Conscious Control

There is a wealth of literature on Alexander Technique, but you will find almost no reference at all to this subject, save from F.M.Alexander own books.

For me, what F.M. meant by Conscious Control, should be conceived as an altered state of mind. It should be our normal state of mind, but we have lost it in our childhood.

It is well described and in an accesible way, in A.Maslow's book "Towards a psychology of being".

Use and functioning

"Use affects functioning", is according to Dr W.Barlow "The Alexander Principle".
What is "Use"?"
Use" is the cause, and "functioning" are the effects.
"Use" is previous to any activity (i.e. functioning), including posture, movement and even thinking!

Joe Armstrong deals with two different kinds of “use” in F.M. wriings, “manner of use” and “conditions of use”:
“Manner of use pertains, of course, to how we do things - respond, behave, direct, etc. - whether we do them consciously or subconsciously. Conditions of use pertains mainly to the quality of muscle tonus (anywhere from extreme tightness to extreme flaccidity) that exists in us regardless of how good or how poor our manner of use might be at any given moment”
Joe Armstrong, “A crucial distinction: manner and conditions of use”

The Alexander Technique is about “manner of use”: