A

CATALOG
OF THE WAYS
PEOPLE GROW
PATANJALI'S YOGA AIKIDO PSY-
CHODRAMA ASTROLOGY GES-
TALT T H E R A P Y MYSTICISM
CONTEMPLATION DREAMS CON-
SCIOUSNESS TAROT BREATH-
ING THERAPY MEDITATION EN-
COUNTER GROUP YOGA THEA-
TER GAMES T-GROUPS ALEXAN-
DER TECHNIQUE ZEN HASIDISM
SYNANON SENSITIVITY TRAIN-
ING ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY
T'AI CHI CH'UAN GROWTH CEN-
TERS HATHA YOGA HYPNOSIS
BIOENERGETIC ANALYSIS FAM-
ILY T H E R A P Y SOCIETY OF
FRIENDS MOVEMENT IN DEPTH
STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION
YOGA PRECEPTS HUMANISTIC
PSYCHOLOGY ESP PRAYER
SHAMANISM TRANSCENDENTAL
MEDITATION SHELDON'S TYPES
HARA INNER IMAGERY PSYCHO-
THERAPY SENSORY AWARENESS
Copyright © 1971 by Severin Peterson
All rights reserved.
SBN 345-02258-0-165

The author and publisher gratefully thank the following publishers

and individuals for permission to reprint material which is in
copyright, or of which they are the authorized holder of rights.
If we have neglected to acknowledge any source, we apologize and
attribute this to oversight rather than to intention.
Experiment in Depth by P. W. Martin. Copyright © 1955 by P. W.
Martin. Reprinted by permission of Humanities Press, Inc.
Teach Yourself Astrology by Jeff Mayo. All rights reserved. Re-
printed by permission of the University of London Press Ltd. and
The American Federation of Astrologers and Shambala Publica-
tions, Inc.
Joy: Expanding Human Awareness by William C. Schutz. Copy-
right © 1967 by William C. Schutz. Reprinted by permission of
Grove Press, Inc.
The Betrayal of the Body by Dr. Alexander Lowen. Copyright ©
1967 by Alexander Lowen. Reprinted by permission of The Mac-
millan Company.
Cosmic Consciousness by Richard Maurice Buck. Copyright 1901,
1923 by E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publishers. Dutton Paperback
edition. Reprinted by permission of the publishers.
Human Behavior: An Inventory of Scientific Findings by Bernard
Berelson and Gary A. Steiner. © 1964 by Harcourt Brace Jovano-
vich, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Carl Rogers On Encounter Groups by Carl R. Rogers. Copyright
© 1970 by Carl R. Rogers. Reprinted by permission of Harper &
Row, Publishers, Inc.
Introduction to Psychology 3rd Edn. by Ernest R. Hilgard and
Richard C. Atkinson. Copyright 1953, © 1957, 1962 by Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Conjoint Family Therapy by Virginia Satir. Rev. edn. Copyright
© 1967 by Science and Behavior Books, Palo Alto, California.
Reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher.
Integral Yoga by Haridas Chaudhuri. All rights reserved. Re-
printed by permission of George Allen & Unwin, Ltd.
Hypnotherapy by Margaret Brenman and Merton Max Gill. Copy-
right © 1947 by Margaret Brenman, Ph.D. and Merton M. Gill.
Reprinted by permission of International Universities Press.
The Graces of Interior Prayer by A. Poulaln. All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.
Yoga: Immortality and Freedom by Mircea Eliade, translated by
Millard R. Trask, Bollingen Series LVI (2d edn.). Copyright ©
1958, 1969 by Princeton University Press. Princeton Paperback,
1970. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Mysticism by Evelyn Underhill. Published in 1961 by E. P. Dutton
& Co., Inc., in a paperback edition and reprinted with their
permission.
Readings in Humanistic Psychology by Anthony J. Sutich & Miles
A. Vich. Copyright © 1969 by The Free Press, a Division of The
Macmillan Company. Reprinted by permission.
Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy by Mircea Eliade,
translated by Willard R. Trask. Bollingen Series LXXVI. Copyright
© 1964 by Bollingen Foundation, New York. Reprinted by per-
mission of Princeton University Press.
The Master Game by Robert S. de Ropp. Copyright © 1968 by
Robert S. de Ropp. A Seymour Lawrence Book/Delacorte Press.
Reprinted by permission.
A Complete Guide To The Tarot by Eden Gray. © 1970 by Eden
Gray. Reprinted by permission of Crown Publishers, Inc.
The Religions of Man by Huston Smith. Copyright © 1958 by
Huston Smith. Reprinted by permission of Harper & Row, Pub-
lishers, Inc.
"The Zaddik" by Sheldon Kopp from Psychology Today Maga-
zine, May, 1969. Copyright © Communications/Research/Machines/
Inc. Reprinted by permission.
Christian Mysticism by W. R. Inge. All rights reserved. Reprinted
by permission of Methuen & Co., Ltd.
Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines by W. Y. Evans-Wentz. Copy-
right 1935, 1967 by Oxford University Press. Reprinted by permis-
sion of the publisher.
Physical Dynamics of Character Structure by Dr. Alexander Lowen.
Copyright © 1958 hv Grune & Stratton, Inc. Reprinted by per-
mission of the publisher.

First Printing: September, 1971

Printed in the United States of America

BALLANTINE BOOKS, INC.

101 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10003
dedicated to those
who live with
harmony, respect,
clarity, and calm.

a
 CONTENTS

PREFACE xi
A NOTE TO THE READER xiii
Aikido 1
Alexander Technique 9
Analytical Psychology 12
Astrology 25
Bioenergetic Analysis 33
Breathing Therapy 54
Consciousness 59
Contemplation 62
Dreams 66
Encounter Groups 69
ESP 85
Family Therapy 91
Friends, Society of 97
Gestalt Therapy 99
Growth Centers 113
Hara 139
Hasidism 142
Hatha Yoga 150
Hypnosis 153
Inner Imagery 161
Meditation 164
Movement in Depth 170
Mysticism 172
Patanjali's Yoga 177
Prayer 179
Psychodrama 191
Psychology, Humanistic 199
Psychotherapy 209
Sensitivity Training 215
Sensory Awareness 227
Shamanism 245
Sheldon's Types 248
Structural Integration 249
Synanon 252
T'ai Chi Ch'uan 255
Tarot 263
T-Groups 269
Theater Games 272
Transcendental Meditation 277
Yoga 278
Yoga Precepts 309
Zen 312
A DIRECTORY OF THE WAYS
PEOPLE GROW 331
 PREFACE

Each person is his own way of growth.

This is basic.
The persons and processes listed in this book are auxiliaries.
It can happen that these ways can interfere with one's own
way.
Mainly, though, they can help a lot, if you use them in the
right way, your way.
If the teacher of a way is respected, you will respect him.
If the teacher of a way gives you his best, you will give him
your best.
If a way becomes bigger than you, you have either made a
wonderful discovery or an enormous mistake.
 A NOTE TO THE READER

I suggest that you regard this book as being a manure

spreader, that all the words in this book are at best manure,
and that this book is a vehicle for spreading manure.
Little is gained if you do not plow manure under the
ground where it can begin to enrich the soil. After a while
the soil must be plowed again, this time into furrows; then
you must plant seeds, and water them if the climate is arid.
They must be cultivated as they sprout and grow and then,
if you have been patient and your environment is favorable,
you will have some food for your growth.
This book talks about different kinds of vegetables, fruits,
and bread grains that may be useful for human growth. How-
ever, all this printed talk is only so much manure if you do
not plow it under (through slow, thoughtful reading), plow
again and plant seeds (by getting personally involved), and
cultivate and water (through practicing and persevering).
Then in time you will find there is a slow, steady harvest of
nourishment available to sustain your growth.
As you read this book, you can, if you like, be spreading
manure. If you leave it on the ground, it will smell a little
and then dry up.
Whatever you do, don't use these words for careless dis-
cussion; the sight of persons throwing manure at each other
is a little ridiculous.
 A CATALOG OF
THE WAYS PEOPLE GROW
Aikido (See also HARA; T'AI CHI CH'UAN.)
There are many forms of oriental martial arts, including
judo, karate, and kendo. Aikido comes from within this
heritage. Koichi Tohei, one of the best teachers of this art,
writes:1

Aikido, the secret art of self-defense for more than fifty years
past, open only to people of the nobility in Japan, has been
made, after World War II, widely available to the public.
Aikido is in strict accord with the laws of Nature and is
full of the spirit of loving protection. This may explain why
it has been warmly received in the United States, Italy, India,
Burma, and other countries all over the world as the modern
martial art... .
The principles of Aikido, most modern of Japan's martial
arts, were discovered by Morihei Uyeshiba.
Its outstanding feature is that it made a great leap from
the traditional physical arts to a spiritual martial art, from a
relative martial art to an absolute art, from the aggressive,
fighting martial arts to a spiritual martial art that seeks to
abolish conflict.
When any one speaks of "myself," he nearly always means
"my physical self, or existence." He knows that his body has
weight and shape. Through his five senses of sight, smell,
taste, hearing and touch, he is always conscious of his physical
self. By contrast, his mind has neither color nor form. We
wash our faces each morning, but how many of us wash our
minds as well? Precious few! There are many people who
train their bodies but few who train their minds. Apparently
few realize that the mind like the body becomes soiled if it is
not washed, weak if it is not trained.
Another important fact to remember is that actually the
mind rules the body. It is the mind that leads and the body
What Is Aikido? (Tokyo: Rikugei Publishing Co., 1962).
1

_^J
2 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
that follows. Aikido realizes this truth and teaches that before
you attempt to move your body, you must use your mind,
and when you are trying to throw your opponent, before you
move his body, first lead his mind. Try to throw your oppo-
nent by brute force alone and you will find it heavy going.
Remember that the mind has neither weight nor volume, that
a big man does not necessarily have a heavy mind. If the art
of leading the mind is learned and mastered, even a woman
or a child can easily defeat a big man. .. .
In most martial arts, an enemy is put up and the training
is aimed at learning to defeat him. In Aikido, the aim is not
to conquer the enemy but to conquer oneself. This is why
Aikido is said to have leaped from the material, physical
martial arts to a spiritual martial art.
Heaven and earth are one. Mastering any one of the
martial arts means obedience to the absolute laws of Heaven
and Earth, or Nature. If you can truly understand and obey
the laws of Nature and carry out her dictates, you become
an integral part of Nature and any one who attacks you will
be attacking Nature herself. There is no one who can hope to
prevail against Nature's laws. To defeat an opponent is a
relative victory. There is always a day coming when the victor
of today becomes the vanquished of tomorrow. Become then
a part of Nature; strive to grow in it and with it. Men of old
said, "Do not blame others nor hate them. Be afraid only of
your lack of sincerity." In Aikido, seek not to be strong but
to be just, not victory over an enemy but victory over self
through correct principles.
Then if you can add polish to polish in your art, there will
be no need to strive unduly to defeat an opponent. He him-
self will obey you and you will find yourself without an
enemy. And you will understand then that Aikido has indeed
made the leap from a physical martial art to a spiritual
martial art.
The world today is full of conflict and this has led us to
the brink of annihilation.
Conflict will never cease so long as mankind is convinced
that this is a world of conflict and that any one who refuses
to fight loses social status. If we sincerely wish for world
peace, each individual must nurture within himself the spirit
of non-aggression.
In Aikido, every art was designed in obedience to the laws
of Nature so that there is no strain in its execution. Obey the
 AIKIDO 3
laws of Nature in all your movements and win; disobey and
lose. Let your opponent go where he wants to go; let him
return where he wants to return and bend in the direction
he wants to bend as you lead him, and then let him fall
where he wants to fall. There is no need to strain yourself
unduly.
You can try to turn back a stream, but you will have to
use brute force to do it. How much easier it is to honor the
power of the stream and lead it wherever you wish.
Again, if a rock weighing 100 pounds is falling directly
toward your head, it would be a tremendous feat to stop it
with your bare hands. But if instead of trying to catch it, you
step nimbly aside, the rock drops to the ground without doing
you any harm. If the rock weighed 1,000 pounds, it would
be just as easy to step aside. There is a limit to what you can
accomplish by physical force, but what you can accomplish
by non-violence is limitless. In Aikido, there is no practice
in the use of brute force but there is training in how to use
an opponent's own strength in leading him. To the degree
that the feeling of contention disappears, your technique
progresses. Women, children and older men may practice the
Aikido arts easily and develop amazing strength.
For this reason, Aikido can call itself "the non-fighting
martial art."
Aikido is not merely an art of self-defense but into its
techniques and movements are woven elements of philosophy,
psychology and dynamics. As you learn the various arts, you
will at the same time train your mind, improve your health
and develop an unbreakable self-confidence. . . .
He who would learn Aikido must first know ki. To go
through the motions of Aikido without knowing ki is like a
dish prepared without seasoning; it has form and appearance
but is neither salty nor sweet. There can be no true under-
standing of Aikido without ki. . . .
The word most frequently used in Aikido is ki. Ki is a very
convenient word because it has both a deep meaning con-
nected with nature and a light meaning which is used in daily
life. It is very difficult to define ki and even more difficult to
translate it into English. Therefore, the word ki will be used
in the explanation of Aikido.
In oriental thought, it is said that in the beginning there
was chaos. The dust of chaos settled gradually to form the
sun, the earth, the moon and the stars. On the earth, the
4 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

elements combined to become minerals, animal and vegetable

life. We call the chaotic condition before the universe took
shape ki. We say therefore that all things came from ki.
Ki itself has neither beginning nor end, nor increase nor
decrease. Though its shape was changed, ki itself was never
changed. We can see many things around us all made from
ki, and when they lose their shape, their elements return
to ki. Depending on what you believe, you call it God, or
Buddha or Akua or some other name.
Aikido is the way of at-one-ment with cosmic power or ki.
That is the deep meaning of ki.
What is the light meaning of ki used in our daily life? A
good feeling, a bad feeling, a great feeling, timidity, vigor,
courage, a retiring disposition, et cetera—-these are terms
used in our daily life. In each word or phrase, the Japanese
use ki as an integral part. The reason is that a human being
was created from ki of the universe. While he receives ki,
he is alive. Deprive him of ki and he dies; he loses his human
shape. So long as his body is filled with ki and it pours forth
abundantly, he is vigorous and filled with courage. On the
contrary, when his body has run out of ki, he is weak,
cowardly and retiring.
In Aikido training, we make every effort to learn to fill our
body with ki and use it powerfully. Therefore, we must under-
stand well the deep meaning of ki.

(1) Ki Wo Neru—To Train Your Ki

The meaning of training your ki is that you believe that
your body is filled with ki of the universe so you keep the
one point, make it the center of your body and pour forth
ki from your whole body. You must train it in every move-
ment of the Aikido arts.
(2) Ki Wo Totonoeru—To Prepare Your Ki
You keep your mind at the one point, let your breathing
be calm and keep yourself calm, ready to move quickly at
any time.
(3) Ki Wo Dasu—To Pour Forth Ki
Like an unbendable arm, if you think that your power is
gushing out through your arm, it becomes very strong and
difficult to bend. Such use of the mind is called pouring
forth ki.
 AIKIDO 5
If you believe that your ki is gushing forth, your ki is really
gushing out. For example, as you are walking along, someone
pushes you by your shoulder. If you pull your ki inward or
your mind trails behind your body, your attacker will be
able to push you back or throw you down. If you pour forth
your ki and your mind is ahead of your body, he will not be
able to push you back, but instead he himself will be pushed
back by the impact.
Let us say there is clear water gushing out from a spring
in a muddy stream. As long as this water gushes out, muddy
water cannot get into the spring. But if the clear water stops
flowing for even a moment, muddy water will enter the spring
immediately.
Ki is like this spring water. As long as your ki is being
poured forth, your opponent's ki does not come upon you.
Stop pouring forth your ki or pull your ki inward and your
opponent's power will engage you instantly.
If you would gain true understanding, you must practice
diligently the art of pouring forth a constant stream of ki.
Master this and you will be able to see whether or not your
opponent pours out his ki merely by looking at his form and
posture.
The power which is not directed against you is nothing
for you to worry about, though it may be very strong. If you
would understand non-resistance or non-aggression, the essen-
tial principle of Aikido, you must first practice pouring forth
your ki.
The reasoning back of non-resistance is not to run away
from your opponent's strength but so to maneuver that his
hi does not engage you; make him lose his aggressive urge.
This is the real victory. You may fell your opponent but as
long as you leave him with the urge to attack, there may
come a day when you will be defeated by him. The real
victory comes when you expunge from his mind this urge
to attack.

(4) Ki No Nagare—The Stream of Ki

Whenever you keep pouring forth your ki and swinging
your arms, you draw a circle or a line that resembles a
continuous stream of water. Such a stream is called "the
stream of ki."
If you set a point on the ground and use a length of rope
as your radius, you can make a circle. Of course, the rope
6 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

must be held taut or the circle will not be perfect. If you

continuously pour forth your ki and keep the one point, your
hands will naturally move in a circle. If your ki is poured
forth sporadically, your form becomes ragged and you lose
power. When you move your body, as you move your one
point too, your hands make eccentric circles and revolutions.
Like illustrations a. b. and c. your stream can take many
shapes and you can whirl your opponent into the strong
stream of your ki and throw him.

Figure 1

(5) Ki Wo Kim—To Cut Ki

To cut ki means to cut the stream of ki. If your mind be-
comes frozen or you pull your ki inward for even a moment,
your stream of ki is cut off and its power will likewise be
cut off.
As an analogy, once you start pushing a cart, momentum
keeps it going with not too much effort on your part. If you
stop, you must fight inertia to get it moving again.
If you continue the stream of ki and do not cut it, you
can lead your opponent by bringing him into your stream of
ki and letting his power go back against himself, so that
throwing him down will be quite easy.
When you cut your ki at any time, his ki will come upon
you immediately and you will not be able to move him. You
must practice always not to cut your ki but to continue to
pour it forth.
 AIKIDO 7

(6) KiGaNukeru—To Lose Ki

To lose ki means that you have forgotten your one point
and are in no condition to pour forth your ki. When you are
disappointed or discouraged or tired of your work, put the
cause down as loss of ki.
You will never succeed in anything if you lose your ki.
Especially since Aikido is the training of ki, it is better to
stop practicing if you are doing it without ki because that
will cause you to form bad habits. You must always put your
ki into your training. . . .
The name Aikido itself means the way of coordinating
with ki, and in daily Aikido practice, such expressions as,
"pour forth ki," "leading your opponent's ki," "do not draw
your ki inward," or "do not stop the flow of ki," are used
constantly.
The "one point," a place in the abdomen about two fingers'
width below the navel, is inseparable from the study of ki
in Aikido and is closely related to the Japanese practice of
Hara. Koichi Tohei elaborates:

Every object has its center of gravity near the bottom. Even
a human being must be considered to be an object. When it
is allowed to stand naturally, its center of gravity should be
at The One Point.
If the mind is relaxed and concentrated here, and the rest
of your body drained of its strength, then comes true relaxa-
tion. . ..
There are any number of other examples that can be given
but briefly the important lesson to learn is that if you keep
your center of gravity at The One Point as you train, you
can relax. You can see that to put strength into your head
and throw it back or swagger about with your shoulders
perked up is unnatural.
It is easy to make a mistake about one important point.
When The One Point is mentioned, many concentrate their
physical strength there. When this is done, strength naturally
goes also to the torso and The One Point is forgotten. The
One Point is not the place to concentrate your physical
strength but the place for your mind to settle.
"This is the center of my mind," is all you need to think
of The One Point. Once you have learned to attain this state
of mind, use it in your daily training and practice using it
8 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

in all your actions. Since this state of mind allows your center
of gravity to rest where it should, constant practice soon
enables you without conscious effort to get the habit of relax-
ing at all times, able to use the potential of your mind and
body at a moment's notice.
To be able to pour forth your ki, you must always settle
your mind on The One Point. If you do not, you cannot
pour forth your ki. To put it another way, when your ki
is pouring out, it is always when your mind is settled on The
One Point. These two sentences sound different but they are
exactly the same in meaning. Thus Aikido training can be
carried on anywhere at any time.
When something serious happens, if you ask yourself, "Is
my inner self on The One Point?" and make certain that the
answer is, "Yes!" you have no reason to become excited but
can remain calm and relaxed. If you become angry, you know
that The One Point is gone and you immediately relax and
remind yourself that your mind must be on The One Point,
and your anger disappears before you are aware of it. Whether
you walk or drive, if your mind is on The One Point, you feel
no fatigue. So day by day, moment by moment, you live life
usefully, polishing your own character.

The main center of study for Aikido is in Tokyo. All the

teachers practicing Aikido in the United States received
their black belts there; the best teachers live there. There
are Aikido teachers in many major American cities; Cali-
fornia and New York have Aikido federations. The federa-
tions offer no tournaments, trophies, or medals: Aikido is
not a competitive pursuit. Koichi Tohei has written a num-
ber of introductory books, most of them filled with illus-
trations of the various ways of contacting, leading, and
throwing the ki of others. In Aikido you learn through
action, through interaction with the teacher and others who
have become more centered in their one point and have
their ki more integrated and available.
Formal training is a series of many increasingly complex
methods of leading and throwing an opponent. Tohei has
spoken of the ten thousand arts of Aikido. Here, he states
some fundamentals:
The martial arts begin with courtesy and end with courtesy,
not in form alone but in heart and mind as well.
 ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE 9
Aikido strives truly to understand Nature, to be grateful
for her wonderful gifts to us, to make her heart its heart,
and to become one with her. This striving for understanding
and the practical application of the laws of Nature, expressed
in the words ax and hi, form the fundamental concept of the
art of Aikido.

As Nature loves and protects all creation and helps all

things grow and develop, Aikido leads every devotee along
the straight and narrow path and strives to teach mankind
its truths with all sincerity.

Do not criticize any of the other martial arts. Speak ill of

others and it will surely come back to you. The mountain
does not laugh at the river because it is lowly, nor does the
river speak ill of the mountain because it cannot move about.

There is no discord in the absolute truth of nature, but

there is discord in the realm of relative truth. Aikido is in
accord with Nature.

Be warned against self-conceit. Know that it is brought on

by shallow thinking and cheaply bought compromise with
your ideals, although Nature is boundless.

Cultivate the calm mind that comes from putting nature

into your body. Concentrate your thoughts on the one point.

Other books on Aikido are Koichi Tohei, Aikido in Every-

day Life (Tokyo: Rikugei Publishing Co., 1966), available
from Japan Publications Trading Co. (P.O. Box 469, Rut-
land, Vt. 05701); A. Westbrook and O. Ratti, Aikido and
the Dynamic Sphere (Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1970),
with diagrams illustrating energy movements.

Alexander Technique {See also BREATHING THERAPY; SENSORY

AWARENESS; STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION.)

The Alexander Technique is a psychophysical system that

teaches good use of the body through conscious control.
Though practitioners use definite methods, the word
"technique" is somewhat misleading. The participant is not
given a specific method or repetitive way to work. He is to
10 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
develop a new way of becoming conscious of his self—
his physical self, which makes the task difficult, for most
people are not fully aware of their physical self.
As in Sensory Awareness, the everyday movements of
going from sitting to standing, standing to walking, are
studied. You are told to attend to the sensory level of your
structure and alignment—not in order to change it, but
simply to become aware of how you actually hold your
head, how you strain while simply sitting. Once you begin
to learn how to pay attention, what to look for, improve-
ment of the physical self is possible through the use of
conscious attention.
Among past students were Aldous Huxley, John Dewey,
and George Bernard Shaw.

The technique was developed around 1900 by the late

F. M. Alexander, an Australian. Afflicted by periodic loss of
voice, for which medical treatments gave only temporary
relief, Alexander suspected that the problem might be the
result of something he was doing with his vocal mechanism.
He began using a mirror to observe himself while he spoke,
and discovered that what he was doing wrong did not stop (or
start) with his vocal mechanism but involved a pattern of
malfunctioning that he carried out throughout his entire body.
He also realized that what he felt he was doing was quite dif-
ferent from what he observed in the mirror. His customary
use of his body, although it caused his vocal problems, felt
natural and "right," while new improved habits at first felt
strange.
In the painstaking course of solving his problems, Alexander
developed a new approach to physical education and health,
an approach that has enabled thousands of men, women and
children to use their bodies with ease, grace, flexibility and
freedom from strain. Alexander established a school in Lon-
don sixty years ago; since then the Technique has spread
throughout the world. . . .
Basic to the Technique is "Primary Control"—a specific
relationship of head and neck that enables one to achieve
good body use. Lessons are concerned chiefly with teaching
the pupil to develop and maintain Primary Control.
In lessons, the student:
a) becomes conscious of his poor habits of posture and
carriage;
 ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE 11
b) learns to inhibit them;
c) learns to replace them with improved habits.
Students find that progress in these three areas is made
simultaneously.1
Edward Maisel writes on the practitioner-participant rela-
tionship as well as the methods used:2
. . . what is required of the student? During lessons he must
when called upon to perform any given activity simply refuse
to do anything at all. Stand? Sit? Walk? He simply refuses
each time to do anything. This does not mean that he remains
in a state of inert collapse. For one thing, he works con-
sciously at refusing those involuntary preparations—some-
times called "sets"—that he has always, in the past, made
before going into any such acts. It is the subtle, taken-for-
granted habits of getting ready for every move that must be
revealed and prevented.
The reader of this article is now asked to stand up for a
moment . . . Stop! Before even starting to rise from your
sofa or chair, did you perhaps begin to foreshorten the
muscles at the back of your neck? If so, that constitutes a
part of your particular "set," or involuntary preparation for
getting up. And it is also an example of the kind of thing
that you would gradually learn to prevent during lessons.
With this special form of cooperation from the student, the
teacher then "stands" him, "walks" him, encouraging the
desired head-neck-torso relationship throughout the process.
To the degree to which the student does not intrude any of
his old habits, he allows the teacher's manual guidance to
give him, over and over again, a new sensory experience of
these common acts.
Finally, sitting, standing, walking like this begins to "feel
right." His neck feels free, his head going forward and up,
and his torso lengthening and fanning out toward the shoul-
ders. Between lessons, he will continue saying "no" to his
old ways of doing everything, actively permitting the replace-
ment of the old movements by new ones acquired during
lessons... .
The end result is that, in time, the special requisite head-
neck-torso pattern is established and continues as a primary
control of all movements. Nothing static: nothing "postural."
'Harper's Bazaar, April, 1967.
12 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

Head, neck and torso—like every other part of the body—

are freely and independently movable at all times. There
persists, however, a certain dynamic relationship among them.
For this is not, as may at first appear, the concerted posi-
tioning of certain body segments. Rather, the Alexander
technique involves a faculty that we all possess but frequently
overlook because it is not one of the familiar "five senses" of
Aristotle. Almost everyone, however, knows a Uttle something
about the "kinesthetic sense," or the body sense as it is some-
times called. For it is from this sense that we derive knowl-
edge of the gestures we make and of pressures or tensions
anywhere in our body.
Alexander's books, a bibliography, an introductory pamph-
let, and a directory of practitioners are available from the
American Center for the Alexander Technique, Inc., a
nonprofit educational institution (227 Central Park West,
New York, N.Y. 10024).
Introductory readings include F. Mathias Alexander, The
Use of the Self, and G. C. Bowden, F. Mathias Alexander
and the Creative Advance of the Individual (London: L. N.
Fowler, 1965), These and other books are available from
Re-Educational Publications, Ltd. (16 Ashley PI., London,
SW 1, England). There are Alexander practitioners in New
York, California, and other states.

Analytical Psychology {See also DREAMS; INNER IMAGERY.)

A full statement of Jung's work is not possible here. Such a
statement would be as lengthy as it would be rich in detail.
But we can mention some of his key discoveries, his basic
principles, and his method of working with dreams, which
has been called the keystone of his approach.
There does not seem to be any one book that offers a
basic introduction. The Psychology of C. G. Jung by
Yolande Jacobi (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962)
contains a complete exposition of the theory, nature and
structure of the psyche, and practical applications, as well
as a biography and a complete bibliography. Memories,
Dreams, Reflections (New York: Random House, 1961),
Jung's autobiography, tells the events of his life and vividly
presents the style of life he led. It contains a valuable
glossary. Man and His Symbols (New York: Dell, 1964),
 ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 13
edited by Jung, is abundantly illustrated, but slow reading.
P. W. Martin's Experiment in Depth contains clear and
concise introductory material:1

C. G. Jung's essential contribution to the psychology of the

unconscious came from the fact that he studied not only the
successes of this new therapy, its 'cures', but still more its
failures. For a time, as a young man, he applied the free
association method, together with dream and fantasy analyses,
keeping an open mind as to whether the sex drive, the will-
to-power, or some other factor or factors should be held
basically responsible. He found that some patients fitted
admirably into the Freudian framework, with unresolved sex
problems at the root to their troubles. Others no less obviously
had the will-to-power underlying their difficulties. In many,
the sex drive and the will-to-power were so closely inter-
twined as to be inextricable. In either case, the complexes
once found were subjected to the same type of treatment. By
bringing them into the open, talking them over and analysing
them down, showing how they had formed in childhood or
as a result of some experience which at the time could not
be borne, tracing them to their instinctive origins, working
them off in many cases upon the analyst himself (the so-
called 'transference'), the complexes gradually dissolved and
the neurosis apparently cured.
Certain of these 'cures', though, at times proved little
better than the disease. The patient came out of the analytical
process with the neurosis gone, but lacking all energy to
take up life anew. The 'reductive technique', as Jung calls it,
reducing everything to infantile sexuality, thwarted will-to-
power, or whatever else appeared to be responsible, had often
this fatal flaw in it: the vitality, the something which makes
life worth living, leaked away in the process. The operation
was successful but psychologically the patient died.
Jung found that this loss of energy appeared to take place
whenever especially impressive symbols figuring in the dreams
or fantasies of patients were analysed away by means of the
reductive technique. A man, for instance, might have a key
repeatedly appearing in his dream. This clearly would admit
of a sexual interpretation. It could equally well have will-to-
power significance.

*(New York: Pantheon Books, 1955).

14 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

The fact that the Freudian, Adlerian and other systems of

depth psychology are not referred to in the ensuing pages
in no way implies that they are looked upon as unimportant.
On the contrary, in their respective spheres, they are of the
utmost importance. But in the withdrawal-and-return, which
is the essential theme of the experiment in depth, it is the
Jungian approach that is especially relevant; and for that
reason especially considered here. It should be emphasized,
however, that no attempt has been made to give a complete
account of the Jungian system. For this, Jung's own works
should be consulted. . . .
But to the patient, any such explaining away of the symbol
as infantile sexuality or concealed will-to-power, though it
might be accepted on the authority of the analyst, was felt as
a great loss. To him it was The Key; and although he could
not give any rational explanation to himself or anybody else
of what The Key meant, he felt that it meant something vital
to him. So long as he could hold on to The Key which had
come to him, life seemed possible; but without that symbol,
that myth, to support him in his struggles, nothing seemed
worth while.
Jung accordingly, when he came across such a symbol in
his treatment, instead of analysing it away, encouraged the
patient to amplify it, to seek what The Key meant to him;
to establish, as it were, its mental context, its symbolical
background. In other words, instead of assuming that every-
thing which came from the unconscious was necessarily bad,
Jung treated the matter empirically, and where unconscious
material appeared to be helpful gave it a chance to prove
itself.

The Constructive Technique

There followed a series of wholly unexpected discoveries.
In the first place, the unconscious progressively responded to
this new approach, elaborating and adding to the symbolical
material produced. Dreams and fantasies became richer and
more positive. Insofar as consciousness took a co-operative
attitude toward the unconscious, the unconscious itself grew
increasingly co-operative.
In the second place, this material had an evident effect
upon the energy and general psychological condition of the
patient.The treatment took a new turn, interest going over to
the positive symbolical material streaming in from the un-
 ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 15
conscious. Accordingly, in place of, or alongside, the reductive
technique previously followed, Jung developed a 'constructive
technique' in which the neurosis, instead of being (as it were)
operated upon and excised by a process of psychological
surgery, gradually became outlived, the patient developing
new interests, new energy and new aims with the help of the
symbolical material coming out of the unknown.
The third major discovery was that the life-bringing sym-
bols being produced by the unconscious were age-old. On
examination they proved to be similar to, often identical with,
the themes and images found in the mystery cults of antiquity,
in classical myth and legend, in folk lore and fairy tales, in
Indian and Chinese Yoga, in the rites and practices of medi-
eval secret societies, in the visions of the mystics, in the great
world religions. Jung found intricate symbols produced in
the course of analysis which neither he nor the patient knew
anything about, but which were afterwards discovered in
obscure treatises, buried in the depths of time, coming from
widely different parts of the world.2
In short, the unconscious was producing today, in the
psychologist's consulting room, symbols which, far away and
long ago, had brought new energy and new insights; and the
modern Europeans and Americans through whom this activity
was operating were likewise experiencing a dynamic renewal
of life.
The fourth and fundamental discovery was that this con-
structive activity of the unconscious was not restricted to
neurotic patients. Normal men and women, provided they
were prepared to take the trouble and run the risks, also
experienced this flow of life-bringing symbols; and underwent
a profound change in values and attitude as a consequence.
In other words, this source of new energy and new interest
was not a kind of psychological antibody, produced by the
psyche to combat neurosis. It was an integral part of normal
life, at present virtually ignored.
Jung thereupon proceeded to develop this constructive
technique, no longer solely as a means of dealing with mental
sickness, but rather as a practical enquiry into the nature of
life. This enquiry led him into many and various fields of
investigation. He found that different types of people encoun-

"Mart and His Symbols, mentioned earlier, illustrates this point very
clearly.—Ed.
16 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
tered reality—both outer reality and inner reality—in widely
different ways; these differences in the nature of experience
accounting in large measure for the widely different accounts
given by psychologists of what goes on the other side of
consciousness. He developed new techniques for increasing
the flow of material coming from the unconscious and for
becoming aware of this material. He studied the whole process
of myth and symbol formation as revealed by these tech-
niques, both in neurotic patients and in men and women in
good psychological health. He likewise studied parallel pro-
cesses of symbol formation in the great religions, in primitive
tribes, in esoteric societies such as the Alchemists and
Gnostics, in practices such as the Tantric Yoga and the Exer-
cises of Ignatius Loyola, in legends such as the quest for the
Holy Grail, in works of art and literature such as Nietzsche's
Also Sprach Zarathustra, and in mythology generally, from
the Great Mother and death-and-rebirth cults of remote
antiquity to the fairy story and folk tales of all peoples.
Above all, he studied those factors and forces at work the
other side of consciousness making for the integration of the
individual personality, the building of the whole man. And
there he found himself dealing with essentially the same
psychic realities as lie behind the great world religions.
. . . the constructive technique is in the main a matter of
attitude. This is not to suggest that the methods employed
are in any sense unimportant. On the contrary, for most
people they are indispensable. But unless the basic attitude
behind them is right, they will not work.
What then is the right attitude? This, in a sense, is for each
person to discover for himself. There is no universally valid
prescription. Expressed in general terms, though, I should say
that it is an attitude compounded of serious attention, in-
volvement and objectivity: together with a basic steadfast-
ness of spirit. At first sight, involvement and objectivity may
appear difficult to reconcile. What I mean by this is that a
man must be wholly committed to the experiment, not regard
it merely as an intellectual excursion; but at the same time
repeatedly stand back from it, bring to bear upon it the maxi-
mum of conscious awareness. For unless he is wholly com-
mitted he will go nowhere. And if he fails to bring to bear
upon it the maximum of conscious awareness, the experiment
is likely to run away with him.
Of the two other components—an attitude of serious
 ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 17
attention and a basic steadfastness of spirit—each has its
special importance. So far as can be judged, it is the attitude
of serious attention that stimulates the constructive activity
of the unconscious. For instance, to attempt to recall one's
dreams is a first step toward serious attention. To write them
down is a step further. To record them systematically in a
special book kept for that purpose is a step further still. To
do one's best to analyse them and get at their meaning carries
the process a long stage beyond the mere recording. To
realize, from experience, that the dream images represent in
their own fashion the vital forces at work the other side of
consciousness carries the process full circle. 3
Serious attention requires as its counterpart a natural
steadfastness of spirit. Without this, the experiment in depth
can be unduly dangerous. When we deal with the deep
unconscious, we are dealing with the depths from which, only
yesterday as it were, consciousness emerged. In doing so,
inevitably, we place consciousness in peril. To take it upon
oneself to apply the constructive technique in one's life, a
man needs not only resolution but psychological stamina.
Without it, the risk is too great. If you do not have it—and
we are all made as we are made—keep away. To recognize
that there are some things one is not fitted to do, is not
cowardice but wisdom.
Finally, in this attempt to characterize the general attitude
fundamental to the constructive technique, the word attitude
itself may usefully be annotated. Not only in practicing the
constructive technique but in everything appertaining to the
experiment in depth, attitude is what matters most. A sure
counsel at all times, whenever things go wrong, is 'examine
your attitude.' By this, needless to say, is not meant the
attitude one is assuming, one's mental pose, so to speak. What
is meant rather is the poise, balance, disposition of the total
psyche. Jung defines attitude as 'readiness of the psyche to
act or to react in a certain direction'. In the experiment in
depth this readiness needs to be a steadfast readiness, a

"It should not be inferred from this that for anyone at any time
serious attention to dreams is necessarily the right course. For a par-
ticular person, at a particular time, it may be. But dreams are only one
aspect of the activity of the other side of consciousness. For a par-
ticular person at a particular time, other aspects may be of greater
importance.
18 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

determination and an ability to hold on to the last grasp, the

attitude of Jacob at the ford:

'And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him un-
til the breaking of the day.
And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched
the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out
of joint, as he wrestled with him.
And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will
not let thee go, except thou bless me.
And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel:
for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and
hast prevailed.
And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name.
And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my
name? And he blessed him there.
And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen
God face to face.'

Dream Analysis
Dream analysis is the keystone of the constructive tech-
nique. Most depth psychologists would probably agree that
dreams show, in their own manner, the situation in the un-
conscious. This manner is a figurative one, a picture writing,
a language of images. The problem is to know what these
images mean.
There are three principal methods of interpreting the dream
images. There is the old wives' method: 'If you dream of a
cat, it means that someone is coming to tea who will tell you
interesting news.' There is no warrant for considering it
scientific although, like all such lore, it may occasionally have
interesting, inexplicable insights.
There is an a priori method, which starts with an estab-
lished theory as to the nature of dreams, and deduces from
that what the images represent. This is excellent, provided
the theory happens to be right. But if it is not right, then it
involves a circular deception of the type of the conjurer
triumphantly producing from the hat the rabbit he had pre-
viously put into it. To take an imaginary example. Let our
theory of dreams be that they are wholly concerned with
 ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 19

nutrition, eating and drinking. Then practically all long and

rigid objects can be interpreted as knife, fork or spoon; every .
concave object as glass, cup, goblet, or mug; every circular
object, a plate; every rectangular object, a tray; while the
combination of knife, plate, tray and mug will constitute the
central symbol of the Square Meal. Within this framework,
the various kinds of foods and drink, their absorption, diges-
tion and elimination, will be symbolized in endless profusion.
Our theory will also give us the clue to the great art and
literature of the world—which will be seen as cunningly
disguised descriptions of Gargantuan appetites—to say noth-
ing of such classics as Little Jack Horner, Hey-diddle-diddle,
Simple Simon, and others. Accordingly, to such extent as we
adopt an a priori method of dream analysis we need to be
very certain that our basic theory is accurate. Otherwise, the
possibilities of self-deception become almost infinite.
There remains the empirical method, which starts with the
data, argues from the facts. It says, in effect, if there is any
reason in dreams at all, there is presumably some reason why
in this particular dream the man climbs through a window
instead of going through the door. Well and good, let's see
what we can find out—from the person having the dream—
what climbing through the window means to him. Has he
ever done it? If so why, where, when? Has he heard of people
doing it—Romeo, cat burglars, returning roysterers or what
not? Is there perhaps some window he would like to climb
through? Does climbing through a window perhaps symbolize
something to him? In brief, what is the mental context for
him in which this image is contained?
In using this empirical method it is necessary, therefore,
to seek first of all the personal amplifications of the different
images appearing in the dream and then to piece the meaning
together with the help of the background material thus
obtained. As need hardly be said, it is the dreamer's personal
amplifications that are sought, not somebody else's personal
amplifications. It was to him that the dream came. It was
from his mental equipment, as it were, that the images were
taken. It is his development of the context of these images
that stands a chance of being relevant.
At this point it needs to be emphasized that it is amplifica-
tion, not free association that is sought. This is highly impor-
tant because otherwise a most convincing interpretation may
be arrived at which owes nothing to the dream.
 1

20 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

For instance, a man dreams that he is staying in a farm-
house. His amplification for this may strike off in all sorts of
directions: maybe, he stayed for a while in a farmhouse when
he was a child; maybe, farmhouse has an idyllic ring for him,
all the townsman's longing for a cottage in the country; may-
be, farmhouse raises in him bitter memories of years lost in
fruitless labour, striving to reclaim derelict land; or again, it
was at a farmhouse that such and such a girl was staying . . .
and he is off and away in some sentimental episode of the
past. These are all genuine amplifications, probings into the
mental tissue, as it were, in which the image is imbedded.
Now suppose the request for amplication to be strongly put.
The dreamer is asked, 'What does farmhouse remind you of?'
'Cows,' he replies. 'And cows, what do they make you think
of?' 'Cows?' 'Cows.' 'Women—just what they are, lot of
cows.' And in all probability he has found a rapid association
route to some complex just beneath the surface, with which,
it may well be, the dream has nothing to do. If instead of
farmhouse, the Eiffel Tower or the Atlantic Ocean had been
given the starting point, he would have gotten to the same
place. Such 'interpretation' of dreams, while rather convinc-
ing to anyone who does not know better (after all, has it not
led to the complex?) is widely removed from genuine dream
analysis. The dream, figuratively speaking, may have come
from the very depths of the unconscious, thousands of feet
down. By using it to set up an associative chain all that is
discovered is the current complex a few inches deep, which
could just as easily have been dug out by any other associative
technique.
The amplification method starts, therefore, with such back-
ground material as the dreamer himself can supply to each
of his dream images. A second source of amplification is to
be found in previous dreams. Wherever possible, it is much
more satisfactory to work upon a dream series rather than
upon a single dream. A method can then be employed analo-
gous to that used to decipher unknown languages. Where the
same sign is found in a number of different passages, the
philologist has the task of imagining what it is that could fit
into each of these contexts and so arrives at some approxima-
tion of its meaning. In like manner, if 'farmhouse' turns up
in dream 7, dream 16, dreams 53, 54, 55 and again in dream
59, as well as last night, there is a much better chance of
getting at its significance.
 ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 21
There is yet a third source of amplifications: the dreams,
as it were, of mankind. Particularly when the dream intro-
duces images totally strange to the dreamer's everyday life—
human sacrifices, temples, the bottom of the sea, prehistoric
reptiles—the amplifications coming from myths, religions,
folklore, fairy tales, may prove relevant. If, for instance, a
townsman who never actually sees snakes continually dreams
of them, possibly some of the serpent-lore to be found all
over the world may help in the interpretation.
Where none of these forms of amplification is able to
throw light on a dream image, Jung's counsel is to see that
image as literally, as primitively and naively, as possible. As
he says, naivete is a fault in the conduct of life but it is a
virtue in the elucidation of the dream image. On the other
side of consciousness it is as if we were still at the primitive
level and the more we can see the images with complete
absence of sophistication the nearer we get to their meaning.
Thus, a weapon is something we may use to protect ourselves,
to enforce our will, to dominate others. A tool is a means of
making something, or working more effectively. A motor-car
is something which carries us about (important to know who
is driving) with a motor, a drive, other than our own. A bus
or a tram or a train, likewise; but this is something everyone
goes by, a collective way; and trams and trains run on rails,
have to follow a set course. A bicycle is an individual way
of going about, where one has to supply one's own drive and
keep one's balance. The kitchen is a place where the cooking
is done, where raw food is made assimilable, able to be
digested. If in the dream I look in the mirror and see I have
acquired a great shock of red hair, red hair is what is coming
out of my head (and such sayings as: 'Keep your hair on',
'It got in his hair', 'She took her hair down', give some im-
pression of how hair appears to the popular mind which we
all share). If I am out in the street without shoes, then my
feet are liable to suffer; shoes protect one against the asperities
of the way. If I find myself in public insufficiently clad, that
is the comment the dream is making—that I am not dressed
to go out, yet am doing so. Long experience with dream
analysis makes many of these figurative uses familiar. But this
naive, child-like, interpretation of the dream image, im-
mensely important as it is, should only be used if more direct
amplification is lacking. To be in a train, for instance, may
have relevant personal meaning: for one man, a means of
22 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

escape; for another, the fulfillment of his heart's desire; for

yet a third, a symbol of disaster.
Dream analysis is still in its infancy. Half a dozen different
psychologists are quite capable of giving half a dozen different
interpretations to the same dream. Many dreams yield no
more than the merest hints of what may be behind them.
The four methods used in the constructive technique—the
dreamer's own amplifications, the philologist's device of
deducing the meaning of an image from its appearance in
different dreams, the mythical background of an image and
the naive interpretation—have this immense advantage. They
do not rely on any dogma as to the nature of dreams. There
is no forcing of the meaning. The dream images are enabled
to speak for themselves. This is a standpoint to be preserved
at all costs. Otherwise, inevitably, one falls into some form of
the a priori self-deception—the conjurer-rabbit-and-hat fallacy
of dream analysis.
Dealt with by these means, what do the dreams show? This
depends in great measure upon the depth of the dream, a
rather elusive quality, but in practice not so elusive as it at first
sounds. Many dreams appear to be relatively superficial, a
straight reaction of the unconscious to the standpoint of con-
sciousness. For instance, we take on a new job and feel we
are doing rather well, the dream shows us bogged down in
a marsh, lost in a city we do not know, trying to catch a
train and unable to collect our luggage, going back to school
and being scolded for lateness, caught again in some situation
of the past we hate to remember. Or, conversely, our attitude
in actual life is pessimistic, despairful. The dream shows us
running like an Olympic Champion, throwing opponents
about with the ease of a practised all-in wrestler, moving into
a new house wonderfully designed. Or again, we meet some-
one during the day and form a low opinion of him. In the
night we dream of him and he is having the freedom of the
city conferred upon him, while we are in the crowd looking
on. This reaction type of dream is one of the commonest.
It shows consciousness and the unconscious at variance. It is
not to be assumed that the statement of the unconscious is
necessarily right. But it is wise in such circumstances to re-
examine the conscious attitude; and in any case the diver-
gence itself is something we need to know about and bear
in mind.
At the opposite pole to this reaction type of dream is what
 ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 23
the primitives call the 'great dream'. The reaction dream
characteristically uses for its imagery things and incidents
drawn from our ordinary daily life, now or in the past. It may
perhaps be somewhat bizarre in its action, but the general
mise en scene is of a familiar type. The 'great dream', on
the contrary, has a vividness and reality all its own. Often
there is a special kind of light about it. Or it may be in bright
color, when the ordinary dreams are in neutral shades. The
characters themselves may perhaps be unknown to us, but
men and women of personality, not mere dummies. Strange
beings may come in, gods and goddesses, mythological crea-
tures, wild animals, or there may be metamorphoses from
man to animal or vice versa. The whole action has a special
impressiveness, even though, as sometimes happens, the events
and surroundings themselves are ordinary. Or the setting
may be completely strange: back in the Middle Ages, in
Greek or Roman times, in some country and among some
people unknown, beneath the ocean, in the bowels of the
earth. Such great dreams characteristically bring with them
symbols, living myths, opening up new possibilities, new
means of action, which, as it were, the unconscious proffers
to consciousness, for consciousness to make of them what
it can.
Between the reaction dream and the 'great dream', with no
distinctive dividing mark, are the dreams of which it can
best be said that they show an aspect of the unconscious as
it is at that time. To some extent such dreams may be tinged
by a negative reaction against the conscious attitude. To some
extent they may be positive intimations from the possibility-
bringing depths. For this reason it is difficult at times to dis-
tinguish whether the dream statement has, so to speak, a
minus or a plus sign in front of it; whether it is counter-
balancing the conscious attitude or prompting it to a new
endeavour. 4 In this matter there can be no rule-of-thumb
interpretation, no general formula to be automatically applied;
only the careful and tentative setting of the dream in the total
life situation of the man or woman to whom the dream came.
A like difficulty frequently arises as to whether some per-
son appearing in a dream—one's mother perhaps, or a long-
*One of the central hypotheses of analytical psychology, as developed
by Jung, is the 'compensatory character of the activity of the uncon-
scious.' A question which may usefully be applied to any dream is:
what does this compensate in the outer attitude?
24 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

ago school days friend, or some casual acquaintance—is

actually the person indicated, or an activity operation in the
psyche most appropriately represented by such a figure. As
a broad generalization, where such a person is in fact part
of one's normal life and appears in a normal fashion, then
the dream image is best taken as actually standing for that
person. If, on the other hand, the figure is no part of one's
normal life, or, though part of normal life, appears in an
unusual fashion—an image like one's mother, for instance,
but ten feet high and arrayed in Greek Robes—then it is
best taken as representative of a power constellated in this
form.
A great deal of patience is needed in dream analysis,
especially at the outset. Many dreams say practically noth-
ing to us, appear meaningless, and yet these same dreams,
looked at afterwards, as part of a series, make astonishingly
good sense. To use a somewhat fanciful analogy, it is as if
the unconscious were showing several films at once, films
taken at different levels.
Each dream is a brief 'shot'. A particular 'shot' at a
particular time may be meaningful: or it may leave us com-
pletely nonplussed. It is only when we piece together the
'shots', and have a wider knowledge of the living back-
ground, that we get some idea of what the total performance
represents.
These, needless to say, are no more than the roughest
indications of how the meaning of dreams can be to some
extent understood. Later, it may be, our knowledge will
have advanced to the point where a definite technique can
be worked out. At present there is nothing of the kind. By
and large, however, there are these four things that may be
said about dreams and dream analysis with some confidence.
In the first place, since we do not know much about the
dream process, a highly empirical, non-dogmatic approach
would seem appropriate. In the second place, provided we
give them serious attention, dreams appear to perform their
function to a considerable extent, even if we signally fail to
'understand' them in an intellectual sense. It has been well
said: 'The dream is its own interpretation.' Even though we
can make nothing of a particular dream, if we turn it over in
our minds the images seem to have their effect upon our
attitude and actions. In the third place, by some strange
dispensation it is very difficult to deal satisfactorily with one's
 ASTROLOGY 25
own dreams, at least during the next few hours or days.
Later, when they have 'gone cold', it is more possible to make
an analysis. But, as a general rule, the dream at the moment
it comes seems to fall on a blind spot; which means, if we
are to do good work with it, we are dependent upon the
help of others. Finally, the man or woman who gives serious
attention to these 'magic casements', but does not permit
himself or herself to be spirited into the 'perilous seas, in
fairy lands forlorn' on which these casements open, is
likely to find a subtle change occurring in personality and
attitude. Consciousness and unconsciousness are, to some
extent, working together in partnership; and something akin
to a change in the psychological centre of an approach to
wholeness tends to take place.
An analysis of a particular dream is discussed in Martin's
Experiment in Depth and is a section of Jung's Man and
His Symbols.

Astrology (Astrology offers a map of consciousness, as do the

TAROT and, less directly, SHELDON'S TYPES.)
Jeff Mayo writes on the accuracy of astrological forecasts
in newspapers and magazines:1
These forecasts are based only on the position of the Sun
in the 12 Signs of the Zodiac. Each sign covers the identical
one-month period of any year (Sun in Aries would be 21st
of March—20th of April). On a certain day all the millions
of people born under the same sign will meet 'a tall hand-
some stranger' or find it 'a good afternoon for going on a
journey'. No wonder that anyone who has not studied the
basic concepts of astrology thinks of it as an amusing parlor
game, a medieval superstitution that won't lie down.
Daily forecasts based on the Sun related to the rest of
the planets for a given day, and sensibly interpreted, can
indicate very general tendencies in the hves of those born
with certain signs strongly emphasized in their individual
charts (and make-up). For instance, if the planet Saturn
were that day very close to the position occupied by the
Sun in your chart, there would be a tendency for limitation
*Teach Yourself Astrology (London: St. Paul's House [Teach Your-
self Books], 1964).
 1

26 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

and frustration to be felt according to your temperament
and circumstances. Character readings based on the Sun
sign alone definitely indicate basic tendencies in the nature,
yet only in a general sense when not considered with the
whole planetary pattern for a given moment of birth. . . .

We do not know where or when astrology originated. It

would seem to have been a process of observation and ac-
companying speculation and wonder over a period of cen-
turies before the first man thought to record his observations
of the stars—and those 'wandering stars' the planets, and the
Moon—and to relate their positions and periodic return to
similar points in the heavens with life on Earth.
The earliest traces of astrological knowledge are found
among the Chaldeans and the Sumerians, and thence to
the Babylonians, Assyrians and Egyptians, suggesting an
origin several thousand years before the birth of Christ.
To the Chaldeans have been attributed the construction of
a learned and profound cosmology, a system of astro-theology.
The influence of Chaldean astrology penetrated as far as
India, China, Indo-China, and some authorities believe it to
have reached even the primitive centres of American civiliza-
tion. In the opposite direction this influence spread to Syria,
Egypt, and over the whole Roman world. Until the 17th
century astrology and astronomy were the one science.
We can assume that astrology arose out of the necessity
to regulate the growing of crops of the primitive agricultural
communities by the seasonal rhythms observed in Nature,
as well as through awe inspired by the patterns of the stars
in the night sky. Yet we cannot ignore the possible existence
of a substratum of unconscious experience from which sprang
the ideas of astrology, religion, architecture, and every signifi-
cant impulse through which man has created structures for
the directing and control of the many desires of his nature.
The gods of primitive man, no less than the gods of the
varied religions of 20th-century man, must have been real
to the believer and a source for receiving inner strength. Jung
indicates the significance of astrology as an experience de-
rived from the unconscious associations of man with Nature
and the Universe: "As we all know, science began with the
stars, and mankind discovered in them the dominants of the
unconscious, the 'gods', as well as the curious psychological
qualities of the zodiac: a complete projected theory of
 ASTROLOGY 27
human character. Astrology is a primordial experience similar
to alchemy."
For thousands of years astrology was an accepted feature
of man's life. Leaders of great empires planned their strategic
moves for the furtherance of power upon the advice of their
astrologers. Astrology was no short-lived cult of one nation,
0r a transient intellectual fashion. Besides those already
mentioned, it influenced the cultural development of the
Arabians, Greeks, Moors, Hindus, Tibetans, Aztecs, Persians,
Israelites, Europeans. And among the eminent supporters of
astrology we find: Confucius, Aristotle, Cicero, Virgil, Dante,
Shakespeare, Plato, Yves de Paris, Spinoza, Milton, Bulwer-
Lytton, Paracelsus, Leibnitz, Dryden, Schiller, Alexander the
Great, Sir Francis Bacon, Henry Van Dyke, Byron, Emerson,
Shelley, Napoleon, Caesar, Goethe, Sir Walter Scott, Dr.
Richard Garnett, John Dee, Nostrodamus, Ptolemy, Baron
Napier of Merchiston (inventor of logarithms), Pythagoras,
and the 'Father of Medicine' Hippocrates.
Mayo also notes that five of history's greatest scientists
were also astrologers: Kepler, Newton, Brahe, Copernicus,
and Galileo.
Howard V. Chambers writes:2
Basically, astrology is a means of divination and interpreta-
tion based on the division of the heavens into twelve equal
parts, called the Zodiac, . . . and attributing to these parts
characteristics which are determined by the positions of
planets in the heavens. Thus, each equal part of the Zodiac,
or house is ruled by a particular planet. Persons born at the
time of rule by a particular planet may be said to have
unique characteristics.
By working out horoscopes, which are detailed maps of the
heavens at the time of an individual's birth, certain inferences
may be drawn about personality, character, profession, talents
and desires.
Linda Goodman considers the position of the sun at the
time of one's birth to be the most important factor in a
horoscope:3

*An Occult Dictionary (Los Angeles: Sherbourne Press, 1966), "As-

trology."
'Sun Signs (New York: Taplinger, 1968), Foreword.
28 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

An individual's Sun sign will be approximately eighty

percent accurate, sometimes up to ninety percent. . . . That
extra ten or twenty percent, is, of course, most important
and must be considered. But if you know a person's Sun
sign, you're substantially better informed than those who
know nothing about him at all. There are no pitfalls in
applying Sun sign knowledge when it's done with discre-
tion. .. .
However, studying your Sun sign shouldn't be confused
with studying the predictions based on your Sun sign alone
in magazines and newspapers. They may hit you with im-
pressive accuracy more often than they miss, but they're far
from being infallible. Only a natal chart calculated for the
exact hour and minute of your birth can be completely
dependable in such a specialized area.
On the other hand, don't believe the common accusation
that these predictions are 'just a bunch of general phrases
that can be scrambled around to fit anyone.' That's equally
untrue. The predictions (indications would be a better word)
apply as they are printed, to the Taurus or Pisces or Virgo
person individually. They don't apply helter-skelter to any
of the twelve Sun signs. They are written by competent
professionals and based on mathematical calculations of the
aspects formed between your natal Sun and the planets
moving overhead, and they give you a fair degree of ac-
curacy, as far as they go. The fact that they're not based on
the exact degree of your natal Sun, nor on the additional
aspects from the other eight planets in your natal chart, plus
your natal Moon, is what creates the flaw. Still, they can be
interesting and helpful, if allowances are made for dis-
crepancies. . . .
What is a Sun sign? A particular zone of the zodiac—
Aries, Taurus, Gemini, etc. . . . in which the Sun was located
at the moment you drew your first beath, an exact position
taken from a set of tables called an ephemeris, calculated by
astronomers.
The natal chart or horoscope based on the time and place of
a person's birth is the basis for all of the refinements of
astrology:
What is a natal chart? You can think of it as a photograph
of the exact position of all the planets in the sky at the
 ASTROLOGY 29
moment of your birth, formed by precise mathematical
calculation. In addition to the Sun and Moon (the two
luminaries), there are eight planets, all of which influence
your life, according to the signs they were in when you were
born, their distance from each other by degrees (aspects)
and their exact location.
If you were born on June 9th, you're a Gemini, of course,
because the Sun was in Gemini, and about eight out of every
ten Gemini traits will show in your character. However, the
Moon, ruling your emotions, might have been in Aries, color-
ing your emotional attitudes with Arian qualities. Mercury,
ruling the mind, could have been in Scorpio, so your mental
processes would often be Scorpion in nature. Mars, ruling
your speech and movements, among other things, could have
been in Taurus, so you would speak rather slowly, like a
Taurean. Venus might have been in Capricorn, giving you
an essentially Capricorn attitude in love, artistic and creative
matters—and so on with the other planets. Yet, none of
these placements will totally erase the basic qualities of your
Gemini Sun. They simply refine the details of your complex
personality.
There are other factors to consider if you're to be one
hundred percent correctly analyzed. For one thing, the
aspects formed between the planets and the luminaries at
your birth can modify their positions in the signs. But the
most important consideration is your ascendant—the sign
rising on the eastern horizon when you took your first breath
—and its exact degree. Your ascendant greatly modifies the
personal appearance (though your Sun sign has a lot to say
about that, too) and it forms your true inner nature, upon
which the motivations of your Sun sign are based. If your
ascendant is Aquarius, for example, you may have strong
Aquarian leanings, and wonder why the descriptions of your
Gemini Sun sign don't include all of your idiosyncrasies
and secret longings. The two most important positions in any
natal chart, after the Sun sign, are the ascendant and the
Moon sign.
You'll find it interesting to obtain your ascendant from an
astrologer (which can be done quickly over the telephone),
and then read the description for that sign, along with your
regular Sun sign. You'll find that the two of them blended
make up your total personality to a remarkable degree. A
 Table of Correspondences
The Houses: Signs of the Sign Begins Planet Life Part of Bodily Key Words
Spheres of Life Zodiac: Psycho- Principle Body System
logical Types

1. Self-centered Aries March 21 Mars Activity Head Objectively,

interest urgently

2. Possessions, Taurus April 20 Venus Unity Throat, Productively,

personal security neck enduringly

3. Relationship of Gemini May 21 Mercury Communication Lungs, Nervous Adaptively,

self to environment chest variably

4. Self-possessions, Cancer June 21 Moon Rhythms Breasts, Alimentary Defensively,

intimate relatives stomach sensitively
as a basis for
new growth

5. Re-creation, Leo July 23 Sun Self-integration Heart, back Cardiac Powerfully,

exposition of self impressively
6. Conformity, service Virgo August 23 Mercury Communication Abdomen Alimentary Analytically,
to community critically

7. Identification, unity Libra September 23 Venus Unity Kidneys, Relatedly,

of self with others lumbar critically
at personal level

8. Self-sacrifice, shar- Scorpio October 23 Mars Activity Genitals, Generative Penetratively,

ing resources bladder, intensively
with others rectum
 9. Projection of self to Sagittarius November 22 Jupiter Expansion Hips, thighs Hepatic Extensively,
new horizons prudently

10. Social status in Capricorn December 22 Saturn Formative Knees Skeleton Rationally,
terms of material prudently
responsibilities and
necessity

11. Identification of Aquarius January 20 Saturn, Formative, Calves, Circulation Detachedly,

self with group Uranus inventive ankles unconventionally
objectives

12. Self-abnegation in Pisces February 19 Jupiter, Expansion, Feet Lymphatic Nebulously,

service Neptune refining impressionably
32 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

third blending of your Moon sign with the other two will
give you an even more complete picture.
Next, the houses of the horoscope must be considered.
These are mathematically computed locations in the natal
chart which have influence over different areas of your life.
There are twelve of them—one for each sign. The first house
is always ruled by the sign on your ascendant, and so on,
in counter-clockwise order around the circle which forms the
horoscope. The astrologer who has carefully calculated your
natal chart, based on the exact time of your birth and its
geographical location, must interpret the meaning of each
sign's influence on these houses—or locations—also taking
into consideration the planets which fall into their specified
areas. Blending all the foregoing factors in analyzing your
character, your potential, and the indications of your past
and future mistakes and possibilities (which are based on
the aspects of the progressed and transiting planets to your
natal planet positions) is called the art of synthesis in astrol-
ogy. That's what takes the time, talent, effort and knowledge
of the astrologer. Calculating the chart itself is a relatively
simple task, once certain mathematical formulas are fol-
lowed.
The best introductory book is by Mayo, Teach Yourself
Astrology (London: St. Paul's House, Warwich Lane,
$2.25). The best comprehensive book is by Margaret E.
Hone, The Modern Textbook of Astrology (London:
L. N. Fowler, 1951; available from Shambala Publications
Ltd., Berkeley, Calif. 94710, $6.50). See also B. A. Carter,
An Encyclopedia of Psychological Astrology (Wheaton,
111.: Theosophical Press, 1963).
The table of correspondences relates some key elements
of astrology to some key character qualities. A compre-
hensive table would have many more than a dozen char-
acter qualities. Mayo lists Mental, In Love, Faults, Ideal
Vocational Activities, Psychology, Physiology, and so on.
This table is not a quick key to character; the natal horo-
scope and its interpretations are essential to even approach
an indication of character.
 BIOENERGETIC ANALYSIS 33

Bhakti Yoga (See YOGA, p. 288.)

Bioenergetic Analysis

There are no other entries in the volume which show a

direct relationship to this way by their specific content.
However, the concern for the body shown by STRUCTURAL
INTEGRATION is related; the regard for the body and the
body's knowledge how to move and when to move, which
is so clearly shown by SENSORY AWARENESS, is related;
the persistent waiting and listening to the here and now
in order to find the how of growth as shown by GESTALT
THERAPY is related; the constant concern for centering
consciousness in the body as shown by HARA is not foreign
to Bioenergetic Analysis.
Simple yet general statements on Bioenergetic Analysis
are not easy to come by, even from such a clear and
prolific writer as Dr. Lowen. William Schutz has made
some valuable comments: 1

Alexander Lowen, a psychiatrist interested in integrating

bodily and emotional states, lays great stress on the assertion
that all neurotic problems are manifested in the structure
and functioning of the body. This thesis implies that by
proper training of what to observe, a great deal about a
person may be discerned merely from looking at him.
Schutz goes on to present some thoughts of Lowen's,
quoted from Physical Dynamics of Character Structure.2
They are presented here in the order used by Schutz. Dr.
Lowen writes:

There is no neurotic problem which does not manifest

itself in every aspect of the individual's function. . . . Be-
cause we express our personalities or character in every action
and in every attitude it becomes possible to determine char-
acter traits from such diverse expressions as handwriting,
the walk of the person, etc. . . . Most important, however,
l
Joy (New York: Grove Press, 1967).
2
(New York: Grune & Stratton, 1958.) By permission of Grune &
Stratton.
34 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

is the physical appearance at rest and movement. No words

are so clear as the language of body expression once one has
learned to read it. . . . [Each part of the body is the repository
of some difficulties.] The legs and the feet are the foundation
and support of the ego structure. But they have other func-
tions. It is through our legs and our feet that we keep contact
with the one invariable reality in our lives, the earth or the
ground. We speak of a people as being "earthy" to mean that
they have a good sense of reality. The contrary, "to be up
in the air," denotes a lack of contact with reality. . . .
The lack of contact with the feet and the ground is related
to another common symptom, falling anxiety. This symptom
is manifested in dreams of falling, in fear of heights, and in
the fear of falling in love. Where there is a basic insecurity
in the lower half of the body, the individual compensates by
holding on with arms and eyes to objective reality. One may
question why I include the fear of falling in love with
symptoms of basic insecurity. Of course the very expression
"to fall in love" relates this phenomena to the others, but
we also know that to fall in love is a form of ego surrender.
All forms of falling anxiety translate the fear of loss of ego
control.
We direct our attention first to the posture of the indi-
vidual. Is he straight, sway-back or hunched over forward?
. . . When the weight of the body is directly over the heels,
the standing position can be upset easily by a slight push
backwards. Here again the common expression describes the
situation well. We say of such a person that they are a
"pushover." When used with respect to girls it has only one
meaning. I had a patient whose main complaint was that
she couldn't resist the sexual aggression of men. In a stand-
ing position she tended to rock on her heels. I have heard
two expressions which describe this trait. These girls are said
to have "round heels" or to be "ball girls."
. . . As an important structural element in the body, a weak-
ness in the backbone must be reflected in a serious personality
disturbance. The individual with a sway back cannot have
the ego strength of a person whose back is straight. On the
other hand backbone rigidity while adding strength to support
decreases flexibility.
[A central concept in this approach is the breathing func-
tion.] We look to see if the chest is expanded and held rigid
or soft and relaxed. A blown up chest is the invariable con-
 BIOENERGETIC ANALYSIS 35

comitant of a blown up ego. It reminds one of the fable of

the frog who attempted to blow himself up to the size of a j
bull. On the other hand, a soft chest, although related to ;
5
more feeling, is not necessarily a sign of health. . . . [What
we look for is a relaxed structure in which the respiratory
movements show the unity of chest, diaphragm and abdomen
in inspiration and expiration.]
The position and motility of the shoulders are as significant
to the ego functions as the legs and pelvis are to the sexual
functions. Several attitudes are easily discerned. Retracted
shoulders represent repressed anger, a holding back of the
impulse to strike; raised shoulders are related to fear; square
shoulders express the manly attitude of shouldering one's
responsibilities; bowed shoulders convey the sense of burden,
the weight of a heavy hand.
. . . It is not uncommon to see a broad-shouldered man i
with narrow hips and thin, weak-looking legs. It is as if all
the energy were concentrated in the upper half leaving the
bottom half impotent. We find in practice that as the legs
strengthen and as sexual potency increases the shoulders
drop, the chest becomes smaller and the center of gravity
drops appreciably . . . The muscles of the upper half of the
body have been spared the function of supporting or moving
the body. They should be soft, relaxed and available for
quick, sensitive movements.
The bearing of the head is in direct relation to the quality
and strength of the ego. We are acquainted with the long
proud neck and the short bull-like neck which represent
familiar attitudes.
When we study the expression of the face as a measure of
the character and of the personality we are on more familiar
ground. . . . Our attention should be directed first to the
eyes. . . . It must be with some reason that the eyes are
regarded as the mirrors of the s o u l . . . .
Some eyes are bright and sparkle, some shine like stars,
others are dull and many are vacant. Of course, the expres-
sion changes. We seek, therefore, for the typical look. Some
eyes are sad, others are angry; some are cold and hard, others
are soft and appealing.
Not infrequently two conflicting expressions are shown
by one face. The eyes may appear weak and withdrawn
while the jaw is strong and protruding. Or it may be that the
jaw is weak while the eyes are strong. If the jaw muscles are
36 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

overdeveloped there is a block in the flow of energy to the

eyes. The jaw is a mobile structure which resembles the
pelvis in its movements. . . . Many expressions are related
to the position of the jaw. As it moves forward it first ex-
presses determination, a further advance gives it a fighting
expression while extreme protrusion, as in the case of
Mussolini, clearly means defiance. . ..
Of greater significance are those unconscious expressions
which are frozen into the countenance, so much so that we
take them for granted as part of the personality. I recall a
professor whose brow was so raised that lines of surprise and
astonishment were engraved on his forehead. No one paid
the slightest attention to it, least of all the professor. Yet
when one raises one's brow strongly, the feelings of surprise
and astonishment are so immediate and so strong as to be
disturbing. Why was the professor unaware of his expression?
We must conclude that when an expression becomes ingrained
into the features, one loses consciousness of it. Like our old
clothes, these expressions become so much a part of us that
we become aware of them only by their absence. A very
common expression which we take for granted is the look of
disgust caused by the retraction upward of the alae of the
nostrils. Have you not seen people who show a perpetual
expression of pain on their face? Are these people in pain?
Certainly! Depth analysis of the unconscious would reveal
that these expressions portray repressed feelings—surprise,
disgust or pain.
Schutz goes on to comment:

Thus Lowen seeks out the special relations between emo-

tional states and their physical manifestations. Once these
connections are pointed out in detail they seem to make a
great deal of sense, and have profound implications. . . .
Lowen's therapeutic technique involves integrating physical
work on the body with analytical work aimed at intellectual
understanding. For example, an individual may have felt
great hostility and an urge to hit his parents, but guilt and
fear prevented the direct expression of this rage. Restraining
the urge to hit resulted in a bunching of the shoulder and
arm muscles and a tightening of the neck—a combination
that can lead to forward head, round shoulders, shoulder
bursitis, and even arthritis. Lowen's approach is to talk
 BIOENERGETIC ANALYSIS 37
analytically about the feelings and at the same time have the
person physically hit out—in a controlled setting—perhaps
pounding on a couch. Lowen will ask the patient to shout
an appropriate word and in any way try to feel the angry
feelings as he beats on the bed. Often the feelings take over,
the pent-up fury comes through, and the patient pounds until
he's exhausted. This opens up important childhood ma-
terial for analytic use, and~ leads to the relaxation of the
shoulder and neck muscles with further exercise. Thus not
only have the muscles been relaxed, but the original cause
of the tensions will have been dealt with and presumably no
longer offer a threat to the structure.
Most of this material has elaborated on how physical
structure and functioning relate to Bioenergetic Analysis.
The analytical aspect, inseparable from the physical, is
described in Physical Dynamics of Character Structure
and Love and Orgasm.
In Bioenergetic Analysis analytical and physical work
proceed together: sometimes increasing rational under-
standing of the problem is emphasized; at other times, the
physical manifestation of the problem in the body. Each
leads into the other; often they alternate.
A fuller statement may be found in Dr. Lowen's latest
book: 3

A body is forsaken when it becomes a source of pain and

humiliation instead of pleasure and pride. Under these con-
ditions the person refuses to accept or identify with his body.
He turns against it. He may ignore it or he may attempt to
transform it into a more desirable object by dieting, weight
lifting, etc. However, as long as the body remains an object
to the ego, it may fulfill the ego's pride, but it will never
provide the joy and satisfaction that the "alive" body offers.
The alive body is characterized by a life of its own. It
has a motility independent of ego control which is manifested
by the spontaneity of its gestures and the vivacity of its
expression. It hums, it vibrates, it glows. It is charged with
feeling. The first difficulty that one encounters with patients
in search of identity is that they are not aware of the lack
of aliveness in their bodies. People are so accustomed to
'The Betrayal of the Body (New York: Macmillan, 1967), "Reclaim-
ing of the Body."
38 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

thinking of the body as an instrument or a tool of the mind

that they accept its relative deadness as a normal state. They
measure bodies in pounds and inches and compare their
shape with idealized forms, completely ignoring the fact
that what is important is how the body feels.
I have repeatedly stressed how afraid people are to feel
their bodies. On some level they are aware that the body is a
respository of their repressed feelings, and while they would
very much like to know about these repressed feelings, they
are loath to encounter them in the flesh. Yet, in their
desperate search for an identity, they must eventually con-
front the state of their bodies. They must accept the relevance
of their physical condition to their mental functioning,
despite the doubt with which they approach this proposition.
To overcome this doubt, they must experience their physical
tension as a limitation of personality, and the release of this
tension as a liberation of the personality. The discovery that
the body has a life of its own and the capacity to heal itself
is a revelation of hope. The realization that the body has
its own wisdom and logic inspires a new respect for the
instinctive forces of life.
The issue every patient faces is: can he trust his feelings
to guide his behavior or must these feelings be suppressed
in favor of a rational approach? By their very nature, feelings
have an irrational quality—which doesn't mean, however,
that they are necessarily inappropriate or irrelevant. The
irrational stems from sources in the personality that lie
deeper than the roots of reason. The irrational is always
opposed to the reasonable because the irrational speaks for
the body, while the reasonable speaks for society. The dis-
tinction between these two can be illustrated by the behavior
of an infant. His demands are always irrational. It would
seem that if a mother holds her baby for two hours, this
would provide a reasonable amount of body contact, con-
sidering that she has other chores. But baby doesn't reason.
If it feels like being held longer and cries when it is put
down, its behavior is irrational because unreasonable, yet
perfectly natural considering its feeling. Were the baby to
suppress its crying or its desire, mother could describe it as a
reasonable and good child. The psychiatrist, however, would
recognize the beginning of an emotional problem.
The person who rejects the irrational negates the infant
within him. He has learned, unfortunately, that it's no use
 BIOENERGETIC ANALYSIS 39
crying, mother never comes anyway! He makes few demands
on life because he has been taught early that his demands
were unreasonable. He doesn't become angry because anger
had always provoked retaliation. He has become a "reasonable
man," but in the process he has lost the motivation of pleasure
and the aliveness of his body. He has, in this process, devel-
oped a schizoid tendency. Yet the irrational breaks through
jn perverse form: he finds himself subject to violent rages,
depressions, and strange compulsions. He feels withdrawn and
detached or overwhelmed and embroiled.
In a healthy person the irrational is not suppressed in favor
of the reasonable. The healthy person accepts his feelings
even when they run counter to the apparent logic of the
situation. The schizoid denies his feelings, while the neurotic
distrusts them. The body is abandoned when the irrational
is denied and feeling is repressed. To reclaim the body, an
individual must accept the irrational within himself.
The awesomeness of the irrational is that it has the power
to move us. It is the source of creativity and the fountain of
joy. All great experiences have this irrational quality, which
enables them to move us from within. As everyone knows,
love and orgasm are the irrational experiences we all seek.
Thus, the person who is afraid of the irrational is afraid
of love and orgasm. He is also afraid to let his body go, to
let his tears flow and to let his voice break. He is afraid to
breathe and afraid to move. When the irrational is repressed
it becomes a demonic force that may lead a sick person to
destructive actions. In normal living, the irrational mani-
fests itself by involuntary movements—the spontaneous
gesture, the sudden laugh, even the twitching of the body
before one falls asleep.
In this day of wonder drugs it is generally overlooked that
the body has a natural capacity to heal itself. We are familiar
with this property of the body when it comes to minor
wounds and illnesses. Doctors count upon this property in
major illnesses and operations. In most cases, medicine aims
to remove the obstacles that impede this natural function of
the body. Emotional illness is not an exception to this
principle. The therapeutic task is to remove the obstacles that
prevent the body from spontaneously releasing its tensions.
This principle underlies the psychoanalytic process. The
technique of free association is a device that enables a per-
; son to bring to consciousness the repressed irrational elements
40 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

in his personality. It is hoped that if a person can consciously

accept the irrational in his personality, he will be free to
respond naturally and spontaneously to life situations. The
weakness in this concept is that the conscious acceptance of
a feeling does not lead, necessarily, to the ability to express
this feeling. It is one thing to recognize that one is sad, it is
another to be able to cry. To know that one is angry is not
the same thing as to feel angry. To know that one was
incestuously involved with a parent does little to release the
repressed sexual feeling locked in the body.
When I was a small boy I was terrified of dogs. To help
me overcome this fear my parents bought me fuzzy toy
dogs, which they encouraged me to pet and stroke. I remem-
ber them saying, "See, it doesn't bite. It won't hurt you."
It may have helped reduce my terror, but I was still
frightened of any dog that made a sudden move at me.
I didn't fully overcome this fear until, as a grown man, I
took a dog into my home. Living with the animal I learned
to trust him.
The fear of the dog is the fear of the irrational. To many
people, as to my mother, the animal is not to be trusted be-
cause he is an unreasoning beast. He is guided by his feelings
and moved by his passions, and is therefore unpredictable.
On the body level, the human being is an animal whose be-
havior is unpredictable from a rational point of view. This
doesn't mean that the body or the animal is dangerous,
destructive, and uncontrollable. The body and the animal
obey certain laws, which are not the laws of logic. The
animal lover finds the animal perfectly comprehensible. To
the person in touch with his body, the feelings of the body
make complete sense.
I recently treated a young high school student who suf-
fered from chronic asthma and who carried an atomizer
with him constantly. At the slightest sign of any respiratory
difficulty he reached for his atomizer. This happened as often
as twenty times a day and occasionally at night. When I first
saw him his breathing was extremely shallow and limited to
the upper part of his thorax. His abdomen was extremely
tight, and his chest severely constricted. With these tensions,
just going from one classroom to another produced a feeling
of distress. Whether this tension produced the asthma or
whether the asthma produced the tension was unimportant;
the fact was that as long as the tension persisted he was
 BIOENERGETIC ANALYSIS 41

vulnerable to respiratory difficulty in a situation of stress.

To release the tension, the patient had to be encouraged to
breathe more deeply, especially abdominally. In the therapy
sessions I placed him in a number of positions which forced
him to breathe abdominally. In addition, lying on the
couch, he was directed to kick his legs rhythmically into the
couch. At the beginning, these activities produced a minor
asthmatic reaction, which the patient countered by using
his atomizer. Soon, however, the patient became aware that
his recourse to the atomizer was based on anxiety rather than
need. If he didn't use the atomizer, his difficulty disappeared
spontaneously after a minute or two. He became aware, then,
that underlying his respiratory problem was a feeling of
panic associated with breathing.
The superficial picture the patient presented was that of a
person who was afraid that he would be unable to breathe
under stress. However, the real picture was that of a person
who was afraid to breathe because of the feelings it would
evoke. He also suffered from severe sexual anxiety relating
to his guilt about masturbation. The tightness and contraction
of his abdomen were the means he used to suppress his sexual
feeling and avoid the guilt and anxiety. The result of this
maneuver was that his anxiety was displaced to his chest.
Abdominal breathing made him conscious of his original
anxiety and guilt, and the release of his anxiety made it pos-
sible for him to let his belly out and to breathe down into
his abdomen. Step by step the patient's breathing improved
to the point where he had no further need of an atomizer.
The first obstacle to the process of natural healing is the
patient's unawareness of the tensions in his body. In the
absence of specific symptoms such as headaches or lower
back pain, the average person doesn't feel and doesn't know
what tensions exist in his body. His posture has become so
much a part of him that he takes it for granted. The first
step in therapy is to help the patient gain some contact with
specific areas of tension. Patients begin to experience their
inadequacies, their disabilities, and their weaknesses when
they are put in positions of stress. The positions of stress
that I use are designed to test the integration and coordination
of the body. For example, the patient is asked to stand with
his feet about thirty inches apart, toes turned inward, knees
bent as much as possible, the back arched and hands upon
the hips. An illustration of this position is shown in Figure 2.
 1

Figure 2
 BIOENERGETIC ANALYSIS 43

The well-integrated and coordinated body can assume this

position easily; the knees are fully flexed, the feet are flat on
the ground, the line of the body from the heels to the back
of the head forms a perfect arc, the head and trunk are
centered, the breathing is abdominal and relaxed, and the
person is not uncomfortable.
In the emotionally disturbed person a number of signs indi-
cate the nature and location of his tensions. If his body is
too rigid, it cannot be arched properly and full flexion of the
knees is impossible. When an attempt is made to flex the
knees further, the pelvis is pulled backward and the upper
part of the body leans forward. On the other hand, when
the body lacks tone there is an exaggerated break in the
arch of the back. In both cases abdominal respiration is
difficult and the breathing is strained. In many schizoid
bodies the tension is unequal of the two sides, and one ob-
serves that the trunk becomes twisted one way, while the
head is twisted the other. Persons with lower back problems
may complain of pain in that region. Often the heels turn
inward when the person assumes this position because of
spasticities in the muscles of the buttocks which rotate the
thighs outward. If the feet are not properly grounded, the
individual becomes aware of a lack of balance. The legs
may tremble, sometimes violently, if their muscles are too
tense.
The use of this position is based on the principle that the
body functions like a bow in many activities. The pitcher
throwing a ball, the woodcutter swinging an ax, the fighter
throwing a long punch, and the tennis player serving a ball
show how the body arches backward like a bow to gain
the impetus for the forward thrust. However, it is in the
sexual function that this principle has its greatest importance.
The sexual movements, as I pointed out in Love and Orgasm,
are also based on this principle. Any disturbance which
hinders the body from moving according to this principle
will decrease the ability of the person to achieve full orgastic
satisfaction. This is particularly true of the body that is
split between its upper and lower halves. Since many ag-
gressive movements of the body depend on this principle for
their power, the effect of these disturbances is to reduce the
individual's capacity for aggressive action.
A bow functions well only if its ends are secure. In the
body, the corresponding points are the feet and the head.
44 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

When the body functions like a bow, its lower end is

anchored to the ground through the feet, while the upper
end is stabilized by the muscles of the back of the neck
which hold the head firm. In effect, an individual is moored
to reality at both ends of his body, below through his contact
with the ground, and above through his ego. The schizoid
individual is weak at both points. When he hits the couch
with both fists from a backward arch, his feet often leave
the ground at the moment of impact. It is necessary in the
treatment of the schizoid problem to help the patient gain
a better sense of contact with the ground. The position shown
in Figure 2 serves to increase the patient's feelings of his legs
and perception of their tensions. This position is reversed, as
shown in Figure 3 (page 4 5 ) , to bring the patient closer to the
ground and to develop more feeling in his legs.
In Figure 3 the patient is shown bent forward. All her
weight is upon her feet, which are approximately fifteen
inches apart, with the toes turned slightly inward. Her
fingers touch the floor lightly for balance. The knees are
always flexed in this position, although the degree of flexion
may vary according to the amount of stress one wishes to
place upon the leg muscles. In this position, the diaphrag-
matic block is generally released and breathing becomes
abdominal. The patient feels his legs and feet vividly and
becomes acutely aware of tension in the calf muscles and
in the hamstrings. He senses the quality of his contact with
the ground. He may remark, for example, that he does not
feel his heels touching the ground. He may perceive that his
feet are not flat on the ground because of an exaggerated
tension in the arch of the feet. By pressing down on his feet
and spreading his toes slightly, his contact with the ground
can be increased.
All persons who assume this position develop a tremor
of the legs sooner or later. When this happens, sensation
increases sharply. The tremor may be fine or gross; it may
be limited to the legs or extend upward to the pelvis. It is
always experienced pleasurably as a sign of life. Sometimes
the vibration is accompanied by a tingling sensation in the
feet and legs. When the tremor first occurs, the patient will
invariably ask, "What causes my legs to vibrate so?" Since
vibration develops in all patients, in the younger more quickly
than in the older, I explain that it is due to the natural
elasticity of the body and is its normal reaction to stress.
BIOENERGETIC ANALYSIS 45

Figure 3
46 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

The vibration of the body can be compared to what hap-

pens in an automobile when the motor is turned on. A
lack of vibration indicates a dead motor. A fine steady purr
denotes a smoothly operating machine. Coarse or jerky
vibrations tell us that something is amiss. The same thing
holds true for the human body. Vibration is a sign of life.
We use the expression "a vibrant personality" to express our
awareness of this relationship.
It can be observed that as feeling in the legs and feet
increases, respiration deepens spontaneously. Breathing is
an aggressive function which depends, in the adult, upon
contact with the lower half of the body. Once his legs become
charged and alive, the schizoid patient experiences his body
differently. He feels grounded. Formerly, he moved on his
legs; now they move him. This is how one patient described
the difference:

After last session I felt so good. I wasn't frightened. My legs felt

so alive. The most remarkable thing was that my head wasn't
telling my legs what to do. I had the sense of security that my
legs were under me and knew what to do. But they also felt
numb after so many years of nonfeeling. I was convinced that
as soon as I get my legs back, I will be able to function.

It is important to emphasize that these positions are not

exercises. If done mechanically, they lead nowhere. If one
uses them to gain feeling in the body, they are simple and
effective. Therefore, no time limits are involved. A patient
exploits a position for as long as it produces meaningful
sensations in his body. When a position becomes too painful
or too uncomfortable the patient changes it. These positions
were developed by my associates and myself in the course
of many years of work with the problems of breathing and
muscular tension. One that we have found particularly help-
ful is to have a patient arch his back over a stool as shown
in Figure 4 (page 4 7 ) . This position was adopted from the
natural tendency people have to arch across the back of a
chair when they have been sitting too long. This arch stretches
the muscles of the back, releases the tensions about the dia-
phragm, and promotes deeper breathing. I always follow this
position with that of Figure 3, as this reverses the stretch
and returns the patient to the ground.
Figure 5 on page 48 shows a patient in a position of
BIOENERGETIC ANALYSIS 47
48 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
 BIOENERGETIC ANALYSIS 49
hyperextension. This position is particularly effective in
stretching the muscles of the front thighs, which are often
found to be quite spastic. Since the pelvis is freely suspended
in this position, it will often develop a spontaneous move-
ment if the patient is relaxed. These involuntary movements
of the body are important in releasing tension. They also give
the patient a feeling of aliveness in his body. When sensa-
tions flow through the body and into the legs and feet as a
result of breathing, the patient feels unified. At such moments
a patient may remark, "I feel all in one piece."
The passive positions described above are used to bring a
patient into contact with his body, to increase body sensa?-
tion, and to produce some release of tension through tremor
and involuntary movement. Since they deepen breathing and
excite the body, they are used almost routinely at the be-
ginning of most sessions. They are followed by a number of
active movements which I shall describe below. The repetitive
use of these passive positions has a cumulative effect on the
body. Each time they are used, it becomes easier for the
patient to breathe freely. As a result, more sensations arise
in the body. Most patients find these positions so helpful
that they do them at home each morning. This practice in-
creases a patient's contact with his body and contributes to
the therapeutic process. Patients invariably report that the
use of these positions stimulates the body and helps them get
going.
In addition to the passive positions, many active movements
are used to help a patient sense and express his feelings
more directly. Figure 6 on page 50 for example, shows
a patient prepared to strike the couch with a tennis racquet.
This movement serves both to release aggression and to
develop coordination and control. Male patients strike the
couch with their bare fists.
At first, patients' movements, when striking or kicking the
couch, are fragmented and uncoordinated. In striking the
couch from a standing position they tend to flail their arms
while their backs and legs are relatively uninvolved. In
kicking the couch while lying on it, they use their legs ag-
gressively but the head and upper part of their bodies are
held rigid and do not join in the motion. As a result, these
activities seem like exercises and patients often complain
that they derive no feeling of release or satisfaction from
them. Their lack of coordination is a sign that they have
Figure 6
 BIOENERGETIC ANALYSIS 51
not committed themselves fully to the activity, that is, the
activity does not embrace the whole body. As coordination
develops, the expressive movement takes on a unitary quality
and becomes an emotional experience.
A patient's inability to commit his body totally to an
activity should be treated in two ways. His unconscious
resistance should be analyzed psychologically while his co-
ordination must be developed physically. Typically, a patient
will rationalize his inability to put himself fully into these
activities, saying that he has no reason to be angry, etc. This
is an example of the schizoid defensive maneuver. Every
patient has something to be angry about, otherwise he would
not be in therapy. It can be pointed out to him that a healthy
person is capable of identifying with a feeling of anger
sufficiently to permit him to execute the movements of hitting
or kicking in a coordinated and integrated manner. When
the patient realizes that his incoordination reflects his inability
to express feeling, he accepts the physical procedures outlined
earlier as necessary to his improvement.
The capacity for emotional expression is proportionate to
the degree of muscular coordination. A well coordinated per-
son moves and acts gracefully. His whole body participates
actively in every gesture and movement. Thus, his every
movement has an emotional quality, and the individual can
be described as emotionally alive. The disturbed person
doesn't move in this way. His normal movements are stiff
and awkward or ataxic and gauche. Yet such an individual
may manifest an unusual grace and coordination in some
special activity in which he has trained and to which he can
give himself fully. Many actors, dancers, and athletes may
show this grace and coordination in their special fields despite
the fact that they suffer from severe emotional problems.
However, off stage and in ordinary everyday situations one
can observe that their body movements reflect their lack of
ease and security.
As patients learn to relax or let go in such activities as
striking the couch or kicking their legs, their general muscular
coordination increases spontaneously. It is not a matter of
learning how to hit or kick. Coordination that develops
through the conscious mastery of a skill is limited to the
specific skill. In such activities as hitting the couch or kicking,
the patient confronts his fear of letting go in movements
that have an emotional expression. By letting go in such

4
52 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

activities, he overcomes his fear of the irrational. Through

such experiences the body heals itself. Children's play serves
the same purpose. Though a play situation is unreal, children
take it seriously and become quite emotional in their re-
sponses. The adult who has suppressed the child in his
personality has to rationalize all his actions.
Kicking the couch while lying on it is an excellent oppor-
tunity to regain this infantile capacity. Kicking while lying
on one's back introduces an infantile element into the activity
and permits the patient to abandon himself more freely to
the movement. The patient may kick the couch with legs bent
or extended. I have already observed that the schizoid patient
tenses his abdomen and restricts his breathing when doing
these movements. In addition, he stiffens his neck, which
prevents his head from participating. He has to be en-
couraged to "let go" of his head so that it moves together
with the rest of the body. In rapid and intense kicking with
the legs loosely outstretched, the head is whipped up and
down with each kick. In most patients this creates a feeling
of being "carried away" by the movement and the patient
often becomes quite frightened. Since this activity is super-
vised and there is no danger, the patient soon learns to give
in to the feeling and enjoy the release.
Since almost everyone has something to "kick about," all
patients sense the validity of this activity. Kicking also pro-
vides an opportunity for the lower half of the body to take
over the hegemony of the organism. When the kicking be-
comes intense, the ego temporarily surrenders its control
over the body, allowing the body to respond freely to its
impulses. This capacity to surrender ego control is especially
important in the sexual function, where orgastic satisfaction
depends upon the ability of the individual to "give in" to
the overwhelming sexual excitation. Kicking also enables a
patient to identify with his infantile feelings. Babies lying on
their backs kick their feet freely and spontaneously in the
natural joy of living or in anger and frustration. Kicking up
one's heels is a sign of exuberance. Finally, kicking, even
more than walking, promotes the flow of blood and thus
improves the circulation.
Kicking with bent knees may also be combined with a
rhythmic flailing of the arms against the couch in a move-
ment which resembles a childish temper tantrum. In this
activity, the two sides of the body should move alternately
 BIOENERGETIC ANALYSIS 53 ;
so that the right arm and the right leg move together and
synchronously, followed by a similar movement of the left
arm and leg. In this coordinated movement, the head rotates i
left and right as the corresponding arm and leg strike the
couch. (In patients where the two halves of the body are
dissociated, this coordination breaks down and the right arm
moves together with the left leg. Moreover, when this move-
ment involves two opposite sides at the same time, the head
is immobilized.) In the course of this physical therapy, the
patient is directed to sense his body, to understand and
identify with its feelings and sensations, and to interpret
them in the context of his history and life.
It should be pointed out that the mobilization of the
patient's body is a slow procedure. Since he has abandoned
bis body because of pain, this pain will return as he re-
establishes contact with it. After several months of therapy
one patient remarked, "I have to take it slow. My body is
just feeling the pain. I have pain all over my body. I never
knew I was so afraid of pain." Pain in the schizoid body
can assume frightening proportions if it is associated with
inner feelings of despair and terror. On the other hand, when
a patient realizes that the pain stems from the struggle of
the body to come alive and is not an expression of a destruc-
tive process, he can accept the pain as a positive sign. To
help a patient understand the role of pain in the healing
process, I use a familiar example. When a finger is frost-
bitten, it is not painful. The person may not even be aware
of the condition. However, when the finger begins to thaw
out, the pain often is very severe. The thawing out must be
done very slowly. This illustration is particularly appropriate
to the schizoid problem, for in many respects the schizoid
body is frozen, and the therapy can be compared to a thaw-
ing out. !
A list of books (and of pamphlets including Lowen's public
lectures) is available from the Institute for Bioenergetic
Analysis (71 Park Ave., New York, N. Y. 10016). There
are films of the work. In the past, Dr. Lowen and his
associates have frequently offered demonstration work-
shops throughout the country.
54 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

Breathing Therapy
Magda Proskauer's work with breathing and awareness
deals with much more than just breathing. The latter is
used as a vehicle for opening sensory consciousness
throughout the organism. In this way the work is related to
SENSORY AWARENESS, which works toward a common goal,
with a fine regard for breathing as well as other aspects
of functioning.
The breathing work does restructure the body, though its
way is not as directive as STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION, in
which the practitioner changes the entire structure through
manipulation.
You breathe twenty thousand times a day; on the average,
fourteen times a minute. This in itself suggests that breath-
ing is worth some special study. Magda Proskauer empha-
sizes that there are many reasons to extend your use of
breathing, including your contact with your body and
others.
Suppose you are visiting a friend and there does not
seem to be much relating. You have known each other
for some time, so this is unusual. Your friend seems open,
but you do not feel much interplay. At this point, you may
find yourself silently scanning your body for messages.
You find that you are scarcely breathing. This may have
happened in a few minutes or seconds. Soon you find you
are holding your throat so tightly that, in a sense, you
are choking off your head from the rest of your body.
Your conversation continues uninterrupted, nothing has
changed. You have simply acknowledged an existing situa-
tion. What was a generalized sense of uneasiness has now
become an awareness of the uneasiness, the conversation,
shallow breathing, and a tight throat. Your attention has
expanded to include more of your physical actuality. You
and your friend continue relating; you do not consciously
try to change anything. In a few moments, perhaps it
happens that your throat slowly opens and you find that
you have more presence available. You may sigh, and
your whole chest loosens its grip on itself. Perhaps the
conversation becomes more interesting and exciting, and
your breathing spontaneously intensifies. Whatever the out-
come, a basic sensitivity has been used.
 BREATHING THERAPY 55
Proskauer mainly uses breathing to reestablish contact
with one's own physical organism. It is the sensation of
breathing that is basic. The scope is enormous, even in-
trapersonally. It is possible to measure, on anyone, an
expansion and contraction of the ankle in rhythm with
the expansion and contraction of the lungs. Although it is
not an aim of Breathing Therapy, the torso, and, for
fortunate people and perseverent students, most of the
body from head to toes, can be felt at times to have a
direct sensory relationship to the flow of breath.
Such exploration immediately relates to all aspects of
human experience, for the fullness of "owned" physical
sensation is the basis of feelings, images, movements and
thoughts. The sensory life of the organism is the basic
building block of all forms of experience.
Proskauer systematically trains you to reopen entire
regions of the body to sensation. This requires a certain
kind of stillness and a good deal of patience. The first
sessions have been successful if the student has found how
to watch the passage of the breath in and out of the lungs
without controlling its rate or being preoccupied by trying
to figure out what to do. Closing the eyes and lying on
your back is good preparation. Sitting, standing, and walk-
ing are positions used later. While they are lying there, you
can easily observe how some people breathe no deeper
than their collarbones, while others breathe only in the
chest or abdomen.
One way to introduce yourself to natural breathing is
to blow all the air out in short, rapid gushes until the lungs
are empty. And then . . . not consciously inhaling, but
waiting for the air to come in on its own. This may be
done several times. The firmness and gentleness with which
the air refills the lungs indicates how the breath moves on
its own. When the lungs are full they begin to empty;
this occurs spontaneously, slowly and steadily. The con-
scious discovery of inhalation and exhalation and of
how they differ allows further work to occur. You must
leave your highly conditioned, automatic way of breathing
to discover the idiosyncratic rhythm of breath moving on
its own.
Exercises and repetitive motions are useless. Each person
finds his own way of relaxed and concentrated attending.
56 WAYS PEOPLE GROW S
Proskauer mainly offers guidelines for the moment within
which you experiment and explore. To find you can attend
rather than control or interfere in any way with the breath
is an enormous discovery. A three-hour session, or perhaps
weeks of hour sessions, may be necessary before you can.
allow breathing to move naturally.
After attending the natural rhythm of breath, you can
explore ways of making the expansion and contraction of
lungs involve the whole torso. Inhalation can include the
chest, diaphragm, and abdomen, rising and falling as a
whole, not as so many parts. The sides of the torso and
back are also involved. The pauses between inhalation
and exhalation take on new meaning. When you have
exhaled you can be completely empty; when you have
inhaled, completely full. There are delicate transitions when
the tide turns, just as the pause moves into a full body
flow, either to expand, swell, move out from the inside, or
to contract, shrink, move together into a more compact
mass.
There is more involved than the movement of the breath.
Muscles which have been only mechanically manipulated
to walk or talk can be brought into consciousness as
distinct and individual. Muscles which have been too tight
and numb to sense loosen enough to allow the nervous
system to function more freely; muscles which have been
too lax can, through use, begin to build new tissue and
hense new sensation. It happens gradually, slowly. The
whole tonus of various regions of the body changes,
enlivens.
With the free flow of breath restored throughout the
torso, study becomes easier. You may be asked to attend
to how your buttocks are resting on the floor. Then to
slightly tense one, as if weighing, not lifting, the buttock,
with an inhalation. On exhaling, you allow the buttock to
"sink" as far as it can "into" the floor. This rhythm con-
tinues for some time. Each cycle sharpens discrimination
of how little you have to lift the buttock to get all the
muscles involved and how the buttock can be released
when eased down to the floor. As the region is enlivened
you can sense the buttock sinking into the floor rather
than resting on the floor. Then Proskauer might ask you
on exhaling to imagine, visualize, that the air is flowing into
 BREATHING THERAPY 57
the buttock rather than out of the nostrils. This refocusing
of attention has subtle effects. It seems this form of
attending allows blood vessels and nerve pathways to be
sensed as more alive.
All the inner relationships of bone and muscle, circula-
tion, and nervous response of the shoulder girdle, chest,
back, abdomen, armpits and groin can be loosened and
enlivened through breathing "into" them and "through"
them. Breathing is used to reclaim and expand the sensory
life of the self.
There are countless variations in exploring specific
regions. The student progresses as fast or as far as his
built-in limitations allow. With each discovery his sense of
self is enhanced. A naive and thoughtful view of the body
is that it is our home. The awakening of sensations in
regions of the "house" allows us to reown "rooms," for
sensation is the basic way of knowing the physical self.
Applications begin right after the session: putting on your
coat, opening the door, walking to the car and sitting
down—when you know how it is to be an organism: a
psychophysical person. This needs to be stressed. Existence
itself can be viewed as the interplay of organism and
environment; the fullness of contact of the two is mainly
limited by the organism. Breathing work, this way of re-
deeming and expanding the psychophysical self, becomes
as vast a subject as physics, mathematics, or geology.
And the laboratory is always at hand, it cannot be else-
where.
Magda Proskauer's background includes a degree in
physiotherapy from the University of Munich, hospital
work in Germany, Yugoslavia, and the New York Medical
Center, and private practice. She has explored traditional
treatment and the application of Breathing Therapy to
asthma, polio, cerebral palsy, and related diseases. She
considers the strongest single influence on her work to be
the Analytical Psychology of C. G. Jung and has found,
as Jung did at an early point, that her approach is as
applicable to the healthy as to the sick.
Writing of the evolution of her work, Magda Proskauer
notes: 1

*Ways of Growth, ed. Herbert Otto and John Mann (New York:
Grossman, 1968), chap. 3.
58 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
. . . new methods slowly evolved. Certain breathing tech-
niques were combined with subtle movements to cultivate
perception. The breathing function proved valuable because
of its intimate connection with the emotions as well as with
the two nervous systems: the voluntary, consciously directed
one, and the autonomous or vegetative one which works
without the mind. Normally, we breathe automatically, but
we can also take a breath and hold it for a time. In this
respect, respiration is different from other autonomous
functions, such as digestion. The stomach and the intestines
cannot be contracted at will. The breath thus forms a bridge
between the conscious and the unconscious systems. By
watching it, one can observe an unconscious function at
work, learn to exclude interferences, and help self-regulating
processes set in. One may be able to yawn before becoming
over tired, to sigh before feeling overly restricted.
Because of its closer relationship to the circulation, breath
equals life. At the moment of birth, the first breath is the sig-
nal for amazing change to take place. The blood, until then
supplied from the maternal source, becomes within seconds
the independent, nourishing agent. With the environmental
change, inhalation and exhalation begin to compress and di-
late inner spaces as blood and lymph rush in and out of ever
changing vessels. The rhythmic filling and emptying acts like
a compression wave, regulating the blood pressure and mas-
saging the inner organs with gentle vibrations. At times of
heightened sensitivity, some of these sensations can be ex-
perienced.
One wonders if this intricate process of birth might not
better be named rebirth, since life exists already in the
womb. Could it not be compared to the metamorphosis of
certain animals and be a first transformation into a different
kind of existence? From here on, growth means constant
change, continuing through a lifetime. It always implies abdi-
cation of nourishment by means of past methods in favor of
opening up new resources. Being ready for impending changes,
like the infant's preparedness for meeting the atmosphere,
leads in the direction of life. Resisting or evading the new
situation leads to stagnation. Sensitivity and alertness are
therefore valuable tools for dealing with the ever-changing
demands of life.
 CONSCIOUSNESS 59

Consciousness (ASTROLOGY and TAROT have attempted to

create maps of consciousness; so have ANALYTICAL
PSYCHOLOGY and most of the world's living faiths.)
In what is now considered a classic, Richard Maurice Bucke
argued that man's faculty of consciousness is evolving as
are his physical and social faculties. Bucke mentions the
progress of man's perception of color (the Egyptian and
Greek temples were decorated with a few bold primary
colors because they were all man could perceive at the
time!), the perception of music, the development of mem-
ory, humor, and the use of tools.
In the first few pages of Cosmic Consciousness1 Bucke
defines and contrasts three basic evolutionary levels or
states of consciousness, those of simple, self, and cosmic
consciousness. Most of his work quotes Jesus Christ, Gau-
tama Buddha, Paul, Plotinus, Muhammad, Dante, Francis
Bacon, William Blake, Balzac, Whitman, and others to
show that they attained the state of cosmic consciousness.

What is Cosmic Consciousness? The present volume is an

attempt to answer this question; but notwithstanding it seems
well to make a short prefatory statement in as plain language
as possible so as to open the door, as it were, for the more
elaborate exposition to be attempted in the body of the work.
Cosmic Consciousness, then, is a higher form of consciousness
than that possessed by the ordinary man. This last is called
Self Consciousness and is that faculty upon which rests all
of our life (both subjective and objective) which is not com-
mon to us and the higher animals, except that small part of it
which is derived from the few individuals who have had
the higher consciousness above named. To make the matter
clear it must be understood that there are three forms or
grades of consciousness. (1) Simple Consciousness, which is
possessed by say the upper half of the animal kingdom. By
means of this faculty a dog or a horse is just as conscious
of the things about him as a man is; he is also conscious of
his own limbs and body and he knows that these are a part
of himself. (2) Over and above this Simple Consciousness,
which is possessed by man as by animals, man has another
x
(New York: Dutton, 1969.)
60 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

which is called Self Consciousness. By virtue of this faculty

man is not only conscious of trees, rocks, waters, his own
limbs and body, but he becomes conscious of himself as a
distinct entity apart from all the rest of the universe. It is as
good as certain that no animal can realize himself in that
way. Further, by means of self consciousness, man (who
knows as the animal knows) becomes capable of treating his
own mental states as objects of consciousness. The animal
is, as it were, immersed in his consciousness as a fish in the
sea; he cannot, even in imagination, get outside of it for one
moment so as to realize it. But man by virtue of self con-
sciousness can step aside, as it were, from himself and
think: "Yes, that thought that I had about that matter is
true; I know it is true and I know that I know it is true." The
writer has been asked: "How do you know that animals can-
not think in the same manner?" The answer is simple and con-
clusive—it is: There is no evidence that any animal can so
think, but if they could we should soon know it. Between two
creatures living together, as dogs or horses and men, and
each self conscious, it would be the simplest matter in the
world to open up communication. Even as it is, diverse as is
our psychology, we do, by watching his acts, enter into
the dog's mind pretty freely—we see what is going on there
—we know that the dog sees and hears, smells and tastes—we
know that he has intelligence—adapts means to ends—that he
reasons. If he was self conscious we must have learned it
long ago. We have not learned it and it is as good as certain
that no dog, horse, elephant or ape ever was self conscious.
Another thing: on man's self consciousness is built everything
in and about us distinctively human. Language is the objec-
tive of which self consciousness is the subjective. Self con-
sciousness and language (two in one, for they are two halves
of the same thing) are the sine qua non of human social life,
of manners, of institutions, of industries of all kinds, of all
arts useful and fine. If any animal possessed self consciousness
it seems certain that it would upon that master faculty build
(as man has done) a superstructure of language; of reasoned
out customs, industries, art. But no animal has done this,
therefore we infer that no animal has self consciousness.
The possession of self consciousness and language (its
other self) by man creates an enormous gap between him
and the highest creature possessing merely simple conscious-
ness.
JP CONSCIOUSNESS 61
Cosmic Consciousness is a third form which is as far above
Self Consciousness as is that above Simple Consciousness.
With this form, of course, both simple and self consciousness
persist (as simple consciousness persists when self conscious-
ness is acquired), but added to them is the new faculty so
often named and to be named in this volume. The prime char-
acteristic of cosmic consciousness is, as its name implies, a
consciousness of the cosmos, that is, of the life and order of
the universe. What these words mean cannot be touched upon
here; it is the business of this volume to throw some light
upon them. There are many elements belonging to the cosmic
sense besides the central fact just alluded to. Of these a few
may be mentioned. Along with the consciousness of the cos-
mos there occurs an intellectual enlightenment or illumina-
tion which alone would place the individual on a new plane
of existence—would make him almost a member of a new
species. To this is added a state of moral exaltation, an in-
describable feeling of elevation, elation, and joyousness, and
a quickening of the moral sense, which is fully as striking and
more important both to the individual and to the race than is
the enhanced intellectual power. With these come, what may
be called a sense of immortality, a consciousness of eternal
life, not a conviction that he shall have this, but the conscious-
ness that he has it already.
Only a personal experience of it, or a prolonged study of
men who have passed into the new life, will enable us to
realize what this actually is; but it has seemed to the present
writer that to pass in review, even briefly and imperfectly, in-
stances in which the condition in question has existed would
be worth while. He expects his work to be useful in two ways:
First, in broadening the general view of human life by com-
prehending in our mental vision this important phase of it,
and by enabling us to realize, in some measure, the true status
of certain men who, down to the present are either exalted,
by the average self conscious individual, to the rank of gods,
or, adopting the other extreme, are adjudged insane. And in
the second place he hopes to furnish aid to his fellow men
in a far more practical and important sense. The view he
takes is that our descendants will sooner or later reach, as a
race, the condition of cosmic consciousness, just as, long ago,
our ancestors passed from simple to self consciousness. He
believes that this step in evolution is even now being made,
since it is clear to him both that men with the faculty in ques-
62 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
tion are becoming more and more common and also that as
a race we are approaching nearer and nearer to that stage of
the self conscious mind from which the transition to the cos-
mic conscious is effected. He realizes that, granted the neces-
sary heredity, any individual not already beyond the age
may enter cosmic consciousness. He knows that intelligent
contact with cosmic conscious minds assists self conscious in-
dividuals in the ascent to the higher plane. He therefore
hopes, by bringing about, or at least facilitating this contact,
to aid men and women in making the almost infinitely im-
portant step in question.

Contemplation (See also MYSTICISM; PRAYER.)

"Contemplation" and "contemplatives" are two common
words used in references to Christian religious experience.
The entry on PRAYER tells us that contemplation refers to
ways of prayer which are beyond the ordinary, ways of
prayer in which one has an immediate, certain, and direct
experience of the divine, of God. The entry on Contempla-
tion is about those persons who have traveled long and far
enough on the Christian path to have entered mystical ex-
perience. The entry on MYSTICISM is a useful auxiliary
reading to this entry; however, one must keep in mind that
the contemplative does not seek or value mystical experi-
ence in itself; what is sought and valued is a closer union
with God.
William MacNamara, a Carmelite friar, is the director of
the Spiritual Life Institute of America (Star Route 1, Se-
dona, Ariz. 86336), a center begun in 1960 with a man-
date from Pope John XXIII. It is open to people who
seek short- or long-term Contemplation.
Fr. MacNamara writes:1

I know of only one way to get rid of the gross, commonplace,

universal misconception of the concept contemplation. And
that's by experience. There is no other way. And because
there are so few distinctively human beings in the world, and
therefore so few people who have experienced in their depths
contemplation in the highest reach of that word, there is an
1
T/ie Art of Being Human (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1962).
PF' CONTEMPLATION 63
overwhelming misunderstanding and misconception of con-
templation in the world. It's something we cannot even
teach. We cannot teach contemplation. It's too infinitely sub-
jective to teach. For instance, the Spiritual Life Institute has
as its supreme object to cultivate contemplation among in-
dividual people and in our American culture, to get it on the
highways and byways of life. So that everything about us, our
political, social, economic and domestic existence is inspired,
dominated, and permeated by contemplation. And yet we
know we wouldn't dare try to teach it. All we can do and
all we plan to do, as our Institute grows and develops, is to
teach theological humanism. In other words, to educate,
which is to draw out of every man what is deep, profound,
latent, and hidden within him; which is his godliness—so that
when man becomes as human as he can become, when man
is properly and thoroughly divinized, so that he thinks and
loves like God, then simply and inevitably, he contemplates.
He sees things as they really are. He enjoys and finds delight
in being, in truth, in reality. And he is no longer simply
utilitarian, aggressively, greedily trying to always get something
out of everything. Sometimes he simply stands before being,
before the world, before the universe, before another human
being, before any single creature. And takes a long, loving
look at it. And enjoys it and leaves himself wide open to its
revelation, to its disclosure of mystery, of truth, of love. Con-
templation cannot even be explained adequately.
It is even impossible for a human being who reads all about
the value, the nature, the beauty, the enticing character of
contemplation to decide empirically to contemplate. Because
if an ordinary human being does this, he does this with his
ordinary superficial self, his false self—you know, the self we
talk about, that we display—the mass, the functional person,
not the real, profound and transcendental self. So that such a
person would end up as a phony, unreal, unnatural, imma-
ture.
I would like to eliminate false notions of contemplation.
When we speak of contemplation, we are not talking about
the false mysticism of mass society, or any fanatical move-
ment that captivates the uprooted and alienated men, up-
rooted from the depths of themselves, uprooted from the
universe, from God, alienated from themselves, other people
I and God. And therefore are easily, overwhelmingly capti-
I vated by any sort of fanaticism or false mysticism. People
64 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
who subjugate themselves to power politicians. That is not the
sort of thing we are talking about.
Nor are we talking about any sort of device or technique
that enables us to "trip out". What we are talking about is
the human kind of endeavor and discipline and love it takes
to "stand in", alert and alive, with the highest possible focus
of human attention on the present moment or the present
being with one's everyday mind.
When we talk of contemplation, we are not talking about
any kind of trance or ecstasy or enthusiasm—any sort of
emotional activity of the somatic unconscious. We are not
talking about the affair of a quiet and passive temperament,
to whom it comes naturally to sit and do nothing. We are
not talking about an aloof and isolated thinker who simply
loves to ruminate or reflect or be a "spooky" introvert. Nor
are we talking about a rigid, unbending, unworldly man who
is aloof from the flesh and blood, turmoil and chaos, pleasure
of the world. It is possible for a man to become totally
detached in everything and un-attached to God. But this is
not a saint. This is a stuffed shirt. This is not a man all aglow
with the Spirit, consumed with the fire of God's love, his
universe, his earth, his world. It is a man who has got into
the habit of being pious, perhaps unreal and aloof.
Some of the most real mystical and contemplative people
I know are deeply and profoundly immersed in the world,
have children, are thoroughly engaged in the political frame,
the social frame. They are great lovers, great fighters, have
tremendous anguish and doubt. But they are contemplative
and mystical simply because they are basically and essentially
great lovers of God and His whole creation.
And that is why I like some of the old mystics, some of
the prophets—fierce, wild men like John the Baptist and
Elias. And contemporary novel characters like Zorba the
Greek and Holden Caulfield, and Mr. Blue. Great mystics,
great contemplative people, who are not aloof, not disin-
terested in the world but are deeply, profoundly, poignantly
in love with the world. And their love of the world does not
lessen or diminish or preclude their dynamic, irresistible, and
burning love of God.
The contemplation we are talking about, therefore, is no
escape from the world. Nor is it an escape from anguish,
conflict or doubt. Some of the most contemplative people
in the world have the biggest doubts because all their childish
 CONTEMPLATION 65
and puerile faith is exploded. And all their old cliches, all
their old verbalisms, slogans are burnt up in the ashes of a
great holocaust. Because they now know that they know noth-
ing about what God is. Because they have discovered through
contemplation, through their personal encounter with the
living God, that they know nothing about God. They have
discovered that God is not a thing, that God is not a what,
that He is a pure Who. All they do is stand defenselessly,
helplessly, humbly before His holy countenance exposing
themselves as they are, paltry, absurd, faltering men before
the bold scrutiny of His piercing gaze.
Contemplation is no pain-killer. Contemplative people per- '
haps suffer the most. They are the most sympathetic, com-
passionate people in the world. What then is contemplation:
Contemplation is the experimental grasp of reality as sub-
jective. Not mine. That would pertain to the external super-
ficial self. But as myself in existential mystery. In other words,
if I am contemplative, it means that I have come into the
ownership of myself. It means that I have achieved through
asceticism and discipline and the control and wildness of love,
the mastery of my own human instrument.
And only when I have achieved ownership of myself may
I give myself to the world and enter into the sharing of the
contemplation I enjoy—which is the definition and the only
valid definition of the apostolate. If the apostolate which
everyone is engaging in today so superficially and noisily
is not simply a snaring of my contemplation, my own per-
sonal experiential awareness of God, then it is a phony and
absurd apostolate.
Contemplation does not arrive at reality after a process
of deduction, but by an intuitive awakening in which our free
and personal reality becomes fully alive in its own existential
depths which happen to open out into the mystery of God.
So that if we can discover ourself in depth, we've got to dis-
cover God. And if we do discover ourselves in depth, then
we do simultaneously discover Christ. We could almost say
there is an identity between my most real, profound, and
transcendental self and the real Christ. And that is why St.
John of the Cross, the great Mystical Doctor, could say with
such triumph and joy:

'Mine are the hills and the mountains are mine.

Mine are the just and the sinners are mine.
66 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
The nations are mine. The people are mine.
The angels are mine. The Mother of God is
'! mine. And God Himself is mine and for me.
Because Christ is mine and all for me!'

Dhyana Yoga (See YOGA, p. 306.)

Dreams (See also INNER IMAGERY; and see the discussion of

Dreams in ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY and PSYCHODRAMA. )

It has been said that man functions on four levels: the

literal, the moral, the symbolic, and the anagogic. The literal
level is what we experience with the world and easily per-
ceive: I am walking down the road and feeling sleepy. The
moral level is what we can easily judge, either through
thought or feeling. The symbolic level is manifest through
dreams, inner images, and outer events which, when ap-
proached in the right way, can create continuities and
meanings beyond the ordinary: I have just become the
father of a son, and my dreams and everyday interactions
tell me that I am undergoing a fundamental change. The
anagogic level is that of ultimate or godly concerns. Wheth-
er we are in touch with or faithful to this level would
seem to manifest itself in the amount of satisfaction life has
for us. The symbolic level is between the moral and the
anagogic. It can be said to be the way God speaks to us or
the way we get certain kinds of feedback which can tell us
just how well the literal and moral levels are functioning.
The symbolic ways may be thought of as great synthesizers.
Dreams are a primary, some would say the primary means
of knowing the symbolic. INNER IMAGERY is another way,
and the entry on ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY has much to
say on dreams.
Berelson and Steiner write: 1
All the people studied dreamed every night—not just once,
but an average of four or five times.
Dreams are not instantaneous but average twenty minutes
each and consume very close to 20 percent of sleeping time;
in fact, dream time is usually realistic, i.e., the elapsed time
with the dream roughly matches the duration of the action
itself.
x
Human Behavior, an Inventory of Scientific Findings (New York:
Harcourt, Brace & World, 1964).
 DREAMS 67
A very much greater amount of dreaming occurs normally
than had heretofore been realized—greater both from the
Standpoint of frequency and duration in a single night of
sleep and in the invariability of its occurrence from night to
night. In other words, dreaming appears to be an intrinsic part
of normal sleep and, as such . . . occurs every night in every
sleeping person.2
If these findings are hard to believe, it is because:
Most people do not recall all their dreams in the morn-
ing; when a dream is remembered, it tends to be one that was
dreamed later in the night.
On the other hand, the notion that dreams serve some
useful or even necessary function is supported:
Subjects kept from dreaming by being awakened whenever
eye movements signaled the onset of a dream became irritable
and anxious in a matter of days, made progressively more fre-
quent attempts to dream, and dreamed much longer during
the first few nights of the recovery period, free of interference.
The same subjects, awakened an equal number of times dur-
ing nondreaming sleep, showed no effects.
Charles T. Tart offers another preliminary perspective: 8

In spite of its being an ASC [Altered State of Conscious-

ness] experienced by all men to various degrees, our knowl-
edge of the nature of the dream is far from complete, and
men's attitudes toward it have covered every extreme imagin-
able. The dream has been treated as the real existence of the
soul wandering during sleep, as an indication of an upset
stomach, as the Royal Road to the Unconscious, as a prophecy
of things to come, as an epiphenomenon of the inefficient
working of the brain, and even as something whose reality
is disproved by the skillful subtleties of logical positivism
(Malcolm, 1959). The attitude of the scientific community
toward the 'respectability' of studying dreams has similarly
varied. As a result of the discovery of distinct physiological
cycling through the night, associated with dream recall, by
Aserinsky and Kleitman some 15 years ago . . . dreams are
currently respectable. There are dozens of laboratories
"Dement, William. "The Effect of Dream Deprivation," Science, 131,
1960.
3
Tart, ed., Altered States of Consciousness (New York: Wiley, 1969),
intro. to "Dream Consciousness."
68 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
throughout the country engaged in the electrophysiological
study of sleep and, to various degrees, the dreams that occur
in sleep. The output of publications from these laboratories is
currently reaching several hundred per year.
In spite of this immense amount of scientific activity, most
of the emphasis is on the biology of sleep rather than its
psychology.
Dreams are an integral, major part of many ways of growth.
The use of dreams in some nonindustrialized societies is
quite advanced. Claudio Naranjo writes of this:4
What is said of art may also be said of dreams; a form of
symbolic expression that we all share and that constitutes
perhaps our most spontaneous activity. Dream symbolism, as
any other, expresses us better than concepts can, but it
stands as an entity separated from us, a not-I. It is a mes-
sage from our depths, but only when we understand its lan-
guage and recognize it as our own expression. Psychotherapy
has paid a great deal of attention to dreams, whether in
terms of 'interpretation' (psychoanalysis) underlying archetyp-
al qualities (Jungian analysis) or unfolding their contents
through enacting (psychodrama, Gestalt therapy). Yet aside
from the therapy context, there is a sharp split between our
dream life and our conscious concern for it (a characteristic
of our culture). This is not the case in the so-called primitive
cultures, especially in those where shamanism is more alive.
Among these, a pervasive interest in dreams goes hand in
hand with a collaborative relationship between ego and
nonego—whether body, tribesman, or nature.
A particular approach to dream life that deserves mention
among the ways of growth is the systematic handling of these
productions among the Senoi, a rather isolated culture in
Malaya. It is an established custom among these people that
at the beginning of the day the father, to some extent a
dream expert, discusses the family's night dreams. Not only
are the dreams told and listened to, but they are evaluated,
and the father gives advice to the children. For example, a
child may have dreamed that he was falling, and the father
may comment: 'There must have been a purpose in your
*"The Unfolding of Man." Article for Educational Policy Research
Center, Stanford Research Institute, Palo Alto, Calif. Research Note
EPRC 6747-3, 1969.
 DREAMS 69
fall. The spirit of the depth must have been pulling you
down. What did you see under you?' If the child did not see
anything in his nightmarish panic, he may be given the
advice next time to look where he is going and discover the
purpose of the fall. Subsequently, the child may have a dream
in which he starts to fall, but remembering the advice, he
stops resisting it, and this falling becomes flight. When his
father hears this report, he may still feel that his son's dream
is unfinished, for he has not found anything or met anyone.
The father's further directions will modify subsequent dream-
ing until the child learns something from the dream. Thus,
only when the dreamer has found in his dream something
that he may bring back to the community—a new song, a
dance, an invention, an idea—is a dream considered complete
among the Senoi.
I have touched only on a single aspect of the Senoi's
handling of dream material, but this may suffice to point out
the possibility of what amounts to the cultivation of dream
life and at the same time the establishment of a link between
the activities of the dreaming and the wakeful mind. The
subject is led into an attitude of taking responsibility and
feeling himself to be a doer of his dreams, as he is of his
conscious actions; thus he learns how to master his dreams,
without detracting from their spontaneity and revelation
quality. On the contrary, he learns how to live them out to
the fullest, just as an artist learns to develop a theme to its
fullest potential.
On the Senoi, see also Kilton Stewart, "Dream Theory in
Malaya," in Altered States of Consciousness, edited by
Charles T. Tart.
For the Freudian approach, see Philip Rieff (ed.),
Freud, Therapy and Technique (New York: Collier Books,
1963). For the Jungian, see P. W. Martin, Experiment in
Depth (London: Routledge, 1955). For that of Gestalt
Therapy, see F. S. Perls, Gestalt Therapy Verbatim (La-
fayette, Calif.: Real People Press, 1969).

Encounter Groups {See also SENSITIVITY TRAINING; T-GROUPS.)

The Encounter Group and groups closely related to it has

a dynamic which has been diverse and difficult to summa-
70 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

rize. A recent book by Carl Rogers1 has provided a clear

and detailed summary of it.
Of the "planned, intensive group experience," Rogers
writes:
This is, in my judgment, the most rapidly spreading social
invention of the century, and probably the most potent—an
invention that goes by many names. "T-group," "encounter
group," "sensitivity training" are among the most common.
Sometimes such groups are known as laboratories in human
relationships, or workshops in leadership, education, or coun-
seling. When it deals with drug addicts the group is often
labeled a synanon, after the Synanon organization and its
techniques.
One element which makes this phenomenon well worth
psychological study is the fact that it has grown up entirely
outside the "establishment." Most universities still look upon
it with scorn. Until the last two or three years, foundations
and government agencies have been unwilling to fund pro-
grams of research in this area; the established professions of
clinical psychology and psychiatry have stayed aloof, while
the political right wing is certain that it represents a deep-
seated Communist plot. I know of few other trends which
have so clearly expressed the need and desire of people
rather than institutions. In spite of such adverse pressures,
the movement has blossomed and grown until it has permeated
every part of the country and almost every kind of modern
organization. It obviously has significant social implications.
Part of the purpose of this chapter will be to look into some
of the reasons for its surprisingly rapid and spontaneous
growth.
These intensive groups have functioned in a variety of
settings. They have operated in industries, in universities, in
church settings; in government agencies, educational institu-
tions, and penitentiaries. An astonishing range of individuals
has been involved in this group experience. There have been
groups for presidents of large corporations, and groups for
delinquent and predelinquent adolescents. There have been
groups composed of college students and faculty members,
of counselors and psychotherapists; of school dropouts, of
x
Carl Rogers on Encounter Groups (New York: Harper & Row,
1970). From pp. 1-13, 117-121, Copyright 1970 by Carl M. Rogers, re-
printed by permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.
 ENCOUNTER GROUPS 71
married couples, of families, including both parents and
children; of confirmed drug addicts, of criminals serving sen-
tences; of nurses, educators, teachers, school administrators,
industrial managers, State Department ambassadors—even
members of the Internal Revenue Service!
The geographical spread attained by this rapidly expanding
movement has reached from Bethel, Maine, to San Diego,
California, and from Seattle to Palm Beach. Intensive groups
have also been conducted in a number of other countries, in-
cluding England, France, Holland, Australia, and Japan.

Origin
Some time prior to 1947 Kurt Lewin, a famous psychologist
working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with his
staff and students, developed the idea that training in human
relations skills was an important but overlooked type of edu-
cation in modern society. The first so-called T-group (T
standing for training) was held in Bethel, Maine, in 1947,
shortly after Lewin's death. Those who had worked with him
continued to develop these training groups, both while they
were at MIT and later at the University of Michigan. The
summer groups at Bethel came to be well known. An organi-
zation, the National Training Laboratories, was formed, with
offices in Washington, D.C., which has steadily grown
throughout more than two decades since that time. The pri-
mary thrust of the NTL groups has been in the industrial
field, reaching managers and executives. This direction de-
veloped primarily because industry could afford the expense
of such group experience for its top personnel.
The groups initially fitted the T-group description of their
name. They were training groups in human relations skills
in which individuals were taught to observe the nature of
their interactions with others and of the group process. From
this, it was felt, they would be better able to understand their
own way of functioning in a group and on the job, and the
impact they had on others, and would become more com-
petent in dealing with difficult interpersonal situations.
In the T-groups organized by NTL for industry, and
gradually in many areas outside of industry, it was found
that individuals often had very deep personal experiences of
change in the trusting, caring relationship that grew up among
the participants.
Another phase of the movement toward intensive group
72 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
experience was developing at about the same time at the
University of Chicago. In 1946 and 1947, immediately after
World War II, my associates and I at the Counseling Center
of the University of Chicago were involved in training per-
sonal counselors for the Veterans Administration. We were
asked to create a brief but intensive course of training which
would prepare these men—all of whom had at least a mas-
ter's degree—to become effective personal counselors in deal-
ing with the problems of returning GI's. Our staff felt that no
amount of cognitive training would prepare them, so we ex-
perimented with an intensive group experience in which the
trainees met for several hours each day in order better to
understand themselves, to become aware of attitudes which
might be self-defeating in the counseling relationship, and
to relate to each other in ways that would be helpful and
could carry over into their counseling work. This was an
attempt to tie together experiential and cognitive learning in
a process which had therapeutic value for the individual. It
provided many deep and meaningful experiences for the
trainees, and was so successful in a sequence of groups of
personal counselors that our staff continued to use the pro-
cedure in summer workshops thereafter.
There was no attempt by our Chicago group to expand
this approach, and it is worth mentioning only because the
somewhat different emphasis represented in the Chicago ex-
perience has gradually become imbedded in the whole move-
ment involving intensive group experience. The Chicago
groups were oriented primarily toward personal growth and
the development and improvement of interpersonal communi-
cation and relationships, rather than having these as secondary
aims. They also had more of an experiential and therapeutic
orientation than the groups originating in Bethel. Over the
years this orientation toward personal and therapeutic growth
has become merged with the focus of training in human re-
lations skills, and the two combined form the core of the
trend which is spreading so rapidly throughout the country to-
day.
Thus the conceptual underpinnings of this whole movement
were initially Lewinian thinking and Gestalt psychology on
the one hand, and client-centered therapy on the other. In
recent years many other theories and influences have played
apart.
 ENCOUNTER GROUPS 73

Differing Emphases and Forms

As interest in the intensive group experience, and use of
it, have grown, spread, and multiplied, there has developed
a wide diversity of emphases. The following list with its brief
descriptive phrases certainly oversimplifies the situation, but
may give some idea of the broad spectrum involved.

T-group. As indicated above, this originally tended to em-

phasize human relations skills but has become much broader
in its approach.
Encounter group (or basic encounter group). This tends
to emphasize personal growth and the development and im-
provement of interpersonal communication and relationships
through an experiential process.
Sensitivity training group. May resemble either of the
above.
Task-oriented group. Widely used in industry. Focuses on
the task of the group in its interpersonal context.
Sensory awareness groups, body awareness groups, body
movement groups. As the labels indicate, these tend to em-
phasize physical awareness and expression through move-
ment, spontaneous dance, and the like.
Creativity workshops. Here creative expression through
various art media often forms the focus, with individual
spontaneity and freedom of expression the aim.
Organizational development group. The primary aim is
growing in skill as a leader of persons.
Team building group. Used in industry to develop more
closely knit and effective working teams.
Gestalt group. Emphasis on a Gestalt therapeutic ap-
proach where an expert therapist focuses on one individual
at a time, but from a diagnostic and therapeutic point of
view.
Synanon group or "game." Developed in the treatment of
drug addicts by the Synanon organization. Tends to empha-
size almost violent attack on the defenses of the participants.
In addition to this partial list one might mention some of
the different forms that may be found. There are "stranger
groups," composed of individuals unacquainted with each
other. There are staff groups from one organization, people
associated in their everyday life in industry, education, or
whatever their occupational setting may be. There are large

k
74 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
workshops or "labs" in which a number of small groups may
be conducted simultaneously, each maintaining its own con-
tinuity, while the whole workshop often gets together for
some common experience such as a talk or other cognitive ses-
sion. One may find couples' groups, in which married couples
meet with the hope of helping each other improve their
marital relationships. A recent development is the family
group, where several families join in one group, with parents
learning from their own and others' children and vice versa.
Then there are differences in the time element. Most groups
meet intensively during a weekend, a week, or several weeks.
In some instances group sessions are held once or twice
a week. There are also marathon groups which meet con-
tinuously for twenty-four hours or more.1

Threads in Common
Simply to describe the diversity in this field raises very
properly the question of why these various developments
should be considered as belonging together at all. Are there
any common threads running through all these widely di-
vergent activities and emphases? To me it seems that they do
belong together and may all be classed as focusing on the
intensive group experience. They all tend to have certain
similar external characteristics. The group in almost every
case is small (from eight to eighteen members), relatively
unstructured, choosing its own goals and personal directions.
The experience often, though not always, includes some
cognitive input—some content material which is presented to
the group. In almost all instances the leader's responsibility is
primarily the facilitation of the expression of both feelings and
thoughts on the part of group members. Both in the leader
and in the members there is a focus on the process and
dynamics of immediate personal interactions. These are, I be-
lieve, some of the identifying characteristics which are rather
easily recognized.
There are also certain practical hypotheses which tend to be
held in common by all these groups, which might be formu-
lated in quite different ways. Here is one such formulation.
1
It might be mentioned in passing that "nude marathons" in which
people may divest themselves of their clothes have received an enormous
amount of publicity, although they certainly constitute less than one
tenth of one percent of intensive group experiences.

-J
f*' ENCOUNTER GROUPS 75

A facilitator can develop, in a group which meets inten-

sively, a psychological climate of safety in which freedom of
expression and reduction of defensiveness gradually occur.

In such a psychological climate many of the immediate feel-

ing reactions of each member toward others, and of each
member toward himself, tend to be expressed.
A climate of mutual trust develops out of this mutual free-
dom to express real feelings, positive and negative. Each
member moves toward greater acceptance of his total be-
ing—emotional, intellectual, and physical—as it is, includ-
ing its potential.

With individuals less inhibited by defensive rigidity, the

possibility of change in personal attitudes and behavior, in
professional methods, in administrative procedures and re-
lationships becomes less threatening.

With the reduction of defensive rigidity, individuals can

hear each other, can learn from each other, to a greater ex-
tent.
There is a development of feedback from one person to
another such that each individual learns how he appears to
others and what impact he has in interpersonal relation-
ships.

With this greater freedom and improved communication,

new ideas, new concepts, new directions emerge. Innova-
tion can become a desirable rather than a threatening pos-
sibility.

These learnings in the group experience tend to carry over,

temporarily or more permanently, into the relationships
with spouse, children, students, subordinates, peers, and
even superiors following the group experience.

While this description of basic aspects of the experience

would probably fit a majority of groups, it would be less

L
applicable for such situations as Gestalt therapy and other
groups where the leader is much more in charge and much
more manipulative.
76 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

It might be mentioned that the style of the leader and his

own concepts of the group process make a great deal of
difference in the conduct and experience of the group. It
has been found however that in leaderless groups, where
individuals simply meet intensively without any one person
named as facilitator or leader, the process that occurs is
similar to the description given. Hence, it might be said that
variations from it often depend on the style or point of view
of the leader or facilitator.

The Group Process

In the following chapter I shall try to give a somewhat de-
tailed picture of the group process, but a very brief and
general overview will be appropriate here.
Because of the unstructured nature of the group, the major
problem faced by the participants is how they are going to
use their time together1—whether it be eighteen hours of a I
weekend or forty or more hours in a one-week group. Often |
there is consternation, anxiety, and irritation at first—par-
ticularly because of the lack of structure. Only gradually
does it become evident that the major aim of nearly every
member is to find ways of relating to other members of the
group and to himself. Then as they gradually, tentatively,
and fearfully explore their feelings and attitudes toward one
another and toward themselves, it becomes increasingly evi-
dent that what they have first presented are facades, masks.
Only cautiously do the real feelings and real persons emerge.
The contrast between the outer shell and the inner person be-
comes more and more apparent as the hours go by. Little by
little, a sense of genuine communication builds up, and the
person who has been thoroughly walled off from others comes
out with some small segment of his actual feelings. Usually
his attitude has been that his real feelings will be quite un-
acceptable to other members of the group. To his astonish-
ment, he finds that he is more accepted the more real that he
becomes. Negative feelings are often especially feared, since
it seems certain to each individual that his angry or jealous
feelings cannot possibly be accepted by another. Thus one of
the most common developments is that a sense of trust
slowly begins to build, and also a sense of warmth and liking
for other members of the group. A woman says on Sunday
afternoon, "If anybody had told me Friday evening that by
today I would be loving every member of this group I would

J
 ENCOUNTER GROUPS 77
have told him that he belonged in the nut house." Participants
feel a closeness and intimacy which they have not felt even
with their spouses or members of their own family, because
they have revealed themselves here more deeply and more
fully than to those in their own family circle.
Thus, in such a group the individual comes to know
himself and each of the others more completely than is pos-
sible in the usual social or working relationships. He becomes
deeply acquainted with the other members and with his own
inner self, the self that otherwise tends to be hidden behind
his facade. Hence he relates better to others, both in the
group and later in the everyday life situation.
Why the Rapid Spread?
It would be difficult to find a medium- to large-sized city
in our country today in which some sort of intensive group
experience is not available. The rapidity of the spread of in-
terest has been incredible. A year or so ago, when I was
about to speak to a large general audience in a western city,
I asked the man responsible for organizing the meeting what
proportion of the audience would have had some experience
in an encounter group or something similar. He gave as his
answer, "Less than a third." After giving a brief description
of such a group and the various labels attached to it, I asked
for a show of hands of those who had experienced such a
group. About three fourths of the audience of twelve hun-
dred raised their hands. I am sure that ten years ago hardly
fifty people could have so responded.
One factor which makes the rapidity of the spread even
more remarkable is its complete and unorganized spontaneity.
Contrary to the shrill voices of the right wing (whom I will
mention below), this has not been a "conspiracy." Quite the
contrary. No group or organization has been pushing the de-
velopment of encounter groups. There has been no financing
of such a spread, either from foundations or governments.
Many orthodox psychologists and psychiatrists have frowned
upon the development. Yet in spite of this, in churches, col-
leges, "growth centers," and industry the numbers of groups
have burgeoned. It has been a spontaneous demand, by peo-
ple clearly seeking something. As an example, some of the
staff members of our Center for Studies of the Person con-
duct a summer program for the training of group facilitators or
leaders. As a part of the program they provide the opportunity
78 WAYS PEOPLE GROW 1
for pairs of trainees to co-lead two groups on successive
weekends. To procure participants for these groups they have
sent out announcements to a modest mailing list, almost en-
tirely in the San Diego area. There has been no paid publicity
or even newspaper items about the opportunity. The only
unusual inducement was that participants had to pay only for
their registration and board and room. There was no "tuition"
charge, since it was openly stated that the facilitators were
persons in training. Initially I predicted that with so little
publicity they would fail to enroll an adequate number. To
my amazement, six hundred people signed up for the first
weekend, and eight hundred for the second. This indicates
a spontaneous grass-roots demand of unbelievable strength
and size.
What accounts for the quick spread of groups? For the
enormous demand? I believe the soil out of which this de-
mand grows has two elements. The first is the increasing de-
humanization of our culture, where the person does not
count—only his IBM card or Social Security number. This
impersonal quality runs through all the institutions in our
land. The second element is that we are sufficiently affluent to
pay attention to our psychological wants. As long as I am
concerned over next month's rent, I am not very sharply
aware of my loneliness. This is borne out, in my experience,
by the fact that interest in encounter groups and the like is
not nearly so keen in ghetto areas as in sections of the popula-
tion which are no longer so concerned about the physical
necessities of life.
But what is the psychological need that draws people into
encounter groups? I believe it is a hunger for something the
person does not find in his work environment, in his church,
certainly not in his school or college, and sadly enough, not
even in modern family life. It is a hunger for relationships
which are close and real; in which feelings and emotions can
be spontaneously expressed without first being carefully cen-
sored or bottled up; where deep experiences—disappoint-
ments and joys—can be shared; where new ways of behaving
can be risked and tried out; where, in a word, he approaches
the state where all is known and all accepted, and thus further
growth becomes possible. This seems to be the overpowering
hunger which he hopes to satisfy through his experiences
in an encounter group.
 ENCOUNTER GROUPS 79

fear Created by the Trend

All types of intensive group experience have come under
the most virulent attack from right-wing and reactionary
groups. It is to them, a form of "brainwashing" and "thought
control." It is both a Communist conspiracy and a Nazi plot.
The statements made are ludicrously extreme and often con-
tradictory. It is fair to say that it is often pictured as being
one of the greatest dangers threatening our country.
As usual in such attacks, a small amount of truthful re-
porting is mingled with frightening conclusions and innuendo.
Thus Congressman Rarick read into the Congressional Record
of January 19, 1970 a diatribe by Ed Dieckmann, Jr. en-
titled "Sensitivity International—Network for World Control."
One of the milder sections, illustrative of the technique, is as
follows:

On September 23, 1968, the then President of the NEA, Eliza-

beth D. Koontz . . . said:
"The NEA has a multi-faceted program already directed toward
the urban school problem, embracing every phase, from the Head-
start Program to sensitivity training for adults—both teachers and
parents."
Thus she revealed the real goal: involvement of the entire com-
munity in one gigantic laboratory of groups, exactly as in North
Vietnam, Russia and Red China.
It is enlightening to know that this same Elizabeth Koontz, the
first Negro president of the NEA and a known member of the
board of SIECUS, the infamous 'Sex Information & Education
Council of the U.S.,' was appointed by President Nixon, earlier
this year, Director of the Women's Bureau of the Department of
Labor!
Synchronized with the attack by what we must remember is
'coercive persuasion or brainwashing,' was the announcement last
February by New York University that it now offers a master's
degree in sensitivity training; followed by Redlands University in
California with its trumpet blast in May that it, too, starts ST this
summer—and that it will be mandatory!

Here a bona fide quotation—quite sensible—is made to serve

as a base for utterly unfounded assertions and a vaguely hor-
rendous innuendo.
Another right-wing writer, Alan Stang, in The Review of
the News for April 9, 1969 (p. 16) inquires of his readers,
"Aren't our teachers being subjected to 'sensitivity training'

1
80 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
to prepare them for the dictatorial control which is the essence
of Nazism and all Socialism?" Another article by Gary Allen
in American Opinion, official organ of the John Birch Society
(January, 1968, p. 73), carries its message in its title: "Hate
Therapy: Sensitivity Training for Planned Change." He as-
serts that sensitivity training is ". . . now being promoted
throughout the country by the usual forces of the conspira-
torial Left."
One could go on and on, citing much more extreme state-
ments which issue in a flood from the far right. It is very
clear that sensitivity groups, encounter groups, and any other
form of the intensive group experience, are for them the bete
noir of American society.
James Harmon, in a carefully documented study, concludes
that there is ample evidence that the right wing has a large
proportion of authoritarian personalities. 2 They tend to be-
lieve that man is, by nature, basically evil. Surrounded as all
of us are by the bigness of impersonal forces which seem
beyond our power to control, they look for "the enemy,"
so that they can hate him. At different times in history "the
enemy" has been the witch, the demon, the Communist (re-
member Joe McCarthy?), and now sex education, sensitivity
training, "nonreligious humanism," and other current de-
mons.
My own explanation is more in line with Harmon's second
conclusion. Putting it in my own words: encounter groups
lead to more personal independence, fewer hidden feelings,
more willingness to innovate, more opposition to institutional
rigidities. Hence, if the person is fearful of change in any
form, he is rightly fearful of encounter groups. They breed
constructive change, as will be evident in the chapters that
follow. Hence, all those who are opposed to change will be
stoutly or even violently opposed to the intensified group ex-
perience.

Conclusion
I have endeavored to place in historical perspective the
surging development and use of the intensive group experi-
ence, sketching briefly some of the forms and emphases which
are currently observable. I have tried to indicate the hu-
2
James E. Harmon, "Ideological Aspects of Right-Wing Criticism of
the Intensive Group Experience." Unpublished paper written for a
seminar in human behavior, May, 1969.
 ENCOUNTER GROUPS 81
manizing elements that tend to characterize such groups, and
have suggested a possible explanation for the rapid growth
of this trend and why it is so feared by those who oppose
change.
It turns out that there has been much research work done
on the planned intensive group experience although it is
a popular misconception that this is not true. Carl Rogers
continues:

This chapter will not attempt a review of the many research

studies related to encounter groups, since that task has been
admirably and objectively completed by Dr. Jack Gibb. 1 He
has analyzed 106 studies, including seven earlier reviews of
such research. He has also examined 123 additional studies
which did not measure up to his criteria for inclusion, as
well as 24 recent doctoral dissertations from thirteen uni-
versities. This is a new development. University interest in the
intensive group experience was almost nonexistent before
I960. Gradually the number of university research studies has
grown, until 14 dissertations are known to have been com-
pleted during the period 1967-69, and many more are in
process.
Gibb points out that the frequently made statements about
the paucity of research in this field are simply untrue. He
found a number of the studies to be of high research quality,
although compared with studies made in the psychological
laboratory they are more crude, and many of the findings are
equivocal.
I would like to quote a number of statements from his
conclusions, commenting briefly on each of these from my
own point of view.2

"The evidence is strong that intensive group training ex-

periences have therapeutic effects."

Gibb draws this conclusion from the findings of many

studies, and I believe the material given earlier in this volume
1
3. R. Gibb, "The Effects of Human Relations Training," in A. E.
Bergin and S. L. Garfield, eds., Handbook of Psychotherapy and Be-
havior Change (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1970), chap. 22, pp.
2114-76.
2
The quotations are all from the final section of the above chapter,
entitled "Implications for Practice."
82 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

will bear it out. Personally, I would prefer to say that the

group has psychologically growth-promoting effects. This
avoids the connotations of a word such as "therapeutic."

"Changes do occur in sensitivity, ability to manage feelings,

directionality of motivation, attitudes toward the self, atti-
tudes toward others, and interdependence."

Each of these terms needs to be understood in the sense that

Gibb uses it. Sensitivity implies greater awareness of one's
own feelings and the feelings and perceptions of others. It
also involves openness, authenticity, and spontaneity.
"Managing feelings" refers primarily to the ownership of
one's feelings and the congruence between feelings and be-
havior.
By "directionality of motivation" Gibb is referring to such
concepts as self-actualization, self-determination, commit-
ment, and inner-directedness.
"Attitudes toward the self" includes self-acceptance, self-
esteem, congruence of perceived and ideal self, and confi-
dence.
Under "attitudes toward others" he includes decrease in
authoritarianism, greater acceptance of others, reduced em-
phasis on structure and control, and more emphasis on par-
ticipative management.
By "interdependence" he refers to interpersonal compe-
tence, teamwork in problem solving, and being a good group
member.
Since these all commonly constitute hopes of the group
facilitator, it is of decided interest to find that the best research
to date confirms the fact that changes do occur in these highly
significant directions.
"The research evidence clearly indicates no basis for mak-
ing any restrictions as to group membership."

One of the commonest myths regarding groups is that only

certain people should be included, or that there should be a
careful screening of participants. This does not fit my experi-
ence at all. In fact when asked such questions in public I
have facetiously replied that I thought very careful screen-
ing should be done, and no one should be admitted unless
 ENCOUNTER GROUPS 83

he was a person! I am pleased to see this point of view con-

firmed by a review of all the available research.

"Groups without leaders are effective as training media."

Major studies were done on this at the Western Behavioral

Sciences Institute of La Jolla, and the evidence was clear that
the group process in leaderless and leader-led groups was
very similar. It is, I believe, still an open question whether the
leaderless group is as effective as the leader-led, but at least
it is useful and effective. This finding opens the way to a
much wider use of groups. In my own judgment a leader-
less group is definitely preferable to a leader-led group in
which the leader displays the negative characteristics briefly
mentioned at the conclusion of Chapter 3.

"To be optimally effective the group training must be rele-

vant to the organizational, family, and life environment of
the person."

This is a strong argument for the composition of what

Gibb calls "imbedded" groups, whose members function in
close and continuing relationship to each other. This con-
clusion is strongly supported by my own experience. A close-
ly related conclusion is that

"Effective consulting relationships on a continuing basis are

at least as important as what occurs in the group sessions
in determining impact upon the participant."

This is the point at which many group programs have

failed. A continuing follow-up, suited to the nature of the
group and the situation, is of the utmost importance but is
rarely carried through. This is one of my own major criti-
cisms of the so-called "growth centers" which so often pro-
vide intensive group experiences for a weekend or a week,
with no follow-up whatsoever.

"Training experiences to be optimally effective . . . should be

concentrated in uninterrupted and continuous sessions."

Again the experience of many facilitators is confirmed that

more will be gained in twenty or forty hours of weekend or
84 WAYS PEOPLE GROW I
week-long sessions than in the same number of hours invested
in once-a-week meetings. Gibb also makes the point that the
total time in the group "should be longer than it usually is,"
since research shows greater impact from the longer groups.

Finally, "There is little basis for the widespread concern

among lay groups about the traumatic effects of group
training."
It is good to see this ghost laid to rest, since not only the
layman, but often the psychologist or psychiatrist not in-
volved in groups, can come up with many "horror stories"
about the terribly disturbing psychological effects of groups.
In our work with a large school system, described in the next
chapter, there were many criticisms and rumors about in-
dividuals who had been so upset that they could not carry
on their work, etc. When these stories were tracked down,
they almost invariably came from people who had not them-
selves been involved in any group, and the statements were
based on what they had "heard" from vague "others." Gibb
reports a very careful study of 1200 YMCA directors who
had been involved in groups. Rumors were widespread in the
organization of "severe psychological disruption due to the
training." It was found in fact that only four of the 1200
had felt their experience was negative. By the time the in-
vestigators reached these four, three had decided the experi-
ence had actually been helpful. Only one (out of 1200) still
felt his experience to have been a negative one, and he was
functioning effectively on the job.
This conclusion is confirmed by my own experience, as I
will indicate in citing a survey I made. My own explanation
of this "rumor" phenomenon is that many individuals are
threatened by the possibility of change, and they are dimly
aware that the major outcome of a group experience is change.
Thus when they hear that someone wept in a group, or spent
a sleepless night, or went through a difficult period afterward
as in the case of Ellen (Chapter 5), they leap to the con-
clusion that groups are bad and psychologically destructive.
Thus they save themselves from being exposed to the pos-
sibility of change.
Everyone concerned with the intensive group experience is
indebted to Dr. Gibb for his concise, thoughtful, and complete
analysis of the very large existing body of research in the
 ESP 85
whole T-group, sensitivity training, encounter group, and or-
ganization development field. Those with any interest in re-
search are strongly urged to consult his review.

ESP
Gardner Murphy offers some introductory statements
on ESP (extrasensory perception) i 1

Psychical research, or parapsychology, consists of obser-

vations recorded in a form which aims at order and intelligi-
bility, but which cannot by any stretch of the imagination
be subsumed under the science of today. Shall we accept
that which cannot be assimilated? The issue is an old one.
When Aristotle discussed dreams which seemed at times to
foretell the future, he felt that it was his business to consider
the evidence, but neither to include the evidence as a part
of the texture of his treatise on psychology, nor on the other
hand to reject the narratives as inherently unworthy of atten-
tion.
It was not, however, until the nineteenth century that
serious and systematic investigation of psychical or para-
normal events—telepathy, prevision, apparitions of the dying
and deceased, the movement of objects in a manner un-
known to the physical sciences—began to take shape.
The primary factor launching modern psychical research
was the existence at Cambridge University, England, of a
group of scholars who felt that it was "nothing less than a
scandal in this enlightened age" (Henry Sidgwick's words)
that the serious reports of serious people regarding such ex-
periences should have received no scientific investigation. The
physicist, William Barrett, the clergyman, W. Stainton Moses,
the classical scholar, F. W. H. Myers, succeeded in launch-
ing in London, largely with the help of this group of Cam-
bridge scholars, a strong and effective research group which
within a few years numbered in its ranks many of the out-
standing British intellectuals, with a definite program of in-
vestigation into problems varying as widely as experimental
telepathy, a census of hallucinations, and the observation
of spiritist mediums in or out of trance. William James
played a major role in launching a similar organization in
Challenge of Psychical Research, a Primer of Parapsychology (New
York: Harper, 1961).
86 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
the United States. Such societies have until recently been
the major instruments in the investigation of paranormal
phenomena.
Despite the reluctance of the academic world to admit that
such incredible reports might be worthy of serious investi-
gation, a few efforts were made at Harvard, at Stanford
University, and elsewhere, until in 1930, with the support
of William McDougall and the vigorous leadership of J. B.
Rhine, a parapsychology laboratory was established at Duke
University, from which a continuous and very considerable
volume of research publication has followed. The three main
sources from which the present volume has drawn its ex-
amples are the Society for Psychical Research in London, the
American Society for Psychical Research in New York,
and the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University. A
fourth important example, the laboratory of the Parapsy-
chology Foundation in New York, will soon be heard from.
Another introductory statement by Berelson and Steiner: 2

The state of research in this controversial area can be sum-

marized as follows:
A small number of investigators, roughly thirty to forty,
who have done a large number of studies, are firmly con-
vinced that there is such a thing as extrasensory perception
or "awareness of or response to an external event or in-
fluence not apprehended by sensory means," e.g., telepathy,
clairvoyance. 3 The majority of psychologists, most of whom
have not studied the subject, are not convinced. Here are
the summary results of four surveys among psychologists in
the American Psychological Association, showing some in-
crease, over the years, in the willingness to accept ESP as a
possibility, but very little acceptance of the concept as an
"established fact."

a
Human Behavior (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1964).
3
Rhine, J. B. and J. G. Pratt. Parapsychology: Frontier Science of the
Mind. Thomas, 1957, p. 208.
 ESP 87

Comparison of results of four surveys 4

Percentage of Respondents
Young
psychologists
Fellows Asso- Asso-
Full and life ciates ciates
mem- mem- ad- ad-
bers bers mitted mitted
1938 1952 in 1950 in 1955
Date of survey 1938 1952 1955 1955
In your opinion, is "extrasensory perception"
1. An established fact? 1.4 2.6 4.2 4.0
2. A likely possibility? 7.4 14.0 25.5 27.8
3. A remote possibility? 36.4 39.0 31.1 32.0
4. An impossibility? 14.5 10.3 7.8 6.5
5. Merely an unknown? 40.3 34.1 31.4 29.7
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Judged by the scientific standards ordinarily applied in

other areas of psychology, the evidence is often persuasive,
although at the same time it is not as reproducible as one
would wish in a scientific discipline. Furthermore, many
psychologists argue that ordinary standards are in this case
inapplicable, for one or both of two major reasons.
(1) The postulated phenomena are in themselves so im-
plausible and depart so far from ordinary conceptions of
what is physically possible that the evidence needs to be much
more firm than evidence for more plausible hypotheses.

To demonstrate something highly implausible requires better evi-

dence than to demonstrate something plausible. The reason is
that supporting evidence for the plausible finding comes from
many directions, while the implausible one must hang upon the
slender thread of nonrandomness until certain systematic re-
lationships are found that tie it firmly to what is known.6

(2) Even the effects claimed by those who are convinced

are ordinarily very slight and the number of trials in each
experiment is ordinarily very large; and that raises certain
statistical questions. The exact nature of such questions is
varied and in any case highly technical; but they relate to the
fact that when a large enough series of chance events is ex-
Warner, Lucien. "What the Younger Psychologists Think About
ESP," /. Parapsychology, 19, 1955, p. 233.
E
Hilgard, Ernest R. Introduction to Psychology. 3rd ed. Harcourt,
Brace and World, 1962, p. 220.
88 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

amined in enough different ways, "nonchance" characteristics

are frequently observed.
There has even been some allegation of trickery or fraud
in the conduct or reporting of ESP studies. But it is fair to
say that there is no substantiating evidence for such criticism.
In any case, within the body of scientific research on ESP,
the following findings are probably considered to be best
demonstrated. In view of the controversial character of this
field, where the facts are still very much in doubt, we present
some of the main findings claimed by investigators, but with-
out the usual numbers signifying the acceptance of the
proposition by most scholars.
. . . Extrasensory perception (ESP) exists, in one form
or another.
Four basic forms are usually distinguished, although they
are related and some students think that there is a general
factor uniting them (as with intelligence): (a) telepathy, or
thought transference; (b) clairvoyance, or seeing distant
objects or events; (c) precognition, or prophecy; (d) psycho-
kinesis (PK), or influencing physical events through mental
operations (e.g., influencing dice by "will").
The typical ESP study that has produced such findings in-
volves a pack of twenty-five cards of five different types', the
subject "calls" or guesses the identity of each in a series of
runs through the pack. In telepathy, the cards are visible to
a sender but not to the receiver; in clairvoyance the subject
"reads" the cards as exposed or ordered by some mechanical
device in another location; in precognition he predicts the
fall of future cards, and so on. ESP, then, is indicated by a
number of hits significantly above the chance expectancy of
five per run. Most psychokinesis experiments have dealt
with mental attempts to influence dice, thrown either by hand
or by independent mechanical devices. A recent review of
over two hundred studies of PK concludes that "evidence of
PK as a psychological phenomenon is totally lacking."6
. . . People vary in their extrasensory capacities, and
relatively few are highly sensitive.
6
Girden, Edward. "A Review of Psychokinesis (PK)," Psychology
Bulletin, 59, 1962, p. 384.
 ESP 89
Even the latter are "highly" sensitive only in that they
consistently do somewhat, although not very much, better
than chance. For example, the most highly sensitive subject
may consistently guess only at the rate of seven correct
out of twenty-five where five correct out of twenty-five is
chance expectancy.
. . . ESP seems to be related to the belief in its
existence.
In one well-known study, subjects who reported for an
experiment with the belief that ESP is possible did better than
skeptics.

Subjects were required to make ESP responses under rigidly con-

trolled conditions. Before making his first ESP response each
subject was categorized as either a "sheep" or a "goat." The
sheep were subjects who accepted (though sometimes with reser-
vations) the possibility of paranormal success under the con-
ditions of the experiment; the goats were subjects who rejected
this possibility.7

Some efforts to replicate this interesting finding, however,

have been negative.
. . . ESP performance is often better in the initial
stages of an experiment, or under novel or spontaneous
conditions. Psychokinesis, particularly, shows a strik-
ing and consistent decline from the early to the later
trials in a series.

Finally, we should note that there are a large number of

specific findings regarding the relative effectiveness of vari-
ous sizes of cards or dice, distances between subject and
sender, subjects with various personality patterns as measured
by tests, and the like. But none of these, to date, is as well
established or as general within the body of ESP research
as are the above mainline findings.

7
Schmeidler, Gertrude R. and R. A. McConnell. ESP and Personality
Patterns. Yale University Press, 1958, p. 30.
90 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

References
N. F. Dixon. "The Effect of Subliminal Stimulation upon Au-
tonomic and Verbal Behavior," Journal of Abnormal and
Social Psychology, 57, 1958, pp. 29-36.
Israel Goldiamond. "Indicators of Perception: Subliminal
Perception, Subception, Unconscious Perception: An
Analysis in Terms of Psychophysical Indicator Method-
ology," Psychological Bulletin, 55, 1958, pp. 373^407.
George S. Klein et al. "Cognition without Awareness: Sub-
liminal Influences upon Conscious Thought," Journal of
Abnormal and Social Psychology, 57, 1958, pp. 255-66.
J. C. Naylor and C. H. Lawshe. "An Analytical Review of
the Experimental Basis of Subception," Journal of Psy-
chology, 46, 1958, pp. 75-96.
J. B. Rhine and J. G. Pratt. Parapsychology: Frontier Science
of the Mind. Thomas, 1957.
S. G. Soal and F. Bateman. Modern Experiments in Telepa-
thy. Yale University Press, 1954.

"Rhine, Louisa E. and J. B. Rhine. "The Psychokinetic Effect: I. The

First Experiment," /. Parapsychology, 7, 1943, p. 36.
 FAMILY THERAPY 91

Family Therapy
Some situations tend to repeat themselves in any society.
Man and woman are attracted to each other and form
"a couple," and this can be studied separately. The com-
ing of children results in a much more complicated en-
vironment, the family, which is as subject to change and
growth as anything else. Since the family is, in its best
sense, enabled and sustained by love—the mutual attrac-
tion and satisfaction of a man and woman and the resulting
interplay of, quite literally, "offspring"—it has great po-
tential: for growth or for being swept about by lack of
attentiveness to a highly interrelated and intense environ-
ment.
Granted that each family must use as many sources of
guidance and nurturance as are needed, Family Therapy
deals directly with family growth. One of the most active
practitioners is Virginia Satir, who offers ground rules
for family interplay. 1 She writes on the deficiency situa-
tion, but her analysis and resulting scenario or general
impression apply to any family.

Why Family Therapy?

1. Family therapists deal with family pain.
a. When one person in the family (the patient) has pain
which shows up in some way.
b. Many therapists have found it useful to call the mem-
ber who carries the symptom the "Identified Patient,"
or "LP.," rather than to joining the family in calling
him "the sick one," or "the different one," or "the
one who is to blame."
c. This is because the therapist sees the Identified Patient's
symptoms as serving a family function as well as an
individual function.
2. Numerous studies have shown that the family behaves as
if it were a unit. In 1954 Jackson introduced the term
"family homeostasis" to refer to this behavior.
a. According to the concept of family homeostasis, the
family acts so as to achieve a balance in relationships.

*C on joint Family Therapy (Palo Alto, Calif.: Science and Behavior

Books, 1967), chap. 1.
92 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

b. Members help to maintain this balance overtly and

covertly.
c. The family's repetitious, circular, predictable communi-
cation patterns reveal this balance.
d. When the family homeostasis is precarious, members
exert much effort to maintain it.
3. The marital relationship influences the character of family
homeostasis.
a. The marital relationship is the axis around which all
other family relationships are formed. The mates are
the "architects" of the family.
b. A pained marital relationship tends to produce dys-
functional parenting.
4. The Identified Patient is the family member who is most
obviously affected by the pained marital relationship and
most subjected to dysfunctional parenting.
a. His symptoms are an "SOS" about his parents' pain
and the resulting family imbalance.
b. His symptoms are a message that he is distorting his
own growth as a result of trying to alleviate and absorb
his parents' pain.
5. Many treatment approaches are called "family therapy"
but differ from the definition which will be presented here,
since they are oriented primarily to family members as
individuals rather than to the family as a unit as well.
For example:
a. Each family member may have his own therapist.
b. Or family members may share the same therapist, but
the therapist sees each member separately.
c. Or the patient may have a therapist who occasionally
sees other family members "for the sake of the patient.
6. A growing body of clinical observation has pointed to the
conclusion that family therapy must be oriented to the
family as a whole. This conviction was initially supported
by observations showing how family members respond
to the individual treatment of a family member labeled as
"schizophrenic." But further studies showed that families
with a delinquent member respond in similar ways to the
individual treatment of this member. In both cases it was
found that:
a. Other family members interfered with, tried to become
part of, or sabotaged the individual treatment of the
 FAMILY THERAPY 93
"sick" member, as though the family had a stake in
his sickness.
b. The hospitalized or incarcerated patient often got
worse or regressed after a visit from family members,
as though family interaction had a direct bearing on
his symptoms.
c. Other family members got worse as the patient got
better, as though sickness in one of the family members
were essential to the family's way of operating.
7. These observations led many individually-oriented psy-
chiatrists and researchers to re-evaluate and question cer-
tain assumptions.
a. They noted that when the patient was seen as the victim
of his family, it was easy to overidentify with and over-
protect him, overlooking the fact that:
—Patients are equally adept at victimizing other family
members in return.
—Patients help to perpetuate their role as the sick,
different, or blamed one.
b. They noted how heavily transference was relied on in
order to produce change.
—Yet perhaps much of the patient's so-called trans-
ference was really an appropriate reaction to the
therapist's behavior in the unreal, non-interactive,
therapeutic situation.
—In addition, there was a greater chance that the
therapeutic situation would perpetuate pathology,
instead of presenting a new state of affairs which
would introduce doubts about the old perceptions.
—If some of the patient's behavior did represent trans-
ference (that is, his characteristic way of relating to
his mother and father), why shouldn't the therapist
help the patient deal with the family more directly,
by seeing both the patient and his family together?
c. They noted that the therapist tended to be more inter-
ested in the patient's fantasy life than in his real life.
But even if they were interested in the patient's real
life, as long as they saw just the patient in therapy,
they had to rely on his version of that life or try and
guess what was going on in it.
d. They noted that in trying to change one family mem-
ber's way of operating they were, in effect, trying to
change the whole family's way of operating.
94 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
—This put the burden of family change-agent on the
patient all by himself rather than on all family
members.
—The patient was already the family member who was
trying to change the family's way of operating, so
when he was urged to increase his efforts, he only
received a more intense criticism from the family.
This also led him to feel even more burdened and
less able.
8. Aside from all these observations, once therapists started
to see the whole family together, other aspects of family
life which produced symptoms were revealed, aspects
which had been largely overlooked. Other investigators of
family interaction were making similar discoveries. As
Warren Brodey sees it, the mates act differently with the
normal sibling than they do with the symptomatic sibling:

. . . the parents in the presence of the "normal" sibling are able to

relate with a freedom, flexibility, and breadth of awareness that
one finds hard to believe, considering the limitations that exist
in the relationship between the parents when involved with the
symptomatic sibling. The pathological ways of relating seem
to be focused within the relationship with the symptomatic
member. One wonders how this has come about.1

9. But those psychiatrists who became increasingly devoted

to family therapy were not the first to recognize the
interpersonal nature of mental illness. Sullivan and Fromm-
Reichmann, along with many other psychiatrists, psy-
chologists, and social workers, were pioneers in this area
of discovery. The Child Guidance movement was another
important development which helped break the tradition
of singling out just one family member for treatment.
a. Child Guidance therapists included both mother and
child in treatment, even though they still tended to see
mother and child in separate treatment sessions.
b. They also increasingly recognized the importance of
including the father in therapy, though they found him
hard to reach, and generally failed to engage him in
the therapy process.
a
W. M. Brodey. Some family operations of schizophrenia: a study of
five hospitalized families each with a schizophrenic member. Arch.
Gen. Psychiat., 1:379-402, 1959; p. 391.
 FAMILY THERAPY 95
—Therapists reported that the father felt parenting was
his wife's job more than his; if the child acted dis-
turbed, his wife was the one who should be seen.
—The Child Guidance therapists, being mother-child
oriented anyway, tended to agree with the father's
reasoning, so they could not easily convince him that
his role in the family was important to the health of
his child.
—Child Guidance Clinics remained primarily focused
on "mothering," even though they increasingly recog-
nized the importance of "fathering." And whether
or not they included the father in their thinking, they
continued to focus on the husband and wife as
parents of the child rather than as mates to each
other. Yet it has been repeatedly noted how critically
the marital relationship affects parenting. Murray
Bowen writes, for example:

The striking observation was that when the parents were emo-
tionally close, more invested in each other than either was in
the patient, the patient improved. When either parent became
more emotionally invested in the patient than in the other
parent, the patient immediately and automatically regressed.
When the parents were emotionally close, they could do no
wrong in their "management" of the patient. The patient re-
sponded well to firmness, permissiveness, punishment, "talking
it out," or any other management approach. When the parents
were "emotionally divorced," any and all "management ap-
proaches" were equally unsuccessful.2

10. Family therapists have found it easier to interest the

husband in family therapy than in individual therapy.
This is because the family therapist is himself convinced
that both architects of the family must be present.
a. Once the therapist convinces the husband that he is
essential to the therapy process, and that no one else
can speak for him or take his place in therapy or in
family life, he readily enters in.
b. The wife (in her role as mother) may initiate family
therapy, but once therapy is under way, the husband
becomes as involved as she does.
Murray Bowen. A family concept of schizophrenia. In Don D. Jack-
son (ed.), The Etiology of Schizophrenia. New York: Basic Books,
1960; p. 370.
96 WAYS PEOPLE GROW 1
c. Family therapy seems to make sense to the whole
family. Husband and wife say: "Now, at last, we are
together and can get to the bottom of this."
11. Right from the first contact, family therapists operate
from certain assumptions about why a family member
has sought therapeutic help.
a. Usually the first contact is made because someone
• outside the family has labeled Johnny as disturbed.
This first contact will probably be made by an anxious
wife (we will call her Mary Jones), acting in her role
as mother of a disturbed child, Johnny. The child is
disturbed, so she, the mother, must be to blame.
b. But Johnny was probably exhibiting disturbed be-
havior long before he became labeled disturbed by
someone outside the family.
c. Until the outsider (often a teacher) labeled Johnny
as disturbed, members of the Jones family probably
acted as though they did not notice Johnny's behavior;
his behavior was appropriate because it served a
family function.
d. Usually some event has occurred which has precipi-
tated symptoms in Johnny, symptoms which make the
fact that he is disturbed obvious to outsiders. These
events are:
—Changes from outside the nuclear family: war, de-
pression, etc.
—Changes in the two families of origin: sickness of
a grandmother, financial distress of a grandfather,
etc.
—Someone enters or leaves the nuclear family:
grandmother comes to live with the family, the
family takes on a boarder, the family adds to its
membership with the birth of another child, a
daughter gets married.
—Biological changes: a child reaches adolescence,
mother reaches menopause, father is hospitalized.
—Major social changes: a child leaves home to attend
school, the family moves to a new neighborhood,
father gets a job promotion, son goes to college.
e. These events can precipitate symptoms because they
require the mates to integrate the changes. This re-
quirement puts an extra strain on the marital rela-
 SOCIETY OF FRIENDS 97
tionship because it calls for a redefinition of family
relationships and thus affects family balance.
f. The family homeostasis can be functional (or "fitting")
for members at some periods of family life and not
at other periods, so events affect members differently
at different times.
g. But if one member is affected by an event, all are to
some degree.
12. After the first contact with Mary Jones, the therapist
may speculate about the relationship between Mary and
her husband, whom we will call Joe. If it is correct to
assume that a dysfunctional marital relationship is the
main contributor to symptoms in a child, the relationship
between the mates will be the therapist's first concern.
a. What kind of people are Mary and Joe? What kind of
families did they come from?
—Once they were two separate people who came
from different family environments.
—Now they are the architects of a new family of
their own.
b. Why, out of all the people in the world, did they
choose each other as mates?
—How they chose each other gives clues to why they
may now be disappointed with each other.
—How they express their disappointment with each
other gives clues to why Johnny needs to have
symptoms in order to hold the Jones family to-
gether.

Friends, Society of
The Society of Friends, founded in England by George Fox,
is about three hundred years old. P. W. Martin writes of
them: 1

A man may have the most marvellous dreams and visions,

but get nowhere with them. Conversely, a man who has
looked at a dream, never had a vision, never heard a voice,
may nevertheless have a firm hold upon the deep centre:
and it is the hold upon the deep centre that matters, not the
methods. But put to their right use, the dreams, visions, voices
Experiment in Depth (New York: Pantheon Books, 1955).
98 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

of the constructive technique, and the transforming symbols

so channelled into consciousness, constitute the surest means
of access to the 'germinal higher part' for the man and woman
who persist.
It is the great strength of the Society of Friends that their
Meeting for Worship to some extent brings together all four
of these approaches. In form, the Meeting consists of a
handful of men and women, often less than a score, rarely
exceeding fifty or a hundred, who sit together for about an
hour, for the most part in silence, in an ordinary room or hall.
The silence is broken only if someone in the Meeting feels
'called to the ministry'. When this happens, the one so stirred
normally speaks, for some few minutes perhaps, often less,
of something that has come to him out of the silence. He
may be followed by one or two others, equally brief, typically
taking up the same thread and continuing it.
When it is successful (which, needless to say, is not always)
the Quaker Meeting for Worship is indubitably a method by
which the deep centre is experienced and the experience
transmitted. How this comes about is at present a matter of
surmise rather than knowledge. Partly, no doubt, it is due to
the concerted seeking in silence. Since there is little to distract
attention, the libido is free for inward exploration, for the
discovery of the Kingdom. Partly it is attributable to the fact
that in such Meetings there may be at least one or two present
—possibly a number—who in their lives have gone over to
the deep center. These, as it were, can help to 'take the meet-
ing down'. It is not only in speech, but also in silence, that
Plato's 'light from a leaping flame' can pass. Partly it may
derive from the fellowship-in-depth of a 'gathered' meeting.
This sense of togetherness is a characteristic feature. In a
Meeting that has 'centred down' there is simultaneously the
feeling of the most complete unity and the most complete
individuality. Equally characteristic is the ministry itself. The
call that comes to speak in the Meeting for Worship is experi-
enced (at least by some) as wholly different in kind from
ordinary speaking, being marked by a trepidation, a pounding
of the heart, a feeling akin to dread, even to people thoroughly
habituated to public address. At its best, as in George Fox's
day, the ministry has the character of the transforming sym-
bol, bringing to the common fund words and images which
make possible a new direction of energy. The fact, that
whether or not he speaks, everyone in a Quaker Meeting has
 GESTALT THERAPY 99
responsibility for the ministry, is perhaps the most potent
factor of all. In a Meeting where no word is said there is
still this silent concentration of responsibilities, which in the
end may be more effective than any speech.
By whatever means the deep centre is discovered, the
great and abiding problem is to hold on to it. Repeatedly
there is a regression to the ego-centred condition. Repeatedly
some earlier attitude comes up and for a while we are that
attitude. It needs only a word or thought or a situation to
arise, and we are caught again in some entrenched habit of
the past. By tracking down the wrong attitude something can
be done towards correcting it. But in the end, the only means
by which consciousness can hold to the deep centre is by
the continuous discovery and re-discovery that any other way
of life has become impossible. The man who passes beyond
the ego-centred, archetypally-impelled life to the life lived in
depth, is committed.
A series of pamphlets including "Guide to Quaker Prac-
tice," "The Quaker Meeting," "Quaker Doctrine of Inward
Peace," and "On Being Present Where You Are" is availa-
ble from Pendle Hill (338 Plush Mill Rd., Wallingford, Pa.
19086), along with a bulletin of general information on the
Friends' activities.

Gestalt Therapy (See also PSYCHODRAMA; SENSORY

AWARENESS.)

Persons with backgrounds in movement, painting, en-

counter, massage, client-centered therapy, and many other
diverse ways have entered into Gestalt work and success-
fully combined their former way and the Gestalt way into
an integral way of being and working with others. This way
has been applied to education, dentistry, and business
management. Besides Gestalt Therapy, there is a form of
Gestalt work known as Gestalt Awareness Training, which
seems to be a more general and less intensive use of the
approach. Gestalt work has an immediacy and directness
similar to that of PSYCHODRAMA, though methods differ.
Gestalt's work insistence, in theory and practice, on the
organism as the basis for growth is similar to that of
SENSORY AWARENESS. Perls intensively studied this work at
one time. Gestalt work's thoroughness and applicability to
100 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

moment-to-moment everyday life makes it similar to the

most persistent spiritual disciplines, such as YOGA or Z E N .
Gestalt Therapy was founded by Frederick S. Perls.
Gestalt psychology was an early major influence on him,
giving his therapy a basic premise and its present name.
While practicing as a Freudian analyst in South Africa
during World War II, Perls wrote his first book, Ego,
Hunger and Aggression, still timely and valuable. It in-
cludes a series of exercises which, at the time, were known
as Concentration Therapy.
In 1951 Perls collaborated with Ralph F. Hefferline and
Paul Goodman to write Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and
Growth in the Human Personality, in which a compre-
hensive theory is accompanied by a series of exercises for
the reader. These are arranged in a sequence which guides
the reader to experience the dynamics of many of the
book's concepts.
Recently, two other books by Perls have appeared.
Gestalt Therapy Verbatim contains some lucid theory, but
most of it is edited transcripts of therapy sessions, including
dream work. In and Out of the Garbage Pail is Perls's
autobiography.
Tape recordings of sessions of Perls's work are available
through Big Sur Recordings (P.O. Box 303, Mill Valley,
Calif. 94941). There is an excellent 8-mm color film series
of Perls's work made in 1969 and available from Aquarian
Productions (Vancouver, B.C., Canada). Other films are
available from Mediasync Corporation (P.O. Box 486, Del
Mar, Calif. 92014).
Gestalt Therapy Now, an anthology and the most recent
book on Gestalt Therapy, is available from Science and
Behavior Books (Palo Alto, Calif.).
The Lodestar Press (P.O. Box 31003, San Francisco,
Calif. 94131) has available Jerry Kogan's Gestalt Therapy
Resources (1971, $0.95), a comprehensive bibliography
of books, articles, films, tapes, etc.; and Abraham Levitsky
and Frederick S. Perls's "The Rules and Games of Gestalt
Therapy" (in Fagan, Joen and Shepherd, Irma L., eds.
Gestalt Therapy Now, Palo Alto, Calif.: Science and Be-
havior Books, 1970), the best single paper on Gestalt
Therapy methods.
Early in 1969, after four years at Esalen Institute, Perls
went to Canada and established the Gestalt Institute of
 GESTALT THERAPY 101
Canada (P.O. Box 39, Lake Cowichan, B.C., Canada)
which is a residential training institute and a step toward
a Gestalt community. All residents, including staff, do
cooking, construction, maintenance, and all other work
necessary to the community. Since Perls's death in March
1970, this and other Gestalt Therapy institutes in major
U.S. cities, and scores of individuals, have carried on his
work.
The material below is from Perls's Gestalt Therapy
Verbatim:1

Now let me tell you of a dilemma which is not easy to

understand. It's like a koan—those Zen questions which seem
to be insoluble. The koan is: nothing exists except the here
and now. The now is the present, is the phenomenon, is what
you are aware of, is that moment in which you carry your
so-called memories and your so-called anticipations with you.
Whether you remember or anticipate, you do it now. The past
is no more. The future is not yet. When I say, "I was," that's
not now, that's the past. When I say, "I want to," that's the
future, it's not yet. Nothing can possibly exist except the now.
Some people then make a program out of this. They make
a demand, "You should live in the here and now." And I say
it's not possible to live in the here and now, and yet, nothing
exists except the here and now.
How do we resolve this dilemma? What is buried in the
word now? How come it takes years and years to understand
a simple word like the word now? If I play a phonograph
record, the sound of the record appears when the record and
the needle touch each other, where they make contact. There
is no sound of the before, there is no sound of the afterwards.
If I stop the phonograph record, then the needle is still in
contact with the record, but there is no music, because there
is the absolute now. If you would blot out the past, or the
anticipation of themes three minutes from now, you could
not understand listening to that record you are now playing.
But if you blot out the now, nothing will come through. So
again, whether we remember or whether we anticipate, we
do it here and now.
Maybe if I say the now is not the scale but the point of
suspense, it's a zero point, it is a nothingness, and that is
^Lafayette, Calif.: Real People Press, 1969.) Publisher's address:
939 Carol La., Lafayette, Calif. 94549.
102 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

the now. The very moment I feel that I experience something

and I talk about it, I pay attention to it, that moment is
already gone. So what's the use of talking about the now? It
has many uses, very many uses.
Let's talk first about the past. Now, I am pulling memories
out of my drawer and possibly believe that these memories
are identical with my history. That's never true, because a
memory is an abstraction. Right now, you experience some-
thing. You experience me, you experience your thoughts,
you experience your posture perhaps, but you can't experience
everything. You always abstract the relevant gestalt from the
total context. Now if you take these abstractions and file them
away, then you call them memories. If these memories are
unpleasant, especially if they are unpleasant to our self-
esteem, we change them. As Nietzsche said: "Memory and
Pride were fighting. Memory said, 'It was like this' and Pride
said, Tt couldn't have been like this'—and Memory gives in."
You all know how much you are lying. You all know how
much you are deceiving yourselves, how many of your
memories are exaggerations and projections, how many of
your memories are patched up and distorted.
The past is past. And yet—in the now, in our being, we
carry much of the past with us. But we carry much of the
past with us only as far as we have unfinished situations.
What happened in the past is either assimilated and has
become a part of us, or we carry around an unfinished situa-
tion, an incomplete gestalt. Let me give you as an example,
the most famous of the unfinished situations is the fact that
we have not forgiven our parents. As you know, parents are
never right. They are either too large or too small, too smart
or too dumb. If they are stern, they should be soft, and so on.
But when do you find parents who are all right? You can
always blame the parents if you want to play the blaming
game, and make the parents responsible for all your problems.
Until you are willing to let go of your parents, you continue
to conceive of yourself as a child. But to get closure and let
go of the parents and say, "I am a big girl, now," is a different
story. This is part of therapy—to let go of parents, and espe-
cially to forgive one's parents, which is the hardest thing for
most people to do.
The great error of psychoanalysis is in assuming that the
memory is reality. All the so-called traumata, which are sup-
posed to be the root of the neurosis, are an invention of the
 GESTALT THERAPY 103
patient to save his self-esteem. None of these traumata has
ever been proved to exist. I haven't seen a single case of
infantile trauma that wasn't a falsification. They are all lies
to be hung onto in order to justify one's unwillingness to
grow. To mature means to take responsibility for your life,
to be on your own. Psychoanalysis fosters the infantile state
by considering that the past is responsible for the illness. The
patient isn't responsible—no, the trauma is responsible, or
the Oedipus complex is responsible, and so on. I suggest that
you read a beautiful little pocketbook called / Never Promised
You a Rose Garden, by Hannah Green. There you see a
typical example, how that girl invented this childhood trauma,
to have her raison d'etre, her basis to fight the world, her
justification for her craziness, her illness. We have got such
an idea about the importance of this invented memory, where
the whole illness is supposed to be based on this memory.
No wonder that all the wild goose chase of the psychoanalyst
to find out why I am now like this can never come to an end,
can never prove a real opening up of the person himself.
Freud devoted his whole life to prove to himself and to
others that sex is not bad, and he had to prove this scien-
tifically. In his time, the scientific approach was that of
causality, that the trouble was caused by something in the
past, like a billiard cue pushing a billiard ball, and the cue
then is the cause of the rolling of the ball. In the meantime,
our scientific attitude has changed. We don't look to the
world any more in terms of cause and effect: We look upon
the world as a continuous ongoing process. We are back to
Heraclitus, to the pre-Socratic idea that everything is in a
flux. We never step in the same river twice. In other words,
we have made—in science, but unfortunately not yet in psy-
chiatry—the transition from linear causality to thinking of
process, from the why to the how.
If you ask how, you look at the structure, you see what's
going on now, a deeper understanding of the process. The
how is all we need to understand how we or the world func-
tions. The how gives us perspective, orientation. The how
shows that one of the basic laws, the identity of structure and
function, is valid. If we change the structure, the function
changes. If we change the function, the structure changes.
I know you want to ask why, like every child, like every
immature person asks why, to get rationalization or explana-
tion. But the why at best leads to clever explanation,
104 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
never to an understanding. Why and because are dirty words
in Gestalt Therapy. They lead only to rationalization, and
belong to the second class of verbiage production. I distinguish
three classes of verbiage production: chickenshit—this is
"good morning," "how are you," and so on; bullshit—this is
"because," rationalization, excuses; and elephantshit—this is
when you talk about philosophy, existential Gestalt Therapy,
etc.—what I am doing now. The why gives only unending
inquiries into the cause of the cause of the cause of the cause
of the cause of the cause. And as Freud has already observed,
every event is over-determined, has many causes; all kinds of
things come together in order to create the specific moment
that is the now. Many factors come together to create this
specific unique person which is I. Nobody can at any given
moment be different from what he is at this moment, includ-
ing all the wishes and prayers that he should be different.
We are what we are.
These are the two legs upon which Gestalt Therapy walks:
now and how. The essence of the theory of Gestalt Therapy
is in the understanding of these two words. Now covers all
that exists. The past is no more, the future is not yet. Now
includes the balance of being here, is experiencing, involve-
ment, phenomenon, awareness. How covers everything that is
structure, behavior, all that is actually going on—the ongoing
process. All the rest is irrelevant—computing, apprehending,
and so on.
Everything is grounded in awareness. Awareness is the only
basis of knowledge, communication, and so on. In com-
munication, you have to understand that you want to make
the other person aware of something: aware of yourself,
aware of what's to be noticed in the other person, etc. And
in order to communicate, we have to make sure that we are
senders, which means that the message which we send can
be understood; and also to make sure that we are receivers—
that we are willing to listen to the message from the other
person. It is very rare that people can talk and listen. Very
few people can listen without talking. Most people can talk
with listening. And if you're busy talking you have no time
to listen. The integration of talking and listening is a really
rare thing. Most people don't listen and give an honest
response, but just put the other person off with a question.
Instead of listening and answering, immediately comes a
counter-attack, a question or something that diverts, deflects,
 GESTALT THERAPY 105
dodges. We are going to talk a lot about blocks in sending
messages, in giving yourself, in making others aware of
yourself, and in the same way, of being willing to be open to
the other person—to be receivers. Without communication,
there cannot be contact. There will be only isolation and
boredom.
So I would like to reinforce what I just said, and I would
like you to pair up, and to talk to each other for five minutes
about your actual present awareness of yourself now and
your awareness of the other. Always underline the how—how
do you behave now, how do you sit, how do you talk, all the
details of what goes on now. How does he sit, how does he
look. . ..
So how about the future? We don't know anything about
the future. If we all had crystal balls, even then we wouldn't
experience the future. We would experience a vision of the
future. And all this is taking place here and now. We imagine,
we anticipate the future because we don't want to have a
future. So the most important existential saying is, we don't
want to have a future, we are afraid of the future. We fill in
the gap where there should be a future with insurance policies,
status quo, sameness, anything so as not to experience the
possibility of openness towards the future.
We also cannot stand the nothingness, the openness, of
the past. We are not willing to have the idea of eternity—
"It has always been"—so we have to fill it in with the story
of creation. Time has started somehow. People ask, "When
did time begin?" The same applies to the future. It seems
incredible that we could live without goals, without worrying
about the future, that we could be open and ready for what
might come. No; we have to make sure that we have no
future, that the status quo should remain, even be a little bit
better. But we mustn't take risks, we mustn't be open to the
future. Something could happen that would be new and
exciting, and contributing to our growth. It's too dangerous
to take the growth risk. We would rather walk this earth as
half-corpses than live dangerously, and realize that this living
dangerously is much safer than this insurance-life of safety
and not taking risks, which most of us decide to do.
What is this funny thing, risk-taking? Has anybody a
definition for risk-taking? What's involved in risk-taking?
A: Getting hurt.
B: Taking a dare.
106 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
C: Going too far.
D: A hazardous attempt.
E: Inviting danger.
Now you notice you all see the catastrophic expectation,
the negative side. You don't see the possible gain. If there
was only the negative side, you just would avoid it, wouldn't
you? Risk-taking is a suspense between catastrophic and
anastrophic expectations. You have to see both sides of the
picture. You might gain, and you might lose.
One of the most important moments in my life was after
I had escaped Germany and there was a position as a training
analyst available in South Africa, and Ernest Jones wanted
to know who wanted to go. There were four of us: three
wanted guarantees. I said I'd take a risk. All the other three
were caught by the Nazis. I took a risk and I'm still alive.
An absolutely healthy person is completely in touch with
himself and with reality. The crazy person, the psychotic, is
more or less completely out of touch with both, but mostly
with either himself or the world. We are in between being
psychotic and being healthy, and this is based upon the fact
that we have two levels of existence. One is reality, the actual,
realistic level, that we are in touch with whatever goes on
now, in touch with our feelings, in touch with our senses.
Reality is awareness of ongoing experience, actual touching,
seeing, moving, doing. The other level we don't have a good
word for, so I choose the Indian word maya. Maya means
something like illusion, or fantasy, or philosophically speaking,
the as if of Vaihinger. Maya is a kind of dream, a kind of
trance. Very often this fantasy, this maya, is called the mind,
but if you look a bit closer, what you call "mind" is fantasy.
It's the rehearsal stage. Freud once said: "Denken ist Prober
Arbeit"—thinking is rehearsing, trying out. Unfortunately,
Freud never followed up this discovery because it would be
inconsistent with his genetic approach. If he had accepted
this statement of his, "Thinking is rehearsing," he would have
realized how our fantasy activity is turned toward the future,
because we rehearse for the future.
We live on two levels—the public level which is our doing,
which is observable, verifiable; and the private stage, the
thinking stage, the rehearsing stage, on which we prepare for
the future roles we want to play. Thinking is a private stage,
where you try out. You talk to some person unknown, you
talk to yourself, you prepare for an important event, you talk
 GESTALT THERAPY 107
to the beloved before your appointment or disappointment,
whatever you expect it to be. For instance, if I were to ask,
"Who wants to come up here to work?" you probably would
quickly start to rehearse. "What shall I do there?" and so on.
And of course probably you will get stage fright, because you
leave the secure reality of the now and jump into the future.
Psychiatry makes a big fuss out of the symptom anxiety, and
we live in an age of anxiety, but anxiety is nothing but the
tension from the now to the then. There are few people who
can stand tension, so they have to fill the gap with rehearsing,
planning, "making sure," making sure that they don't have
a future. They try to hold onto the sameness, and this of
course will prevent any possibility of growth or spontaneity.
Q: Of course the past sets up anxiety too, doesn't it?
F: No. The past sets up—or let's say is still present with
unfinished situations, regrets and things like this. If you feel
anxiety about what you have done, it's not anxiety about
what you have done, but anxiety about what will be the
punishment to come in the future.
Freud once said the person who is free from anxiety and
guilt is healthy. I spoke about anxiety already. I didn't speak
about guilt. Now, in the Freudian system, the guilt is very
complicated. In Gestalt Therapy, the guilt thing is much
simpler. We see guilt as projected resentment. Whenever you
feel guilty, find out what you resent, and the guilt will vanish
and you will try to make the other person feel guilty.
Anything unexpressed which wants to be expressed can
make you feel uncomfortable. And one of the most common
unexpressed experiences is the resentment. This is the un-
finished situation par excellence. If you are resentful, you're
stuck; you neither can move forward and have it out, express
your anger, change the world so that you'll get satisfaction,
nor can you let go and forget whatever disturbs you. Resent-
ment is the psychological equivalent of the hanging-on bite—
the tight jaw. The hanging-on bite can neither let go/ nor
bite through and chew up—whichever is required. In resent-
ment you can neither let go and forget, and let this incident
or person recede in the background, nor can you actively
tackle it. The expression of resentment is one of the most
important ways to help you to make your life a little bit
more easy. Now I want you all to do the following collective
experiment:
I want each one of you to do this. First you evoke a person
108 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
like father or husband, call the person by name—whoever it
is—and just say briefly, "Clara, I resent—" Try to get the
person to hear you, as if there was really communication and
you felt this. So try to speak to the person, and establish in
these communications that this person should listen to you.
Just become aware of how difficult it is to mobilize your
fantasy. Express your resentment—kind of present it right
into his or her face. Try to realize at the same time that you
don't dare, really, to express your anger, nor would you be
generous enough to let go, to be forgiving. Okay, go ahead . . .
There is another great advantage to using resentment in
therapy, in growth. Behind every resentment there are de-
mands. So now I want all of you to talk directly to the same
person as before, and express the demands behind the resent-
ments. The demand is the only real form of communication.
Get your demands into the open. Do this also as self-
expression: formulate your demands in the form of an im-
perative, a command. I guess you know enough of English
grammar to know what an imperative is. The imperative is
like "Shut up!" "Go to hell!" "Do this!" .. .
Now go back to the resentments you expressed toward
the person. Remember exactly what you resented. Scratch out
the word resent and say appreciate. Appreciate what you
resented before. Then go on to tell this person what else you
appreciate in them. Again try to get the feeling that you
actually communicate with them.. ..
You see, if there were no appreciations, you wouldn't be
stuck with this person and you could just forget him. There
is always the other side. For instance, my appreciation of
Hitler: If Hitler had not come to power, I probably would
have been dead by now as a good psychoanalyst who lives
on eight patients for the rest of his life.
If you have any difficulties in communication with some-
body, look for your resentments. Resentments are among the
worst possible unfinished situations—unfinished gestalts. If
you resent, you can neither let go nor have it out. Resentment
is an emotion of central importance. The resentment is the
most important expression of an impasse—of being stuck. If
you feel resentment, be able to express your resentment. A
resentment unexpressed often is experienced as, or changes
into, feelings of guilt. Whenever you feel guilty, find out
what you are resenting and express it and make your demands
explicit. This alone will help a lot.
 GESTALT THERAPY 109
Awareness covers, so to speak, three layers or three zones:
awareness of the self, awareness of the world, and awareness
of what's between—the intermediate zone of fantasy that
prevents a person from being in touch with either himself
or the world. This is Freud's great discovery—that there is
something between you and the world. There are so many
processes going on in one's fantasies. A complex is what he
calls it, or a prejudice. If you have prejudices, then your
relationship to the world is very much disturbed and destroyed.
If you want to approach a person with a prejudice, you can't
get to the person. You always will contact only the prejudice,
the fixed idea. So Freud's idea that the intermediate zone, the
DMZ, this no-man's land between you and the world should
be eliminated, emptied out, brainwashed or whatever you
want to call it, was perfectly right. The only trouble is that
Freud stayed in that zone and analyzed this intermediate
thing. He didn't consider the self-awareness or world-aware-
ness; he didn't consider what we can do to be in touch again.
This loss of contact with our authentic self, and loss of
contact with the world, is due to this intermediate zone, the
big area of maya that we carry with us. That is, there is a
big area of fantasy activity that takes up so much of our
excitement, of our energy, of our life force, that there is very
little energy left to be in touch with reality. Now, if we want
to make a person whole, we have first to understand what
is merely fantasy and irrationality, and we have to discover
where one is in touch, and with what. And very often if we
work, and we empty out this middle zone of fantasy, this
maya, then there is the experience of satori, of waking up.
Suddenly the world is there. You wake up from a trance like
you wake up from a dream. You're all there again. And the
aim in therapy, the growth aim, is to lose more and more of
your "mind" and come more to your senses. To be more and
more in touch, to be in touch with yourself and in touch with
the world, instead of only in touch with the fantasies, preju-
dices, apprehensions, and so on.
If a person confuses maya and reality, if he takes fantasy
for reality, then he is neurotic or even psychotic. I give you
an extreme case of psychosis, the schizophrenic who imagines
the doctor is after him, so he decides to beat him to the punch
and shoot the doctor, without checking up on reality. On the
other hand, there is another possibility. Instead of being
divided between maya and reality, we can integrate these
110 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
two, and if maya and reality are integrated, we call it art.
Great art is real, and great art is at the same time an illusion.
Fantasy can be creative, but it's creative only if you have
the fantasy, whatever it is, in the now. In the now, you use
what is available, and you are bound to be creative. Just
watch children in their play. What's available is usable and
then something happens, something comes out of the being
in touch with what is here and now.
There is only one way to bring about this state of healthy
spontaneity, to save the genuineness of the human being. Or,
to talk in trite religious terms, there is only one way to regain
our soul, or in American terms, to revive the American corpse
and bring him back to life. The paradox is that in order to
get this spontaneity, we need, like in Zen, an utmost discipline.
The discipUne is simply to understand the words now and
how, and to bracket off and put aside anything that is not
contained in the words now and how.
Now what's the technique we are using in Gestalt Therapy?
The technique is to establish a continuum of awareness. This
continuum of awareness is required so that the organism can
work on the healthy gestalt principle: that the most important
unfinished situation will always emerge and can be dealt with.
If we prevent ourselves from achieving this gestalt formation,
we function badly and we carry hundreds and thousands of
unfinished situations with us, that always demand completion.
This continuum of awareness seems to be very simple, just
to be aware from second to second what's going on. Unless
we are asleep, we are always aware of something. However,
as soon as this awareness becomes unpleasant, most people
will interrupt it. Then suddenly they start intellectualizing,
bullshitting, the flight into the past, the flight into expectations,
good intentions, or schizophrenically using free associations,
jumping like a grasshopper from experience to experience,
and none of these experiences are ever experienced, but just
a kind of a flash, which leaves all the available material un-
assimilated and unused.
Now how do we proceed in Gestalt Therapy? What is
nowadays quite fashionable was very much pooh-poohed
when I started this idea of everything is awareness. The purely
verbal approach, the Freudian approach in which I was
brought up, barks up the wrong tree. Freud's idea was that
by a certain procedure called free-association, you can liberate
the disowned part of the personality and put it at the disposal
 GESTALT THERAPY 111
of the person and then the person will develop what he called
a strong ego. What Freud called association, I call dissociation,
schizophrenic dissociation to avoid the experience. It's a
computer game, an interpretation-computer game, which is
exactly an avoidance of the experience of what is. You can
talk 'til doomsday, you can chase your childhood memories
to doomsday, but nothing will change. You can associate—
or dissociate—a hundred things to one event, but you can
only experience one reality.
So, in contrast to Freud who placed the greatest emphasis
on resistances, I have placed the greatest emphasis on phobic
attitude, avoidance, flight from. Maybe some of you know
that Freud's illness was that he suffered from an immense
number of phobias, and as he had this illness, of course he
had to avoid coping with avoidance. His phobic attitude was
tremendous. He couldn't look at a patient—couldn't face
having an encounter with the patient—so he had him lie on
a couch, and Freud's symptom became the trademark of
psychoanalysis. He couldn't go into the open to be photo-
graphed, and so on. But usually, if you come to think of it,
most of us would rather avoid unpleasant situations and we
mobilize all the armor, masks, and so on, a procedure which
is usually known as the "repression." So, I try to find out
from the patient what he avoids.
The enemy of development is this pain phobia—the un-
willingness to do a tiny bit of suffering. You see, pain is a
signal of nature. The painful leg, the painful feeling, cries
out, "Pay attention to me—if you don't pay attention, things
will get worse." The broken leg cries, "Don't walk so much.
Keep still." We use this fact in Gestalt Therapy by under-
standing that the awareness continuum is being interrupted—
that you become phobic—as soon as you begin to feel some-
thing unpleasant. When you begin to feel uncomfortable, you
take away your attention.
So the therapeutic agent, the means of development, is to
integrate attention and awareness. Often psychology doesn't
differentiate between awareness and attention. Attention is a
deliberate way of listening to the emerging foreground figure,
which in this case is something unpleasant. So what I do as
therapist is to work as a catalyst both ways: provide situations
in which a person can experience this being stuck—the un-
pleasantness—and I frustrate his avoidances still further, until
he is willing to mobilize his own resources.
112 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
Authenticity, maturity, responsibility for one's actions and
life, response-ability, and living in the now, having the cre-
ativeness of the now available, is all one and the same thing.
Only in the now, are you in touch with what's going on. If
the now becomes painful, most people are ready to throw
the now overboard and avoid the painful situation. Most
people can't even suffer themselves. So in therapy the person
might simply become phobic and run away or he might play
games which will lead our effort ad absurdum—like making
a fool out of the situation or playing the bear-trapper game.
You probably know the bear-trappers. The bear-trappers suck
you in and give you the come-on, and when you're sucked
in, down comes the hatchet and you stand there with a
bloody nose, head, or whatever. And if you are fool enough
to ram your head against the wall until you begin to bleed
and be exasperated, then the bear-trapper enjoys himself and
enjoys the control he has over you, to render you inadequate,
impotent, and he enjoys his victorious self which does a lot
for his feeble self-esteem. Or you have the Mona Lisa smiler.
They smile and smile, and all the time think, "You're such a
fool." And nothing penetrates. Or you have the drive-us-
crazy, whose only interest in life is to drive themselves or
their spouse or their environment crazy and then fish in
troubled waters.
But with these exceptions, anyone who has a little bit of
goodwill will benefit from the Gestalt approach because the
simplicity of the Gestalt approach is that we pay attention to
the obvious, to the utmost surface. We don't delve into a
region which we don't know anything about, into the so-called
"unconscious." I don't believe in repressions. The whole theory
of repression is a fallacy. We can't repress a need. We have
only repressed certain expressions of these needs. We have
blocked one side, and then the self-expression comes out
somewhere else, in our movements, in our posture, and most
of all in our voice. A good therapist doesn't listen to the
content of the bullshit the patient produces, but to the sound,
to the music, to the hesitations. Verbal communication is
usually a lie. The real communication is beyond words. There
is a very good book available, The Voice of Neurosis, by
Paul Moses, a psychologist from San Francisco who died
recently. He could give you a diagnosis from the voice that
is better than the Rorschach test.
So don't listen to the words, just listen to what the voice
 GROWTH CENTERS 113
tells you, what the movements tell you, what the posture tells
you, what the image tells you. If you have ears, then you
know all about the other person. You don't have to listen to
what the person says: listen to the sounds. Per sona—"through
sound." The sounds tell you everything. Everything a person
wants to express is all there—not in words. What we say is
mostly either lies or bullshit. But the voice is there, the
gesture, the posture, the facial expression, the psychosomatic
language. It's all there if you learn to more or less let the
content of the sentences play the second violin only. And if
you don't make the mistake of mixing up sentences and
reality, and if you use your eyes and ears, then you see that
everyone expresses himself in one way or another. If you
have eyes and ears, the world is open. Nobody can have any
secrets because the neurotic only fools himself, nobody else—
except for awhile, maybe, if he is a good actor.
In most psychiatry, the sound of the voice is not noticed,
only the verbal contact is abstracted from the total person-
ality. Movements like—you see how much this young man
here expresses in his leaning forward—the total personality
as it expresses itself with movements, with posture, with
sound, with pictures—there is so much invaluable material
here, that we don't have to do anything else except get to the
obvious, to the outermost surface, and feed this back, so as
to bring this into the patient's awareness. Feedback was Carl
Rogers' introduction into psychiatry. Again, he only mostly
feeds back the sentences, but there is so much more to be
fed back—something you might not be aware of, and here
the attention and awareness of the therapist might be useful.
So we have it rather easy compared with the psychoanalysts,
because we see the whole being of a person right in front of
us, and this is because Gestalt Therapy uses eyes and ears
and the therapist stays absolutely in the now. He avoids inter-
pretation, verbiage production, and all other types of mind-
fucking. But mind-fucking is mind-fucking. It is also a
symptom which might cover something else. But what is there
is there. Gestalt Therapy is being in touch with the obvious.

Growth Centers
In 1962 the Esalen Institute gave its first seminar. In 1970
tens of thousands attended Esalen programs. Esalen was
the first growth center and now there are a hundred or so.
114 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
Some are brokers, bringing leaders of many approaches
together with interested individuals; some use a limited
scope of approaches concentrating in depth on Yoga or
some other grouping of ways.
These centers have enabled over six million people to
choose and experience some kind of auxiliary to their
personal way of growth.
The listing which follows was prepared by Bill Rehfield
and Kathy McGreevy of the Humanistic Psychology Insti-
tute. Their main source was the files of the Association for
Humanistic Psychology (584 Page St., San Francisco, Calif.
94117), which offers an on-going, up-dated list of centers
in their newsletter, which is free to members. Membership
is open to all interested persons.
Rehfield and McGreevy note that the absence of an
annotation after the address of a center is caused by lack
of an available printed statement at the time of writing.

Adanta, Inc.
Suite 1140, Lenox Towers West
3390 Peachtree Rd., NE
Atlanta, Ga. 30326
"This combination of people, programs, pause, and place
is provided in the hope of encouraging participants to engage
in personal reflection and exploration to discover in an emo-
tional climate of honesty and trust, to share spontaneously
with others, to integrate creatively the many aspects of self,
and to experience personal refreshment and renewal."
The American Orthopsychiatric Association, Inc.
1790 Broadway
New York, N.Y. 10019
212-JU6-5690
Behavior Today: The Human Sciences Newsletter
P.O. Box 2993
Boulder, Colo. 80302
A weekly publication designed to fill the communications
gap between the behaviorial sciences.
Berkeley Center for Human Interaction
1820 Scenic Ave.
Berkeley, Calif. 94709
415-845-4765
 GROWTH CENTERS 115
Big Sur Recordings
P.O. Box 303
Mill Valley, Calif. 94941
415-388-1501
Publishes a list of recordings that ". . . attempts to cover
the whole field of human potential and human growth."

Paul Bindrim Associates Nude Encounter Workshops

2000 Cantata Dr.
Los Angeles, Calif. 90028

Blue Mountain Center of Meditation

P.O. Box 381
Berkeley, Calif. 94701
"It is the aim of The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation
to bring the ancient Hindu art of meditation out of the
hermitage and the cloister into the midst of life by adapting
it to the needs and equipment of modern man."

Brandon Films, Inc.

221 W. 57th St.
New York, N.Y. 10019
212-246-4867
Films for rent or sale on topics such as the arts, humanities,
and social studies and discussion.

Bridge Mountain Foundation

2011 Alba Rd.
Ben Lomond, Calif. 95005
408-336-5787
"Bridge Mountain is a place large enough to grow in, small
enough to begin to know—a place with enough people to
learn a variety of things from, but not so many you feel lost
in a crowd."

California Institute of Asian Studies

3494 21st St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94110
California Institute of Asian Studies is a graduate school
specializing in Asian Culture and Civilization. It is the edu-
cational division of the Cultural Integration Fellowship.
116 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
Casaelya
1561 Masonic Ave.
San Francisco, Calif. 94117
"Casaelya is an association for interpersonal communica-
tion and human expression" that believes "an intensive week-
end group experience can be a significant start toward more
meaningful relationships and a fuller discovery of life."

The Center for Creativity and Growth

599 College Ave.
Palo Alto, Calif. 94306
"We want to be more than a clearing house for occasional
workshops; we want to be a home. We want to meet a hunger
that all of us have: a hunger for enduring relationships and
for remaining in touch with the people, the spirit, and the
ideas that have meaning for us . . . We will offer programs
for children as well as adults. Family workshops, weekend
retreats, group travel are included in our plans."

Center for Educational Reform

2115SSt.,NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
"If you are into liberating the traditional educational
process, then the Center for Educational Reform can prob-
ably help."

Center for Human Communication

120 Oak Meadow Dr.
Los Gatos, Calif. 95030
354-6466

Center for Human Development

217 N. Craig St.
Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213
415-687-1400
"To renew the essence of simple joy . . . to grow and to
fulfill our potential."

The Center for Interpersonal Development

3127 Eastern Ave.
Sacramento, Calif. 95821
 GROWTH CENTERS 117
Center for Studies in Social Functioning, U.S.A.
4802 Dayton Ave., N.
Seattle, Wash. 98103
206-ME3-5337
"The Center for Studies in Social Functioning is engaged in
training persons already in the helping professions, such as
social workers, psychiatrists, etc. The training involves ad-
ministration, interpretation and use of the Heimler Scale of
Social Functioning and use of the methodologies of social
functioning."

Center for the Whole Person

1633 Race St.
Philadelphia, Pa. 19103
215-LO3-4560
"The Center for the Whole Person is now a non-profit
corporation registered with the Commonwealth of Pennsyl-
vania. The Center is an affiliation of laymen and professionals
seeking to increase the availability and effectiveness of per-
sonal and interpersonal growth experiences and exploring
these trends in the behavioral sciences, religion and philosophy
which emphasize the potentialities and values of human
existence."

The Center of Man

Micanopy, Fla. 32667
904-466-4459; 466-3351
"The Center of Man has been created to provide a setting
and professional leadership for those who wish to: renew
themselves, reinvent new roles for themselves, search for their
best selves . . . etc."

Claremont Experiment
P.O. Box 123
Weston, Ont., Canada
416-247-2470
"Claremont Experiment grew out of a need for people to
re-learn lost or buried languages of the senses and imagination
in order to communicate with themselves and others."
118 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
Community Design Center
U.C. Extension
215 Haight St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94102
415-863-3718
"The Center's purpose is twofold: first, to provide San
Francisco's low income neighborhoods with free professional
services on problems of design, planning and community
development, services to which typically residents of low
income areas have not had access; and second, to offer pro-
fessionals opportunities to broaden their experience of critical
urban problems while providing a needed service to the
community."
Coro Foundation
760 Market St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94102
415-986-5314
"Coro is a community supported organization that has been
involved in public affairs education and training since 1942.
It is non-partisan and non-profit. We conduct programs
designed to prepare people for involvement in their com-
munity's governing process—either through leadership posi-
tions in governmental, business, labor and community organi-
zations, or as active citizens."
Cultural Integration Fellowship: San Francisco Ashram
The Center of Universal Religion
2650 Fulton St. at 3d Ave.
San Francisco, Calif. 94118
415-648-1489
"A non-profit and non-sectarian religious and education
corporation devoted to the concepts of universal religion,
cultural harmony and creative self-unfoldment."
Cumbres
P.O. Box C
Dublin, N.H. 03444
603-563-7591
"Cumbres at the Dublin Inn is a constantly evolving en-
vironment of programs to encourage personal growth and
inter-personal understanding, activities to excite self expression
and creativity, and people with stimulating philosophies and
intriguing ideas."
 GROWTH CENTERS 119
The Devereux Foundation: Institute for Research and Training
Devon, Pa. 19333
"Pre-Doctoral Internships and Post-Doctoral Fellowships
in Clinical Psychology at Devereux schools covering a full-
time intensive twelve month period of training with emphasis
on emotionally disturbed and mentally retarded children,
adolescents and young adults presenting problems of learning
and adjustment."
Dialogue House Associates, Inc.
(1) 45 W. 10th St.
New York, N.Y. 10011
212-228-9180
(2) P.O. Box 877
San Jacinto, Calif. 92383
714-654-2625
"Dialogue House Associates is a cooperative association of
specialists who believe: 1. That there are vast untapped re-
sources within each human being; 2. That modern depth
psychology has given us effective methods by which these
resources can be reached and brought into daily life; 3. That
these methods reach beyond psychotherapy, and can make a
remarkable contribution to larger human development when
utilized in group situations under professional guidance; 4.
That the crisis of modern society makes it urgently necessary
to give all age groups in the population, from adolescence
onwards, access to an effective and responsibly-guided pro-
gram of personal growth."
Diamond Sangha, A Zen Buddhist Society
(1) Maui Zendo
R.R. 1, Box 220
Haiku, Hi. 96708
(2) Koko An
2119 Kaloa Way
Honolulu, Hi. 96822
946-0666
Ecology Action: Educational Institute
P.O. Box 9334
Berkeley, Calif. 94709
"Ecology Action is concerned about the environment in
which we live, not with domination of the environment,
certainly not exploitation, nor even control. We must under-
120 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

stand it and ourselves and our interactions and transform our

lifestyles and social systems so that our actions do not lead
inevitably to an exhausted planet, to the destruction of life on
this earth."

Elysium Institute
5436 Fern wood Ave.
Los Angeles, Calif. 90027
213-465-7121
"The Elysium Institute is a research and informational,
non-profit organization working in the behavioral sciences
related to nudity and "Body Taboo" neuroses. The institute
promotes self-acceptance of others through a wholesome atti-
tude towards the human body and its functions, both physical
and emotional."

Encompass
c/o Robert Dolling Wells
P.O. Box 145
Mercer Island, Wash. 98040
206-232-8553
"The general purpose of Encompass Institute is the study
of material from the field of psychologically based and scien-
tifically supportable religion—religion for the new age of
man."

Encounter Consultants, Inc.

P.O. Box 1455
Cody, Wyo. 82414
"Serving individuals and groups in the discovery of new
creative and productive possibilities in human encounter."

Encounters
5225 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 209
Washington, D.C. 20015
"Workshops in personal and professional growth."

Entropy
1914 Polk St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94109
All-but-free university with courses in psychology, philos-
ophy, meditation and movement, music, etc.

J
 GROWTH CENTERS 121
Equals One
Pondicherry 2, India
"= 1 announces the arrival of an extraordinary age, invites
us to enjoy to the full our privilege as citizens of the uni-
verse."

Erickson Educational Foundation

4047 Hundred Oaks Ave.
Baton Rouge, La. 70807
In an effort to assist where "human potential is limited by
physical, mental or social conditions, or where scope of re-
search is too new, controversial, or imaginative to encourage
traditionally oriented support, the Erickson Educational Foun-
dation has been called upon to function in gender identity
areas needing service not otherwise supplied."

Esalen Institute
(1) Big Sur, Calif. 93920
(2) P.O. Box 31389
San Francisco, Calif. 94131
Esalen Institute is a center to explore those trends in the
behavioral sciences, religion, and philosophy which emphasize
the potentialities and values of human existence. Its activities
consist of seminars and workshops such as the ones described
in the brochures, research and consulting programs, and resi-
dential programs. "Esalen is a forum and facility for discovery
and recovery. As a forum for exploring human potential,
Esalen is committed to diversity."

Espiritu
1214 Miramar St.
Houston, Tex. 77006
713-528-3301
"We hope to reflect our diversity and our similarity by
creating an atmosphere of trust and openness . . . We hope to
establish a forum for education and exchange . . . We hope
to liberate our curiosity and our fantasy by originating a
facility of freedom and responsibility . . . We hope to build
*: a center for learning and living."
122 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
Evering Consultants
42 Eglinton Ave., E
Toronto 315, Ont., Canada
416-487-1020
Offering programs of instruction in eidetic perception.
"Eidetic perception is a humanistic, here-and-now oriented
awareness of self in relation to the world. It is a perception
which enables the individual to respond with spontaneity and
creativity to any situation. It is a perception which makes life
meaningful."

Explorations Institute
P.O. Box 1254
Berkeley, Calif. 94701

The Family Development Center

179 Los Ranchito Rd.
San Rafael, Calif. 94903
479-1470
"The Family Development Center offers opportunities at
a reasonable cost, for the general community to participate in
a range of programs, workshops and on-going groups to
further the activity of self-discovery and growth in effective
ways of relationship and communication. Intensive encounter
group and gestalt methods, art, movement, psychodrama, role
playing and use of video tape recording is central to the
program."

Family Therapy Institute

120 Oak Meadow Dr.
Los Gatos, Calif. 95030
354-6466
"The present FTI program includes four major parts:
1. The treatment of families in distress; 2. Well family evalua-
tion and education; 3. Multiple family therapy; 4. Training
program."

The Gestalt Institute of Canada

P.O. Box 39
Lake Cowichan, B.C., Canada
"The Gestalt Institute of Canada was founded June 1st,
1969, at Cowichan Lodge, Lake Cowichan, British Columbia,
by Dr. Frederick S. Perls, M.D., Ph.D. It is the first Gestalt
institute to be a full time residential training center."
 GROWTH CENTERS 123
Gestalt Institute of San Francisco, Inc.
1719 Union St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94123
415-776-4500
Intensive workshops in all aspects of Gestalt Therapy.
Group Dynamics
9426 Santa Monica Blvd.
Beverly Hills, Calif. 90210
213-274-9291
"Group Dynamics is a new company developing programs
and products that are designed to help individuals and organi-
zations exercise more influence on the physical and social
settings in which they exist."
Group Dynamics Institute
6808 Sorrell St.
McLean, Va. 22101
703-356-5804
"Consultation services to existing groups who want to work
and live together better."

Grow
312 W. 82dSt.
New York, N.Y. 10024
212-874-1955
"Grow's purpose is to present and foster the use of new
approaches to community peer group problem solving. Grow
offers a workable format for training large numbers of per-
sons from any given community to function as group leaders
and to form and conduct a widespread network of community
based problem-solving groups."
Guild for Psychological Studies
(Mrs. Lester Gorn)
1734 45th Ave.
San Francisco, Calif. 94122
"The general purposes of the Guild are: to study material
from the fields of comparative mythology, religions and the
arts, primarily from the viewpoint of Dr. C. G. Jung's Ana-
lytical Psychology; to provide a framework within which the
individual may be aided in his search for his own highest
values and deepest awareness, through a better understanding
of his unconscious and conscious processes; and to use the
124 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
method of discussion groups for a more personal approach to
the values of the various texts studied."
Hara
7322 Blairview St.
Dallas, Tex. 75230
214-369-9671
" 'Hara' is a Japanese word having many meanings, but
essentially it is 'wholeness'—a balance between mind and
body, feeling and intellect. 'Hara' is balanced involvement—
balance in meditation, involvement in encounter."
Himalayan Academy: Ashram and Offices
108 Mill St.
Virginia City, Nev. 89440
"The Himalayan Academy was founded in San Francisco
in 1957 by Master Subramuniya. Through the Academy the
Master offers a comprehensive study as well as residence
program."
Holy Order of Mans
20 Steiner St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94117
"The Holy Order of Mans is the result of a group of men
and women who received a request by revelation, and
answered that request by looking straight at the religious
needs of the people and setting down the first set of By-Laws,
which evolved into this Holy Order after much work and
some change."
Human Development Association
P.O. Box811,Sta. B
Montreal, Que., Canada
"The Human Development Association is a partnership of
men and women, from many walks of life, who feel a com-
mon desire to become more mature, and to encourage and
assist others to do something useful and practicable to advance
the welfare of the human race."
Human Environment Reorganization "Hero"
1206 Prescott Ave.
Sunnyvale, Calif. 94086
"We are in environmental trouble. Despite the highest ma-
terial standard. of living ever known and unprecedented
sophistication in every field, the quality of life in this country
 GROWTH CENTERS 125
is undoubtedly deteriorating, manifested by increasing pessi-
mism and depression. Concern and frustration over environ-
ment are growing—concern thanks to massive attention by
communications media and courageous individuals and
groups, and by the obviously increasing sensory impact on us
all; and frustration over the seemingly negligible consequences
of individual action in view of the scope and magnitude of
the problem."

Human Resources Development

Hidden Springs
South Acworth, N.H. 03607
"Human Resources Development' (HRD) is a non-profit
organization incorporated for the purpose of conducting scien-
tific research into the nature of human potential and devising
methods and techniques for the maximum development of
these resources. H R D seeks the means by which human
potential may be actualized in ever-increasing joy of living."

Humanist Community of San Jose

P.O. Box 881
San Jose, Calif. 95106
408-294-5017
"HCSJ is a chapter of the American Humanist Association
(AHA). It is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization dedicated
to the improvement of human life."

Humanist Institute
1430 Masonic Ave.
San Francisco, Calif. 94116

The Innerspace Project

55 Mountain View
Mill Valley, Calif. 94941
415-388-4435
"The Innerspace Project is a problem-solving coalition of
nationally recognized experts in a broad range of disciplines.
Our coordinated staff includes systems analysts, philosophers,
communications engineers, testpilots, psychologists, artists,
psychedelic researchers, plus leaders in environmental studies
and ecology."
126 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
The Institute for Multiple Psychotherapy
3701 Sacramento St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94118
"The Institute for Multiple Psychotherapy (TIMP) has
been founded to provide a space in which participants: may
vitalize their friendly, sexual, and loving relationships; may
experience an active appreciation of and trust in everyone's
common humanity and interdependence; may learn methods
of fostering trenchant encounters between people within
groups."
Institute for Rational Living, Inc.
300 S. 19th St.
Philadelphia, Pa. 19103 •
215-KI6-7344
"The Institute for Rational Living, Inc., a non-profit
organization, was founded on the optimistic premise that peo-
ple can be taught, without lengthy psychoanalysis, to live
sane, non-self-defeating, maximally self-actualized lives. By
reading, by discussion, and by considerable work, people can
reeducate themselves emotionally and often give considerable
assistance to friends and associates."
Institute of Ability
2748 Grande Vista Ave.
Oakland, Calif. 94601
"Abilitism is a modern religion for the aware, seeking
individual. It assumes that each person has infinite ability and
that each person is separate and unique. Abilitism emphasizes
communication and increased understanding between indi-
viduals."
Institute of General Semantics
Lakeville, Conn. 06039
203-435-9174
"For linguistic epistemologic scientific research and edu-
cation."
Institute of Industrial Relations
Suite 4, Bldg. BB
San Jose State College
SanJose, Calif. 95114
408-298-5877
"This program has as its objective to provide the internal
Organization Development Specialist with both conceptual
 GROWTH CENTERS 127
and experiential knowledge which will enable him to better
accomplish his objectives."

Instructional Dynamics, Inc.

166 E. Superior St.
Chicago, 111. 60611

Integral Yoga Institute

770 Dolores St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94110
415-826-8119
"The Integral Yoga Institute is offering instruction in the
beginning techniques of Yoga . . . They prepare the indi-
vidual not only for the deeper aspects of spiritual develop-
ment through meditation and prayer, but also for a fuller
and more joyful and effective life in the outside world."

International Cooperation Council

17819 Roscoe Blvd.
Northridge, Calif. 91324
"The International Cooperation Council (ICC) is a co-
ordinating body composed of leaders and members of edu-
cational, scientific, cultural, and religious organizations which
aspire for a new civilization based on 'unity in diversity
among all peoples.' "

International Humanist and Ethical Union

Secretariat: Oudegracht 152
Utrecht, Holland
Correspondence: P.O. Box 114
Utrecht, Holland

Jossey-Bass, Inc., Publishers

615 Montgomery St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94111
Publishers of the Jossey-Bass Behavioral Science Series.

Journal of Public Social Services

P.O. Box 4418
Berkeley, Calif. 94704
"For public social service workers and persons who are
interested in problems of practice and policy in the public
social services."
128 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

Kairos
P.O. Box 350
Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. 92067
Kopavi, Inc.
1462 Wilson Ave.
St. Paul, Minn. 55106
"The purpose of Kopavi is to make available a forum
for the discovery, exploration, practice and dissemination of
techniques designed to assist individuals and groups in their
search for fuller realization of human potential."
Krishnamurti Foundation of America
P.O. Box 216
Ojai, Calif. 93023
Liberty House
P.O. Box 3468
Jackson, Miss. 39207
"Distributor of hand-crafted products by poor people
from: Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Alabama as
well as Africa, Mexico, Guatemala, Canada and other parts
of the world."
Life Extension Society
2011 NSt., NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
Publishers of Freeze—Wait—Reanimate.
Manas Publishing Co.
P.O. Box 32112, El Sereno Sta.
Los Angeles, Calif. 90032
Manas, issued weekly, "is a journal of independent in-
quiry, concerned with study of the principles which move
world society on its present course, and with search for con-
trasting principles that may be capable of supporting intel-
ligent idealism under the conditions of life in the twentieth
century."
Mental Research Institute
555 Middlefield Rd.
Palo Alto, Calif. 94301
415-321-3055
"From its beginning, MRI pioneered in developing methods
for changing patterns of family behavior when the inter-
 GROWTH CENTERS 129
actions of family members seemed to contribute to disturbed
behavior in one or more members of the family group.
'Conjoint Family Therapy' is now an accepted practice
among professionals in the field."
Modules for the Study of Group Learning
Alameda County School Dept.
224 West Winton Ave.
I Hayward, Calif. 94544
"Graduate study and lectures for advanced training and
interpersonal process in Group Learning."
Mystic Mountain Seminars
P.O. Box 107
Tecate, Calif. 92080
"The Mystic Mountain Seminars will be conducted at
Rancho Cuchuma, home of the Indra Devi Yoga Foundation
in Tecate, Lower California, Mexico . . . The purpose of
the Seminars is to develop all the aspects of man: physical,
mental and spiritual, in order to bring balance and harmony
into the daily life of people so that they can better cope with
the frustrations, fears and aggravations of their life."
The National Center for the Exploration of Human Potential
291 Broadway
New York, N.Y. 10007
The National Center of Communication Arts and Sciences
P.O. Box 207
Denver, Colo. 80201
"The National Center of Communication Arts and Sciences
is a nonprofit institution already becoming international in
scope, independent of any government agency, professional
group, industry, or educational institution . . . yet offering
vital services to each. A campus in the heart of Colorado
, where many can learn how to perfect inter-personal and
inter-language communications—to assimilate and utilize in-
formation efficiently—to transfer the world's knowledge
effectively."
National Initiative Foundation
2555 Park Blvd.
Palo Alto, Calif. 94306
"It is a non-profit educational foundation whose purposes
are (1) to research the educational processes by which man
130 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

can learn to become more creatively responsive, and (2) to

initiate experimental programs aimed toward helping solve
the man-made problems of the world."

National Referral Center for Science and Technology

Library of Congress
Washington, D.C. 20540
"The National Referral Center for Science and Technology
may be described most simply as the 'information desk' of
the scientific and technical community. Operating in the
Library of Congress with the support of the National Science
Foundation, the Center is designed to provide a single place
to which anyone with an interest in science and technology
may turn for advice on where and how to obtain information
on specific topics."

New Houston
3505 S. Main St.
Houston, Tex. 77002
713-526-7743
"New Houston has been organized by the Houston VISTA
(Volunteers In Service To America) Project to help 'affluent'
Houstonians to become aware of the disenfranchised minori-
ties and poor in Houston; to help Houstonians understand
(both factually and historically) the many problems con-
fronting the minorities and poor; and to help Houstonians
realize that they have a critical and vital role in solving the
racial and urban crises in our country."

Next Step, Inc.

125 El Camino Del Mar
San Francisco, Calif. 94121

NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science

1201 16th St., NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
202-833-4341
"The NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science, a non-
profit organization, conducts a year round program of
training, consultation, research, and publication. Its pro-
grams are created and conducted by a faculty of 300 care-
fully selected and trained social scientists located at over 40
universities throughout the country."
 GROWTH CENTERS 131
Oasis: Midwest Center for Human Potential
Stone-Brandel Center
1439 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, 111. 60605
"Oasis, the Midwest Center for Human Potential, is a
response to the need in all of us to find more flexible ways
of living and working in our rapidly changing society."

Odyssey
1455 Maria La.
Walnut Creek, Calif. 94596
939-2660
"Odyssey is founded on the idea that a stimulating en-
vironment provided by nature, by interpersonal involvement,
and by the warmth and experience of a dedicated professional
staff invites the individual to find within himself the desire
and means to learn."

Ontological Thought
Eden Valley Press
P.O. Box 328
Loveland, Colo. 80537
Published monthly. "Ontological Thought points to man's
causal relationship with his environment, and discusses the
source and quality of the new consciousness essential to the
forming of a new and continuing world."

Ontos, Inc.
40 S. Clay, Rm. 246
Hinsdale, 111. 60521
312-325-6384
"Ontos came into being out of a sense that 'something
wants to happen' . . . that there was a need for new ways
of relating which the present structures and institutions do
not provide. We feel a need to come alive to self and to
others, but much of what is alive within us has been damp-
ened by the rat-race, the hurry and noise of the world. Ontos
offers opportunities for personal growth through experiences
in group encounters, non-verbal communication, sensory
awareness, meditation, and discussion."
132 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

Open End: A Community in Marin

241 N. San Pedro Rd.
San Rafael, Calif. 94903
415-472-2101
"The purpose of Open End is to create an ongoing en-
vironment for a limited number of diverse persons which
will provide emotional support, the chance to examine dif-
ferent life styles with those living them, the encouragement
needed to examine one's own feelings and assumptions, the
chance to test new values, the opportunity to experience good
relationships with a variety of persons, motivation and train-
ing for working toward social change."
Orizon Institute
2710 36th St., NW
Washington, D.C. 20007

Pendle Hill
338 Plush Mill Rd.
Wallingford, Pa. 19086
215-LO6-4507
"A study center not concerned with grades, credits, degrees
or such commodities; but with the ongoing search for
integrity, a place to stand, and joy in being human—a search
both individual and corporate, drawing upon the roots and
raw materials of religious experience."
The Philosophical Psychologist
Division 24, American Psychological Association
220 S.W. 2nd St.
Boca Raton, Fla. 33432
Denis O'Donovan, Ph.D, Editor. "The Philosophical Psy-
chologist is the official organ of Division 24 of the American
Psychological Association and is the successor to the News-
letter of the Division of Philosophical Psychology."
Piedmont
P.O. Box 6129
Winston-Salem, N.C. 27109
919-723-6406
Psychological Films
205 W. 20th St.
Santa Ana, Calif. 92706
 GROWTH CENTERS 133
Psychologists for Social Action
P.O. Box 206
Cotati, Calif. 94928
Psychosynthesis Research Foundation
527 Lexington Ave., Rm. 314
New York, N.Y. 10017
"The Psychosynthesis Research Foundation exists for two
main purposes: 1. To present the principles and techniques
of psychosynthesis as developed and practiced by Assagioli
and others. 2. To further, through presenting to a wider field,
the thinking and writings of pioneering psychologists and
psychiatrists who are similarly reaching towards a growth
psychology, a psychology of the whole man, toward 'self-
actualization' (as expressed by Maslow), toward what we
call psychosynthesis."
Quaesitor
Vernon Lodge
Vernon Rd.
Sutton, Surrey, England
Phone 01-643-1834
"Quaesitor means Searcher. And it is the name we have
given to a series of intensive experiential encounter group
meetings. Later, Quaesitor is to become a full Experiential
Growth Centre for the development of human potential."
Racial Confrontation Groups
3516 Sacramento St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94118
"Racial Confrontation Groups represent an effective meth-
od for participants to express previously hidden and forbidden
thoughts and feelings about race. Directed by trained leader-
ship they have been a catalyst in stimulating group mem-
bers to take positive actions in reducing racial tensions."

Relationship Development Center

P.O. Box 23, Gedney Sta.
White Plains, N.Y. 10605
914-428-8367
"The Relationship Development Center is an educational
facility. It is organized for the development of programs to
encourage individual growth, to revitalize, deepen and en-
rich existing interpersonal relationships and to improve the
134 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

ability of group members to work together cooperatively and

productively in community organizations or educational enter-
prises."

Rocky Mountain Behavioral Institute

12086 W. Green Mountain Dr.
Denver, Colo. 80228
"The major part of our program at Rocky Mountain Be-
havioral Institute consists of weekend encounter groups.
We've also done long term programs with the Denver Public
Schools to facilitate the school integration program, tele-
vision self confrontation, management training, family com-
munication, language behavior programs, and are now ex-
panding into publishing instrumented learning materials for
adult groups."

San Francisco Gestalt Therapy Institute, Inc.

2678 California St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94115
415-922-5620
"The San Francisco Gestalt Therapy Institute offers a
training program in Gestalt Therapy leading to a certificate
and eligibility to conduct workshops through the Institute
. . . also provides opportunities for the general community
to participate in programs offered by Gestalt therapists and
by artists who are integrating new and creative ideas with
the Gestalt approach."

"Sarvodaya"
Sarvodaya Prachuralaya
Thanjavur, Tamilnadu State, India
Phone 314
For all Gandhi-Vinoba Sarvodaya Literature. " 'Sarvodaya,'
a monthly digest, is endeavoring to present within its small
compass the Sarvodaya ideology of Mahatma Gandhi—the
Welfare of All based on Ruskin's 'Unto This Last', with
special application of non-violence in socio-economic sphere
through the Bhoodan-Gramdan movement of Acharya
Vinoba during the last 18 years and similar trends of thought
and movements in other parts of the world for abolition of
nuclear armaments, against racial injustice etc., and for
World Union, with the Sarvodaya ideal upholding the sanctity
of life, freedom of man and universal peace."
 GROWTH CENTERS 135
Self-Other Systems Institute
1605 Broderick St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94115
"Maximizing self fulfillment, interpersonal enrichment, and
development of the human resources of me, him (that is,
my husband), and you in the Here and Now is our aim."

Seminars for Group Studies

c/o Center of Continuing Education
1307 E. 60th St.
Chicago, 111. 60637
312-BU8-2500

Senoi Institute: Center for Growth and Development

Rt. 2, Box 259
Eugene, Ore. 97401
503-747-4311
"Senoi Institute is a growth center for the development
of a new level of awareness and a greater involvement in
life. We at Senoi hope to break out of the illusions we have
about ourselves and offer to an ever expanding number of
people a means for exploring individual growth, sensitivity
and self awareness."

Sequoia Seminar
P.O. Box 678
Palo Alto, Calif. 94302
"A non-profit, non-denominational foundation dedicated
to the increased enlightenment of Man."

Society for Comparative Philosophy, Inc.

P.O. Box 857
Sausalito, Calif. 94965
415-332-5286
"This society has three principal interests: 1. The philo-
sophical and cultural dialogue between Asia and the West; 2.
The problems of human ecology; and 3. The study of the
transformations of consciousness."

Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues

P.O. Box 1248
Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106
Martin Deutsch, President.
136 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

Sonar, the Lafayette Center

914 Dewing St.
Lafayette, Calif. 94549
"A series of labs for men and women who are seeking:
selfhood, reflection, affirmation."
The Southern California Counselling Center
1022 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, Calif. 90035
213-657-5800
"Most people who have problems in living have learned
inappropriate ways of meeting life and what they need to do
is un-learn them. Counselling is not treatment but a kind of
re-learning, a kind of education."
Stonetree Ranch
The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples
2041 Larkin St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94109
"What is Stonetree Ranch? A retreat center—a small
conference ground available to religious groups—a place
where individuals, families, committees or small conferences
may come together in a quietly beautiful, natural setting
within XVi hours drive from San Francisco."
The Sycamore Community
P.O. Box 72
State College, Pa. 16801
"An ecumenical experiment in Christian life together."
Synergia: Montreal Center for Human Potential
(Le Centre montrealais pour Fepanouissement humain)
P.O. Box 1685, Sta. B,
Montreal 110, Que., Canada
(C.P. 1685, Poste B, Montreal 110, P.Q., Canada)
Tahoe Institute
P.O. Box 796
S. Lake Tahoe, Calif. 95705
"Man—alert and alive—dynamically in touch with family,
with self and with nature. This is the aim of Tahoe Institute."
Tassajara Hot Springs
Carmel Valley, Calif. 93924
Phone Tassajara Springs No. 1 (reached through the Salinas
toll station operator)
 GROWTH CENTERS 137
"Tassajara is staffed by Zen Buddhist students, both men
and women, who live and practice meditation there the year
round. Here you will find an isolated but accessible resort;
with comfortable accommodations and family-style meal
service, where guests can bathe in the hot sulphur springs
and the large outdoor swimming pool, as well as the creek,
walk the extraordinary trails which fan out past waterfalls,
deep ravines, rapids, Indian caves and into the primitive
' mountain areas; or just relax."

Tibetan Nyingmapa: Meditation Center

P.O. Box 4182
Berkeley, Calif. 94704
"The Center is dedicated to continuing the transmission,
to disciples in the West, of the timeless truths of Buddhism;
the analysis and solution of the problem of human suffering.
Under the spiritual guidance of Lama Tarthang Tulku, stu-
dents receive intense instruction in Buddhist theory and
practice."

The Topanga Center for Human Development

11489 Chandler Blvd.
N. Hollywood, Calif. 91601
213-980-2944
"Our philosophy is centered in the idea that becoming one-
self through honest and jopen encounter with others leads
to commitments to meaningful goals, responsible actions,
and new achievements. These are the avenues to self-fulfill-
ment and involvement in our changing environment."

Training for Living Institute

80 5th Ave.
New York, N.Y. 10011
212-242-5410
"We believe that the human capacity to achieve and be-
come is limitless, or at least that its limit cannot really be
known. At the same time we believe that the human
capacity to do nothing about that potential is also practically
limitless. But, we have faith in human beings: faith that they
can overcome the tremendous odds against them and prevail
, *—if they so choose."
138 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

The True World Order for Peace, Prosperity & World

Brotherhood
Sivananda Ashram-Yoga Camp
8th Ave.
Val Morin, Que., Canada
819-322-3226
"The True World Order is an organization founded by
Swami Vishnu-Devananda. Its aims are based upon the
ancient science of Yoga and Vedanta philosophy."
Walden House
101 Buena Vista Ave., E
San Francisco, Calif. 94117
"The essential purpose of Walden House is to create a
therapeutic community to encourage people with drug re-
lated problems to discover themselves and to learn to deal
with reality."
Western Center
9400 Culver Blvd., Suite 206
Culver City, Calif. 90230
"We're a people, a place and a non-profit educational cor-
poration. We have competence in all aspects of management,
in personnel and training, and in community development."
World Future Society
P.O. Box 19285, 20th St. Sta.
Washington, D.C. 20036
"The Society is a nonprofit scientific and educational cor-
poration chartered under the laws of the District of Columbia
in the United States of America. The Society was formed
in 1966 by a group of private citizens. They were active in
various walks of life—education, business, government, and
science—but they shared a common interest in the future."

World Without War Council of Northern California

1730 Grove St.
Berkeley, Calif. 94709
"The threat of nuclear war continues. The demand for
revolutionary change increases. If our government is to act
creatively to move the world away from war we must each
assume some responsibility for the effort to secure an inter-
national climate in which war is no longer possible and
where free societies may prosper."
 HARA 139
"Yoga Life International"
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center
8th Ave.
Val Morin, Que., Canada
819-322-3226
City Office: 5178 St. Lawrence Blvd.
Montreal, Que., Canada
514-279-3545
A monthly Yoga magazine.
Zen Center
300 Page St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94102

Hara (See also AIKIDO; HARA; T'AI cm CH'UAN; ZEN.)

Durckheim tells us that "Hara is that state (Verfassung) in
which the individual has found his primal center, and has
proven himself by it." In TAI C H I CH'UAN the primal center
is compared to the eye of a tornado, perfectly calm while
all around it is in great activity. This center of which Hara
speaks, allows the person doing Tai Chi to carry out a
delicate yet steady series of movements for a long time.
In AIKIDO the primal center which Hara speaks of is called
the one point. Aikido deals with defending oneself from
an attacker. This is done not by overpowering the attacker,
but by moving from the one point in harmony with the
attacker in such a way that the opponent's energy is used
to throw him to the ground. The Aikido man, in touch
with Hara, is unruffled and untouched throughout. Hara
undoubtedly has many relationships to the practice of Z E N .

A Japanese sitting on a chair or a bench looks very often as

though he were resting in himself rather than on the furni-
ture. The way in which a Japanese sits down on a chair
shows the degree of his Westernization. Crossing the legs
and so throwing the small of the back out of line and com-
pressing the abdomen is entirely un-Japanese and so is any
leaning or lolling position which would eliminate the support-
ing strength of the back. The Japanese, to whichever class
he may belong, holds himself erect and 'in form' even when
sitting. That this custom is weakening today through the
increasing influence of the West is doubtless true—but this
140 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
is a deviation from the traditional essentially Japanese form
which alone concerns us here.
The foregoing examples show two things. The Japanese
way of sitting is connected with an inner as well as an outer
attitude. The Japanese rests upright and composed within
himself. This combination of uprightness and resting within
oneself is typical. The whole person is, as it were, gathered
inward.
Another striking example of significant posture is the one
that a Japanese assumes in front of the camera. The
European is often surprised at how much the posture of
important public men, such as high ranking army officers or
newly elected Cabinet members, differs from that of Euro-
peans when being photographed. Whereas the latter take
great pains to stand 'at ease' or 'with nonchalance', or 'with
dignity', shoulders drawn up and chest thrust forward, the
Japanese stand quite differently, often, to our eyes, with
deliberate ungainliness—unassumingly front face with loose
hung shoulders and arms but still upright and firm, the legs
slightly apart. Never does the Japanese stand with his weight
on the one leg while the other 'idles.' Anyone standing in
this way, without centre, without axis, inspires little con-
fidence in a Japanese.
I remember a large reception, the guests European and
Japanese, stood around after dinner drinking coffee and
smoking. A Japanese friend of mine who knew of my interest
in the ways of his country joined me and said, 'Do you see
that the Europeans standing here could be easily toppled
over if one were suddenly to give them a little push from
behind? But none of the Japanese would lose their balance
even if they were given a much harder push.'
How is this stability achieved? The bodily centre of
gravity is not drawn upward but held firmly in the middle, in
the region of the navel. And that is the point. The belly is
not pulled in but free—and yet slightly tensed. The shoulder
region instead of being tense is relaxed but the trunk is firm.
The upright bearing is not a pulling upwards but is the
manifestation of an axis which stands firmly on a reliable
base and which by its own strength maintains its uprightness.
Whether a person is corpulent or thin is immaterial.
Upright, firm and collected—these are the three marks of
that posture which is typical of the Japanese who knows
 HARA 141
h<yw to stand, and taken altogether, show the presence of
Hara.
So Karlfried Durckheim observed while visiting Japan. 1
His book Hara contains photographs of Buddhist statues
and of statues from the Chartres cathedral. They are
similar in general disposition and in the organic way the
stomach or belly is prominent: from both sides of the
globe the message is the same. Specifically, Hara is a
point in the abdomen about two fingers' width below the
navel; generally, Hara is a way of being, a way of study,
a way to God. Independent and paralled evolution of a
regard for Hara can be surmised from the work of
Charlotte Selver, whose teachers were German.
In Japan and China, emphasis on the search for Hara
is widespread. There are probably dozens of relatively dif-
ferent ways available.
Durckheim mentions posture, breath, and tension as the
starting points in studying Hara. What follows is a portion
of the sayings of Master Okada, a teacher with whom
Durckheim was f amiliar.

Sayings of Master Okada

Tanden 2 is the shrine of the Divine. If its stronghold is

.finely built so that the Divine in us can grow then a real
human being is achieved. If one divides people into ranks
the lowest is he who values his head. Those who endeavour
only to amass as much knowledge as possible grow heads
that become bigger and so they topple over easily, like a
pyramid standing upside down. They excel in imitating
Others but neither originality nor inventiveness nor any great
work is theirs.
Next come those of middle rank. For them the chest is
most important. People with self-control, given to abstinence
and asceticism belong to this type. These are the men with
outward courage but without real strength. Many of the so-
called great men are in this category. Yet all this is not
enough.
But those who regard the belly as the most important part
x
I Hara (London: Allen & Unwin, 1962).
L Tanden—Region about two inches below the navel.
142 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
and so have built the stronghold where the Divine can grow
—these are the people of the highest rank. They have
developed their minds as well as their bodies in the right
way. Strength flows out from them and produces a spiritual
condition of ease and equanimity. They do what seems
good to them without violating any law. Those in the first
category think that Science can rule Nature. Those in the
second have apparent courage and discipline and they know
how to fight. Those in the third know what reality is.
Seiza3 makes use of the posture most certain to produce
people of the third category. The sorrows of humanity are
caused by loss of balance. To preserve it one has to have a
healthy body and an upright heart. These can be achieved
only 'on the way.' To reach the way means 'sitting'! If you
'sit' for two or three years you will understand.

From getting-up time until bedtime you must be awake

(on the jump). Keep your posture in Hara, come what may,
and you will be alert in the right way.

You sit for one year, two years, three years, and you think
—and so do others—that you are like one born anew. In
truth however you are just a little shoot on the way to the
development of your being. It takes fifty to sixty years to
become like the heaven-striving cedars and cypresses.

Even if the body is changed in Seiza the deepest inner state

does not change so quickly.

Keep a carp in a pond with a stone in the centre and

another of equal size with nothing in the centre. In the pond
where the stone is the carp swims round the stone all the
time and thus has its exercise without meeting resistance.
He grows more quickly than the carp in the other pond.
This is the result of endless repetition.

Hasidism
Often what occurred in the past, far away, has value for
our times. The social-religious movement known as Hasid-
ism has been brought into focus and relevance by a con-
s
Seiza—The practice of 'sitting' and nothing more as taught by
Okada.
 HASIDISM 143
temporary therapist. Sheldon Kopp has written of the
zaddik, the teacher-guru-guide of Hasidism: 1

On the eve of the Day of Atonement, when the time had

come to say Kol Nidre, all the Hasidim were gathered to-
gether in the House of Prayer waiting for the rabbi. But time
passed and he did not come. Then one of the women of the
congregation said to herself: "I guess it will be quite a while
before they begin, and I was in such a hurry and my child
js alone in the house. I'll just run home and look after it
to make sure it hasn't awakened. I can be back in a few
minutes." She ran home and listened at the door. Everything
was quiet. Softly she turned the knob and put her head into
the room—and there stood the rabbi holding her child in
his arms. He had heard the child crying on his way to the
House of Prayer, and had played with it and sung to it
until it fell asleep.
Political leaders ask us to believe in freedom and oppor-
tunity in a land of oppressed Blacks and starving babies.
Science promises the good life but delivers weapons of mass
destruction. The university promises education but delivers
a maze of grants, expansion and job training where student
opinion doesn't count. How wise the young are to distrust
the leadership of the past. God and country have become
household jokes. The old solutions and the old leadership
won't do. Clergymen, "new" politicians, students and Blacks,
to mention a few, seek new gurus.
The field of psychotherapy also needs a new kind of guru.
More and more psychotherapists believe the psychoanalyst
is yesterday's man and that it is time to remove Freud's dead
hand from the switch.
In my own search for the model of the new guru for
psychotherapists, I came upon Hasidism, a Jewish mystical
movement of the 18th and 19th Centuries. Of great influence
in my search has been Martin Buber, whose writings almost
singlehandedly have restored Hasidism to Western thought.
In the present discourse I rely heavily on Buber's works as
a wellspring of Hasidic tales and sayings. Hasidism had a
charm, a vitality and a personal relevance that touched and
renewed the lives of a despairing people. Hasidism has shaped
my own being. The way of the zaddik, the spiritual leader
Reprinted from Psychology Today Magazine, May 1969. Copyright
© Commurucations/Reseafch/Machines/Inc.
144 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
and teacher of the Hasidic community, taught me much
about how to be the sort of psychotherapist I have become.
Prior to Hasidism, the Polish Jews followed the mystical
tradition of the Kabbala, which dated back to the Middle
Ages. Through the secret symbols of the Kabbala their
rabbis tried to decipher the "secret meanings" of Scripture.
Their interpretations frequently contradicted the literal mean-
ing of the texts.
The Kabbalists were like the orthodox psychoanalyst in
believing that the real meaning of things was hidden and
that the way to truth lay in the interpretation of ciphers. The
way was open only to those special initiates who demonstrated
the "attainment of the scholar and the self-abnegation of the
ascetic."
In 1648, a horde of Cossacks came screaming out of the
Ukraine to overthrow the Polish landowners, to sack and
pillage in the name of justice. On their way, they fell upon
the Jewish townspeople. The Cossacks slaughtered the men,
threw infants into the air and caught them on their swords
before the eyes of unbelieving parents, and raped women,
afterward ripping open their bellies and sewing live cats in-
side. In the next 10 years, 100,000 Polish Jews perished in this
horrible way. It would have been a time of total despair for
Jews had it not been for the Kabbala that prophesied that
this was the "end of days"—the sign of the coming of the
Messiah.
But the Jews were further tormented and bewildered: none
but opportunists and madmen rose up and declared them-
selves Saviors.
Because the Kabbala could not provide an answer to the
Jew's suffering, Hasidism arose, offering a new mysticism
so personal and so relevant that during the 18th and 19th
Centuries it embraced almost half the Jews in Eastern
Europe.
In certain ways, the sort of psychotherapy I practice is
very much within the tradition of Hasidism, which both
grew out of and protested certain aspects of Kabbalism.
Similarly, my own work and that of some of my contem-
poraries stand against the earlier psychoanalytic tradition to
which we are indebted and from which we are liberated.
Nothing in the Hasidic tradition is esoteric, for the mean-
ings are no longer sealed from ordinary eyes. Rather, "every-
thing is fundamentally open to all, and everything is reiterated
 HASIDISM 145
again and again so simply and concretely, that each man of
real faith can grasp it." Hasidism, which restored the mean-
ing of life to man's own hands, first was brought to the Jews
of the 18th Century by Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, known as
the Baal Shem Tov, the master of the good name of God.
Like the Kabbalistic scholars, the Baal Shem Tov wanted
to teach and help others, but unlike them, he would not be
a high priest or wizard who initiated his flock into mysteries
that they could not quite own. Neither would he be an
impersonal vessel or medium through which great powers
operated, nor the great scholar and seat of religious reason.
Rather, as the zaddik, he first of all would be a person in his
own right, one who helped those who trusted him and who
was able to help only because they trusted him.
The relationship between the zaddik and his disciple was
the crucial factor in this attempt to give spiritual help, just
as the relationship between therapist and patient is crucial.
The personality of the teacher takes the place of doctrine.
He is the teaching. As one student said: "I did not go to my
zaddik to learn Torah from him, but to watch him tie his
bootlaces."
The zaddik is a helper who extends his hand to a follower
and, if the follower will take it, guides him until he is able
to find his own way. Yet, the zaddik must never relieve
his follower of the responsibility of doing for himself what-
ever he is strong enough to do. As Rabbi Baer points out,
"What you don't get by your own work, you don't have."
At the same time, the zaddik must participate in a way that
risks his own deep personal involvement. He must be willing
to be close to another and to get caught up in his troubles.
"If you want to raise a man from mud and filth . . . you
must not hesitate to get yourself dirty."
In a curious way, what the zaddik has to offer is himself.
If someone really can learn to be with him, he will have
learned what he needs to know. Sometimes the zaddik is
caught between what he feels he must do and what he
thinks he ought to do. Rabbi Bunam tells of a time when
he felt the need to tell a certain story but was tempted not
to because it was so worldly and would surely arouse vulgar
laughter. He feared that his followers would no longer con-
sider him a rabbi. He decided nevertheless, to follow his
inner feelings and tell the story. The result, he said, was
that "the gathering burst out laughing. And those who up
146 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

this point were distant from me attached themselves to me."

The zaddik risks simply being himself through trusting
his feelings and acting on them, thereby engaging a like com-
mitment from his followers.
So, too, with the psychotherapist, a significant part of
therapy is the way he can be with the patient, not just the
knowledge he brings. Once a zaddik "without any faith in his
own gift, in the urgent need of the moment, took a sick child
in his arms, laid it in the cradle, rocked it, prayed, and suc-
ceeded in healing it." When the therapist acts on what he
feels he is therapeutic.
Admittedly, it is difficult for the novice rabbi or therapist
to know when to trust his feehngs. For a while, rules and
expectations must guide him. At first, he may take his powers
too seriously, as did young Rabbi Mendel when he boasted
to his teacher that in the mornings and the evenings he saw
the angels who rolled back the darkness and the light.
"Yes," answered his teacher, "in my youth I saw that too.
Later on you don't see those things any more."
A man must have two pockets into which to reach. In the
right are the words, "for thy sake was the world created,"
and in the left, "I am dust and ashes."
Eventually, the young rabbi is more able and willing to
give of himself. In doing so he points to the Hasidic under-
standing of the problems between people. That is, that in
dealing with the conflicts between man and man, each man
must begin with himself. Rather than blame his opponent
in the struggle, a man must take on the difficult responsibility
of turning his attention to his own part in the conflict, with
no more than the hope that the other will do the same.
Hasidism might state it this way: the origin of the conflicts
between myself and others is the fact that too often / do not
know what I feel, I do not say what I mean and I do not do
what I say.
When asked how to tell whether a teacher is a real zaddik,
the Baal Shem Tov suggested asking the teacher how to rid
oneself permanently of temptation to evil. If he can give such
advice, then he is of no real importance as a teacher. For with
the Evil Urge "a man must struggle until his last moment,
and just that is the service of a man in the world."
And what is more, even the urge to evil is a kind of
vitality, a life source to reclaim rather than reject. We need
to be in touch with and hopefully to own every part of our-
 HASIDISM 147
selves so that we are not at war within ourselves* So, too,
our own willful impulses can renew our imaginative powers.
We can transform our stubbornness into determination and
our struggle with others into intimacy. Each man must con-
front himself to accomplish this turning of the self. What is
the proper time for this turning? // not now, when?
But, then, how does a man retain this commitment to
turning, in the face of daily frustrations, betrayals by per-
sons he trusts and loss of persons he loves? A man, at times,
needs counsel and aid. How is the helper (zaddik) to be of
help? It is knowing the zaddik as a person, in the depths
of his feelings, that offers hope to the Hasidic followers. Of
course, the zaddik also possesses wisdom, but what kind?
To answer this, Rabbi Hayyim described the skills with which
he led his congregation. He likened his followers to men lost
in a great forest. They chanced upon another man who had
been lost even longer and they asked him to lead them out
of the woods. His reply was, "That I cannot do. But I can
point out the ways that lead further into the thicket, and
after that, let us try to find the way together."
Part of the zaddik's job is to interest the man in the
potential struggle within each of us. We mustn't confuse this
struggle within each of us, however, with some self-sorry
brooding over things in the world that one cannot change.
The searching of the heart must involve a willingness to
face up to our losses, to bury our dead and to mourn their
passing as we helplessly give them up. Otherwise, there is
only a sterile self-torture that leads to the despair of not living
with things as they are.
The zaddik did not teach what to do. Instead, through the
relationship, he communicated how to do things. He taught
that the way to live is with all your being, that the most
important thing in life is just what you are doing right now.
We must hallow everyday life.
Before Hasidism, men directed religious fervor to the
future, to the coming of the Messiah. Now they gave their
fervor to God and to man in the world at each present
moment. Men saw relationships with other men in the world
as the closest approach to being with God. Thus, Hasidism
does not recognize any distinction between religion and
ethics.
This commitment to life does not negate a man's need to
be by himself. As Rabbi Moshe Leib has said, "A human

I
148 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
being who has not a single hour for his own every day is no
human being." At times it is necessary for a man to descend
into the depths of his own solitary being before he can fully
experience the world. Solitude provides the substance that
is then realized in communication with others, as the Baal
Shem Tov tells us when he admonishes, "learn to keep
silent, in order that you may know how to speak."
Hasidism, then, has a great reverence for life. It teaches
not only a spiritual lustiness and a warm feeling for the
moment, but also a joy in the sensual life. Salvation is not
a reward for self-sacrifice and ascetic denial of the body; it is
the ecstasy of giving oneself to life. Rabbi Israel of Rizhyn
believed that God created man not "to be caged in his lusts,
but to be free in them." The zaddik and the psychotherapist
must help men free themselves. When a Hasid gives himself
to the ecstasy of singing, dancing or making love, these be-
come a way of praying.
As in the case with all of man's best efforts, Hasidism
eventually became corrupt. The Hasid's fervent love of the
zaddik declined into reverence for a great magician. The
zaddik used his exaggerated powers on behalf of his fol-
lowers without their accomplishing for themselves.
Hasidism's tragic degradation occurred because the zad-
dikim let arrogance tempt them into misusing their gifts and
offices in the service of petty triumphs. If we consider this as-
pect of the history of Hasidism, perhaps we, as psychothera-
pists, may derive from that lovely mystical movement a sad
object lesson.
Though the psychotherapist is not the saint-mystic the
zaddik was, Hasidism has much to teach us in our work with
patients. The zaddik's entire life and way of being illuminated
the Hasid's existence and compelled him to ascend the
spiritual ladder toward reunion with God. For the patient
who comes to a psychotherapist there is, instead, the secular
teacher whose healing powers redeem in that they help return
the patient to himself and to the world. It is not the therapist's
exemplary life that reaches out to the patient. Rather, it is
the therapist's way of being with himself, and with the patient
during the hour, that mediates the patient's recovery and
growth.
Perhaps the zaddik teaches the therapist most of all that
we fail if we set out as technical experts, from a position of
detachment, to help the patient. Instead, we must simply be
 HASIDISM 149

willing to be with the patient, to get to know him and let

him know us. We must trust our feelings over our knowledge
and live out truth rather than perceive it. We must risk the
possibility we will become personally vulnerable to the
patient and he will become truly important in our lives. The
patient and the therapist must come to know each other in
ways that are singular to these two human beings. Only then
will the patient be able to solve problems that keep him
from being at one with himself. The experience will not only
be useful for the patient, it will renew and expand the
therapist.
Certainly, as therapists, we may also advise, teach, interpret,
support, offer models, selectively reinforce and undo with
counter-strategies. But if all of this occurs outside of the
context of genuine personal engagement, in the absence of
loving, then all we do is teach new games, perhaps more
effective games, but games nonetheless.
My encounter with Baal Shem Tov of Hasidism and with
the hidden zaddiks of the present generation has illumined
my life. And from them I have received the courage to be
my own sort of secular zaddik, to work toward a psycho-
therapy in which I am most free to become who I am.

Comments
. . . a record of a purely personal autobiographical
quest that every thoughtful therapist in the world
is now going through, or should be going through.
Whether or not Kopp's picture of the zaddik is accu-
rate doesn't make any difference; it is the picture that
he had in his head that guided him as a model.
It is my strong impression that this model, whatever
it gets called, will be taken for granted in about a
decade as the right one, while the Freudian model
will be used, but only for restricted and limited pur-
poses and situations.
Abraham H. Maslow, Past President
American Psychological Association

The entire tradition of spiritual direction in any

religion has much bearing on the helping professions,
especially as they are now involved in orienting per-
sons to values that will sustain them in life.
The suggestive power of the zaddik is enhanced by
 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
the devotion of multitudes to him. Heaven and earth
will do his bidding and the demons of illness cannot
prevail against his decree. Not so the secular psy-
chotherapist. Still, Kopp is right when he uses the
zaddik model for himself in his work. If others will
be guided by his "Konfession" to study Hasidism
and to find meaning in the zaddik role the work will
have been worthwhile.
Rabbi Zalman Schachter
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada

Hatha Yoga
The entry on YOGA explains how Hatha Yoga and all the
others relate to each other. The entry on PATANJALI'S YOGA
offers a viewpoint on where Hatha Yoga (noted there as
the practices of Asana and Pranayana) fits within a
sequence of eight steps. The entry on YOGA PRECEPTS
illustrates the kind of auxiliary, everyday practices the
Hatha Yoga student adopts in making the Yoga way.
Hatha Yoga may be done separately from the whole Yoga
way: this is one of its major contemporary uses. Its way
of exercising and. concentrating eventually results in a
complete restructuring of one's skeletomuscular form as
well as circulation, respiration, and the other major body
systems. In this way it is similar to STRUCTURAL INTEGRA-
TION; however, methods and outcomes differ. (See also
TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION.)
Haridas Chaudhuri notes that "The chief merit of
Hatha Yoga lies in its insistence upon the basic importance
of the body. Various bodily positions and breathing exer-
cises recommended in Hatha Yoga are efficient means of
developing the body as a fit and strong instrument of
higher spiritual living." 1
Hatha Yoga is among the oldest Yoga practices. The
seals of the Chalcolithic Age of India (3,000-2,000 B.C.)
portray certain folded leg postures. Also, Hatha Yoga is
one of the most commonly practiced modes of Yoga today.
If you are beginning a lifelong study of Yoga or are
simply seeking exercises to improve your physical condition,
Hntegral Yoga (London: Allen & Unwin, 1965).
 HATHA YOGA 151
you are most likely to take up Hatha Yoga, which may be
considered the physical education of the yogas.
In the word "Hatha," "ha" represents the sun (ex-
pression of energy) and "tha," the moon (conservation of
energy). These two are always interacting.
In Patanjali's Yoga, Hatha Yoga comprises the third
and fourth limbs of the eightfold path. The third limb is
the practice of Asana's basically physical postures. The
fourth limb is the practice of Pranayana or breath con-
trol. The practice of Asana is the aspect of Yoga usually
covered most thoroughly in paperbacks. Swami Vishnu-
Devananda of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center writes:

Asana is the right way to sit, stay and move: a rather

complicated subject, in spite of its apparent simplicity. . . .
There . . . are Asanas which should be done standing, either ;
on both feet, on one foot, or on the head, with the help i
of the hands and forearms. These last ones are most bene-
ficial for the sake of health purposes, but of course they need
a more or less long training to be attained and maintained
for some time.
Other Asanas are done in horizontal position, or half sit-
ting, either lying on the back or on the abdomen, or even
supporting the body on the hands and elbows, such as Hansa
or Mayur Asanas. Their object is to straighten and strengthen
the body, making and keeping it agile and flexible, avoiding
deposits of fat and the wasteful matter or organic metabolism.
These Asanas are to be complemented and completed
through a variety of Bandhas, Mudras, and Kriyas. Properly
Bandhas means something which ties up, Mudras some kind
of closing, and Kriya an action or movement. However,
these terms are used in a rather loose way to denote several
kinds of disposition and movement of the hands and other
bodily parts, such as the head, abdomen and anus.
The whole of these four, together with Pranayana, con-
stitutes a mild healthy gymnastics, which may be suited to
both sexes and all ages, and a good substitute for both idle-
ness and the much more violent and often unhealthy forms
of athletism. Its stress is more on staying peaceful than mov-
ing: as in calisthenics, smoothness and suavity characterize
each one of its phases. On the other hand, rather than to
develop muscles, its aim is to exercise healthfully the body,
while stimulating all its organs as well as endocrine glands.
152 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
Asanas are basically postures you stretch into, with or
without the assistance of breathing. In my experience, ex-
halation or inhalation (which one varies with each Asana)
makes simultaneous stretching easier and more integrative.
Few of the final positions of the Asanas are immediately
attainable. It would take months, perhaps years, to attain
competence in a series of fifteen or twenty. Asanas may be
done individually, but for substantial progress they are best
done as a series, daily. All nine major systems, especially the
muscular and circulatory, change and improve. The whole
body, or to be more accurate, the whole psychophysical self,
is improved. Progress is slow and unlikely to be substantial
without daily work.
A common practice at first is to sit quietly and focus
on your breathing. The point of concentration is the pas-
sage of air through the throat. Once the Asanas are started,
the breathing paces the movements. Once a sequence of
postures has been memorized, it is as if breathing controls
the whole process. An inhalation dictates the stretching of
the arms up; then a pause of movement and holding the
position reached by the stretch; the next inhalation dictates
further stretching and expansion of the arms (felt inside as
well as perceived visually), and so forth. A teacher is neces-
sary to give you the fundamentals. The last Asana of almost
all sequences is the corpse pose. You lie on your back and
release any tight muscles. This is the other half of Hatha
Yoga. You need be able to be completely involved in action
and to be completely uninvolved in action to rest complete-
ly. Each Asana, evolved over a period of thousands of
years, evokes specific aspects of the physical self. You
would do well to find a teacher to recommend a sequence
of them, rather than just link some at random.

Haridas Chaudhuri, again in Integral Yoga, writes:

There are various forms of breathing exercises and bodily

posture described in all standard books on Hatha Yoga. Peo-
ple sometimes practice them just for the sake of health,
strength, youthfulness and longevity. But in Hatha Yoga
proper, which is a scheme of psychophysical and spiritual
discipline, they are mainly intended as an adequate bodily
preparation for higher spiritual activities such as concentra-
tion and meditation. The body has to be sufficiently strength-
 HYPNOSIS 153
.' ened in order to be able to stand the strain of sustained
contemplation and moving experiences. The light of truth,
which is an overwhelming experience cannot be duly assim-
ilated and constructively used by those who are weak in
body and mind.
There are many places I know of for instruction in Hatha
Yoga. The Cultural Integration Fellowship (2650 Fulton
St., San Francisco, Calif.) has reliable Hatha Yoga instructors.
The Fellowship includes an ashram. Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri,
a student of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga, is founder. The
California Institute of Asian Studies (3494 21st St., San
Francisco, Calif. 94110), offering graduate work with a
specialty in Asian culture and civilization, is allied to the
Fellowship. The Institute posts course offerings not available
elsewhere.
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers are in many major Amer-
ican cities. They were founded by Swami Vishu-Devananda,
whose major center is at 8th Avenue in Val Marin, Quebec,
Canada—a residential setting with many program offerings.
Swami Satchidananda's Integral Yoga Institute is at 500
West End Avenue, New York, New York 10024.
A 1970 directory of yoga centers is available for $0.75 from
Self-Analysis Bulletin (102 David Dr., N., Syracuse, N.Y.
13212), published by the International Center for Self-
Analysis; it contains about five hundred listings.
B. K. S. Iyengar's Light on Yoga (New York: Schocken
Books, 1966), is probably the most comprehensive text avail-
able. It includes nearly six hundred illustrations of postures,
complete instructions on breathing, therapeutic systems, and
daily schedules. Goswami's Hatha Yoga (London: L. N. Fow-
ler, 1959) is nearly as technical and comprehensive as Iyen-
gar's book and less expensive. Vishnu-Devananda's The
Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga (New York: Dell, 1960)
is clearly written and sufficient for the beginner in the practice
of Asana. Yogi Ramacharaka's Hatha Yoga (Chicago: Yogi
Publication Society, 1936) offers no Asanas, but is a valuable
exposition of the physiological implications and application of
Hatha Yoga to the nine major systems of the body.

Hypnosis
While the contents of this entry speak mainly of ways of
, using hypnosis, it is important to note that hypnosis is
154 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
one of man's basic capabilities, as common as your local
movie theater, or prolonged freeway driving, or a mother
rocking her baby to sleep with a lullaby.
There may be as many misconceptions about hypnosis
as there are people who have not worked with a good
teacher. One is that you must be given commands, de-
claimed in a slow, steady, and somewhat authoritative
tone: "Deeper, go deeper . . . deeper . . . let go," and so on.
In Human Behavior, Berelson and Steiner observed that
hypnosis has been of interest for several centuries but has
only become a subject of research in recent decades. From
1785 to 1825 most hypnotic states were discovered and
described. Hypnosis can facilitate local and general anes-
thesia, and is often used in dentistry, obstetrics, and sur-
gery. Also, hypnosis can be used to recall forgotten ex-
periences, including those of childhood; to create a state
of extraordinary muscular strength; and to resist fatigue.
Posthypnotic suggestion, in which the subject carries out
an action suggested while he was hypnotized, is a verifiable
phenomenon.
Margaret Brenman and Merton Max Gill have identified
six major therapeutic uses of hypnosis (not including the
practices of nonindustrial societies) i1

1. Prolonged Hypnosis
The patient is hypnotized as deeply as possible and is
allowed to remain in hypnosis for an extended period, much
as in prolonged narcosis or "Dauerschlaf'. Depending on
its initial depth, the hypnotic state may or may not have to
be supported by small drug dosages. Wetterstrand, who fre-
quently kept his patients in a deep hypnosis for periods of
several days, likened the therapeutic effect of this to the
healing power of deep sleep.

2. Direct Suggestion of Symptom-Disappearance

This is the oldest and still most widely used of the tech-
niques of hypnotherapy. Hypnosis is induced . . . and direct
suggestions are made to the patient that his symptoms will
disappear. . . . This is the simplest therapeutic application of
hypnosis and the one that most closely resembles the magical
or the miraculous. The literature published between 1880 and
hypnotherapy (New York: International Universities Press, 1947).
 HYPNOSIS 155
1900 is replete with case reports both of temporary relief and
of some follow-up studies where this relief has been main-
tained. . . . There is scarcely any functional disturbance that
has not been successfully treated by the technique of direct
suggestion in hypnosis. . . . The same is said of 'psychoso-
matic' problems. . . . If the patient responds at all to this
kind of treatment, this response is usually fairly prompt and
the improvement rapid. Very little specialized training or
experience in the specific techniques of psychotherapy is
necessary in order to achieve good therapeutic results with this
approach, inasmuch as no attempt is made to 'uncover' the
rest of the difficulty. Training and experience in the tech-
nique of hypnosis are the only prerequisites. The therapeutic
leverage consists largely of whatever deep unconscious needs
are stirred in the patient in his relationship to the therapist
during the hypnosis. We do not understand the nature of this
relationship, but this does not alter the fact of its existence:
the patient may obtain relief from his symptoms, sometimes
temporarily and often permanently.

3. Direct Suggestion of Disappearance of Attitudes

Underlying Symptoms
The work of Bernheim has been cited as typical of the
approach that commands symptom-disappearance, but a
close study of his writings reveals that he himself went be-
yond this in his clinical work. Although most of his followers
directed their attention largely to the direct suppression of
symptoms, Bernheim shows himself to be a more imaginative
therapist by the following:

The mode of suggestion should also be varied and adapted to the

special suggestibility of the subject. A simple word does not al-
ways suffice in impressing the idea upon the mind. It is some-
times necessary to reason, to prove, to convince; in some cases,
to affirm decidedly; in others, to insinuate gently; for in the
condition of sleep just as in the waking condition the moral
individuality of each subject persists according to his character,
his inclination, his special impressionability, and so forth. Hyp-
nosis does not run all its subjects into a uniform mold, and
make pure and simple automatons out of them, moved solely by
the will of the magnetizer.2
2
Janet, P. The Major Symptoms of Hysteria. New York: Macmillan
Co., 1907.
156 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
The flexibility of method was taken up with enthusiasm
and developed by those workers who were embarrassed by
the complete absence of rational psychotherapeutics in classi-
cal hypnotherapy. We have discussed the dissatisfaction of
several investigators with the comparatively shallow technique
of direct suggestion and mentioned their introduction of
'persuasion and re-education'. It is as if this variant of
hypnotherapy represents an historical compromise between
the 'irrational' appeal of hypnosis with the 'rational' appeal of
a naive common-sense psychotherapy....
This trend first found articulate expression in the early de-
cades of this century in the work of Prince, Coriat, Sidis, and
others. .. .
[One case was basically reported as follows:] In hypnosis,
the patient recalled that an earlier fright had produced in her
what she called a 'delirium' and that people around had then
remarked that apparently, like her mother, she had epilepsy.
The treatment then consisted of telling her while she was in
deep hypnosis that she did not have epilepsy, but that she did
have an unfounded fear. Thus, the fear would disappear and
along with it, the epileptic attacks. The patient was told
that now she 'realized and believed'. The attacks ceased im-
mediately.
Although one is struck at the naivete of this psychotherapy,
one cannot but be impressed at the same time with the rec-
ords of clinical results. Sere, as in the use of direct sug-
gestion, it would appear that on the basis of the relationship
with the therapist (and whatever else being in hypnosis con-
sists of), the patient is able to give up symptoms with only a
meagre and rudimentary insight into their origin. We have
seen both from the results of 'direct suggestion' and from
'faith-cures' that symptoms are relinquished even in the com-
plete absence of insight. The importance of the introduction
of even so primitive a variety of insight lies in its attempts
to bolster the patient against future attacks.. . .
One could continue indefinitely to add illustrations of this
general approach. The extreme to which the 'rational' ap-
proach was pushed is shown in Brown's 'golden rule of
psychotherapy': the therapist must never become angry and
he must never permit the patient to become angry. The cool
and reasonable character of the psychotherapy would be
interfered with if such emotional expression were admitted. . ..
The historical significance of the 'rational' approach in
 HYPNOSIS 157
hypnotherapy lies in the fact that this trend reflected the
growing awareness of the importance of giving the patient
some understanding of his difficulty. That it took so intellec-
tualized a form is ascribable to the fact that during the first
decade of this century the laws governing unconscious pro-
cesses were as yet little accepted.

4. A breaction of Traumatic Experiences

Although the concept of 'catharsis' was used by Aristotle
in connection with the release of pent-up emotion (as in
aesthetic experience), its introduction into the history of
psychotherapy generally and of hypnotherapy in particular is
fairly recent. The third and final edition (1930) of Bram-
well's five hundred page textbook on hypnosis 3 does not
include either the term 'abreaction' or 'catharsis' in its index.
It is actually difficult to explain such an oversight inasmuch
as Breuer and Freud had used the term 'abreaction' in con-
nection with the re-living of repressed effect thirty-five years
earlier. . . .
Although the 'abreactive method' has been used extensive-
ly in World War II, the alteration in consciousness which is
necessary for such a 're-living' has usually been brought
about by drugs rather than by the verbal methods of hyp-
nosis. There exists some question as to whether or not the
drug induced state is similar to what we think of as an
hypnotic state. . . . When a state of being can be defined
only in operational terms and when another state appears to
be characterized by similar phenomena, it does not seem to
us far-fetched to conclude the possible existence of at least a
large area of overlapping between them. Actually, a descrip-
tion of the 'working through' of a traumatic war experience
under the influence of one of the barbiturates is indistinguish-
able from the description of the abreactive process in hyp-
nosis. . ..
We conclude this section with an evaluation of the abre-
active technique. Its primary advantage over both types of
direct suggestion is that it is an 'uncovering' rather than a
suppressive method. Moreover, it has been our experience and
that of others that the relief of acute symptoms may follow di-
rectly upon the re-living of the pertinent traumatic epi-

"Bramwell, M. Hypnotism: Its History, Practice and Theory. Phila-

delphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1928.
158 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
sodes. . . . Thus, it is a relatively brief method. It is, in addi-
tion, a technique which may yield good clinical results even
when applied by therapists who have not had intensive
training in the methods of modern psychology. This does
not imply that the abreactive method may be employed by
persons who have no orientation in the problems of psycho-
dynamics; for if the material brought by the patient is re-
garded simply as a mechanical release of emotion and is not
integrated with his total personality, the re-living experience
may be harmful to the patient.

5. The Use of Specialized Hypnotic Techniques

Special uses of Hypnosis include recovery of childhood
memories through automatic writing; viewing a light bulb,
glass ball, or mirror with the participant seeing vivid visual
images relative to his problems; and direct suggestion of
dreams with the participant in a hypnotic state or as a post-
hypnotic suggestion.

6. Hypnoanalysis
Although the hyphenated term 'hypno-analysis' was coined
by Hadfield to refer to a combination of cathartic hypno-
therapy and 're-education', we shall use the word 'hypno-
analysis' to describe those hypnotherapeutic approaches that
combine in various ways the techniques of hypnosis with
those of psychoanalysis.
Again from Brenman and Gill:

The most complete summary of susceptibility to hypnosis

had been made by Bramwell4 who draws the following con-
clusions on the basis of reports by many independent investi-
gators: a) From 78 to 97 percent of the total population are
hypnotizable to some degree, b) Only 10 to 20 percent of
young adults can achieve the deepest state of hypnosis,
c) There is apparently an age factor in hypnotizability—55
percent of children from seven to fourteen years of age could
be hypnotized to the deepest level whereas this was true of
only 7 percent of persons ranging in age from fifty-six to
sixty-three.
4
Bramwell, M. Hypnotism: Its History, Practice and Theory. Phila-
delphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1928.
Pp HYPNOSIS 159
These figures are only a rough indication. One problem
was that Bramwell had to interpolate, since no standard cri-
teria of Hypnosis were used by the investigators whose
figures he summarized.
"Suggestion" and "Hypnosis" are often used synonymous-
ly as implying a noncritical acceptance of stimuli, but often
too, to describe quite different things. "Autosuggestion"
means suggestion to oneself and "Heterosuggestion" means
suggestions coming from the environment (e.g., television
commercials). "Trance" refers to deeper hypnotic states.
Bernard Aaronson believes Hypnosis is a plastic state in
which programming can occur. His further belief that all
Hypnosis is self-hypnosis is agreeable for its emphasis on the
person who accepts (whether critically or not) or rejects
personal and environmental suggestions.
Hornell Hart in a book with the same title as the name of
an approach he created, Autoconditioning,6 compares and
contrasts Hypnosis with Meditation. He describes how these
two ranges of experience can overlap:

When one examines the steps necessary to make meditation

| effective, he discovers that they are quite similar to the
steps involved in autoconditioning (an approach using auto-
hypnosis). Both processes require deep relaxation of the
physical body and the shutting off of sensory stimulation, by
dimming the lights, closing the eyes, sitting in a comfortable
chair, and relaxing the muscles. The process of becoming
quiet, deep down inside, is essential to both meditation and
autoconditioning. The difference between these two pro-
cesses lies in the direction the current flows. In autocondition-
ing, the directing ego talks to the receptive inner mind, im-
pressing upon the unconscious the ideas which have become
clarified in the person's consciousness—preferably at his
highest and clearest moments. In meditation, the conscious
mind seeks to receive instead of send. The unconscious be-
comes a channel through which illumination and inspiration
can flow.
One usually thinks of physical passivity as prerequisite
to hypnotic experience, but close-order drill marching is an
excellent induction. One usually thinks that Hypnosis is an
6
(Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1956).

I
160 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
eyes-closed, inner experience, but it can be used to heighten
perception.
Still, the usual situation involves lying on your back,
closing your eyes, and stilling the thought and feeling pro-
cesses. Attending to the deepening of breathing, repeating a
phrase such as "Deeper, now I am going deeper," and
visualizing an elevator going down are common aids.
You can quietly gaze at a candle flame and, once hypno-
tized, continue to gaze at the flame. Or you can program
yourself to recall experiences of the past day which need
further attention, to go to sleep, or to repeat a useful phrase
or saying.
Drugs, conditioning schedules, and hypnosis are potent
ways of influencing experience. They need to be used wisely.
The Trappist monk, who follows a definite daily schedule
(conditioning), probably enters a hypnotic state while in-
volved with prayer and fasting (analogous to using drugs),
uses his tools well. Abuses are as close as your television
dial, your neighborhood movie theater, and the way many
supermarkets are floor-planned, decorated, and lighted.
Methods of inducing hypnotic experience are innumer-
able. Even the sustained efforts to name them all in M.
Bramwell's Hypnotism: Its History, Practice and Theory
(Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1928) and A. Mell's Hypnotism
(New York: Scribner, 1890) are probably incomplete.
Charles T. Tart's Altered States of Consciousness (New
York: Wiley, 1969) contains readings which in turn contain
excellent bibliographies. Tart makes special mention of the
following books: B. Estabrooks, ed., Hypnosis: Current
Problems (New York: Harper & Row, 1962); J. Gordon,
Handbook of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (New
York: Macmillan, 1967); E. Hilgard, Hypnotic Susceptibil-
ity (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1965); M. Kline,
The Nature of Hypnosis: Contemporary Theoretical Ap-
proaches (New York: Institute for Research in Hypnosis,
1962); C. Moss, The Hypnotic Investigation of Dreams
(New York, Wiley, 1967); R. Shor and M. Orne, The Na-
ture of Hypnosis: Selected Basic Readings (New York:
Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1965).
 INNER IMAGERY 161

Inner Imagery
Inner Imagery may be close to what one sees when dream-
ing, the difference being that one is closer to a waking
rather than a sleeping state when the images come. Inner
Images are also what many creative architects and artists
work with. Some persons in a problem-solving situation
will form a picture in their mind of the form or objects
they are working with and then let their imagination change
these forms in different ways. This is not a common abil-
ity, probably due to our culture's neglect of improving
the imagination's ability to work with inner images. Inner
imagery has been in all ages common to religious experi-
ence. It is becoming a more common facet in psycho-
therapy. It has just begun to be recognized in education.
In business, synectics seems to be one of the few uses of
inner images. Yet the possible applications of this capability
are great, and even though progress is slow, this area is a
fertile frontier. The entries on ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY
and DREAMS contain content similar to this entry.
In Inner Imagery fantasizing, pictures or moving pic-
tures are the media. They may be vague and fuzzy in out-
line, or crystal clear. Individual abilities vary: when John
Galton surveyed a group of scientists and artists a century
ago on their ability to see images, it was much more com-
mon in the artists. The scientists thought it was odd, even
abnormal, that the artists saw images; and the artists
thought the reverse.
Some people need to keep their eyes open to see images,
others keep them closed.
P. W. Martin speaks generally of Inner Imagery and of
Jung's method of active imagination. He also relates Inner
Imagery to Dreams: 1

The method most closely allied to dream analysis Jung

calls 'active imagination'—the voluntary seeing of visions.
The technique of active imagination consists essentially in
withdrawing the energy normally flowing through the con-
scious functions, directing it into the situation the other side
of consciousness, and observing the results. When this is

Experiment in Depth (London: Routledge, 1955).

162 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
successfully accomplished one sees, as with an inward eye, a
play of images (in something of the same way as in a
dream) while at the same time remaining fully awake and
aware.
Such visions are essentially different from the more or less
pathological phantasies to which some people are subject,
where the unconscious breaks in unasked. With active
imagination, the act of seeing with the inward eye is de-
liberately willed. On the other hand, what is seen is com-
pletely unwilled, being just as autonomous in its operation
as a dream. Because of this, it is sometimes called the rive
eveille. But there is one very important difference between
the dream and the product of active imagination. Whereas
the dream expresses the standpoint of the unconscious only,
active imagination apparently presents something more in
the nature of a synthesis of the conscious and the unconscious
standpoints. Because of this, although such visions are ex-
pressed in the same picture-language as the dream, they are,
nevertheless, nearer to consciousness, and as such more
readily interpreted. Furthermore, active imagination, in which
consciousness and the unconscious have collaborated, does not
call for the same degree of criticism as does the dream, but
primarily for understanding; and in this respect is a con-
siderable advance on dream analysis as a means of arriving
at a working partnership between consciousness and the un-
conscious.
To some people, this technique of active imagination is
likely to savour unpleasantly of the occult. They feel that
it is handing over the citadel of consciousness to the enemy,
the unconscious; and are profoundly antipathetic to anything
of the kind. Such a feeling is understandable. Man during his
chequered history has had a hard fight to draw his small
fragment of consciousness out of the great unconscious. To
risk losing it, as it would seem, is akin to madness. But there
is another and perhaps more accurate point of view; namely,
that active imagination is a faculty we have lost and are now
recovering. T. S. Eliot, in his essay on Dante, has some
interesting and relevant comments on this.

'Dante's is a visual imagination. It is a visual imagination in a

different sense from that of a modern painter of still life; it is
visual in the sense that he lived in an age in which men still saw
visions. It was a psychological habit, the trick of which we have
 INNER IMAGERY 163
forgotten, but as good as any of our own. We have nothing but
dreams, and we have forgotten that seeing visions—a practice
now relegated to the aberrant and uneducated—was once a
more significant, interesting, and disciplined kind of dreaming.'

It may be apposite, also, to recall what a tremendous part

visions have played in the drama of history, not least of all
our own civilization. The vision that came to Saul on the
ipad to Damascus, Peter's vision of the knotted sheet justi-
fying the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles, Constan-
tine's vision of the labarum, before the battle of the Milvian
Bridge, leading to the official adoption of the Christian re-
ligion, together changed the whole course of human life,
from then to the present day.
Psychosynthesis, as created by Roberto Assagieli and
practiced and elaborated by Robert Gerard, is one of the
few techniques of training in Inner Imagery. P. W. Martin
writes:

Active imagination may assume many other forms. The

action may take place not as here over a period of minutes,
but of months or of years even. In such cases a long symboli-
cal process may be worked out in a series of incidents, each
incident continuing more or less where the preceding one
left off. . . . Or it may take the form of a split-second vision,
when we ask ourselves whether we really saw it or not.
Some people acquire active imagination with the utmost
case. For others it is a complete mystery. To attempt to give
instructions is thus liable to be either unnecessary or useless.
But there are some general working rules which may be of
use to those coming somewhere between these two extremes.
It is useful, as in the case cited above, to start with some
dream image or inner situation which, so to speak, has a cer-
tain life of its own. This image or situation should be visual-
ized and held relaxedly yet firmly—relaxed in body but firm
in mind—just as one might the recollection of last night's sun-
set or some far away memory of childhood. The next step
is to give energy over to it, so that it is free to move and
develop in its own way. To do this it is necessary to collect
the energy normally going into the outer life, and to let that
energy flow into the image. This does not mean forcing the
action any way, pushing the figure around. One must be ac-
164 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

tively passive—active in giving over the energy, passive in

observing. The outstanding characteristic of true vision is its
complete autonomy. The images go their own gait, not yours.
It may well be that you do not like what comes. The instance
recorded above was, for the seer, a joyous experience. It
might easily have been otherwise. One is not given the
choice. You start with the image, which must be conscien-
tiously held in the mind's eye with the utmost of awareness;
you give over the energy and you see what happens.
Inner Imagery finds its use in orthodox methods of Prayer;
in Yoga; in education of those who paint, draw, and sculpt;
and in Psychotherapy. See the Directory (p. 480) for work
related to Inner Imagery.

Jnana Yoga (See YOGA, pp. 285-288.)

Karma Yoga (See YOGA, pp. 294-300.)
Kundalini Yoga (See YOGA, p. 307.)
Laya Yoga (See YOGA, p. 307.)
Mantra Yoga (See YOGA, p. 304.)

Meditation
Meditation is usually thought of as a solitary, isolated act
which one does apart from others while in some rigid pos-
ture. In ZEN, Meditation is approached as something one
does seated and basically immobile; yet the object of this
practice is to deepen one's way of being so that one can
meditate all day, whether walking, talking or writing let-
ters. The same may be said of YOGA, in which by medita-
tion is meant more a something one's whole is to become,
than something one gives a little part of one's life to.

T'AI C H I CH'UAN, as sure a way of meditating as that of the

Zen monk seated on his platform, is done entirely in move-
ment. AIKIDO, another way of meditating, is done alone
and also while in vigorous interaction with another per-
son. As meditation is not necessarily done apart from life,
in an immobile position, or alone, neither is it necessarily
silent. TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION works with a sound
one repeats.
If you look for research findings offering introductory ma- i
 MEDITATION 165
terial, you are likely to be disappointed. Berelson and
Steiner in Human Behavior, so useful in other areas, have
no listing for meditation (or Zen or Yoga). Closer to the
locus is Charles T. Tart: 1

Meditation is a practice that has been praised by a small,

but highly vocal, portion of humanity all through recorded
history, with its extolled virtues ranging from a way of
achieving happiness and peace in everyday life to escaping
the limitations of the human condition and attaining a mys-
tical union with the Divine. One would expect that such
a venerable practice would have been thoroughly studied
by psychology, especially because of its mental health im-
plications, but this is far from the case. The most popular
and authoritative dictionary for psychological terms (English
& English, 1958) defines meditation (quite inadequately) as
simple serious thought, as does a standard English language
dictionary (Webster, 1956). The latest dictionary of psychi-
atric terms (Hinsie & Campbell, 1960), although filled with
definitions of rare and exotic mental processes, does not even
list meditation. A glance through the indices of several cur-
rent introductory psychology texts reveals no mention of
meditation.
We have a great deal of nonscientific writing about medi-
tation: how to do it, how it works, what effects it produces,
etc. Most of these writings come from specific religious
orientations, but certain universals can be gleaned from this
literature, as the selections in this section illustrate. Our
scientific knowledge of meditation, however, is virtually nil.
This small section contains two-thirds of the published,
English language experimental work, which sounds like a
large amount of material until one realizes that there are only
three published studies. Deikman's paper on "De-automatiza-
tion and the Mystic Experience"2 is relevant, as well as his
other experimental and theoretical article.3 Thus this area is
wide open for experimental study. The dramatic nature of
the effects obtained with ordinary subjects practicing medi-

^Tart, ed., Altered States of Consciousness (New York: Wiley, 1969),

intro. to "Meditation."
Hbid., chap. 2; Psychiat., 1966, 29.—Ed.
3
Implication of experimentally induced contemplative meditation. /.
• nerv. ment. Dis., 1966. 142.

I
166 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
4
tation exercises, as these papers reveal, promises great yields
for systematic investigation.
It seems likely that research in this area has been too long
delayed through a combination of ignorance and prejudice.
Scientists in general simply have not known anything about
the rich tradition of meditation, and the intimate connection
of meditation practices with religion has further removed
it from the area of "acceptable" topics of study. The word is
often used with a negative value connotation in everyday
speech, implying fuzzy daydreaming or too much introver-
sion. As the papers in this section point out, meditation can
be viewed and studied with an areligious orientation; it is not
necessarily connected with mystical experiences. Although
prediction is premature, the potential contributions of the
experimental study of meditation to such diverse areas as per-
ceptual vigilance, psychotherapy, and creativity, in both a
theoretical and practical sense, warrant a greatly expanded
research effort.
Haridas Chaudhuri is familiar and comfortable in the
scholar's as well as the practitioner's approach to the
subject: 5

In a very wide sense, meditation is the higher phase of con-

centration. You take up anything—pleasant, attractive, or
meaningful to you—say a flower, a flame, the image of the
ocean, or a mountain, etc. Try to focus attention upon this
object. Every now and then irrelevant thoughts and images
invade your mind and distract your attention. But by per-
severance and practice, you succeed in shutting out all irrele-
vancies. The concentrated mind now seems able to penetrate
to the essential core of the object. The object occupies the
mind. There is an uninterrupted flow of relevant ideas cen-
tering around the object. This uninterrupted flow of thought
oriented to a single object is meditation in the earliest
phase. It is the argumentative form of meditation (savicara
dhyana).
4
John Heider (personal communication, 1967), in some as-yet-un-
published research has confirmed Deikman's and Maupin's findings that
strong effects can result from short periods of meditation with ordinary
subjects.
^Philosophy of Meditation (New York: Philosophical Library, 1965).
Along with Chaudhuri's Integral Yoga (London: Allen & Unwin, 1965),
it is one of the best introductory books for the layman.
 MEDITATION 167
Later on, even all thoughts and ideas, however relevant,
disappear. There is a resultant feelings of oneness with the
object. In this feeling of oneness or identity, the subject-
object distinction, the knower-known differentiation, is tran-
scended. This is meditation in its non-argumentative form
(nirvicara dhyana).
Great thinkers, scientists and philosophers usually start
with discursive meditation. By developing a higher power of
concentration, they gain the ability to marshal their thought
energy toward a particular object or phenomenon. But
eventually their uninterrupted flow of thought may result in
a sudden flash of intuition, illuminating the essential structure
of the object of meditation. The flash of intuition coincides
with the moment of their complete absorption in the object
with an intimate sense of oneness with its inner essence. It
may perhaps be described as a kind of intellectual intuition.
With regard to a great original scientist, it may be said, that
the mystery of nature reveals itself through his medium. A
great original philosopher would feel that the mystery of
Being articulates itself through his intuitive understanding.
He does not think; reality thinks itself out through him. His
ego, instead of clinging to its own fixed ideas, learns to func-
tion as an organ of self-explication of the Real.
Great artists, poets, painters, usually start with sensory-
imaginative meditation. Their concentration on a subject like
a flower or a mountain assumes the form of an unbroken
flow of sense impressions and images relating to their object.
But eventually this flow of perception or imagination may
result in a flash of aesthetic insight into the heart of the ob-
ject. The artist experiences intimate oneness with it. The
spirit of the object does, as it were, enter his soul and cause
creative inspiration. Thus, a master landscape painter feels
that it is not he who paints the landscape, but that the land-
scape paints itself through his medium. Likewise, a master
poet may feel that his own ego is a cipher in his poetic out-
pouring. It is the spirit of life which utters forth through his
voice.
Thus we see that meditation in the wider sense of the word
is the advanced form of concentration in any field of investi-
gation, whether science, art or philosophy. It is the power
of the concentrated mind to enter into the essential structure
of an object, resulting in a sense of intimate rapport or
identity.
168 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
Let us now consider meditation in the specifically religious
sense of the word.
Meditation in the religious sense consists in the act of con-
centration upon some religiously significant image, symbol
or idea. A Christian may begin meditation by trying to con-
centrate upon the image of Christ, or the symbol of the
cross, or some statement of the New Testament. The more he
concentrates, the more the teaching of Christ permeates his
whole being. Given the spirit of total devotion and faith, the
message of Christianity would irradiate his soul. The glorious
fulfillment of this process would take place when Christ is
born in his inner consciousness. Or, when he is re-born in
the Christ Consciousness. But whatever the mode of expres-
sion, the essence of the matter is that he has now attained
a sense of spiritual kinship with Christ—or even a sense of
oneness or identity. It was this feeling of identity which
was reflected in the words of St. Paul 'I live, yet it is not I,
but Christ liveth in me.'
Similarly, a Jew may begin his meditation by trying to con-
centrate upon the significance of the star of David, or the laws
of Moses.
A Muslim may meditate by way of concentrating upon the
crescent moon or upon the Koran.
A Buddhist may meditate upon the image of Krishna or
a visual representation of Lord Shiva, or the sacred syllable
Aum, or some abstract, geometrical representation (mandala)
of spiritual truth.
In the source of such meditation, the devotee eventually ex-
periences a sense of oneness with the spirit of the religion he
professes. He undergoes an inward transformation of con-
sciousness. His entire being is made captive by the love of
the God he worships. Through such love God is born within
him and is made manifest in his heart in full glory. Or, it
may be said that he is reborn on a higher level of conscious-
ness that centers around his Deity.
When meditation thus results in the experience of oneness
—at-one-ment—with the Divine, one becomes spontaneously
virtuous. Virtue is no longer a struggle or a mode of self-
suppression. It becomes an illuminated self-expression, an
effortless way of living up to one's vision of truth. The ego
of the individual is now replaced by the will of God. The all-
consuming love of God burns up all the impurities of separa-
tive consciousness. Holiness ceases to be strenuous conformity
 MEDITATION 169
to the external commandments of God. It is realized as the
wholeness of being, resulting in spontaneous deeds of love
and good will.
But one last barrier may still remain to the realization of
complete holiness or wholeness of being. A person who has
realized his oneness with Christ may set up Christ in opposi-
tion to Buddha and Krishna and Laotze, and other great
religious figures. Similarly, a person who has realized his
oneness with Krishna, may set up Krishna in opposition to,
or as exalted above, all other prophets and saviors. In this
way, at the religious level, the danger of dogmatism persists.
The sinister possibility of parochialism or provincialism ap-
pears to be inescapable at the devotional-religious state of
prayer and meditation.
. . . meditation in the religious sense can obtain the highest
fulfillment only by transcending the boundaries of religious
dogmas. Meditation makes it possible for religion to reach
the summit of glory by shedding all parochial colors. In other
words, religion becomes true religion by losing itself in the
Divine, which is beyond all the conflicting dogmas and creeds,
beyond the clashing personalities of different faiths. Medi-
tation in its ultimate goal aims at an unclouded vision of the
Godhead in its universal essence.
Meditation achieves this goal by directing attention to that
dynamic essence of reality which is manifested in the world's
different historical-religious figures, such as Buddha, Krishna,
Christ, Moses, Mohammed, Zoroaster, and the like. They
were born in different epochs with a view of furthering the
cause of civilization. From the transcendental standpoint they
were only temporary instruments of 'the one increasing pur-
pose that runs through all ages.' Each of them had some
outstanding qualities, and also some limitations. None of them
could possibly confine the absolute truth within the limits of
his own teaching. But each of them made an immeasurably
valuable contribution—just the right kind of contribution
which was needed at the time—to the spiritual evolution of
mankind. Without an understanding of their relative positions
in the historical march of civilization, spiritual insight into
the evolutionary powers of God is bound to remain incom-
plete and imperfect. Meditation aims at the perfection of our
spiritual insight into the Ma of God—that is, into the active
self-expression of the Divine in the historical order.
170 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

Movement in Depth

Movement is the great law of life. Everything moves. The

heavens move, the earth turns, the great tides mount the
beaches of the world. The clouds march slowly across the
sky, driven by a wind that stirs the trees into a dance of
branches. Water, rising in mountain springs, runs down the
slopes to join the current of the river. Fire, begun in the
brush, leaps roaring over the ground. And the earth, so slow,
so always there, grumbles and groans and shifts in the sleep !
of the centuries.
And Man? Whoever he is, wherever he is, he too lives in
movement. His body is a world of movement in itself. Breath-
ing and circulation, digestion and reproduction are all un-
conscious processes, the wonderful motor pattern of his life.
Within this pattern he lies down, he sits, he stands, and
standing, walks and runs. He sleeps, eats, copulates, fights,
weeps, laughs and talks. Most of all in our twentieth century
civilization, he talks. 1

It is astonishing how many people are almost completely

unaware of themselves physically. The wonderful joy in
movement, which children have, has been lost. Movement has
become a means to an end, usually a rational and purposeful
end, and takes place automatically in response to hundreds
and hundreds of mental images of going someplace and do-
ing something.
[Yet] the kinesthetic sense is just as valuable as the five
which inform us of the physical world about us. But if this
sense is never developed, or seldom used, it becomes un-
conscious and one is in the situation I can only call living
in the head, which fact the body faithfully reflects, since it
must move, by acquiring a whole series of distortions, short
circuits, strains and mannerism accumulated from years
and years of being assimilated to mental images of choice,
necessity, value and appropriateness.
There is an interesting reflection in connection with this.
In our time there is a widespread repression of all physical
emotion, that is, all bodily expression of joy, grief, anger,
x
Mary Whitehouse, "Physical Movement and Personality." Quoted by
permission.
 MOVEMENT IN DEPTH 171
affection, fear, and yet an equally widespread fascination
with the body's appearance and function. We are embarrassed
and irritated when confronted by any form of physical in-
tensity in our personal lives. Joy in the voice is all right, grief
in the voice and face is understandable, anger in the voice
and face will pass, but an exuberant enveloping arm thrown
around our shoulders, the sight of a body rocking back
and forth with grief, the sudden eruption of a stamped foot
or a book slammed violently down on a table, all upset us.
Could it be that the body is the unconscious and that in
repressing and, more important, disregarding the spontaneous
life of the sympathetic nervous system, we are enthroning
the rational, the orderly, the manageable, and cutting our-
selves off from all experience of the unconscious, and there-
fore of the instincts? . . . The less the body is experienced,
the more it becomes an appearance; the less reality it has the
more it must be undressed or dressed up; the less it is one's
own known body, the further away it moves from anything
to do with one's self.
The kinesthetic sense can be awakened and developed in
using any and all kinds of movement, but I believe it be-
comes conscious only when the inner, that is, the subjective
connection is found, the sensation of what it feels like to the
individual, whether it is swinging, stretching, bending, turning,
twisting, or whatever. People can learn movement in a variety
of ways; they are not necessarily enabled to feel it when they
do so—it is the concrete, specific awareness of one's own act
of moving which is so satisfying. The usual physical culture
courses work with the body as object, not as subject; and
while a general release takes place, there is no corresponding
experience of the personal identity, its quality and its move-
ment. This seems to mean that something more is needed
than simply body mechanics, that the feelings hidden in the
body, the source of all its movement, must be involved.
Working from this standpoint movement becomes an initia-
tion into the world of the body as it actually is, what it can do
easily, with difficulty, or not at all. And it also can be a
serious discovery of what we are like—for we are like our
movement. 2

*Mary Whitehouse, "The Tao of the Body," an early paper ed. and
abridged by Dorothy Berkeley Phillips in The Choice Is Always Ours
• (New York: Harper & Row, 1960). Quoted by permission.

Il
172 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
Mary Whitehouse has been a performer and teacher of
ballet and modern dance. She counts as significant con-
tributions to her present work her study at the Mary
Wigman School of Modern Dance and the Jung Institute
in Zurich. Her approach has become more than movement
work, though movement is a large part of it. Her studio
is in Los Angeles. A subsequent paper is "Creative Expres-
sion in Physical Movement Is Language Without Words."

Mudra Yoga (See YOGA, p. 278.)

Mysticism
Christian prayer, Zen meditation, and the Yoga practices
are broad, well-lighted highways leading to the experience
of God. The experience of the divine is so extraordinary,
so unlike common experience, that it has been given a
special word. Such is the spirit of our times that the
words "mystic," "mystical," and "mysticism" have come
to express something quite unlike their true meaning. In
addition to this entry, the entries on CONTEMPLATION and
PRAYER may help to delineate and clarify the meaning of
the mystical. Though not as directly related in specific
content, the entries on ZEN and YOGA are also relevant.
Haridas Chaudhuri writes: 1

Mysticism is one of the most slippery words in the Eng-

lish language. At its worst it means mystery-mongering,
occultism, obscurantism, and the like. At its best it means
immediate union with the ultimate ground of existence. . . .
Mystics in the best sense of the term are those who attain
direct personal realization of the fundamental truth of ex-
istence, whether that truth be called God, Self, Void, Noth-
ingness, Being, Silence, or the supreme Mystery. But mysti-
cism does not involve any definite methodically chalked-out
path by following which mystic realization may be achieved.
Mystics often stumble into their strange and unusual experi-
ences. Mysticism does not provide any technique for system-
atic organization of such unusual experiences or for their
proper coordination with the ordinary non-mystic areas of

^Integral Yoga (London: Allen & Unwin, 1965).

P MYSTICISM 173
[ human consciousness, sensuous, intellectual, moral, aesthetic
| and emotional.
Augustin Poulain, over 160 years ago, elaborated on and
was in basic agreement with Chaudhuri's thoughts on mysti-
cism: 2

The word mystic is much used by modern literary men

in many senses; and these all differ from the true sense. . . .
It is not always easy to know what they mean to imply by their
use of the term, for they omit to give any definition; but the
following appears to be deducible from their vague descrip-
tions.
They call a man a mystical when he is strongly enamoured
of any ideal, human or divine; when he can give no clear ex-
planation of the exalted grounds of his love. If he is called
a mystic, it is because of this mystery, this obscurity, of this
intuitive and uncommunicable knowledge.
To sum up, the name of mystic is most commonly given
to anyone who is at the same time enthusiastic and obscure,
not living like all the rest of the world, taking dreams for
realities. On this principle it would be applicable to an
enigmatic writer, a Utopian, preaching a social or aesthetic
creed, etc.
The rationalistic school of Cousin regarded Christians as
mystics because of their acceptance of the supernatural. This
change of names enabled him to attack Christianity without
doing so too apparently.
Nearer to our own days, many philosophers class indis-
criminately as mystics all ascetic Christians, Buddhists, and
Moslems when they display an ardent religious spirit and a
desire for union with the Supreme Being. What significations
for one single word!
In this book, I shall take the word mystic in the restricted
sense in which St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross employ
it. It is the one in most common use in the Church.
W. R. Inge offered another perspective of mysticism as it
relates to Christianity: 8
3
L The Graces of Interior Prayer (London: Routledge, 1950).
1 Christian Mysticism, 7th ed. (New York: Meridian, 1956; first ap-
fe peared 1899), Preface (written 1932).
174 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
The word mysticism had been almost always used in a
slightly contemptuous sense in the nineteenth century. It was
supposed to indicate something repugnant to the robust com-
mon sense and virile rationality of the British character.
Subconsciously, the word suggested a foggy condition of the
mind. These prejudices were enough to prevent Jewett, for
example, in his great edition of Plato, from paying any at-
tention to the interpreters of Plato under the British Empire.
Were not Plotinus and Proclus 'mystics,' whose religion con-
sisted in swooning into some sort of cataleptic trance? More-
over, has not a great German scholar declared that 'mysticism
is Catholic piety,' and therefore a thing to be distrusted by
good Protestants? So the subject was neglected, and even
those who wrote about it, like R. A. Vaughan, whose Hours
with the Mystics had a good sale, could not refrain from
treating the poor mystics de haut en bas.
Continental philosophers knew better. They were aware
that the essence of mysticism is the experience of coming in-
to immediate relation with the higher Powers, whether these
are called the One, as by the Neoplatonists, or by the name
of Asiatic divinities, or, as in Christianity, are identified with
the Divine Christ or the Holy Spirit. Thinkers so unlike each
other as Hegel and Schopenhauer treated mystical philosophy
respectfully. But the atmosphere of an age of rationalism was
unfavorable to this type of religion.
The Quakers, of course, were always mystics, and made
valuable contributions to the literature of mysticism; but
this sect, though its influence has been much greater than its
number, was and is numerically very small.
In the Roman Church, the study of mysticism has always
been encouraged. But the dualism of natural and supernatural,
which in that Church is always insisted on, has led to an un-
critical acceptance of what are called mystical phenomena, so
that the older Catholic books on the subject are not very
attractive to readers who belong to the Reformed Churches.
There have been, I think, two causes which have chiefly
contributed to the revival of interest in this subject. The
first is the growing conviction that in Christian apologetics the
testimonium spiritus sancti has not been given its due weight
as the primary ground of faith. The old argument from the
appearance of design in nature has been somewhat weakened
by the study of evolution. The time-honoured proofs from
miracle and prophecy have lost their cogency, not only be-

J
I' MYSTICISM 175
) cause our age demands a closer scrutiny of the evidence, but
because, however well the abnormal facts may be established,
they do not prove what the religious mind wishes to believe.
And so the defenders of religion have been led to lay more
stress on the inspiration of the individual, and I think we
may say that this support of faith has proved strong enough
to the weight. If some have objected that they themselves
have had no such experiences, and that the alleged knowledge
of the mystics is not transferable, they are answered by the
reply that a genius for religious experience is like other ex-
ceptional endowments; that it can be acquired or perfected
only by arduous discipline; and that in all other branches
of human effort the average man is content to sit at the feet
of the masters of an art or science. The great mystics are
well aware that language was not made to describe these
revelations, which are often formless and incapable of being
reproduced; but that God has spoken to them they know, and
in general their accounts of their journey up the hill of the
Lord agree very closely. 'Seek as we have sought, and you
will see what we have seen.' Such is their testimony, and it is
not wise to discard it.
The other cause which has led to a careful study of
mysticism is the new science of psychology. In all the leading
countries, but especially in America, many well-documented
books have been written about 'religious experience,' which
in theology is called the practice of the presence of God. One
of the earliest of these, by William James, became famous. I
do not think that this annexation of the subject by psychology
has been altogether wholesome. Psychology is the study of
consciousness as such. While it confines itself to its own do-
main it does not inquire whether there is any objective reality
behind mystical experience. This abstract approach is proper
for the psychologist; but too often there seems to be a latent
assumption that the whole of mysticism is subjective. This is
precisely not the view of the mystics themselves. They care
nothing about states of consciousness; and if they thought that
their revelations had no reality outside their own minds, they
would conclude that they had been grievously deceived. Thus
the psychological study of mysticism never penetrates to the
heart of the subject; and it is not surprising that these writers
collect mainly abnormal and even pathological cases, leaving
the impression that they are dealing with a rare and probably
Kimhealthy condition of the human mind. This defect is appar-
176 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

ent in James' book and in many others; James, for example,

has no study of Christ, who even among non-Christians holds
a supreme place in the roll of religious genius.
Those who wish to understand mysticism need not trouble
themselves about abnormal phenomena at all. Most of the
famous mystics, at any rate in the Roman Church, lived in
the cloister. Many of them suffered in physical and mental
health from what in other fields would be called extreme
specialization. Their absorption in what for them was the
highest quest made them a little 'queer', without actually
destroying their sanity. But we cannot insist too strongly that
the essence of mysticism—the mystical state in its purest form
—is just prayer, 'the elevation of the mind to God.' Let any-
one who has felt God near him when on his knees think
of what a perfect prayer would be like. It need not be vocal;
it is probably not petitional; it is an act of worship, receptive-
ness, and self-surrender, to the Author of our being. This is
the only way to approach the subject. This is now an old
book; perhaps I may claim that I have been somewhat of a
pioneer. I ought, I suppose, to rewrite it, after all the good
books that have been written on the subject in the present
century. But I have devoted myself to one branch of it—the
philosophy of mysticism, and especially to the greatest of all
philosophical mystics, the Neoplatonist Plotinus, who lived
in the third century. The study of the Christian mystics,
especially in the Roman Church, has been conducted in this
country chiefly by Miss Evelyn Underhill, whose books are
very well known. She is less interested than I am in the in-
tellectual basis of mysticism; there is therefore obviously 'room >
for both of us.' Baron von Hugel's great work on St. Catherine ]
of Genoa is a storehouse of learning. I should also like to j
mention some very powerful studies of mysticism by Mr. I
Rufus Jones, an American Quaker, whose acquaintance I [
had the pleasure of making at Philadelphia. The writings of j
the English Quakers are very helpful towards an understanding '
of this type of religion. Lastly, the Oxford Book of Mystical j
Verse, and a more recent American anthology, to which I I
wrote an introduction, prove how much of the beautiful j
sacred poetry is mystical in type. j

Parapsychology {See ESP.)

 PATANJALl'S YOGA 177

Patanjali's Yoga (The entry on YOGA explains the relationship

of Patanjali's Yoga to other forms of Yoga. See also HATHA
YOGA; TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION; YOGA PRECEPTS.)

Patanjali's Yoga, as such, no longer exists, but the eight

steps he outlined as the way of Yoga are basic to an under-
standing of Yoga in general. Mircea Eliade describes the
origins of Patanjali's Yoga. 1

A long controversy, which still persists, concerns the his-

torical personality of Patanjali, the author of the Yoga-Sutras.
Some Indian commentators (King Bhoja, Cakrapanidatta, the
Commentator on Caraka in the eleventh century and two
others, of the eighteenth century) have identified him with
Patanjali the grammarian, who lived in the second century
before our era. The identification has been accepted by
Liebich, Garbe, and Dasgupta and contested by Woods,
Jacobi, and A. B. Keith. Whatever the fact may be, these
controversies concerning the period of the Yoga-Sutras are
of little relevance, for the techniques of ascesis and medita-
tion set forth by Patanjali are certainly of considerable
i antiquity; they are not his discoveries, nor those of his time;
they had been first tested many centuries before him. Indeed,
Indian authors rarely present a personal system; in the great
majority of instances, they are content to formulate traditional
doctrines in the language of their own time. This is even more
f typically observable in the case of Patanjali, whose sole aim
f is to compile a practical manual of very ancient techniques.
Haridas Chaudhuri describes what Patanjali synthesized:2

Patanjali, the celebrated teacher of yoga and meditation,

calls his system the eight-fold path. It takes into account the
ethico-religious, physical, psychological and ontological as-
pects of personality.
| The first two steps of the eight-fold path of yoga form
the ethico-religious foundation of self-development. They spell
out the ten commandments of yoga. The first five command-
ments are jointly known as restraint (yama). The next five
x
Yoga: Immortality and Freedom (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton Uni-
versity Press, 1969).
'Philosophy of Meditation (New York: Philosophical Library, 1965).
178 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
commandments are jointly known as regulation (niyama).
The ten commandments are as follows:
1. Don't injure, kill, physically or mentally, any living
being (ahimsa, non-violence).
2. Affirm truth in thought, speech and deed (satya, truth-
fulness).
3. Don't steal, abstain from theft (asteya, non-stealing).
4. Discipline and organize your various impulses and de-
sires (brahmacharya, self-discipline).
5. Don't be greedy and don't accept unnecessary gifts
from people of questionable motive (aparigraha, non-
greed).
6. Observe purity, both external and internal, physical and
mental (shaucha, purity).
7. Cultivate the spirit of contentment. Don't multiply your
desires for material goods (santaosha, contentment).
8. Train yourself in enduring changes of environment and
reverses of fortune (tapas, self-training).
9. Regularly study with devotion and with an open mind
books of spiritual wisdom (swadhyaya, study of scrip-
tures).
10. Constantly remember God and surrender to the divine
will (Ishwarapranidhana, love of G o d ) .
The next two steps of the eight-foot path, technically known
as A sana and Pranayana,3 aim at the proper development
and perfection of the body as a fit instrument of higher
spiritual living. There are certain bodily postures such as
head-stand, shoulder-stand, spine-twisting, sitting in lotus
postures, etc., which strengthen the nervous system, stimulate
the essential glands, and establish peace and harmony in the
organism. They are known as Asana. Then, there are certain
breathing exercises which purify the body, enhance vital
energy, and help in gaining emotional stability and self-
control. They are known as Pranayana. Standard books on
Hatha Yoga elaborately deal with Asana and Pranayana.
Practiced in moderation they can be a source of great vital
energy and mental peace. But exaggerated emphasis upon
them is likely to distract attention from the higher phases
of spiritual growth.
We have seen that the ten commandments of yoga lay the
ethico-religious foundation for the practice of meditation.

'See entry on HATHA YOGA.—Ed.

 PRAYER 179
Bodily postures and breathing exercises provide the suitable
physical preparation for the practice of meditation. And
meditation is the final aid to the discovery of the Self as the
inmost center of being. As the ultimate ground of existence.
Meditation in the psycho-physical sense embraces the last
four steps of the eight-fold path of Patanjali. The first of
these four is the mental ability to shut out from one's life
and consciousness all distractions, wrong movements, ex-
traneous influences, environmental disturbances, etc. It is the
ability to say No to all negative forces. Such a No must pre-
cede an authentic attitude of Yes to the central purpose of life.
In yogic terminology this power of No is called pratyahara.
It is the withdrawal of the mind from the external world in
its all-out search for the inmost center of being.
The next step in meditation is the training of the mind in
positive concentration. The third step consists of the intensifi-
cation of concentration and its orientation to higher spiritual
values. The final step consists of existential oneness with the
ultimate truth. These three positive aspects of meditation are
technically known respectively as dharana, dhyana and samad-
hi.

Prayer
Thomas Merton points out the enormous difference between
saying prayers and praying. Saying prayers is probably less
meaningful than someone reading the financial pages of a
newspaper: this person at least has some measure of his
intellect involved, some keenness to his concentration.
Praying demands that the whole person be present; his
feelings and intellect. Perhaps one reason why saying
prayers is so common is that we have lost our sensitivities in
relation to reading. We have, through schooling, magazines,
newspapers, and freeway signs come to take the printed
word as data to be processed and that's all. Of course there
is more. (See also CONTEMPLATION.)
Prayer is the western, more specifically the Christian, way
of meditating. The two words are often used interchange-
ably, which leads to some confusion, only compounded by
the existence of a type of prayer called "meditation."
Meditation is not the only form of eastern religious
t practice. India has Karma Yoga, the way to God through
180 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
work or action, and the West has the practice of good deeds
and the imitation of the life of Christ in everyday life. Yet
the East and the West, Yoga and Christian practices, Medi-
tation and Prayer are different. There may be a meeting
ground at what Bucke called cosmic consciousness. But
all paths start from different places and trailblazers are
nourished by their own cultures. Zen and Yoga may be of
value in the West, but so may western ways, which de-
serve investigation and are likely to be the best for many,
perhaps most westerners.
Prayer may be public (as in Sunday morning worship
service) or private and individual. Private prayer is neces-
sary if public prayer or worship is to be meaningful.
Sometimes the carpenter cannot tell you what the basic
types of wood-frame construction are, or the forester, how
the land he manages was geologically formed. Similarly,
we are as a culture so close to prayer and Christianity that
we take its forest (the basic types of Prayer) for granted,
not being able to discern the common species of trees
which make it up. A valuable "botanist" for this problem is
the Jesuit father A. Poulain, who over 160 years ago com-
pleted the classic Graces of Interior Prayer.1 He wrote:

Fundamental distinction. Before reviewing the various de-

grees of mental prayer, they must be divided into two main
categories—the prayer termed ordinary, and mystic or ex-
traordinary prayer.
We apply the word mystic to those supernatural acts or
states which our own industry is powerless to produce, even
in a low degree, even momentarily.
Poulain distinguished four degrees of ordinary prayer:

1. Vocal prayer, which is a recitation; 2. meditation also

called methodical or discursive prayer. This last term indi-
cates a chain of quite distinct reflections or arguments. We
can include in this degree meditated readings and the slow
recitation of a vocal prayer, accompanied by some reflections
which help us to penetrate its meaning. . . .
[3. Affective prayer]: we generally find as a foundation
[of affective prayer] some dominant idea which does not, how-
ever, exclude a host of other secondary and less perceptible
1
(London: Routledge, 1950.)
 PRAYER 181
ideas. . . . It is accompanied by very ardent affections. . . .
j This degree differs from meditation, therefore, merely as
i ifrom the greater to the less. . . . [with] more room for senti-
I ments of love, praise, gratitude, respect, submission, contrition,
etc., and also for practical resolutions. . . . The deduction of
truths is partly replaced by intuition.
[4.] The prayer of simple regard or of simplicity. . . . A
mental prayer where 1. intuition in a great measure replaces
reasoning; 2. affectations and resolutions show little variety
and are expressed in few words. . . . When this state has
. reached its full development, not only do certain acts, of
; which I have just spoken (reasoning, affectations, resolutions),
become rare; but the attempt to produce them results in a
feeling of impotence and distaste. And it is the same also with
those representations of the imagination which would aid
other persons in their prayer. . . . in the prayer of simplicity
I there is a thought or a sentiment that returns incessantly and
I easily. . . . This dominant thought does not operate so far
as to become continuous. It merely returns frequently and
of its own accord. . . . From the point of view of knowledge,
the prayer of simplicity (fourth of four degrees) is not al-
ways better than discursive prayer (second of four degrees).
If it is to have full utility, the person must be instructed with
regard to the duties of the spiritual life, habituated to their
practice, and in actual dispositions to make use of what
he has learned to sanctify himself. . ..
Many writers include the prayer of simplicity in affective
prayer, which they thus regard as exhibiting two degrees of
elevation. And in this case, between them and us, it is a
mere question of words.
Before these two states (affective and prayer of simplicity)
could really constitute separate degrees of prayer, they must
j be capable of being prolonged for more than a few minutes
I at a time; they should continue, for instance, for an hour
or more. For a very brief space, nothing is easier than for
I the mind to formulate ardent affections or to operate in a
simple manner. Everyone can do it.
It is on this account that these states, although requiring
! the cooperation of grace, are not called mystic. . . .
Either we reason, and then it is meditation, or we do not
reason, and then it is affective prayer or the prayer of
simplicity. All must necessarily enter one or the other of
ese categories. . ..
182 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

The prayer of simplicity (the fourth of four degrees) leads

on by gentle ascent to the mystic states. And these latter
are really prayers of simple regard, although we give them
another name to avoid confusion.
I
Following these four degrees of ordinary prayer, or union,
are four degrees of mystic union, or extraordinary prayer:

The four stages or degrees of the mystic union. . . . I take

them as St. Teresa described them in her last work, The
Interior Castle. In her Life, written by herself, the differences ,
are perhaps easily distinguished. We have: I
1. The incomplete mystic union, or the prayer of quiet j
[also known as the prayer of simplicity—Ed.] from the
Latin quies, repose, which expresses the impression ex- ,
perienced in this state;
2. The full or semi-ecstatic union, called also by St. Teresa, j
the prayer of union; ;
3. The ecstatic union or ecstasy; \
4. The transforming or deifying union, or the spiritual j
marriage of the soul with God. i
Poulain distinguishes another stage or degree of mystic j
union beyond that of the deifying or the spiritual marriage I
of the soul, which he considers to be "only a foretaste of
a yet higher state, the beatific union of eternity." 2 |
More than five hundred pages are devoted to extraor- I
dinary, mystic, or contemplative prayer. He drew from
many sources, including Christian mystics such as:

. . . St. Teresa who was the first to take the trouble to study
the states below ecstasy under the microscope. Her personal
contribution amounts to just this, and in this respect she ;
worked a true revolution. She rendered an immense service,
for these states are the most common. And besides knowing !
how to describe, she knew how to classify. i
At the same time, St. John of the Cross 3 was an innovator, i
but in a narrower field. He analyzed at great length certain ,
spiritual destitutions, of which, although real, no one had
'Similar and useful material is in Dorothy Berkeley Phillips's The I
Choice Is Always Ours (New York: Harper & Row, 1960). !
s
See St. John of the Cross' Ascent of Mount Carmel (Garden City, l
N. Y.: Doubleday, 1958). *
F PRAYER 183
hitherto seen the importance. The progress achieved by these
two great masters will explain why later writers always come
back to quoting them.

Poulain's sequence of stages of prayer is not the only pos-

sible one; there are exceptions, and his notes point out many
of them. St. Teresa illustrates one:4

I know a nun who could never practice anything but vocal

prayer [Poulain's first degree of prayer] but who kept to this
and found she had everything else; yet if she omitted saying
her prayers her mind wandered so much that she could not
endure it. May we all practice such mental prayer as that. She
would say a number of Paternosters, corresponding to the
number of times Our Lord shed His blood, and on nothing
more than these and a few other prayers she would spend
two or three hours. She came to me once in great distress,
saying that she did not know how to practice mental prayer,
and that she could not contemplate but could only say vocal
prayers. She was quite an old woman and had lived an ex-
tremely good and religious life. I asked her what prayers
she said, and from her reply I saw that, though keeping to
the Paternoster, she was experiencing pure contemplation,
and the Lord was raising her to be with Him in union. She
spent her life well, too, that her actions made it clear she
was receiving great favours. So I praised the Lord and envied
her her vocal prayer. If this story is true—and it is—none
of you who have a bad opinion of contemplatives can
suppose that you will be free from the risk of becoming like
them if you say your vocal prayers as they should be said
and keep a pure conscience.
All of St. Teresa's book is highly readable, at times
humorous, for the text takes the form of a series of talks
addressed to the sisters of her order.
More needs to be said of the basic types of prayer which
Poulain has identified. They provide one of the few guided
nature walks, to return to the earlier analogy of prayer
being a forest, where all the basic types of trees whether
deciduous, evergreen, or conifers are all tagged; and it
seems wise to know the basic types before even attempting
to know all the species within each type. Someone of value
i *The Way of Perfection (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1964).

I
184 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
for this task is the English writer and mystic Evelyn Under-
bill, who in the quotes to follow speaks of all four types
through the use of metaphor and then elaborates on dis-
cursive prayer, prayer of simplicity, and extraordinary
prayer or contemplation: 5
The education of the self in the successive degrees of orison
has been compared by St. Teresa, in a celebrated passage in
her life, to four ways of watering the garden of the soul so j
that it may bring forth its flowers and fruits. The first and j
most primitive of these ways is meditation. 6 This, she says,
is like drawing water by hand from a deep well: the slowest
and most laborious of all means of irrigation. Next to this is
the orison of quiet, 7 which is a little better and easier: for
here soul seems to receive some help, i.e., with the stilling
of the senses the subliminal faculties are brought into play.
The well has now been fitted with a windlass—that little j
Moorish water-wheel possessed by every Castilian farm, j
Hence we get more water for the energy we expend—more j
sense of reality in exchange for our abstraction from the
unreal. Also "the water is higher, and accordingly the labour i
is much less than it was when the water had to be drawn out I
of the depths of the well. I mean that the water is nearer j
of it, for grace now reveals itself more distinctly to the I
soul." In the third stage, or orison of union, we leave all i
voluntary activities of the mind—the gardener no longer '
depends on his own exertions, contact between subject and
object is established, there is no more stress and strain. It is |
as if a little river now ran through our garden and watered
it. We have but to direct the stream. In the fourth and high-
est stage, God Himself waters our garden with rain from
heaven "drop by drop." The attitude of the self is now that i
of perfect receptivity, "passive contemplation," loving trust.
Individual activity is sunk in the "great life of the All."
I

Recollection ("Ordinary Prayer: Discursive") \

All the scattered interests of the self have here to be col-
lected; there must be a deliberate and unnatural act of at-
B
Mysticism (New York: Dutton, 1961), ed., abridged, and slightly
rearranged by Dorothy Berkeley Phillips in The Choice Is Always Ours
(New York: Harper & Row, 1960).
"This first degree of prayer is termed by various writers as meditation,
recollection, discursive prayer, mental prayer, etc.—Ed.
'Prayer of simplicity.—:Ed.
 PRAYER 185
tention, a deliberate expelling of all discordant images from
the consciousness—a hard and ungrateful task.
The unfortunate word recollection, which the hasty reader
is apt to connect with remembrance, is the traditional term by
which mystical writers define just such a voluntary concen-
tration, such a gathering in of the attention of the self to its
"most hidden cell." That self is as yet unacquainted with
the strange plane of silence which so soon becomes familiar
to those who attempt even the lowest activities of the con-
templative life. It stands here between the two planes of its
being; the Eye of Time is still awake. It knows that it wants
to enter the inner world, but it must find some device to help
it over the threshold—rather, in the language of psychology,
to shift that threshold and permit its subliminal intuition of
the Absolute to emerge.
This device is as a rule the practice of meditation, in which
the state of Recollection usually begins: that is to say, the
deliberate consideration of and dwelling upon some one as-
pect of Reality—an aspect most usually chosen from amongst
the religious beliefs of the self. Thus Hindu mystics will
brood upon a sacred word, whilst Christian contemplatives
set before their minds one of the names or attributes of
God, a fragment of Scripture, an incident of the life of
Christ; and allow—indeed encourage—this consideration, and
the ideas and feelings which flow from it, to occupy the
whole mental field. This powerful suggestion, kept before the
consciousness by an act of will, overpowers the stream of
small suggestions which the outer world pours incessantly
upon the mind. The self, concentrated upon this image or idea,
dwelling on it more than thinking about it—as one may
gaze upon a picture that one loves—sinks into itself, and be-
comes in the language of asceticism "recollected" or gath-
ered together.
To one in whom this state is established, consciousness
seems like a blank field, save for the "one point" in its centre,
the subject of the meditation. Towards this focus the intro-
versive self seems to press inwards from every side; still
faintly conscious of the buzz of the external world outside
its ramparts, but refusing to respond to its appeals. Presently
the subject of meditation begins to take on a new significance;
to glow with life and light. The contemplative suddenly feels
. that he knows it. . . . More, through it, hints are coming to
him of mightier, nameless things. . . .
186 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
In these meditative and recollective states, the self still
feels very clearly the edge of its own personality; its separate-
ness from the Somewhat Other, the divine reality set over
against the soul. It is aware of that reality: the subject of its
meditation becomes a symbol through which it receives a
distinct message from the transcendental world. There is yet
no conscious fusion with a greater Life; no resting in the
divine atmosphere, as in the "Quiet"; no involuntary and
ecstatic lifting up of the soul to direct apprehension of truth,
as in contemplation....
This description makes it clear that "recollection" is a form
of spiritual gymnastics; less valuable for itself than for the
training which it gives, the powers which it develops.

Prayer of Quiet ("Ordinary Prayer: Prayer of Simplicity")

More important is the next great stage of orison; that
curious and extremely definite mental state which mystics
call the Prayer of Quiet or Simplicity, or sometimes the In-
terior Silence. This represents the result for consciousness of
a further degree of that inward retreat which Recollection
began.
Out of the deep, slow brooding and pondering on some
mystery, some incomprehensible link between himself and
the Real, or the deliberate practice of loving attention to God,
the contemplative—perhaps by way of a series of moods and
acts which his analytic powers may cause him "nicely to
distinguish"—glides, almost insensibly, onto a plane of per-
ception for which human speech has few equivalents. . . .
Here the self passes beyond the stage at which its perceptions
are capable of being dealt with by thought. It can no longer
"take notes": can only surrender itself to the stream of an
inflowing life, and to the direction of a larger will. Discursive
thought would only interfere with this process; as it interferes
with the vital processes of the body if it once gets them
under its control.
With this surrender to something bigger, as with the sur-
render of conversion, comes an immense relief of strain.
The giving up of I-hood, the process of self-stripping, which
we have seen to be the essence of the purification of the self,
finds its parallel in this phase of the contemplative experience.
To one who is entering this state, so startling, very often,
is the deprivation of all his accustomed mental furniture,
that the negative aspect of the condition dominates con-
 PRAYER 187
sciousness; and he can but describe it as a nothingness, a pure
passivity, an emptiness, a "naked" orison. He is conscious
that all, even in this utter emptiness, is well. Presently, how-
ever, he becomes aware that something fills this emptiness.
Ceasing to attend to the messages from without, he begins
to notice That which has always been within. His whole being
is thrown open to its influence: it permeates his consciousness.
There are, then, two aspects of the Orison of Quiet: the
aspect of deprivation, of emptiness which begins it, and the
aspect of acquisition, of something found, in which it is
complete. In its description, all mystics will be found to lean
to one side or the other, to the affirmative or negative element
which it contains. The austere mysticism of Eckhart and his
followers, their temperamental sympathy with the Neoplatonic
language of Dionysius the Areopagite, caused them to describe
it—and also very often the higher state of contemplation to
which it leads—as above all things an emptiness, a divine
dark, an ecstatic deprivation. They will not profane its deep
satisfactions by the inadequate terms proper to earthly peace
and joy. To St. Teresa, and mystics of her type, on the other
hand, even a little and inadequate image of its joy seems
better than none. To them it is a sweet calm, a gentle silence,
in which the lover apprehends the presence of the Beloved:
a God-given state, over which the self has little control.
The emptying of the field of consciousness, its cleansing of
all images—even of those symbols of Reality which are the
objects of meditation—is the necessary condition under which
alone this encounter can take place.
"Quiet" of all forms of mystical activity has been the most
abused, the least understood. Its theory, seized upon, divorced
from its context, and developed to excess, produced the fool-
ish and dangerous exaggerations of Quietism. The accusation
of Quietism has been hurled at mystics whose only fault was
a looseness of language which laid them open to misappre-
hension. Others, however, have certainly contrived, by a per-
version and isolation of the teachings of great contemplatives
on this point, to justify the deliberate production of a half-
hypnotic state of passivity. With this meaningless state of
"absorption in nothing at all" they were content; claiming
that in it they were in touch with the divine life, and therefore
exempt from the usual duties and limitations of human
existence.
There can be no doubt that for selves of a certain psychical
188 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

constitution, such a "false idleness" is only too easy of attain-

ment. They can by wilful self suggestion deliberately produce
this emptiness. . . . To do this from self-regarding motives,
or to do it to excess . . . is a mystical vice. It leads to the
absurdities of "holy indifference" and ends in the stultification
of mental and moral life. The true mystic never tries deliber-
ately to enter the orison of quiet. Where it exists in a healthy
form, it appears spontaneously, as a phase in normal develop-
ment; not as a self-induced condition, a psychic trick.8
The true condition of quiet, according to the great mystics,
is at once active and passive. . . . The departmental intellect
is silenced, but the totality of character is flung open to the
influence of the Real. Personality is not lost: only its hard
edge is gone. A "rest most busy," says Hilton.
But though the psychological state which contemplatives
call the prayer of quiet is a common condition of mystical
attainment, it is not by itself mystical at all. It is a state of
preparation: a way of opening the door. That which comes
in when the door is opened will be that which we truly and
passionately desire.

Contemplation ("Extraordinary Prayer")

We must consider under the general name of contemplation
those developed states of introversion in which the mystic
attains somewhat: the results and rewards of the discipline
of Recollection and Quiet. If this course of spiritual athletics
has done its work, he has now brought to the surface, trained
and made efficient for life, a form of consciousness—a
medium of communication with reality—which remains un-
developed in ordinary men. In Contemplation, the self tran-
scends alike the stages of symbol and of silence; and "ener-
gizes enthusiastically" on those high levels which are dark to
the intellect but radiant to the heart. We must expect this
contemplative activity to show itself in many different ways
and take many different names, since its character will be
largely governed by individual temperament. It appears under
the forms which ascetic writers call "ordinary" and "ex-

''Much of the teaching of modern "mystical" cults is thus surely

quietistic. It insists on the necessity of "going into the silence" and
even, with a strange temerity, gives preparatory lessons in subconscious
meditation: a proceeding which might well provoke the laughter of
the saints.
 PRAYER 189
traordinary," "infused" or "passive" Contemplation; and as
that "orison of union" which we have already discussed.
First, then, as to Contemplation proper: what is it? It is
supreme manifestation of that indivisible "power of knowing"
which lies at the root of all our artistic and spiritual satisfac-
tion. . . . It is an act, not of the Reason, but of the whole
personality working under the stimulus of mystic love. Hence,
its results feed every aspect of that personality: minister to
its instinct for the Good, the Beautiful, and the True. Psy-
chologically it is an induced state, in which the field of
consciousness is greatly contracted: the whole of the self, its
conative powers, being sharply focused, concentrated upon
one thing. We pour ourselves out or, as it sometimes seems
to us, in towards this overpowering interest: seem to ourselves
to reach it and be merged with it. Whatever the thing may
be, in this act it is given to us and we know it, as we cannot
know it by the ordinary devices of thought.
The turning of our attention from that crisp and definite
world of multiplicity, that cinematograph-show, with which
intelligence is accustomed and able to deal, has loosed new
powers of perception which we never knew that we possessed.
Instead of sharply perceiving the fragment, we apprehend,
yet how we know not, the solemn presence of the whole.
Deeper levels of personality are opened up, and go gladly to
the encounter of the universe. That universe, or some Reality
hid between it and ourselves, responds to "the true lovely will
of our heart." Our ingoing concentration is balanced by a
great outgoing sense of expansion, of new worlds made ours,
as we receive the inflow of its life. So complete is the selfs
absorption that it is for the time unconscious of any acts of
mind or will; in technical language, its "faculties are sus-
pended." This is the "ligature" frequently mentioned by
teachers of contemplative prayer, and often regarded as an
essential character of mystical states.
The object of the mystic's contemplation is always some
aspect of the Infinite Life: of "God, the one Reality." Hence,
that enhancement of vitality which artists or other unself-
conscious observers may receive from their communion with
scattered manifestations of Goodness, Truth, and Beauty, is
in him infinitely increased. . . . In the contemplative act, his
whole personality, directed by love and will, transcends the
sense-world, casts off its fetters, and rises to freedom. . . .
There it apprehends the supra-sensible by immediate contact,
190 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

and knows itself to be in the presence of the "Supplier of true

Life." Such Contemplation—such positive attainment of the
Absolute—is the whole act of which the visions of poets, the
intuition of philosophers, give us hints.
It is a brief act. The greatest of the contemplatives have
been unable to sustain the brilliance of this awful vision for
more than a little while. . . . "My mind," says St. Augustine,
in his account of his first purely contemplative glimpse of
the One Reality . . . "with the flash of one hurried glance,
attained to the vision of that which is . . . but I could not
sustain my gaze: my weakness was dashed back, and I was
relegated to my ordinary experience, bearing with me only a
loving memory, and as it were the fragrance of those desirable
meats on the which as yet I was not able to feed." This
fragrance, as St. Augustine calls it, remains forever with those
who have thus been initiated. They can never tell us in exact
and human language what it was that they attained . . .
though by their oblique utterances, they give us the assurance
that the Object of their discovery is one with the object of
our quest....
Contemplation is not, like meditation, one simple state,
governed by one set of psychic conditions. It is a general
name for a large group of states, partly governed—like all
other forms of mystical activity—by the temperament of the
subject, and accompanied by feeling-states which vary from
the extreme of quietude or "peace in life naughted" to the
rapturous and active love in which "thought into song is
turned." Some kinds of Contemplation are inextricably en-
twined with the phenomena of "intellectual vision" and
"inward voices." In others we find what seems to be a devel-
opment of the "Quiet": a state which the subject describes as
a blank absorption, a darkness, or "contemplation in caligine."

Bede Frost's Art of Mental Prayer (London: Society for

Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1950) describes six tra-
ditional Roman Catholic approaches to prayer and worship:
the Ignatian, Carmelite, Salesian, Liguorian, Franciscan,
and Oratorian. Several of these are touched on in Phillips's
book (cited above).
 PSYCHODRAMA 191

Psychodrama
Psychodrama is a rare thing, a form of therapy which has
weathered many decades of development and remained
vital and effective. Psychodrama is adaptable to an educa-
tional context. It is part of the backgrounds of a large
number of persons doing effective therapy of other kinds.
There is a general parallel of psychodrama to THEATER
GAMES in that both work toward an enactment, a person
becoming fully involved in some kind of situational prob-
lem to be solved. Both ways place a high value on spon-
taneity. In its intensity and emphasis on the person, the
problem being the here-and-now solver of the problem,
Psychodrama is related to GESTALT THERAPY.
Howard Blatner writes: 1

Psychodrama was originated by Dr. [J. L.] Moreno around

1910, and became more systematized and publicized in the
early 1930's, after Moreno came to the United States from
Vienna. Dr. Moreno is a psychiatrist, a younger contemporary
of Freud, who evolved his own method of group psycho-
therapy in those early years. He dealt with concepts of group,
"play," role-theory, the use of creativity and spontaneity in
the therapeutic and educational contexts, and many other
issues relevant to psychotherapy which seem to be receiving
increasing recognition.
The major center for psychodrama is the Moreno Institute
(259 Wolcott Ave., Beacon, N.Y. 12508). The center has an
active training program. A bibliography, publication list, and
information of special programs are available.

Psychodrama Explained2 by Samuel Kahn is a little book

in clear language which explains vocabulary, theory and
practice.

Psychodrama is a form of psychotherapy in which the par-

ticipants enact, or re-enact, situations that are of emotional
Psychodrama, Role Playing and Action Methods: Theory and Prac-
tice. Useful sections on methods, a directory of all persons currently
doing psychodrama work, a complete bibliography. Available from the
author, cost $5. P.O. Box 3173, 48th Tactical Hospital, (USAFE)
Fighter Wing, APO New York 09179.
*(New York: Philosophical Library, 1964).
192 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

significance to them. The word psychodrama was coined by

Dr. J. L. Moreno from the Greek words psyche, meaning
mind, or soul, and dram, meaning to do or to act. In com-
bination, these two words mean the expression of an indi-
vidual's intellectual and emotional processes, not only through
speech, but also through movement and gesture. Psychodrama
is usually a group activity (though in certain cases the group
may consist of the minimum number of two—a therapist and
a patient), and is best carried out in a theater specially
designed to facilitate certain therapeutic techniques.
One patient, or a group of patients, act out on the stage
their "private personalities" and the personalities of other
people in their lives, under the guidance of a director who is
also a therapist, and in the presence of an audience composed
of other patients. An actor is not restricted to acting out his
own personality and feelings. In the course of enacting a
particular incident he may find that another person in the
scene (representing, perhaps, a boss, teacher, parent or
sibling) is out of character; in such cases the main subject
may show just how that parent or sibling does in fact behave,
by temporarily taking the role himself. The audience is by
no means a passive collection of spectators; any member may
find himself taking part in the action, either spontaneously,
at the request of one of those on the stage, or by the director.
In the course of playing these various roles the participants
obtain insights into their own personalities, into some of their
problems into their own psychological workings, and into
their own feelings and those of others. Strong emotions may
be released, from which no participant (unless he deliberately
cuts himself off from what is going on around him) is entirely
immune. Insights are not confined to patients; in the course
of a psychodrama the director himself, or his assistants,
frequently recognize certain of their own problems, patterns
of behavior, or motives; and this recognition may help them
to solve or handle their own problems. For this reason psycho-
drama need not be confined to groups of people whose
problems are pathological—it is basically a training in acting
out past and present problems, both realistically and sym-
bolically, both alone and with others, and develops a spon-
taneity and awareness from which perfectly normal people
can also benefit. Nobody is without fears, personality weak-
nesses and anxieties of some kind; nobody is perfectly under-
stood by himself or others, nor is his understanding of other
 PSYCHODRAMA 193
people complete. But every person who acts out parts of his
life on a psychodramatic stage finds that in some measure he
becomes better understood. Equally, he acquires a deeper
understanding of himself and others, so that he can direct
more of his emotional energy toward finding satisfactory
solutions to his daily problems, thereby relieving some of his
tensions and anxieties. . . .
Unlike psychoanalysis, which is primarily a therapy of the
individual through the verbalization of emotions, psycho-
drama is a therapy of the group through the enaction of
emotions, and encompasses not only words, but also move-
ments, gestures, at times even dancing and song. There need
not be detailed analysis of the individual's psychological
personality, for the dramatizations help to produce a group
mind, in whose functioning the salient psychological traits
and motivations of each individual are revealed. In the group
minds, completely contradictory ideas can exist side by side
without any conflict arising from the logical contradiction. . . .
Although a stage is not absolutely necessary, the psycho-
drama is best performed in a special setting. The two best
psychodrama theaters known to me were both designed by
Dr. J. L. Moreno, and are located at the Government Hos-
pital, St. Elizabeth's, Washington, D.C., and at Dr. Moreno's
own sanitarium at Beacon, New York. The main feature of
these theaters is the special stage, accessible from all sides by
means of three broad and circular steps. These steps form a
connecting link between the subject and the other participants,
and the audience, and have additional psychological signifi-
cance during the process known as the warmup, of which I
shall say more in another chapter. The stage itself is circular
or elliptical. At the Beacon theater there is also a gallery at
a little distance from the stage, and a balcony towards the
front of the stage itself. The balcony is reached by a flight
of steps and is available to the subject and the other actors,
though in fact is it not often used. Opposite the balcony, at
floor level, is the control board for the lights. Dimmers permit
the director to mix the available colors and regulate their
intensity, so that he can to some extent set the emotional
tone of any scene by the effect of the lighting.
The spectators sit in front and back of the stage, and are
usually pulled into a group by the director, instead of being
allowed to spread out in isolated clumps or individuals. At
the psychodrama theater of the Moreno Institute in New
194 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
York City, when there is a large audience, it is possible to
seat spectators around three sides of the stage—in this theater
there is not enough room for seating at the rear, though the
two steps run all the way round the stage and may be used
by the actors. The audience is much more than a passive
collection of spectators. They look on at the action taking
place on the stage, and during the action the part they play
is limited, but they nevertheless have an important role in the
total effect of the psychodrama.
The director is usually a psychiatrist, a psychologist, or a
psychotherapist. In the early stages of the psychodrama he
selects, from the material presented by the subject (either in
private or in a group), a scene which can readily be acted
out. In the later stages he is constantly on the lookout for
clues to the subject's feelings, and guides, rather than directs,
the action into scenes that he feels may help the subject by
giving him either catharsis or insights into his own feelings,
or both. It goes without saying that the director, whatever his
professional occupation, must be an individual who is sensi-
tive to the subject's feelings and can understand the meaning
of the non-verbal, as well as the verbal communications that
constantly take place.
The subject, or protagonist as he is called in the psycho-
drama, in acting out scenes from his life, reveals both to the
director and to the spectators many thoughts and feelings
which may have been deeply repressed. The entire purpose
of the psychodrama is to bring these thoughts and feelings
into the light of day so that the protagonist may take a look
at them and find that they are neither so unique nor so
terrible as he may have thought. They are part of him, to be
acknowledged as current facts about him. And since the
action is entirely imitation of real life, the protagonist finds
that he is not restricted to reproducing scenes as they actually
did occur; he can re-enact them to show what he would have
wished to happen. Many individuals suffering from stage-
fright, or from feelings of inferiority, bring panic in their
train; many, too, have real, imaginary, or borrowed feelings
of guilt that make them unable to talk about themselves. The
setting and the techniques of psychodrama do much to open
them up, to free them. In particular the physical motion that
is encouraged by the director has a loosening effect on nearly
everyone, and it is not uncommon to find even the most
blocked individual becoming more verbal under the influence
 PSYCHODRAMA 195
of the action. Some mental patients act out their hallucina-
tions and delusions, and in their movements and physical
responses, as well as in their words, are contained many clues
to the underlying causes of their problems.
So far we have mentioned other participants, but have said
little about their roles. The director may call upon anyone
present at the session to become an auxiliary ego, that is, an
actor who plays the part of a person of importance to the
protagonist. Such an actor is called an auxiliary ego because
he is, in some sense an extension of the protagonist's ego.
The role he plays represents the facet of the real individual
which impinges on the protagonist; the director may even
play the role of the protagonist himself, as a kind of mirror
in which the protagonist can see for himself how he acts
and speaks in a given situation.
There is also a special kind of auxiliary ego known as the
double. The double is the inner, hidden personality of the
protagonist. Sometimes the double appears when the protag-
onist, after a scene, speaks aloud the thoughts and feelings
that it has aroused in him. Sometimes, when he finds it diffi-
cult to do this, or even to express his true feelings during a
scene, the double, who is also an auxiliary ego, stands behind
the protagonist, imitating his actions, and also speaking aloud
the thoughts which are present in his mind but which he him-
self is afraid to voice.
Psychoanalysis used free association and dream interpreta-
tion to bring about both catharsis and insight; psychodrama
uses the total individual as he moves and speaks on the stage.
The movement tends to produce a growing spontaneity in the
protagonist, so that he becomes able to act roles other than
his own, to "put himself in someone else's shoes," in fact,
and through this process to understand their feelings in
encounters of which he had previously understood (very
imperfectly) only his own part. The protagonist also plays
reverse roles, in addition to his own. Thus, if the actor play-
ing, say, the protagonist's father, does not impart the right
feeling tone to the scene, the protagonist may switch roles
and play his father while an auxiliary ego takes the protag-
onist's role temporarily. This role-reversal often leads the
protagonist to a completely new understanding of the
dynamics of a scene, as well as showing the director and
spectators just how the father appears in the subject's eyes.

ML
196 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
This appearance may not correspond to objective reality; it
is, nevertheless, psychological reality for the subject.
Thus, the psychodrama attempts to synthesize psychological
analysis with dramatic action, and to build a living picture of
the protagonist's private world with all its prejudices and
fantasies. In making this picture clear to the protagonist him-
self, it frequently develops his intuitive and creative abilities,
as well as giving unlimited opportunity for reality-testing in
a very protected situation. . . .
From what has been said, it is clear that psychodrama is a
form of depth therapy that combines action methods with
group psychotherapy and socioanalysis. It involves one indi-
vidual (the protagonist) upon whose problem the attention
is mainly focused, in interaction with a group of persons.
The problems are explored by means of dramatic methods
which involve a number of people of the group, and since
many of these are liable to have problems which are closely
related to those of the protagonist, catharsis and insight is
by no means limited to any one group member.
Both the protagonist and the audience begin to find that
they have many problems in common, and to understand the
origin and effect of these problems. They also explore together
various methods of achieving solutions to the problems. There
is a forced identification between members of the audience
and the protagonist or his extensions on the stage, which
brings about an enhanced level of communication between
every person present.
The psychodramatic stage, then, is an extension of the
world, both within and beyond reality, and provides a means
of exploring both real facts and also phantasies and unrealistic
situations. When the protagonist attempts to portray his
private world and his perception of the people around him,
he does so in actions as well as in words; these actions help
to free his expression of his emotions, and the more often he
acts out his real self on the stage, the more spontaneous and
involved he becomes.
It should be noted that the safety and freedom of the
environment encourages honest expression of feelings that
are normally concealed from a world in which expression of
such feelings has previously resulted in highly threatening
consequences or reactions. Role-playing is by no means a
new experience to any person who attends a psychodrama
session—each of these individuals has been playing many
 PSYCHODRAMA 197
roles ever since his infancy. The difference lies in the fact
that the individual has hitherto been unaware that he has
been playing roles in the real world, and that it is in the
nature of these roles to change at different times in his life.
Nor does he realize, indeed, that it is the sum of all these
roles that makes up the self, not the self that creates the roles.
It is, therefore, not merely role-playing which opens our
eyes, but to an even greater degree the opportunity of role-
change and role-reversal in a given situation, while this situa-
tion is being acted out in a safe environment from which no
hurtful consequences can attend such experimentation. The
psychodramatic stage, therefore, offers the possibility of an
enormous enlargement in the range of the roles an individual
can play, and so can bring about deep insight into the effi-
ciency and appropriateness of the roles he actually does play
in the real world. Of course, it is a great deal easier for people
who know each other well to exchange roles, than for people
between whom there is a wide social or intellectual distance.
But here again, the opportunity for free experimentation and
continued practice in role-exchange permits each individual
to acquire a far greater and more intimate knowledge of other
people than he ever had before.
It is easily observable that every person present at a psycho-
drama session becomes involved, to a greater or lesser extent,
in the action that takes place on the stage. Indeed, everyone
present functions, at least partially, in the role of therapist.
Their observations can help the protagonist to obtain insight
into his behavior and attitudes; but at the same time the
auxiliaries and the audience are also subject to forced identi-
fication and to a high degree of insight into their own be-
havior and attitudes. It would probably also be true to say
that the more open the auxiliaries and audience are to such
insights, the more help they can give the protagonist. Hence
we can conclude that patients may in time become classed
as adjunct therapists.
Any individual can, in a few sessions and with a few
explanations, learn the principles underlying the roles of
protagonist, auxiliary ego, and double, so that he can carry
out role-reversal and mirror activities when called upon by
the director to do so. But it may take quite a number of
sessions over quite a long period before he has attained suffi-
cient insight into his own behavior and motivations to enable
him to function at maximum efficiency in these roles. As a
198 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
protagonist, complete involvement in the action is called for;
the protagonist will derive little benefit from playing out
scenes on a purely intellectual level. If he remains intellectual,
he merely repeats the defenses that he puts up against the real
world; only when he can spontaneously act and express his
true emotions does he expose his real self in a manner that
will permit him to be helped.
From the director and auxiliaries, on the contrary, a con-
siderable degree of detachment is demanded. If they are to
be effective in helping the protagonist to encounter himself
and re-integrate himself personally and sociologically, they
cannot afford to become involved to the point where their
own emotional reactions to a situation could color their
perception of the protagonist's reactions. They must, in fact,
put aside their own emotions except in so far as these can be
channeled into the service of the protagonist. Yet in another
sense the director and auxiliaries are constantly treading the
fine dividing line between the degree of emotionality that
would obscure their perceptions and the degree of detachment
that would alienate the protagonist. There must always be
kindness, understanding, patience, and the non-judgmental
acceptance of facts that is proper to a scientist who is trying
to learn in order to be of help.
It is difficult to determine how far, and in what way, the
psychodramatic form of therapy is preferable to other forms.
Much depends upon the personality makeup of the patients,
their normal environment, their finances, and what they and
their families have previously heard about therapy of any
sort. But it is probably safe to say that patients who are not
strongly psychotic, who have some intellectual background,
and who are attracted to this method, will do well regardless
of whether they work in an amorphous, unstructured group
or in a highly organized group. Probably the most fruitful
line of approach would be to place such patients in an
amorphous group until they are acclimated to the method,
and then to transfer them to a structured group in which
attention can be focused on specific problems the moment
they are strong enough to explore these. Conversely, a patient
who is making little progress in a structured group could be
transferred to an amorphous group for a while. But to attain
the maximum benefits from the method, each and every pa-
tient should function as often as possible both as auxiliary and
 PSYCHOLOGY, HUMANISTIC 199
as protagonist—and perhaps even attempt the direction of a
session under the guidance of the regular director.
As a final word, it should be remembered that psychodrama
is a most flexible and potent tool. Though a special stage and
the presence of an audience are therapeutically desirable for
maximum effect, they are not necessary. The only basic
elements of the method are role-playing, role-change, and
role-reversal, and with the help of the director and one or
two auxiliaries these can be carried out almost anywhere.
Nor is the method's usefulness restricted to the treatment of
abnormal or deviant behavior; it can be used effectively with
normal people to help them solve even the most ordinary and
common problems of being human. With only minor adapta-
tions it can be used in the emotional education of children.
And the understanding of oneself and of others that results
from the experience of psychodrama can be of inestimable
benefit to any and every individual. But experience is the key-
word here—though reading and study can be helpful in lead-
ing an individual to an understanding of the rationale behind
psychodrama, it is only through personal experience with it
that he will be able to put such knowledge to practical and
effective use in his own life.

Psychology, Humanistic
Anthony J. Sutich and_ Miles A. Vich's general perspective
on Humanistic Psychology could also serve as a general
statement on Psychology:1

In attempting to describe and define humanistic psychology

we find that there are many versions of its nature. It is seen
in many different ways and from different points of view. A
chief reason for this seems to be its richly varied and dynamic
development. Thus far, however, no one version has been
completely satisfactory.
There have been attempts to equate and identify humanistic
psychology with psychoanalysis, the neo-Freudian ego psy-
chologies, classical and renaissance humanism, and many
early philosophies and schools in psychology. Because those
most actively engaged in the evolution of humanistic psy-
x
Readings in Humanistic Psychology (New York: Free Press, 1969),
Introduction.
200 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

chology during the past fifteen years see it as having certain

recognizable characteristics that take it beyond the above
named views, it would perhaps be valuable to review briefly
the development of the behavioristic and the psychoanalytic
psychologies that preceded it.
Two main branches of psychology—behaviorism and psy-
choanalysis—appear to have made great contributions to
human knowledge, but neither singly nor together have they
covered the almost limitless scope of human behavior, rela-
tionships, and possibilities. Perhaps their greatest limitation
has been the inadequacy of their approach to positive human
potentialities and the maximal realization of those poten-
tialities.
As is generally known, the history of psychology can be
traced back to the Socratic Greeks, or even to the pre-
Socratic period. However, the two main branches of psy-
chology, prevailing before the appearance of the "third force"
or humanistic orientation, may be said to have had their
beginnings in modern times.
Behaviorism, behavior theory, mechanomorphic psychology,
and related schools owe much of their origins to Ivan Pavlov,
who made his contribution during the Czarist and the early
revolutionary periods in Soviet Russia. His physiologically
based theory of conditioned reflexes was seized upon by the
American, John B. Watson, who later formally presented a
position that he called behaviorism. It was characterized by
an "objective," environmentalistic view which claimed that
a sufficient knowledge of conditioning techniques applied in a
strictly "scientific" manner to the training of the young,
tabula rasa child, would of necessity produce whatever kind
of personality the psychologist was led to choose. This theory,
along with Edward L. Thorndike's investigations into the
importance of reward and punishment in learning, contributed
to the development of the most widely known behaviorist
theory—B. F. Skinner's behavioral analysis.
The contributions and significance of behaviorism were
paralleled by the development of psychoanalysis. Psycho-
analysis originated in the work of Freud and developed
through the work of a large number of proponents of the
same theory. The history of psychoanalysis, however, has
been characterized by the dramatic emergence of one analyst
after another, who has achieved eminence in his own right
through proposing modifications, redefinitions, and revisions
 PSYCHOLOGY, HUMANISTIC 201
of the general theoretical framework of psychoanalysis. More-
over, even a cursory examination of the vast literature of
psychoanalysis shows that Freud himself modified his views
over the half century during which he practiced and wrote.
It is almost universally agreed that Freud was a genius. It
was his work and that of his associates that brought the
general field of psychology to the attention of the entire
literate Western world. Psychoanalytic theory and practice in
their many forms became the dominant force among practic-
ing psychiatrists and psychologists.
Unlike the history of behaviorism, however, in which the
development of theoretical positions has been rather gradual
(the transitional literature of Watson, Skinner, and their
followers illustrates this quite well), the history of psycho-
analysis, from its very beginning, has been a record of
dramatic, conflicting schools of thought. The protagonists
emerge more often as enemies than co-investigators. This
kind of tension was not without value. In fact it is to the
credit of the psychoanalysts that they have attempted sys-
tematic theories of the nature of man and his relationships,
and have then gone far beyond their own theorizing in an
effort to come up with methods and techniques designed to
resolve the pathology that is so much a part of contemporary
individual, group, and international life.
It is unfortunate that orthodox psychoanalysis seems to
have become bogged down to the degree that it continues to
hold to most of its original premises. An outstanding example
is Freud's belief that the basis of all human psychopathology
can be traced (directly or indirectly) to repressed sexuality.
As psychoanalysis progressed, so many differences arose
among Freud's followers over the restrictive effects of the
founder's narrow theoretical basis that many of them gradu-
ally began to be classified as neo-Freudians. The most im-
portant deviation from Freud's basic premises—a deviation
that is more accurately described as a rejection of Freud's
basic position—gradually became evident in the developing
work of Carl Jung. Jung's position was the first major shift
of psychological theory and practice from a negative, philo-
sophical conception of man to an acceptance of man's positive
potentialities as the main characteristic of his life processes.
The pathology-oriented general theory as expounded by
Freud and his followers became, in Jung's formulation, a
psychology of positive ends and purposes that went far beyond
202 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
1
the best that could be hoped for from a Freudian perspective.
The essential spirit of man, and ways and means of realizing
it, rather than the pathology of man and its reduction, became
the main consideration. The impact of Jung's work, and that
of Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, Kurt Goldstein, and others,
created an intellectual climate favorable to the emergence of
a more explicit and clearly defined humanistic orientation in
psychology. This had taken place by the end of World War II
in 1945.
Oddly enough, however, as an increasing number of
groundbreaking theoretical and applied research papers were
written, the problem of publication became more difficult.
The official organs of psychology, controlled by overly cau-
tious editors, had less and less space available for anything
outside the scope of behaviorism. Psychoanalysis dominated
the psychiatric literature and most of its practitioners, whereas
behaviorism reigned supreme in the psychology departments
and laboratories of the universities. By 1950, behavioristic
research constituted a near monopoly as far as funds were
concerned. Nevertheless the pressure of the new force in
psychology steadily increased. Minor possibilities for publica-
tion—paid for by the author—were available. But the publi-
cation needs of a growing number of professionals, not only
from psychology, but in many instances from related fields,
reached what might be called a point of desperation. So over-
whelming was the predominance of behaviorism that any
publishable material outside its scope was typically met with
scorn, ridicule, or even worse. Only the behavioristic perspec-
tive and similar approaches were considered "scientific."
There was, however, a grudging acceptance of psychoanalysis
among some editors of official psychology periodicals who
thought that it had made a significant but "unscientific" con-
tribution. Condescending tolerance is not an unfair descrip-
tion of the behaviorists' attitude toward psychoanalysis.
Worst of all was the ostracism and the obvious avoidance
of third force psychologists by their behavioristically oriented
colleagues and associates. To be a humanistically oriented
psychologist in the decade following the end of the Second
World War was to be virtually a professional outlaw.
In this deteriorating climate, nevertheless, occasional indi-
vidual papers were appearing which reflected the emergence
of a new force in the field of psychology. Maslow's paper on
the criteria of the self-actualizing person, which appeared in
 PSYCHOLOGY, HUMANISTIC 203
1950, serves as a good example. Several important compre-
hensive books also appeared which presented some of the
main arguments, evidence, and directions for the new psy-
chology. Among them were Rogers' Counseling and Psycho-
therapy (1942), Maslow's Motivation and Personality (1954),
Allport's Becoming (1955), and Moustakas' The Self (1956).
These person-centered, value-oriented, existential, phenom-
enological, even ontologically oriented psychologists were
definitely in a minority position. Among behavioristic the-
oretical and research psychologists at that time (and perhaps
to only a slightly lesser extent today) there seemed to be a
certain adulation of physics and. the physical sciences in
general. Often it appeared as if the young discipline of
psychology had a well-developed inferiority complex in which
the main symptom was the continual belief that it was not
scientific enough.
It is a curious commentary on the state of psychology in
the middle 'fifties that voices outside the field were urging
psychologists to re-examine their orientation. The most
notable example of this was the address of J. Robert Oppen-
heimer at the annual convention of the American Psycho-
logical Association, held in San Francisco in 1955. In his
speech Oppenheimer stated that he believed that "the worst
of all possible misunderstandings would be that psychology
be influenced to model itself after a physics which is not
there any more, which has been quite outdated." He recom-
mended that psychologists look to their own proper areas of
inquiry for relevant concepts and methodologies.
It appears that very little attention was paid to his recom-
mendation, however. Even today, psychology as a whole has
yet to turn its full attention to its natural areas of investigation.
The growing gap between the real possibilities for psy-
chology in 1955 and the established leaders' lack of response
to these possibilities created a situation that had to be cor-
rected. A few humanistically oriented psychologists were
beginning to show the strength and utility of their thinking,
sometimes in unexpected places. Perhaps the concept of
creativity is the best example of this. Maslow's theories in
particular had begun to attract the attention of industry in the
early 1950's. His lectures on creative personnel were wel-
comed by industrial firms, especially in the electronic field. *
Similarly the problem of developing creativity in engineers led
engineering departments in various universities to engage in
I i 204 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
<i projects that began to attract foundation money for research
purposes. By the early 'sixties, creativity had become a special,
!j; respectable area of research. The findings have had incal-
jj culable influence on educational theory, practice, and institu-
! tions. Thus it is fair to say that research in creativity is no
i longer taboo and has in fact become fashionable.
As a good many of the selections in this book demonstrate,
a number of other humanistic concepts are also on the road
to becoming acceptable for research among psychologists.
i Research in growth has long since become a part of the
I psychological scene. The simultaneous application of growth-
fostering techniques and the appearance of centers and insti-
tutions (such as Esalen Institute at Big Sur and San Fran-
cisco) devoted to the use of these techniques with people of
i all ages and backgrounds is becoming of increasing impor-
I tance to today's psychologists.
' The concept of values is another case in point. This subject
I has an especially vital connection with the function of values
i in the psychologist himself, as scientist and as person. As far
back as 1944, Gunnar Myrdal, in his classic An American
| Dilemma, gave a clear-cut exposition of the place of explicit
J values in scientific method. He demonstrated that there is no
M such thing as a valuefree scientist. Objectivity in the scientist
1
is, to a very large degree, a case of group intersubjectivity,
as Carl Rogers clearly shows in the opening selection in this
|i book. 2 In addition to Rogers' examination, a more compre-
j hensive statement can be found in Maslow's The Psychology
of Science: A Reconnaissance (1966). Many of the philo-
sophical aspects of these problems are considered in Michael
Polanyi's Personal Knowledge (1958).

The Development of a Definition

It was the heading of the mailing list compiled by Dr.
Abraham H. Maslow, in 1954, reading (approximately),
"People who are interested in the scientific study of creativity,
love, higher values, autonomy, growth, self-actualization, basic
need gratification, etc.," that can be considered historically the
| first general outlook of humanistic psychology.
Perhaps the most essential reasons for the appearance of
• this list were that (1) the general field of psychology was
ready to be fertilized by an infusion of new ideas; (2) com-

Toward a Science of a Person."—Ed.

 PSYCHOLOGY, HUMANISTIC 205
munication among like-minded investigators was far from
adequate and more suitable outlets were needed for the
expression of the growing interest in humanistic issues.
Circulating mimeographed literature among a hundred or
more sympathetic professionals served the purpose of re-
assuring the members of the mailing list that something new
was in the wind. In an exchange of correspondence between
Abraham Maslow and Anthony Sutich in the summer of
1957, it was agreed that the mailing list had fulfilled its
function and the time had arrived for launching a journal.
Dr. Maslow undertook the task of constructing the first
formal definition of third force psychology. Sutich, the senior
editor of this collection, wrote the statement of purpose. The
definition became the basis for the organization of the first
formal periodical in psychology to deal with third force
psychology and its developments. The Journal of Humanistic
Psychology, launched and edited by the senior editor of this
book, began publication in 1961 and adopted Maslow's
formulation as its operative definition:

The Journal of Humanistic Psychology is being founded

by a group of psychologists and professional men and women
from other fields who are interested in those human capacities
and potentialities that have no systematic place either in
positivistic or behavioristic theory or in classical psycho-
analytic theory, e.g., creativity, love, self, growth, organism,
basic need-gratification, self-actualization, higher values, ego-
transcendence, objectivity, autonomy, identity, responsibility,
psychological health, etc. This approach can also be charac-
terized by the writings of Goldstein, Fromm, Horney, Rogers,
Maslow, AUport, Angyal, Buhler, Moustakas, etc., as well as
by certain aspects of the writings of Jung, Adler, and the
psychoanalytic ego-psychologists.

The new Journals statement of purpose read:

The Journal of Humanistic Psychology is concerned with
the publication of theoretical and applied research, original
contributions, papers, articles, and studies in values, auton-
omy, being, self, love, creativity, identity, growth, psycho-
logical health, organism, self-actualization, basic need-gratifi-
cation, and related concepts.
This definition and statement of purpose are still in force.
206 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

At the time of the founding of the Journal it was felt that

the definition of humanistic psychology was a difficult matter
in view of the freshness and velocity of its emergence. As the
American Association for Humanistic Psychology began to
take shape in the period 1961-1963, it was apparent to the
senior editor that any attempt at a conclusive definition of
humanistic psychology would be premature. Moreover, the
original problem of definition continues as a problem of re-
flecting the powerful thrust of an ongoing, continuously
evolving, vital development. This process requires an open-
ended statement at any given time, carrying with it the
understanding that events will sooner or later require a
reformulation. But this does not mean that the essential char-
acter of humanistic psychology is constantly changing. On
the contrary, its implications and opportunities are so great,
and the work done in relation to them so minute up to this
time, that we can look forward to many decades of involve-
ment and far-reaching challenge. It is this perspective which
makes it unnecessary, perhaps even impossible for humanistic
psychology to be a definite, distinct doctrine or school in
psychology. It seems likely that it will avoid joining the ranks
of those many psychologies that stood fast on a few rigid
absolutes and consequently withered and died through lack of
response to historical change. As the authors of the articles
presented here demonstrate, humanistic psychology is a com-
prehensive orientation, an affirmation of the incalculable value
of a positive psychology for the future of mankind.
Given the growing, changing, varied nature of the orienta-
tion, it is worthwhile to examine the basis for the survival
and longevity of the term humanistic and why it has become
the most representative word, to date, for the content of the
"third force." First it should be pointed out that the word
"humanist" has long been associated with the worth, dignity,
rights, responsibilities, and fulfillment of man—qualities basic
to this orientation. Unfortunately, the humanist movement in
the first half of the twentieth century expended far too much
of its energies on an antitheistic position and policy, at the
expense of concentrating on its professed ideals. "Humanistic"
was selected for the title of the Journal of Humanistic Psy-
chology because it was expected that in the long run the
positive, affirming, explicit value commitments of psycholo-
gists with this orientation would restore "humanistic" to its
original positive emphasis. Secondly, the various points of
 PSYCHOLOGY, HUMANISTIC 207

view represented by humanistic psychology—that is, phenom-

enology, certain versions of existentialism, self-theory, the
experiential therapies and personality systems, many of the
intrinsically based psychological theories of culture, and so
on—shared a common concern about man and his potentiali-
ties. Third, the term humanistic helped fill the need for an
encompassing perspective that would combine the various
positions and give them a general direction.
The authors assume that a humanistic reinterpretation, and
an expanding conception of scientific method will continue to
be an essential part of the general development of psychology.
This is clearly necessary if psychology is to meet the challenge
of the largely unexplored and vastly underdeveloped aspects
of human potentialities. This calls for a psychology free of
the unjustifiable restrictions and taboos regarding proper
methods and areas of investigation. Considerable courage was
necessary for the third force psychologists to begin dealing
with the many vital, directly personal, and meaningful con-
cepts that are covered by the title "humanistic." In the future
a creative and productive flexibility will be required of those
psychologists who can with honor call themselves scientists.
As the history of all human institutions, including science,
shows, the only alternative to eventual stagnation and sterility
is growth and evolution.
Sutich and Vich go on to group the papers presented under
theory, survey and research, and applications. The authors
of the papers come from a variety of contexts: psycho-
therapy, research psychology, art, philosophy, and religion.
Many chapters of Readings in Humanistic Psychology
would make relevant and concise contributions to this book.
Especially recommended are Carl R. Rogers, "Toward a
Science of the Person"; Abraham H. Maslow, "Notes on
Being-Psychology"; Anthony J. Sutich, "The Growth-
Experience and the Growth-Centered Attitude"; Rollo
May, "Relation of Existential to Humanistic Psychology";
Alan Watts, "Oriental Approaches to the Nature of Man";
James F. T. Bugental and Robert Tannenbaum, "Sensi-
tivity Training and Being Motivation" (included in this
volume); Janie Rhyne and Miles A. Vich, "Psychological
Growth and the Use of Art Materials: Small Group
Experiments with Adults"; and Frank Barron, "Freedom
as Feeling."
208 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
Challenges of Humanistic Psychology (New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1967, ed. James F. T. Bugental) is another
source of excellent material.
The Journal of Humanistic Psychology is available from
the Association for Humanistic Psychology (584 Page St.,
San Francisco, Calif. 94117, $6.50 per year). Membership
is $15.00 regular, $10.00 student and retired, $20.00 for
families. The Journal is available to AHP and APA mem-
bers for $5.50 a year. The AHP has a newsletter, an annual
meeting, a job network, a list of schools which are human-
istically oriented or offer degrees in humanistic psychology,
and local regional chapters.
The AHP's functions are multiple. It recently formed the
Humanistic Psychology Institute, which is preparing to
offer graduate work in humanistic psychology. Planned are
a resource library offering national access to information
on persons, places, processes, and publications relevant to
humanistic psychology/education. The director of HPI is
Eleanor Criswell, who can be reached through AHP.
Related though separate from the AHP is the American
Psychological Association (1200 17th St., NW, Washing-
ton, D.C. 20036). A recent list of the APA's divisions
include:
1. General Psychology
2. Teaching of Psychology
3. Experimental Psychology
4. Evaluation and Measurement
5. Physiological Comparative Psychology
6. Developmental Psychology
7. Personality and Social Psychology
8. Psychological Study of Social Issues
9. Psychology and the Arts
10. Clinical Psychology
11. Consulting Psychology
12. Industrial Psychology
13. Educational Psychology
14. School Psychologists
15. Counseling Psychology
16. Psychologists in Public Service
17. Military Psychology
18. Maturity and Old Age
19. Engineering Psychologies
20. Psychological Aspects of Disability
 PSYCHOTHERAPY

21. Consumer Psychology

22. Philosophical Psychology
23. Experimental Analysis of Being
24. History of Psychology

Psychotherapy
Persons who have applied themselves to the task of creat-
ing within themselves and throughout their work the possi-
bility of growth for others have developed such ways as
ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY, BREATHING THERAPY, BIOENER-
GETIC ANALYSIS, FAMILY THERAPY, GESTALT THERAPY,
PSYCHODRAMA and forms of psychotherapy which involve
the use of HYPNOSIS.
From Alexander Lowen comes a model which may pro-
vide some basic perspective:*

The goal of therapy is to achieve a better contact with

reality. The term, reality, however, has to be understood. For
every patient reality includes, in toto, his psychic processes,
his interpersonal relationships, and his body and physical
functioning.
Figure 8 on page 210 illustrates this total view of reality
and of the hierarchy of values that are included within it.
It is interesting to note that the existential analysts called
attention to these three aspects of reality. They described
three worlds as modes of existence: the Umwelt or biological
world, the Mitwelt or world of relationships, and the Eigen-
welt or world of the relationship to the self—the ego and
the psychic processes. Each of these three aspects of reality
has determined a specialized approach to the treatment of
personality problems:
1. Psychoanalysis is primarily concerned with the reality of
the patient's psychic processes.
2. In psychotherapy, by contrast, the main interest is
focused upon the reality of the patient's interpersonal
relationships.
3. The reality of the patient's physical function was first
made part of the analytic procedure by Wilhelm Reich.
His "orgone therapy," however, concentrated almost
exclusively on body processes.
^'Bioenergetic Analysis," lecture to annual meeting of the American
Academy of Psychotherapists.
210 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

Figure 8

Each of the above approaches treats a valid aspect of the

patient's reality. Their one-sided emphasis, however, limits
their effectiveness. Bioenergetic analysis represents an attempt
to overcome this limitation. It includes all aspects of the
patient's reality in the therapeutic situation. It integrates all
these approaches. It works with the body, with the patient's
interpersonal relationships, and with his mental processes
each of which is correlated with and interpreted in terms of
the others. The way in which a patient holds and moves his
body is related to the way he behaves in his dealings with
other people and to the ideas and fantasies he develops.
Interpersonal relations are analyzed not only in terms of a
patient's ideas, but also in terms of the effect his physical
appearance and gestures have on others. Fantasies and dreams
are interpreted in reference to the body and to the patient's
social situation. This integrated view of the patient's reality
characterizes bioenergetic analysis.
Reality can be pictured as a stool with three legs, as shown
in Figure 9 on page 212.
 PSYCHOTHERAPY 211
A, the reality of the ego and psychic processes.
B, the reality of the world and interpersonal relations.
C, the reality of the body and physical processes.
If any leg or aspect of reality is missing, the stool falls or
reality collapses. If behavior is determined by A + B alone
(the interaction of the psyche and the world), it results in
intellectualizations and actions which can be described as
mechanical. If reality is limited to A + C (the psyche and the
body, excluding the external world), the result is fantasy and
illusion. Actions which ignore the role of psychic phenomena,
C -f B, have a bestial quality on a sub-human level. If all
aspects of reality A + B + C are incorporated in a person's
response, the result is a total, human, and emotional-rational
experience.
Figure 9 (on p. 212) also illustrates the correlation be-
tween the three aspects of reality and the different analytic
approaches. Each aspect of reality is intimately related to the
others by mutual interaction. Thus, the psychic processes of
a person are influenced by his body and by his relations to
the external world. His body is affected by external stimuli
and internal mental processes, and both the psychic and
somatic functions shape his interpersonal relationships. This
is shown in the diagram by the arrows that join one circle to
the others. Each aspect of reality includes a reflection of the
others. Thus, while psychoanalysis deals with the reality of the
psychic processes directly, it includes the other aspects of
reality indirectly. The same could be said of psychotherapy
and body therapies. In bioenergetic analysis each of these
aspects of reality is directly and actively made part of the
therapeutic situation.
A further comparison of the different analytic procedures
reveals the aspect of reality which is utilized in therapeutic
experience:
1. In classical psychoanalysis the patient lies on the couch
relatively immobile. The analyst sits behind the patient unseen
and often unheard. Little or no physical contact occurs be-
tween patient and doctor. The patient's thoughts and fan-
tasies, including those about the analyst, constitute the prime
reality of the psychoanalytic situation.
2. In psychotherapy the patient sits up and speaks directly
to the therapist. In contrast to the psychoanalytic situation,
the therapist is more active in the encounter with the patient.
212 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

Psychoanalysis

A+B =Intellectualization (mechanical behavior)

A + C = Fantasy, illusion
C + B = Bestial ( subhuman ) behavior
A + B + C = Emotional-rational behavior

Figure 9

The interaction between patient and therapist is the key factor

in the psychotherapeutic process.
3. Body therapies involve more activity on the part of the
patient and the therapist. The emphasis is upon the mobiliza-
tion of feeling through movement and body awareness. All
body therapies involve some physical contact between patient
and therapist.
4. In bioenergetic analysis the patient may express his
 PSYCHOTHERAPY 213
fantasies or associate to a dream while lying on the couch;
he may verbally express and discuss his feelings while sitting
face to face with his therapist; and he may, through special
exercises and stress positions, mobilize the awareness and
sensations of his body. The experience of reality on each of
these levels is fused by the patient to obtain a total and unified
view of reality.
Alexander Lowen's use of the word "psychotherapy" is
generalized. In the following selection, Daniel Wiener uses
the word to refer to the four major training backgrounds
of psychotherapists: psychiatry, psychology (particularly
clinical psychology), psychoanalysis, and social work.2
Most people actually go to professional people other than
psychotherapists for help with their personal problems. A
survey of American adults by the Joint Commission on Mental
Illness and Health (1960) revealed that 42 per cent of a
general adult group sought professional help for a personal
problem from clergymen, 29 per cent from doctors, 11 per
cent from lawyers, and only 21 per cent at most from persons
who were likely to be designated as psychotherapists.
Only a minority within each of the three major professions
embracing almost all psychotherapists practice mainly psycho-
therapy. Only about a third of the psychiatrists and an even
smaller proportion of psychologists and social workers appear
to concentrate on it.
Thus, when theories or types of psychotherapy are dis-
cussed, they refer directly to no clearly delineated professional
groups. Psychiatrists may practice psychoanalytic, eclectic, or
little or no psychotherapy. They may use drugs, rest, or shock
treatment almost exclusively rather than psychotherapy. Simi-
larly, social workers and psychologists may practice any form
of psychotherapy—or none at all. The professional designa-
tion provides little indication of what the professional man
would do to try to help you to solve your problems.
Nor does the nature of your problem provide any clear
indication of the kind of profession, among the three major
disciplines devoted to help with personal problems, that can
best provide help, nor the type of help that would be most
effective. Most psychotherapists tend to treat all their patients,
3
A Practical Guide to Psychotherapy (New York: Harper & Row,
1968).
214 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
regardless of their problems, in roughly the same particular i
way, more in accordance with their beliefs in the best ways !
to help people rather than according to the nature of the
problem presented. Thus, most psychologists who believe in
nondirective therapy will apply that method to most of their j
cases; most social workers who believe in psychoanalysis will j
use that approach with most of their clients; and most psy- j
chiatrists who believe in drugs will tend to prescribe them for j
most of their patients.... \
Psychiatrists alone among the three professions are legally i
allowed to give drugs and electric shock; members of the ,
American Psychoanalytic Association claim that they alone j
can practice genuine psychoanalysis; and marriage counselors I
are organized to treat with marital problems only. However, \
competent and popular practitioners of any major type of
psychotherapy legally can and do practice in each of the j
different professions; the name of the profession is no indica- !
tion of the form of psychotherapy that will be used. . . . ;
Most therapists, while they may classify themselves pri- j
marily under one of the four categories, or may be unwill-
ingly so classified by an outside observer, do mix in bits of
other forms. Thus a nondirective therapist may sometimes
give advice when it is badly needed, a behavior-change thera-
pist may ask for the details of a vivid dream when the patient
mentions one, and an analyst may directly suggest that you
take dancing lessons to help you meet or get along with a
mate. As therapists become more experienced, they tend to
become more relaxed about practicing any method and come
to practice more like other equally experienced therapists
regardless of differences in theory.
Introductory readings include a view backward in Robert
A. Harper's Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1959). Harper arranges thirty-
six approaches in rough chronological order, beginning
with Freud. His survey, presented in clear, simple language,
is weak on approaches not favored by his orientation. There
is an extensive glossary. Alan Watts's Psychotherapy East
and West (New York: Ballantine, 1969) fills in a per-
spective not to be found elsewhere with as much detail and
clarity. Another source is H. J. Eysenck's Uses and Abuses
of Psychology (Baltimore: Penguin, 1953). I
 SENSITIVITY TRAINING 215

Raja Yoga (See YOGA, p. 300.)

Samadhi Yoga (See YOGA, p. 308.)

Sensitivity Training
Sensitivity Training is difficult to define. Its aims are similar
to those of most of the approaches in this book. The differ-
ence is in methods and use. James F. T. Bugental and
Robert Tannenbaum's article, while somewhat old for this
subject, is still accurate. 1

"Sensitivity training" is a name often applied to programs

in which personal experience in a group is used to aid indi-
viduals in becoming more aware of themselves and of the
manner in which they affect others and in turn are affected
by others. Such programs are conducted in a variety of
settings, most notably at the National Training Laboratories
(6) at Bethel, Maine; the Western Training Laboratory at
Lake Arrowhead, California; and in various other regional
and organizational laboratories. At the University of Cali-
fornia, Los Angeles, the Twenty-Third Workshop on Sensi-
tivity Training (4) was conducted in the fall of 1962 under
the auspices of the Institute of Industrial Relations and
Graduate School of Business Administration.
Typically a sensitivity-training group consists of fourteen
to sixteen participants and one or two staff members (called
"trainers"). In the U.C.L.A. format, the groups begin with
a weekend residential program held at some place where a
degree of isolation from everyday concerns and distractions
is possible. Subsequently the groups meet weekly for nine
late afternoon and evening sessions, including dinner. About
half to two thirds of the way through these nine weeks, a
Saturday session of some six hours is scheduled. In all, the
groups will thus have about fifty hours of scheduled meeting
time, with another thirty or more hours of informal associa-
tion at meals, coffee breaks, etc.
The participants consist chiefly of mature people in man-
1
"Sensitivity Training and Being Motivation (Being Motivation as
Contrasted to Deficiency Motivation as Defined by Abraham Maslow),"
Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Spring 1963; reprinted in Readings
in Humanistic Psychology, ed. Anthony J. Sutich and Miles A. Vich
(New York: Free Press, 1969).
216 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
agerial, community, and professional fields. They come to the
program after hearing of it from former trainees or from
public announcement, or they are encouraged to attend by
their employers. A proportion receive some or complete
financial support from their employers.
Although trainer philosophies, procedures, and styles are
varied, in general certain commonalities are identifiable
(7, 10). Usually the trainer refuses to act as a traditional
teacher or group leader, implicitly—and often explicitly—•
conveying to the group that it will have major responsibility
in determining the nature and direction of its own activity.
Early in a group's life, trainers try to focus participants'
attention on and clarify the process—as opposed to the con-
tent—aspects of the group's activities. They may call the
group's attention to power struggles among the participants,
to rivalries of subgroupings, to blocks and aids to free and
open communication. Trainers often watch for opportunities
to point out common human experiences to reduce feelings of
isolation and difference, to demonstrate handicapping and
false standards (e.g., "a real man doesn't feel or show tender
emotions"). By making an observation or providing personal
feedback to an individual, they help him see aspects of him-
self of which he is typically unaware. On occasion they may
aid a participant who has difficulty being heard or understood,
support another who is being made too uncomfortable, or
display to the group some persistent theme implicit but
unrecognized in the group's discussions. They may propose
procedures or tasks which they feel may aid the group in
what it is trying to do: e.g., role playing, using a question-
naire or sociometric, having one subgroup observe another
and then share its observations and impressions with the
observed subgroup. Often the trainers use a brief period be-
fore a meeting or occasions during a group session to present
conceptual material (a "lecturette") based upon and growing
out of preceding group experiences. Trainers generally feel
that for greatest learning impact, experience should precede
the attempt to give it cognitive form.
The group's activity generally moves toward the expression
of individuals' perceptions of each other, the revealing and
sharing of personal concerns and emotional conflicts, the
recognition of commonalities of experience, and the discov-
ery of numerous common difficulties in relating with those
encountered in "outside" life.
 SENSITIVITY TRAINING 217
For some participants (particularly in the early stages of
training), the experience is disappointing and frustrating, as
they fail to secure the authoritative guidance and "answers"
which they seek. A majority, however, find enough stimula-
tion to cause them to persist with varying degrees of involve-
ment and even of enthusiasm. A goodly number seem to
value the relative genuineness of relating which develops and
which they find contrasts with their usual daily experiences.
They increasingly experiment with and begin to find satisfac-
tion in being more open with appropriate expressions of
feelings (both positive and negative) in their relations with
others, both inside and outside the group. Thus, they report
that they are beginning to venture somewhat more in the
direction of authenticity in their lives, though the extent to
which this generalizes and persists is not known. For a smaller
number the sensitivity-training experience seems to have a
therapeutic-like outcome, evidenced by definite change in
their lives involving greater personal effectiveness, deeper
satisfaction, or reduced personal tensions.
The question is frequently asked: How does sensitivity-
training differ from group psychotherapy? Suffice it to say
here that there is certainly much overlap between the.two,
but that there are some significant differences also (2, 9 ) . In
most instances, sensitivity-training does not inquire into his-
toric roots of behavioral patterns, into the socially taboo areas
such as sexuality, or into the realm of the truly unconscious
impulses and defenses. It focuses only on matters which can
reasonably be dealt with in the relatively brief available time.
It is centered much more in the conscious and preconscious
and seeks the gains more readily available from insight and
corrective emotional or behavioral experiences rather than
attempting a genuine "working-through" therapy. In a word,
its aim is more re-educative than reconstructive.
Sometimes sensitivity-training has been regarded as con-
formity training. Time magazine ( 1 ) , in a rather shallow
coverage of the program, certainly gave this impression.
Actually responsible sensitivity-training, whether conducted
at U.C.L.A. or at one of the training laboratories across the
country, is almost the antithesis of conformity training. The
attempt is made to teach the valuing of individual differences,
to help the participants learn to use conflict constructively,
to develop an appreciation for differing answers to the same
question, and to encourage a tolerance for ambiguity and the
218 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

fundamental unresolvedness of most of the problems which

modern man confronts in his interpersonal living. The varied
training patterns followed by most of the people conducting
sensitivity training militate against a common mold being
impressed on each participant.

A Second Program
From the first, participants in sensitivity training have
asked for additional related experiences. A variety of formal
and informal programs have been attempted to meet the
need. A modest but consistent proportion of trainees are
known to have entered individual or group therapy of one
kind or another. Some groups have been formed on the par-
ticipants' initiative to carry on after the end of the regular
program. Several "advanced" or "continuing" programs have
been conducted at the training laboratories. In general, these
different programs have tried to continue from the basic
model of the original program, with some relatively minor
variations.
In the fall of 1961, in a series of joint staff meetings be-
tween the U.C.L.A. Human Relations Research Group 2 and
the staff of Psychological Service Associates, an effort was
made to design a program which would place primary empha-
sis on the constructive or "self-actualizing" processes in the
personality as contrasted with the more pathologic or growth-
resistive. In general, the orientation parallels the difference
Maslow makes between D- (or Deficiency-) motivation and
B- (or Being-) motivation ( 5 ) . Said differently, much of the
typical sensitivity training program and most of psycho-
therapy have been concerned with exposing and (hopefully)
overcoming those forces within individuals which limit their
abilities to realize upon their potentialities fully. The notion
upon which plans for a new "continuing sensitivity training"
were developed was that it might be possible to aid people
already reasonably healthy in their functioning to develop
their potentialities more directly. An analogy might clarify
this point: It is as though we had traditionally focused our
efforts in helping sprinters to run on demonstrating to them
how bulky clothing, poor starting posture, and bad breathing
habits have slowed them. Now we proposed to concentrate on

a
Institute of Industrial Relations and Graduate School of Business
Administration, University of California, Los Angeles.
 SENSITIVITY TRAINING 219
helping them build stronger leg muscles, gain more spring
in their starts, and achieve a better pacing of their energy
expenditure. As the analogy should make evident, there was
no implication that one approach was superior to the other,
only that each deserved attention, and thus far one had
tended to outweigh the other.
By late winter of 1962 the joint discussions had progressed
to the point where we felt we wanted to try some of our
ideas in practice. Accordingly, a group was recruited and the
two present writers were designated to serve as its trainers.
A general announcement of the program was sent to
participants who had completed sensitivity training at the
Western Laboratory in recent years, and about thirty ap-
plications were received. Selection from these was made in
terms of the following statement:
Participant Selection. While ideally the program should
seek participants free of psychopathology, this is admittedly
unrealistic. Instead, it is desirable to screen candidates to
rule out grosser evidences of emotional and social disturbance
and then to examine the extent to which each approximates
the idea in the following ways:
1. Functional excellence in
a. vocation
b. marriage
c. friendship relations
2. An observing and curious ego manifesting a desire for
further self-exploration and greater self-actualization.
3. Adequate tolerance for psychic stress, e.g., from
a. ambiguity
b. intrapsychic conflict
c. interpersonal conflict
d. uncertainty and risk
4. Motivation for group interaction.
A group of twelve was chosen, chiefly on the basis of
assessments provided by their former trainers, modified by
an effort to get heterogeneity related to sex, variety of back-
grounds and professions, etc. The group consisted of ten
men and two women with an average age of forty-four years.
They averaged a little more than seventeen years of educa-
tion, i.e., near the master's level. Eight were married, four
220 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

widowed or divorced. Four had had psychotherapy, but only

one of these had had an intensive experience. Occupationally
they were in the professional and managerial ranks, with
about an equal number in each.
Some funds for research were available to the Human
Relations Research Group, and so Drs. William Broen and
Irving Weschler, of U.C.L.A., laid out a program of pre-
and post-testing and arranged for observation of all sessions
of the group by two graduate students in clinical psychology,
Keith A. Fruley and Ira A. Nathanson, of the same university.
The schedule for the program was basically the same as
that described above for beginning groups. Early in the life
of the group, each participant was given a mimeographed
statement which read as follows:

Horizons Limited and Unlimited

Our perspective for Continuing Sensitivity Training is
that of gaining an expanded range of possibilities for each
of us. It is our conviction that each of us gets embedded in
presuppositions about the way each of us is and about the
way the world is and that these presuppositions—which may
or may not be accurate—serve to delimit our views of what
is possible. It has seemed to us, therefore, that a very
fundamental mission Continuing Sensitivity Training can
perform is to help us develop awareness of and skill in the
ways in which we can:
(a) discover the presuppositions about our outer and inner
worlds within which we tend to limit our operations,
(b) test those presuppositions to see whether they are indeed
intrinsic, necessary, and reality-founded,
(c) evaluate those which are not intrinsic to determine
whether they serve us usefully or not, and
(d) try out setting aside those limitations which we find to
be neither intrinsic nor useful; i.e., operate in new and
freer ways.
A second part of our (the trainers') perspective for Con-
tinuing Sensitivity Training grows out of the manner in
which you have been selected for this group: insofar as pos-
sible, each of you is deemed to be a person of reasonable
maturity, personal and social effectiveness, and possessed of
 SENSITIVITY TRAINING 221
some degree of creativeness. (It is recognized that each of
us—group members and trainers alike—is far from the
ultimate or even the optimum in each of these ways. Never-
theless, it is reasonably certain that each of us has these
qualities in some measure—no matter how much we may
each recognize the ways in which we do not manifest them.)
From the composition of our group, then, grows the
second hypothesis about how we may best serve each other.
This takes the following form: We are of the opinion that the
pooled motivations and the combined creativities of all of
us can best be consulted to guide us in the sorts of activities
we want to undertake at any particular point in the life of
our group. We, the trainers, do not feel that we have the
wisdom or the experience to predetermine what sort of
procedure will best serve the group on the third or eleventh
or any other particular session.
This is not to say that we have no ideas about activities in
which we might usefully engage. We do. But we invite—
more, we recognize the implicit necessity of—the group to
take a mature role in determining its own life. To this end,
we have brought together in these materials a number of
thoughts we have developed about this program—about the
kinds of goals or end-products it may hopefully achieve for
each of us, about the types of conditions which might facilitate
our attainment of the goals, and about some of the forms of
group activity which might be used by us to achieve our
goals.
In setting these forth in this manner, we must recognize
a reality: the group (including the trainers) is responsible
for itself, each of us must exercise his personal and joint
responsibility if any degree of "self-actualization" is to be
achieved. Further, we are approaching a relatively uncharted
frontier about which we as yet know little. Thus, we will
inevitably extend this list as we exercise our ingenuity in
finding further and more effective ways to make the total
Continuing Sensitivity Training experience a productive one
for each of us.
What has been said so far tends to be cast in terms of
overcoming limitations. This effort is certainly worthwhile
and one thing we hope this experience can facilitate. How-
ever, a third part of our perspective as trainers has to do
with our belief that much may be gained from developing
the positive, the creative, the "growth edge-fur" in its own
222 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
right. (Let us hasten to make explicit that we mean neither
Coue-ism nor Pollyana-ism.) To the extent that we can be
skillful in recognizing that which is positive, enriching, and
meaningful in ourselves and our experiences and to the
extent that we can be effective in nurturing and expanding
such processes, we are convinced that we shall be forwarding
the purposes for which we are all in Continuing Sensitivity
Training.

Some of Our Hopes

We hope that this joint venture will help each of us make
personal progress along at least the following paths:
—Experiencing personal outcomes in ways we have pre-
viously assumed to be unattainable for ourselves.
—Experiencing our relatedness to all men as personally
enriching and as potentially enhancing to them and to us.
—Experiencing our individual uniqueness with its potential
for personal satisfaction and creativity, and recognizing
(but seeking not to be limited by) the fear of being
different.
—Being able to distinguish between the realistic limits
(both within ourselves and without) on our own func-
tioning and growth and those which are unrealistic
(neurotic), and to be able to free ourselves from the
latter.
—Being able to recognize and to utilize an increased num-
ber of alternatives as we face the omnipresent necessity
to make choices.
—Gaining respect for the use of feelings and moods,
fantasy and speculation, tenderness and concern, sharing.

Some Possible Facilitating Conditions

We believe that the attitudes which we each bring to the
group will be fundamental in determining the degree to
which we are able to make of the group an effective tool for
our purposes. Some of the attitudes which we feel will be
most helpful include:
—Seeking an ever-increasing awareness of one's own feel-
ings at each moment.
 SENSITIVITY TRAINING 223
—Accepting as fully as possible and assuming respon-
sibility for personal feelings of which we are aware.
—Sharing with the group as much of what we are aware of
as may be possible at any point, and constantly striving
to increase the degree to which we can so share.
—Being willing constantly to consider and experiment
with the feasibility of alternative ideas and methods in
order to move toward new possibilities and new experi-
ence.
—Being willing to live dangerously—facing the personal
risks of satisfaction, success, and adequacy as well as of
embarrassment, exposure, and failure.
—Accepting and valuing—for ourselves and others—the
realities of being human.
—Being willing to accept our own difficulties in fully
being everything implied by the above.

Some Possible Methods or Procedures

We present the following ideas as "starters." The range
of possibilities available to us is extensive, and many of the
most productive ones probably yet remain to be created.
—Using the basic sensitivity training group for the purpose
of sharing and exploring, but with an emphasis on the
goals of this advanced program.
—Focusing on our hopes and aspirations, and on the
means for their realization.
—Making force-field analyses; i.e., examining the facilitat-
ing and constraining forces related to possible new
behaviors.
—Sharing the existing creative products of our personal
lives—paintings, writings, films, designs, pottery, theories,
artistry, wood or metal work, sewing and knitting, etc.
—Engaging in spontaneous creative or expressive activity
—producing a play, writing poetry, singing, composing
a melody, producing a product, painting, conducting an
orchestra, etc.
—Confronting existential moments—birth, fear, stress,
224 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

elation, death, helplessness, success, exhaustion, etc.,

(arranging for visits or activities to make this possible).
—Utilizing a visiting resource person; e.g., a specialist in
dance therapy or an artist.
—Maintaining diaries to capture and preserve our develop-
ing experiences and insights.
—Utilizing questionnaires or other instruments to collect
relevant data and to provide feedback.
—Utilizing a "what if . . ." technique; i.e., making the
assumption that certain usual constraints on one's be-
havior are not present and experiencing what it might be
like if one were able to avoid such constraints.
—Experiencing and conducting experiments in extrasensory
perception.

Findings from Trial Program

Our experiences in the program cannot be detailed here.
Instead we will report some of our tentative learnings about
such an enterprise and briefly indicate some next steps. First,
we will examine some disappointments:
1.—We were much too ambitious in our conceptualization
of the program. Although beginnings were made toward our
goals, their attainment still remained very distant at the
program's conclusion.
2.—Our hope to select a group freer than usual of the
deterrents of psychic disturbance was vain. The group was
a fairly typical selection of twelve functional, reasonably
socially effective people who nevertheless were beset by a
clear range of emotional interferences with their functioning.
3.—We, as trainers, were severely handicapped in attempt-
ing to give primary emphasis to positive forces in the partic-
ipants' personalities by our own unresolved neurotic com-
ponents and by our years of training and experiences which
have been largely in the frame of reference of psychopathology
and dealing with deficiency motivations. Time and again
we found ourselves most active in the familiar ways of
pointing to interferences and distortions and least effective
in facilitating growth, venturing, and creativity.
4.—The participants, as faithful products of their culture
and personal histories, seemed more ready to recognize and
 SENSITIVITY TRAINING 225
deal with that which was negative and pathologic within
themselves and unsure and self-conscious about the positive
and creative.
On the more encouraging side, several observations may
be made:
1.—The participants showed a real readiness to adopt a
more open approach and thus to experiment with group
activities in a way that beginning sensitivity training groups
frequently resist. Moreover, they reported some carryover
of this attitude to their "outside" lives.
2.—Some individuals in the group felt they had experienced
major insights or changes of outlook which they thought
would have profound effects on their lives. For example, one
wrote:

For me, the sessions have been the most frightening, frustrating,
soul searching, exhilarating, rewarding experiences of my life.
I just cannot adequately express my feelings about this. I sin-
cerely believe that these past few weeks have altered the future
course of my life. My past efforts in the field of human relations
have been directed toward becoming more effective in my re-
lations with other people. While this is a worthy goal, I failed
to realize that I must first learn to get along with myself. I doubt
that I will ever be 100 per cent successful in this but I have
made a good start.

3.—The possibility of using more active participation

around projects or procedures was demonstrated as useful
but requiring more planning and effective guidance in some
instances than we gave to it.
4.—One observation, in accord with many made in other
settings, was that the relations among pairs of individuals
in the group were of especial potency. Similarly, the oppor-
tunity for one part of the group to watch another part at
work on a problem was frequently highly productive (3, 8 ) .

Follow-Up Session
Approximately nine months after the completion of the
program, a reunion meeting was held. Ten of the twelve
participants returned and told of their experiences in the
interim. The most frequent reports were:
1.—The experience was remembered with a kind of
nostalgia and warmth. Several were very explicit in saying
226 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

how much they missed having the opportunities for such

open communication and genuine acceptance.
2.—The most frequently mentioned gain from the program
was an increased willingness to experiment in living, to take
a chance (interpersonally), to attempt some things which
previously one had hesitated about doing because of fears
of not being adequate. Some examples offered included
making new friendships, expressing opinions in discussions,
trying a creative project.
3.—Closely linked with the willingness to live more
experimentally was a report by several of decreased fears of
failure or being different and of performing more spontane-
ously.
4.—About half of the group expressed a feeling of pro-
nounced need for some program which would provide
"booster shots" or spaced reinforcements for efforts toward
the values implicit in the program. In one way and another
it was made clear that to live more in terms of "being
motivation" is difficult in our culture and that the partic-
ipants felt their gains slipping away and old patterns re-
asserting themselves.

Summary
Sensitivity training is a social vehicle for helping individuals
increase their effectiveness in self-fulfillment and in relating
to others. Participants in the experience generally find that
the more authentic communication, the chance to exchange
candid "feedback" with others, and the working out of
meaningful relationships are valuable experiences. An effort
to develop a program to carry these values further, partic-
ularly through emphasizing "being motivation" has been
described. The first pilot group carried through this second
program seemed to value the experience, but the trainers
did not feel that the program was as successful as it can be
with further experimentation and refinement. The experi-
ence has encouraged a continuation of the joint staff program
mentioned above and additional experimental programs (8)
in the fall, 1962, and spring, 1963, semesters. Over-all, we
share a feeling of making progress on a tremendously im- I
portant and challenging frontier. I
 SENSORY AWARENESS 227
References
1. The Blood Bath Cure, Time, Dec. 22, 1961, p. 48.
2. Bugental, J. F. T. Five Paradigms for Group Psy-
chotherapy, Psychological Reports, Vol. 10 (1962), pp.
607-610.
3. Clark, J. V. Authentic Interaction and Personal Growth
in Sensitivity Training Groups, Journal of Humanistic
Psychology, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring, 1963).
4. Macleod, A. Sensitivity Training for Managers, Empire,
April, 1959, pp. 2, 12 ff.
5. Maslow, A. H. Deficiency Motivation and Growth
Motivation. In Toward a Psychology of Being. Princeton,
N.J.: Van Nostrand, 1962.
6. National Training Laboratory in Group Development.
Explorations in Human Relations Training; An Assess-
ment of Experience, 1947-1953. Washington: National
Education Association, 1953.
7. Shepard, H. A., and Bennis, W. G. A Theory of Train-
ing by Group Methods, Human Relations, Vol. 9 (1956),
pp. 403-414.
8. Tannenbaum, R., and Bugental, J. F. T. Dyads, Clans,
and Tribe: A New Design for Sensitivity Training, NTL
Human Relations Training News (in press).
9. Weschler, I. R., Masserik, F., and Tannenbaum, R. The
Self in Process: A Sensitivity Training Emphasis. In I. R.
Weschler and E. H. Schein (eds.), Issues in Training:
Selected Readings, Series Five. Washington: National
Training Laboratories, 1962.
10. Weschler, I. R., Tannenbaum, R., and Zenger, J. H.
Yardsticks for Human Relations Training, Adult Edu-
cation Monographs, No. 2, 1957.

Sensory Awareness
This work was introduced to this country decades before
the recent emphasis on human potential or self-actualiza-
tion or growth. Perhaps its basicness and vitality is best
spoken for by the fact that Erich Fromm and F. S. Perls
both studied this work, and that Charlotte Selver, the
leading person in this field today, has for a number of
years been invited annually by Shunryu Zuzuki Roshi,
head of the Zen Center in San Francisco, to co-lead a
program. The entries on GESTALT THERAPY, BREATHING
228 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
THERAPY, and HARA are related to this work, and once
one has personally worked with Charlotte Selver, a rela-
tionship to ZEN may be supposed.
Today many people say they are doing Sensory Aware-
ness work. Perhaps most of them have never met Charlotte
Selver. Her teachers were German; they are no longer
alive; their writings are unavailable. Selver has been evolv-
ing her work for over forty years. She and her husband
and co-worker, Charles Brooks, offer workshops through-
out the country. Selver has had innumerable students,
among them Fritz Perls and Erich Fromm. Many people,
calling their work, or some aspect of their work, sensory
awareness are guiding people neither into an understand-
ing of sensory activity nor of awareness. Their sensory
offering, seeming to rely on the inherent excitement of
one person quietly touching another, often goes no further
than simple exercises of directed attention. Sensory Play
or Explorations in Interpersonal Touching would probably
be more appropriate titles. What they offer is, nevertheless,
valuable. As a culture we are starving for physical contact
and its accompanying feelings of warmth, both within our-
selves and with others.
Charlotte Selver's studio is located at 160 West 73 rd
Street (New York, 10023). Brochures of current programs
and reprints of two articles includifag "Sensory Awareness
and Total Functioning" ($0.75) are available. Selver and
Brooks have written: 1

Again and again in the course of practical work in sensory

awareness my students have recognized that many of their
difficulties go far back into earliest childhood. Not only have
the conscious beliefs and attitudes acquired in growing up
often stood in the way of a fuller functioning, but the tissues
themselves have been learning responses—and often what
will later be inappropriate responses—since the beginning of
life. It is as though the very fact of civilization, with all its
potential for help and for hindering, must be confronted in
the first experiences of the infant, before consciousness as
we usually think of it exists at all.
The capacity of learning, which extends so much farther
1
In Explorations in Human Potentialities, ed. Herbert Otto (Spring-
field, 111.: Charles C Thomas, 1966).
 SENSORY AWARENESS 229
in us than in other creatures, is, it seems to me, the noblest
gift man has at his disposal; but while his greatest asset, it
is also his greatest danger. The marvelous process by which
we come to stand and speak, to form shapes and rhythms,
to analyze, calculate and organize, is in its very flexibility and
versatility peculiarly liable to deformation. This is why edu-
cation has such importance for everyone: It is the same
pruning shear with which the gardener thins out the fruit
tree for healthier living and richer bearing and with which
also, year after year, he cuts back the spring shoots of the
shrub to form a hedge.
These two activities call for different virtues. For the one,
what is needed is merely a geometrical sense of form; for
the other, a feeling for the organism in its environment. One
who has the latter will have studied and loved the tree since
it first sprang from seed and will understand the principles
of its growth.
The nature of growth, which may be considered as identical
with the learning process, is directly revealed in the develop-
ing child, who, when left to himself, lives in a state of
incessant exploration which tends to bring him in contact,
in one way or another, with all the elements in his environ-
ment. It is his drive to explore, his curiosity, his fascination
(1), which from babyhood on leads to all physical and
mental development. Unconditioned, healthy children have
a strong drive to do things by themselves and to find- out
by themselves, even when they go out in groups; and the
milieu which confronts the child with selective challenges,
giving him not answers but opportunities for exploration,
leads to full branching and to sturdy roots.
But it is between the active process of learning and the
largely passive process of being educated that the child
actually develops. The purposive impact of the environment
on the growing child, which in its formal aspects we call
education, begins with the first reactions of the mother to
the infant at her nipple, whenever she indicates her own
preferences or what she thinks is good for the baby, instead
of feeling out the momentary relationship that best permits
mutual functioning. This directive rather than permissive
attitude, insisting on how to do it, may be encountered by
the child as the basic element in most of his education
throughout life. He will not be given the occasion to learn
by experience but will be told in advance. In our education,
230 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
in contrast to that prevalent among animals and primitive
peoples which is by example in context and not by abstract
precept, the analytical, evaluative, directive tendency is
paramount. A "loving" mother asks herself "What is best"
for the baby, a "selfish" mother, how it is for herself. A
mother of integrity would simply sense the total functioning.
In the work I am going to present here, which is based
on that originated and developed over the past fifty years by
Elsa Gindler in Berlin and Heinrich Jacoby in Zurich (2),
and which I have been teaching for the last twenty-five years
in the United States, the latter attitude is cultivated. I would
say Elsa Gindler was a natural scientist and one of extraor-
dinary quality. She made it her life work to explore to what
degree we human beings develop our sensitive and perceptive
power and to what degree we cooperate with the forces of
nature, e.g., with the spontaneous development of energy
within a given activity, with the processes of life and
regeneration as they occur through us, with the dynamics of
activity and rest, with the ever-present pull of gravity and so
on.
She found out that in the process of this exploration one
can discover through sensing how hindering tendencies come
about. As the individual becomes more sensitized and learns
to make friends with the potentials he gradually uncovers,
the way slowly opens to a fuller experiencing and deeper
relating to himself, his fellows and all activities of daily living.
The work of Heinrich Jacoby, which was so closely re-
lated to Elsa Gindler's that both considered it one, was
directed mainly to freeing creative energies and exploring
our potentials of self-expression—whether in our daily tasks
and activities or in the arts. He found that the way we are
conditioned to approach tasks tends to inhibit our vital
powers, while in contrast an attitude of awareness and readi-
ness of the total self in contact with our activity and obedient
to its dynamics releases them. The core of his work lay
in bringing about an attitude of receptivity and permissive-
ness, rather than the customary alternatives of "trying hard,"
"making efforts" and "doing," on the one hand, or "taking
it easy," "letting go" and "relaxing," on the other.
Both Gindler and Jacoby came to the same conclusions:
(a) that the full range of our potentials has never been dis-
covered by us but can be gradually unfolded; and (b) that
what we do use we often use to disadvantage with regard to
 SENSORY AWARENESS 231
our energy expenditure (and subsequently to our functioning)
as well as to the quality of our actions; and (c) that there are
no ungifted people ( 3 ) . If we believe we are ungifted, we
will find on closer examination that we are only hindered
and that hindrances can gradually be shed when we see
deeper and give ourselves new chances.
It is interesting that the findings of my teachers, based on
empirical experimentation, coincide with the discoveries of
modern neurological research ( 4 ) , as well as with the age-
old knowledge and practices of Zen and Taoism ( 5 ) . They
all recognize that if we would allow the giving up of the
effects of previous conditioning and become able again to
experience and develop our untapped potentials, then and
only then, as Elsa Gindler used to say, would we live nor-
mally, i.e., according to our actual human design.
What is it—this something which some people seem to
have? Those who have it, and to whom we always feel
strangely attracted, seem to live out of a great inner richness.
I saw this quality at work once when I watched a friend, a
delicate, fragile woman of over eighty, giving a treatment to
a patient for almost two hours. After she had finished, the
patient, wonderfully relieved, exclaimed, "Where do you get
this strength and this marvelous sensitivity?" My friend smiled
at her and answered, "Everybody has it, only we don't
know about it!"
This is basically the same answer that my teachers have
given; and the practical work towards "knowing that we
have it" or, more to the point, gradually discovering and
cultivating it, is the substance of our classes ( 6 ) .
The conditioning which we gradually begin to give up is
as complex as it is deeply ingrained. What is involved is not
the mass of information, whether true or false, which we
have acquired at home and in school, but the value which
we place on this information, just as it is not the manifold
skills we may have learned but the techniques which take
the place of skill. A glance at the actual training of young
children, which, except in its grossest aspects, is still so
generally overlooked, reveals the problem. The parent invades
every aspect of the child's development. The child is taught
when and how much it is good for him to eat, when and
how long he ought to sleep, what parts of him are bad or
dirty, what is good social behavior (smiling), etc., etc. When
he falls and cries he is taught not to allow the pain and
232 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
shock to go their way but to seek instant distraction from
them and to expect fuss and anxiety from the parent rather
than quiet sympathy: "You good boy, that bad banana peel!"
A little later he will be taught that exposure to cold or getting
wet in the rain is unpleasant and dangerous, as it will actually
become after the lesson has been thoroughly learned.
This evaluative education is the earliest and deepest, and
of course it confuses the child's capacity for judgment. From
that point on, the evidence of his own senses cannot simply
be trusted (7), and he tends to judge at second hand and
generally. The living context, on which all real value depends,
becomes obscured.
Consider the efforts of the parents to influence the baby's
very way of perceiving: exaggerated looking and listening;
sniffing at flowers, smacking lips over food to make him
taste it; and in speaking to him the artificiality and distortions
of "baby-talk," implying that verbal communication cannot
be peaceful and simple. These almost universal practices
create the impression from the very beginning that some-
thing extra is necessary, that a technique of some sort is
inseparable from living, so that the grown woman applies
lipstick, not as a part of dressing up, but because she feels
"naked" without it, and nobody can find employment in
radio or television for just speaking naturally. The lily is
not to be simply watered but must be gilded.
Close to this necessity for the something extra is the edu-
cation towards making efforts, which is so common in our
competitive society. It is not enough that the anxious mother
urges her baby to make efforts to move his bowels. Think of
the ambition of so many parents for their baby to sit, to
stand, to walk as early as possible—earlier than other chil-
dren. The natural processes of energy development are not
enough: they must be coaxed. "This can't be right," said a
student in an experiment through which she had previously
forced herself. "It feels so easy!" And another: "All week
I have tried very hard to undo my overdoing." It is the same
in the child's intellectual development: it is not enough that
he learns words as his ever-widening experience requires
them; he must be taught a vocabulary, whether he experiences
what he says or not.
Finally, among the factors in the young child's develop-
ment, I must note the widespread practice of interrupting
his play as though it were of no importance and impressing
 SENSORY AWARENESS 233
on him, often as not, that a "good" child always comes when
mother calls him. Through this he comes to feel that there is
no natural rhythm in things and that it is right for activities
to be cut off in mid-air and for others to be begun, as
though magically, without preparation—an impression that
will be totally confirmed by what he sees on television, where
presentations are violently interrupted by the ones that
follow and the only preparations are shouts or blares. When
the child has been interrupted often enough, his innate sense
of rhythm becomes confused; and his sense of the social
value of his own experience becomes so too.
What comes to replace the real world of perception—the
living context—is a world of ideas and images created not
by the child's own discoveries, but, consciously to him or
unconsciously, by our whole history and culture. These images
guide and mold him as he grows—angel and devil, good baby
and bad baby, nice girl and tramp, he-man and sissy—and
as they are static, he tends to stasis too, slowly exchanging
the dynamism of life for the rigidity of "character," so that
eventually he fits into one of the pigeonholes which society
presents. This is the growing old without growing up which
fills out time with octogenarian "boys" and "girls" who may
at the same time have been executives or congressmen,
matrons or old maids.
In this process of conforming to the demands of the
images within him, the growing child begins to find himself
accompanied by one particular image which is a composite
of all the others, tempered unevenly by real perceptions
and memories. This is the image of himself which, for better
or worse, interposes itself in his functioning, urging here,
restraining there; and which in any case is as a film that has
grown between him and reality. The notion that it is in
character for us to do this and not to do that or to feel this
and not to feel that compels or censors our activities and
diminishes or distorts our experience. Only in moments of
true connection is the self-image absent, permitting us just
to be as we really are.
In the work in sensory awareness we gradually and patiently
sort out what is perception and what is image. We build
upon sensations, and particularly on our proprioceptive
sensations, the cultivation of which has been neglected in
our education so that they no longer come easily. Except for
sensations of pain and very general feelings of comfort or
234 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
discomfort, the sensations from within are like the stars,
which only appear when the artificial lights are turned off.
When there is quiet enough, they can be very precise.
But even then, when genuine sensations seem to occur, in
the sensations themselves there is very often an extraneous
component ( 8 ) . For the organ which provides sensory per-
ception, the sensory cortex in our brain, not only registers
sensations where and when they occur but is also the store-
room of past impressions. When a new sensory stimulus
reaches the cortex, it may reactivate related impressions that
had been stored away in the past. The consequence is that
a sensation rises into consciousness which is not purely of
the moment but is charged with a relation to something
perhaps altogether remote. This is the basis of neurotic be-
havior, and so we sometimes see a person protect himself
from a friendly touch or a dog recoil from a friendly greet-
ing. This is a reaction, not to the actual sensation, but to the
memory of a cruel experience in the past. So in our work
the mere invitation to quiet is often not enough, and we
must devise simple means of inviting sensations in a context
of peace and security where the actual perception may be
recognized and distinguished from the irrelevant or neurotic
component.
In general the work may be described as the gradual un-
folding and cultivation of sensibility, of greater range and
delicacy of feeling, which brings about concurrently the
awakening and freeing of our innate energies. This we prac-
tice through the activity of sensing. Sensing alone is an
astonishing and rich experience. Many people, hungry for
more depth and immediacy in living, want it for its own
sake. Others come to become keener and more differentiated
in their perceptions. Others, again, come to free themselves
from habits and blocks—often from aches and pains. What-
ever the entrance gate may be, whether general inclination
or very actual need, the paths are soon all interwoven. We
mav start just for the delight of going deeper and presently
collide with heretofore unknown blocks which must gradually
dissolve for fuller living and more availability for our daily
tasks and circumstances. Or, on the other hand, we may
start with specific symptoms and in the course of working
discover the scope and richness, the many-dimensionality of
simple functioning. In sensing the person will meet con-
sciously for the first time the creative, self-directive powers
 SENSORY AWARENESS 235
of his own nature, finding that he can orient himself where
he formerly used to seek advice and that his most reliable
sources of information and guidance lie within him.
In our classes I give occasion to the students to feel more
clearly what is happening in their own organisms. To experi-
ence this, as I have said, we need quiet and peace. No urging
can bring anyone to faster sensations; on the contrary, it
would only block experiencing. At first, lying on the floor
may help bring quiet, for nearly everybody likes to lie down
and with that gains a feeling of comfort which facilitates
sensory awakening. Of course, some people who are particu-
larly restless may feel this is indulgence and become uneasy.
Others who have always equated consciousness with activity
will become drowsy. But gradually they recognize that peace
can bring gradual clearing of the head rather than drowsiness
and that giving time as needed is essential for the develop-
ment of quiet alertness.
Soon the first discoveries come: Here one lies comfortably,
here it presses. "The floor presses," a person may announce,
sure of his discovery—only to recognize later that the "press-
ing" comes from him; here one feels free, while somewhere
else constricted. One person may feel light in lying, another
heavy. One may get fresh, another tired. At some point the
insight comes that all these sensations are simply personal
reactions which can be accepted without evaluation and
labeling and explored for new and fuller understanding, and
that "right" and "wrong" are inappropriate here. The receiv-
ing and accepting of messages from inside and outside, with-
out feeling pangs of bad conscience or a sense of failure
when they are not as expected, contributes greatly to one's
sense of independence and, of course, leads to further and
clearer sensing and to surer discoveries. Little by little the
tendency to expect diminishes and vanishes, so that sensa-
tions can arrive just as they are; and gradually the general
tendency to notice only in terms of what feels pleasant or
unpleasant diminishes too.
Concurrently with these first attempts goes a reorientation
of the head. Is it possible to give up watching, a kind of
looking into what happens even when the eyes are closed?
Is it possible to give up associative, compulsive thinking—
the internal gossip, the talking to oneself?
The student begins to become aware of changes which
happen all by themselves—the effects of the self-directive
236 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
processes within the organism. At this stage he only feels
the effects, not yet how they come about. He may become
warmer or cooler, or his lying which felt heavy may be-
come lighter. Or the floor which formerly "pressed" now
"feels so soft", or where he felt tense before he may feel
resting now. He may feel an urge to yawn and gradually
dare to let a yawn break through. He may become conscious
of his breathing as it changes from slower to faster or faster
to slower or stops and picks up again. Occasional questioning
by the teacher may make him more conscious of this or
that; and it is the part of the teacher to sense how much
time is needed for exploration and when to stimulate or
indicate directions that may bear fruit. But though such
questions are often felt in the beginning to be suggestive,
it is in the nature of the work that the student's discoveries
are his own. The suggestiveness is only his own suggestibility
(or his wish to please the teacher), and this also diminishes
as his independence grows.
The basic human activities of lying, sitting, standing and
walking, which in a culture more attuned to the significance
of these activities were called "the four dignities of man,"
offer the easiest opportunity of discovering our attitudes to
our environment and the extent to which we are conscious
of what we are doing. It is obvious that many people stand
as little as possible because it tires them, sleep on mattresses
that are carefully designed to give to them and "sit" in
overstuffed or contoured chairs, thereby to a great extent
avoiding full contact with the environment. Rather than
accept an environment which requires vitality and giving
on their part, they seek one which permits them to maintain
their "tensions" and flaccidities intact while actually suppos-
ing that this "easy life" brings "relaxation." Of course, the
insulation from contact which all this "comfort" represents
leads, like any insulation, to a degree of starvation and merely
encourages the tensions to grow and actual rest to become
ever more elusive.
When confronted with a genuine opportunity to permit
change and renewal, such as a hard floor or a stool where
there is nothing to lean against, many new students suppose
a considerable task has been set them; and on the stool they
will either collapse or hold themselves erect, imagining this
is sitting. Much time is needed before these complementary
attitudes, between which their sitting experiences have been
 SENSORY AWARENESS 237

divided, begin to yield to a relationship and connection in

which the sensation of the outer realities of the chair and
the pull of gravity and the inner reality of life processes in
tissues and structural coordination blend together into living
functioning. Each of the processes involved—really experi-
encing the pull of gravity, not only thinking about it, and the
becoming conscious of growing aliveness and more change-
ability—is an unexpected and delightful finding in itself, en-
couraging more exploration. Likewise, in lying on the floor
many pertinent sensations may come to consciousness, raising
ever clearer questions. Are we in contact with what we touch
or acting as though we were in a vacuum? Do we accept
the support of the floor or the chair, or do we pull away
from it? Or do we press on it or close ourselves against it,
or push into it? This is psychosomatic language, which tells
us so much more than our usual intellectual language: These
are not just "tensions" which need to be "relaxed" or "limber-
ness" which is "right." Innumerable indications in this lan-
guage of the tissues express the attitudes we have acquired
—often through very painful experiences. But in coming to
sense them we can also begin to allow their resolution,
which had heretofore been blocked by their repression from
memory and consciousness. By sensing the here and now
we come to recognize that there is no reason any more to
resist or close ourselves to the situation at hand. As one
becomes more attuned to a given activity, hindering tendencies
gradually disappear, for otherwise a deep connection cannot
come about. At the same time a heightened sense of being
occurs which is, in fact, how real contact can be recognized.
Standing also offers rich possibilities for sensing experi-
ments. Alone the restoration to fuller functioning of the
bare foot (which in flexibility and sensitivity is far nearer to
the hand than we usually realize) offers great rewards. Stand-
ing is the starting point of greatest potential for physical
activity, from which walking, running, fighting, dancing and
all sports begin and to which they return. It is the specifically
human activity, which is exploited by all the less civilized
peoples and by children who have not yet abandoned its uses
and pleasures for the chimera of "relaxation." Easy and
balanced standing, in which our inner reactiveness mobilizes
precisely the energy needed to counterbalance the pull of the
earth, permits a full sensing of the total organism. The
student may discover that he follows mental pictures or
238 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

former instruction instead of messages of his organismic

needs—that he pulls himself up or makes himself broad,
that he stands before an imagined mirror—and that it is not
very easy for him to give it up. The length of limbs and
torso upward and downward, their interconnection with the
head, our width and depth, the coordination of our skeletal
structure and our tissue masses—all these indications of our
extent and character are there to be explored, as are those
more or less subtle but ever-present signs of life in the organic
functioning which our habits and responses so often impede.
Work on balancing is begun only when a considerable
degree of inner awakeness is reached already. We have to
be able to give up the use of the eyes to orient ourselves in
this and entirely rely on sensing. Distinguishing what is habit
(which often feels good because we are so used to it) from
what are new necessities in coordination and being comes
slowly. Daring to give up positions and postures is already
a great step forward. We begin to notice that finest changes
in weight distribution often makes a world of difference in
sensations of effort or ease in muscle tissues. Together with
the gradual approach to the center comes a feeling of light-
ness, freedom and peace incomparable with any other experi-
ence. One begins to discover that one is in constant flux—
nothing is static (9)—for if one wants to "keep" a moment
of balance which has this exquisite quality it is lost. We
realize that it has to be allowed from moment to moment
anew. This calls for keenest awareness. In fact, balancing
creates this kind of awareness in which one wakes up not
only inside but from everything which exists and happens
around one. Students comment on approaching difficult tasks
much more sensibly, on feeling warmer towards others, see-
ing, hearing, perceiving more fully (10) and having new and
deeper thoughts and ideas. "It simply happens this way,"
they discover with astonishment. "I don't have to try—it
comes by itself!"
Lying, sitting and standing to a great extent involve coming,
being and staying in touch with the floor, with the seat on
which one takes a place and sits, with the surface on which
one lies. Also, the more awake one becomes inside and the
more sensitive skin and breathing become, the more one
becomes conscious of the air around one and of the constant
interaction between the environment and oneself.
We often approach the change from sitting to standing, or
 SENSORY AWARENESS 239
from lying to standing, from the point of view of awakening
to the air and to the space through which we move and of
feeling what we approach or leave with our totality and not
just with the immediate region of contact. This "being open"
for what we do, as we sometimes call it, does not mean
making a special effort such as stretching or "concentration,"
but just that we become awake and adjustable to the constant
changes which such simple actions necessitate. This awaken-
ing may have surprising effects: "This is the first time that I
became conscious of the floor under my feet!" There may be
very powerful consequences: "When I left, every blade of
grass reached out toward me and the earth was alive and
supported me" (11).
This is particularly true in an experiment we often prac-
tice: shifting our weight while standing and sensing the
process of walking very slowly backwards and forwards.
Leaving the base of support and returning to it, including
the space traveled in between, can be the occasion for an
intense sense of connection between the whole person and
what is beneath him. Simultaneously, the sense of connec-
tion extends to the whole environment, both animate and
inanimate.
The Buddhist practice of meditative walking, as described
in Shattuck's An Experiment in Mindfulness (12), shows
how such very simple activities, when fully felt, can lead to
the highest states of consciousness and are at the opposite
pole from the "physical" exercises of calisthenics.
It must seem astonishing, in a culture in which what we
call "mind" and what we call "body" are still so separate
(13), that experiences which at first glance seem purely
"physical" can have such far-reaching consequences in per-
sonal life. In balancing, for example, a student who found
himself either not coming close enough to where balance
happens or going beyond it suddenly realized that this was
how he acted in life: "I either hold back or go too far. I am
either not interested or too much involved." When a state of
higher awakeness is reached throughout the organism, people
experience, often for the first time, a true feeling of self, a
vivid sense of existing. A constant rapport with daily life is
fostered. After discovering contractions around the eyes and
a consistent tension in the area of the inner ears and at the
base of the skull, with the consequent release which such
awareness makes possible, a mother reported: "This week I
240 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

could be more sensitive with my children. I was not as de-

manding as usually." It became clear to her that her attitude
to the children and the condition which she could sense inside
her head were two sides of the same coin.
After work on sitting, a student stated: "For the first time
I really sat at the dinner table, and I tasted the food so
much more." After experiencing more space and freedom in
his organism, a student reported: "I had to rearrange my
room and throw a number of things out. I need more space
to move in!" Many reports from those working in the arts
speak of the immense effects on their work when the ca-
pacities for the nuances of tasting and feeling are enlarged.
Experiencing becomes deeper and more differentiated by
our work in perception: the attuning of our sense organs and
the recovery of their innate automatic reactiveness. We work
on allowing more quiet in and around the eyes, on giving
up the effort in looking and on "letting come" rather than
"doing," so that what comes through vision can be received
not by the eyes alone but by our totality, and one can truly
say: "I see," or "I hear." We allow our eyes and ears, mouth,
nose, hands, feet—our whole sensitized surface, antenna-like
—just to be the entrance doors through which impressions,
sensations, odors, tastes and sounds enter us, there to be re-
ceived, absorbed and digested by our whole self. We practice
sitting quietly, with eyes closed and becoming receptive to
whatever sounds may reach us (slight stirrings, voices, wind or
rain, music next door, street noises, etc.) without trying to
identify and label them immediately, but letting them freely
enter us and be experienced. Quietly allowing our eyes to
open, without "looking," we receive impressions: the people
in the room whose presence speaks to us in many ways; ob-
jects and plants; the play of color; light and shadow; the
garden downstairs and people moving through it; the city
traffic. In stillness and openness, striking changes occur in our
ability to perceive; our voice also is influenced; so are our
movements, our being with people and all our creative ac-
tivities.
People work together. One person helps the other to new
discoveries. In this atmosphere of peace many more shutters
can be opened. Seeing a person, one senses more of what is
going on in him. The fine movements of breathing, his
expression, the whole language of his body begins to speak.
In this nonverbal communication, the coming more in touch
 SENSORY AWARENESS 241
without actual touching is the first fruit of growing quiet and
sensitive.
Touch itself helps greatly to mobilize or soothe a person
so that sensing is made easier, emotional reactiveness is in-
creased, and inner changes can more easily come about. One
student may place his hands on both sides of another student's
head or around the top or back of his head, and both may
sense what the presence of the hands brings about in the re-
ceiver. Or the touch is given on the other's shoulders or
chest, or at the small of the back, knees, feet, the abdominal
wall—anywhere. Or when one is lying or sitting, another may
slowly and delicately move his limbs or his head to try out
whether he intereferes by resisting or by doing the moving
himself. "It's just as it is in the taxi: I always help the driver
drive." Of course, so much depends on one's approach: The
quality of the touch instantly influences the other. It is hard to
believe, even when people have spent much of their lives
thinking about sensitivity, how little they have at their dis-
posal when it comes to practice. I remember a fine writer,
in a session, suddenly raising his hands to his head and ex-
claiming: "I have written about this—I have never ex-
perienced it!" He was sensitive enough to have this recog-
nition, but most people are not. Few of us are sufficiently
awake to feel how far away we are from real contact and
how much of what we live is just following ideas and
images. Absent-mindedness, shyness, aggressiveness, lingering
taboos, meaningless manipulation, restlessness, all become
manifest in a touch. Most people immediately want to do
something to or for their partner, instead of just being there
for him. No wonder there are many negative reactions. It
takes time to develop the inner preparation needed for full
presence in approaching or leaving another, and the sense of
the creative pause in which the after-effects are allowed to
take their course.
But even when the approach is sensitive, some of us shy
away from such personal contact with a "stranger." I re-
member one student who resisted violently when another was
asked to move his arm and called it an "assault on his pri-
vacy." Quiet, patient work is necessary before such needs for
isolation can gradually give way to an admitting of relation-
ship. But for those who do not hold themselves on guard or
translate our attempts into "techniques" which they want to
learn and employ (another means of evading the really hu-
 I
ill 2 4 2 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
ill
] man, intuitive connection), reactions may be unexpected and
!
! deeply moving. In a class a student said, weeping, "Nobody
;.'i has ever touched me so kindly!" And another, when her part-
{,;.; ner thanked her for her help, which "felt so good," said with
! tears in her eyes, "How could I have known what to do?" This
is the beginning of trust in oneself—a first indication that we
i do know but never have tapped these deep layers in our-
' selves. New avenues are slowly being opened, for when it
; can happen once, it is possible and needs now only time and
!j occasion to happen more and more often.
: There are many ways in which people work together. One
i which we often use to awake and refresh ourselves is slapping
—either ourselves or one another. We may tap the head,
j or a small area of the chest or shoulder girdle to get more
' alerted in our breathing and then cease the tapping so that
I the reactions thus created may continue and go their way
j spontaneously. Tapping or slapping can be very stimulating;
|j it can also be so boring that it puts one to sleep. It all de-
; pends on the quality of the tap. Is it mechanical? Is one's
•:'I|J mind somewhere else while one is tapping? Is it just something
one is told to do—or is one ready for it, really staying with
I •> it from moment to moment and giving what is needed? Full
participation is necessary, both in receiving and in giving.
Here one must tap lighter, here stronger to penetrate to the
ji' depth; here more time is needed, here more yet, now it may be
! already too much. How do I know? / can sense it. Our inner
indicator is at work. The intuitive connection with the situation
1 can more and more unfold by being cultivated. It merely re-
| quires giving the situation one's respect and care, allowing the
quiet to feel out both one's own part and the other's. Each
one, the "giver" and the "receiver," can be tuned in for what
is needed and for what happens. Respect for life and living
tissue fosters more life and refinement. The quality of the tap
or slap is constantly explored; punitive associations or ele-
ments are recognized; callousness, apathy, timidity, im-
r patience, aggressiveness—all the "character traits" may be
discovered and gradually relinquished in favor of what is
appropriate to the here and now. What is appropriate is im-
mediately felt as satisfying.
Of course, what is true of slapping is true of all other
contacts—of how one plays the piano, or speaks in a con-
versation or washes dishes. It becomes particularly clear in the
classes when, for example, one student is invited to place his
 SENSORY AWARENESS 243
hand on another's forehead. Some people at first, in their un-
related and restless way, just push at the other and create dis-
turbance. "The first set of hands felt cold and aggressive;
the second soothed me and made me feel easier."
Here are two people without connection to each other. The
first toucher is "cold and aggressive," but the recipient him-
self is one who thinks of a person as a "set of hands." Such
a tendency to the disconnected and superficial only slowly
gives way to a growing sense of communion. When it does
give way our attitudes in daily life will change, for the
quality of contact is acute in all our relationships. After
such experiences a woman reported that she had become con-
scious of habitually interrupting her husband when he hesi-
tated in conversation to say the word she felt he was looking
for. "This time," she said, "I had the patience to wait for
him. At the end of the evening he said that this was the first
real conversation he had had with me in a long, long time.
He thanked me, and since then our relationship has been
much better."
Hand in hand with the awakening of the proprioceptive
sense and the sense of touch, which, compared with seeing
and hearing, have been so neglected in our upbringing—when
not tabooed or, at the least, stigmatized as "indulgence" and
"sensuality"—a new depth and vitality arise in all other
senses. Elsa Gindler once expressed it: "It tastes, it smells,
it hears, it sees, it feels through us."
In this phase of the work we turn again and again to the
cultivation of inner quiet, so that in a true sense one can be-
come all eyes, as one sometimes calls a heightened receptivity.
"Do you see with your feet? Do you hear with your belly?"
Zuzuki reports the Zen master asking. These questions do
not call for a mystical explanation, as so many people think;
they are merely a vivid way of describing total functioning, a
being there for it throughout. As long as the head is still
busy, full sensory receptivity is impossible; while with in-
creasing stillness in the head, all perception, traveling un-
impeded through the organism, automatically becomes sharp-
er and more in context. In this new stage of more awareness
and permissiveness the self-directive powers of the organism
reveal themselves ever clearer, and we experience on a deeper
level the unexpected transformations we can undergo.
When the rigidities and muscular activities in the head
that attend unnecessary effort, insistence or anxiety are
244 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
gradually replaced by sensations of life-processes of weight
and changes in weight distribution until one reaches a state
of relative balance, simultaneous changes happen throughout
the whole person. The closer we come to such a state of
greater balance in the head, the quieter we become, the more
our head "clears," the lighter and more potent we feel.
Energy formerly bound is now more and more at our disposal.
Pressure and hurry change into freedom for speed. We find
ourselves being more one with the world where we formerly
had to cross barriers. Thoughts and ideas "come" in lucidity
instead of being produced. We don't have to try to express
ourselves (as the word so vividly depicts), but utterances be-
come just part of natural functioning. Experiences can be
allowed to be more fully received and to mature in us. As
Heinrich Jacoby once remarked: "Through becoming con-
scious we have been driven out of paradise, through con-
sciousness we can come back to paradise."
References
1. Schachtel, Ernest: On Memory and Childhood Amnesia.
In Mullahy, Patrick (ed.): Part I, A Study of Interper-
sonal Relations. New York, Hermitage Press, 1949.
2. Although Gindler and Jacoby assembled a great deal of
material, almost none of it has been published. Most of
Gindler's was destroyed during the bombing of Berlin. At
this writing, Jacoby's is being posthumously edited by
Dr. Ruth Matter, Zurich.
3. Jacoby, Heinrich: Muss es unmusikalische geben? Zu-
rich, 1925. Obtainable from Dr. Ruth Matter, Tobler-
strasse 94, Zurich.
4. Goldstein, Kurt: The Organism. New York, American
Book Co., 1939.
5. Zuzuki, D. T.: Zen Buddhism. New York, Doubleday,
1956.
6. Selver, Charlotte: Sensory awareness and total function-
ing. Gen. Semantics Bull. pp. 21-22, 1957.
7. Selver, Charlotte: op cit., p. 10.
8. Schilder, Paul: The Image and Appearance of the Hu-
man Body. New York, International Universities Press,
1950.
9. Cf. Watts, Alan: The Wisdom of Insecurity. New York,
Pantheon, 1951.
10. Compare also Fromm, Erich: The Art of Loving. New
York, Harper, 1956.
 SHAMANISM 245
11. Experiences like this, which are not uncommon in the
work and which may lead to basic reorientations of the
individual, may be compared with the satori of Zen
Buddhism and with the frequently reported "religious"
or "cosmic" experiences induced by LSD.
12. Shattuck, E. H.: An Experiment in Mindfulness. New
York, Dutton, 1960.
13. Whyte, C. R., L. L.: The Next Development in Man.
New York, Mentor, 1950.

Shakti Yoga (See YOGA, p. 278.)

Shamanism
Currently there is much interest in magic and witches. It
seems wise to look back (and in some cases across, for there
are cultures where the tradition of the magic healer lies
unbroken) for some basic thoughts on the subject. One
possible starting place is Shamanism, often referred to
when one is speaking of the magic healer. This entry does
not thoroughly cover Shamanism, but does begin to define
one of the ways in which nonindustrialized cultures have
produced men whose field was psychology, religion, healing,
faith, and magic.
Nonindustrialized cultures have always had doctors,
priests, and psychotherapists. The word "shaman" has
come to be used to designate such people. Mircea Eliade
writes: 1

Since the beginning of the century, ethnologists have fallen

into the habit of using the terms 'shaman,' 'medicine man,'
'sorcerer,' and 'magician,' interchangeably to designate cer-
tain individuals possessing magico-religious powers and found
in all primitive societies. By extension, the same terminology
has been applied in studying the religious history of 'civilized'
peoples, and there have been discussions, for example, of an
Indian, an Iranian, a Germanic, a Chinese, and even a
Babylonian 'shamanism' with reference to the 'primitive'
elements attested in the corresponding religions. For many
reasons this confusion can only militate against any under-
l
Shamanism (New York: Pantheon, 1964).
246 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
standing of shamanic phenomenon. If the word 'shaman' is
taken to mean any magician, sorcerer, medicine man, or
ecstatic found throughout the history of religion and religious
ethnology, we arrive at a notion at once extremely complex
and extremely vague; it seems furthermore, to serve no
purpose, for we already have the terms 'magician' or 'sor-
cerer* to express notions as unlike and as ill denned as
'primitive magic' or 'primitive mysticism.'
We consider it advantageous to restrict the use of the words
'shaman' and 'shamanism,' precisely to avoid misunderstand-
ing and to cast a clearer light on the history of 'magic' and
'sorcery.' For, of course, the shaman is also a magician
and medicine man; he is believed to cure, like all doctors, and
to perform miracles of the fakir type, like all magicians,
whether primitive or modern. But beyond this, he is a
psychopomp, and he may also be priest, mystic, and poet. In
the dim, 'confusionistic' mass of the religious life of the
archaic societies considered as a whole, shamanism—taken in
its strict and exact sense—already shows a structure of its
own and implies a 'history' that there is every reason to clari-

Shamanism in the strict sense is pre-eminently a religious

phenomenon of Siberia and Central Asia. The word comes
to us, through the Russian, from the Tungusic saman. . . .
Throughout the immense area comprising Central and North
Asia, the magico-religious life of society centers on the
shaman. This, of course, does not mean that he is the one
and only manipulator of the sacred, not that the religious ac-
tivity is completely usurped by him. In many tribes the sacri-
ficing priest coexists with the shaman, not to mention the
fact that every head of a family is also the head of the
domestic cult. Nevertheless, the shaman remains the domi-
nating figure; for through this whole region in which ecstatic
experience is considered the religious experience par excel-
lence, the shaman, and he alone, is the great master of
ecstasy. A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and
perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique
of ecstasy.
As such, it was documented and described by the earliest
travelers in the various countries of Central and North Asia.
Later, similar magico-religious phenomena were observed in
North America, Indonesia, Oceania, and elsewhere. And, as
we shall soon see, these latter phenomena are thoroughly
 SHAMANISM 247
shamanic, and there is every reason to study them together
with Siberian shamanism. Yet, one observation must be made
at the outset: the presence of a shamanic complex in one
region or another does not necessarily mean that the magico-
religious life of the corresponding people is crystallized
around shamanism. This can occur (as, for example, in cer-
tain parts of Indonesia), but it is not the most usual state of
affairs. Generally, shamanism coexists with other forms of
magic and religion.
It is here that we see all the advantage of employing the
term 'shamanism' in its strict and proper sense. For, if we
take the trouble to differentiate the shaman form from other
magicians and medicine men of primitive societies, the identi-
fication of shaman complexes in one or another region im-
mediately acquires definite significance. Magic and magicians
are to be found more or less all over the world, whereas
shamanism exhibits a particular magical specialty, on which
we shall later dwell at length: 'mastery over fire,' 'magical
flight,' and so on. By virtue of this fact, though the shaman
is, among other things, a magician, not every magician can
properly be termed a shaman. The same distinction must be
applied in regard to shamanic healing; every medicine man
is a healer, but the shaman employs a method that is his and
his alone. As for the shamanic techniques of ecstasy, they
do not exhaust all the varieties of ecstatic experience docu-
mented in the history of religions and religious ethnology.
Hence, any ecstatic cannot be considered a shaman; the
shaman specializes in a trance during which his soul is be-
lieved to leave his body and ascend to the sky or descend to
the underworld.
Other books on faith healing in nonindustrialized cultures
include Jerome Frank, Persuasion and Healing (New York:
Schocken, 1961), and an anthology edited by Ari Kiev,
Magic, Faith and Healing (New York: Free Press, 1964).
Also see Leslie Weatherhead's Psychology, Religion and
Healing, (New York: Abingdon Press, 1951), a survey in
which the early and modern methods of healing through re-
ligion, the modern methods of healing through psychology
(the psychotherapies) are both discussed and their interde-
pendence outlined.
|; 2 4 8 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
I;!

I Sheldon's Types
j Other systems of human types of value to the sensitive
I student are the psychological types of Jung's approach, the
study of character traits which ASTROLOGY does so well,
! and the ways of the I Ching and of the TAROT.

: Ever since the days of Hippocrates the existence of varieties

| of types and temperaments has been recognized. Hippocrates
himself, a careful observer, noted that certain physiques carry
with them certain weaknesses, a proneness to certain diseases.
Dominated as he was by the theory of the four humors, he
classified types accordingly; designating them choleric, melan-
| cholic, phlegmatic and sanguinic. It was not a bad classifica-
| tion as far as it went and remained in use for more than two
[ thousand years.
Recent, more sophisticated classifications (Ernst Kretch-
jj mer's, Carl Jung's, W. H. Sheldon's, 1 J. J. Eysenck's, R. B.
I Cattell's 2 ) bring to the science of typology a wealth of bio-
: chemical and morphological data which may, at times, seem
i; embarrassing in its abundance. For practical purposes it seems
;j difficult to improve upon the system offered by Sheldon in his
: two books, The Varieties of Human Physique and The
I Varieties of Temperament. . . .
Sheldon's basic theory (supported by an abundance of
; evidence) is that temperament is related to physique. This
is intuitively known by every novelist and playwright. Shake-
|, speare's three prototypes, Falstaff, Hotspur, and Hamlet,
: correspond both physically and temperamentally to Sheldon's
three physical morphs and three temperamental tonias. Fal-
' staff is the extreme endomorph. He is shaped like a barrel
('this tun of a man'), typically oval in outline. Hamlet, the
irresolute thinker, is lean and angular, linear in outline, the
|| typical ectomorph. Their temperaments correspond to their
physiques. Falstaff, with his passion for eating, is viscerotonic;
Hotspur, with his passion for action and risk, is somatotonic;
Hamlet, entangled in his endless cerebration, is cerebrotonic.
By Sheldon's system both the somatotype (variety of phy-
x
Sheldon, W. H.: The Varieties of Temperament (New York: Har-
per & Bros., 1942).
a
Eysenck, H. J.: The Scientific Study of Personality (London: Rout-
ledge and Kegan Paul, 1952).
 STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION 249
sique) and the variety of temperament can be quantitatively
expressed. The 'index of physique' has three figures, the first
measuring endomorphy, the second mesomorphy, the third
ectomorphy. They range from 1 to 7. Thus an index of phy-
sique reading 7-1-1 informs us that this is a body having the
highest possible level of endomorphy unbalanced by any
strength in the other components (a comical fat man, Kretsch-
mer's 'pyknic practical joke'). But a 3-4-3 index would
indicate a balanced physique with a slight preponderance in
mesomorphy. Similarly, the index of temperament has three
figures, measuring viscerotonia, somatotonia and cerebro-
tonia in that order. They too, range from 1 to 7. An index
of temperament of 7-1-1 indicates extreme viscerotonia with
no compensating strength in the other components. But a
4-4-4 index suggests a richly endowed temperament in which
all three components are well developed.
He who would know his own essence should evaluate both
his somatotype and his temperament and learn to estimate
these quantities in others. . . . The practice encourages the
development of objectivity and sharpens observation.3
This is the barest outline of Sheldon's schema. In The
Master Game (pp. 115-31), DeRopp elaborates on it and
advises the reader to consult Sheldon's original texts for a
full understanding of the model.

Structural Integration
Structural Integration is a basic building block of growth.
In that HATHA YOGA is a system for restructuring the body,
it is similar to Structural Integration, however the methods
and outcome differ. Those who study SENSORY AWARENESS
for enough time to make it their way of life also undergo a
fundamental change and improvement of structure. There
are many other ways which can move the direction in
which one grows; however, perhaps none effects a change
in structure as quickly as Structural Integration.
Structural Integration is the creation of Dr. Ida Rolf.
She writes:1
•Robert DeRopp, The Master Game (New York: Delacorte Press,
1968).
^'Gravity, an Unexplored Factor in a More Human Use of Human
Beings." Privately published.
250 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
In any attempt to create an integrated individual, an ob-
vious starting place is his physical body, if for no other rea-
son than to examine the old premise that a man can project
only that which is within. To the medical specialist, this body,
and this alone, is the man. To the psychiatrist, this body is
less than the man; it is merely the externalized expression
of personality. Neither of these specialists has accepted as
real a third possibility, namely, that in some way, as yet poor-
ly defined, the physical body is actually the personality, rather
than its expression, is the energy unit we call man, as it exists
in its material, three-dimensional reality.

Viewing a human photograph, a naive observer will prob-

ably remark that the feet, legs, pelvis, abdomen, chest,
arms, and even head are aspects of a single, whole person.
Yet chances are that if you ask him to close his eyes, be
still for a moment, and place a hand over the part of his
body where he feels most alive, he will probably put his
hand on his head. Most heads weigh about sixteen pounds
and stand about five feet off the ground. Obviously, there
are limits to what one can do in the world with just a
head. Yet there are people in the world who assume that
if a head were connected to the proper machines for air
and circulation of blood, with mechanical support to hold
the head upright, life would continue.
After some practice in disciplines described in this book,
a student will soon notice that people who do not live as
an organism in an environment look as though they are out
of touch with both. Their eyes are overworked or sleepy;
in speaking, there seem to be just words involved; their
walking is awkward and unresilient; their driving in novel
situations is unsure, and so forth. He begins to notice these
things because he has, in one degree or another, felt him-
self as a whole. He has learned the difference between liv-
ing in and through the body in the world, and being divided
inside with a head and a body and a world. A student of
Ida Rolf's work quickly comes to understand these things,
since Structural Integration work changes the balance of
the body and this changes all aspects of the person.
Rolf processing results in a reawakening. Through re-
leasing chronically contracted muscles and letting the body
move back toward its natural symmetry, the physical basis
of experience is unblocked. Breathing becomes free again,
 STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION 251
delicately responsive to the immediate situation. The me-
tabolism of the muscles and of the entire body reenergizes.
These changes are being measured, recorded, and compared
by instruments in current research projects. The processing
lets the person reclaim his right to be balanced in space, the
force of gravity working through his structure rather than
pulling it down. The result is a way of being in which you
can move freely and responsively.
Muscle tissue, formerly nonelastic, is released and re-
positioned, thickened tissue is energized, resulting in a
new pattern of body movement. Repair of tissue occurs
spontaneously as the body is brought to balance. Muscles
seem to expand as they are released. Rolf processing guides
the structure toward its natural alignment, toward a natural
three-dimensional symmetry, toward balance.
In balanced movement, muscles move freely, expanding
and contracting in response to the body's requirements as
it moves, rhythmically playing the body's weight between
lengthening and flexing muscles. The body does not hold
itself upright, it is balanced upright. Free, responsive
movement is essential for the health of muscle tissue.
Through pumping action—expanding and contracting—
muscles govern their own metabolic exchange rate, the
rate of use of vitalizing and healing nutriments and oxygen,
and the rate of disposal of waste.
Muscles are bundles of fibers literally held together by
fascia, and the condition of the fascia determines the
health of the muscle. Rolf processing works on the myo-
fascial system. The processing begins with a pattern of ten
standard hour-long sessions which systematically release
the muscles and guide them back to natural alignment.
One of the major contributions of Rolf's work has been
the recognition of the natural pattern of the body. A play-
ful analogy is that of hitting a sleeping donkey on his
flanks while at the same time pulling his bridle in the di-
rection you want him to go. To awaken one sleeping don-
key (muscle) and get him moving in the right direction
is one thing; to get hundreds of donkeys moving together
is quite another. And this is what must be done, for the
muscle groups of the body are designed to work with
each other in specific ways.
The ten-session series of Structural Integration releases
muscles that have grown together and become relatively
252 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
inelastic. As they are freed and can lengthen, the skeletal
frame and the organs are able to seek out a more natural
relationship. People who thought they were fat because they
had potbellies find that the angle of their pelvic structure
has weakened the abdominal wall and caused the ab-
dominal contents to spill forward out of the basin provided
by a mobile pelvis. People who thought their flat feet were
permanently flat and weak find that they can literally hoist
themselves up by the bootstrap muscles in their legs. Peo-
ple who walk about in what Charlie Brown calls his "de-
pressed stance" find that getting their head on top of their
shoulders and their legs under themselves lets them truly
face the world.
The body is expressive of emotional states; emotional
states give rise to physical attitudes, and physical—structural
—states give rise to emotional attitudes. Rolf processing
is a constant interplay, integrating the physical and emo-
tional, contact with the practitioner and awareness of self,
awareness of new strength and new possibilities of move-
ment. There is often some pain in the process of getting
things unstuck, but it is the pain of growing. The body is
as many-leveled as the mind: there are times when sexual,
aggressive, spiritual overtones blend with the joy of
feeling regions of the body release and fill with sensation-
feeling and a new awareness of connectedness and strength.
Everyday experiences become fuller and freer, as the body
—and hence the whole organism—becomes responsive.
There are Rolf practitioners all over the country, center-
ing in California. There is a newly formed Guild for Struc-
tural Integration (1874 Fell St., San Francisco, Calif.
94117) and a Bulletin of Structural Integration (quarterly,
1334 23d St., Santa Monica, Calif. 90404), which will print
chapters of a forthcoming book on Structural Integration as
they are prepared.

Synanon
Synanon cannot be readily compared to any other way of
growth: it is a big ship and has a very idiosyncratic rigging
and sailing pattern. Fortunately, many major cities have a
local Synanon house, so many persons can investigate this
way firsthand. It is unfortunate that most, perhaps all, maga-
zine articles on this way have been written by persons who

i
 SYNANON 253
took a few quick walks around the deck and took notes from j!
the ship's log, rather than signing on for an extended j
cruise. k
Synanon is a series of houses, some of them big old j;
hotels or clubs, others relatively small. They are outgrowths
of the apartment where Charles Dederich began to work \\
with himself and others some ten years ago. Since then '
thousands have lived in his houses. There are about 1,400
residents, and about 2,000 club members who live else-
where and make the local house a second home.
Residents have a situation attracting them to the live-in,
twenty-four-hour Synanon environment. Drug and alcohol
addiction are common backgrounds; but many have come
simply because they see Synanon as a place to get a fresh
start. Residents and club members are attracted to the vi-
tality of the houses and the emphasis on the quality of
human relationship.
Residents are automatically staff members; club mem-
bers are urged to and usually do work a number of hours
each week. The work varies. The larger houses have bands.
All houses have hustlers, whose work is to solicit and col-
lect contributions for food, shoes, paint, and trucking. Do-
nations of money and materials keep Synanon going.
Government support is minimal, which is somewhat of a
surprise when you consider the recovery rate in, for ex-
ample, government narcotics hospitals.
Synanon is something of a social movement, or at least a
social subculture of a novel design. No one is paid for
services. Everyone receives food, lodging, clothing. A club
member can have lunch or dinner whenever he wishes.
Indoor swimming pools and steam baths are free. Every-
thing basically is free, including the peanut butter and
bread usually kept beside the coffee and tea.
The environment of Synanon has created group models,
of which the Synanon game is best known. Describing the
game is futile, since its design is constantly changing along
with the environment which created it. It is often a small
(8 to 14) intensive group which meets for two hours.
Residents may game two or three times a week, club mem-
bers usually once a week. The composition of the game
group changes each time. The atmosphere changes. Some
games are boring, some are incredibly vital and fruitful. ;
In most, anything goes, short of physical violence. Once a •

k
254 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

game begins, you are on your own: no one is safe, the

club manager may be devastated by the newest member
who spends eight hours a day emptying ashtrays. Then the
group may focus on the new member and harass him, wake
him up, joke at him, say anything that comes to mind.
Sooner or later, the game player finds that the game is an
educational opportunity. He is playing with people who
have come to know something of him, in the game and
during the day. Much of what is said is accurate commen-
tary on aspects of himself he did not know. Following
the game everyone usually goes off to the coffee shop or
lounge areas and talks, becomes more involved with
others. Through game and other activities people become
interwoven, concerned with each other. And the concern
and involvement is basically honest, direct contact, not
superficial as usual. This is what lends vitality to Synanon.
The activities at Synanon would fill a small book. There
is an academy at Synanon which offers unconventional
study in conventional subjects such as accounting and
English. A format known as "stew" is a continuous game,
with participants signing up for twenty-four-hour stints. The
game is open to spectators. A format known as "cerebra-
tion" seems to be an intensive discussion group on themes
such as love, honesty, sailboats, and relativity. A "trip"
is a two- or three-day marathon game. At the Tomales Cen-
ter—where Dederich lives and a small city is under con-
struction—which may be considered a research and develop-
ment center for Synanon in general, the format of
"cubic days" was evolved. Two people team up on
kitchen duty, or carpentry; one is completely off duty
for ten days while his partner works a double shift. The
ten free days begin with a two- or three-day reach or
marathon game/learning format, and there is another one-
day game toward the end of the ten days. Each person
in his ten days off is to loaf, do as he wishes and come up
with some kind of creative discovery in relation to his
work, others, or through an art form.
Becoming a Synanon resident is difficult for those without
character disorders, but anyone can become a club mem-
ber. All the houses have game clubs, and an open house on
Saturday nights.
Synanon has reprints of most major newspaper and
magazine articles about their approach. There is a series
 T'AI CHI CH'UAN 255
of pamphlets and two books available: Lewis Yablon-
sky's Synanon: The Tunnel Back (Baltimore: Penguin,
1965) is four hundred pages of process specifics and history;
Guy Endore's Synanon (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday,
1968) describes everyday occurrences in the houses, and is
more easily read and less synthetic than Yablonsky's book.
Synanon houses include: Synanon Club (1910 Ocean
Front, Santa Monica, Calif. 90405), the oldest and largest
house, a mammoth old beach hotel; another Synanon Club
(1215 Clay St., Oakland, Calif. 94612), one of the newest
and largest houses, formerly the Athens Club of Oakland;
Tomales Bay (near Tomales Bay on the California Coast),
open by invitation only, an old mansion and new con-
struction; Synanon House (35 Riverside Dr., New York,
N. Y. 10023); and another Synanon House (8344 Jeffer-
son St., Detroit, Mich. 48214).
A parting note: Becoming familiar with Synanon in-
volves more commitment than a few Saturday nights or a
few months of playing games. Working on a part-time basis,
playing the games, and most of all becoming involved with
the members on an ongoing basis is the minimum for
getting to know this environment or any environment-
based approach.

Tai Chi Ch'uan

In T'ai Chi Ch'uan one must learn to meditate on one's
feet, while moving with one's focus on the subtleties of
one's energy flow. This is done through practicing a series
of movement schemes in which the accuracy of one's outer
form is as important as one's inner experience. This is a
way which must receive regular practice and full personal
involvement. For those who persevere there is no doubt
of its psychological and physiological potency and gentle-
ness. In Taiwan and other parts of the Orient city parks
are filled with individuals practicing this way in the first
light of the day. The entries on AIKIDO and HARA are
related to this discipline.
Sophia Delza defines Tai Chi Ch'uan: 1
Tai Chi Ch'uan is a form of Ch'uan. To call Tai Chi
. Ch'uan Body and Mind in Harmony is to state its essence in
t | . xBody and Mind in Harmony (New York: McKay, 1961).

•
256 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
a few succinct words. In T'ai Chi Ch'uan—An Ancient Chi-
nese Way of Exercise to Achieve Health and Tranquility,
its nature is indicated in terms of the objectives to be reached.
But only by translating T'ai Chi Ch'uan literally de we give it
its real significance . . .
What is Ch'uan? Ch'uan means fist, metaphorically ac-
tion, a word that connotes power and control over one's ac-
tions: the epitome of organized movement and the ultimate
in protection of the self. To be an expert in Ch'uan is to
have immunity—immunity from destructive external forces
and from poor health. It is also to have the power to control
the self. The uses of this power and the ends toward which
it is to be directed depend entirely upon the inclinations and
interests of the individual; these may range from the purely
physical to the philosophic or spiritual.
To us in the West, a fist provocatively denotes aggressive
attack. A fisted hand, on the contrary, in terms of ancient
Chinese thought, meant concentration, isolation and contain-
ment, as depicted in wood blocks showing figures in various
exercising positions: (Kung-Fu) with fisted hands. We can
assume that Ch'uan implies the active as controlled by the
inactive—the active being form or matter and the inactive
being spirit or mind.
As a synonym for exercise, the deep implications as to its
usefulness, Ch'uan is a technique of organized harmonious
forms. Its essence is continuity of action where each move-
ment evolves from and grows out of what it is joined to, which
spurs on and motivates the oncoming movement. The cor-
respondence between the parts of the body is essential to
structure, idea, and feeling. 'One single movement suffices to
affect other movements.' 'No isolated rest without eventually
enveloping the whole.' 'Just as in the turning flow of a
stream, so the positions are determined by the spaces be-
tween.'2
Symbolically, Ch'uan is mental and physical co-ordination.
If the body is in fine health, then the mind can function skill-
fully and adroitly. The body is the form, and the mind, which
is the spirit, is actually the moving force. Mental 'motion' is
present with every physical action. T'ai Chi Ch'uan is 'con-
trolled by the mind' exercises (ting tou yuan).

T h e quotations are from Tai Chi Ch'uan (Classic) attributed to

Wan Chung-Yueh of the Ming Dynasty.
 T'AI CHI CH'UAN 257
What is T'ai Chi? T'ai Chi is the concept that all of life is
comprised of, and has been in motion by, the constant inter-
play of two vital energies, Yin the passive, and Yang the
active principle. 'T'ai Chi is the mother of Yin and Yang
(everything female and male),' which has given rise to
everything under the sun.
No part had a life of its own, but each exists in comple-
mentary interaction with the other. 'Yin and Yang mutually
help each other.' 'T'ai Chi is the root of motion (Yang)
which has division, and of stillness (Yin) which has union.'
Tai Chi is this duality in harmonious relationship.
The symbol for T'ai Chi is a circle divided into two curved
shapes of equal size, one being Yin, the shadowed right part,
the other Yang, the light part. A touch of Yin in Yang and
of Yang in Yin is indicated by the small spot or dot of the
opposite color in each area, showing the flexible and sympa-
thetic character of each to the other. The line between them
has the movement of a wave. The fall and rise of the wave
line is also Yin and Yang, and this flowing is restrained and
contained by the evenness of the circumference. All of this
movement represents the continuity of the life force, which is
movement.
Yin as the receptive, feminine, and Yang as the creative,
masculine, complement each other. Though opposite, they
are not in opposition or antagonistic. Though different, they
supplement each other. In the continuous movement be-
tween them, without beginning and without end, when Yang
reaches its final moment, then Yin is created and starts when
Yang is completed. The interplay of these two fundamental
and vital elements implies 'perpetual motion.' Together, in
T'ai Chi where their relationship is perfect, they constitute
equilibrium and harmony.
T'ai Chi holds in balance what is separated. A few ex- '
amples of the opposites (placing the Yang before the Yin) as
experienced in the exercise of T'ai Chi Ch'uan, are: move-
ment-stillness, motion-rest, tangible-intangible, straight-curved,
expansion-contraction, inhalation-exhalation, outside-inside,
solid-empty (void), light-dark, firm-soft, open-closed, right-
left, forward-backward, float-settle, and rise-sink. There is
nothing without its opposite; there is nothing that does not
change (move) in order to be permanent (to live)—which in
itself is a Yin-Yang statement.
We in the West are apt to overexert ourselves in exercise
258 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

and sports, believing that a hard and tense movement indi-

cates strength and control, and that power comes from the
ability to expend energy violently. The spirit of Tai Chi
Ch'uan is the antithesis of such a point of view. With the
technique of T'ai Chi Ch'uan, true energy can be controlled,
strength balanced, and vitality increased, by using the body in
such a way so as not to strain the muscles, not to over-activate
the heart, not to exert oneself excessively. It is the philosophy
of T'ai Chi Ch'uan that in order to prolong the life of the
body, to stabilize the life of the emotions, and to intensify the
life of the mind, conscious co-operation of the mind with
activity is a deep necessity. For certainly peace of mind can-
not be attained without use of the mind. The consideration of
man's total health as an inseparable unity is evident in every
movement of this long, slow exercise.
Cheng Man-ch'ing of New York is probably the most
respected master of T'ai Chi Ch'uan in the United States. In
collaboration with Robert W. Smith he has created a val-
uable handbook of the approach:3

Relaxation and Ch'i

In considering the fundamental principles of Tai-chi we
immediately come upon a word—ch'i (pronounced "chee")
—which is as important as it is difficult to define. It can
mean simply "air," as in the context of respiration, but in
true T'ai-chi it should mean much more. W. T. Chan has well
observed that "ch'i denotes the psychophysiological power as-
sociated with blood and breath," or another English equivalent
might be "intrinsic energy." Oddly enough, most writers in
English on T'ai-chi have maintained an embarrassed silence
concerning ch'i. Cheng Man-ch'ing, however, gives it a cen-
tral place in his system, saying that mind (i) and intrinsic
energy (ch'i) are complementary bases of Tai-chi, without
which it would become merely a physiological exercise unde-
serving of the name "supreme ultimate." In the present book,
then, ch'i is considered to be at the very heart of T'ai-chi,
and we shall continue to use the Chinese term rather than
any of the necessarily inexact English equivalents.
How should a novice begin his training in Tai-chi? He
should relax completely. The aim is to throw every bone and
muscle of the body wide open so that ch'i may travel un-
•Tai Chi (Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1967).
 T*AI CHI CH'UAN 259
obstructed. Once this is done, the chest must be further re-
laxed and the ch'i made to sink to the navel. After a time
the ch'i will be felt accumulating for mass integration in the
navel from where it will begin to circulate throughout the
body. A tornado is but the massed movement of air and a
tidal wave that of water. As a whiff, nothing is more pliable
than air; as a drop, nothing more yielding than water. But as
tornadoes and tidal waves, air and water carry everything be-
fore them. Mass integration makes the difference. Later, the
student will be able to direct the ch'i instantaneously to any
part of his body by means of his mind.
Exercise your spine so that the ch'i can travel this avenue
to the top of your head. Your head is held as if suspended
by the scalp from the ceiling of the room. This posture im-
mobilizes the head and spine so .that neither can move inde-
pendently of the rest of the body. It strengthens the spine, the
vital inner organs, and the brain itself. Make a habit of con-
centrating on the ch'i. This can be done at work or play, walk-
ing or riding. Formation of the habit requires perseverance
but is infinitely better and far less expensive than the modem
practice of regular ingestion of medicines.
The movement deriving from this internal generation and
circulation of the ch'i we call "propelled" movement. During
the exercise, limbs and other body components are moved not
so much by localized exertions as by the force of the ch'i.
In the next, more advanced stage, the ch'i is absorbed by and
stored in the bones, causing them to become as essentially
hard and indestructible as steel. When this stage is accom-
plished the student may be said to have reached the highest
level.
Like a Child. Observe a child. Note how he breathes—not
high in the chest but low in the abdomen. See, too, how he
meets an accident—relaxed and with no apprehension in his
mind. You may charge this off to ignorance, but, this not-
withstanding, the child more often than not emerges from
accidents unscathed. So perhaps the experience/intelligence
clogging the adult's mind and causing his body to stiffen is
really not such an asset after all. Let the child grasp your
finger and try to retract it. Difficult, isn't it? The grasp is firm
but not frenzied; there is true energy involved. Finally, watch
how a child stands—straight but not stiff. We can truly learn
from children. T'ai-chi believes that progress can be made
only if one becomes like a child.
260 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
The Three Factors. In T'ai-chi three factors are very im-
portant: correct teaching, perseverance, and natural talent.
Of the three, correct teaching (or right method) is the most
important. Without it, no success comes even if a student of
high natural ability works himself beyond human endurance.
On the other hand, given the right kind of instruction, suc-
cess can be achieved through perseverance even if one's
natural talent is below average. In essence, two of the three
factors—correct teaching and perseverance—are prerequisites
for success. Natural ability is only helpful when the other
factors are also present. There is a wonderful passage in Con-
fucius which says: "Some are born with knowledge, some de-
rive it from study, and some acquire it only after a painful
realization of their ignorance. But the knowledge being pos-
sessed, it comes to the same thing. Some study with a natural
ease, some from a desire for advantages, and some by stren-
uous effort. But the achievement being made, it comes to the
same thing."4
The usual type of T'ai-chi consists of 128 postures, includ-
ing many repetitions. To go through a full round requires
more than fifteen minutes if done at the recommended
speed. In order to shorten the time required, Cheng Man-
ch'ing reduced the number of postures to thirty-seven by
eliminating most of the repeated postures. Compared with
the earliest T'ai-chi, which numbered only thirteen postures,
Cheng's method contains nearly triple the number of the
original actions. Moreover, it does not leave out any of the
essential elements of the 128-posture method nor does it
change the sequence. To go through a round requires from
three to five minutes, depending on one's speed. If done daily,
one round in the morning before breakfast and one before re-
tiring at night will contribute greatly to healthy life. This
ten-minute investment a day is paltry enough, but the returns
are great. The student, however, must take care not to miss
a round. Miss a meal, be a few minutes late for bed, but
don't miss a round of T'ai-chi. Perseverance is a must!
If one has natural talent, his progress will of course be
speedier and surer. Unfortunately, in this respect nature is
liberal to some and sparing to others. Moreover, when the
allotment is made, it is fixed and beyond human power to
modify it for the better. Knowledge and skill are quite dif-

The Doctrine of the Mear.

 T'AI CHI CH'UAN 261
ferent—even the least talented can acquire these through
determined application. In The Doctrine of the Mean Con-
fucius speaks thus of the superior man and learning: "He will
not interrupt his labor. If another succeeds by one effort, he
will use a hundred; if another succeeds by ten efforts, he will
use a thousand. If a man proceeds in this way, though dull,
he will surely become intelligent; though weak, he will sure-
ly become strong." Therefore, if lacking in natural aptitude,
do not despair. All that is required is more work!
Movement. All movements are done with a relaxed body
and a calm but concentrated mind. Walk like a cat—light and
firm. In moving backward, touch the toe down first; in going
forward, let the heel touch first. Then, as you shift your
weight onto the foot, let the rest of the sole gradually pro-
ceed into place. Make the hands and head move as a part of
the body and not independently. Almost all the movements
are made circularly. This permits the reserving of energy, ne-
gates tension, and enhances relaxation, quite apart from its
functional benefits. . . . The level of the body remains gen-
erally the same, that is, there is no rise and fall from shifts
of body weight and there is no squatting or bending at the
waist.
Slowness. The movements must be done at the same slow
pace throughout. There are no fast postures—all are done
at the same speed. The student may vary the speed used for
the entire round, but he should not vary the speed of
separate postures. Slowness permits distinctness of movement
and is attuned to calmness of mind. Also, it enables the mind
to function to its fullest in imagining an opponent and in
recognizing and appreciating the role played by the com-
ponents of the body as one moves through the exercise.
Swimming in Air. Man lives on land. His long familiarity
with air often makes him forget its existence. Since it lacks
solidity and shape, it eludes attention or easy mental grasp
by the beginner. To liken air to water aids the imagination. It
is like water in the sense that if one pretends to swim while
out of water, his movements automatically conform to the
principles of T'ai-chi. By this practice, the novice ultimately
will "feel" the air to be heavy in the sense that he feels water
to be heavy. At this stage his body has become lighter and
more pliable than that of the average man. This feeling of
buoyancy and suppleness derives from firmly rooting the feet
and using the body in "dry swimming." Functionally, this

*
262 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
slow movement against an imagined resistance will ultimately
create great speed in responding to a fighting situation.
Linkage. Although the movements are done slowly, there
is no interruption. The postures flow evenly without pause
from start to end. The ch'i is blocked when the flow is im-
peded. Once one has paused, it takes several postures before
one is again "on the track". This wastes these postures since,
if they are not true, they are useless. Do the exercises as
though "pulling silk from a cocoon." Although Westerners
initially may not understand this, a few words will make it
clear. In pulling silk one must pull slowly, easily, and—above
all—steadily. If one pauses, the strand will break when the
pulling is started again.
Tranquility. Slowing down the natural processes will not
help if the mind is not calmed. Eschew routine thoughts;
initially concentrate on the postures. At first it will be difficult
to block out extraneous thoughts and images, but disciplined
practice will prevail in the end. As you proceed through the
postures, you must think totally on them, so totally, in fact,
that the mind literally embraces the postures and vice versa.
Breathing. Correct breathing must be coordinated with
your movements. Inhale through your nose as you extend
your arms outward or upward and exhale through your nose
as you contract your arms or bring them downward. Initially,
it is best not to be too concerned about breathing: first learn
the techniques of the postures and then incorporate the
breathing. Ultimately, the breathing becomes such an in-
trinsic part of the exercise that you will not even have to
think of it.

Robert W. Smith offers four alternate views of the origin

of T'ai Chi Ch'uan, and there are others. It began in China
several thousand years ago. T'ai Chi Ch'uan masters are
available in New York and San Francisco.
Besides Delza's book and T'ai Chi, there is Edward
Maisel's T'ai Chi for Health (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall, 1963). All three books contain illustrated
instruction of the movements; Cheng and Smith's is clearest.
T'ai Chi Ch'uan has been called the mother of the
oriental martial arts. While the approach is usually psycho-
physical-spiritual, with the emphasis on the spiritual, a
student can adapt the teachings to a martial use. In prin-
 TAROT 263
ciple and in practice T'ai Chi Ch'uan shows an affinity to
Aikido.

Tarot
There are many viewpoints on the origins of Tarot. Eden
Gray's, which is presented in this entry, does not entirely
agree with that of Arthur Waite, and there are further
differing opinions on its origins as well. Historical evidence
before the fifteenth century is not available, but it is
known that Tarot antedates that. The material in this en-
try must, therefore, be regarded as preliminary. ASTROLOGY,
NUMEROLOGY, and Kabbala all have some relationship
with Tarot.
Eden Gray's latest book, A Complete Guide to the Tarot
(New York: Crown, 1970) is the best introductory book
available. It contains an illustrated key of the seventy-
eight cards of the system and detailed notes on how to
read them. Three methods for laying out the cards are
described: the ancient Keltic, the horoscope, and the tree
of life. Lengthy sections describe the relation of Tarot to
other symbolic systems such as meditation, numerology,
the kabbala, and astrology. Eden Gray has made exoteric
those aspects of the Tarot which need not be esoteric. If
occult writers were all as clear and explicit as she is, there
would be less misconception of the word and its ways.

Everyone agrees that modern playing cards are directly de-

scended from one part of the Tarot—the resemblance be-
tween parent and child are too striking to be accidental.
In both we find cards numbered one to ten, followed by pic-
tures or "court" cards. And just as the Joker is unnumbered
and has no assigned place in our deck, the Fool in the Tarot
is also without a number of its own or a preordained posi-
tion—yet both are ever present in their respective packs.
There are 78 cards in the Tarot, of which 56 (those most
like modern cards) are equally divided among four suits—
Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles—analogous to our Clubs,
Hearts, Spades, and Diamonds. These suit cards are known
as the Minor Arcana {arcana is the Latin word for secrets).
They are followed by 22 cards called the Major Arcana—
cards that depict symbolic figures, elements in nature, the

I
 264 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

experiences of Man in his spiritual journey, his hopes and

fears, his joys and sorrows.
The Major Arcana, as can be seen, bear little resemblance
to modern cards. Their illustrations are drawn from the
treasurehouse of universal symbols and images, from the
legends, myths, philosophies, religions, and magic beliefs of
the human race. Undoubtedly the wise men and seers through
whom the Tarot is believed to have been transmitted over
more than seven centuries were thoroughly versed in the
astrological, numerological, and Kabalistic teachings of the
ancients, and all these influences are reflected in the cards. The
Tarot, nevertheless, remains a unique and independent dis-
cipline with its own divinatory powers and its own spiritual
content.
Most of us are interested in character analysis, glimpses of
the future, solutions to immediate dilemmas—all of which we
can seek in the Tarot. But there are also those who will value
the Tarot's help in meditation. The student of metaphysics
gains remarkable insights into the inner meanings of the cards;
the artist, constantly concerned with images and symbols,
draws heightened creativity from contemplating the many-
dimensional beauty of the cards; the Biblical student finds that
the Tarot illuminates many passages in the Old and New
Testaments. And since the Tarot is the key that unlocks the
wisdom of the ancient philosophers, it reveals its most pro-
found messages to the dedicated scholar and practitioner. (In
this it is not unlike the ideographic writing of the Chinese, the
hieroglyphics of the Egyptians, the picture writing of the
Mayans.)
It is not necessary, however, to understand all the hidden
secrets of the cards at first—or even second—glance. When
the student is ready, the Tarot will begin to reveal its mys-
teries. And it is not imperative to "believe in the cards" for
them to yield results—you don't have to take them on blind
faith. Eventually you will tap the occult powers of the Tarot,
and you will turn to it when dilemmas beset you.
If you consult an experienced "Reader" for help, you be-
come what is called the "Querent," with the unspoken ques-
tion you want answered. After laying out the cards in
accordance with one of the methods described in this book,
the Reader will interpret what the cards are trying to tell you.
But you yourself can learn the definitions of the symbols as
given in the Glossary, as well as from the detailed descriptions
 TAROT 265
and pictures of each of the cards in the body of the book.
Then, after mastering one or another of the techniques for
laying the cards out, you can before long try to read them.
At first, of course, you will be turning back to the definitions
again and again, but with persistence you will be rewarded.
The first Tarot cards were painted on parchment or thin
sheets of ivory, silver, or even gold. The design for each card
bad to be drawn anew and colored by hand. Therefore the
cards became the playthings of the nobles, who could afford
to assign an artist to paint their own individual sets. Often the
aristocracy had the Court cards drawn to resemble members
of their own family or court.
Eventually, handmade cardboard became available, and
then the designs were traced and painted with watercolors.
Later still, in Nuremberg (about 1430), block printing was
done from hand-carved wooden blocks. Thus some of the
early cards are crude in design, and their details are often
indistinct.
To reduce the cost of a Tarot deck, or perhaps because the
Major Arcana were not used in the game of Tarroc, these 21
cards were dropped from the pack, as were the four Queens.
At a later date, the Queens were evidently restored to some
decks, and the Knights eliminated. Decks in this latter form
are to this day used in the Spanish and Italian game of Tar-
roc. The cards from southern Germany developed a some-
what different pattern—bells for Pentacles, acorns for
Swords, leaves for Wands, and hearts for Cups.
The cards depicted in this book are only one set of the
many that have appeared during the long history of the Tarot.
They are those used by A. E. Waite in his book A Pictorial
Key to the Tarot (1910), and they have become standard for
most of the English-speaking world. First published by Wil-
liam Rider & Son, Ltd., they are called the Rider pack.
The Major Arcana is comprised of 22 cards, ranging from
Key 0, the Fool, to Key 21, the World. The illustrations are
rich in symbolic and mythological figures, animals, natural
phenomena and objects. The very names of the cards are sug-
gestive of magic and mystery: The Wheel of Fortune, The
Hierophant, The Hanged Man, for example. Unlike the
Minor Arcana, they bear no relationship to modern playing
cards.
The Major Arcana are, in all probability, linked with the
mystical wisdom of the Greek god Hermes Trismegistus,
266 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
identified with the Egyptian Thoth and supposed author of <
many writings on man's relationship to the world of the Spirit.
Hermetic ideas reappear in the Kabalah, alchemy, magic, and !
Astrology, and their concentration on symbols can be regarded
as a kind of private language for metaphysical and arcane
concepts too subtle and elusive for words.
Symbolic keys, like material ones, are expected to fit locks j
and open doors. Systems like the Kabalah or the Tarot, how- i
ever, do not accomplish this in a simple or direct manner. '
Here we find keys that fit more than one lock and locks that :
can receive more than one key. The correspondence between -
the 22 Major Arcana Keys and the 22 paths on the Tree of ;
Life and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, as well as |
astrological signs, evokes complex and subtle associations
that can never be rigidly confined. Here there is no "final '
authority"—everything that is part of the living stream moves j
and changes, and the Tarot is indeed in this category. j
It may be helpful to think of the Tarot as representing the j
spokes of a huge wheel upon which each of us travels during ;
his life on earth, experiencing material and spiritual ups and ;
downs. These are reflected in the cards when they are laid out
by a Reader—their positions, juxtapositions, and combinations j
are all significant. The Fool, representing the Life-force before
it comes into manifestation on the earth plane, is in the center ,
of the wheel, moves to its outer edge through 21 phases of ex- *
perience, and then returns to the center whence it came. '
Thus, the designs illuminate the life of man, his joys and !
sorrows, his hopes and fears. Each of the Major Arcana rep- j
resents a distinct principle, law, power, or element in Nature.
These are drawn from a repository of symbols and images
common to all men in all ages, from what has been called the
"collective unconscious." They appear in our dreams, in the
poet's flights of imagination, in the inspired work of artists,
in the visions of saints and prophets; indeed, thinking in pic-
tures is the universal heritage of man.
The Minor Arcana are believed by some to be of even
more ancient origin than the Major Arcana. Since both had
already been combined into one pack at the time when Count |
de Gebelin brought them to public attention, there is no way
of confirming or disproving this supposition. Indeed, there are
some writers on the subject who disregard the Minor Arcana,
concentrating entirely on the Major Arcana—especially as
they relate to the Tree of Life of the Kabalah. Continued J
 TAROT 267
research, however, reveals that the meanings of the Minor
Arcana show an unmistakable correspondence to those of the
ten Sephiroth of the Tree of Life. (This relationship will be
discussed in the section on the Tarot and the Kabalah.)
A. E. Waite's Rider Pack was chosen for this book because
jt was the only pack we could find that had an illustration
for each of the 56 cards of the Minor Arcana. The mind
more easily retains the memory of the meaning of a card
after one has looked at a graphic representation rather than
at merely the number of symbols in a design—say, three
Pentacles, nine Swords, or six Cups.
The universe, it has been said, was created from four
basic elements: Fire, Water, Air, and Earth, corresponding
| to the four Hebrew Letters IHVH (Jehovah). In ancient He-
brew there were no written vowels, and these letters repre-
sented forms of the verb "to be," used with that, not he, for
the letters IHVH are a symbol for the Conscious Energy
that brings all things and all creatures into existence. " I "
stands for the element Fire, " H " for Water, "V" for Air, the
life breath, and the final " H " for the solidity of the element
Earth.
The four suits of the Minor Arcana—Wands, Cups, Swords,
and Pentacles—also correspond with IHVH and the four ele-
ments, so we have:

I Fire Wands
H Water Cups
V Air Swords
H Earth Pentacles

Each suit is made up of cards numbered from ace to ten,

plus four Court cards: King, Queen, Knight, and Page. The
Tarot, as has been mentioned, was the forerunner of the
modern deck. If the Knights were left out and the suit names
changed (Wands to clubs, Cups to hearts, Swords to spades,
and Pentacles to diamonds), what remained would be virtual-
ly identical with our modern playing cards. Another similarity
has already been noted: the complete deck of 78 cards con-
tains an unnumbered card called the Fool, from which has
evolved today's Joker, also unnumbered. The four suits of the
Minor Arcana are represented by the four animals of the
Apocalypse (see description in Keys 10 and 21 of the Major
Arcana).
268 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

Wands
This suit indicates animation and enterprise, energy and
growth. The wands depicted in the cards are always in leaf,
suggesting the constant renewal of life and growth. The as-
sociations are with the world of ideas, also with creation in all
its forms, including agriculture. The salamander is the animal
associated with Wands. In the theory of Paracelsus (1493-
1541), the salamander was a being who inhabited the element
fire. Among the animals of the Apocalypse, Wands are
synonymous with lions. The direction assigned to Wands is
south; the temperament of Wand people is sanguine. This is
the sut of the laborer.

Cups
This suit generally betokens love and happiness. The cups in
the cards refer to water, a symbol of the subconscious mind,
the instincts, and the emotions of love and pleasure, the good
life, fertility, and beauty. The animal—or rather, creature—
for Cups is the undine, a female water spirit. The direction is
west; the temperament is phlegmatic. The Apocalypse figure
is the Water Carrier, Aquarius. This is the suit of the priest.

Swords
The swords generally express aggression, strife, boldness, and
courage. But sometimes they can mean hatred, battle, and
enemies. This is the suit of misfortune and disaster. Its direc-
tion is north; its creature is the sylph, an elemental being
of the air. The Sword temperament is said to be melancholy,
and the Apocalypse figure is the eagle. This is the suit of the
warriors.

Tentacles
The symbols on the cards are called pentacles, which in an-
cient times were metal disks inscribed with magic formulas. In
this suit the pentacles are inscribed with the five-pointed star
called the pentagram—a symbol of the magic arts and the five
senses of man, the five elements of Nature, and the five ex-
tremities of the human body. Here, they represent money,
acquisition of fortune, trade. The direction is east, the tem-
perament bilious. The creature here is the gnome, a being of
the earth. The Apocalypse figure is the bull. This is the suit
of the merchants.
 T-GROUPS 269
Many contemporary scholars, writers, and psychologists
have been interested in, and inspired by, the study of the
Tarot. Psychoanalysts have looked with respect upon the
symbols and their connection with the subconscious activities
of the human psyche. Among those who have taken cogni-
zance of the Tarot are T. S. Eliot, in The Waste Land; Charles
Williams, in The Greater Trumps; William Lindsay Gresham,
in Nightmare Alley; and P. D. Ouspensky, in A New Model
of the Universe. A. E., the famous Irish poet, belonged to the
Order of the Golden Dawn, and the poet W. B. Yeats was
also a member of a secret order that dealt with the Tarot's
occult traditions. The followers of the famous psychoanalyst
C. G. Jung see symbols in the cards that relate to the arche-
types of the collective unconscious. Albert Pike's Morals and
the Dogma of the Scottish Rites makes reference to the cards;
and Thomas Troward, a founder of New Thought and one of
the clearest exponents of the Science of Mind, has devoted
serious thought to the spiritual significance of this "oldest
book known to man."
Eden Gray has also written The Tarot Revealed: A Mod-
ern Guide to Reading the Tarot Cards (New York: Harper &
Row, 1960).

T-Groups
Kenneth D. Benne has elaborated on what may have been
the beginning of the training laboratory or T-Group.
The National Training Laboratories of Bethel, Maine,
hold regular training programs, issue a newsletter, and
comprise a membership directly continuing the T-Group
tradition; yet their methods have become so closely inter-
woven with Sensitivity Training that the entry on the latter
in this book is a good indicator of what T-Groups are
like today.
Training laboratories are particularly applicable to man-
agement training in industry and institutional staff training
in general.
Benne writes: 1

^'History of the T-Group in the Laboratory Setting," in T-Group

Theory and Laboratory Method, ed. Bradford, Gibb, and Kenneth D.
Benne (New York: Wiley, 1964).
270 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
The genesis of the principles underlying the T-Group may
be traced to a workshop held on the campus of the State
Teachers College in New Britain, Connecticut, during the
summer of 1946. This training-research enterprise was joint-
ly sponsored by the Connecticut Interracial Commission, the
Connecticut Department of Education, and the Research Cen-
ter for Group Dynamics, then located at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. The aim of the "action sponsors" was
to develop more effective local leaders in facilitating under-
standing of and compliance with the Fair Employment Prac-
times Act under which the Interracial Commission had been
recently created. Most participants came from the profes-
sions of teaching and social work, with a sprinkling of busi-
nessmen and other interested citizens. The aim of the research
sponsor, the Research Center for Group Dynamics was to
test several hypotheses about the effects among participants
in terms of transfer of behavioral changes to back-home
situations.
The training leaders were Kenneth D. Benne, then at
Columbia University, Leland P. Bradford, of the National
Education Association, and Ronald Lippitt, of the Research
Center for Group Dynamics. The researchers were Kurt
Lewin, of the Research Center, Ronald Lippitt, and three
research observers, then graduate students in social psychology
—Morton Deutsch, Murray Horwitz, and Melvin Seeman.
The three small groups of ten members each, in which the
participants spent much of their formal training time, were
not T-Groups in the current usage of this term. They focused
on the analysis of back-home problems brought in by the
members, either as individuals or as teams. The major
teaching-learning method employed was group discussion,
supplemented by role playing both to diagnose behavioral
aspects of the problems presented and to practice alternative
approaches to the solution of these problems. The plan for
the formal curriculum made no provision for the analysis
of here-and-now behavioral events as a source of learning.2
A research observer was attached to each of the three
groups. This observer focused on coding behavioral inter-
actions in the groups and in recording behavioral sequences
according to a previously developed and tested schedule of
2
See Ronald Lippitt. Training in Community Relations. New York:
Harper & Bros., 1949, for a detailed description of the training program
and of the research design and results.
 T-GROUPS 271
observation. No reporting of behavioral observations to the
group had been planned as part of the training design.
Early in the conference, Kurt Lewin arranged for evening
meetings of training staff members with research observers
to pool and record on tape their process observations of each
group. Analysis and interpretation of leader, member, and
group behaviors observed were also to be undertaken and
recorded.
The evening meeting was planned originally to include only
staff members. Some participants, who were living on campus,
asked if they might attend, and after some staff discussion
the meeting was opened to participants on a voluntary basis.
The staff had no prevision of the effects on the participants
of the description and analysis of their own behaviors. Nor
had they any clear notion of how they might handle partici-
pant and staff reactions to this experience.
Actually, the open discussion of their own behavior and
. its observed consequences had an electric effect both on the
participants and on the training leaders. What had been a
conversation between research observers and group leaders
in earlier meetings was inexorably widened to include par-
ticipants who had been part of the events being discussed. A
research observer might report:

At 10:00 A.M. Mrs. X attacked the group leader. Mr. Y came

to the defense of the leader, and he and Mrs. X became
involved in a heated exchange. Some other members were
drawn into taking sides. Other members seemed frightened
and tried to make peace. But they were ignored by the
combatants. At 10:10 A.M., the leader came in to redirect
attention back to the problem, which had been forgotten
in the exchange. Mrs. X and Mr. Y continued to contradict
each other in the discussion which followed.

Immediately Mrs. X denied and Mr. Y defended the accuracy

of the observation. Other members reinforced or qualified
the data furnished by the observer. In brief, participants be-
gan to join observers and training leaders in trying to analyze
and interpret behavioral events.
Before many evenings had passed, all participants, the
commuters as well as the residents, were attending these ses-
sions. Many continued for as long as three hours. Participants
vjeported that they were deriving important understandings of
272 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

their own behavior and of the behavior of their groups. i

To the training staff it seemed that a potentially powerful I
medium and process of re-education had been, somewhat in-
advertently, hit upon. Group members, if they were con- j
fronted more or less objectively with data concerning their !
own behavior and its effects, and if they came to participate !
nondefensively in thinking about these data, might achieve :
highly meaningful learnings about themselves, about the re- j
sponses of others to them, and about group behavior and :
group development in general. At this time, no thought was !
given to the exclusion of other content, whether in the form '
of cases suggested by staff, situations reported by members j
from outside the group, or of roleplayed incidents. Initially, \
the notion was to supplement this there-and-then content with I
the collection and analysis of here-and-now data concerning !
the members' own behaviors.
|
Theater Games
Theater Games cannot be easily compared to any other i
methods. They can be used to guide a group of children !
into ways of play in which they are fully involved. They i
can be and are used to train actors for fuller participation |
in a script. They can be used in a classroom to teach >
American Government or English (with higher test scores |
on the cognitive material involved). They can be used to '
enliven a group of senior citizens and also to move a group j
of young adults toward more self-awareness. Spolin's book !
Improvisation for the Theater is probably the clearest j
manual or handbook for using affective methods which I
has been written. [
Everyone can act. Everyone can improvise. Anyone who j
wishes to can play in the theater and learn to become "stage-
worthy." I
We learn through experience and experiencing, and no one
teaches anyone anything. This is as true for the infant moving |
from kicking to crawling to walking as it is for the scientist j
with his equations.
If the environment permits it, anyone can learn whatever I
he chooses to learn; and if the individual permits it, the en- j
vironment will teach him everything it has to teach. "Talent"
or "lack of talent" have Utile to do with it. I
 THEATER GAMES 273
We must reconsider what is meant by "talent." It is highly
possible that what is called talented behavior is simply a
greater individual capacity for experiencing. From this point
of view, it is in the increasing of the individual capacity for
experiencing that the untold potentiality of a personality can
be evoked.
Experiencing is penetration into the environment, total or-
ganic involvement with it. This means involvement on all
levels: intellectual, physical and intuitive. Of the three, the
intuitive, most vital to the learning situation, is neglected.
Intuition is often thought to be an endowment or a mysti-
cal force enjoyed by the gifted alone. Yet all of us have known
moments when the right answer "just came" or we did "ex-
actly the right thing without thinking." Sometimes at such
moments, usually precipitated by crises, danger, or shock,
the "average" person has been known to transcend the
limitation of the familiar, courageously enter the area of the
unknown, and release momentary genius within himself. When
response to experience takes place at this intuitive level,
when a person functions beyond a constricted intellectual
plane, he is truly open for learning.
The intuitive can only respond in immediacy—right now.
It comes bearing its gifts in the moment of spontaneity, the
moment when we are freed to relate and act, involving our-
selves in the moving, changing world around us.
Through spontaneity we are re-formed into ourselves. It
creates an explosion that for the moment frees us from
handed-down frames of reference, memory choked with old
facts and information and undigested theories and techniques
of other people's findings. Spontaneity is the moment of per-
sonal freedom when we are faced with a reality and see it, ex-
plore it and act accordingly. In this reality the bits and pieces
of ourselves function as an organic whole. It is the time of
discovery, of experiencing, of creative expression.
Acting can be taught to the "average" as well as the
"talented" if the teaching process is oriented towards making
the theater techniques so intuitive that they become the
students' own. A way is needed to get to intuitive knowledge.
It requires an environment in which experiencing can take
place, a person free to experience, and an activity that brings
about spontaneity. 1
x
Viola Spolin, Improvisation for the Theater (Evanston, 111.: North-
western University Press, 1963).
274 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

So writes Viola Spolin, the creator and foremost practitioner

of Theater Games, an intensive, action way of exploration.
The work is done in groups with the general orientation of
the theater. Spolin's preface discusses how the approach
evolved and what its structural principles are, as well as
her own background.

The stimulus to write this handbook can be traced back

beyond the author's early work as drama supervisor on the
Chicago WPA Recreational Project to childhood memories
of delightful spontaneous "operas" that were performed at
family gatherings. Here, her uncles and aunts would "dress
up" and through song and dialogue poke fun at various mem-
bers of the family and their trials and predicaments with
language and jobs as newcomers to America. Later, during
her student days with Neva Boyd, her brothers, sisters, and
friends would gather weekly to play charades (used as Word
Game in this book), literally tearing the house apart from
kitchen to living room as pot covers became breastplates for
Cleopatra and her handmaidens and drapes from the window
became a cloak for Satan.
Using the game structure as a basis for theater training,
as a means to free the child and the so-called amateur from
mechanical, stilted stage behavior, she wrote an article on her
observations. Working primarily with children and neighbor-
hood adults at a settlement-house theater, she was also
stimulated by the response of school audiences to her small
troupe of child improvisers. In an effort to show how the
improvising game worked, her troupe asked the audience for
suggestions which the players then made into scene improvi-
sations. A writer friend who was asked to evaluate the article
she wrote about these activities exclaimed, "This isn't an
article—it's an outline for a book!"
The idea for a book was put aside until 1945, when, after
moving to California and establishing the Young Actors
Company in Hollywood, the author again began experiment-
ing with theater techniques with boys and girls. The creative
group work and the game principles learned from Neva Boyd
continued to be applied to the theater situation in both work-
shops and rehearsal of plays. Gradually the word "player"
was introduced to replace "actor" and "physicalizing" to re-
place "feeling." At this time, the problem-solving and point-
of-concentration approach was added to the game structure.
 THEATER GAMES 275
The training continued to develop the form that had ap-
peared earlier in the Chicago Experimental Theater—scene
improvisation—although the primary goal remained that of
training lay actors and children with the formal theater. The
players created scenes themselves without benefit of an out-
side playwright or examples by the teacher-director while they
were being freed to receive the stage conventions. Using the
uncomplicated guiding structure labeled Where, Who, and
What, they were able to put the full range of spontaneity to
work as they created scene after scene of fresh material. In-
volved with the structure and concentrating upon solving a
different problem in each exercise, they gradually shed their
mechanical behaviorisms, emoting, etc., and they entered into
the stage reality freely and naturally, skilled in improvisa-
tional techniques and prepared to act difficult roles in written
plays.
Although the material has been drafted for publication for
many years, its final form was reached after the author ob-
served how improvisation works professionally—at the Sec-
ond City in Chicago, the improvisational theater of her son,
director Paul Sills. His further development of the form in
use professionally brought new discoveries and the intro-
duction of many newly invented exercises in her Chicago
workshops. The manuscript underwent total revision to in-
clude the new material and to present the clearest use of the
form for professional as well as community and children's
theater.
The handbook is divided into three parts. The first is con-
cerned with the theory and foundations for teaching and di-
recting theater, the second with an outline of workshop exer-
cises, and the third with special comments on children in the
theater and directing the formal play for the community
theater.
The handbook is equally valuable for professionals, lay
actors, and children. For the school and community center
it offers a detailed workshop program. For directors of com-
munity and professional theater it provides insight into their
actors' problems and techniques for solving them. To the
aspiring actor or director it brings an awareness of the inher-
ent problems which lie before him.

Operationally, a Theater Game is a specific problem to be

solved. Before the action starts the general situation is fully
276 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

sketched out to the player. He gathers an understanding of

what the situation basically is, where the action is occurring,
and who he is within the situation. With the basic context
of the game in mind, the problem is presented, but no de-
sired goal is offered: the players are to discover as they go,
they are to improvise. What holds it together and gives
everyone a direction is the designation of a point of con
centration, or POC.
Beyond specifying a problem to be solved and offering
a point of concentration, the player is left on his own.
Through some kind of interplay with the others and total,
undivided involvement with the process, a solution emerges.
Following are two of the over two hundred pedagogically
sequenced games which are to be found in Improvisation
for the Theater:

Orientation Game # 3
One player goes on stage and starts an activity. Other
players come on, one at a time. This time they know who
they are as they enter the scene; and the first player (who
does not know who they are) must accept them and relate to
them.
Point of Concentration: on the activity, with Who as an
addition but not as the main focus.
Example: Man hanging drapes. Woman enters. Woman:
"Now, dear, you know that's not the way I want them hung!"
Man accepts that woman is playing his wife; and he plays
accordingly. Actors continue to enter, playing the couple's
children, the next door neighbor, the family minister, etc.
Evaluation: Did she show or tell us that she was the wife,
neighbor, etc? Did they all stay with the activity?
Points of Observation:
1. By this time, Orientation Game should show the primitive
beginnings of a scene growing out of the Point of Con-
centration as well as the first sign of relationship rather
than mere simultaneous activity.
2. Let the players enjoy Orientation Game even if the stage
is somewhat chaotic because of the large group of "char-
acters" in the scene, with everyone moving and talking at
once as all very earnestly play the game. This childlike
stage behavior releases pleasure and excitement and is
essential to the growth of the group (necessary to im-
provisational theater). Refrain (no matter how tempted)
 TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION 277
from trying to get an orderly scene. Subsequent exercises
will slowly do this for the student.

Part of a Whole
(Can be used for an orientation game.)
One player goes on stage and becomes part of a large
animate or inanimate object. As soon as the nature of the
object becomes clear to another player, he joins the player
on stage and becomes another part of the whole. This con-
tinues until all the audience have participated and are work-
ing together to form the complete object.
Point of Concentration: on being a part of a larger object.
Example: One person goes on stage and curls up with arm
moving from the shoulder like a piston. Another player lines
up with the first player, about two feet from him, and assumes
similar position. Two other players join, and four wheels are
now moving. Other players become whistles, engines, and
finally a semaphore which stops the train.
Points of Observation:
1. This exercise generates a great deal of spontaneity and fun.
Every age group responds to it with equal energy. You
will notice that sound effects arise spontaneously when
needed.
2. Other examples: a statue grouping, a flower, an animal,
body cells, inside of a clock. Give no examples, however.
If the game is presented clearly, players will come up with
most delightful objects.
Spolin's book may be consulted for additional introductory
material.
There are persons doing work along the lines of Theater
Games throughout the country. The attitude and specific
methods of this work have been found to be easily adapted
to elementary and secondary teaching situations.

Transcendental Meditation (Transcendental Meditation

evolved from YOGA. See also HATHA YOGA; PATANJALI'S
YOGA; YOGA PRECEPTS.)

There is a lot of steady work being done by the meditation

centers which offer this approach. Brought to prominence
several years ago by Maharishi Mahesh, this way is now
one of the most available in Meditation.
278 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

If you ask a student of this way what is involved, he

may answer that there was an initiation ceremony with
flowers, scent, and fruits and at that time he was given a
sound which he was to practice daily—as a meditation.
He will probably say that there were some preliminaries
to his initiation and that he goes to the center periodically
to listen to talks, receive guidance on spiritual readings or
some physical exercises, and have progress with the medi-
tation checked.
The use of a single sound as the focus for a meditation
falls within the Hindu practice of mantras. It is closely
allied to the Japanese practice of constantly repeating the
name of God. In western civilization there is a parallel
practice known as the Jesus prayer.
In Transcendental Meditation each person is given a
sound suited to his temperament. This sound is not to be
shared with others, but practiced in solitude.
There can be no doubt of the benefit of learning to be
still and concentrate on a single focus. To do this daily so
that it becomes a habit is of further value, and to do it as
a meditation, with an attitude of approaching the divine,
of worshiping, is an essential aspect of learning how to
make one's life a religious journey.
Transcendental Meditation centers are widespread. Some
are student-centered and mainly located near major cam-
puses. Others are more general in membership and may
be found in major American cities.
Maharishi Mahesh has written many books, the best
known being The Science of Being and the Art of Living
(New York: Signet, 1968). His center is the Students'
International Meditation Society (1015 Gayley Ave., Los
Angeles, Calif. 90024).

Yantra Yoga {See YOGA, p. 304.)

Yoga
The entries on HATHA YOGA and TRANSCENDENTAL M E D I -
TATION speak of specific approaches within this subject
area. YOGA PRECEPTS speaks of a set of guidelines for
everyday life which could apply to many of the specific
forms of Yoga. The entry on PATANJALI'S YOGA can add
another perspective to the general nature of this entry.
 YOGA 279
Some of the material to be quoted may sound over-
simplified and overstated; some may see overcomplicated
and even remote; some may seem just right. The literature
on any subject as broad as Yoga will contain all three ways
of writing. Indra Devi, who has introduced Yoga on the
operational level to the United States, writes: x

The secret of Yoga lies in the fact that it deals with the
entire man, not with just one of his aspects. It is concerned
with growth—physical, mental, moral, and spiritual. It de-
velops forces that are already within you. Beginning with
improved health and added physical well-being, it works up
slowly through the mental to the spiritual. The transition is
so gradual that you may not even be aware of it until you
realize that a change in you has already taken place.
The following passage from a writing on Yoga will explain
how this actually happens: When a student of Yoga deter-
mines and rightly directs his course, a molecular change
takes place in his body until, in about six months, this change
begins to affect his tastes and habits. It also expands the power
of his mind. As the force within him becomes awakened, his
state of consciousness also changes—he ceases to be lonely,
his fears vanish and his happiness comes within his reach.
The advanced stages of Yoga require many years of special
preparation—practices for which the American mode of
living, its tempo and surroundings, are not well suited. Under
existing circumstances these advanced practices may prove
dangerous and detrimental to your physical and mental well
being and balance. It is better, therefore, to leave them alone
and to limit yourself to the practice of the Yoga postures and
deep breathing and relaxation exercises, with some of the
time devoted to concentration and meditation. . . .
Many people still think that Yoga is a religion. Others
believe it to be a kind of magic. Some associate Yoga with
the rope-trick, with snake-charming, fire-eating or sitting on
nail-beds, lying on broken glass, walking on sharp swords,
etc. Sometimes it is even linked to fortune telling, spiritualism,
hypnotism and other 'isms.' In reality, Yoga is a method, a
system of physical, mental and spiritual development. .. .
The word Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root 'yuji',
which means join, or union. The purpose of all Yogas is to
%
Yoga for Americans (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1959).
 1
280 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
unite man, the finite, with the infinite, with Cosmic Con-
sciousness, Truth, God, Light, or whatever other name one
chooses to call the Ultimate Reality. Yoga, as they say in
India, is a marriage of spirit and matter. . ..
Yoga has several branches or divisions, but the goal, the
aim of all of them is the same—the achievement of a union
with the Supreme Consciousness. In Karma Yoga, for in-
stance, this is achieved through work and action; in J nana
(or Gnani) Yoga, through knowledge and study; in Bhakti
Yoga, through devotion and selfless love; in Mantra Yoga,
through repetitions of certain invocations and sounds. Raja
Yoga (Royal Yoga) is the Yoga of consciousness, the highest
form of Yoga. Its practice usually starts with Hatha Yoga
which gives the body the necessary health and strength to
endure the hardships of the more advanced stages of training.
Mircea Eliade writes: 2

Four basic and interdependent concepts, four 'kinetic ideas',

bring us directly to the core of Indian spirituality. They
are karma, maya, nirvana, and Yoga. A coherent history of
Indian thought could be written starting from any one of these
basic concepts; the other three would inevitably have to be
discussed. In terms of Western philosophy, we can say that,
from the post-Vedic period on, India has above all sought to
understand:
(1) The law of universal causality, which connects man
with the cosmos and condemns him to transmigrate indefi-
nitely. This is the law of karma.
(2) The mysterious process that engenders and maintains
the cosmos and, in so doing, makes possible the 'eternal
return' of existences. This is maya, cosmic illusion, endured
(even worse—accorded validity) by man as long as he is
blinded by ignorance {avidya).
(3) Absolute reality, 'situated' somewhere beyond cosmic
illusion woven by maya and beyond human experience as
conditioned by karma; pure Being, the Absolute, by whatever
name it may be called—the Self (atman), brahman, the un-
conditioned, the transcendent, the immortal, the indestructible,
nirvana, etc.
(4) The means of attaining to Being, the effectual tech-
a
Yoga: Immortality and Freedom (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Uni-
versity Press, 1969).
 YOGA 281
niques for gaining liberation. This corpus of means con-
stitutes Yoga properly speaking.
With these four concepts in mind, we can understand how
the fundamental problem of all philosophy, the search for
truth, presents itself to Indian thought. For India, truth is
not something precious in itself; it becomes precious by virtue
of its sociological function, because knowledge of truth helps
man to liberate himself. It is not the possession of truth that
is the supreme end of the Indian sage; it is liberation, the
conquest of absolute freedom. The sacrifices that the European
philosopher is prepared to make to attain truth in and for
itself; sacrifice of religious faith, of worldly ambitions, of
wealth, personal freedom, and even life—to these the Indian
sage consents only in order to conquer liberation. To 'free
oneself is equivalent to forcing another plane of existence,
to appropriating another mode of being transcending the
human condition. This is as much as to say that, for India,
not only is metaphysical knowledge translated into terms of
rupture and death ('breaking' the human condition, 'dies' to
all that was human); it also necessarily implies a consequence
of a mystical nature: rebirth to a nonconditional mode of
being. And this is liberation, absolute freedom.
In studying the theories and practices of Yoga we shall
have occasion to refer to all the other 'kinetic ideas' of Indian
thought. For the present, let us begin by defining the meaning
of the term Yoga. Etymologically, Yoga derives from the root
yuj 'to bind together', 'hold fast', 'yoke', which also governs
Latin jungere, jungum, French joug, etc. The word Yoga
serves, in general, to designate any ascetic technique and any
method of meditation. Naturally, these various asceticisms
and meditations have been differently evaluated by the Indian
philosophical currents and mystical movements. As we shall
soon see, there is a 'classical' Yoga, a 'system of philosophy'
expounded by Patanjali in his celebrated Yoga-Sutras; and
it is from the 'system' that we must set out in order to under-
stand the position of Yoga in the history of Indian thought.
But, side by side with this 'classic' Yoga, there are countless
forms of 'popular', nonsystematic yoga; there are also non-
Brahmanic yogas (Buddhist, Jainist); above all, there are
yogas whose structures are 'magical', 'mystical', and so on.
Basically it is the term Yoga itself that has permitted this
great variety of meanings, for if, etymologically, yuj means
'to bind', it is nevertheless clear that the 'bond' in which this
282 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

action of binding is to result presupposes, as its preliminary

condition breaking the 'bonds' that unite the spiritual to the
world. In other words, liberation cannot occur if one is not
first 'detached' from the world, if one has not begun by
withdrawing from the cosmic circuit. For without doing so,
one could never succeed in finding or mastering oneself.
Even in its 'mystical' acceptation—that is, as signifying
union—Yoga implies a preliminary detachment from matter,
emancipation with respect to the world. The emphasis is laid
on man's effort ('to yoke'), on his self-discipline, by virtue
of which he can obtain concentration of spirit even before
asking (as in the mystical varieties of Yoga) for the aid of
the divinity. 'To bind together', 'to hold fast', 'to yoke'—the
purpose of all this is to characterize profane consciousness.
For the 'devotional' (mystical) schools of Yoga this 'unifica-
tion,' of course, only precedes the true union, that of the
human soul to God.
What characterizes Yoga is not only its practical side, but
also its initiatory structure. One does not learn Yoga by one-
self; the guidance of a master (guru) is necessary. Strictly
speaking, all the other 'systems of philosophy'—as, in fact,
all traditional disciplines or crafts—are, in India taught by
masters and are thus initiations; for millenniums they have
been transmitted orally, 'from mouth to ear.' But Yoga is
even more markedly initiatory in character. For, as in other
religious initiations, the yogin begins by forsaking the profane
world (family, society) and, guided by his guru, applies him-
self to passing successively beyond the behavior patterns and
values proper to the human condition. When we shall have
seen to what a degree the yogin attempts to dissociate himself
from the profane condition, we shall understand that he
dreams of 'dying to this life.' We shall, in fact, witness a
death followed by a rebirth to another mode of being—that
represented by liberation. The analogy between Yoga and
initiation becomes even more marked if we think of the
initiatory rites—primitive or those that pursue the creation
of a 'new body,' a 'mystical body' (symbolically assimilated,
among the primitives, to the body of the newborn infant).
Now the 'mystical body,' which will allow the yogin to enter
the transcendent mode of being, plays a considerable part in
all forms of Yoga, and especially in tantrism and alchemy.
From this point of view Yoga takes over and, on another
plane, continues the archaic and universal symbolism of
 YOGA 283
initiation—a symbolism that, it may be noted, is already
documented in the Brahmanic tradition (where the initiate is
called the 'twice-born'). The initiatory rebirth is defined, by
all forms of Yoga, as access to a nonprofane and hardly
describable mode of being, to which the Indian schools give
various names: moksa, nirvana, asamskrta, etc.
Of all the meanings that the word Yoga assumes in Indian
literature, the most explicit is that which refers to Yoga
'philosophy' (yoga-darsana), particularly as set forth in
Patanjali's Yoga-Sutras and in the commentaries on them.
Certainly, a darsana is not a system of philosophy in the
Western sense (darsana—view, vision, comprehension, point
of view, doctrine, etc., from the root drs—to see, to con-
template, to comprehend, etc.). But it is none the less a
system of coherent affirmations, coextensive with human
experience, which it attempts to interpret in its entirety, and
having as its aim the 'liberation of man from ignorance'
(however various the meanings that the word 'ignorance' is
made to express). Yoga is one of the six orthodox Indian
'systems of philosophy' ('orthodox' here meaning 'tolerated
by Brahmanism', in distinction from the 'heretical' systems,
such as Buddhism or Jainism). And this 'classic' Yoga, as
formulated by Patanjali and interpreted by his commentators,
is also the best known in the West.
Huston Smith offers the clearest descriptions of the major
forms of Yoga, elaborating on four of them. The descrip-
tions are too highly interconnected to separate them. There
are few or no gurus who practice one of these four yogas
to the exclusion of the other three. It may be said that each
guru creates his own yoga, and in doing so probably draws
heavily from the four ways which follow: 3

Hinduism's specific directions for actualizing man's fullest

nature come under the heading of Yoga.. ..
The yogas that do concern us are those designed to unite
man's spirit with God who lies concealed in its deepest
recesses. 'Since all the Indian spiritual (as distinct from
bodily) exercises are devoted seriously to this practical aim—
not to a merely fanciful contemplation or discussion of lofty
and profound ideas—they may well be regarded as presenting
one of the most realistic, matter-of-fact, practical-minded
*The Religions of Man (New York: Harper & Row, 1965).
284 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
systems of thought and training ever set up by the human
mind. How to come to Brahman and remain in touch with
it; how to become identified with Brahman, living out of it;
how to become divine while still on earth—transformed,
reborn while on the earthly plane; that is the quest that had
inspired and defied the spirit of man in India through the
ages'.4
The spiritual trails that Hindus have blazed toward this
goal are four. At first this may seem surprising. If there is
one goal, should there not be one path to it? This might be
true if we were all starting from the same point, though even
then different modes of transport—walking, driving, flying—
might dictate alternate routes. As it is, men approach the goal
from different directions. Their different starting points re-
quire, therefore, that they follow different paths if they are
to reach the same summit.
One's starting point is determined by the kind of person
one is, the specific complex of aptitudes, interests, and tem-
perament that constitutes one's personality or nature. Actually
this idea of there being different paths to God for different
kinds of people is well known among spiritual directors of
the West. 'There are directors,' writes Father Surin in his
Spiritual Catechism, 'who get an idea and a plan into their
heads, which they think much of, and apply to all the souls
who come to them, thinking that they will accomplish some-
thing great if they bring them into line with it. So they have
no other object than that of carrying out what they have imag-
ined like one should wish all to wear the same clothes.' St.
John of the Cross makes the same point in The Living Flame.
The aim of spiritual directors should be 'not to guide souls by
a way suitable to themselves, but to ascertain, if they can, the
way by which God Himself is guiding them.' The unique
thing about Hinduism is the amount of attention her seers
have given to identifying and marking the major alternate
paths. Almost every spiritual director has been concerned
with the problem. The result is a general understanding
shared by even the average, non-professional Hindu, not only
that there are multiple paths to God but also what these paths
are. It is as if Hinduism prescribes Quaker worship for one
person and the rich imagery of the Mass for another.
There are, according to Hindu analysis, four general kinds
*Heinrich Zimmer, The Philosophies of India (New York: Pantheon
Books, 1951), pp. 80-81.
 YOGA 285
of persons. Some are basically reflective. Others are primarily
emotional. Still others are essentially active. Finally some are
most accurately characterized as empirical or experimental.
For each of these personality types a distinct yoga is recom-
mended and designed to capitalize on the endowments at
the individual's disposal.
All four paths begin with certain moral preliminaries. The
aim in each case being to render the surface self transparent
to the divinity beneath, it is obvious that this self must first be
cleansed of its gross moral impurities. Religion is always
more than morality, but if its structure is to stand it has to
be built on a strong moral base. Selfish acts coagulate the
finite self instead of allaying it; bad habits keep mind and
body roiled like a torrent. As the first step to any yoga, then,
the aspirant must seek to cultivate habits and practices such
as non-injury, truthfulness, non-stealing, self-control, clean-
liness, contentment, self-discipline, and a compelling desire
to reach the goal.
Keeping in mind this common preliminary step we are now
ready for the distinctive features of the four yogas.

J nana Yoga: The Way to God Through Knowledge

Jnana Yoga, intended for spiritual aspirants who have a
strong intellectual bent, is the path to oneness with the God-
head through knowledge. There are persons who are by
nature philosophical. Ideas to them are of first importance.
When such persons become convinced of something it makes
a real difference in their living, for their lives follow where
their minds lead. Socrates and Buddha are classic examples
of men of this type. For persons of their disposition and
aptitude, Hinduism proposes a series of meditations and
logical demonstrations designed to convince the thinker that
there is more to him than his finite self; once this kind of
person sees this he will shift his central concern to deeper
reaches of his being.
The aim of this yoga is 'to cleave the domain of ignorance
with the sword of discrimination.' What is needed is the
power to distinguish between the surface self that crowds the
foreground of our being and the larger self that lies behind it.
The path that leads to this power consists of three steps. The
first is hearing. Here, through listening to sages and scriptures
and philosophical treatises comparable to St. Thomas Aquinas'
Summa Theologica, the aspirant becomes acquainted with the
286 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

basic hypothesis that, unbeknownst, there lies at the center of

his being the infinite unthwartable fount of being itself.
The second step is thinking. By prolonged, intensive re-
flection, that which in the first step was raised as an abstract
possibility must take on life; the at man must be transformed
in our outlook from an empty concept to a momentous reality.
A number of lines of reflection are suggested. For example,
the disciple is advised to examine the language he uses every
day and ponder its implications. The word 'my' always
implies a distinction between the possessor and what is pos-
sessed. When I speak of my book or my coat, there is no
thought that I am these things. But I also speak of my body,
my mind, or my personality, giving evidence thereby that in
some sense I think of myself as standing apart from these
also. What is this I that is the possessor of my body and mind
but cannot be equated with them?
Again, science tells me there is nothing in my body that
was with me seven years ago. In the course of my lifetime my
mind and personality have undergone changes that are in
their own ways equally radical. Yet through all these revisions
I have remained on some level the same person, the person
who had this body at one time, that at another, who once
was fair but now is faded, who once was young and now is
old. What is this something in our make-up deeper than either
body or personality that provides this continuity in the midst
of incessant change?
Our word 'personality' comes from the Latin persona
which originally meant the mask an actor donned as he
stepped onto the stage to play his role, the mask through
(per) which he sounded (sonat) his part. The mask carried
the make-up of the role, while the actor behind it remained
hidden and anonymous, aloof from the emotions enacted.
This, say the Hindus, is perfect. This is precisely what our
personalities are—the roles into which we have been cast for
the moment in this greatest drama of all, the comic-tragedy
of life itself in which we are simultaneously both co-authors
and actors. As a good actor gives his best to his part, we too
should play ours as close to perfection as possible. The dis-
turbing fact, however, is that we have lost sight of the distinc-
tion between our true self and the veil of personality that is
its present costume, its current shroud, but which will be laid
aside when the play is over. We have come completely under
the fascination of our present lines, unable to remember
 YOGA 287
previous roles we have played or to anticipate future ones.
The task of the yogi is to correct this false identification.
Turning his awareness inward he must pierce and dissolve
the innumerable layers of the manifest personality until, all
strata of the mask at length cut through, he arrives at the
anonymous and strangely unconcerned actor who stands
beneath.
The distinction between self and Self can come through
another image. Imagine someone playing chess. The board
represents his world. There are pieces to be moved, men to
be won and lost, an objective to be gained. The game can be
won or lost but not the player himself. His pieces may be
captured one by one, but if he has played the game to the
best of his ability he has developed his faculties; in fact, he
is somewhat more likely to profit by defeat than by victory.
As the contestant is related to the total person, so is the finite
self of any particular lifetime related to the atman.
Sometimes the yogi is counseled to drop argument entirely
and turn his mind over to mataphor. One of the most beau-
tiful is found in the Upanishads, as also, by interesting co-
incidence, in Plato. There is a rider who sits serene and
motionless in his chariot. Having delegated responsibility for
the journey to his charioteer, he is free to sit back and give
full attention to the passing landscape.
In this image lies a metaphor of life. The body is the
chariot. The road over which the chariot is drawn represents
sense objects. The horses that pull the chariot over the road
are the senses themselves. The mind that controls the senses
when they are disciplined is the reins. The decisional faculty
of the mind is the driver and the master of the chariot who
is in full authority but need never lift a finger is the Omnis-
cient Self.
If the yogi is able and diligent, such reflections will in due
time build up a lively sense of the abiding Self that underlies
his phenomenal personality. The two will be distinct in his
mind, related as oil and water, not milk and water as
formerly. He is then ready for the third step which consists
in shifting his self-identification from the passing to the
eternal part of his being. The most direct way of doing this,
of course, is simply to meditate as profoundly as possible on
one's identity with the Eternal Spirit, trying to think of
oneself as such even while going about the tasks of the day.
This, however, is not easy; it is a high, exacting art. The
288 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
aspirant first needs a wedge to be driven between his self-
identification and the body and personality with which it has
become so thoroughly involved. An effective way to do this
is to think of one's finite self in the third person. Walking
down the street, the yogi, instead of thinking 'I am doing this'
should say to himself, 'there goes Jones down Fifth Avenue.'
He should even try to visualize himself as seen from a dis-
tance. Neither agent nor patient, his unwavering approach
to all experience should be 'I am the Witness.' He observes
his unsubstantial history with calm detachment, as one might
let one's hair blow in the wind. Just as a lamp that lights a
room is unconcerned with what goes on within it, so the
witness watching what goes on in this house of protoplasm,
this person, this on-stage mask. Its processes are simply per-
mitted to proceed. Even inertia is to be felt as something
separate, not part of one's real self which is infinite. Pain
likewise. Seated in the dentist's chair, the yogi should be no
more than an onlooker: 'Poor Jones. Too bad. He'll feel
better tomorrow.' Practice can bring surprising detachment
even here. One still feels the pain but in a different way, it
does not touch one's will, and as pain is three-fourths fear,
it becomes less acute. A serious yogi, however, must practice
his discipline equally when fortune smiles and he would
normally love to identify himself with the individual self
upon which the honor is being bestowed.
Thinking of oneself in the third person does two things
simultaneously. It drives a wedge between one's self-identifi-
cation and one's surface self and at the same time forces this
self-identification to a deeper level until at last, through a
knowledge identical with being, one becomes in full what one
always was at heart. 'That thou art, other than Whom there
is no seer, hearer, thinker, qr agent'. 5

Bhakti Yoga: The Way to God Through Love

The yoga of knowledge is said to be the shortest path to
divine realization. It is also the steepest, however. Requiring
as it does a rare combination of rationality and spirituality, it
is for the select few. In most persons the rational component
is too weak to carry them to God by its exercise alone.
On the whole, life is motored not so much by reason as
5
A refrain which, with minor variations, runs throughout the Upani-
shads.
 YOGA 289
by emotion, and of the many emotions that crowd man's life,
the most powerful and pervasive is love. Even hate can be
interpreted as a rebound from the thwarting of this impulse.
Moreover, men tend to become like that which they love,
with the name thereof progressively written on their brows.
The aim of Bhakti Yoga is to direct toward God the geyser
of love that lies at the base of every heart. 'As the waters of
the Ganges flow incessantly toward the ocean,' says God in
the Bhagavata Purana, 'so do the minds of [the bhaktas]
move constantly toward Me, the Supreme Person residing in
every heart, immediately they hear about my qualities.'
Unlike Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga has countless followers,
being, indeed, the most popular of the four. Though it
originated in antiquity, one of its best known proponents was
a sixteenth century poet named Tulsidas. During his early
married life he was inordinately fond of his wife to the point
that he could not abide her absence even for a day. One day
she went to visit her parents. Before the day was half over
Tulsidas turned up at her side, whereupon his wife exclaimed,
'How passionately attached to me you are! If only you could
shift your attachment to God, you would reach him in no
time.' 'So I would,' thought Tulsidas. He tried it, and it
worked.
All the basic principles of Bhakti Yoga are richly exempli-
fied in Christianity. Indeed from the Hindu point of view
Christianity is one great brilliantly lit Bhakti highway toward
God, other paths being not neglected but not as clearly
marked. Along this path God must be conceived in a way
different from the way he was conceived by the Jnana yogi.
In Jnana Yoga the guiding image was an infinite sea of per-
vading Self, as fully present within us as without. The task
was to recognize our identity with him. Moreover, God was
conceived primarily in impersonal terms, for the characteristic
of ultimate reality that most impresses the philosopher is his
infinity in comparison with which personality, embodying as
it must certain properties to the exclusion of others, must
always seem in some respects a limitation. For one to whom
love means more than mind God must appear different on
each of these counts. First, as love when healthy is an out-
turning emotion, the Bhakta will reject all suggestion that the
God he loves is himself, even his deepest Self, and insist
instead on his otherness. As a Hindu devotional classic puts
the point, T want to taste the sugar; I don't want to be sugar.'
290 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
Can water quaff itself?
Can trees taste of the fruit they bear?
He who worships God must stand distinct from Him,
So only shall he know the joyful love of God;
For if he say that God and he are one,
That joy, that love, shall vanish instantly away.
Pray no more for utter oneness with God:
Where were the beauty if jewel and setting were one?
The heat and the shade are two,
If not, where were the comfort of shade?
Mother and child are two,
If not, where were love?
When after long being sundered, they meet,
What joy do they feel, the mother and child!
Where were joy, if the two were one?
Pray, then, no more for utter oneness with God.6

Second, because of this sense of God's otherness the

Bhakta's goal, too, will differ from the /nam's; his aim will
not be to perceive his identity with God but to adore him with
every element of his being. The words of Bede Frost, though
written in another tradition, are directly applicable to this
side of Hinduism: 'The union . . . is no Pantheistic absorption
of the man in the one . . . but is essentially personal in
character. . . . More, since it is preeminently a union of love,
the kind of knowledge which is required is that of friendship
in the very highest sense of the word'. 7 Finally, in such a
context God's personality, far from being a limitation, is
indispensable. Philosophers may be able to love pure being,
infinite beyond all attributes, but they are exceptions. The
normal object of human love is personality, however exalted
its attributes of wisdom, compassion, and grace may be.
All we have to do in this yoga is to love God dearly—not
just say we love him but love him in fact; love him only
(loving other things because of him), and love him for no
ulterior reason (not even from the desire for liberation) but
for love's sake alone. Insofar as we succeed we will know
joy, for no experience can compare with that of being
authentically and fully in love. Moreover, every strengthening
of our affections toward God will weaken the world's grip.
The saint may, indeed will, love the world far more than the
"Song by Tukaram. Translated by John S. Hoyland in An Indian
Peasant Mystic (London: Allenson and Co., 1932).
'The Art of Mental Prayer (London: S. P. C. K., 1950), pp. 29-30.
 YOGA 291
addict, but he will love it in a very different way, seeing in it
the reflected glory of the God he adores.
How is this love of God to be developed? Obviously the
task will not be easy. The things of this world clamor for our
affection so incessantly that it may be marveled that a Being
who can neither be seen nor heard can ever become their
competitor.
Enter Hinduism's myths, her magnificant symbols, her
several hundred images of God, her rituals that keep turning
night and day like a never-ending prayer wheel. Valued as
ends in themselves these could, of course, usurp God's place,
but this is not their intent. They are matchmakers, responsible
for introducing man's heart to what they represent but them-
selves are not. It is clumsy to confuse Hinduism's images
with idolatry and her many images with polytheism. They are
but runways from which man's heavily sense-embodied spirit
can take off for its 'flight of the alone to the Alone.' Even
village priests will frequently open their temple worship with
the following beloved invocation:

O Lord, forgive three sins that are due to my human limitations:

Thou art everywhere, but I worship you here;
Thou art without form, but I worship you in these forms;
Thou needest no praise, yet I offer you these prayers and
salutations.
Lord, forgive three sins that are due to my human limitations.

A symbol such as a multiarmed image graphically portray-

ing God's astounding versatility and superhuman might, can
epitomize an entire philosophy through condensation and
concentration. Myths plumb depths which the intellect can see
only obliquely. Parables and legends present ideals in such
a way as to make the hearer long to embody them in his own
life, vivid support for Irwin Edman's contention that 'it is
a myth, not a mandate, a fable, not a logic . . . by which
men are moved.' The value of these things lies in their power
to recall our minds from the world's distractions to the
thought of God and thereby progressively to his love. In
singing God's praises, in praying to him in wholehearted
devotion, in meditating on his majesty and glory, in reading
about him in the scriptures, in regarding the entire universe
as his handiwork, we move our affections steadily in his
direction. 'Those who . . . meditate on Me and worship Me
292 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

without any attachment to anything else,' says the Bhagavad-

Gita, 'those I soon lift from the ocean of death.'
Three features of the Bhakta's approach deserve mention:
japam, ringing the changes on love, and the worship of one's
chosen ideal.
Japam is the practice of repeating the name of God. It finds
a close Christian parallel in one of the classics of Russian
Orthodoxy, The Way of a Pilgrim.8 This book is the story of
an unnamed peasant whose first concern is to fulfill the
Biblical injunction to Tray without ceasing.' He wanders
through Russia and Siberia with a knapsack of dried bread
for food and the charity of men for shelter, consulting many
authorities only to come away empty-hearted until at last
he meets a holy man who teaches him 'a constant, uninter-
rupted calling upon the divine name of Jesus with the lips,
in the spirit, in the heart . . . during every occupation, at all
times, in all places, even during sleep.' The peasant's teacher
trains him until he can repeat the name of Jesus more than
12,000 times a day without strain. 'This frequent service of
the lips imperceptibly becomes a genuine appeal of the heart.'
The prayer becomes a constant, warming presence within
him that brings a 'bubbling joy.' 'Keep the name of the Lord
spinning in the midst of all your activities' is the Hindu state-
ment to the same point. Washing or weaving, shopping or
planting, imperceptibly but indelibly these verbal droplets of
aspiration will soak down into the subconscious, turning the
total self toward the divine.
Ringing the changes of love puts to religious use the fact
that love has different shades and nuances depending on the
relationship in which it is involved. The love of the parent
for child carries overtones of protectivenesses in contrast to
the love of a child for its parent which is blended with
dependence. The love of friends is different from conjugal
love of man and wife. Differing from each of these, again, is
the love of a devoted servant for his benevolent master.
According to Hinduism, man's fullest capacities for love
require that each of these modes be tapped. It encourages
Bhaktas, therefore, to adopt each of these attitudes of love
toward God.
Hindu psychology classifies the stages of devotion in a
hierarchy of increasing intimacy and reciprocity of love. First

Translated by R. M. French (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1955).

 YOGA 293
comes the attitude of the protected toward the protector, the
receiver toward the giver, the servant toward the master. At
this stage we should think of God as mother, father, lord or
master. Next comes the stage of friendship. Here God is
approached more intimately, in the role of companion and
even playmate. Third comes the attitude of the parent in
which the devotee looks on God as if He were his child.
Finally, there is the attitude of the lover in which God is the
beloved. Of these roles the ones in which God has most often
been depicted by the Western religious consciousness are
Father and Lord, but the others are not lacking. 'What a
Friend we have in Jesus' is a familiar Christian hymn; another
draws upon two responses simultaneously as one of its stanzas
closes with the line 'My Master and my Friend.' God figures
in the guise of the spouse in the Song of Songs as well as in
the writings of the mystics where the marriage of the soul
to Christ is a standing image. The attitude of regarding God
as one's child is the one likely to sound the most foreign to
the West, yet much of the magic of Christmas stems pre-
cisely from the fact that this is the one time in the year
when God enters the heart as a child, eliciting thereby the
special tenderness that flows from the parental impulse.
We come finally to the worship of God in the form of
one's chosen ideal. The Hindus have represented God in
innumerable forms. This, they say, is appropriate. Each is
but a symbol that points to something beyond, and as none
exhausts the fullness of God's actual nature the entire array
can be regarded as depicting God in his innumerable aspects
and manifestations. But though a number of representations
can point to God equally, it is advisable for each devotee
to attach himself on a lifelong basis to some particular aspect
or manifestation. Only so can its meaning deepen and its full
power become accessible. This manifestation will be one's
chosen idea. The Bhakta need not shun all others, but this
one will never be forsaken and will always have a special
place in his heart. The best ideal for most persons will be
one of God's human incarnations. God can be loved most
readily when he manifests himself in human form, for our
hearts are already tuned to love people. Many Hindus
acknowledge Christ as such a god-man while believing that
there have been others as well, Rama, Krishna, Buddha. The
list varies in length according to different schools. Whenever
the world falls into decay and the ascent of man towards
294 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
divinity is seriously endangered, God descends to earth to
release the jammed wheels of history.
When goodness grows weak,
When evil increases,
I make myself a body.
In every age I come back
To deliver the holy,
To destroy the sin of the9 sinner,
To establish the righteous.

Karma Yoga: The Way to God Through Work

The third path toward God, intended for persons of active
bent, is Karma Yoga, the path toward God through work.
An examination of the anatomy and physiology of the
human organism discloses an interesting fact. All organs of
digestion and respiration serve to feed the blood with nutritive
materials. The circulatory apparatus delivers this nourishing
blood throughout the body maintaining bones, joints, and
muscles. Bones provide a framework without which the
muscles could not operate while joints supply the flexibility
needed for movement. The brain envisions the movements
that are to be made and the spinal nervous system executes
them. The vegetative nervous system helped by the endocrine
system maintains the harmony of the viscera on which the
motor muscles depend. In short, the entire body except for
its reproductive apparatus converges toward muscles and
their movements. All human life when looked at from the
angle of the body converges on action. 'The human machine,'
writes a contemporary physician, 'seems indeed to be made
for action.'10
Work is the staple of human life. The point is not simply
that all but the few who are born into the truly leisure class
have to work. Ultimately the impulse to work is psychologi-
cally, not economically, motivated. Forced to be idle most
persons become irritable; forced to retire they decline. In-
cluded are the Marthas trotting from chore to chore, as well
as captains of industry. To such persons Hinduism says, You
9
Bhagavad-Gita, Prabhavananda & Isherwood translation (New York:
Harper & Brothers, 1944-51), p. 60; (New York: The New American
Library of World Literature, Inc. (Mentor Books), 1954).
10
Hubert Benoit, The Supreme Doctrine (New York: Pantheon Books,
1955), p. 22.
 YOGA 295
don't have to retire to a cloister to realize God. You can find
him in the world of everyday affairs as readily as anywhere. 11
Throw yourself into your work with everything you have,
only do so wisely, in a way that will bring the highest
rewards, not just trivia. Learn the secret to work by which
every movement can carry you Godward even while other
things are being accomplished, like a wristwatch that winds
itself as other duties are being attended to.
How this is to be done depends on other components in
the worker's nature. By assuming this path he has already
indicated his predominantly active disposition. But, there
remains the question of whether in other respects he is
inclined more in a reflective or affective direction. The path
to work has alternate routes depending on whether it is
approached philosophically or in the attitude of love. In the
language of the four yogas, Karma Yoga can be practiced
under the mode of either jnana (knowledge) or bhakti
(devotion).
As we have seen, the point of love is to transcend the
smallness of the finite self. This can be done either by
shifting the center of interest and affection to a personal God
experienced as distinct from oneself or by identifying oneself
with the impersonal Absolute that resides at the core of one's
being. The first is the way of Bhakti, the second the Jnani.
Work can be a vehicle for self-transcendence by either
approach. For according to Hindu doctrine every action per-
formed upon the external world has its correlative internal
reaction upon the doer. If I chop down a tree that blocks
my view, each stroke of the ax unsettles the tree but leaves
its mark on me as well, driving deeper into my being my
determination to have my own way in the world. Every deed
I do for the sake of my own private welfare adds another
coating to the ego and in thus thickening it insulates it further
from God within or without. Correlatively, every act done
without thought of self diminishes self-centeredness until
finally no barrier remains to cloud one from the divine.
The best way for the emotionally inclined to render his
u
There is here something paralleling Luther's determination to
obliterate the distinction between clergy and laity by sanctifying the
common life. One recalls him crying to magistrate, farmer, soldier,
artisan, and servant girl that if they approach their station in the right
spirit none on earth can be higher; indeed, any of these can be "a status
higher than that of a bishop."
296 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
work selfless is to bring his ardent and affectionate nature into
play and work for God's sake instead of his own. 'He who
performs actions without attachment, resigning them to God
is untainted by their effects as the lotus leaf by water.' 12
Such a one is just as active as before, but he works for a
completely different reason. His whole orientation toward the
tasks of his daily life has become one of devotion. Every act
of his diurnal routine is performed without concern for its
effect upon himself. Not only is it performed as a service to
God; it is regarded as prompted by God's will, executed for
God's sake, and transacted by God's own energy which is
being channeled through the devotee. 'Thou are the Doer, I
the instrument.' Performed in this spirit actions lighten the
ego instead of encumbering it. Each task becomes a sacred
ritual, lovingly fulfilled as a living sacrifice to God and his
glory, without thought of profit that might rebound to the
individual.
'Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer
in sacrifice, whatever you give away, whatever austerity you
practice. O Son of Kunti, do this as an offering to Me. Thus
shall you be free from the bondages of actions that bear good
and evil results. 13 'They have no desire for the fruits of their
actions,' echoes the Bhagavata Purana: 'These persons would
not accept even . . . the state of union with Me; they would
always prefer My service.'
A young man, newly married and in love, works not for
himself alone. As he works the thought of his beloved is in
the back of his mind giving meaning and purpose to all his
labors. So too with a devoted servant, he claims nothing for
himself. Regardless of personal cost he does his duty for his
master's satisfaction. Just so is God's will the sole joy and
satisfaction of the devotee. Surrendering himself to the Lord
of all, he remains untouched by the uncertainties of life over
which he has no control. Such persons' backs never break.
They never grow discouraged for they do not ask to win;
they ask only to be on the side where they belong. They know
that if history ever changes it will not be men who will
change it but its Author—when men come to the point that
they want it changed. Men in history lose their centering in
eternity when they grow anxious for the outcome of their

^Bhagavad-Gita, IX: 27-28.

^Bhagavad-Gita, V: 10.
T YOGA 297
deeds. As long as they rest t h e m on the knees of the Living
G o d they are released by t h e m f r o m the bondages of the sea
of death. ' D o without attachment the work you have to do . . .
surrendering all action to Me . . . freeing yourself from long-
ing and selfishness, fight—unperturbed by grief.' 14
Once he has forsaken every claim on his acts including all
claims for success, t h e Karma Yogi's deeds no longer b o o m -
erang to litter and increase his ego. T h e y leave no m a r k on
his m i n d to p r o d u c e future effects, good or evil. In this w a y
he works out t h e accumulated impressions of previous deeds
without acquiring n e w ones. Whatever one's reaction to this
imagery, it is not difficult to see the psychological truth of
such a description. A m a n w h o is completely at the disposal
of others does not exist. W h e n N e g r o slaves accidentally h u r t
their feet or their hands, they used to say wryly, 'It does not
matter, it is the master's foot, the master's hand.' He who
has no sense of possessiveness around which selfhood can
crystallize does not exist. The Spanish put the point nicely:
'Would you like to become invisible? Have no thought of
yourself for two years and no one will notice you.'
Work as a path toward God takes a different turn for per-
sons whose dispositions are more reflective than emotional.
For these too the key is work done unselfishly, but the
psychological framework is different. Philosophers tend to
find the idea of Infinite Being at the center of one's self more
meaningful than the thought of a personal Heavenly Father
who stands over and above men and the world ruling them
with a love that is eternal. It is only intelligent, therefore, that
their approach to work should be adapted to this perspective.
The secret of the J nana approach to work consists in dis-
crimination. Specifically it consists in drawing a sharp line
between the empirical self immersed in action and the eternal
self which stands aloof from it. Man's usual interest in work
relates to the consequences it will have for his empirical self,
the pay or acclaim it will bring. Such interests obviously
inflate the ego and thicken the insulation between our con-
scious selves and the Infinite that is beneath them.
The way that leads to enlightenment is work performed in
the spirit of complete detachment, almost disassociation, from
the empirical self. Identifying himself securely with the
Eternal, the worker goes about his duties, but as these are
u
I Bhagavad-Gita, III: 19-30.
298 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

being effected by his empirical self, his True Self is in no way

involved with them. 'The knower of Truth, [being] centered
[in the Self] should think, "I do nothing at all"—through
seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, going, sleeping,
breathing, speaking, letting go, holding, opening and closing
the eyes—convinced that it is the senses that move among
sense objects.' 15
As the yogfs identification shifts from his finite to his in-
finite self, he will become increasingly indifferent to the con-
sequences that flow from his work for the former. More and
more he will recognize the truth of the Gita's dictum: 'To
work you have the right, but not to the fruits thereof.' Duty
for duty's sake becomes his sole concern in actions.

He who does the task

Dictated by duty,
Caring nothing
For the fruit of the action,
He is a yogi.18

Hence the story of the yogi who as he sat meditating on

the banks of the Ganges saw a scorpion fall into the water
before him. He scooped it out, only to have it bite him.
Presently the scorpion fell into the river again. Once more
the yogi rescued him, only to be bitten a second time. The
sequence was repeated twice more, where upon a bystander
asked the yogi, 'Why do you keep rescuing that scorpion
when the only gratitude it shows is to bite you?' 'It is the
nature of scorpions to bite,' was the reply, 'It is the nature of
yogis to help others when they can.'
The Karma yogi will try to do each thing as it comes as if
it were the only thing he has to do, and having done it or
being forced to leave it to go on to another duty, to do so in
the same spirit. He will seek to concentrate fully and calmly
on each duty as it presents itself, resisting all impatience,
excitement, and the vain attempt to do or think of half a
dozen things at once. 17 Into the various tasks that fall to his
lot he will put all the strokes he can, for to do otherwise
^Swami Swarupananda, Srimad-Bhagavad-Gita (Mayavati, Hima-
layas:
w
Advaita Ashrama, 1933), p. 125.
Bhagavad-Gita, Chap. VI, translation by Prabhavananda & Isher-
wood.
17
For parallel advice in the Christian tradition, see Bede Frost, op.
cit., p. 146.
 YOGA 299
would be to yield to laziness which is simply a variety of
selfishness; but once he has done this he will dissociate him-
self from the act and let the chips fall where they may.

One to me is loss or gain,

One to me is fame or shame,
One to me is pleasure, pain.18

A mature individual does not resent correction, for he

identifies himself more with the long-range self that grows
through correction than with the momentary self that is being
indicted. Similarly the yogi accepts pain, loss, and shame with
the equanimity because such things touch only the surface
self whereas his identification is being transferred to the
underlying immutable self whose limitless joy and serenity
cannot possibly be ruffled by momentary turns of fortune.
Once his self-identification becomes thus permanently poised
in the Eternal, he experiences calm even in the midst of
intense activity. Like the center of a rapidly spinning wheel,
he has appearance of rest even in the most concentrated
endeavors. It is like the stillness of absolute motion.
Though the conceptual frameworks in terms of which
philosophical and affectionate natures approach the practice
of Karma Yoga differ sharply, it is not difficult to see that
they aim at the same result. Both are engaged in a radical
reducing diet that is designed to starve the finite personality
to death by deflecting it from the consequences of the actions
on which it feeds. Neither gives the slightest purchase to that
native egoism which the world considers healthy selfishness,
indispensable if any living creature is to compete successfully
in the struggle for existence. Both yogis aim at a prize that
transcends creaturely existence altogether. The Bhakta seeks
his 'self-naughting' by giving his heart and will to the Eternal
Companion and finding them again therein a thousandfold
enriched. The Jnana is equally concerned to wither the self
because of his conviction that in proportion to its recession
there will come into view a nucleus of our being that is
radically unaffected by anything we connect with our indi-
vidual personalities: 'a sublime inhabitant and onlooker
transcending the sphere of the former conscious-unconscious
system, aloofly unconcerned with the tendencies that formerly
I supported the individual biography. This anonymous "dia-
1 ™Bhagavad-Gita, Chap. XII. See also Chap. XIV.
300 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

mond being" is not at all what we were cherishing as our

character and cultivating as our faculties, inclinations, virtues,
and ideals; for it transcends every horizon of unclarified and
partly clarified consciousness. It was enwrapped within the
sheaths of the body and personality; yet the dark, turbid,
thick [layers of the surface self] could not disclose its image.
Only the translucent essence of [a self in which all private
wants have been dispensed] permits it to become visible—as
through a glass, or in a quiet pond. And then, the moment
it is recognized, its manifestation bestows an immediate
knowledge that this is our true identity. The life-monad is
remembered and greeted, even though it is distinct from
everything in this phenomenal composite of a body and
psyche, which, under the delusion caused by our usual
ignorance and undiscriminating consciousness we had crudely
mistaken for the real and lasting essence of our being.'19

Raja Yoga: The Way to God Through Psychological

Exercises
Because of the dazzling heights to which it leads, Raja
Yoga has been known in India as 'the royal road to re-
integration.' Designed for persons who are basically scientific
in bent, it is the way to God through psychological ex-
periment.
The West has honored the empiricist in the laboratory but
often distrusted his approach in things of the spirit,20 accusing
him of prideful deification of personal experience as the final
test of truth. India has had no such fear. Affairs of the spirit,
she holds, can be approached just as empirically as outer
nature. Consequently persons who have the inclination and
self-discipline needed to approach God in this way are given
full encouragement. Theirs is the fourth part to the goal, the
royal way of Raja Yoga. All that is required is a strong sus-
picion that our true selves are vastly more wonderful than
we now realize and a passion for direct experience of their
full reach. Without these dispositions the empiricist will either
lack the patience to carry through or turn his experiments
toward the outer world and become a research student in the
conventional sense. Given a basically spiritual orientation and
M
Heinrich Zimmer, op. cit., pp. 303-04.
^St. Thomas, however, defined mysticism as experimental knowledge
of God.
W YOGA 301
outreach, however, all that is proposed is that the yogi under-
take a series of experiments with all the patience and rigor
of a frontier experiment in physics and carefully observe the
outcome. If it is nil, and the experiments have been per-
formed ably and with diligence, the hypothesis has been
disproved, at least as far as this experimenter is concerned.
The expectation, however, is that they will lead to experiences
which will progressively confirm the hypothesis as the experi-
ment proceeds.
Unlike the bulk of experiments in Western Science, the
experiments called for by Raja Yoga are on one's self rather
than on the world of external nature. Even where Western
Science does turn to self-experiment—as, for example, in
medicine, where ethics prescribes that dangerous experiments
may be performed only on oneself—the Indie emphasis is
different; in Raja Yoga one experiments not on one's body
(though as we shall see the body is definitely involved in the
act) but on one's spirit. The experiments take the form of
practicing certain mental exercises and observing the effects
of these on one's spiritual condition.
The Raja Yogi is not required to swallow any dogmas.
Nevertheless, experiment cannot proceed except on the basis
of some hypothesis which the results either support or negate.
The hypothesis underlying Raja Yoga is the Hindu doctrine
of man and, though it has been recurrently referred to
already, it needs to be restated here as the conceptual back-
ground in terms of which the Raja experiments have been
drawn up.
The Hindu concept rests on the basic thesis that he is a
layered being. We need not here go into the detailed Hindu
analyses of these layers; the accounts are extremely technical
and involved and may (in the light of growing scientific
knowledge) turn out to be more metaphorically than literally
accurate. It will suffice for our purposes to summarize the
hypothesis by reducing the principal layers to four. First and
most obviously, man has a body. Next comes that portion of
his mind and experience that he is aware of, his conscious
personality. Underlying these two is a third region, the realm
of his individual subconscious. This has been built up out of
his private past experiences down through the years. Though
it is hidden to his normal awareness, it shapes his life in
I profound ways that contemporary psychoanalysis is beginning
.1 to detail. These three parts of man are paralleled in the con-
302 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

temporary Western view. The distinctive point in the Hindu

hypothesis is its postulation of a fourth part. Underlying the
other three, more perceived by the conscious mind than even
its private subconscious though as vitally related to it, stands
Being Itself, infinite, unthwarted, eternal. 'I am smaller than
the minutest atom, likewise greater than the greatest. I am
the whole, the diversified-multicolored-lovely-strange uni-
verse. I am the Ancient One. I am Man, the Lord. I am the
Being of God. I am the very state of divine beatitude.' 21
Hinduism agrees with psychoanalysis that if only we could
dredge up a portion of our lost individual totality—the third
part of our being—we would experience a remarkable expan-
sion of our powers, a vivid refreshening of life. But this is
only the beginning of its hypothesis. If only we could resur-
rect something forgotten not only by ourselves but also by
mankind as a whole, something which provides the clue not
simply to our private compulsions and idiosyncrasies but to all
life and all existence, what then? Would we not become true
boon-bringers to humanity?
The call, clearly, is to retreat from the world's inconse-
quential panorama to the deep-lying causal zones of the
psyche where the real problems and answers lie. Beyond this,
however, Raja Yoga's response cannot be described, quite, as
an answer to any articulated call. Rather, it is a determined
refusal to allow the pitter-patter of daily existence to distract
from the unknown demon of some waiting void within: a
kind of total strike against the terms of routine, prosaic
existence. The successful yogi succeeds in carrying life's
problems to this plane of new magnitude and there resolving
it. The insights of such a one will be eloquent not so much
to passing personal and social predicaments as to the un-
quenchable source by which all men and societies are re-
newed, for his inspiration will be drawn from direct contact
with this primary spring. In body he will remain an indi-
vidual; in spirit he will have become eternal man, unspecific,
universal, perfected.
The purpose of Raja Yoga is to demonstrate the validity
of this fourfold estimate of man by leading the inquirer to
direct personal experience of 'the beyond that is within.' If
method is willed introversion, one of the classic implements of
creative genius in any line of endeavor is here carried to
a
Quoted in Heinrich Zimmer, op. cit.
 YOGA 303
logical completion. Its intent is no less than to drive man's
psychic energy into the deepest part of his being and activate
the lost continent of his true self. Risks are, of course, in-
volved; if the venture is bungled, at best considerable time
will have been lost, at worst consciousness can disintegrate
into neurosis or psychosis. Rightly done, however, under a
director who knows what he is about, the personality will be
able to absorb and integrate the new forces that are being
tapped and will experience an almost superhuman degree of
self-awareness and masterful control.
Huston Smith goes on to elaborate on the eight steps of
the experiment the Raja Yogi undertakes.
W. Y. Evans-Wentz's discussion of Hatha Yoga has been
omitted, as it is rather lengthy and most of its particulars
are already in the Hatha Yoga entry of this book. We begin
with his second entry:22

(2) Lay a Yoga and Its Parts

Lay a, in the term Lay a Yoga, means 'mind-control'; and
Laya Yoga is, accordingly, that part of the science of Yoga
concerned chiefly with the yogic method of acquiring mastery
over the mind, more particularly over the will-power. By
those Indian gurus who regard, as we do, the various yogas
as being like rounds in one ladder of Yoga, Laya Yoga is
taught only after Pranayama, or Hatha Yoga, has been
mastered, and the disciple, as a direct result, has brought
his body under control, is possessed of a disciplined mind
and of sound health, and is, therefore, ready to advance.
Under Laya Yoga we classify four other yogas which, like
Laya Yoga, depend essentially upon the conscious exercise
of the vo£/ca//y-controlled power of the mind, follows:

(a) Bhakti Yoga and Shakti Yoga

Psychologically regarded, viewing Yoga as a unitary whole,
Bhakti Yoga, or the 'joining' by means of mentally concen-
trating on (Divine) Love (Skt. bhakti), results chiefly in
one-pointedness of mind. Accordingly, it is classifiable as
being a part of Laya Yoga.
In certain parts of our texts, wherein the yogin, in prayer
of devotion, is directed to visualize the devatas or gurus in a
^Tibetan Book of the Dead (New York: Oxford University Press,
1960).

k
304 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

mood of profound love and reverence for them, Bhakti Yoga

is practiced.
Likewise, Shakti Yoga is a part of Laya Yoga inasmuch
as it implies the 'joining' by means of mentally concentrating
on (Divine) Power (Skt. shakti), conceived of as being the
feminine (or negative) aspect of the Universe-embracing
spiritual forces of Cosmic Mind. In this yoga, the shakti is
commonly personified as a Mother-Goddess. The masculine
(or positive) aspect is represented by a personification of the
male half of the duality of deity. This dualism has parallel in
the subtle Yin-Yang Doctrine of Taoism, as in the corre-
sponding Yum-Yab Doctrine of Lamaism, the Yin (or Yum)
being the female principle of nature and the Yang (or Yab)
the male principle. There exists similar correspondence be-
tween the Shakti of the Hindus, the Pshia ('Wisdom') of the
Gnostics, and the Prajna ('Wisdom') of the Prajna-Paramita,
all three alike being personified as the female aspect of deity.
Whereas in Bhakti Yoga one-pointedness of mind is at-
tained through yogic concentration on Divine Love as bhakti
in Shakti Yoga a result yogically equivalent comes from yogic
concentration on Divine Power as shakti. In our texts the
Great Shakti is Vajra-Yogini, a Tantric goddess.

(b) Mantra Yoga and Yantra Yoga

In Mantra Yoga, by expert use of mantras, which consist
of words or sounds of occult power, and in Yantra Yoga,
by similar employment of yantras, or geometrical diagrams of
mystical significance, the yogin's aim is to establish telepathic
and even more intimate communication with the deities that
he invokes to assist him in his yogic endeavours. Mudra yoga
[of which some explanation is given in The Tibetan Book of
the Dead, p. 127] may be regarded as a subdivision of Yantra
Yoga; for it is dependent upon the yogic use of mystic signs
(Skt. mudra), which are usually made by posturing the hands
or body, and in lesser degree upon mystic symbols more or
less of geometrical character.
In our own texts, Mantra Yoga and Yantra Yoga (chiefly
as Mudra Yoga) play a part of considerable importance, as
they do in almost all systems of Yoga which have been
shaped in Tibetan environments. As shown in Tibefs Great
Yogi Milarepa, both these yogas are employed in the con-
ferring of spiritual power at the time of lamaic initiations. In
so far as these two yogas are dependent upon yogic visualiza-
 YOGA 305
'-tion and, therefore, upon a certain degree of yogic control
of mind, they, also, like Bhakti and Shakti Yoga, are to be
regarded as specialized parts of Laya Yoga.
In the Siva Samhita (v. 9) of the Hindus, Yoga is said to
be of four kinds, and Mantra Yoga, being regarded as the
simplest, or easiest to practice, is separated from Laya Yoga
and placed first in the order of the yogas, even in advance
of Hatha Yoga: 'Yoga is of four kinds: first, Mantra Yoga;
second, Hatha Yoga; third, Laya Yoga; fourth, Raja Yoga,
which discardeth dualism.'
Also in the Siva Samhita (v. 30), Nada Yoga, which is a
form of Mantra Yoga, referred to by Patanjali (Yoga Sutras,
35) as that aspect of Yoga dependent upon mental concentra-
tion upon some of the vishayas (sensations) of the body and
Otherwise known as Shabda (Sensation of Sound) Yoga, is
said to be the best part of Laya Yoga. Patanjali explains
how, by the aid of any of the bodily sensations such, for ex-
ample, as the internal sound heard when the ears are stopped
with the fingers, which is one kind of nada, or shabda, one-
pointedness of mind results. And in other Sanskrit works on
Yoga this process is called Laya Yoga.

(c) The Limitation of Laya Yoga

Laya Yoga is, therefore, to be regarded chiefly as one
method of attaining yogic control of the human mentality.
As such, like Hatha Yoga, its right use is merely preparatory.
The adept in this yoga, also like the adept in Hatha Yoga, may
induce in himself a state of suspended animation, very often
mistakenly regarded by the yogin who experienced it as being
concomitant with that exalted spiritual illumination which is
realized only in the highest samadhic trance. If the yogin
be obsessed by this error, as many of the practitioners of these
' two lower yogas commonly are, he makes no advance on the
path of spiritual attainment beyond a certain disciplining and
intimate understanding of his own psycho-physical powers.
This warning applies to all yogas here classified under Laya
Yoga.
Laya Yoga, however, like Hatha Yoga, may be of incalcu-
lable assistance to yogins who by temperament are fitted to
profit by it. Great yogins who have practiced these yogas
and attained Freedom have employed them only as prepara-
: tory preliminaries to the higher yogic practices.
/ According to Patanjali (i. 19), those who subordinate or
306 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

sacrifice their mental powers to nature (i.e. Prakriti, or

Shakti), or to deified men who are deceased (such, for ex-
ample, as Krishna or Jesus) cause thereby their own return
to this world again and again. The aim of the higher yogas
which we shall now proceed to consider, is to advance the
evolution of man beyond the illusory glamour of sangsaric,
or worldly, existence, so that karmic necessity of rebirth in
the human states comes to an end. Then if there be further
incarnation on this planet, it comes as a matter of choice, en-
dowed with the exalted consciousness and power derived from
having made the Great Conquest; and there is born on Earth
one more Guide to lead humanity to the nirvanic goal.

(3) Dhyana Yoga

Dhyana Yoga is that part of Yoga dependent upon medi-
tation (Skt. dhyana) leading to mind-control. As such, it
stands alone, not being exclusively related to any of the yogas,
but being an essential practice in all of them. Mastery of
Dhyana Yoga is one of the chief essentials for success in the
highest of all yogas, which is Samadhi Yoga.

(4) Raja Yoga and Its Parts

In the term Raja Yoga, raja means 'best' or 'royal', or
'highest'. Raja Yoga, therefore, means the best part of Yoga.
It is the 'joining' by the best or royal method. Raja Yoga
is the best yoga because by means of it the yogin attains to
self-realization, to knowledge of Reality, in that sense im-
plied by the ancient Greek aphorism ('Know Thyself').

(a) Jnana Yoga

Jnana Yoga refers to that part of Yoga dependent upon
(Divine) Knowledge (Skt. jnana); or to the 'joining' by
means of yogic insight. In other words, self-realization at-
tained by means of yogically induced insight into the true
nature of existence is the fruit of Jnana Yoga; and thus Jnana
Yoga is an essential part of Raja Yoga.

(b) Karma Yoga

In the term Karma Yoga, the Sanskrit word karma means
'action', more especially such action as will lead to Emanci-
pation. It, therefore, implies right action, so that Karma
Yoga is the 'joining' by means of right yogic action. Inas-
 YOGA 307
much as right yogic action forms a part of all Yoga practices,
Karma Yoga, like Dhyana Yoga, underlies the whole of Yoga.
In the second chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita, or 'Song Divine',
the great classic of the Yoga School, Karma Yoga is, accord-
ingly* regarded as inclusive of all yogas.
In relation to practitioners of Yoga who call themselves
Karma yogins in contradistinction to yogins pursuing a tech-
nique different from theirs, Karma Yoga like Hatha Yoga
or Laya Yoga, may, however, be classified as a specialized
part, rather than as the whole, of Yoga. Karma Yoga of this
sort is dependent upon renunciation of the fruits of one's
actions, in the sense implied by the Bhagavad-Gita. It leads
to a transcending of personality, or the attaining of selflessness,
while working in the world actively, and with fullest energy,
as those work who are ambitious in worldly aims, and wholly
for the benefit of human kind. This, too, being a royal method,
Karma Yoga may be regarded as .one aspect of Raja Yoga.
It is by the lives of such Great Teachers as the Buddha and
the Christ that Karma Yoga has been ideally exemplified.

(c) Kundalini Yoga

To yogins who follow the Path of the Tantras, it is Kun-
dalini Yoga which is the Royal Yoga . . . By means of
Shakti Yoga, the Tantric yogin attains discipline of body
and mind and then proceeds to the mighty task of awakening
the dormant, or innate, powers of divinity within himself,
personified as the sleeping Goddess Kundalini. One by one
the psychic centers, or chakra, of his body are brought into
functioning activity, as the Goddess awakens in the Root-
Support Lotus (Skt. muladhara chakra) situated in the
perineum, at the base of the spinal column, and rises, chakra
by chakra, to meet her shakta, the Lord Shiva, who sits en-
throned in the Seventh chakra, in the pericarp of the Thou-
sand-Petaled Lotus (Skt. sahasrara padma), in the brain
centre. Then, from the mystic union of the shakta and the
shakti, is born Enlightenment; and the yogin has attained the
goal. 23
"All readers who would know more of Tantricism, and of those
highly specialized forms of Yoga which are peculiar to it, should refer
to the works of Sir John Woodrofle (published under the pseudonym
of Arthur Avalon); reference might also be made to The Tibetan Book
of the Dead, and to Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa (both by Evans-
Wentz), for these two works are based upon Tantric Yoga in its
^peculiarly Tibetan aspects.
308 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

(d) Samadhi Yoga

In the 'joining' by means of the Quiescent State (Skt.
samadhi), the yogin transcends personality, and his microcos-
mic consciousness breaks its fetters and becomes reunited
with the Macrocosmic All-Consciousness. This, the Goal of
Yoga, truly is the transmutation of the limited human nature
into the limitless divine nature, the blending or 'yoking' of the
lower self with the One Self, of the drop with the Ocean.
The various aspects or parts of Yoga and their general re-
lationship to one another may now be set forth concisely by
the following table.
The Part Giving And Leading to Yogic Control of
Mastery of
I. Hatha Yoga breath physical body and vitality,
II. Laya Yoga will powers of the mind,
(1) Bhakti Yoga love powers of divine love,
(2) Shakti Yoga energy energizing forces of Nature,
(3) Mantra Yoga sound powers of sound vibrations,
(4) Yantra Yoga form powers of geometrical form,
I l l Dhyana Yoga thought powers of thought processes,
IV. Raja Yoga method powers of discrimination,
(1) Jnana Yoga knowledge powers of intellect,
(2) Karma Yoga activity powers of action,
(3) Kundalini Yoga kundalini powers of psychic-nerve force,
(4) Samadhi Yoga self powers of ecstasy.

There are some other subordinate subdivisions of Yoga

which could be named, but each of them is merely a special-
ized aspect of some one of the parts of Yoga here classified.
In so far as Dhyana Yoga is common to all yogas, this
classification may be reduced to a threefold classification,
namely, Hatha Yoga, Laya Yoga, and Raja Yoga. Each leads
to the perfecting and the indomitable control of one of the
triune aspects of man: the first, to that of physical man; the
second, to that of the mental man; and the third, to that of
the spiritual man. Viewed thus, as a unitary system divisible
into three parts, each part associated with one of the chief
parts of man the microcosm, Yoga presents itself as being the
only complete science of human psychology of which man
has cognizance....
Yoga, as a unified whole, may be thought of as an efficient
and scientific method by means of bringing about the de-
velopment of man's trine nature by means of mental con-
centration upon the various psycho-physical functions, mental
powers, and spiritual forces experienced in and through the
 YOGA PRECEPTS 309

human organism. Accordingly, to the part of Yoga practiced,

corresponding advance is made; but, as the Great gurus tell
us, all parts have been necessary in past lives or will be neces-
sary in this life or in future lives for the one who has at-
tained or is destined to attain self-conquest. Thus, in ac-
cordance with the disciple's actual development, resulting
from yogic practices in other lives or in this life, the wise
guru determines for which yoga the disciple is best fitted.
And it often happens that no two or more of a guru's dis-
ciples are simultaneously practicing Yoga in the same way.
Similarly, each reader of this volume will, if he carefully
analyses his own mentality, feel a natural affinity for one
aspect of its yogic teachings rather than another, and so be
inclined to choose such of them as he prefers and then concen-
trate upon them, or upon any one of them, rather than upon
all. And may he ever keep upper-most in his thoughts the
guru's warning to the neophyte, to make haste slowly and to
act wisely.
The best introductory book on Yoga is probably Rammurti
Mishra's Fundamentals of Yoga (New York: Lancer Books,
1969).

Yoga Precepts (See also YOGA, as well as HATHA YOGA;

PATANJALl'S YOGA; and TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION.)

There are many sets of Yoga directions meant as rules of

conduct or action. What follows is a set created by Sri
Swami Sivananda, 1 noteworthy for several reasons: first,
they illustrate how a Yoga teacher-guru's approach in-
cludes many different yogas; second, the precepts are
neither vague nor impractical; they may be begun within
the existing limitations of anyone's everyday life.

Introduction
(a) An ounce of practice is better than tons of theory.
Practice Yoga, Religion and Philosophy in daily life
and attain self-realization.
(b) These twenty-seven instructions are suitable for mod-
ern busy householders with fixed hours of work.
Modify them to suit your convenience and increase
the period gradually.
(c) In the beginning take only a few practicable resolves
•;-•• ^'The Science of Seven Yogic Cultures."
310 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
which form a small but definite advance over your
present habits and character. In case of ill-health,
pressure of work or unavoidable engagements re-
place your active spiritual practices with a remem-
brance of God.

Health Culture
1. Eat moderately. Take light and simple food. Offer it to
God before you eat. Eat a balanced diet.
2. Avoid chillies, garlic, onions, etc. as far as possible. Give
up tea, coffee, smoking, meat, and wine entirely.
3. Fast one day each month. Take milk and fruits only.
4. Practice Yogic Asanas or Postures for fifteen or thirty
minutes. Take a long walk or play some vigorous games
daily.

Energy Culture
5. Observe silence {mound) for two hours daily and four
to eight hours on Sundays.

Ethical Culture
6. Speak the truth. Speak little. Speak kindly. Speak sweet-
ly.
7. Do not injure anyone in thought, word or deed. Be kind to
all.
8. Be sincere, straightforward and open-hearted in your
talks and dealings.
9. Be honest. Earn by the sweat of your brow. Do not ac-
cept any money, thing or favour unless earned lawfully.
Develop nobility and integrity.
10. Control fits of anger by serenity, patience, love, mercy
and tolerance. Forget and forgive. Adapt yourself to
men and events.
Will Culture
11. Live without sugar for a week or a month. Give up salt
on Sundays.
12. Give up cards, novels, cinemas and clubs. Fly from evil
company. Avoid discussions with materialists. Do not mix
with persons who have no faith in God or who criticise
your spiritual practices.
13. Curtail your wants. Reduce your possessions. Have plain
living and high thinking.
 YOGA PRECEPTS 311

Heart Culture
14. Doing good to others is the highest religion. Do some
selfless service for a few hours every week, without
egoism or expectation of reward. Do your worldly du-
ties in the same spirit. Work is worship. Dedicate it to
God.
15. Give two to ten per cent of your income in charity every
month. Share what you have with others. Let the world
be your family. Remove selfishness.
16. Be humble and prostrate to all beings mentally. Feel the
Divine Presence everywhere. Give up vanity, pride and
hypocrisy.
17. Have unwavering faith in God and your teacher. Make a
total self-surrender to God and pray 'Thine will be done;
I want nothing'. Submit to the Divine Will in all events
and happenings with equanimity.
18. See God in all beings and love them as your own self. Do
not hate anyone.
19. Remember God in all times or, at least, on rising from
bed, during a pause at work and before going to bed.

Psychic Culture
20. Study one chapter or ten to twenty verses of [the Bhaga-
vad-Gita] with meaning daily.
21. Attend religious meetings at every opportunity. Organize
such functions on Sundays or holidays.
22. Visit a temple or palace of worship at least once a week.
23. Obtain a mantra (Mystical Word) from your teacher
and repeat it for japa daily.
24. Spend holidays and leave-periods when possible, in the
company of wise men or practice Yoga at an ashram
or Yoga center.

Spiritual Culture
25. Go to bed early. Get up at six o'clock. Answer calls of
nature, clean your mouth and take a bath.
26. Recite some prayers. Practice Pranayana (Breathing)
for one hour.
27. Make annual resolves on above line. Regularity, tenacity
and fixity are essential. Record sadhana (spiritual pro-
gress) in a spiritual diary daily. Review it every month
and correct your failures.
312 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

Zen (See also AIKIDO; HARA.)

The best introductory book on Zen is The Three Pillars of
Zen, edited by Philip Kapleau. 1 In the foreword to this
book, Huston Smith writes on the relevance of Zen and of
the merits of Kapleau's work:
Tradition has it that it was in the sixth century A.D., with
the journey of Bodhidharma from India to China, that Zen
Buddhism first moved east. Six hundred years later, in the
twelfth century, it traveled east again, to Japan. Now that
more than another six hundred years have elapsed, is it to
take a third giant stride eastward, this time to the West?
No one knows. Current Western interest in Zen wears the
guise of the fad it in part is, but the interest also runs deeper.
Let me cite the impression Zen has made on three Western
minds of some note, those of a psychologist, a philosopher,
and a historian. The book C. G. Jung was reading on his
deathbed was Charles Luk's Ch'an and Zen Teachings: First
Series, and he expressly asked his secretary to write to tell
the author that "he was enthusiastic. . . . When he read what
Hsu Yun said, he sometimes felt as if he himself could have
said exactly this! It was just 'it'!" 2 In philosophy, Martin
Heidegger is quoted as saying: "If I understand [Dr. Suzuki]
correctly, this is what I have been trying to say in all my
writings." 3 Lynn White is not the molder of modern thought
that Jung and Heidegger have been, but he is a fine historian,
and he predicts: "It may well be that the publication of D.
T. Suzuki's first Essays in Zen Buddhism in 1927 will seem
in future generations as great an intellectual event as William
of Moerbeke's Latin translations of Aristotle in the thirteenth
century or Marsiglio Ficino's of Plato in the fifteenth."
Why should the West, dominated to the extent it currently
is by scientific modes of thought, go to school to a perspective
forged before the rise of modern science? Some think the
answer lies in the extent to which the Buddhist cosmology
anticipated what contemporary science has empirically dis-
covered. The parallels are impressive. Astronomical time and
1
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1965).
^Trom an unpublished letter from Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz to
Charles Luk dated September 12, 1961.
s
In William Barrett (ed.), Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings of D. T.
Suzuki (Garden City: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1956), p. xi.
 f ZEN 313
Space, which irrevocably smashed the West's previous world
view, slip into the folds of Buddhist cosmology with a ripple.
If we turn from macrocosm to microscosm, from the infinite
to the infinitesimal, we find the same uncanny prescience.
While the Greeks were positing atoms that were eternal be-
cause not composite (a-tomas—indivisible, that which can-
not be cut), Buddhists were teaching that everything cor-
poreal is impermanent (anicca) because constituted of dhar-
taas as miniscule in duration as they are in space—remarkably
like the fleeting blips that particles register on the scientists'
oscilloscopes.
To return for a moment to the macrocosm, it is not just
the dimensions of the scientific cosmology that Buddhism pre-
visioned, but its form as well. We have become familiar
with the debate between George Gamow's "big bang" and
Fred Hoyle's "steady state" cosmologies, the first arguing that

I the universe is the continuing consequence of the explosion

of a single primeval atom; the second, that the universe has
always been in the state in which we know it, fresh hydrogen
being continuously created to replace that which is being
emptied out through the stars' recession once they exceed
the speed of light. The latest word from Mount Palo mar is
that both these theories appear to be wrong. The red shifts
on the spectrograph^ reports from distant galaxies suggest
they are slowing down. The hypothesis this evokes is that after
expanding for a while the universe contracts, only to repeat
the cycle indefinitely. As the Harvard astronomer Harlow
Shapley puts the matter, instead of the "big bang" or the
"steady state" theories, we have the "bang . . . bang . . .
bang" theory. "Very interesting," says the Buddhist, this
being what his cosmology has taught him all along.
The West may find such instances of Buddhism's scientific
prescience striking, but this cannot account for Buddhism's
appeal. For one thing, the West cannot feel that in science it
has anything to learn from Buddhism; the most it can do in
this sphere is give the Buddhists good marks for some preco-
cious hunches. But there is the further fact that it is not
Buddhism in general that is intriguing the West so much
as the specific school of Buddhism that is Zen. We understand
the specific attraction of Zen Buddhism when we realize the
extent to which the contemporary West is animated by
"prophetic faith," the sense of the holiness of the ought, the
pull of the way things could be and should be but as yet are
314 WAYS PEOPLE GROW B
not. Such faith has obvious virtues, but unless it is balanced *
by a companion sense of the holiness of the is, it becomes
top-heavy. If one's eyes are always on tomorrows, todays slip
by unperceived. To a West which in its concern to refashion
heaven and earth is in danger of letting the presentness of life
—the only life we really have—slip through its fingers, Zen
comes as a reminder that if we do not learn to perceive the
mystery and beauty of our present life, our present hour, we
shall not perceive the worth of any life, or any hour.
There is the further fact that with the collapse of meta-
physics, natural theology, and objective revelation, the West
is facing for the first time as a civilization the problem of liv-
ing without objectively convincing absolutes—in a word,
without dogmas. As Christ walked on the waters, so is the
contemporary Westerner having to walk on the sea of nothing-
ness, buoyant in the absence of demonstrably certain sup-
ports. Facing this precarious assignment, the Westerner hears
of men across the sea who have for centuries taken up their
abode in the Void, come to feel at home in it, and to find
joy within it. How can this be? The West does not under-
stand, but the Nothingness of which it hears from across
the sea sounds like something it may have to come to terms
with.
Zen tells us that the is is holy and the Void is home, but
such affirmations are not Zen. Rather, Zen is a method
for attaining to the direct experience of the truth of these
affirmations. This brings us to the present book for I know
of no other that gives the reader so full an understanding of
what this method is. For one thing, it presents for the first
time in English Yasutani-roshi's "Introductory Lectures on
Zen Training," lectures which have deservedly won the high-
est of praise in Japan as being, in the words of one com-
mentator, "the best introduction to Zen Buddhism yet writ-
ten." 4
But the book contains another prize that is even more strik- -
ing. Up to now it has been all but impossible for those who
have not themselves undergone Zen training to get much of
an inkling of what transpires in one crucial phase of the
process, namely dokusan—the series of solemn, private inter-
views in which the roshi guides the student's meditation
toward its goal of enlightenment—for the substance of these
4
Mrs. Ruther Fuller Sasaki, the director of the First Zen Institute of
America in Japan, at Kyoto. ft
 ZEN 315
interviews has been considered personal and not to be di-
vulged. Now a roshi, convinced that our new age occasions
new procedures, has permitted a series of these interviews to
be reproduced. Such material has never appeared even in
Japanese; for it to appear in English, in this book, is a major
breakthrough.
No one but Philip Kapleau could have written this book.
He knows Zen from twelve years of ardent practice, three of
these years in both Soto and Rinzai monasteries. He knows
the Japanese who have collaborated to render his transla-
tions of little-known material impeccable. He knows the
Japanese language well enough himself to have served as
interpreter for his roshi's interviews with Western students.
He has the skill of years of training as a court reporter to
have recorded these interviews rapidly in shorthand as soon
as they were over. And he has a literary style that is lucid and
graceful. This assemblage of talents is unique. It has produced
a remarkable book that is certain to assume a permanent
place in the library of Zen literature in Western languages.
It has been said that if Zen lost all of its temples, scriptures,
and rituals, nothing would be lost, for there would still be
zazen, the sitting meditation which is at the heart of the
practice of Zen. One may speak about one's experience
with Zen and that is one thing. One may read what others
have said of Zen and that is another thing. One may read
the scriptures or sutras, the theories, the commentaries,
narratives, whatever, and one will be reading what has all
come from one source: the practice of zazen.
From Japan comes a succinct statement on "The Way of
Zazen," a paper by Rindo Fujimoto, Roshi, 5 himself a life-
time student and, to the extent that there are "teachers"
of Zen, a teacher. Following is a portion of E. P. Mitchell's
introduction to Roshi Fujimoto's paper. I am grateful to
Mrs. Elsie Mitchell and to the Cambridge Buddhist Associa-
tion for the use of this material.

. . . Buddhist zazen is not a technique to achieve something

or get somewhere, to be followed like a recipe in a cookbook.
It is also not a do-it-yourself psychotherapy, a tranquilizer,
or a way to stimulate the "creative unconscious." Many
5
A booklet published in 1961 by the Cambridge Buddhist Association,
126 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Mass.
316 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
benefits, physical and psychological, are not unjustly attributed
to regular practice, but, if zazen is only a means to such
ends, it is not a Buddhist Zen and has many limitations. Soto
zazen is a way of life in the same sense that some kinds of
prayer are a way. Comparison of and attempts to evaluate
different methods and teachers are of little value even to
those with a certain amount of experience in meditation. A be-
ginner should find a recognized teacher whom he can re-
spect and who will accept him as a pupil; this teacher's
method should be followed to the best of the pupil's ability.
It is inevitable that in the beginning one will question the
method more often than one questions oneself; however,
shifting from one teacher or method to another, unless cir-
cumstances make this unavoidable, sometimes leads to dis-
illusion and wasted energy. Zazen entered into as a kind of
experiment is quite all right, but, until this attitude is tran-
scended, Buddhist zazen is impossible.
We have been asked by Christians and other non-Buddhists,
if zazen meditation can be practiced by adherents of re-
ligions other than Buddhism. It is not necessary to be Bud-
dhist to practice just quiet sitting which is not done in a
Buddhist frame of mind. However, for those Christians who
are accustomed to pray to a personal divinity, we must
strongly caution them against mixing zazen and prayer. The
two can be complementary, if the prayers involved are not for
any personal benefits. However, during zazen all thought of
an Absolute Other must be set aside.
Some Westerners object to the ritual attending the zazen
of Buddhist groups. Zazen may, of course, be practiced with-
out ritual and without prayer; in other words, by only regular
sitting. One's zazen experience, Buddhist or otherwise, eventu-
ally expresses itself in the individual's everyday life. Medi-
tation for many is greatly aided by what one master calls
"chanting samadhi," particularly in the absence of a teacher's
encouragement and correction. Chanting is a source of
strength and it can also be a gentle reminder of the trouble-
some ego of the beginner who is likely to vacillate between
protest and hopelessness. Intensive zazen, as a result of a
natural koan that has arisen in one's life—what is the reason
for injustice or suffering, for example—may be the source
of much mental and even physical discomfort. Prayer is help-
ful for some, but, for this, faith would seem to be necessary.
Chanting a short sutra (Buddhist scripture) or mantra
 ZEN 317
;
(phrase), on the other hand, may be done with any degree of
skepticism, perseverance being the only requirement.
In many cultures where Buddhism has been introduced, the
philosophical and ethical aspects have been the first to find
• favor, and these have been the concern of a well-educated
minority. In Japan, this phase was followed by the elaborate
ritual of the Heian period. The Buddha himself tried all these
things before his enlightenment, and he did not sit in real
meditation until all other possibilities had been exhausted.
Kamakura Japan saw many changes, cultural and social, and
with these changes came a distaste for the often mechanical
and idolized ritual which had so inspired the aristocrats of
earlier periods. Ascetic moralism had become an empty and
self-righteous formalism, and men who wished a new and
larger understanding of life were drawn to the simplicity and
integrity of the way of the Chinese Ch'an masters. Once
Japanese priests had known the Zen experience and Zen was
firmly established, many of the elements of the older sects
of Buddhism were reabsorbed, reaffirmed, and revitalized.
In the lives of individuals who persevere in zazen, those
things which are right and best for them will acquire new
meaning; the unessential and trivial will drop by the way-
side. With or without a teacher the process is always a very
difficult one. It is natural for people to look for roots in tra-
dition and convention; in skills; in family, professional, and
communal relationships and functions. Zen realization does
not negate these things, but they may be deeply questioned
before and until their place in the cosmic scheme is realized.
Love, self-sacrifice, and charity are natural expressions of
Buddhist satori. Freed from egocentric and Utopian ambitions,
which often create as many problems as they solve, those
• expressions are of depth and a special kind of integrity.
": Zazen and everyday life become truly one only after real
f insight has been awakened and a new relationship is es-
^ tablished with the "Ground of Being" and with all beings.

i Roshi Fujimoto writes: 6

In Japan there are three independent branches of Zen

(Soto, Rinzai, and Obaku). All of these three are paths to the
6
"The Way of Zazen." Footnotes are those of the translators:
•.„•'• Tetsuya Inoue, Jushoku and Yoshihiko Tanigawa. Footnotes which
fc; contain Japanese characters have been omitted.
318 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
same goal and utilize the practice of zazen. Though the ulti-
mate goal is the same for all Zen followers, means to that end
differ somewhat.
There are different practices in each sodo,1 however, I will
describe those practices which I know from my own experi-
ence and which I use for my pupils. In spite of superficial
disparities, I believe my experience contains no important or
basic differences from the experience of others who practice
zazen.
Dogen (Joyo Daishi), the founder of the Soto school of
Zen, did not wish to create a new sect of Buddhism; he had
no interest in sectionalism or sectarianism, and he did not
even like the term "Zen." In his youth he studied under
various masters in his own country. However, dissatisfied
with his understanding he finally sought a master in China,
and under this teacher he experienced enlightenment. When
he returned to his own country, he established a meditation
center in the mountains, where he strictly disciplined his dis-
ciples in accordance with the spirit of Buddhism. I would
just like to add that seen with the Zen "eye," the roots of the
Soto-way are the Buddhist spirit itself. Without the "Zen-eye,"
I believe it is impossible to grasp the spirit of Buddhist doc-
trine.
The appurtenances for Zen practice are as follows: first, a
zafu, a small round cushion, about one foot in diameter. Any-
one who wishes to practice zazen should, if possible, have
his own zafu.
Secondly, it is a good idea for beginners to have a pencil
and a small piece of paper beside them during zazen. This,
however, is not necessary. We remember many important
things while sitting, and it is a good idea to make notes of the
problems or important questions which come up. 8 Some-
times questions arise while we are reading or occupied in
doing something and we resolve to think about them later.
However, when later comes, we have forgotten the problems.
During zazen many things come to mind and it is best to
write them down immediately, in order to free the mind for
zazen.
When we sit, it is not always in a formal sodo, and our ar-
rangements must depend on the time and place. In this lec-
7
A meditation hall in the Rinzai school is called a zendo.
"This is not permitted in other sodos.
 ZEN 319
ture I will take up both the form and content of sitting; these
two should harmonize. Correct form (adjustment of body and
breath) lead to the right state of mind. Ideally we should be
able to sit at any time in any place.
Sakyamuni became enlightened through sitting practice, so
we of the Zen-school follow this way. In some other sects of
Buddhism, doctrine or philosophy come before practice; in
the Soto-school, practice comes before theory. "Experiment"
is most important and it is necessary to follow the instruc-
tions of an experienced teacher.
Next I will take up the proper position of the body. Sitting
on your cushion, put the right leg on the left thigh and then
put the left leg on the right thigh. This is called the lotus
position. If it is not possible to sit in this way, the left leg may
be put on top of the right thigh. This position is called the
formal hsM-paryanka (Skt.) It is "formal" because reference
to it is found in the "Fukanzazengi" or "Instructions for Za-
zen" by Dogen, the founder of the Japanese Soto-School. I
imagine that the reason for placing the left leg on top is be-
cause the left leg symbolizes quietness; the right leg symbolizes
activity. It is also said that the left leg is a symbol of Fugen; 9
the right leg is a symbol of Monju. 10 Therefore, the left leg
is traditionally placed on the top. 11 Though the half-lotus
position is acceptable, it is better to sit in the full-lotus posi-
tion (kekkafuza, Jap.) if it is possible for you. However, it is
difficult and beginners in meditation quickly become very
uncomfortable while sitting in this manner. In my temple, each
individual sits in the way that is most comfortable for him.
In other temples, one should ask permission if one wishes to
sit in the half-lotus position, with the right leg on the top.
Next, it is important to balance the body properly. One
should swing one's body first to the right and then to the left.
This will loosen and relax the sitter. Swinging from one side
to the other will make the sitting position stable.
It is important that one's clothes be loose; they should not
pull or bind anywhere (for example men's trousers). When
we sit for a long time we get very stiff, especially during
"Samantabhadra-Bodhisattva (Skt.), symbol of the Buddha's com-
passion.
10
Manjusri-Bodhisattva (Skt.), the symbol of the Buddha's wisdom.
"According to the Kenko-Fesetsu by Menzan Zenji, either the right
or left foot may be placed on top. Hotokokushi wrote (in the Zazengi)
that it is permissible to have the right leg on top.
320 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
12
sesshin. Even those who are accustomed to zazen often ex-
perience this difficulty. People unaccustomed to sitting often
get spells of feeling sick during a very long session. There-
fore it is a good idea to massage the lower waist before and
after zazen.
I will now speak of the way to keep one's hands while
sitting. The hand position (inzo) is important; however, we
should not concentrate on it and if the position changes while
we are sitting, we should not allow this to absorb our atten-
tion. The correct position is as follows: rest the right hand,
palm upward, against the abdomen just below the navel; and
then put the left hand on the right hand in the same position.
Put thumbs together for support.
Now, as for the upper part of the body, it is very im-
portant to keep the spinal column absolutely straight; the
head is kept in a straight line with the backbone. The shoul-
ders and upper part of the body should be loose and relaxed.
The eyes are always kept open; one should look straight
ahead, about six feet and the eyelids will naturally close a
little. One should not try to look further than six feet as it
will be impossible to quiet the mind. It is important not to
keep one's eyes closed for more than a few minutes in order
to avoid becoming sleepy or "lost." It is all right to close
one's eyes for a short time if this helps to quiet the mind; how-
ever, it is not right to lose contact with the everyday world.
Buddhists should remember that Sakyamuni was enlightened
when he saw the light of the morning star; we should not for-
get that samsara is nirvana.13
Correct breathing is important for zazen, for one must
achieve harmony of mind and breath. Taiso-Daishi believed
that certain bad mental states were caused by a lack of har-
mony between these two. Before zazen, a few very deep
breaths will help quiet the mind. Then after swinging one's
body from side to side in order to achieve balance, one should
again breathe deeply from the abdomen for a few minutes
before returning to normal breathing. This normal breathing
should be silent and not rough. It is important not to inhale
too much air for a long period, as it is tiring.
In the Rinzai-school, strong pressure on the abdomen
(while breathing) is perhaps over-emphasized. It is not right
U
A week-long period of zazen.
^Bonno soku bodai: the temporal and spiritual worlds are one.
I ZEN 321
"•* to cling to the idea of breathing in a special way. A few deep
breaths should establish the center of gravity in the lower
part of the body. First, inhale slowly through the nose, using
the air to expand the abdomen as far as possible; then exhale
r
slowly (through the nose) till the abdomen has again con-
tracted. It is necessary that the center of balance be in the
abdomen. Chikara, which means force or power in the ab-
domen, is essential in all traditional Japanese physical culture.
I will now speak of the proper functioning of the mind dur-
ing zazen. Beginners often ask me about their problems; how-
ever, it is very difficult for me to be of any help to them.
Neither a short nor a complicated answer to people's ques-
tions is really helpful. It is all right to ask me questions, but
it is not enough. One must experiment for oneself and then
one will understand. After reading a book on the subject of
swimming one must get in the water and find out about it
; first hand. A book cannot give one the experience.
There are various ways of "quieting" the mind. The first
way is "putting the mind in the left hand," which means
projecting the mind into the inzo, or hand position. The inzo
symbolizes the Buddha. When our mind s in the inzo, the
body and breathing will be right.
In Rinzai training, the kosoku-koan14 is used to quiet (to
clear) the mind. This is a good way to cultivate the Zen
way of seeing; however, I think it is better to develop the
Zen condition by shikan-taza.15 This means devoting oneself
; solely to sitting; by quieting the mind and putting it in the
left hand. The "Zen eye" finds its source in the Zen con-
dition, and the Buddha's enlightenment is not the Zen eye,
but the Zen condition. In Soto-Zen we just sit; this is the most
natural way. The main aim of zazen is to "let go of mind and
body"; however, Buddhists sometimes pay too much atten-
tion to the mind and therefore they cannot get rid of it. The
'.',] kosoku-koan may be useful; however, shikan-taza is better
because one has a tendency to cling to the koan and to one's
. mind. Although we should "put the mind in the left hand,"

"A "case" history from antiquity of the enlightenment experience

of a Chinese or Japanese Zen master. These kosoku are used as sub-
jects of meditation in Rinzai Zen. From the Soto point of view, all
kosoku are expressions of the genjo-koan which they consider to be
the original and formless koan. For the Roshi's explanation of the
genjo-koan see p. 323.
:_ ^To concentrate completely on sitting (zazen).
322 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
we must not pay attention to the mind. When we pay too
much attention to the left hand, we are preventing satori.
When we consciously put the mind in the hand, it is wrong.
There are various kinds of good meditation. Satori is beyond
all of these, and it is necessary to pass through the many
regions of the mind before enlightenment.
There are several stages of good meditation. These stages
are only views on the way to the real satori experience. It is
only possible to go through different kinds of meditation
(states of mind) if one is faithful and keeps courage, and
these states of mind are transcendable if we sit in right zazen.
However they are not ideal states of mind, but states of mind
on the way to enlightenment. Sometimes, they are wrongly
understood as conditions of great satori, and one is apt to
remain in them because they are happy conditions. However,
a static enlightenment is an impurity. There is the Absolute
Reality when we continue on, abandoning all. Mahayana
Buddhists stress the spiritual world; on the other hand, some
people do not recognize a spiritual world. In our Soto-school,
some monks claim that we need not discipline ourselves with
zazen; they think we need only believe in our original Buddha
nature and realize that we are full of defilements (Skt.
klesa). From the point of view of faith we all have the
Buddha nature or honsho (original enlightenment); indeed,
we are all complete Buddhas. And honsho-myoshu means that
original enlightenment itself is myoshu or real practice. Both
original enlightenment and practice are different names for
the same thing, and so belief in original enlightenment is
realized in the form of zazen practice and discipline. Awaken-
ing without practice or discipline does not exist. Dogen's way
is continued practice, which is an expression of original
enlightenment and not just a means to an end. The only real
practice is forgetting enlightenment, this is the real honsho-
myoshu. Therefore, he who disregards practice should not be
called a Buddhist.
There are many sects of Buddhism and they are divided
by different ways of discipline. In the Soto-school we call
the apogee of Buddhist doctrine honsho-myoshu. In this be-
lief we practice from the beginning. Therefore, we do not
set any special stages to enlightenment and we do not em-
phasize doctrine. When we speak of putting the mind in the
left hand, we speak in the spirit of honsho-myoshu. If one
puts his mind in the left hand with conscious attention on the
 ZEN 323
| mind or on the left hand, relativity results. We should sit in
zazen forgetting the mind and the left hand.
In shikan-taza one has a tendency to fall into a negative
zazen which results in apathy and sleepiness. In order to
avoid this we use a koan called genjo (lit. meaning: accom-
plished in the present) which means that the present just as
it is is the reality of our ideal world. The man who clings
to life suffers in this phenomenal world since he cannot see
beyond phenomena. However, the enlightened ones see
through the relative world with all its limitations to the ab-
solute and infinite reality, and therefore are able to reside
in this phenomenal world as a spiritual realm. The en-
l lightened one and the sufferer who chngs to transient
phenomena see the same world in a* different way. This is a
wonderful question and therefore it is called a koan.
Beginners in zazen usually find their minds confused and
disturbed. This is natural. There are two great obstacles to
zazen. The first is konjin, which means a depression or a
kind of melancholy. When a beginner experiences konjin,
" it is usually in the form of sleepiness. Experienced sitters who
have calmed and quieted their minds sometimes feel faint.
And if the zazen condition deepens more, the sitter may fall
into muso-jo, or "no consciousness." Some people believe
that the zazen mind is simply loss of consciousness, however,
I; this is wrong. In the right zazen mind, all aspects of con-
sciousness do not function, but this does not mean uncon-
sciousness as in sleep. The mind condition in zazen is called
"shorten sozoku," or the "succession of right-mindedness."
This is different from'the "no-mindedness" which implies no
• consciousness. It is a good thing to calm the waves of the
f mind, however, a sleepy or dead condition, is a kind of
konjin. Some people feel they are in a deep fog or melancholy.
{, One must rid one's self of such mental conditions.
[. The second obstacle to zazen is called joko. For beginners
ii this means to be in a fidget with many thoughts or ideas
•1 running through the mind. There are two types of mind
^ waves: the first, ideas created by oneself from inside; the
second, those which come from outside through the senses.
Those who have experience in zazen may feel great elation,
they may jump up from their cushions believing they have
i< attained enlightenment. This can result from sitting intently
l| in the wrong way. Or, they may see the great light of the
324 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
16
Buddha and feel grateful and ecstatic. Such experiences are
serious obstacles; they must be overcome as quickly as pos-
sible.
These conditions are sometimes thought to be enlighten-
ment, however, they are the result of bodily or mental
fatigue or of a misunderstanding of the meaning of zazen.
When zazen has deepened, one may feel bursts of great joy.
The real satori is called "the mind of great joy." This joy,
however, emanates from the mind which has transcended all
relative joys as well as sorrows. Therefore we must not try
to grasp these small joys; we must go beyond them, no matter
how difficult and undesirable this may seem.
One way of avoiding joko while sitting is to look at the
edge of the nose and lower the feeling to the abdomen. How-
ever, we must not make a conscious effort to look at our
noses. To avoid konjin we may concentrate on the point be-
tween the eyebrows until the point rises and raise the feeling
to the forehead, change the focus of our eyes or breathe
deeply and silently. The best remedies for joko or konjin
must come from our own experience.
The kyosaku,17 or long flat stick carried by the monk who
presides over meditation in Japanese sodos, is also a remedy
for konjin and joko. When we feel sleepy or are in a bad
frame of mind, we should ask for the kyosaku. The sound
of the kyosaku will awaken our neighbors too. The kyosaku
is better than any kind of advice; though it may disturb some
people, this is not a bad thing. Those who have never prac-
ticed zazen sometimes think that the kyosaku is a dreadful
object. Actually we appreciate it when we are sitting.
If we wish to receive the kyosaku, we must make gassho18
when the monk in charge is directly behind us and move
the head to one side. The monk in charge of the meditation
is authorized to whack sitters when he thinks it is necessary.
Especially during sesshin, even those with long zazen experi-
ence appreciate the kyosaku. Receiving whacks from this
stick is an opportunity; the stick is the sword of Monju, which
cuts through illusions.
16
Those from a non-Buddhist background may see flashing lights
which may be associated with understanding. Christians may see light
in conjunction with some Christian symbol.
17
In the Rinzai sect, this is pronounced keisaku.
18
Palms joined in the attitude of prayer; the left hand symbolizes the
phenomenal world and the right hand the spiritual world.
 ZEN 325
Finally, I wish to discuss the content of mind adjustment.
First, however, I will explain the meaning of daienkyochi,
or great mirror mind. Although this term is used descriptively
in the Vijnanavada-school,19 I wish to utilize it to try to ex-
plain the state of the zazen mind.
Those who are not enlightened have ego-centered minds
which are the result of illusion. Their attitudes and behavior
are egocentric.20 However, a Buddha has no such egocen-
tricity. Therefore, the difference between the unawakened and
the Buddha depends on the degree of their self-centeredness.
Adherence to self is called gashu; the cause of gashu is
called hosshu, which is a kind of illusion created by a mis-
understanding of phenomena, not conceived as interrelated
and interdependent parts of the same reality. Therefore, when
^According to the Vijnanavada, the enlightened mind has four
aspects; the secular mind has eight. T h e four types of enlightened mind
are:
Daienkyochi (Adarsafnana—the Buddha's joyous
samadhi, attained by the 8th jnana)
Byodoshochl (Samatajnana—the Buddha's corn-
Four pasionate wisdom, attained by the 7th
Wisdoms jnana)
Myokanzatsuchi (Pratyaveksana-jnana—the Buddha's
preaching wisdom, attained by the
6th jnana)
Joshosachi (Krtyanusthana-jnana—the Buddha's
practical wisdom, attained through
the five senses)
The eight aspects of the secular mind are:

1) Gen-shikt (caksur-vijnana—seeing)
2) Ni-shiki (srotra-vijnana—hearing)
Five 3) Bi-shiki (ghrana-vijnana—smell)
Senses 4) Zetsu-shikl (jihva-vijnana—tasting)
J The Eight 5) Shin-shiki (kaya-vijnana—touch)
» Parijnana
I (kinds of 6) I-shiki (mano-vijnana—mentality;
cognition, mental sense or intellect)
perception 7) Mana-shiki {mano-vijnana—discrim-
or con- inating sense)
t sciousness) 8) Araya-shiki (alaya-vijnana—store-
house from which come all "seeds"
of consciousness)

*>In this context, egocentricity should n o t be understood as only

selfishness in the ordinary sense, but rather as an inability to apprehend
the true nature of the self and its relationship to the cosmos and to
other forms of life. This apprehension is not a philosophic abstraction
| involving only a unity of particulars in which all diversity and conflicts
dissolve. It is total awareness of the genjo-koan.
 1

326 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

we free ourselves from ego-centeredness, our mind is the mind
of Buddha and illusory knowledge is transformed into the
four wisdoms of Buddha.
Of the four wisdoms,19 the Daienkyochi is the basis for the
other three. When we are not stabilized in Daienkyochi, we are
isolated from others and this isolation stimulates self clinging.
The secular mind reflects all phenomena. It belongs neither
to the illusional nor to the enlightened world and it is the
fundamental state of mind which can create either the former
or the latter. Zazen, as a practice, transcends the sixth and
seventh mind categories and can change Araya-shiki, the
eighth state of mind, into an enlightened mind and the state
of Daienkyochi.
I like to use Daienkyochi to describe the zazen mind in
order to avoid two common misunderstandings. The first is
that one should have a completely empty mind or should lose
consciousness while sitting. Perhaps this misunderstanding
arose because Hakuin Zenji in his "Song of Meditation" said
that we should have a mind of no-mind during zazen. How-
ever, this means that the mind remains, even though we
give up discriminating. If "no mindedness" is interpreted
literally, the resulting condition is the death of the spirit.
There seems to have been such a meditation in India before
Buddhism. An empty negative mind in sitting is not a
Buddhist form of zazen. Mahayana Buddhism teaches that
we find the present world sordid because our minds are
clouded, however, when the kokoro (mind and heart) are
clear, the present world is the spiritual world. The Mahayana
teaching shows us a way to dispel illusion.
If zazen were only a rest for the brain, it would be better
to lie down than to sit in zazen. However, we should not lie
down, as a "sitting mind" is necessary for living and working.
The real function of zazen is not to rest the mind but to es-
tablish a base or foundation for it. In order to establish a
foundation or center in the mind we should:
1. learn true objectivity;
2. make our minds clear;
3. quiet our minds.
In order to do these things, sitting is better than sleeping.
Soto zazen superficially resembles what is usually thought
of as contemplation. However, if one contemplates (while
sitting) a Creator God or "the fundamental principle" or if
one makes any concept or symbol a subject of the mind,
 ZEN 327
this can only lead to mental illness. There can be no complete
enlightenment as long as there is any concept or image. All
concepts and images are relative and phenomenal. We should
not try to retain anything at all in our minds, for this would
be like trying to hold a cup of water and to watch the
water in order to keep it from spilling. A static condition is
not the right zazen.
Real zazen is "letting go of the mind and body" (shinjin-
datsuraku). This means there is no object and no objective
of zazen. Though we must do our best to find the Cosmic
Nature in the heart of infinity, this should not be understood
as either u (being) or mu (non-being). When I say that one
should stop all discriminating activity, cerebral people will
feel uneasy. However, this uneasy feeling is a kind of egotism.
I would like to add, that to try consciously to remove one's
self from one's ordinary situation is very bad. While sitting
we must exclude every kind of prejudice and we should
eliminate purposive mental activity.
This means that Daienkyochi is the state of Buddha, In-
finity or the Absolute, in which there is no egotism. The
Buddha mind is a large round mirror which reflects and
shines on everything. Those who cling to the relative or
phenomenal cannot know this state of mind. On the other
hand, an enlightened one does not feel himself to be different
from other people.
How may we achieve Daienkyochi? For this we must not
cling to our egos. The function of the mirror is to reflect
what is before it, however, the mirror remains quiet in spite
of the activity of the reflections. The mirror does not color
its reflections. We must try to keep a mirror mind even though
in actuality we have a strong self-will which is responsible
for our quarrels and other such behavior. The ego can be
compared to dark glasses, through these glasses everything
looks dark. We should stop clinging to our egos and prejudices.
The mirror has no color and reflects everything clearly,
moreover, it misses nothing and embraces everything. A
mirror state of mind is difficult to attain, so as we proceed,
we must remain aware of our limitations. Even the en-
lightened must do this. We should not forget that we cannot
change ourselves or our minds quickly and easily, and we
must know clearly where our inadequacies lie.
When we speak of personality in its usual meaning, we are
alluding to that which rests on the foundation of the per-
328 WAYS PEOPLE GROW
sonality, in the Buddhist sense. We should be able to see the
latter through the former. And we should remember that
as long as there is no real universality, there will be much
evil in the world.
Since the main aim of zazen is to rid one of blind egotism,
Buddhists sometimes criticize and condemn ordinary com-
mon sense, which they confuse with ego-centeredness. Even
enlightened ones use and develop their intellects; to kill the
intellect is to kill humanity.
When we sit, we should not think about getting anywhere
or about enlightenment. We should not think about entering
enlightenment physically or mentally. We should not con-
sciously try to create it. Furthermore, if we rely on "the power
of Another" (tariki), we cannot become enlightened. After
experience in zazen, all other activities should become zazen,
meditation practice is not only sitting, but our whole lives.
The most important thing for beginners is quiet sitting. In
Buddhism since ancient times, zazen has been divided into
two aspects, shi, or stopping and Jean, or a view. At first, by
sitting, our moving or wavering minds of daily life are
quieted and a calm and pure mind, able to see the reality of
things, appears.
This is shi. And by this shi, Daienkyochi, which is the
true character of our minds arises, and we are able to have
a truly objective view of the world as in a mirror, which re-
flects everything as it is. This is called kan.
The ideal quiet of zazan transcends relative moving and
quiet, as the quiet of a mirror is that of quiet beneath all
motion. Therefore in Soto zazen we do not divide shi and
kan, we prefer to say, shi is kan and kan is shi. Moving and
quieting are not two and zazen involves transcending both
of these.
Daienkyochi is the great problem for our disciplinants.
Our koan of shikan-taza is the genjo-koan. From the stand-
point of honsho or original enlightenment, everything re-
flected in the mirror of our minds is a sight of the accom-
plished Buddha's Pure Land, and we call it genjo or the
accomplishment-in-present, but actually it is a great unknown
problem for us, and so it is in practice a koan. For the fol-
lowers of Soto Zen, the original koan is the genjo-koan,
and we believe that even the people disciplined by kosoku-
koan experience great satori by the genjo-koan. In other
 words, all their direct chances to daigo, or the great satori,
have been through the genjo.
In conclusion, I would like to say that those who practice
zazen should not mistake for enlightenment a vision of life
or of nature perceived as perfect or pure. Such visions are not
. satori. Beyond visions of purity, a strange indescribable
mental attitude appears. We cry, cry for joy. This is the
true satori experience. A loud laugh is not an expression of
real enlightenment. 21
During our zazen, we should not be disturbed by objects
of which our senses make us aware. We cannot refuse to
permit sensations to enter our minds; however, we should not
cling to the sensations. If one worries about noise or talking
while sitting, one is very far from the satori experience. One
should not be worried about anything. Sensations themselves
are not maya (illusion) or bad for discipline, but one should
not cling to them. When our minds are pure (clear), our
senses are good things for us.
In the sphere of maya, our minds settle somewhere and be-
come attached to a small relative world. Modern men do not
like to allow themselves to stop discriminating long enough to
enlarge their world and this is not a healthy mental attitude.
When our minds become empty in the true sense, when we
forget our mind's existence, then we find ourselves in the
Buddha's joyous meditation. It is very important to strive to-
wards the right zazen mind in our daily lives and for all our
lives to become zazen.
There are not many Zen masters in the world, probably
less than fifty. Almost none of them speak English, and
they do not speak much about themselves. Shunryu Su-
zuki, Roshi (Zen master), Head of the Zen Center in San
/ Francisco and Abbot of Zen Mountain Center, is in his
* middle sixties, is the son of a Zen master, and is married
% with three grown-up children. He is highly respected in
*' Japan as well as in this country. He came to America in
I 1958 for a projected two-year stay, but because of the
? many Americans who wanted to meditate with him and
because he liked their spirit, he postponed returning sev-
eral times, finally giving up his temple in Japan and be-
coming a permanent resident. He speaks English very
m
Some Zen and Taoist monks are supposed to have expressed their
^.•satori experience by a great burst of laughter.
330 WAYS PEOPLE GROW

well, as do his two excellent assistant priests, Dainin Kata-

giri, Sensei (teacher), and Kobun Chino, Sensei. There
are also three or four young Americans who qualify as
teachers or priests and who give substantial assistance in
the development of the practice here in America.
Zen Center in San Francisco has grown from the few
students who first joined Suzuki Roshi. There are now
about a hundred students who practice regularly, medi-
tating in the morning or evening, or both. There are many
more students who attend lectures, and, of course, there
are the regular students at Tassajara (the Zen Mountain
Center). The combination of the Zen Center in San Fran-
cisco and the Mountain Center provides the first oppor-
tunity in America for extended study of Zen with a resident
Zen master and other teachers.
The Zen Center is located at 300 Page Street (San
Francisco, Calif. 94102) and publishes a quarterly bulletin,
Wind Bell ($2.00 per year), which offers extracts of lec-
tures and information about centers elsewhere, as well as
announcements of special programs.
Other centers include the Zen Studies Society (223 E.
67th St., New York, N.Y. 10021); First Zen Institute of
America (113 E. 30th St., New York, N.Y. 10016); Zen
Meditation Center of Rochester (7 Arnold St., Rochester,
N.Y. 14607); and Cambridge Buddhist Association (126
Brattle St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138).
Readings in Zen seem to be multiplying. D. T. Suzuki's
extensive writings include Studies in Zen (New York:
Delta, 1955). Paul Reps' Zen Flesh, Zen Bones (Garden
City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961) continues to be of interest.
For an account of a westerner traveling to Japan to find
what he might find of Zen, Jack Huber's Through an
Eastern Window (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967) is
readable and informative. See also Jacob Neddleman's The
New Religions (New York: Doubleday, 1970).
 A Directory of
Ways People Grow
(See also GROWTH CENTERS p. 113)
1
 1

Some of the Directory is the fruit of a collaborative effort

with Eleanor Criswell. Data was collected for an article in
Psychology Today (winter of 1971). I am grateful to Eleanor
Criswell for allowing multiple use of the material she gathered
for the article.
I must also thank the staff of Esalen Institute, particularly
Gail and Joyce, who always had a reply to my fairly frequent
telephone inquiries. I am also grateful to Bill and Virginia
Scharfman of the East/ West Bookstore, whose collection of
books on ways of growth is the most complete I have seen.
The categories used were first devised in a project at the
Stanford Research Institute. W. W. Harmon brought together
a team composed of Robert Mogar, John Mann, Claudio
Naranjo, and the editor to explore implications and applica-
tions of all known contemporary ways of growth. With their
aid, my task was to identify, describe, and classify these ways.
A twenty-four-item survey form was made and in the course
of about a year and a half, fifty ways were analyzed in depth,
and several hundred others identified and examined to some
extent. Without this project and the stimulation mentioned
above, the Directory would have been less.
The Directory presents information on ways of growth not
listed in the Contents. In following volumes of this series, it
is hoped to expand the Directory further toward a compre-
hensive, annotated list of ways of growth. Readers are invited
to contribute any missing names, addresses, etc.
There are eight categories of involvement as ways to
develop the whole person: We classify them as follows:
100-199 Physical Functioning and Sensing
200-299 Feelings and Relationship to Others

1
:
300-399 Action and Behavior
400-499 Motivation and Willing
333
 1
334 A DIRECTORY OF WAYS PEOPLE GROW

500-599 Suggestion and Altered States

600-699 Imagination and Symbols
700-799 Spiritual Concerns
800-899 Environment
A ninth category (900-999) is reserved for approaches as
yet uncategorized.
 1 0 0 - 1 9 9 Physical Functioning and Sensing

AIKIDO See entry

ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE See entry

AUTOGENIC TRAINING J. H. Schultz

Widespread use in Europe. Includes three series of pro-
cedures, the first involving attending to the body's warmth
and weight. Practitioners of hypnosis and imagery use abbre-
viations of the process as an entry vehicle.
Charles Tart, Altered States of Consciousness (New York:
John Wiley, 1969), sect. 20.
J. H. Schultz and W. Luthe, Autogenic Training (New
York: Grune & Stratton, 1959.)

BIOENERGETIC ANALYSIS See entry

BODY AWARENESS Edward Maupin

Maupin did dissertation research in Zen meditation. He has
been trained by Ida Rolf in Structural Integration and con-
siders this his main work. He uses material from Rolf, from
movement approaches, and from a variety of eastern psycho-
physical approaches.

BREATHING THERAPY See entry

CHIROPRACTIC
Marcus Bach, The Chiropractic Story (Los Angeles: De-
vorss, 1968).

DRAWING AND MOVEMENT Shirley Winston

Work was presented in the Psychosynthesis seminar series
(transcript available from Psychosynthesis Research Founda-
tion, 527 Lexington Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017).
335
336 A DIRECTORY OF WAYS PEOPLE GROW

EURYTHMY Waldorf (Steiner) Schools

Eurhythmy develops the ability to concentrate, to con-
sciously move with the body in patterns and into rhythms.
There are "curative" and "artistic" forms. There are Waldorf
Schools throughout the United States.
A. C. Harwood, The Recovery of Man in Childhood
(London: Hodden & Stoughton, 1958).
FASTING
Widespread as a religious practice and healing procedure.
FOLK DANCES
Ethnic dance forms are psychophysical and often spiritual.
Greek dancing is the best known. Some teachers with sched-
uled classes are available; unfortunately, some of them use
mechanical drilling as their instructional method.
FOOD
We recommend the writings of Adelle Davis. Available in
paperback form from Signet Books, New American Library,
are Let's Cook It Right, and Let's Eat Right and Keep Fit.
GIA FU F E N G
Gia Fu's Center (Stillpoint Foundation, 20300 Bear Creek
Rd., Los Gatos, Calif. 95030) offers meditation each morning
at five. There are classes in pottery, crafts, Shiatsu, massage,
calligraphy, painting, oracle reading from the original Chinese
/ Ching. The center also offers baths and hiking. Advance
reservations are desirable.
Gia Fu Feng, Tai Chi—A Way of Centering and / Ching,
Oracle Imagery (New York: Macmillan, 1970).
HATHA YOGA See entry
STANLEY KELLEMAN
Kelleman has studied with Alexander Lowen, Durckheim,
and others. He lives in Berkeley, California, and offers indi-
vidual and group work. He has written two papers: "Body,
Energy, and Groups," and "Bio-Energetic Concepts of
Grounding," the latter available through the Lodestar Press
(P.O. Box 31003, San Francisco, Calif. 94131, $1.25).
LABAN MOVEMENT
There is a comprehensive notation system for movement
schemes in Rudolf Laban's The Mastery of Movement (Lon-
 1 0 0 - 1 9 9 PHYSICAL FUNCTIONING AND SENSING 337
donrMacDonald & Evans, 1960), 8 John Street, London,
W.C. 1, England. Information on- Laban Movement is avail-
able at the Dance Notation Bureau and Center for Movement
Research, 8 East 12th Street, New York, N.Y. 10003.

MASSAGE
Persons working with traditional Massage such as Swedish
Massage and Battlecreek Massage are represented by the
American Massage and Therapy Association. They work
mainly with older persons who have come to have pain
relieved. Quite different from this are the salons and parlors
which cater mainly to middle-aged men who are in search of
pleasure of a sort. Also, many ordinary, overworked business-
men seek Massage to relieve tension and fatigue. Massage
is also used by beauty-reducing salons and athletic clubs.
Massage has recently been acknowledged as a way of
growth. Through the early work of Bernard Gunther and
Molly Day at Esalen Institute, Massage has been reinstated
as a psychophysical, spiritual discipline. This was the tradi-
tional function of Massage in the Chinese and other cultures,
including our own country in earlier years; however, its use
for this purpose in our times is new. Furthermore, it is no
longer regarded as a specialized practice. It has become a
way for husband and wife, or friends, students, etc., to give
of themselves to one another. As developed at Esalen, its
atmosphere and orientation is similar to the attentive watch-
fulness of sensory awareness and the steady, aware flow of
movements of T'ai Chi Ch'uan. The emphasis is on quality of
touch and the quality of interpersonal contact which results.
Technique is learned through the quality of the touch, not
separately.
Bernard Gunther, Sense Relaxation (New York: Collier,
1968) conveys the concern for touch very well; Beard and
Wood, Massage (Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders, 1964), tradi-
tional technique; Tobin and Ng, Visual Principles of Ele-
mentary Human Anatomy (Philadelphia: F. A. Davis, 1965),
good for a beginner's understanding of the eight major sys-
tems of the physical organism.

MENSENDIECK APPROACH
Bess M. Mensendieck, Look Better, Feel Better (New
York: Harper & Row, 1954).
338 A DIRECTORY OF WAYS PEOPLE GROW

MOVEMENT AND ENVIRONMENT Ann Halprin

Sensing the physical surroundings is a way to sense the
inner body situation and through this, interplay of the two
is developed. At the Dancers' Workshop in San Francisco,
there is available what could be called a curriculum in dance.
(Studio address: 321 Divisadero Street, San Francisco, Calif.
94117.) Reprints of magazine articles are available.
MOVEMENT IN DEPTH See entry
MUDRAS
Symbolic postures and gestures from the Hindu and
Buddhist orientations, used to evoke or aid psychophysical
attitudes: e.g., the sitting posture used in Zazen.
E. Dale Saunders, Mudra (New York: Pantheon Books,
1960).
NUDITY
It is important to consider situations where honesty is
enhanced through the use of nudity. Paul Bindrim (see his
article in Psychology Today, June 1969), is exploring this
within the context of psychotherapy.
ORGONOMY Wilhelm Reich
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (New York) has reprinted a
number of books by Dr. Wilhelm Reich, including Character-
Analysis and The Sexual Revolution. For further information,
write to:
Elsworth F. Baker, M.D.,
Editor, The Journal of Orgonomy
Orgonomic Publications, Inc.;
P.O. Box 476, Ansonia Station
New York, N.Y. 10023
OSTEOPATHY
Osteopaths prefer natural methods of healing; their work
emphasizes the skeletal system.
PHYSICAL FITNESS Thomas Kirk Cureton
Cureton's work has heavily influenced physical education
in the public schools.
PROGRESSIVE RELAXATION Edmund Jacobsen
A full course involves 150 hours of training. Hypnosis and
imagery practitioners use abbreviations as an entry vehicle.
i 1 0 0 - 1 9 9 PHYSICAL FUNCTIONING AND SENSING 339
Trains you to become conscious of all the muscle groups of
the body. Periods of complete rest are as important as the
slight movements involved.
Edmund Jacobsen, You Must Relax (New York: McGraw
Hill, 1957).

| PSYCHOMOTOR THERAPY Al Pesso

Emphasizes physicalizing impulses arising in the moment.
The action, closely guided and prompted by Pesso, may
involve the use of a chosen mother and father figure, in some
cases Pesso himself.
There is a recent book by Pesso on his work.
§ SENSORY AWARENESS See entry

STRUCTURAL AWARENESS Dorothy Nolte

Based on Ida Rolf's Structural Integration. Introduces con-
cepts of "energy flow" and "pattern" in the body. Structured
to promote Here Now awareness of thinking/feeling/being/
doing. Opportunity to contact-communicate-compare energy
patterns which block flow with those that allow energy flow.
Emphasis on integration as an ongoing process at all levels
of experiencing. Individual or group participation.
Dorothy Nolte, Emerald Bay, Laguna Beach, Calif. 92651.
STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION See entry
T'AI CHI CH'UAN See entry

GENERAL READINGS
Durckheim, Karlfried. Hara. London: Allen & Unwin, 1956.
Spiritual implications of physical being.
Feldenkrais, M. Body and Mature Behavior. London: Rout-
ledge & Kegan Paul, 1949.
Hanna, T. Bodies in Revolt. New York: Holt, Rinehart &
Winston, 1970.
Kahn, Fritz. The Human Body. New York: Random House,
1965. The best introduction to physiology I have seen.
Streitfeld, Harold S. "Bio-Synthesis as an Aspect of Psycho-
synthesis." Psychosynthesis Seminars 1966/7 Series. Speaks
of a number of ways of growth. Available from Psycho-
synthesis Research Foundation, 527 Lexington Ave., Rm.
314, New York, N.Y. 10017. Streitfeld has an unpublished
manuscript which is a survey of ways.
 2 0 0 - 2 9 9 Feeling and Relationship to Others

CLIENT-CENTERED THERAPY Carl Rogers

An assumption and operational guideline is that the patient
knows what matters most to him. The therapist is a person
who can listen, in a very full way, in continuity. Interchange
which touches upon the capacity of the patient to feel and to
express feeling is encouraged.
Carl Rogers. Client-Centered Therapy (Boston: Houghton-
Mifflin, 1951).

DASEINANALYSE Ludwig Binswanger

Binswanger, Being in the World (New York: Basic Books,
1963).

ENCOUNTER (1) Alec Rubin

In one source, Rubin's work is reported as "sensory and
dramatic exercises and experiences, evoking the expression of
what is locked inside; body sounds and rhythms, beating,
holding, falling, 'sounding' the body, being still, tearing apart,
coming together; opening new perceptions, unifying opposite
feelings, allowing free-flow feelings and actions." This may
sum up the versatility and adaptability which the encounter
process processes. However, amid all these hybrids of it there
still are and will always be persons whose main technique is
that of sharing so much of themselves that others feel free
to do the same.
Rubin is director of the Theater of Encounter in New York
City.

ENCOUNTER (2) William Schutz

Schutz has done much to influence the Encounter process.
His book Joy (New York: Grove Press, 1967) which offers
a theory and many specific techniques, is now available in
paperback.
340
i

2 0 0 - 2 9 9 FEELING AND RELATIONSHIP TO OTHERS 341

ENCOUNTER GROUPS See entry
ENCOUNTER TAPES
Developed through eight years of research at Western
Behavioral Sciences Institute, these tapes are available through
Human Development Institute, 1633 Westwood Blvd., Los
Angeles, Calif. 90024. The groups are leaderless and guided
by taped instructions. This developed from research which
showed that leaderless groups, if they had participants with
I prior encounter or therapy experience, did as well as groups
%. with leaders.
£
FIXED-ROLE THERAPY George Kelly
Kelly, The Psychology of Personal Constructs, 2 vols.
| (New York: W. W. Norton, 1955).
* FOCUSING E. T. Gendlin
A series of exercises which help you to differentiate feeling
I states.
E. T. Gendlin, Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning
I (New York: Free Press of Glencoe, 1962).
ERICH FROMM
The work of Erich Fromm.
GESTALT THERAPY See entry
H U M A N POTENTIAL GROUPS Herbert Otto
The full course consists of meetings over several months,
including interpersonal learning and analysis of your environ-
ment and everyday habits.
Herbert Otto, Guide to Developing Your Potential (New
York: Charles Scribner's, 1967).
Information from Stone-Brandel Center (1439 S. Michigan
Avenue, Chicago, 111. 60605).

LAURA HUXLEY
Huxley, You Are Not the Target (New York: Farrar,
Straus & Giroux, 1963). The most helpful book of ways of
growth I have seen.
INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY Alfred Adler
Split off from psychoanalysis; emphasized the inferiority
complex and man's aggressive drives as crucial in shaping
personality.
342 A DIRECTORY OF WAYS PEOPLE GROW
LOGOTHERAPY Viktor Frankl
Frankl, The Will to Meaning (New York: World Publish-
ing, 1969).
MARATHONS
Marathons are group meetings that run nonstop from one
to three days. Time is not segmented (two hours a night,
two days a week for ten weeks) but compressed, and this
creates an advantageous new situation. Further, the fatigue
of not sleeping tends to make people weary of pretenses.
Usually the group stays in one room, sleeps for short periods
and only as absolutely necessary; meals are brought in.
ABRAHAM MASLOW See Psychology, Humanistic entry
in text

ROLLO MAY
Works by Rollo May:
Love and Will (New York: W. W. Norton, 1969).
Man's Search for Himself (New York: New American
Library [Signet Books], 1967).
Psychology and the Human Dilemma (Princeton, N. J.:
Van Nostrand, 1967).
Existential Psychology [Edited by Rollo May.] (New York:
Random House, 1969). One of the best collections of
writings on the subject.
THE PSYCHOANALYTIC TRADITION
Works by Sigmund Freud:
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis. (New York:
Washington Square Press, 1960). Freud's very clear
introduction to psychoanalysis, originally presented as a
series of lectures for laymen.
Civilization and its Discontents (New York: W. W. Nor-
ton, 1962).
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (New
York: Bantam Books, 1960).
The Interpretation of Dreams (New York: Basic Books,
1960).
Moses and Monotheism (New York: Vintage Books, 1957).
The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (New York: W. W.
Norton, 1966). On the operation of unconscious pro-
cesses in such mundane occurrences as forgetting, mis-
placing objects, and slips of the tongue.

-
w
2 0 0 - 2 9 9 FEELING AND RELATIONSHIP TO OTHERS 343
Totem and Taboo: Resemblances between the psychic lives
of savages and neurotics (New York: Vintage Books,
1961).
Some recent works on Freud and psychoanalysis:
Brown, Norman O. Life Aganst Death: The Psychoanalyti-
cal Meaning of History (New York: Vintage Books,
1961).
Fine, Reuben. Freud: A Critical Re-evaluation of His The-
ories (New York: D. McKay Co., 1964).
f PSYCHODRAMA See entry
| PSYCHOLOGY, HUMANISTIC See entry
I SELF-ACTUALIZATION GROUPS Everett L. Shostrom
1 Shostrom, Man the Manipulator (New York: Abingdon
| Press, 1967). Information from Institute of Therapeutic
§ Psychology (205 W. 20th St., Santa Ana, Calif. 92706).
I SENSITIVITY TRAINING See entry
I STANISLAVSKI WORK
H Konstantin Stanislavski's books describe a number of ways
S of learning to attend to the physical and interpersonal; see
An Actor Prepares (New York: Theater Art Books, 1948).
The publisher (333 6th Ave., New York, N.Y. 10014) has
a list of Stanislavski's books.
Sonia Moore. The Stanislavski Method (New York: Viking
Press, 1960).
T-GROUPS See entry
THEATER GAMES See entry
GENERAL READINGS
Haley, Jay. Strategies of Psychotherapy. New York: Grune
& Stratton, 1963. A survey.
Harper, Robert A. Psychoanalysis & Psychotherapy. Engle-
wood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1959. An attempt to
present the main types of psychological treatment in clear,
K brief, simple language. Thirty-six approaches are men-
M tioned.
B London, Perry. The Modes and Morals of Psychotherapy.
B New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1964. A survey.
B Stein, Calvert. Practical Psychotherapeutic Techniques. Spring-
B field, 111.: Charles C Thomas, 1963. Another survey.
 300-399 Action and Behavior

These ways are task-oriented. Karma Yoga, performing

good deeds as a way to God, would be relevant. The broadest
definition would include such approaches as Theater Games,
Psychodrama, and movement work.
The comments on behavior which follow are mostly drawn
from Robert Mogar's work for the Stanford Research In-
stitute.
AVERSION THERAPY Kantorovish
The patient is given a negative experience in conjunction
with the response to be deconditioned. A person finding
pleasure from some behavior that is not socially acceptable,
yet pleasurable to him, is given nausea or a strong electric
shock along with the unacceptable pleasure. The procedure
associates anxiety or fear with a previously attractive be-
havior. The problem of extinction, as predicted from Hullian
learning theory, is taken into account. If the undesirable
behavior is a consequence of anxiety, then the anxiety must
be treated first. An example of chemical Aversion Therapy
involved an old man with a lifetime fetish for wearing female
clothes. He was put to bed for six days and six nights. Every
two hours he was given an injection to induce nausea. Just
after the injection slides were shown on a four-foot screen
at the foot of his bed which showed him in various states of
female undress. He was asked to pay close attention to the
slides until he vomited. Through associating a negative expe-
rience with a former behavior, the behavior was extinguished.

DESENSITIZATION, RECIPROCAL INHIBITION

The method of desensitization and other therapeutic pro-
cedures used by Joseph Wolpe are based on this general
principle: "If a response antagonistic to anxiety can be made
to occur in the presence of anxiety-provoking stimuli that is
344
 3 0 0 - 3 9 9 ACTION AND BEHAVIOR 345
accompanied by a complete or partial suppression of the
anxiety responses, the bond between the stimuli and the
anxiety responses will be weakened." In addition to relaxation
procedures, assertive and sexual responses were also dis-
covered to be incompatible with (or antagonistic to) anxiety
responses.
In practice, as Wolpe's approach of Reciprocal Inhibition
begins, " . . . A full history of the patient's current disorder
and his general history are obtained . . . an attempt is made
to reduce or eliminate any conflicts or anxiety-provoking
situations which prevail at the time of treatment. The patient
is trained in the methods of progressive relaxation as de-
scribed by Jacobsen . . . a hierarchy or group of hierarchies
containing the anxiety-producing stimuli is established by the
therapist and patient as a result of detailed therapeutic dis-
cussions. In these discussions the therapist, with the aid of
the patient, builds up a series of situations which might
produce anxiety in the patient. The patient is then required
to rank them from the most disturbing to the least disturbing
situation. When all these steps have been completed, the de-
sensitization itself may proceed."
Desensitization begins with work on the least anxiety-laden
situation in the hierarchy. "The patient is relaxed and then
requested to imagine the anxiety-producing stimuli in a very
mild and attenuated form. When the image is obtained vividly,
a small amount of anxiety is usually elicited. The therapist
then relaxes the patient again and instructs him to stop
imagining the scene and to continue relaxing. The full
sequence is relax, imagine, stop imagining, relax. The super-
imposition of relaxation on the anxiety reaction produces a
dissipation of anxiety (reciprocal inhibition). This process is
then repeated with the same stimulus or with a stimulus
which is slightly more disturbing. The patient is again relaxed
and the next stimulus is then presented and dissipated. With
each evocation and subsequent dampening of the anxiety
responses, conditioned inhibition is built up. Eventually the
patient is able to imagine even the previously most anxiety-
provoking stimulus with tranquility, and this tranquility then
generalizes to the real-life situation. The transfer of improve-
ments from the consulting room to real-life situations usually
accompanies each stage of the treatment program in a regular
temporal fashion."
Wolpe provides evidence that neurotic behavior "is persis-
346 A DIRECTORY OF WAYS PEOPLE GROW

tent unadaptive learned behavior in which anxiety is almost

always prominent and which is acquired in anxiety-generating
situations."
Andrew Salter. Conditioned Reflex Therapy (New York:
Capricorn Books, 1949); Joseph Wolpe and Arnold A.
Lazarus, Behavior Therapy Techniques (New York: Perga-
mon Press, 1966); Joseph Wolpe, Andrew Salter, and L. J.
Reyna. The Conditioning Therapies (New York: Holt, Rine-
hart & Winston, 1966).

NEGATIVE PRACTICE Knight Dunlap

The first experiment reporting on the use of negative Prac-
tice after Dunlap had made some fundamental discoveries
was by Wakeham in 1928. He "attempted to eliminate certain
habitual errors in piano selections from Bach's Toccata and
Fugue in D Minor. He practiced the selections daily for two
weeks with the wrong notes deliberately inserted. On the 15th
day he played the piece without error and after several
errorless performances called in a pupil for a demonstration
of his success—only to find that the errors reappeared." The
significant point here is that Wakeham's experiment illustrates
the central concept of the approach (it seems that part of his
problem was not practicing with an audience). His behavior
changed through making an involuntary act (the misplayed
notes) voluntary.
Negative Practice is usually suited for "habit residual"
problems such as stuttering.
In practice, the therapist helps the patient to reproduce
the undesirable act correctly: "Conversation is carried on
with the patient to create as favorable an environment as
possible for observing au natural the symptom to be treated.
As the symptom appears the conversation is interrupted and
the patient is asked to repeat the mistake he has just made."
Often the use of a mirror helps the patient to pay closer
attention to the problem: " . . . the act is refined until the
voluntary act matches the involuntary."

OPERANT CONDITIONING B. F. Skinner

"Behavior-control studies view personality as primarily a
function of the outside environmental stimuli, social inter-
actions, and social roles. It is at once a highly optimistic
(modifiability of behavior), yet threatening view (danger of
'imposing behavior' on others) of man."
 3 0 0 - 3 9 9 ACTION AND BEHAVIOR 347
From the viewpoint of this approach, the disordered be-
havior is the malady to be treated, not "depth" problems or
"underlying causes." The therapist is a "social reinforcement
machine." Therapy is viewed as a "lawful" process for which
the therapist receives training in the techniques of influencing
another's behavior. The terms most relevant to conceptualiz-
ing psychotherapy in terms of behavior control include per-
sonality (therapist and patient), prestige, socioeconomic
effects, role-taking, role expectancies, placebo effects, values,
training (programming), type of reinforcements, schedules
of reinforcement, atmospheres, antecedent contacts, instruc-
tional set, ambiguity, sensory input, sensory and social depri-
vation, awareness, generalization, learning models, and social
limitation.
Central to the approach is the "shaping of behavior." The
desired responses are "elicited" and reinforced. The basis of
behavior "shaping" rests on two principles: "(1) Thorndike's
Law of Effect—an organism will learn to repeat a behavior
for which it is rewarded and to avoid one for which it is
ignored or punished, and (2) complicated behavior patterns,
particularly those that can be described as 'skillful', are gradu-
ally learned in small steps that come progressively closer and
closer to some optimal level of performance. Therapy is
defined by Skinner at the deliberate adjustment of the rela-
tionship between the individual and his environment to elicit
maximum net functioning of the entire system—defined by
the therapist in part and by experiment."
Reinforcement is administered on a scheduled basis. There
are a variety of types of schedules; each is designed to fit the
idiosyncrasies of a specific situation. Administration of rein-
forcement on some fraction of the total number of trials is
called partial or intermittent schedules. Response-based sched-
ules are ratio schedules. Regular schedules are referred to as
fixed. Irregular schedules are variable.
One application of Operant Conditioning as a treatment is
illustrated by Allyon's use of specific social reinforcement
techniques in a hospital setting. He programmed nurses as
"behavioral engineers" by instructing them in the effects of
social reinforcement, and particularly in the effect of with-
holding attention from behaviors considered undesirable, e.g.,
psychotic talk. Behaviors such as these were shaped and main-
tained by the reactions of the aides and nurses and could be
changed within a day. Some of the desirable patient behaviors
348 A DIRECTORY OF WAYS PEOPLE GROW

being "shaped" included knitting, playing the piano, sweeping,

singing, and going to a dining room and feeding oneself.
B. F. Skinner, Science and Human Behavior (New York:
Free Press, 1953).

GENERAL READINGS
Bernard Berelson and Gary A. Steiner. Human Behavior: An
Inventory of Scientific Findings. New York: Harcourt,
Brace & World, 1964.
Eysenck, H. J. Behavior Therapy and the Neuroses. New
York: Pergamon Press, 1960. A book of readings on sev-
eral approaches.
James, William. Habit. New York: Holt, 1890.
 400-499 Motivation and Willing

ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION
The work of D. C. McClelland and others, based on
research and field experience. For a series of courses which
seek to arouse and aid a person to direct activities, consult
the Achievement Motivation Development Project (13 Kirk-
land St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138).

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
AA is active throughout the United States as self-help
rehabilitation for alcoholics. There is a national organization,
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services (468 Park Ave. S.,
New York, N.Y. 10016).
Alcoholics Anonymous (New York: Alcoholics Anony-
mous World Services, 1955).
BIBLIOTHERAPY
Reading the lives of great men.
GREAT BOOKS DISCUSSION GROUPS Mortimer J.
Adler
Adler, How to Read a Book (New York: Simon & Schuster,
1940).

MENTAL HEALTH THROUGH WILL TRAINING

Abraham A. Low
Weekly meetings; the participants keep in touch with each
other. Helps you to pay attention to your everyday life. There
seems to be much personal contact and mutual support and
encouragement among the participants. There is a national
organization, Recovery, Inc. (116 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago,
111. 60603. Publication list, training program). Similar to
Alcoholics Anonymous and Synanon, but dealing with a dif-
ferent problem group.
349
350 A DIRECTORY OF WAYS PEOPLE GROW

Abraham A. Low, Mental Health Through Will Training

(Boston: The Christopher Publishing House, 1950).

PSYCHOSYNTHESIS Roberto Assagioli

Assigns to the will a central function. An intricate and
interesting theory along with over forty techniques is described
in Assagioli's Psychosynthesis (New York: Hobbs, Dorman,
1965). Psychosynthesis practitioners have been pioneers in
developing ways of working with imagery; in particular,
depth imagery.
Psychosynthesis Research Foundation (527 Lexington Ave-
nue, New York, N.Y. 10017), and the International Founda-
tion for Psychosynthesis (Linde Medical Plaza, 10921 Wil-
shire Blvd., Suite 901, Los Angeles, Calif. 90024), have
publication lists.

WILL THERAPY Otto Rank

Rank, Will Therapy and Truth and Reality (New York:
Knopf, 1945).
The various success-oriented business courses need to be
considered for inclusion. I would appreciate any reports on
this area. The use of incentives and "pep" talks may be appli-
cable here. A classic in the field is Dale Carnegie's How to
Win Friends and Influence People (New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1937).

GENERAL READINGS
Farber, Leslie H. The Ways of the Will. New York: Basic
Books, 1966.
James, William. Psychology. New York: Harper & Row
Torchbooks, 1961.
 5 0 0 - 5 9 9 Suggestion and Altered States

AUTOCONDITIONING HorneU Hart

Developed through research work. Hart's Autoconditioning
(Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1956) offers a way
to attend to one's feelings as a guide to formulating and
applying suggestions.
CARBON DIOXIDE THERAPY Ladislas Joseph Meduna
Meduna, Carbon Dioxide Therapy (Springfield, 111.: Charles
Thomas, 1958).
DRUGS
Richard Lingeman, Drugs from A to Z (New York:
McGraw-Hill Paperback, 1969), $2.95
A. Hoffer and H. Osmond, The Hallucinogens (New York:
Academic Press, 1967). I l l Fifth Avenue, New York, 10003,
$25. The medical book on the subject.
David Ebin (ed.), The Drug Experience (New York:
Orion Press, 1961). First-person accounts by addicts, writers,
scientists and others on hash, heroin, bhang, opium, mesca-
line, peyote, psilocybin, LSD, mushrooms, marijuana, mor-
phine, and other drugs.
B. S. Aaronson and H. Osmond, Psychedelics: Their Uses
and Implications (New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1970).
C. T. Tart, Altered States of Consciousness (New York:
John Wiley and Sons, 1969). Sections on the minor and
major psychedelic drugs. An anthology.
HYPNOSIS See entry
MADNESS
For madness as an altered state, see the work of R. D.
Laing and Julian Silverman.
OPTOKINETIC PERCEPTUAL AWARENESS
TRAINING Eleanor Criswell
The work uses an eight-inch drum which revolves at
351
352 A DIRECTORY OF WAYS PEOPLE GROW

33V& rpm. The drum is covered with panels of fine-textured

material. When viewed for five minutes, heightened attention
results along with relaxation. Many applications.
Eleanor Criswell, "Some Effects of Optokinetic Training
on Openness of the Perceptual Field," doctoral dissertation,
University of Florida, 1968.

PSYCHOCYBERNETICS Maxwell Maltz

Currently a popular book by the same name (Hollywood,
Calif.; Wilshire Book Co., 1960). 8721 Sunset Blvd., Holly-
wood, Calif. Maltz is coordinating formation of groups
throughout the United States to do the exercises in the book,
which include ways of relaxing and visualizing.

SHAMANISM See entry

GENERAL READINGS
Aaronson, B. S. "Hypnosis, Responsibility, and the Boun-
daries of Self." Paper read at Conference on Science,
Philosophy and Religion, New York, January 1966.
Brown, J. A. C. Techniques of Persuasion. Baltimore: Pen-
guin Books, 1963. 3300 Clipper Mill Rd., Baltimore, Md.
Masters, R. E. L. and Houston, J. Varieties of Psychedelic
Experence, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1966.
Murphy, Gardner. Challenge of Psychical Research: A
Primer of Parapsychology. New York: Harper & Brothers,
1961.
Tart, Charles T. Altered States of Consciousness. New York:
Wiley, 1969. A book of readings including: Between
Waking and Sleeping; The Hypnogogic State; Dream Con-
sciousness; Meditation; Hypnosis; Minor and Major Psy-
chedelic Drugs; The Psychophysiology of Some Altered
States.
Wavell, Steward, Butt, Audrey, and Epton, Nina. Trances.
New York: E. P. Dutton, 1967. A book of thirty readings
on altered states in nonindustrialized cultures.
 6 0 0 - 6 9 9 Imagination and Symbols

This category is divided into three subcategories. First,

ways of growth that offer symbolic maps of consciousness
are listed.
ASTROLOGY See entry
ICHING
Richard Wilhelm (trans.), The I Ching (Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1950); Change: Eight Lectures
on the I Ching (New York: Harper & Row, 1960).
ORIENTAL AESTHETIC ARTS
Flower arranging, tea ceremony, haiku are ways to express
a mood, a season, an experience and ways of concentration
leading to meditation.
Okakura Kakuzo, The Book of Tea (Rutland, Vt.: Charles
E. Tuttle, 1906). For information, consult the Tea Ceremony
Society of Urasenke (866 United Nations Plaza, New York,
N.Y. 10017).
POETRY
Jerome Rothenberg (ed.), Technicians of the Sacred (New
York: Doubleday Anchor Book, 1968). A range of poetries
from Africa, America, Asia and Oceania.
J. J. Leed (ed.), Poetry Therapy (Philadelphia: Lippincott,
1969).

RITUALS
In ancient and nonindustrialized contemporary cultures
there are rites of passage in which the birth of a child, his
entry into manhood, and subsequent important events in his
life are celebrated through symbolic activities. Rituals may
be considered as processes symbolic of life events. The Catho-
lic mass and the seven sacraments are other examples.
353

L
354 A DIRECTORY OF WAYS PEOPLE GROW
SYMBOLIC SOUNDS
This could be the repetitive use of a single sound as in
Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation or the use of group
chanting as in the Society for Krishna Consciousness.

SYNECTICS W. J. J. Gordon
Operational methods for developing intuition. The pioneer-
ing work was done in industry. Methods suitable for educa-
tional innovations. Works with analogy.
W. J. J. Gordon, Synectics (New York: Collier Books,
1961).

TAROT See entry

YANTRA
Visual forms used for spiritual training.
Giuseppe Tucci, The Theory and Practice of Mandala
(London: Rider, 1961).

The second subcategory under Imagination and Symbols

includes ways of growth related to Inner Imagery (see entry).

ACTIVE IMAGINATION C. G. Jung

P. W. Martin, Experiment in Depth (London: Routledge,
1955).

DEEP RELAXATION AND SYMBOLISM Frederking

Starting with fantasy, the patient soon progresses from
unclear visions to increasingly clearer productions of a kind
of "symbolic strip thought" allowed to flow scene by scene.

THE DIRECTED DAYDREAM Robert DeSoille

Not meditation in the classical sense; more related to
conventional depth psychology. Evokes a kind of wandering
in which symbols are plastically visualized and actively expe-
rienced. CUmbs and descents encouraged as they suggest
themselves; meet and relate yourself with the archetypes of
the collective unconscious. Through these, find the resolution
of the conscious problems.

INITIATED SYMBOL PROJECTION Hanscarl Leuner

Leuner, "Initiated Symbol Projection," trans. William
Swartley, in Psychosynthesis, R. Assagioli, ed., (New York:
Hobbs, Droman, 1965).
 600-699 IMAGINATION AND SYMBOLS 355
MAUX
The conversation here is almost a monologue in which
the therapist depicts plastic and sympathy-evoking represen-
tative events from childhood to the patient: a procession,
Christmas celebration in the family, singing a children's song,
etc.

REVERY Weitzenhoffer

SYMBOLIC CONSCIOUSNESS A N D MEDITATION

Happich
Deals with the level called "symbolic consciousness," which
lies between the consciousness and unconsciousness. Meadow-
mountain-chapel-mandala symbol evokers.

SYMBOLIC VISUALIZATION Robert Gerard

Gerard, Psychosynthesis: A Psychotherapy for the Whole
Man. Available from the author (Linde Medical Plaza, 10921
Wilshire Blvd., Suite 901, Los Angeles, Calif. 90024).

The third subcategory has uses of Imagination and Symbols

as ways of developing the whole person.

ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY See entry

ARTISTS AND CRAFTSMEN

M. C. Richards in Centering (Middletown, Conn.: Wes-
leyan University Press, 1962) describes pottery as a way of
growth.
Fritz Faiss (San Fernando Valley College, Art D e p t ,
Northridge, Calif. 91324) works with self-awareness through
art.
Jose and Miriam Arguelles work in visual perception and
the creation of mandalas in a contemporary form.

DIALOGUE HOUSE Ira Progoff

Participants are given journals identifying some basic tools
for personal growth: dreams, meetings with others, inner
images, and so on. Introductory programs help define these
tools and provide an atmosphere and specific situations for
exploring their personal meaning.
Ira Progoff, The Symbolic and the Real (New York:
Julian Press, 1963). For information, consult Dialogue House
356 A DIRECTORY OF WAYS PEOPLE GROW
Associates (45 West 10th St., New York, N.Y. 10011; P.O.
Box 877, San Jacinto, Calif. 92383).
DREAMS See entry
GENERAL SEMANTICS A. Korzybski
Interested in the relationships of thought, behavior, and
meaning. General semanticists have worked to untangle the
misuses of language.
View Points Institute (P.O. Box 1124, Beverly Hills, Calif.
90213) offers regular courses; International Society for Gen-
eral Semantics (540 Powell St., San Francisco, Calif. 94108)
has pamphlets and bibliography available.
Samuel J. Bois, The Art of Awareness (Dubuque, Iowa:
Wm. C.Brown, 1966).

Classical Indian music and the symblic use of color in

Japanese No plays are also relevant to this category.

GENERAL READINGS
Jung, C. G. Memories, Dreams, Reflections. New York:
Vintage Books, 1961. Jung's autobiography; illustrates how
dreams and imagery interplay with everyday life.
Martin, P. W. Experiment in Depth. London: Routledge &
Kegan Paul, 1955. Contrasts the work of Jung, Eliot, and
Toynbee. Basic reading.
Progoff, Ira. The Symbolic and the Real. New York: Julian
Press, 1963.
 7 0 0 - 7 9 9 Spiritual Concerns

BABA RAM DASS (Richard Alpert)

See author's writings

MARTIN BUBER See Hasidism entry in text

CULTURAL INTEGRATION FELLOWSHIP

Haridas Chaudhuri
An Aurobindo ashram (2650 Fulton St., San Francisco,
Calif. 94118)—numerous activities of general interest.

FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF See entry

| G. I. GURDJIEFF
* There are Gurdjieff groups in many of the major cities of
I the United States and abroad. Of Russian descent, Gurdjieff
I is thought to have studied extensively in the Middle East.
| There is no agreement on just which approaches Gurdjieff
§ studied there. Idries Shah wrote (The Way of the Sufi, New
| York: E. P. Dutton, 1969): "G. I. Gurdjieff left abundant
| clues to the Sufic origins of virtually every point in his
I 'system'; though it obviously belongs more specifically to the
$ Khagjagan (Naqshbandi) form of the dervish teaching. In
I addition to the practices of 'the work,' such books as
I Gurdjieff's Beelzebub (otherwise known as All and Every-
W thing), (New York, 1950) and Meetings With Remarkable
jL Men, 2nd impression, 1963) abound with references, often
I semi-covert ones, to the Sufi system. He also cites by name
the Naqshbandis, Kubravis and other Sufis."
Larry Rosenberg's review of the teachings of Gurdjieff in
I Big Rock Candy Mountain (Summer 1970) says that "the
'curriculum' included sacred dances, work in the kitchen,
Turkish baths, music and manual labor. 'Classes' were held
357
358 A DIRECTORY OF WAYS PEOPLE GROW

everywhere—[Gurdjieff] would prowl around the grounds

waiting for the proper moment to intervene in the routine
activities of his students, using even a misdirected body
motion or awkward gesture to work back to the general
principles of his teaching."
Also in this review (Portola Institute, 1115 Merrill St.,
Menlo Park, Calif. 94025) is a twenty-item bibliography on
Gurdjieff's work. Good beginning readings would include:
G. I. Gurdjieff, Meetings With Remarkable Men (New
York: E. P. Dutton, 1969) $1.75.
C. S. Nott, Teachings of Gurdjieff: The Journal of a Pupil
(New York: Samuel Weiser, 1962).
Robert S. De Roppe, The Master Game (New York: Delta
Books, 1969).

HASIDISM See entry

HATHA YOGA See entry

INTEGRAL YOGA Sri Aurobindo

The Sri Aurobindo ashram is at Pondicherry 2, India.
Haridas Chaudhuri, Integral Yoga (London: Allen &
Unwin, 1965).

KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS
International Society for Krishna Consciousness (518 Fred-
erick St., San Francisco, Calif. 94117; 61 2nd Avenue, New
York, N.Y. 10003).

KRISHNAMURTI
Jacob Neddleman's The New Religions (New York:
Doubleday, 1970) offers an excellent introduction. He writes:
"For the greater part of the twentieth century, Krishnamurti
has traveled through Europe, America and Asia, speaking to
millions of people. Still more millions have read his books,
many of which are records of his talks. One may safely say
that no philosopher, teacher or poet of our time has attracted
the respect of more people over such a period. Yet of all
the well-known teachers, religious leaders, philosophers and
writers of the twentieth century, none has spoken with such
austerity of the uselessness of teachers, organizations, and
systems of thought or belief. None has maintained such im-
personality in his thought, such rigor in his rejection of a
 7 0 0 - 7 9 9 SPIRITUAL CONCERNS 359
following. And surely none has approached the fundamental
problems of human life in a way that offers less consolation,
less sensationalism, less cleverness, less metaphysical excite-
ment than Krishnamurti. We shall find in his thought, no
God, no religion, no ethical norms, no life beyond the grave,
no new theories or explanations. Nor can we comfortably
side with him when he rejects society so totally: because we,
you and I, are society, and that society is brutal, barbaric and
chaotic within. This applies whether we are generals or hip-
pies, capitalists or acid heads, whether we live in the big city
or in a New Mexico commune."
There is a Krishnamurti Foundation of America (P.O. Box
216, 139 E. Ojai Ave., Ojai, Calif. 93023).
JOHN LILLY
Work on Programming and Metaprogramming in The
Human Biocomputer, Theory and Experiments, available
from The Whole Earth Catalog, 558 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo
Park, Calif. 94025, $1.50).
MEHER BABA
There is a good introduction to this work in Jacob Neddie-
man's The New Religions (New York: Doubleday, 1970).
Meher Baba was born in India and first gathered disciples
around him in 1921 in Bombay. He died in 1969 at the age
of seventy-four. Many are devoted to the practice of his way,
but I know of no formal address for them at present.

PRAYER See entry

PSYCHEDELIC CHURCHES
These are serious ventures viewing and using the psyche-
delics as one would use the sacraments. I know of no directory
which currently lists them.

SPIRITUAL READING
A basic aspect of many approaches, though I know of no
way which uses it alone. One book prepared for readings is
Dorothy Berkeley (ed.), The Choice Is Always Ours (New
York: Harper & Row, 1960): "a synthesis of religious and
psychological insight"; "a source book for spiritual progres-
sion." Other books:
Bernard Mandelbaum, Choose Life (New York: Random
: House, 1968).
360 A DIRECTORY OF WAYS PEOPLE GROW

Adrian Van Kaam, Bert Van Croonenburg, and Susan

Annette Muto, The Emergent Self (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.: Dimen-
sion Books, 1968).

SUBUD Pak Subud

Founded by Pak Subud of Indonesia, the approach includes
regular nonverbal meetings. There are groups in many parts
of the United States.
J. C. Bennett (New York: Charma Book Co., 1962).
Publisher's address P.O. Box 176, New York, N.Y. 10011.

SUFI
An aspect of the Muslim tradition.
The Sufi Message of Hazrat lnayat Khan (London: Barrie
andRockliff, 1960).
Idries Shah. The Sufis (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday,
1964; The Way of the Sufi (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1969);
Tales of the Dervishes (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1965).

TIBETAN BUDDHISM
There is a very good introduction to Tibetan Buddhism in
America in Jacob Neddleman's The New Religions (New
York: Doubleday, 1970). He writes: "Tibetan Buddhism is
centered in the idea of compassion, and its hierarchical struc-
ture and ritual cannot really be approached apart from that
idea. This compassion may for the moment be defined as:
the precise transmission of a supremely benevolent force to
each plateau or station of sentient reality according to its
capacity for responding to it. The structure of Tibetan society,
from the authority of the high incarnate lamas to the peasants
in the fields, is an expression of this chain of compassion. It
is in this sense that Tibet was a 'monastery,' an organization or
channel of psychospiritual help. In a similar sense, the planet
Earth itself, indeed the whole universe, is a 'monastery'—"
There is a Tibetan Nyingmapa Meditation Center (2522
Webster St., Berkeley, Calif. 94705), created by Tarthang
Tulku.

TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION See entry

TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY
The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology (2637 Marshall
Drive, Palo Alto, Calif. 94303). Statement of purpose: ". . .
 7 0 0 - 7 9 9 SPIRITUAL CONCERNS 361
concerned with the publication of theoretical and applied
research, original contributions, empirical papers, articles and
studies in meta-needs, ultimate values, unitive B values,
essence, bliss, awe, wonder, self-actualization, ultimate mean-
ing, transcendence of the self, spirit, sacralization of everyday
life, oneness, cosmic awareness, cosmic play, individual and
species-wide synergy, maximal interpersonal encounter, tran-
scendental phenomena; maximal sensory awareness, respon-
siveness and expression; and related concepts, experiences,
and activities."

VEDANTA
This is a Yoga society, probably the oldest large cluster of
centers in the United States. The movement began in India
with Ramakrishna and was brought to this country by Vive-
kananda. The centers teach through classes and lectures and
later by interviews. There are centers in Berkeley, Hollywood,
Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Finnville
(Mich.), St. Louis, New York, Portland (Ore.), Providence
(R.I.), and Seattle. There is no apparent central address.

ALAN WATTS
Has written many books on themes both Asian and Chris-
tian. He has a residence in the San Francisco Bay area and
frequently offers programs on various ways. No address is
currently known.

Beyond Theology: The Art of Godmanship (New York:

Pantheon Books, 1964).
The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1966).
The Joyous Cosmology: Adventures in the Chemistry of
Consciousness, Foreword by Timothy Leary and Richard
Alpert (New York: Vintage Books, 1965).
Psychotherapy East and West (New York: Ballantine
Books, 1969).
This Is It, and Other Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experi-
ence (New York: Collier Books, 1967).
The Way of Zen (New York: Vintage Books, 1968).
The Wisdom of Insecurity (New York: Vintage Books,
1968).
Does It Matter? Essays on Man's Relation to Materiality
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1970).
362 A DIRECTORY OF WAYS PEOPLE GROW

YOGA See entry, and see Hatha Yoga entry in text

ZEN See entry

GENERAL READINGS
White, John. The Highest States of Consciousness (New
York: Doubleday Anchor, in preparation as of 1971). His
sources include Stanley Krippner, Kenneth Walker, Aldous
Huxley, R. M. Bucke, Robert DeRopp, R. D. Laing, Alan
Watts, Thomas Merton, Lama Govinda, Abraham Maslow,
P. D. Ouspensky, Richard Wilhelm, and Charles T. Tart.
8 0 0 - 8 9 9 Environment — Involvement with environment
as a way of developing the whole person.

FAMILY THERAPY See entry

GREEN VALLEY SCHOOLS

The program includes a farm setting, a community of
persons (P.O. Box 606, Orange City, Fla. 32763).

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITIES AND COMMUNES

The Modern Utopian (Starr King Center, 2441 LeConte
Avenue, Berkeley, Calif. 94709) is a relevant magazine.

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
Water: skin diving, snorkeling, surfing, sailing, swimming.
Air: gliding, skydiving.
Earth: Hiking, backpacking, living off the land, rock climb-
ing, cave exploring.
The use of pure water, fresh air, exercise, rest, good food,
sunshine.

LIFE-STYLES
This is close to the heart of ways of growth, for a person's
ongoing everyday life is the best indication of his way of
being-growing. The second volume will expand upon this.
There is a major difference in style between those who work
scheduled, forty-hour weeks and those who are free to sched-
ule their work.

ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Work which has evolved out of the T-Group and Sensi-
tivity Training, deals with the business organization as an
environment, and has come to be known as Organizational
Development work. Trevor Hoy, director of the Berkeley
Center for Human Interaction, writes:
"Organization Development is a relatively new term in the
363
364 A DIRECTORY OF WAYS PEOPLE GROW
field of training. The training itself emerged after World War
II as a specialized behavioral science skill, in large measure
through the innovation of the National Training Labs based
in Washington, D.C., and Bethel, Maine. This movement,
which swept largely academic and helping professions for
about twenty years, became of increasing interest to industry
and government agencies. The theory and methodology of
T-Groups focused on personal awareness, communications
and leadership skills, and group development, but is by no
means readily applicable to the organizational setting.
"Human relations training and the growth center move-
ment expanded with psychological and therapeutic approaches
to personal growth, and the internal life. In the meantime,
many of the standard training methods for business manage-
ment, planning and problem-solving were coming to be less
productive and often seemed a manipulative means to re-
enforce bureaucratic structures and restrict individual differ-
ences and freedoms. Such groups as the American Society
for Training and Development (ASTD) focused more on the
problems of line management and production than the funda-
mental issues relating to the humanization of the institutions
and society. Just as the individual is not likely to learn in an
experiential setting unless he or she recognized a need for
change and growth and is willing to risk new behavior, so
organizations, particularly in this time of stress caused by
urbanization and technology, recognized that they lacked the
internal resources to diagnose their situation and discover
ways of deploying resources or devising alternative futures.
Some organization development is seen as an overall strategy
for corporations such as T.R.W. Systems or Syntex. Much
of this work is done by 'out-house' rather than 'in-house'
consultants. This means that consultants are brought into an
organization for relatively short-term training events. Secur-
ing the confidence of top management is essential to effective
intervention and the building of a long-term strategy in which
a variety of training opportunities are designed for all levels
of systems.
"Some of the principles of Organization Development
have been expanded further to apply to even larger social
systems and have, within the last ten years, become pop-
ularized as community organizations—one of the champions
of which is Saul Alinsky.
"The National Training Laboratories has distinguished be-
 8 0 0 - 8 9 9 ENVIRONMENT
tween "laboratory trainers" and those who are specialists
in Organizational Development; the experience and training
requirements for the latter role are extensive. There are
courses given throughout the NTL network in "OD" with
a special summer program at Bethel, Maine. One of the
best known programs in the West is given at U.C.L.A. School
of Business Administration under Tannenbaum and his staff.
"The Religion and Applied Behavioral Science Association,
which relates training to church institutions, has become
increasingly concerned with OD focus. Unlike NTL, it has
professional members who are recognized as having skills
for working with organizations. In most cases, it is important
for such specialists to have rapport with the professional
institution that they are serving. Obviously this is a very
large field with hundreds of competent persons offering their
style of OD. One of the best was founded by Dr. Robert Blake
who invented the managerial grid, which has been adapted
for a variety of applications for business seminars throughout
the world.
"Dr. Warner Burke, Sheldon Davis, Richard Beckhart,
Robert Tannenbaum, are related to the Center for Organiza-
tional Studies of the National Training Labs, which is a
major resource throughout the nation for programs with
management-work conferences with executives, presidents,
change-agents in training. Dr. Hubert Coffey has been in-
volved for many years in the programs with educational
institutions."
"Nationally, there are a number of universities with OD
emphasis. Case Western Reserve in Cleveland; at State Uni-
versity of New York in Buffalo, Warren Bennis, who is one
of the founders of the OD movement, is on the faculty.
There are also important programs at the University of
Chicago, the University of Cincinnati, and at Boston Uni-
versity, where Kenneth Benny is located. At Yale, Chris
Argyris and Herbert Shepard are noted leaders in the OD
field. Dr. Shepard has incorporated life planning as an im-
portant phase, helping management discover its own motiva-
tion and self-interest in its work. Dr. Mathew Miles pioneered
work with educational systems."

OUTWARD BOUND
A one-month, intense outdoor program.
David James (ed.), Outward Bound (London: Routledge,
366 A DIRECTORY OF WAYS PEOPLE GROW

1957). For national information write: Outward Bound

(Andover, Mass. 01810).
Descriptive pamphlets are available.
SUMMERHILL A. S. Neill
Herb Snitzer, Living at Summerhill (New York: Collier
Books, 1963).
SYNANON See entry
THERAPEUTIC COMMUNITY, MILIEU THERAPY
The hospital as environment. Community psychiatry ac-
tivities; crisis therapy. The contributions of the psychiatric
traditions in general.
WILDERNESS LIVING
Sierra Club, 1050 Mills Tower, 220 Bush Street, San Fran-
cisco, Calif. 94104.
 POSTSCRIPT

One day I was visiting a friend in San Francisco. He had

just finished reading the manuscript of this book and com-
mented that it was all very interesting, but he wanted to
know what interested me. He suggested that I make a hst of
only ten books which I would have around me if I could
have no others. This is the list:
Dorothy Berkeley Phillips (ed.), The Choice is Always
Ours (New York: Harper & Row, 1960).
Jacob Neddleman, The New Religions (New York: Double-
day, 1970).
Richard Wilhelm (trans.), / Ching (Princeton, N. J.:
Princeton University Press, 1950).
Huston Smith, The Religions of Man (New York: Harper
&Row, 1958).
F. S. Perls, In and Out of the Garbage Pail (Lafayette,
Ca.: Real People Press, 1969).
Philip Kapleau (ed.), The Three Pillars of Zen (Boston:
Beacon Press, 1967).
C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, (New York:
Random House, 1961).
Stephen Gaskin, The Monday Night Class (Book Farm,
distributed by Book People, 2010 Seventh Street, Berkeley,
Calif.)
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Wisdom of the Sands
(New York: Harcourt Brace, 1950).
Carlos Casteneda, The Teachings of Don Juan (New
York: Ballantine Books, 1969).
My friend then said, "You didn't mention Turning On
or Jane Howard's Please Touch. Of all the books now
available, these seem most closely related to the kind of book
you have here." I could only answer that these books were
good too, but that in reading them I was left with the feeling
that guided tours are a weary way to journey. While it is
367
368 A DIRECTORY OF WAYS PEOPLE GROW

important to see the Arche de Triomphe, the Tivoli and the

VW factory near Munich, these books left me with a firm
desire to wander over the back roads of Bavaria on a bicycle
or to just sit in the Vatican Gardens.