PREFACE<br > George Leonard<br > Thinking of the body as an object to be manip+ of our huge un versilies， pe，，ph， ，.d Itr， ，<br > ulatefl goes back a long way， at least to the middle macbinedike charaeteri~ti，.~.<br > of the 6th centu~] B.C. according to historian Now we ve just ahout compI，.h~d th，，<br > Werner Jaeger. That was when the philosopher， began in the Pyramid Age. We ve I，uih ， ，:)，<br > Xenophanes， made an attack on coarse， unintellecb munication network that conncet~ th，， ida.，， ，<br > ual， mere "strength of body." Many of tim most<br > single global organism. We)r~~ fini~hh.， th，. ，，，<br > intelligent Greeks of that day， disgusted with the trial machine that ha.s sproal w，，rlJ~:d，h. ，<br > growing professionalism of Olympic athletes， done about as much as we can with th，~ .，j [ ，<br > immediately took up the cry. Before then， unityof tion of minerals and now have t.) ~.，， ，，， ，<br > body and spirit had simply been assumed. The sources of energy.<br > Olympic games originally were not just games of We no longer need to use human， h.l.，<br > the body， but games oftheentirehuman potential machines. Human beings can he fr， ed t，， ， ~1，1 ;<br > with no separation between "mind" and "spirit" their own God-given， and perhaps ev，，n ~1，，，) rl;<br > and "body. * But Xenophanes s attack was a strong capacities. What we need now is n.t t，) he nlnv ，，<br > onej and you can hear it echoed even now in the off and diseased within our own skins， but [，~ ，) Hi<br > familiar cliche， "When I feel the urge to exercise becoming aware of what s going on， h，，th ). ，1，I<br > coming on， I simply lie down， till it goes away." and outside ourselves.<br > The attack on the body and on all bodily feel- What we are relearning today is that v!l，~ ，，f d~，<br > ings seemingly climaxed in the Victoran era. The keys to good health is a state of he ghtened ，v.，~，<br > most outrageous chmaethr of that day was per- ness. And yet， in a workshop with peoph~ ~，，n ，.，<br > imps Sylvester Graham， the inventor of the never done any body work， if you shoul，l ~.<br > Graham cracker. Graham was a temperance lecttLrer "Now please put your awareness m the mJ，j，ll，， "，t<br > who tttmed his attention to sex around 1830. He your left calf and see what s going on th-o=，<br >and his followers were not satisfied simply to many of the participants might say， "What at， ，. ，，)<br >attack sex. Sex w~s used as a way of getting at the talking about?" The idea of be ng ab e to :e :J : ~r，<br >whole body， of making the body entirely shame- of any particular muscle， of any p~t of your b~，，i<br >fuL Graham advised people to turn their attention is still out of the question for many people.<br >away from any sensation or feeling or fantasy corn- The Western way of operating in the worl，~ h ~，<br >ing from within. The body was seen as a fortress aJways been forward mo ng forw~d， going ，，，<br >aguinst the inealtahle dmagers o f the outside world， ward a di(cant goal， never looking back e~pecisib<br >and the senses as its sentinels， in American society. People in Western s，Jcleti~，~ m<br > No wonder we simply vacated our bodies. By general are especially unawaxe of the back h:zJf ，:~<br >the end of the Victorian era， the average American the body. FoothaJl is a typical forw~d~l~，r~2，"<br >male or female was basically a disembodied ego. game. Or you migj t notice the go-getter， the "，，vha!<br >Another way of saying this is that people had makes Sammy run" type， always leaning s igh k.."<br >learned to behave like machines， forward. This way of being is reflected m a t，~.<br > Lewis Mumford has pointed out that the ma- ward body stance and is accompanied by a ]~，.k 4<br >chine was really invented， not in the Industrial body awareness in the back.<br >Age， but in the Pyramid Age. The first machine Whde forward energy has led to high a~hle~e<br >consisted of human components. Human beings ment， it actually is a very weak st:~lce. It s ，，Jr<br >became cogs in a g~eat machine which was put balance. The forward-leaning individu~J ~~r cul)- ~<br >together to build the pyramids or to create irri- can easily fall on its face. te America， m，.，r，z ~h~，<br >gallon works. To make a human being into a $12bLUionayeararespentol~backaihne.ts~d，，~.:<br >CO~ponent. it s very important to turn off senses It s a matter of some concern for people tu ;， o，<br >and feelings. A component has to be reliable， pre- aware of their energy states--how the) r~ ~，.t ，..~，J<br >die.table， ste~dardized and specialized. So， whether how" they re back. how to bal~lce， n，.. ! ~，<br >a wm ke.r on a pyramid gang or a professor in one centered， how to i)ecome more de*lh ，:~， ，，:J~<br >