Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais was an engineer, physicist, inventor, martial artist and student of human development. His considerable insights and development of his namesake technique have contributed to the development of a new field of somatic education, and his work continues to influence such diverse disciplines as the arts, education, psychology, child development, physical and occupational therapy, sports enhancement and gerontology.

Feldenkrais was born in Russia in 1904 and immigrated to Israel at the age of 12. He exhibited a keen interest and aptitude in the sciences and martial arts at an early age, and went on to complete an engineering degree at Heidelberg University and a doctorate in nuclear physics in Paris, France.

As the first European to earn a black belt in Judo in 1936, Feldenkrais established the first Judo school in France with the blessings of its creator, Professor Kano of Japan. When Paris was invaded during World War II, Feldenkrais escaped to England where he was recruited to serve as a scientific officer in the anti-submarine research division of British intelligence.

Feldenkrais developed his breakthrough technique during his attempts to self-treat a knee injury suffered some years earlier. In lieu of surgery, he applied his considerable scientific and artistic talents to a cure that used the principles of biomechanics, movement, physiology and psychology. While developing his work, he studied, among other things, anatomy, physiology, child development, movement science, evolution, psychology, a number of Eastern awareness practices and other somatic approaches.

He eventually arrived at a philosophy that takes the concept of freedom as its basic tenet. His work uses body movement to send signals to the brain, which are designed to relieve it from the constraints of habitual ways of thinking, feeling and moving. The result is a freedom of both body and mind, which he referred to as 'the mature self'. The mature self is then able to respond creatively and spontaneously to any situation.

While the Feldenkrais approach involves many different movements, it is much more about a state of mind than the movements themselves. His intention was to teach students how to learn, with the movements serving as a model for learning and a mode to stimulate the brain. The movements are not imposed, but rather are selected according to which feel right to the user, resulting in a greater understanding of which way of moving or living works best in any given situation.

Through his work, Feldenkrais worked with a wide variety of people, from infants with Cerebral Palsy to leading performers such as the late violinist Yehundi Menuhin. He taught for a number of years at the dramatist Peter Brook's Theatre Bouffes du Nord and collaborated with great thinkers such as anthropologist Margaret Mead, neuroscientist Karl Pribram and psychophysical explorers Jean Houston and Robert Masters.

The breadth, vitality and precision of his work has been applied to such diverse fields as neurology, psychology, the performing arts, sports and rehabilitation.

Feldenkrais believed that the best, and perhaps only, way to change the function of the brain was through the body. This view led him to develop his bodywork not simply as a way to a healthier or more mobile body, but as an approach designed to change and improve how the whole body functioned. As he put it, "the movements are nothing. They're an idiotic thing. What I am after isn't flexible bodies, but flexible brains. What I'm after is to restore each person to their human dignity." Feldenkrais died in 1984. Today there are over 6,000 Feldenkrais practitioners around the globe.