Your body, says George Leonard, is an instrument vastly more sensitive than the most powerful computer. In this dynamic and practical program he demonstrates several awareness exercises in which you, as viewer, can participate. These include balancing and centering, transforming pain to energy, "soft eyes," and "energy arm." Leonard then explains the practical value of these procedures, which he has taught to over 40,000 students.
In Part II of the program, Leonard demonstrates how your body can learn to receive energy from a sudden hit, shock or surprise. Resisting, complaining or denying the sudden impact tend to drain your body of energy. Yet, through receiving -- and even embracing -- the hit, your body is energized. Another exercise, called "crystalline state," provides a means for temporarily setting aside expectations, judgments and considerations, allowing your mind and heart to perceive in a clear, unbiased way.
George Leonard is an aikido black belt and developer of a psychophysical system called Leonard Energy Training. Former senior editor of Look Magazine, he is currently a consulting editor to Esquire. He is also a past-president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology and author of numerous books including Education and Ecstasy, The Silent Pulse, The Ultimate Athlete, The Transformation, and Walking on the Edge of the World.

Genuine healing occurs when we take ourselves mercifully into our own hearts and accept the totality of our lives. This healing of the soul or spirit, says Stephen Levine, is independent of bodily healing. We harden our hearts when we fail to forgive ourselves of our own pain. In this sense, one can only heal one's self; one can never truly be healed by another.
Conscious living and conscious dying require that we bring our pain into our hearts, rather than wall ourselves off from it. In this moving and personal two-part program, Levine illustrates this point by referring to several cases of dying individuals with whom he has worked. He also discusses the use of imagery in healing, maintaining that each individual should choose imagery consistent with their own sensibility. He leads a brief meditation exercise designed to bring the full scope of living into awareness.
Poet and meditation teacher, Stephen Levine is author of Healing into Life and Death, Who Dies?, Meetings on the Edge, A Gradual Awakening and Grist for the Mill (co-authored with Ram Dass ).

John Lilly reveals a lifelong pattern of deep inner exploration, beginning with his psychoanalysis in the 1940s, his development of the sensory isolation tank in the 1950s, his dolphin communication research in the 1960s and his experiments with psychoactive drugs through the 1980s. He describes telepathic communication with cetaceans and his own experiences of telepathic contact with extraterrestrials (which he now says were illusory).
Dr. Lilly suggests that within the province of the mind every limit is a belief system to be tested and transcended. He warns, however, that while there are no absolute limits in the province of the mind there are real and definite limits in the province of the body. (A program in two parts)
John C. Lilly, M.D., is author of numerous classic works including The Mind of the Dolphin, Man and the Dolphin, Communication with Dolphins, The Deep Self, Simulations of God, Center of the Cyclone, The Scientist and Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer. He is a trained psychoanalyst and former researcher for the National Institutes of Health.

Existential psychology emphasizes philosophic rather than psychopathological aspects of the human condition. In this animated, two-part discussion, Dr. May proposes that genuine growth comes from confronting the pain of existence rather than escaping into banal pleasures or shallow, positive thinking. Genuine joy, he says, can emerge from an appreciation of life's agonies.
Psychotherapist Rollo May is a recipient of the Distinguished Career Award of the American Psychological Association and a founding sponsor of the Association for Humanistic Psychology. He is author of numerous classic works including Love and Will, Psychology and the Human Dilemma, Freedom and Destiny, Dreams and Symbols, The Meaning of Anxiety and Man's Search for Himself.

HALLUCINOGENS AND CULTURE: Hallucinogenic substances have been instrumental in the foundation of many aspects of our cultural heritage. In this challenging program, McKenna suggests ways in which hallucinogenic plants have been associated with spiritual traditions in ancient India, in the Amazon and in medieval Europe.

Dan Millman describes a way of life where the focused attention of the gymnast is applied to all facets of daily life -- from eating and walking to working and relating with others. Generally we blame our emotions on conditions outside of ourselves to which we react. Seldom do we choose to take responsibility for our own feelings. In this dynamic, two-part program, Millman suggests that we can find happiness if we commit ourselves to being present to the "now" moments of life. By being open to the power of each moment we find within ourselves naturally unfolding talents such as clairvoyance and telepathy.
Dan Millman, author of Way of the Peaceful Warrior, is a former world trampoline champion and co-captain of the 1968 University of California NCAA champion gymnastics team. He has coached gymnastics at Stanford, Oberlin and Berkeley.

In the first half-hour of this two-part program, Dr. Mindell provides an overview of process psychology and its relationship to the ancient Chinese concept of the Tao. He describes his approach as a "meta-psychology" which incorporates dreamwork, bodywork, relationship work, movement, family systems, spirituality, and global work.
In part two, Dr. Mindell discusses the concept of the "dreambody." He discusses process oriented psychology as a form of meditation, providing examples of its application in areas as diverse as conflict resolution and medicine. He emphasizes the importance of not relying on therapist interpretations in the practice of process psychology.
Dr. Arnold Mindell is an innovative psychological theorist and therapist. Founder of the Center for Process Oriented Psychology in Zurich, Switzerland, and Portland, Oregon, he is author of Dreambody, Working With the Dreaming Body, City Shadow, The River's Way, The Year One, Working on Yourself Alone and Coma: Key to Awakening.

What is the Character and quality of the near-death experience? Do such experiences represent an authentic encounter with a world beyond, or are they an artifact of our brain's activity? The common qualities of the near-death experience include feelings of profound peace, out-of-body sensation, meeting with "beings of light" and with one's deceased relatives, reviewing on's life and a reluctance to return. Dr. Moody explores the significance of these experiences for our understanding of the collective unconscious, emphasizing the value of wisdom and love as being primary in human life.
Raymond A. Moody, Jr., M.D., a psychiatrist, is author of the classic Life After Life which sold over ten million copies and inaugurated research in the field of near-death studies. A professor of psychology at Wes Georgia College, he is also author of Laugh After Laugh and The Light Beyond.

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 will enable individuals to cultivate capacities that are now considered extraordinary.
Murphy speaks of his studies with Sri Aurobindo in India, as well as his years of work with the Esalen Institute in California and his own involvement in athletic training. He proposes that integral transformative practices in the future will draw from the world's spiritual traditions and will be more inclusive and wholistic.
Michael Murphy is founder of the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. He is author of Golf in the Kingdom, Jacob Atabet, The End of Ordinary History, The Psychic Side of Sports and The Future of the Body.

What constitutes a balanced lifestyle? How can diet, exercise and stress management combine to produce optimal states of health? Dr. Kenneth Pelletier, one of the world's foremost authorities on holistic lifestyle, notes that health of the whole being requires both individual responsibility and choice and proper support from the health care system.
He then focuses on the details of developing a personal holistic health program. He addresses issues of nutrition, environmental factors, stress management, exercise and relaxation, strengthening the immune system and promoting longevity. Finally, he discusses the importance of spirituality and personal attunement with nature.
Kenneth R. Pelletier, Ph.D., is a Clinical Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and at the University of Arizona School of Medicine. At the University of Maryland, he is Director of the Corporate Health Improvement Program (CHIP) which is a collaborative research program between CHIP and 20 of the Fortune 500 corporations. He is author of Healthy People in Unhealthy Places, Longevity, Holistic Medicine and Mind As Healer--Mind As Slayer.

This is a special two-hour, four-part InnerWork program featuring one of the most insightful minds we have ever encountered.
Part I: Are our thoughts shaped by the language we use?
Part II: How We Understand Language
Part III: The Evolution of Language
Part IV:Consciousness and Cognition.
Stephen Pinker, Ph.D., is professor and director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is author of Visual Cognition and The Language Instinct.