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About the creation of a new pedagogy of physical training: "The Wisdom of the Body" The international community of conscious people already understands that the cosmic principle of "Good Stewardship" or care of our resources-both our bodies and the earth- is so essential, so vital to the condition of humanity on earth at this time, that bureaucracy is unable to respond with sufficient speed. So around the world individual initiatives are sprouting up spontaneously and even without group planning or major financing! Yet these initiatives are friendly and allied with another in an organic and humane way and the synchronicity with which the people involved meet one another is astounding- though without specific formal planning by anyone but the angels themselves- or perhaps it is all merely "coincidence". So this web of earth-friendly and creative people is beginning to stand up and get in touch with one another. Of the many initiatives seen is the one toward personal health and it's relation to the planet. Coming out of the personal health initiative is the interest in diet, yoga, herbs, martial arts, farming, food production, water and air purity-all the things necessary for a human being to feel good and whole. After thirty years of training and twenty years of training in physical therapy, yoga, martial arts and massage therapy- all over the world-as well as exposure and education in various belief systems and philosophies, I am came to the conclusion a new format on the art of physical exercise was needed. A format that related the body- at nearly any age- to the earth and the animal kingdom as well as the present human condition. In other words I wanted an exercise to connect the human being to Gaia. But the format had to be inclusive of all humanity has discovered in its brief history because there are many important lessons to be learned in various physical traditions. However, most of these exercise systems are "closed systems" limited to specific cultural boundaries. They are, at present, having to be modified to fit into different culture and language norms as well as time constraints. Both Yoga and martial arts are more often than not being "reduced" or "simplified" to meet both modern demand and modern need. And many people end up experimenting with a variety of physical approaches because no single approach meets their personal need. Moreover many of these traditions have peculiar behaviors coming from the teacher-student relationship that quite often are simple distortions of the parental role. This allows students to become the unwitting and often unconscious dupes of the teachers who allow themselves the status often reserved for "Masters", "Prophets" and "Gurus". A good teacher is indeed a gift. And with the student-teacher relation a natural bond is formed. I have had several wonderful teachers myself from several traditions. But this teacher role in some cultures takes on a rather fascist/cult status and that does not translate well in the West. And student manipulation among some traditions -which are more like cults- is not unusual and the level of psychological abuse can go quite deep and I have experienced this first hand too. So in The Wisdom of the Body training I consider "deprogramming" an important aspect of the self discovery one undergoes. And so I wanted a format which would encourage the preservation of all these traditions but was rooted in the realities of the body-not a particular culture-and still remained open to new developments and growth and increasing consciousness. I was moving away from the "human body as a machine" model which I experienced in modern gymnasiums and also moving away from the "human body is merely an animal" which is a sort of evolutionary reduction which reduced humans to "beasts with big brains"! And I wanted more specific results than those involving the study of the phenomenology of chakras and psychic experiences. Nor did I wish to simply re-hash ancient Shamanism with its physically tortuous "Initiations" which take the person so close to death sometimes they die! The Ancients truly understood the wisdom of the body but this kind of initiation was only available to those willing to take the highest risk. Rather than simply synthesize my physical experiences of training in yoga and martial arts and systematize it -I went back and looked at child development. I had a good background to draw from. I worked in physical education with children from ages 7 to 18 for ten years and even did special classes for stroke patients and heart attack patients. I then cross referenced what I knew of child development with the learning protocols of Hatha Yoga and some traditional martial arts which I had learned first hand with masters in China. I also cross referenced what I learned from Priests and monks in several religious traditions namely Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. This whole process took some years. Eventually a template emerged. The template is compatible with any religious belief or no "belief" at all. It is simply a template which is grounded in the developmental stages of childhood. However, because it is grounded in these stages we all share - it is also a sort of parallel to human philosophical/religious history as well. As human beings grow up it is a parallel to how humanity has changed its consciousness- in history---and of course it continues changing. But however much the consciousness changes the human body itself changes little through history and so what emerged from my studies was a sort of "encyclopedia of archetypal movements". And when I teach these or go through them with a group I call it "The Wisdom of the Body". These movements-particularly these movements- call upon the emotions which have crystallized in us throughout our lives. And since so much of human reasoning springs out of the emotional life (our logic pivots around how we feel not visa versa!) it is well to have a way to call-up and observe these emotions thereby integrating them and in doing so increasing the health of the body. So the focus of The Wisdom of the Body is to; 1. Help connect the person to the earth (Ecology) 2. Help connect them to themselves. That is assist revelation of the emotional responses which come out of the individual physical body as it moves. (Personal Psychology) 3. Increase perception and responsiveness to others through self understanding. (Community Responsiveness/which is also deeply related to so-called "Martial Art") In simple terms to strengthen and make flexible the body through movements sympathetic and intrinsic to it so that the person feels their body in a new way and experiences a new trust in themselves and a new inner courage which leads them to a more satisfying participation in life in every way. Allen Pittman