Michael Murphy (born 3 September 1930) is the co-founder of the

Esalen Institute The Esalen Institute, commonly called Esalen, is a non-profit American retreat center and intentional community in Big Sur, California, which focuses on humanistic alternative education. The institute played a key role in the Human Potential ...

, a key figure in the

Human Potential Movement The Human Potential Movement (HPM) arose out of the counterculture of the 1960s and formed around the concept of an extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people. The movement takes as its premise the be ...

and author of ''The Future of the Body'' and other books on topics related to extraordinary human potential.

Life and career

Michael Murphy was born September 3, 1930, to an Irish father and

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

mother in

Salinas, California Salinas (; Spanish for "Salt Marsh or Salt Flats") is a city in California and the county seat of Monterey County. With a population of 163,542 in the 2020 Census, Salinas is the most populous city in Monterey County. Salinas is an urban area lo ...

. In April 1950, while enrolled in the pre-med program at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, he mistakenly wandered into a lecture on comparative religions. This lecture so fanned the flame of his interest in the integration of Eastern and Western thought that he enrolled in the class and subsequently began

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally cal ...

. On January 15, 1951, during seated meditation by Lake Lagunita at Stanford, he experienced what he describes as a "hinge moment", after which he dropped out of the pre-med program with a new vision for the purpose of his life. He continued with his formal education, earning his B.A. in

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

in 1952 from Stanford University. After graduation, he was

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vessel ...

ed by the US Army and spent two years stationed in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

as a psychologist. He returned to Stanford for two quarters of graduate studies in philosophy before he quit in 1956 to go to India.

India

During 1956 and 1957 Murphy practiced meditation for 18 months at the

Sri Aurobindo Ashram The Sri Aurobindo Ashram is a spiritual community (ashram) located in Pondicherry, in the Indian territory of Puducherry. The ashram grew out of a small community of disciples who had gathered around Sri Aurobindo after he retired from ...

Puducherry Puducherry or Pondicherry may refer to: * Puducherry (union territory), a union territory of India ** Pondicherry, capital of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry district, a district of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry t ...

, India. It is likely that his ideas related to the connection between human evolution, human potential, and spiritual growth developed further here.

Founding Esalen

In 1960, while in residence at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Cultural Integration Fellowship in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, he met a fellow Stanford University graduate,

Dick Price Richard Price (October 12, 1930 – November 25, 1985) was co-founder of the Esalen Institute in 1962 and a veteran of the Beat Generation. He ran Esalen in Big Sur for many years, sometimes virtually single-handed."Dick's life in the late 1960s ...

.A Cultural History of the Humanistic Psychology Movement in America, By Jessica Lynn Grogan In 1962, they founded

together in

Big Sur Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of California between Carmel and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. It is frequently praised for its dramatic scenery. Big Sur ha ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

on of property owned by Murphy's family. In 1972 he retired from actively running Esalen to do more writing. He remains on the board at the institute and continues to be a key contributor to research projects at the Esalen Center for Theory and Research. He presently resides in Mill Valley, California.

Further contributions

In the 1980s he organized Esalen's Soviet-American Exchange Program which served as a unique form of citizen-to-citizen diplomacy. The program initiated the process that led to

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...

's first visit to the US 1990.Esalen and the Evolution of American Culture, Jeffrey J. Kripal and Glenn W. Shuck ed. In 1992 he published ''The Future of the Body'', a massive historical and cross-cultural collection of documentation of various occurrences of extraordinary human functioning such as healing,

hypnosis Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; a ...

, yogic techniques,

telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W ...

clairvoyance Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...

, and feats of superhuman strength. Rather than presenting such documentation as scientific proof, he presents it as a body of evidence to motivate further investigation. He is also an avid golfer and has written two fictional books relating golf and human potential. His 1971 novel, ''

Golf in the Kingdom ''Golf in the Kingdom'' is a 1971 novel by Michael Murphy. It has sold over a million copies and been translated into 19 languages. ''Golf in the Kingdom'' tells the story of Michael Murphy, a young traveler who accidentally stumbles on a mystical ...

'', has been in constant publication since its release and has become one of the best selling golf books of all time. In 1992 it spawned The Shivas Irons Society, a 501(c)3 organization to explore the transformational potential of sport, of which Murphy is the co-chairman of the advisory board. He partnered with film producer Mindy Affrime on the feature film adaptation of ''Golf In The Kingdom''. It was directed by Susan Streitfeld and stars

David O'Hara David Patrick O'Hara (born 9 July 1965) is a Scottish stage and character actor. A graduate of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, he is best known to audiences for his numerous supporting roles in high-profile films; includi ...

Mason Gamble Mason Gamble (born January 16, 1986) is an American former actor. He is mostly famous for his interpretation of Dennis Mitchell in the 1993 film '' Dennis the Menace'', selected over an estimate of 20,000 children who had auditioned. He played ...

Malcolm McDowell Malcolm McDowell (born Malcolm John Taylor; 13 June 1943) is a British actor, producer, and television presenter. He is best known for portraying Alex DeLarge in ''A Clockwork Orange.'' He was born in the Horsforth suburb of Leeds and raised in ...

and

Frances Fisher Frances Louise Fisher (born May 11, 1952) is a British-born American actress. She began her career in theatre and later starred as record executive Suzette 'Red' Saxon in the CBS daytime soap opera ''The Guiding Light'' (1985). In film, she is ...

. The complementary one-hour TV documentary, called ''Golfers in the Kingdom'', was directed by

Ellen Spiro Ellen Spiro is an American documentary filmmaker. She was a producer and director of a television documentary ''Are the kids alright?'', which won an Emmy Award in 2005. She is a professor emerita of the University of Texas at Austin, where sh ...

Works

*''Golf in the Kingdom'' (fiction) (1971) *''Jacob Atabet'' (fiction) ( Jeremy P. Tarcher/

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...

, 1977) *''The Psychic Side of Sports'' (non-fiction, co-written with Rhea White) (1978) *''An End to Ordinary History: A Novel'' (fiction) (1982) *''The Future of the Body: Explorations into the Further Evolution of Human Nature'' (1992) *''The Life We Are Given: A Long-Term Program for Realizing the Potential of Body, Mind, Heart, and Soul'' (non-fiction, co-written with

George Leonard George Burr Leonard (August 9, 1923 – January 6, 2010) was an American writer, editor, and educator who wrote extensively about education and human potential. He served as President Emeritus of the Esalen Institute, past-president of the ...

) (1995) *''In the Zone: Transcendent Experience in Sports'' (non-fiction, update to ''The Psychic Side of Sports'', co-written with Rhea White) (1995) *''The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation: A Review of Contemporary Research With a Comprehensive Bibliography, 1931-1996'' (non-fiction, 2nd edition) (1997) *''The Kingdom of Shivas Irons'' (fiction - sequel to ''Golf in the Kingdom'') (1997) *''God and the Evolving Universe: The Next Step in Personal Evolution'' (non-fiction, co-written with

James Redfield James Redfield is an American author, lecturer, screenwriter, and film producer. He is notable for his 1993 novel ''The Celestine Prophecy''. Biography Redfield grew up in a rural area near Birmingham, Alabama. He studied Eastern philosophie ...

and Sylvia Timbers) (2002) *''An End to Ordinary History: Comments on a Philosophical Novel'' (non-fiction) (2011)

References

External links

In Murphy's Kingdom
by Jackie Krentzman

Michael Murphy Biography

Home Page for Michael Murphy

The Shivas Irons Society

Esalen Alumni Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Michael 1930 births Living people American male writers American people of Basque descent American people of Irish descent Human Potential Movement Writers from California People from Big Sur, California