Michael Murphy (Part 1) - The Human Potential Movement Then & Now: 60 Years at the Leading Edge of Transformative Practice, Research & Action

Ep. 58 (Part 1 of 3) | Michael Murphy, author, co-founder of the world-famous Esalen Institute, and pioneer of the Human Potential Movement starting in the 60s, relates a wealth of intimate experience, knowledge, and wisdom covering his decades of living at the leading edge of transformative practice and the realization of human potential. Mike talks about Esalen’s latest research, our current crisis of belief, and the anchoring question that has guided Esalen (and Mike) all along: how best to serve? Mike has watched the developmental process of transformative practices themselves, such as somatics and psychedelics, now circling around after a period of purgation, and talks about current efforts to add research on the mystical and the ecstatic to meditation and mindfulness research in order to better understand what's going on. 

This podcast is a wonderful mix of tales from the past—including Mike and his wife Dulce’s achievements and adventures with Soviet-American citizen diplomacy towards the end of the Cold War—the present, and what’s coming up at the Esalen research center now, e.g., asking what is happening on "the other side," and discovering the truth about subtle body phenomena. On a personal note, Mike shares about practicing agnosticism, his respect and admiration for the quality of wonder, and about the magic of reading subtle cues and being increasingly in tune with “the algorithms of his heart.” Friendly, relaxed, and humorous, Mike is one of the world’s leading lights on self-transformation. Recorded on February 16, 2022.

“With Esalen, life has given me this marvelous laboratory.”

(For Apple Podcast users, click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)

Topics & Time Stamps – Part 1

• Introducing Michael Murphy, Human Potential Movement pioneer, author, co-founder and director of Esalen Institute, co-creator of Integral Transformative Practice (01:20)
• Esalen’s “scouring of the Shire” (05:51)
• Forging a deeper marriage of the two parts of Esalen: public programming & the Center for Theory & Research (07:19)
• The realization that atman = Brahman and how Michael came to be a yogi (08:29)
• The anchoring vision and worldview of Esalen: evolutionary panentheism, embracing the whole in an evolving world (11:33) 
• Our current crisis of belief: living between the death of the old gods and the birth of new gods has prompted more conflict, more divergences than ever before (16:37)
• How best to serve? Should Esalen continue? Most transformative practices (like somatics and psychedelics) have had to go through a period of purgation and are now coming back into play (21:34)
• The explosion of psychedelics in the 1960s through the psychedelic renaissance today and owning the immensity of its shadow side (27:47)
• Tanya Luhrmann, critical of the unwarranted hegemony of modern Buddhist influence on meditation research, researches contemplative, transformative, yogic, shamanic practices, including the evangelical Vineyard Movement (33:14)
• Tanya is now studying the uniqueness of people who have attended Esalen (37:28)
• On absorption capacity, its differentiating effects on our evolutionary capacities, and the concept of porosity, an attribute involving both the sensory and the extrasensory domain (38:29)  

Resources & References – Part 1

• Esalen Institute, a leading center for exploring and realizing human potential through experience, education, and research
• Track II: An Institute for Citizen Diplomacy, host organization for the Russian-American Program
• James Redfield, Michael Murphy & Sylvia Timbers, God and the Evolving Universe: The Next Step in Personal Evolution*
• Michael Murphy & George Leonard, The Life We Are Given*
• Michael Murphy & Steve Donovan, The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation*
• George Leonard, “taking the hit as a gift,” The Way of Aikido*
• Dick Price, ran Esalen in Big Sur for many years
• Esalen’s Center for Theory & Research
• Frederic Spiegelberg, professor at Stanford University, developed and theorized a mystical humanism
• John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath*
• Sri Aurobindo, deeply realized contemplative & mystic, led the most radical wing of the Indian independence movement
• Evolutionary panentheism, guiding vision and worldview for Esalen
• Integral Transformative Practice: ITP-International, founded by Michael Murphy & George Leonard
• Michael Murphy, Golf in the Kingdom*
• Michael Murphy & Rhea White, In the Zone: Transcendent Experience in Sports*
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, scientist, theologian, philosopher
• Alfred North Whitehead, developed a comprehensive metaphysical system which radically departed from most of Western philosophy
• Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution*
• Martin Heidegger, one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century
• Don Johnson, Diverse Bodies, Diverse Practices: Toward an Inclusive Somatics*
• Thomas Hanna, philosopher who gave the field of somatics its name
• Somatic psychology, a form of psychotherapy that seeks to bridge the mind-body dichotomy
• Ida Rolf, Structure, Function, Integration*, Dr. Ida Rolf Institute
• Aldous Huxley, provided a mediating language between metaphysics, the language of human potentialities, and the non-verbal humanities, The Doors of Perception*
• Georg W. F. Hegel, a founding figure of modern Western philosophy
• George Brown, director for the Ford-Esalen project, Human Teaching for Human Learning: An Introduction to Confluent Education*
• Timothy Leary, clinical psychologist who developed a philosophy of mind expansion and personal truth through LSD, Exo-psychology: A Manual on the Use of the Human Nervous System According to the Instructions of the Manufacturers*
• Charlie Stang, Esalen board member & director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School 
• Tanya Luhrmann, professor of anthropology at Stanford, When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God*, Our Most Troubling Madness*, How God Becomes Real*
• Richard Davidson, Mind & Life Institute, co-author with Daniel Goleman, Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body*
• William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature*
• Abraham Maslow, American psychologist, creator of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
• Pam Kramer, President of ITP International, a non-profit organization that stewards the work of Michael Murphy and George Leonard and their creation of Integral Transformative Practice®
• MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory), a standardized psychometric test of adult personality and psychopathology
• Auke Tellegen and the Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS)
• Michael Murphy, The Future of the Body: Explorations into the Further Evolution of Human Nature*
• The Sandpiper with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton (filmed at Esalen)
• Fritz Perls, a well renowned German psychotherapist and psychiatrist known for his notable works on Gestalt therapy
• Jane Austen, English novelist still popular though her novels were published 200 years ago
• Stuart Symington, Secretary of the Air Force in the 1950s
• A Beautiful Mind, 2001 movie based on the life of the American mathematician John Nash
• Agnews Developmental Center (originally “The Great Asylum for the Insane”)
• Ramakrishna, Hindu mystic who experienced spiritual ecstasies from an early age
• Charles Taylor, Canadian philosopher
• Vineyard Movement (Association of Evangelical Vineyard Churches)

* As an Amazon Associate, Deep Transformation earns from qualifying purchases.

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Michael Murphy is a graduate of Stanford University, co-founder of Esalen Institute, founder of Esalen’s Center for Theory and Research, and author of numerous books. His novels include The Kingdom of Shivas Irons, Golf in the Kingdom, Jacob Atabet, and An End to Ordinary History. His latest nonfiction work is God and the Evolving Universe, co-authored with James Redfield and Sylvia Timbers. Other nonfiction work includes: In the Zone, an anthology of extraordinary sports experiences, co-authored with Rhea White; The Life We Are Given, a book about transformative practice, co-authored with George Leonard; The Future of the Body, and The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation, co-authored with Steve Donovan.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell