Human beings are capable of extraordinary transformations that often go unrecognized in contemporary thought. Michael Murphy summarizes scientific efforts to document extraordinary human capabilities. He draws upon research in hypnosis, parapsychology, and biofeedback as well as medical accounts of the placebo effect and the uncanny remission of disease. Murphy suggests that programs of transformative training [...]

Here he explains why 19th Century America was a fountain of innovative metaphysical traditions, many of lasting influence.

The average human is functioning in an unawakened state, according to Russian philosopher and mystic George Ivanovich Gurdjieff. Psychologist Kathleen Speeth, Ph.D., author of The Gurdjieff Work and Gurdjieff: Seeker of the Truth, was raised by parents who were students of Gurdjieff, whom she met as a child. She discusses the history and present status of the Gurdjieff [...]