Read an interview with George Leonard
George Leonard has lived a remarkable life, and along the way has shaped many of the ways that we look at wisdom and spirituality; Newsweek called him "the granddaddy of the consciousness movement." The author of 12 books, he is one of the founders of the human potential movement and the president of the forward-thinking Esalen Institute. Leonard was senior editor for countless LOOK Magazine articles, including the June, 1966 issue devoted entirely to California that opened the nation’s eyes to “a new game with new rules.”
True to the human potential movement, a phrase he coined with his friend and mentor Michael Murphy, his guiding principle is to achieve one’s potential, shaped by the experience of someone who regretted missed life opportunities on her deathbed. Very telling in his determination to live a full life, he hid in the barracks when he washed out of flying school in WWII, surreptitiously training on his own, only to graduate first in his class and to be held back as an instructor because he had mastered the art of flying. His accomplishments include combat flying in the South Pacific during WWII, founding an aikido school in Mill Valley, California, and holding a fifth degree black belt in aikido. Leonard, along with his friend Michael Murphy, also created a mind/body/soul/heart practice named Integral Transformative Practice (ITP). The Life We are Given explains ITP in detail, while Mastery brings to life with a Zen perspective the techniques he taught himself during his own flight training. The Silent Pulse, decades ahead of its time, explains how we’re all connected to each other and the universe, with a solid dose of quantum physics.
