An interview about the Alexander Technique by Tony Maxwell, with guest,  Jan Baty, on the WVUD radio program Radio Alchemy.  A pod cast of this can be heard by going to : WVUD.org. 

Alexander’s Gift to the Evolution of Mankind 

Tony Maxwell

Our guest this afternoon is Jan Baty who came to the University originally to join the Delos String Quartet, artists in residence at the time.  After that group disbanded, she remained in the area teaching what’s called the Alexander technique, locally and around the country.  Our topic today is Alexander’s Gift to the Evolution of Mankind.

Jan welcome to the program.   What exactly is the Alexander technique?

Jan

It’s a study .. at once practical and profound, and it’s difficult to put into just a few words,  so that’s why I’m glad we have a whole hour to talk about it!

It’s named after F.M. Alexander who spent his life developing this approach to human potential.  He died in 1955, which is relatively recent, and that’s why I think a lot of people don’t know about it.  Also the teaching is often done one on one, although many of us do teach in small groups, so it takes a while sometimes for those ideas to get out there.

Even though many people in the expressive arts have studied this, I didn’t find out about it until I had my first job in the Montreal Symphony.  I went to study with a woman who gave me what is called a ‘table lesson’. She worked with me very gently, while I was lying on a massage table,—to allow my body to release out of held excess tension.. saying very little.  When I got off that table, I experienced walking in a way I never remember having experienced before– I was floating, truly floating, and thought “Ye Gawds, can life be like this??”   I didn’t have any idea what I had just been through, really, or how I could help myself, which was what I was truly interested in.  So then when I came back to the States, I began going out to Nebraska to study with a woman named Marjorie Barstow, who became a legend in this field of human growth –who was in Alexander’s first teacher-training program, and had gone from Nebraska as a young woman to study with him in England.  I learned so much from her – not only about myself, but how to teach, how to work deeply with something that is this subtle.  My first lesson with her again made such a strong impression.  I got my violin out (with some trepidation—not knowing what was going to happen) and as she brought her hands very gently to me, guiding me to release delicately through my neck and my body, I played in a way that I hadn’t played before. The experience was as if I weren’t holding my violin, as if it were floating in front of me and somehow the sound was coming out. That’s what I call an ‘Aha Experience’ when you release more than you normally would, and your nervous system is blown away by it. After that when you begin helping yourself, and receiving more touch guidance, the change is less dramatic, but those dramatic changes can give you an insight immediately into what is possible—more ease, delight, appreciation in life.

Tony

You said that the technique is typically used by people in the expressive arts..is it also applicable to someone in business or an engineer??

Jan

Absolutely—As much as I love working with people in the expressive arts, everyone is an expressive being, and we take our own instrument, which is ourself, with us, no matter where we are. The beauty of this study is that as you work through your awareness  and your body – since we are interconnected – that affects your state of being, your state of mind, your availability to life, how well you learn.. It is very important to the educational process.  You begin learning simple ways that you can work with yourself any moment of the day that help release excess tension. When that happens, your own beautiful design becomes more readily sensed by you and available to you—any activity becomes available for noticing. When I teach, I help people learn about walking, how they use their arms, how they nod their heads.. all of those things  can either be done with extra layers of interference,  or they can be done easily, so that each motion becomes a way to improve what we call your ‘use’- the way  you are moving through the world—taking pressure off of your body .

Tony

So as a study in movement, does this affect presence?

Jan

We are working with the whole person.  As you release extra tension in your body caused by habits not only of moving but of thinking and feeling too, your ‘presence’ is deeply affected.. We talk about the ‘startle pattern’ that comes from fear.. and the ‘freeing response’—those are both innate in us.  The startle pattern of course, we have all experienced.  If I suddenly clapped my hands, your eyes would close, your limbs would come in toward your body for protection, and then ideally on the other side of that, you release—that’s the ‘freeing response’ -- when you feel safe, when you feel loved, when you are comfortable.. However we often don’t free as deeply as we could, carrying some of that layering of startling, of holding, of efforting around with us. Some of that efforting also comes from well intentioned suggestions from teachers or parents saying “Sit up straight!” if they see you slumping.  Then one usually pushes with effort from the torso which is not the way you are designed to release into your beautiful length. That’s uncomfortable, so then you are getting a cross message saying “You are not all right the way you are” but if you sit up straight, you feel terrible and that’s also a message saying-“ I am still not all right.  This is even worse.  When I try to do what people want me to do, I am even more uncomfortable.”  Also cultural interferences come from what is considered  ’beautiful’..people hold their stomachs in,  start tucking their seat under—in fact if they have had dance training they can be taught to do that for a certain look.  Do that right now Tony, just hold your stomach in and notice how that feels.

Tony 

I think I do that all of the time.

Jan

Exaggerate that somewhat so you can sense what happens to movement through your whole body, to your breathing, to your availability to yourself..

Tony

Everything tightens up.  As I am not in the greatest shape, I probably try to hold my stomach in for looks.

Jan

You and everyone else..Once you begin to notice that extra tension, then you can release it. We need habits, but part of this study is finding out which habits are interfering with our beautiful design  so we can check on ourselves many times a day, notice what condition we are in , and then illicit the ‘freeing response ‘ that allows us to release into balance.

Tony

This ‘freeing response’ is something one can learn by going through Alexander’s movement techniques?

Jan

The freeing response is something in a way you don’t have to learn as it comes with the territory.  What you are doing is learning to illicit it by freeing out of interferences , so that your ongoing freeing response, that is there as long as you are alive, can move for  you.  Sometimes I use the image of being in the bathtub with a rubber duck and you press down on the duck—when you release that pressure… ...doink.. there goes that duck,  floating to the surface.  We are a water system ..we have cushiony discs between our vertebrae.. and yet all of the pressing and holding in we do on ourselves keeps that resilient nature from expressing itself.  What I love about this study is that we are not having to put layers on ourselves to ‘correct’ ourselves—but rather, we are doing an archaeological dig in a way, to take away those layers and discover our beautiful design under that.  That is who we are.  The more we  experience that, the more we want to experience that—the more we check in, the more we release delicately—a virtuous cycle..

Let me talk you through the kind of sensing I do for myself and with others.

I will first ask you to simply bring awareness to yourself in this moment in an easy way..   not what we would call being self conscious—but simply notice your way in for noticing.. Are you noticing touch, sight, sound, discomfort, tiredness, ease, smell?   Take time to notice that.  So first simply acknowledge and come to where you are without any idea of holding on to notice, because if you hold on to notice, you are already creating extra tension that can be a habit of interference. 

Our kinesthetic sense, which is our sense that lets us know where our feet are in relation to our head, that lets us know if we are moving or not—an amazing sense ..(and yet in school we are taught that we have five senses, and our kinesthetic sense is not even mentioned),  also gives us feedback about ease or effort in our body.

To enliven this sense, you can start by noticing where weightedness is going through your body and into the earth..  through the sitting bones if you are sitting, through the chair and then into the earth—if standing, fan awareness through your body gently, through your legs, hopefully with open joints, no need to press knees back or tighten, through your ankles, feet, and into the earth.  What this does is allow you to truly rest.  We are designed to rest, although we hold ourselves away from, squeeze into, press down into.. We are designed to rest, which has a lovely quality of ease to it. This doesn’t become heavy like a collapse, because you then send awareness  gently up through your whole body, through your volume, into your back , out through your whole head, across the front and back of you down into your hands.
Then you become very light—resting and light at the same time.

You are doing that Tony, and it looks like you are falling asleep!! What did you notice?

Tony

That did help me relax!  In general when I do this radio show I am slightly on edge as I need to listen to come up with a question or tie what you just said with something said earlier.. being slightly on edge allows me to have more energy for the program..  While you were going through that and I was sensing myself in a wave from top to bottom, I sensed relaxation.. I stopped twirling my pen for awhile while listening to you.

Jan

I find that quickly in life I get over stimulated and start twirling my pen as it were and if I can bring awareness to myself even for a few moments and let some resting happen in easy ways, then I am not wearing myself out ..so by the end of the day I have accumulated more ease and more depth of my ‘being’ nature..Our doing natures are very easily over stimulated.   We overwork no matter what we are doing. When we walk we pound that pavement.  I still have a bump on my middle right finger from when I first learned to write by over squeezing that pencil.   So there I was, hovered over my paper, squeezing away like crazy.. did anyone come along and say,” You know Jan, you don’t need to work so hard when you do that? “  No—nobody did.  This is the kind of awareness we can bring into our everyday activity so as we begin to let go of extra tensions we have, we are more able to appreciate being alive.

Tony

I recently heard someone distinguishing between being a human being and a human doer.  Most people today are human doers because we are busy—so much going on at home, family issues, pressures at work… as a result, there is little time spent contemplating…or being  introspective about anything—we are just doing stuff all of the time.

Jan

I agree with you and sadly, this culture lets us know that that is a good way to be and that if we are not doing that, there is something wrong with us!  In Alexander’s time, (the early 1900’s) his discoveries  were considered revolutionary and they still are—because our culture is even more bound into doing!   However the beauty of this study is that as you begin working with yourself, you can continue to do things you want to do but with more ease.  As that happens, you might begin to make different choices and actually let some things fall away —gradually beginning to change how much of your life you spend doing things you don’t need to do.

Tony

Now I want to ask you—Gift to the Evolution of Mankind—what do you mean by that?

Jan

As we use less effort in moving through our daily lives, we also affect our availability to our emotions, as our bodies, minds, feelings and spirit are interconnected.  We might not always sense that, however the more we work with this kind of thing, the more we experience that.  There is much we can’t affect directly in the world however as we change and grow, we affect those around us, and this continues spiraling out, so by coming back to our deeper sense of ourselves in this way every day, moment –by- moment, we become a catalyst for the change we would like to see in the world.  I am often frustrated by what I see governments are doing, by what communities are doing—Issues like global warming—I would think anyone watching Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth couldn’t help but be moved by what he is doing to better the condition of the planet.  I may not be able to do what he is doing, however, each of us,  as we find more freedom within ourselves, will know we are being affective—that is a powerful way of making change.  It doesn’t have to happen hierarchically, it can happen from each person. This is something we often don’t hear in this culture. People can feel unworthy- so we fall into the trap of exaggerating, of over efforting, of trying to be bigger than life, whereas when we come to sense the inner beauty and exquisite grace that is who we are – and not only ourselves but every living creature, every tree, everything on the planet, we have such respect for ourselves and others, violence falls away. We become deep ecologists because with that kind of love and appreciation, how can we destroy?  This is a reclaiming for me.  A practical way of reclaiming, step by step, day by day, as we live, more of an understanding and appreciation of what life really is on this planet.. of coming more deeply into the present ,because that is the time we have.  We scurry into the future, or dwell in the past, however, right now, Tony, as we sit here, we are living on the cusp of the unfolding of the universe. That is powerful. That is exciting to me.  That has fullness of awareness to the degree we are present to it, otherwise we will watch TV or drink beer. Many students spend a lot of time doing that, partly because I don’t think they are experiencing themselves that deeply—otherwise they may make other choices.

Tony

You spoke about inner balance that one may gain from studying Alexander technique.  How does that differ from practicing meditation or yoga, reiki, or any other of those types of esoteric sciences?

Jan

I think all of those are wonderful paths in.  What this study has to offer is since it is helping you learn about design for movement, you can learn how to move easily and take that into your reiki as you put hands on—you can take that into your yoga class and organize those movements beautifully so that you don’t interfere, so you get more benefit from the postures .  In a way, bringing awareness to yourself as you go through your daily life becomes a meditation through living. You don’t necessarily have to slow down and sit quietly.. you begin to do that internally as you go through your life—it becomes a kind of meditation that can be ongoing to the degree that you chose it. Does that explain that to you?

Tony

It does. What I think is fascinating is that we have gone through the industrial age—with people pursuing practical professions in order to make money and take care of the family. Within the last twenty years or so, I have noticed a growing interest in learning about self help studies that can help people be more than just their job—that there is more to life than those practical things we were taught to do and expected to follow through on. Finally we are entering a time of more spiritual awareness today, more so than ever before, outside of organized religion…people are more open minded.

Jan

I agree with you. That is a deep hope that I have in this troubled world.  There is such a yearning in human beings for love, kindness, compassion, to be listened to – to share.. that is part of who we are.  So the interference, when exaggerated ,sometimes can be a gift in that it helps you see- I am not that.. I do not want to chose that.  What other options are there? There must be something else. So that voice in us becomes stronger.. that voice that is always there, that is guiding us.  Sometimes we get sick—there are some students I have worked with , since they are under a lot of stress , who have panic attacks. The more they can learn about caring for themselves in this way, the less likely that is to happen.

However, I look at that and say- “What are we doing in our education?  Is it a gift to heap people with such stress?  What are they learning from that?  How about if the base of our education was to help us learn how to value ourselves—how easily we can learn if more of ourselves is present.  Learning is natural.. little children are so curious-- wondering, wanting to know and experience everything.  We don’t need to make ourselves learn, it comes with the territory. The job of educational institutions is to create an environment where natural learning can happen and part of that needs to be a healing process, to let go of what we thought we needed to do, that is not helpful, to begin to get in touch with our deeper self and bring that practically into our environment.

Tony

I think the purpose of our public education system historically was to create workers- doers-- not sensitive human beings. 

Now in preparation for our program today, you mentioned interferences and also that there is a relationship between all things.  What do you mean by that, and can you give some examples of interferences?

Jan

Interferences in our body can happen for any number of reasons.  With the Alexander study we start by learning how we are designed for ease and support, and then begin discovering habits of excess tension that interfere with that design.  As I watch people move, I am looking for ease and effort—not posture.. Interference shows up as excess tension, and I can see that appear in the quality of a person’s movement, and then quite easily help them reorganize that movement, so the tension falls away.  As they move with more ease, they become more sensitive to notice themselves—their feelings, their attitudes, their belief systems.. everything begins to emerge to them so they can begin to explore their own inner territory. That is a revelation –step by step— a fascinating journey.

Let me talk through some experiential anatomy..This may sound gruesome, but it really isn’t..Imagine taking away (from your boney structure) your arm structure, your pelvis and legs, ribs too—then you’d have left, your head and spine. So we are organized like a snake really, around head/spine.   When we experience the startle pattern, it  travels throughout the spine – to hold us in a momentary state of tension for protection.  As we begin to release that, that affects our whole body. The web of our whole body is also affected by how our heads move on our spine.  How we nod (think how many times we do that a day) either accumulates tension or ease depending on how the movement is organized.  When most of us nod our heads, extra tension comes from leading with the jaw.  However the jaw is an appendage, draping beautifully from the skull.. it’s designed to follow where the skull goes, and to move freely for eating or singing or yawning!!  Leading with the jaw creates a pattern of tension going through the whole body—just like pushing down that rubber duck in the bathtub.

Tony

What do you mean- leading with the jaw?

Jan

The impulse for movement is coming from under the jaw… people do that habitually. If instead of that, you get your awareness going through your whole head, —and let the desire for movement come from the top of the head (that doesn’t mean that all of the muscles are there but the desire comes from there) the head following that desire allows a beautiful sliding and gliding on the top joint --which is pretty much in between your ears.  Most people don’t experience that sliding and gliding, because they are nodding their head by tightening their neck, leading from the jaw,  (I’m demonstrating that for you now..aargh!! you can see that can’t you?)  That’s one way of organizing,  however it is not helpful and every time I do that I am creating tension not only in my body – I am taking away some of my emotional availability to life, I am creating some anxiety, some extra stress I don’t need.  As people learn to move their heads beautifully, with the desire coming through the top, not holding in their spine, you begin to slide and glide on that top joint, and you feel the vertebrae through your spine moving so exquisitely, it is like an internal massage.  That is truly the response we are supposed to be getting. However, if you are sitting up straight, holding in your torso, even if you move your head beautifully, the movement will not go through the whole spine because of the extra tension you have in your torso.

Tony

I have been practicing moving my head leading both ways..it’s distinctly more comfortable to lead from the top of the head—it’s a strange concept. I have never thought about it before!

Jan

The muscles are not all there, but if your awareness is there, it allows your head to be light, and it lets you release the interference of jaw thinking it needs to hurry up and do something. That’s your habit, right?  “Oh, oh, Tony is ready to move,..let’s get in there and help him!”.. That’s not really helpful.  You can thank your jaw for all of that extra work it has been doing over the years, and say—“Hey- you know what?—Your job description is that you drape easily from the skull- which is above you, and you’re designed to drink, laugh.. you don’t need that extra job of moving  the head around, you are just going along for the ride.” That is a very different kind of experience. We begin to reclaim our territory.  It is very exciting to let go of those habits.  And then at will, you can do those habits again. The more sensitive you become, your body becomes the instrument, the sounding board to give you the feedback as to what is happening.  You will begin to find out “Oh, when I nod my head that way, my whole body is tightening. As I move my head easily, my whole body is freeing” (to the degree you are not tightening in your torso).  That means that everything is connected to everything.. we are more like a water bed than a stick figure. Our thoughts affect us, our feelings affect us, how we use our body affects us..they are all interacting..and we can get feedback from ourselves, and the more feedback we get, the more sensitive we become.

Let me give you another example. When people move their arms, I notice that the main interference comes from pushing the arm out from the elbow area, creating unnecessary tension that affects the whole body.. You will notice “My neck is tight, my back is tight, I am not breathing,  I am cut off from the earth”,  you are cut off from support, really.  It’s uncomfortable, and you build up extra tension every time you do that.  I see people’s arms and can see those years of built up tension.  So again, our hands want to experience the world.. it’s our hands that are feeding us, that are touching things, that are gesticulating wildly if we are in Italy. So the desire to connect to the world, the desire to sense, to touch, comes from our hands.  Why not allow our spine to be free, sense our whole body, release through our feet, and out through our arm structure,  stay easy- and invite our hands  (without tensing our neck or spine) to guide us.  Let the desire come from our hands, and allow the elbows to simply fit in and be free to follow. These are things people can explore easily, and begin to experience how they can use their awareness to say “Yes” to their design for support and ease and grace.

Tony

When you teach, how do you work with people ..one on one.., or in groups?  What is the process, how does one study this technique?

Jan

I work with people one -on -one and also teach in small group . I love the small group format, because as people watch each other change—and understand how those changes are happening, then they can do that for themselves..The energy of the class is raised by the shared awareness of the group—creating a powerful learning environment.  I have a class I teach on campus that is highly experiential—we move in this class—we explore anatomy, we explore our habits of thinking, our habits of sensing.  I like to help the students see how much they already know, how sensitive they already are, and join them with that.  Often during the first class, after I talk them through this wonderful sensing where they are beginning to release the tensions of the day , and they are very aware, then I say “ Now we are going to move around the room—in a big hurry!! “ They all know how to do that. They rush around, no one is paying attention to anybody, we are all in each other’s way, it’s great cacophony!  It’s a lot of fun, a lot of energy, and a lot of effort. And so after we do that, because they know how to do that, no problem, I ask them—“What was that experience like?”

I get a lot of feedback from them. They can tell me that. They know what that was like. Sometimes they like the energy of it, they can also feel the strain, and usually I hear from the students—“That’s the story of my life!”  So then I simply invite them to walk around the room as if they have all of the time they need.  What happens??  Very different.  Simply with that permission  ‘as if they have all of the time they need’, —a lot of extra push and anxiety falls away.  They can move quickly if they need to, but they don’t need to grip, push, squeeze, tighten to do it, they simply move faster and with ease. So I guide people through experiences. This is very much experiential learning—hardly any book learning at all—experiential learning from ourselves.

Tony

Sounds fun!

Jan

It is so much fun, I love it. If I could I would be teaching classes like this all over campus, because people want to learn experientially. Our body is our instrument—we don’t often think of it like that.

I do this kind of exploring one on one as well. There is a body of knowledge I want to impart but it comes out of the relationship with the person.. what are their interests, what are their concerns—With this study you can join from wherever the student is and keep coming back to the basic principles that inform our design.  After each lesson students have much to practice during the day—from that, they make their own discoveries . We reclaim what I call learning from the inside out. In the inside, we really know—if we can listen, and begin to trust our own feedback, we can recognize what is helpful and what isn’t.

This is the kind of study I like to do with children..they are great to work with because they aren’t interfering yet very  much. The older they get, the more the interference sets in.  Why not work with them to help them appreciate their basic delight, curiosity, adventure, ease...and help them learn how to continue to do that, so as they get older, they can ride on that. That would be my idea of an incredible educational approach, to work with teachers and children, so that they don’t grip their pencils like I did, but through movement—experiential learning, connecting to nature, creating gardens around schools—we could embody learning.. the ease or effort of our bodies could so easily be a large component of that approach to learning.

Tony

It sounds so idealistic.

Jan

You know what?  I guess it is .. and yet, it is also practical.  It is just a matter of perceiving in a different way.  We have tons of resources.  How those resources are used, we could have some choice about.. We could bring this kind of awareness into every class that is taught on campus if teachers simply knew how to talk to students initially to help them release, to become more present to their learning—that could transform a whole campus quite quickly affecting the learning environment, and how people relate to each other.

Tony

When we first met, we had talked about how great it would be if neighborhoods and communities could be closer to each other—and perhaps have small group gatherings for an hour a day maybe at lunch or in the evening—to be in a motivating safe environment, where you could share experiences and challenges of the day—to help create a better life for yourself.  Wouldn’t that be nice?

Jan

Just imagining that, I can feel my freeing response and more resting in my body.  My spirit and  my person say YES to that.  Absolutely.   How have we managed to get so far away from that? We have gotten far away from that, however it is not rocket science to bring those qualities into our lives. We can make those choices and begin to do that.. if it is just ourselves, that’s already making a difference—if it’s ourselves and another person when we are having a tea break,, we can do that. Anything people learn from this study they can share with others.

Right now let’s decide again to simply sense our whole body, rest on our sitting bones, allow our necks to be free, and receive with our eyes- because sight comes to our eyes, and is received  into deep pools, the interference being pushing out to see, which stiffens our whole body.. If we only did that.. if we only received images into soft eyes and let that feed our whole body kinesthetically, we would be turning around how we function during the day. Once we experience that, we can share that with anyone, and they can do that immediately, because that is our design.  The interference is staring, or holding, or tightening in the eyes.. another Aha Experience!

Alexander teachers spend a good deal of time learning how to connect to others through touch, with the intention of listening to the ongoing ease underlying any movement.  In this way we can amplify the learning experience.. people can learn more readily to release on their own.  However, your own sensing and thinking can do this for you..It’s wonderful to have a teacher, and there is much you can do on your own.

Tony

How can people learn more about the Alexander Technique.. Are there books or organizations that would be appropriate?

Jan

Yes—I belong to an organization called Alexander Technique International—They have a web site with a lot of interesting articles and information including workshops and events.  There is another Alexander organization called AMSAT , the American Society for Alexander Teachers..they also have a fine web site..

There are a couple of books I would like to recommend.. one is A New Approach to the Study of the Alexander Technique by Glen Parks, a wonderful woman from England whom I have met – another is Body Learning by Michael Gelb.  It helps to read about this study, and of course it is wonderful if you can work with a teacher for feedback about what they are noticing—what they are seeing and sensing..however, one can open that door through reading.

Tony

What have been some of the greatest changes you have seen in others after they have been studying the Alexander technique?

Jan

Oh my- there have been so many. I have been fortunate to work with some people over a long period of time—and have watched their transformation as they have watched it.  However, sometimes quite quickly, changes can happen. There is one student I have been working with lately whom I have really appreciated, who had a car accident, and had some metal put into his back- and is in pain.  One of the most obvious characteristics of his ‘use’ was that he walked somewhat like a duck.. His legs were turned way out. However I saw that that pattern was happening because before he did anything with his arms, he would push his shoulders back. Men are often encouraged to do that and he said “Oh yes, in the martial arts I have taken, I was taught to do that.” It had gotten very ingrained in him. But once he noticed that habit, he began to let it go. .that in turn releasing muscles in the whole back of his body,. which then allowed his legs to release.  He told me then that he had gone to New York- spent several hours walking around the city, with no pain.. He came back and saw his physical therapist who noticed his changes and asked “Have you been doing your physical therapy exercises?”  And he said “Oh no, I am practicing the Alexander technique!”    When I first began to work with him I didn’t say-“ If you continue with this study you might begin to find your perceptions in life begin to change”.. I didn’t say that-- he made his own discoveries, and shared them with me.  He told me “You know I am noticing that when I am in class, and I am sensing myself with ease, my learning is changing.  I’m noticing that I am beginning to appreciate more about life.  I’m noticing beauty,  I’m taking time to smell flowers,  I’m relating to my friends differently, and I am noticing how they walk and move, and all of the effort they bring to themselves.”  That was illuminating to me because I didn’t expect him to sense such deep effects so quickly from the habits he was changing.  Finding more freedom and ease does affect everything we do, and I am continually encouraged and delighted with the sensitivities of people.

Tony

How can our listeners get in contact with you so they can learn more about this study—and what you may be offering ?

Jan

There is a wonderful event I help organize in Virginia during the third week of June--this is five days for me of what it could be like to live on this planet.. what we were talking about earlier.. the ideal. Our website for that is theVillageGreen.net.    My e mail is janbaty@yahoo.com, and my phone number is (302) 368-5141. I am always eager to talk with people about anything that they have found in their lives that is transforming, because it’s through sharing and working together that transformation really happens.

Tony

Can you leave us with some parting words of wisdom.. or perhaps you just have!

Jan

I think your idea of community, and of finding out about our own inner resources..and the ongoing magnificence of being alive . ..on this planet.. at this moment.. how incredible it is!

Tony

Thank you very much for being our guest today—We have been speaking to Jan Baty..the topic Alexander’s Gift to the Evolution of Mankind.