Explore Authentic Movement and Active Imagination
Helene 
A direct experience of healing and the divine through the mystical practice of authentic movement.
So what is Authentic Movement?
When we move and operate in the world, the majority of our movements are pre-meditated, even if only by split seconds. For example if we hear the cry of ‘Fire’, our whole nervous system goes into high alert and ‘fight or flight’ mode as our adrenals start pumping out cortisol to make our hearts beat faster and our bodies shift into a ‘ready for action’ turbo drive.
There have been stories of how our bodies can find untold strengths and reserves in emergencies; for example a mother who finds the strength to lift up a car that has tragically fallen on top of her child.
Yes our bodies have a lot more than we give them credit for.
A lot more stored beneath the surface of our skin than just tissue filled with blood, nerves and hormones, fizzing with chemical and electrical activity.
Whilst AI can do incredible things, will we ever see a day when we may share the earth with bio-engineered androids like the Replicants in the 1982 Harrison Ford movie Bladerunner, that think, sense and feel the way we do? I would be very dubious (thankfully).
Take for example the practice of Authentic Movement.
In this movement modality, we work with a witness/witnesses who are there solely to support us; they give us their full undivided, unbiased and compassionate attention. For many of us, this is already a rare gift, a privilege and a luxury.
No matter how shy and socially inept we may feel at times, we all secretly long to be seen and heard.
So in this practice
there is a mover and a witness. As a mover we wait, and we see what
wants to arise in our movements from within. Without external prompts
we wait for the hidden language from deep within us, in our bodies to
emerge. Lodged within our cells are the memories, thoughts, feelings,
dreams and ideas that form our essential whole being.
Instead of consciously moving the body and by allowing the inner impulses to naturally arise, a new dimension of ourselves comes to the forefront. Parts of ourselves that have been repressed through fear, conditioning, family and society are given the freedom to “swim up to the surface”.
Instead
of being simply a moving experience, it is an experience where we are
moved, we are the experience, we are the memories, we are the images,
we are the emotions.
Often hidden and buried deep within our subconscious, when we allow ourselves the time and stillness to really listen into what our bodies want to say, new insights may emerge.
And if that sounds slightly uncomfortable, well we are potentially opening a door to let someone into our psyche. Potentially being exposed.
Being so revealing and personal we feel a certain vulnerability. Yet we are also sharing. Sharing some of the pain and heartache certain memories might have, some of the joy, an unmasking, no hiding of the truth.
Laying yourself bare, the costume is gone, the outer layers have been peeled off. At the same time it is all in your hands, to not be afraid, to be validated. We are sharing as humans our human experience.
It was Mary Starks Whitehouse, originally a professional dancer who was the first to officially link dance and movement to the principles of depth psychology (being deeply influenced by Jung’s theory of Active Imagination) in the 1960’s.
One of her students Janet Adler, was a mystical scholar who developed her own Discipline of Authentic Movement and founded the first school devoted to this. Leaving this earthly plane only recently she has said:
‘I have been witnessing the body as a vessel in which healing occurs, a vessel in which direct experience of the Divine is known. As the vessel becomes conscious, it becomes more capable of enduring the darkness and receiving the light of our humanity.’ [1]
When a friend suggested that I hold this practice at a festival many years ago now, I felt rather dubious, because of the setting. But I thought I would give it a go.
The first time I held a session in a festival environment, it was in the healing area of quite a big noisy and colourful one, where there were bars to buy alcoholic drinks and much general mirth and merriment. Before I began, as I started to gather the group together, one gentleman who was wandering around exploring the area with pint in hand and bright festival hat on accidently stumbled into the entrance of the tent.
I beckoned him in to join us. As he sat down and I began to describe what the session was going to be about, I could see that his curiosity and enthusiasm gradually shifted to one of slight apprehension and dread. I knew he was thinking, ‘How do I get out of this one..?’
However, by the end of the session, in our closing circle he had transformed and exclaimed, ‘ I have learnt more in the last hour about how it is to be a woman, than I have learnt in all my life’.
He proceeded to
attend the next two somatic movement sessions that I was holding
during that weekend, because his curiosity had been ignited.
This weekend I am honoured to be holding an Authentic Movement session at another festival in the UK:
Authentic Movement : A Mystical Practice
Sunday 16.45
Earthly Insights
All About Love Festival
It
would be a privilege to meet you there.
Categories: : alternative healing, connection, dance, mental health, somatics, spirituality