Michael Murphy and Ken Wilber - The Secret of Transformation. Part 1. Esalen, Aurobindo, and Integral Practice

The Secret to Transformation. Part 1. Esalen, Aurobindo, and Integral Practice. (40:00)
Michael Murphy and Ken Wilber

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As Ken stated in The Eye of Spirit: "Michael Murphy very well might be the single most significant spiritual pioneer of our generation, if for no other reason than the extraordinary spaces that he created in which others could transform as well."

Esalen was the first major growth center, and the single largest source of transformation, in Michael and Ken's generation—and it's still going strong, particularly with the recent influx of first-rate management and leadership. The techniques used there are still those that are the major sources of consciousness transformation for anyone who is interested in doing so. Michael Murphy, George Leonard, and Ken Wilber are the three people who have done the most work—often together—on integral transformative practices. Mike and George's version they call Integral Transformative Practice (ITP), and Ken's version (developed with his associates at I-I) he calls Integral Life Practice (ILP)—with both sharing the same roots, aims, goals, and many of the same practices.

Using this rich history of working in similar and complementary veins as a base, Michael and Ken leap into sharing what's new and exciting on the very leading edge of transformative practices, as well as their lives. For Michael, this includes organizing research—actual empirical research—on reincarnation, participating in several book projects, and furthering his uniquely vast knowledge of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo (a spiritual-integral pioneer of the first order). For Ken, he just happened to knock off two books this summer—Overview and Superview—both being new and brilliant volumes on development through structures of consciousness and states of consciousness, what can go wrong in each of those dimensions, and suggested therapies in each case. Overview will serve as an introductory volume for the interested layperson, and Superview will explore this territory in much greater detail for the serious student (together they will be known simply as Transformations).

While on the topic of ground-breaking books, Ken goes on to share why he considers Michael's masterwork, The Future of the Body, "a product of genius," and why Michael's book The Life We Are Given (co-authored with George Leonard) was and is such a pioneering and crucial contribution to our understanding of a truly comprehensive, integral approach to growth and development. What all of their discussions share—a topic that is gone into in even richer detail in Part 2 (soon to follow)—is the very nature of human growth and transformation itself: what it is, why it happens, and the very secrets of how to make it happen for individuals who wish to do so….

keywords: Esalen Institute, The Future of the Body, The Life We Are Given, Integral Spirituality, Sri Aurobindo, Record of Yoga, Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind, Overmind, Supermind, structure-stages, state-stages, stages of consciousness (e.g., archaic, magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, integral, super-integral), altitude of consciousness (magenta, red, amber, orange, green, teal, turquoise, indigo, violet, ultraviolet), sheaths of consciousness, states of consciousness (waking, dreaming, deep sleep, turiya, turiyatita), bodies (gross, subtle, causal), Vedanta, five koshas: annamayakosha (material); pranamayakosha (emotional-sexual); manomayakosha (middle mind); vijnanamayakosha (higher mind); anandamayakosha (bliss mind), "What Is Integral?," A Theory of Everything.

most memorable moment: "So tell me, Mike, how was it really that night when you slept with Marilyn Monroe?"

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