This talk proposes that a critical next step in the information age is learning to balance "head knowing" and the "feltsensing" wisdom available to us in some "Larger Body." This is done by "owning" the felt senses we carry in our bodies, especially those we can learn to notice that are trying to get our attention as we are inundated with more and more information. Nurturing this dimension of human intelligence through BioSpiritual Focusing builds a connection in us that is essential for peace, wholeness, community and the care of our environment.

Dr. Campbell explains what is meant by "Headbrain" and "Bodybrain." He shows how Eugene Gendlin has penetrated into the body's process of intelligence the "felt sense." Through Focusing, Gendlin has opened an extraordinary doorway into what may be our next step in human evolution. Just as there was a border crossing between apes and humans, we have arrived at a similar, perhaps equally critical moment in the evolution of human consciousness. The unfolding of a felt sense and the discovery of a gift dimension within the core of our being marks a further transitional crossing-point.

 

This tape can be divided for viewing into several segments. Throughout these segments, Dr. McMahon describes five significant learnings about human growth which Dr. Maslow's research taught him. These learnings then became keystones in the development of BioSpirituality. Toward the end of his life, Maslow realized that this life-long study of healthy, growing people showed him that integration and healthy spirituality involves the balanced living of headbrain and bodybrain knowing, together rooted in the conscious "owning" of change itself. In the final segment of this tape, Dr. Campbell illustrates Maslow's hierarchy of needs with a brief story drawn from developmental experience in his own prayer life. He shares a personal struggle that many go through as they grow in prayer--letting go of outmoded expressions and embracing more congruent ways of praying.

 

In an earlier talk, Dr. Campbell shared his experience that the principal way to resolve and move beyond so many of life's important problems is by discovering another dimension of human consciousness. The missing piece today lies within ourselves. In this and his following talk, Dr. Campbell shares how he and Dr. McMahon believe that the research of Carl Rogers and Eugene Gendlin has opened a door, finally, into understanding this important change inside ourselves. It appears within an area of human awareness that Gendlin calls "the felt sense." This talk highlights key characteristics of the felt sense, including how it connects us with a Larger Process of Wholeness within which we are each an integral part.

 

This talk builds upon Part 4, examining in greater detail the complementary contributions of Eugene Gendlin and Carl Rogers to our understanding of the felt-sense. Gendlin built upon a clear direction discerned by Carl Rogers when he explored the necessary and sufficient conditions within which congruence occurs. Gendlin then brought precision and clarity to Rogers' findings, moving us light years ahead in our understanding of the process of human wholeness and the supportive environment within which it unfolds.

 

During his many years of studying spirituality, Dr. McMahon has come to realize that we cannot understand our contemporary problems unless we grasp that half our knowing potential has been kept in cold storage by the spiritualities created in most cultures. Why did this happen? Much in psychology suggests that BioSpirituality is simply a level of maturing into which all are meant to grow. So, there must have been growing people in ancient times who wrote about their biospiritual experience. What happened to them? Were there early Christian biospiritual focusers? And if so, why have present day Christians not inherited their spirituality? Since the basic role of spirituality is to activate the "connecting potential" of the whole human organism within the finite expression of the Transcendent that surrounds us, and St. Paul repeatedly stressed that "the bodybrain knows this connection in ways the headbrain cannot grasp," then why did Christian spirituality ignore the development of body-knowing?

In this talk, Dr. Campbell draws together key learnings from the research of 20th century scholars: Carl Rogers, Eugene Gendlin, David Bohm, Karl Rahner, Teilhard de Chardin, Lancelot Law Whyte, and William James. He weaves the separate strands of their groundbreaking research into the larger tapestry of BioSpiritual Focusing. This synthesis, emerging in our time, brings hope that we may finally discover a simple, practical way to move beyond the personal and global violence which has reached catastrophic proportions
in this century.

 

In the first part of this videotape, Dr. McMahon concludes his talk on what happened to the bodybrain in the early centuries of Christianity. He reflects on the implications and consequences of excluding this half of human knowing from spirituality. "What havoc and unspeakable horrors have been set afoot and still are each day in the human race without a spirituality that begins each morning with a simple check inside the body's knowing, an owning of what is noticed as real, and then nurturing that body-feel with space and time until it is gifted (graced) with some felt-connection."