so...the acting exercise i do....i'm gonna try and explain it as
clearly as possible.....i have my actors stand in a circle. all close
their eyes. at first, i had them speak a line of text as they "sent"
their energy (actually using a throwing gesture). we discussed it
after the event. some mentioned they thought the voice helped people
determine where the energy was being sent (i agree that this could
help, as a participant i know that it was more than just the voice - i
"felt" a wave of energy). so, with that in mind, we altered the
exercise. all actors still in a circle, eyes closed, but instead of
speaking the text while sending energy (again, more of a throw) - the
actors just "threw" the energy. again, we had a very high rate of
accuracy (both with the person who "received" the energy and with the
rest of the cast being able to tell where the energy was being
directed). so, i did my best to eliminate "clues" - (from the
archetypal 5 senses)
we also did another variation....two actors faced each other. one
eyes open, one eyes closed. the actor with eyes open would pull or
push or throw energy at the person with eyes closed. then the person
with the eyes closed would identify what type of energy that felt.
again, a high degree of accuracy. in fact i watched one set of
actors. the receiver in this case was leaning slightly back on his
heels (his normal posture)...then his partner started "pulling" energy
and i saw the receiver start to lean forward in time with the "pulls"
- coincidence? possibly. but having been there and experienced other
similar events, i'd say probably not.
is this that alpha pattern? don't know enough about the alpha
pattern to know. i know that chekhov spoke of an energy body or a
life body (something seperate from our "physical" bodies) that we use
to send the energy and that can also be manipulated (changed in form)
this manipulation has an effect on our physical body, is reflected in
our physical bodies. (he was teaching his technique in the 30' - 50's
in america and other countries...the new york theatre community
considered him a mystic and so he never became as influencial as he
might have) i do know it is similar to the "chi" of martial arts (or
at least in my experience with both these disciplines, the energy
"feels" the same to me)
well, don't know if i cleared up any confusion or questions (or just
created more) but there has been responses that called the experience
into question (or at least questioned the experience) :o) i wanted to
give whatever input i could.
And Richard....can u lead me to any resources "documenting" the alpha
wave stuff? would love to do some research on this. my actors
generally are really amazed at this stuff and i would like to read
more about it (ok, ok, so the truth is that everytime i do it with a
new group of actors, i'm afraid i'm gonna sound too whacked out and
they'll call in a mental health technician) :o) (but would really
like to know where to go for more research on this.)
Shalom
David Lind
Trickster@postmark.net
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