Michael Murphy, Founder of The Esalen Institute, a storied organization that cultivated many of the great minds of the 60's and the human potential revolution of the 70's, put together the Institute's research on a wide variety of disciplines.
The Future of the Body is this collection. It spans studies of physiology, philosophy, psychology, anthropology and religion, looking deeply into the question, What is possible? The logic being that if one human can attain remarkable feats in a particular realm, given the plasticity of the human mind and body, we all can if we apply the same diligence. Moreover the book takes an evolutionary perspective of humanity, such that we begin to see humanity not just as begetting and dying, but rather more like software releases. Each version (generation) makes improvements in consciousness, integrity and ability.
What I found most useful was the painstaking detail and diligence of the research. Up until now, I only had an intuition that anything is possible, as evidenced by the lack luster beginnings of ground-breaking individuals such as Michael Jordan, Albert Einstein, Andrew Carnegie, Bill Clinton and Ken Wilber. When I was loaned this book by my friend, a long-time spiritual seeker and devotee of Aurobindo's Integral Yoga, I knew that I was meant to read this now. I know why. This book is the skeptic's bridge into higher consciousness, human potential and transformation.
Although I remain skeptical of all unsubstantiated claims, I know have a dearth of data from which to draw upon when communicating my understanding of human potential. Amazing feats such as those of Japanese ninjas, who could traverse 300 miles in three days over mountains, or the documented mind-over-body phenomenon such stigmata, telekinesis, telepathy and levitation. Or how people with multiple personality disorders do not experience their allergies when a certain personality is in control. Or how medical science, belied by the 5 senses and verifiable diagnostics, have been unable to account for spontaneous healing, spontaneous death and spontaneous knowledge transfer.
While each of these claims can be disputed on one merit or another, when taken as a whole, a distinct appreciation for the plasticity of the human emerges and the realm of possibility indeed appears infinite. The 800 pages of research when synthesized and looked at as a story of both individual humans and humanity, posits that the average human is achieving only a fraction of his/her potential. Its sort of like we were all given Ferraris for our birthday, but all we ve managed to figure out is how to check our hair in side mirror.
Murphy doesn't leave you with just the data, but also presents a way in which we can achieve our full potential, learn to open that Ferrari door, put it in gear and open it up on the freeway. He explores the variety of transformative practices that have been used to cultivate these great abilities and achieve these amazing feats, looking at everything from visualization to meditation to energy awareness training to sensory deprivation to various psychotherapies to various somatic disciplines to athletic training regimes and fields of philosophical inquiry.
The main insight that this effort produced, which may be common knowledge to some is that of the Integral Transformative Practice. The analogy that describes this practice best is that of the cross-trainer. We can achieve x% performance increases as a freestyle sprinter, however, as documented performance research has told us, we can achieve gains of x+% when we practice not only freestyle, but butterfly, back and breast strokes. Thus, as Ken Wilber has further refined, an Integral Practice incorporates exercises which touch on the four main avenues of human development - Cognitive (creative pursuits, reading, writing, etc.), Kinesthetic (aerobic, anaerobic, flexibility, balance, coordination training), Psychodynamic (psychotherapy, Gestalt therapy, dream journals) and Contemplative (meditation, prayer, etc.). These can be loosely interpreted as Mind, Body, Soul and Spirit.
Stanford Medical School is doing research on ITP and preliminary findings suggest it is an unparalleled means of advancing any human's development. The theory is that, like a machine, a human is bound by constraints and bottlenecks and that development in any one line is constrained by development in seemingly unrelated lines. For example, meditation can lower resting heart rate, cultivate a sense of spiritual connection, improve focus on the playing field, attune a brain to deep thinking, etc.
Aikido, meditation, Integral Transformative Practice, Kata are the highlighted practices which seem to cultivate the whole human, not just the main area usually attributed to benefitting from the practice. Thus, if you are serious about your own growth and development and have an as yet disintegral set of practices, you might want to shore up your weaknesses, so that you can catapult your development in your main field of endeavor, whatever it may be.
I recommend this book to skeptics, as a transformative life-changing work, to mystics as a resource to avoid sounding crazy, and to every human interested in self-improvement.
Brandon Peele is Founder of Namaste Economics, a set of economic principles defining the path of conscious business.
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