In teaching people to juggle, they learn faster when asked to tell ,each time they have done something wrong. At first, they have no awareness of wrong movements. Once they recognize them, they can eliminate them.

Is it possible I am making more of this business of juggling than is really so? In October and November 1984, the Public Broadcasting System filmed a series of eight programs entitled "The Brain." On one particular evening they showed how energy moves along neurons horizontally from back to front of the brain for the sense of sight. Also, energy moves from top to bottom, or vertically, for movement. While all this was being explained, a juggler was seen on the screen. I wondered why they used a juggler to illustrate this delicate brain relationship.

According to Bonnie Benjamin, a spokeswoman for the producers of the series, WNET, the scene was used to illustrate two pathways in the brain meeting: vision and movement.

To quote George Page, narrator of the series, "Pathmaking is at the heart of all learned movement. The brain must experiment over and over again before it can discover the best route from one nerve cell to another. In performing a task at which vision is important, two systems, vision and movement, must find where and how to intersect. One by one, neurons connect with each other. A connection is extended. Soon it's a trail, ultimately a pathway. Cooperation between these two pathways can only be achieved through repetition."

Therefore it is essential to practice in order to learn juggling. The simplest

movement requires complex electrical / chemical circuitry within the brain. The study of this circuitry is fast becoming an important field of neuroscience.

Perhaps some day neurosurgeons will electronically "hook up" a juggler and monitor the neuron action which travels back and forth between the two hemispheres during juggling... on that greatest of all pathways in the brain - the corpus callosum.

It appears a key word in all this juggling business is practice. Neuroscience tells us practice creates or builds the desired pathways in the brain. But is there even more to it than this?

Possibly. Morphogenetic fields. Morphic resonance. Nicknamed M-fields. It is a theory being scientifically tested by Dr. Rupert Sheldrake of Nottinghamshire England. In essence, Dr. Sheldrake is saying not only does "creating" a physical pathway in your brain allow you to become a better juggler, but it allows others to become better also, through the M-field. (For information regarding this M-field theory, contact the author through Juggler's World.)

But we are a people who love to place stress on ourselves, even when we know it is only a game. How can we then learn to juggle, to take in this new information, with less stress?

Well, there are at least two doctors who have an opinion or feeling about that. At a 1983 conference entitled "The Healing Power of Laughter and Play" in Chicago, Dr. O. Carl Simonton began his lecture to approximately 750 people by giving them a few moments of instruction on how to juggle. Then three marshmallows were passed out to every person. On cue, 2250 marshmallows were flying around looking for the M-field pattern! Needless to say, Dr. Simonton had made a point. Juggling is fun.

Likewise, Dr. Steve Allen Jr. conducts workshops in stress management. Not only does he employ juggling as a major ingredient for relieving stress, but he adds, "there is something powerful about repetitive exercises such as juggling" as they pertain to health.

In addition, Dr. Allen uses juggling to reduce stress because, "it brings forth the creative use of silliness," which was originally defined as "blessed, prosperous and healthy." Yet, Dr. Allen's most important point for his clients / patients is "just keep it fun... and play!"

There will always be those who want or need a very definite purpose for juggling

before they try it out. So how about this... Healthwise magazine reports Dartmouth Medical School has shown that rowing is the best exercise as far as maximal aerobic stimulation is concerned. Their reason for investigation was to find out what ripe old people (85 and up) did as activities that may have contributed to their longevity. They looked at joggers versus orchestra conductors also. The conclusion the writer drew from the Dartmouth investigation was, "it would be prudent for us to give it the benefit of the doubt by performing arm exercises every day and even "conducting" the music we listen to at home."

Enter again juggling... arm exercise if there ever was any!