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Excerpt from Interview with Mia Segal by Thomas Hanna, originally published in Somatics Magazine (Autumn/Winter 1985E86).

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Mia Segal was Dr. Feldenkrais’s first assistant, collaborator, and associate for sixteen years, after which they trained students worldwide. Of Mia, Feldenkrais said: “With you, I have reached summits that alone, I could not reach. The best lessons I ever gave, were inspired by your encouraging gaze.”

Mia is known for her unequalled mastery of the work and as a suberb teacher. The unique design of her programs is testimony to her vast experience and leadership in teaching this method. She is committed to ensure that this work continues in the essential and powerful form it was given to her by Dr. Feldenkrais during their many years of collaboration and friendship. Mia has been acclaimed worldwide as the standard bearer for the applications and philosophy of the Feldenkrais Method™. Mia has a black belt in Judo, which she received in the Kodokan, Tokyo, in 1970.

 

SOMATICS: Moshe often spoke of someone he had met in Japan who was a special kind of healer. Who was he? 
 

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SEGAL: He referred to the amazing Dr. Haruchika Noguchi. I had heard that Noguchi was a great healer and even considered to be a magician. One day I decided to go and see him: “Is he really as great as they all say?” I took a taxi to his place. I arrived at a most beautiful house situated on a little hill surrounded by big trees. It actually looked like a small shrine with a small river under part of the house. 

When I arrived it looked like some kind of festival was going on inside. People were wearing festive kimonos and were going into the house. I hesitated, but then decided to go in. I went upstairs and entered into a huge hall. All the sliding walls, so typical of Japanese houses, were open, and the effect was one of living in the trees. I asked someone what was the occasion and he said they were celebrating the wedding of one of the staff. 

And then I asked a guest, “Where is Dr. Noguchi?” It was as though I had asked, “Where is God?” He pointed to a short man, dressed in a classic kimono and holding a huge brandy glass. He was talking to two men and pointing at me. They started to walk towards me. When they came closer he said to the two men “You see this lady. She works with people, just like me, and she makes them better, just like I do.”

 


SOMATICS: Did Dr. Noguchi expect you? 

 

SEGAL: No, he didn’t know anything about me, and therefore, I was taken aback. “I am not so sure I do exactly what you do,” I said. 
 

“Do you treat the body or the spirit?” he asked. 
 
 “How can you separate them?” I said. And Noguchi turned to the men and said, “You see, I told you ” 

 He wanted to know whether I worked with groups or individuals. “With both,” I said. 
 
“Would you like to come and see a group work, on this coming Friday?” asked Noguchi. 
 
“How big is the group?” I asked. 
 
“Between 4 and 6,000,” he said. 
 
And he was right. Because when I arrived at the Olympic Basketball Stadium it seemed to be full. 


Noguchi was standing in the center of the court talking into a microphone and at one point, he said, “Now come down and let’s do Katsugen undō” (meaning regenerating energy, a technique of Seitai, his work. 

Like a big wave they all got up and moved to the stadium ground. I watched as they began to move. Gradually the movements got bigger, their bodies became freer. And at the end, they did things that they could not do before. After awhile, he said, “Now stop” They did one more abrupt movement. Then they stopped and then returned to their seats. When I was leaving, there was Noguchi at the gate. “How did you like it?” he asked. “I would like to see some more,” I answered. He agreed immediately and gave me a date, but not a time. “It is all day,” he said. Again I found myself at this beautiful shrine\like room. People were sitting quietly waiting their turn, many of them doing Katsugen undō movements. Classical music was playing. It was interesting that he used Western classical music. Later, he would explain to me that he considered Western classical music to help the flow of ki, vital energy. 
 
In the entrance I had to stand on two wooden boards, look up, look down and around. The boards registered the changing pressure of my feet. This gave Noguchi all the information he needed. 
 In one part of that room sat Noguchi himself on a little raised floor, a mat in front of him, and there lay the patient. He saw me and invited me to sit next to him. I watched all that day how his hand moved along spines—gentle, intelligent, and confident, adjusting and guiding. 
 
From that day on I came once a week. We exchanged “lessons.”