If you’ve been waiting for weeks for me to get back to psychology, thanks for your patience. Here we go.
In 1972, the human potential is alive and well and beginning to morph into the consciousness movement. My novel’s main character / narrator Dylan Steffan, now 33, makes a visit to the movement’s global epicenter.
Marilyn Ferguson would probably not have made some of these observations till the mid-1970s, not in the early 1970s, but taking this liberty with time served the story better.
Big Sur, California
July 25, 1972
Yale proved curious about my trip out here to Big Sur. “Why are you going there?”
“The Esalen Institute,” I told him. “Michael Murphy co-founded Esalen in 1961 and co-founded the human potential movement in 1965. Esalen is the epicenter of the human potential movement.”
“What are they about?”
“What aren’t they about? Third Force psychology, Fourth Force psychology, education of the whole person, mysticism, peak experiences, imagery and visualization, sports psychology, illumination in sports, martial arts, exceptional human functioning and performance, psychedelics.”
“Eclectic,” Yale said. “Fits into your leading?”
“Sure. Almost all of it can help me better serve my clients.”
On my last day here, I speak at length with an author about my age named Marilyn Ferguson who just finished writing a book called The Brain Revolution. Ferguson has a lively mind and a winsome personality, and I enjoy discussing a range of topics with her as we walk along and look out at the Pacific Ocean.
She’s interested in Roberto Assagioli and Psychosynthesis, so we start with that. She’s operating as a journalist, taking notes, though our conversation is off the record.
I mention to her that I’m hearing more and more about LSD and psilocybin mushrooms. “I’m not sure why we’d choose to do a psychedelic drug,” I say. “There are so many natural ways to expand our awareness. I see transformations in my clients all the time.”
“Sure, Dylan,” she responds, “Psychosynthesis does it. So do Primal Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, Reichian therapy, hypnosis, autogenic training, biofeedback, Bioenergetics, Rolfing. And a range of breathing techniques, like deep breathing.”
“Dance, I hear.”
“There’s dance,” says Marilyn, “including the Dervish dancing of the Sufis. There’s Jacob Moreno’s Psychodynamic theater. There’s improvisational theater. Painting, sculpting, a wide range of musical experiences.”
“Exactly. True beauty in our culture does it for me every time. The right piece of music – like Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, a Walt Whitman poem, Tolkien’s novel, a Renaissance painting. Good, beautiful works of our culture take me places. Instantly shift me into a transcendent state – a peak experience.”
“Marvelous,” she says. “I know the experience well.”
Michael Murphy walks up. He’s about the same age as me and Marilyn, and an ebullient guy who exudes an all-American athletic energy along with his Eastern-wisdom vibe.
“Met Marilyn, eh, Dylan? That’s excellent. She’s going to be one of the wizards of the whole movement. How can we not factor brain science into the algorithms of human transformation? Marilyn is a pioneer.”
“Michael favors the more athletic and physical disciplines,” Ferguson says. “The Feldenkrais method, the Alexander method, martial arts like aikido.”
I nod. “I’ve heard some people benefit enormously from aikido. And from these self-help networks too. Encounter groups. Wilderness retreats.”
“Some Christians go through deep changes with ‘A Course in Miracles’,” Ferguson says. “Other people turn to Zen, kundalini, chakra work, reiki, T’ai Chi, and other Eastern disciplines and paths. Meditation in many forms is really beginning to catch on.”
Murphy nods. “I’m most interested in the psychic side of sports. You can have a transcendent experience while running, mountain-climbing, river-running, while engaged in almost any sport. Even solo flying and sailing can be profound experiences that bring deep inner breakthroughs.”
I look at Murphy. He seems eager to talk. “Tell me more.”
“Tell us, Michael,” says Ferguson.
“All right, Dylan, Marilyn. Where to begin? In sports, you’re exploring your limits, exploring human limits.
“Sports are demanding. You can express a deeper perfection with your body, with your movement. With sustained attention and discipline and some creativity, you discover your exceptional powers.
“This carries over to the rest of life.
“You get in touch with your body’s subtle energy. You find yourself having extraordinary energy as well as exceptional strength and speed and endurance. You can perform great physical and athletic feats with balance and ease.
“You can carry over from mystical practices an acute sense of well-being, a still and calm sense of peace, and a sense of freedom. This all helps you perform better as an athlete. You have more power over your body, more control, and you even experience awe, joy, and natural highs. Most of all, with teamwork, you experience a sense of unity with other people.”
“Outstanding,” I say.
“And by the way, Marilyn does Transcendental Meditation to stay centered.”
After Michael moves on, Marilyn and I continue exchanging information and insights with each other.
“I’ve talked with a couple dozen people here who’ve done psychedelics or gone through big changes in other ways,” she says.
“What are you hearing?” I ask.
“They no longer feel encapsulated in their body and ego,” she observes. “They are moving beyond just being rational, linear, logical, causal, and scientific in the old sense of scientific.”
“Right.”
“They say they know now that there is more than material reality.”
“Good.”
“They feel they are exiting the trance of our conditioning by our society and culture.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Their old reality is breaking. They’re moving out of their old fearful, fretful attention. They have stopped acting so much. Given up their illusions – that they are always right, or that they are a victim.”
“Right on.”
“They expect to never go back to being self-righteous and judgmental.”
“Excellent.”
“And they’ve given up their need to control other people.”
“That’s a lot,” I reply. “It’s impressive. And what do they tell your they’re changing into?”
Marilyn looks around. “Just a moment.” A couple is emerging from a room. She waves them over to us. “Janet and Bill, tell Dylan here what you just experienced during your Rolfing session.”
Bill smiles. “I was suddenly overwhelmed by the beauty of everything I was seeing. For half an hour I felt connected to everyone, a sense of unity I’d never known before, wave after wave of universal love.”
“All that for me too,” Janet says, “and a vivid outlook from the heights. Transcendent heights. With a new understanding of myself – integrated within myself and yet linked with all other people. I’ve moved beyond the way society has limited girls and women to act. I feel empowered and I sense within me a far greater capacity to act.”
“Likewise,” says Bill. “Society has conditioned me into one kind of manhood. But I just sense within myself a much deeper capacity for nurturing people.”
“Terrific,” Marilyn tells them.
As they move on, she turns back to me.
“It’s all about like that.” She thinks of a few things she’s been hearing.
“They all talk about a shift in consciousness. Into a new quality of attention. A relaxed state. They’re paying attention in a qualitatively better way. They perceive with fresh eyes and keener ears and they perceive more – really see and hear what’s there. And they recognize more patterns – see from parts to what’s whole – and have more insights.
“They also have a shift in the quality of being alive. They have a sense of openness, exploration, and discovery, including self-discovery. A sense of timelessness with a sense of inner momentum. One guy told me that his experience had ‘flipped on the current which I call my life’. Their energy is free and flowing, which takes less energy than their old life.
“They say they’ve reannexed lost portions of themselves. Found their way into an inner equilibrium.
“They feel strong, sane, and competent and they trust themselves from the center of their being. At the same time, they see life as a series of experiments. Some experiments will fail and some will succeed. But they know that we learn from all our experiments – find things out.
“And most of all, they feel like a field within a larger social field. They feel more of those bonds that Martin Buber called I-Thou connections. They are more caring, more capable of friendship, community, brotherhood, sisterhood. They love freely, without unhealthy dependency, bargaining, or expectations in return. And with altruism toward each neighbor. Toward the circle of humanity. They feel called to serve. They feel drawn strongly in a direction which they completely trust – drawn toward their own vocation.”
I nod and smile. “Superb observations, Marilyn. Transformed people, transformed lives. It’s splendid. That’s why everybody’s here. That’s why everybody’s doing what they’re doing.”
I take the liberty of giving her a Platonic embrace. She smiles and wishes me well.
I spend a few minutes alone gazing out at the Pacific, hearing the waves lap at the cliff below. I’ve never been so inspired in my life.
What electrifying discoveries! The human potential movement is turning into the consciousness movement, and it’s all going to lead to better people and a better world. And I’m here at the dawn of it.
I’ve heard what I’ve needed to hear, witnessed what I’ve needed to witness. I’ve realized during my week here at Esalen that this is the quality of change I want to help bring about in my clients. Aiming at anything less than this depth of transformation would make no sense at all. And I’ve never been more revved up about doing it.
I’ve been accepted to the school of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, and I am hoping to gain additional knowledge and insight that will help me succeed in my mission.
I think the 70s have the expanding time feeling built into them. A lot happened in that decade.
You might enjoy this book I'm reading: Esalen / American and the Religion of No Religion
by Jeffrey J. Kripal
There's so much in here Mike! Fabulous. I'm printing it up