japanese martial art of Judo, a co-founder of the Judo Club du France, and author of many books on the subject. In 1940 he moved to England and during the second world-war worked on scientific research for the British Admiralty.
During the early 1940’s Feldenkrais became unable to walk after exacerbation of an existing injury. He began an intense study of the relationship between bodily movement and healing, feeling, thinking, and learning. From his studies, Feldenkrais not only restored his own ability to walk, but also made the revolutionary discoveries that would culminate in the development of the method that now bears his name.
In 1950, Feldenkrais moved to Israel to teach and conduct research at the Weismann Institute. In the early 1960’s, after over a decade of developing and testing the theories which were the genesis for the Feldenkrais Method®, he began to devote himself full-time to applying his ideas to help people with a wide variety of problems and disabilities. Among his students were Margaret Mead, David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, Yehudi Menuhin, Igor Markevitch, Peter Brook, and many other leading figures in music, dance and theater.
In 1971, he completed his first training program for new Feldenkrais Practitioners. In 1972, Feldenkrais began teaching in the United States, starting a training program in San Francisco in 1975, and another in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1980.
Feldenkrais has studied the body in movement with a precision that I have found nowhere else.
Peter Brook, Film and Stage Director
Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais’ method will be of great benefit to all of humanity. From my own experience I know the remarkable results achieved.
David Ben-Gurion, First Prime Minister of Israel
The Feldenkrais Method is the most sophisticated and effective method I have seen for the prevention and reversal of deterioration of function.
Margaret Mead, Ph.D., Anthropologist