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Hi Dennis; you wrote: Lets get back to basics. My experience says that swinging your arms and keeping your hands free reduces festination and consequently reduces the chances of falling. Your theory/experience is that holding your hands in front of your face or behind your back reduces festination and consequently the chances of falling. Rita Weeks points out (among other things <grin>) that we are all different and that none of us is the yardstick for the rest of us. In fact each individual may find one reaction true at one stage of their progression and another at a later stage. As the intention of all contributors to this discussion is to reduce the incidence of falling among our fellow sufferers I would suggest that this objective is best served by advising those of us who are prone to falling that some of us find one method helps and others of us find that the other method helps. They can then experiment and find out to which group they belong. Dennis. Right on Dennis! And my experience is that through ballroom dance therapy and multiple sclerosis therapy (I was originally diagnosed as early ms) I have only fallen a few times in the past 10 years. (I spent 2 years before that falling on my face a lot - several times a week, always unexpectedly). Ballroom dance lessons are great therapy and teach you balance and conscious weight changes. The ms step therapy similarly concentrates on stepping forward onto one foot, consciously balancing, stepping forward on the other foot etc. sorta like walking in very deliberate slow motion fashion, first on a dead level surface and then progressing to stepping over a 1 inch obstacle, 2 inch obstacle, etc. until you can progress to stairs. I still find myself unconsciously practicing walking 10 years later.... All the best Dennis (how do you stay upright down-under?) Murray 53/4 [log in to unmask]