It's Not Just the Neurons!

Moshé Feldenkrais emphasized the 'nervous system', which makes sense in a historical context: mid-20th Century, scientists assumed a top-down nervous system running the show. Current understanding is that the cardiovascular, endocrine, neural and immune systems are in constant, multi-directional communication – assessing, balancing, predicting, 'deciding' in an ongoing process of reconciliation. These systems don't operate in isolation or report to the brain like dutiful servants. Immune cells influence hormone production, vascular changes affect neural signaling, hormonal shifts modify immune responses. These negotiations address difficult allocation of resources and real-time coordination challenges. This is a complex adaptive system, rather than a command-and-control structure. When you sense something inside yourself, multiple information systems are synthesizing data simultaneously: chemical gradients, pressure changes, immune surveillance, tissue tension. What emerges is a form of distributed intelligence that makes purely neural explanations seem quaint.