Integral Transformative Practice International

- Spring Newsletter 2014 -

Dear Friends,

As springtime in California opens into full bloom, I'm reminded of how George and Michael encourage us to spot the extraordinary in the ordinary. As we become more sensitive to the extraordinary, our lives take on a profound aliveness. The spark of the divine is everywhere.

In this issue, we feature how our extraordinary nature is built right into our animal bodies and how our evolving practice sets the stage for realizing our budding supernature. Read how ITPI chair Christina Grote offers a glimpse of the vision of human development outlined in Michael Murphy's The Future of the Body and how George Leonard profiles the human brain in his 2008 Human Potential Chronicles.

Enjoy learning how Leadership Transformed 2014 presenters Penney Peirce and Rachel Hamilton impart inventive and playful ways to greet others with curiosity, empathy and compassion - all extraordinary capacities at our fingertips.

We hope to see you in Chicago this May at our two events, Mastery Intensive and Leadership Transformed 2014. We're excited to dive deeply into our ITP practices at the Intensive. At Leadership Transformed 2014, we'll celebrate and explore new ways to bring a spirit of peace, inclusion and heart into our communications as leaders. As always at our ITP events, expect to have a fabulous time.

Be on the lookout for signs of the divine in everyday life and let us hear all about it. As George would say, "Stay alert at all times and be sure to have fun!"

Springtime blessings,

Pam Kramer

ITPI President

Love is an Expanded Capacity*

by Christina Grote

ITPI Board Chair

George Leonard and Michael Murphy created Integral Transformative Practice� (ITP) in 1992 based the on the notion that expanded human development occurs as a result of the cultivation of body, mind, heart and soul through long-term, dedicated practice. ITP, as Murphy often cites, is the "base camp for the further reaches of our extraordinary human capacities."

Much of the theoretical framework of ITP is derived from Murphy's book, The Future of the Body: Explorations into the Further Evolution of Human Nature. Published in 1992, after 15 years of research and development, this book is a deep study of these extraordinary capacities, how they contribute to human evolution, and the transformative methods used to cultivate them.

On the Spot Theater for

Extraordinary Living

by Rachel Hamilton

Improvisational Actor and Teacher

You can learn more about Rachel Hamilton at rachelhamiltonimprov.com

I took took my first improv class my freshman year at college and more than twenty-five years later, I still can't get enough. Improv is the gift that keeps giving. Over the years the focus of my devotion to this magical art form has shifted from loving improv just for being so wildly fun to loving improv for what it is to me now, which is nothing short of a spiritual path. The core principles that allow improvisers to create successful "theater on the spot" also happen to be excellent practices for being a great human being and for leading an extraordinary life.

Here are some of the guiding principles of improv that also work beautifully as everyday operating instructions.

Yes/And --- In the world of improvisation, "yes" and "and" are the two magical words that allow actors to spontaneously co-create theater together. An improviser can step onto a stage and offer any idea with full confidence that their partner(s) will:

1. Accept their offer --- Yes

2. Add to it --- And

Leadership and the Leap of Perception

by Penney Peirce

Intuitive Empath and Author

For years, in the worlds
of physics, business, spirituality, and even politics, we've heard about the paradigm shift, quantum leap, new world order, tipping point, new age, and holographic reality. Thomas Kuhn popularized the concept of "paradigm shift" in 1962, defining evolution as a "series of peaceful interludes punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions," within which "one conceptual world view is replaced by another." So a paradigm shift implies a huge change in the way we experience life, one that results in a behavior and identity change.

What might transform our sense of self and world? How about: the acceleration of matter resulting in a much higher-frequency energy and consciousness? How about: the integration of the nonphysical or spiritual dimension with the physical world?

Art by Rich Sigberman

Imagination

by Pam Kramer

ITPI President and Mastery Teacher

"The world of reality has its limits; the world of

imagination is boundless."

- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Close your eyes for a few seconds and call up an image of someone or something you love. Notice what happened. Maybe a visual image, memory or sensory impression surfaced in response. Where did that come from? What is the source of this capacity? As we explore the creative genius of imagination, we can become better acquainted with it and nurture its expression for good in the world and for ourselves as leaders.

Countless songs and poems have been written about imagination, and there is a growing field in science examining and researching this awesome trait hard-wired into us as humans. Imagination can free us up from only using our left-brain to strive too hard for a solution.

An Outsized, Outrageous Organ

Excerpted from The Human Potential Chronicles

by George Leonard

We were 12 billion years or more in the making, our body the stuff of stars, our mind a mystery. We were born for learning, for journeying through inconceivable new worlds, destination unknown. We started in Africa beneath the trees and out across the open spaces at a time when there were no words, then traveled far and wide to light this world with speech and fire. From the beginning, we were extraordinary. Our Stone Age ancestors had brains as large as ours, brains with the capability, in potentia, to serve in piloting a spacecraft, playing a Bach partita, designing a computer, and understanding abstract mathematics. Even today, we are mostly untapped potential.

With one daring evolutionary gamble --- the upright stance --- our pre-human ancestors had set into motion a process that would lead to complex tools, cooking, agriculture, art, language, religion, cities, nations, worldwide communications, flight, the venture toward other worlds, and --- perhaps most important of all --- self-aware consciousness. All this would follow the earliest upright ape-human within a mere wink of evolutionary time. At last, after 12 billion or more years of life on this planet, the universe we know would get eyes with which to view itself.

ITP Commitment #6

I develop my intellectual powers by reading, writing and discussion.

I thoughtfully consider the visions and the readings set forth in

chapter 12 of The Life we are Given, and, commensurate with
my own best judgment, seek to integrate cognitive understanding
into my practice.

Intellectual rigor is essential not only in the development of one's mental functioning but also to one's entire being. As George Leonard wrote, "To learn is to change. Our destiny is to learn and keep learning for as long as we live." The theoretical framework that informs ITP is found in chapter 12 in The Life We Are Given, in Section 3 of The Future of the Body and further refined in Michael Murphy's article "The Emergence of Evolutionary Panentheism."

Spotlight on Marlene Frothinger

ITP Mastery Member

How did you become involved in ITP?

From the very beginning it was the conversations and the idea of community that drew me to ITP. My family had experienced a culture shock of sorts when we returned to the US after living in a small village in Nova Scotia for twenty years. At that time in Nova Scotia, 'community' was highly valued. We understood that everyone's survival depended upon everyone else. In the fall of 2006, after attending an introductory ITP workshop, I joined the newly formed Berkeley ITP group.

In joining the ITP community, I had the privilege of attending Michael Murphy's lectures, which opened the door to further richness. It was 'the icing on the cake' as Michael added little bits here and there and connected so many of my wanderings and wonderings. Within all of the magnificent wisdom he shares, the fantastic stories he tells, the brilliance he communicates, the gems he places ever so gently within our hearts continue to accumulate at a pace I never imagined possible.

Find us on Facebook

For more information about these and other ITP programs,

please visit

www.itp-international.org