Why Is Somatics So Important?

Unique Self Somatology by Mary Ann Gray Voorhies

I KNOW the great importance of Somatatology because I owe my life to it. It “saved ” my life more than once. Somatics created by Thomas Hanna (by learning from Moshe Feldenkrais and modern medicine) figured out how to change the brain (the sensory motor cortex) and how to reprogram the neuromuscular system easily and quickly by doing easy to do movements called pandiculations. These movements can be done by children and the elderly and everyone in between. These groups of slow movements are sometimes called FUNCTIONAL INTEGRATION. They bring the “body” back into balance and therefore can change posture and prevent and  eradicate about 50 % of diseases and terrible suffering that have heretofore plagued humankind since the the beginning of time.

Somatology is a “new type of western yoga” that is extremely faster than yoga to transform, prevent pain, and produce suppleness.

In Hanna`s paper “What is Somatics?” he explains that somatics is not only about “mind” and “body”, but indeed, mind and body are not separate but one entity. Whatever is going on in the “mind” is also going on in the “body.” In this same paper he starts off by saying the healthy person has optimal MENTAL and PHYSICAL health. (It is holistic.)

The practice of somatology leads to a process of greater and greater wholeness and overall health to reach what Hanna called the Fair State.

The practice and popularity of somatology will lead to the positive evolution of the human race. The earth is fast becoming a village and we are all citizens of this village. If we are to survive as a species it is imperative the we learn to respect and love each other and experience the feelings of the brotherhood of man (and women).

Then when we reach this Fair State we also reach the Unique Self stage of spiritual evolution.

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Mary Ann Gray Voorhies

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