Three short audio excerpts from two classes Charlotte Selver gave in New York City on November 12, 1959. 

The Thrill Comes From This

In the 1950s Charlotte Selver worked closely with the English-American interpreter of Eastern thought, Alan Watts, such as in November of 1959, when Charlotte’s students were urged to attend Alan Watts’ lectures at the New School for Social Research. They often gave joint seminars, though this didn’t seem to have been the case in this particular series. The audio excerpts presented here are from classes given on the eve of a talk by Alan Watts on “Taoism and the Psychology of Repression”. Charlotte suggested that in her classes they also deal with "the psychology of repression. So much of the healthiest things in the world we are not admitting. We repress them,” she said at the end of her morning session on November 12. 

Each of these fragments shows how deeply she and others were engaged in laying the foundation in the modern Western world for the now widely recognized movement and mindfulness modalities. 

What is more, it was a very advanced study and cultivation of what it means to live fully in the present moment, beyond “practicing”. This becomes especially clear in the longer piece titled “Experiencing” vs. Observing” (below), where we also find a reference to another important influence at the time on Charlotte’s understanding of consciousness and the human potential, General Semantics.

Experience vs. Observing

This video is a 4:50 minutes long. The quotes below are just a couple of excerpts. You can find the full text and audio by following this link.  Hear and read the full text here.