When I decided to write a book about the limitations of the mechanistic world view and the emergence of a new paradigm in various fields, it was clear to me that I could not undertake this enterprise all by myself. It would have been impossible for me to evaluate the voluminous literature of even one discipline other than my own in order to find out where major changes were occurring and where significant new ideas were emerg ing, let alone attempt this in several disciplines. From the very beginning, therefore, I saw my book as the result of some kind of collaborative effort.
At first, I planned it as a multi-author book, modeled after a seminar, "Beyond the Mechanistic World View," that I had given at DC Berkeley in the spring quarter of
1976
and toSWIMMING IN THE SAME OCEAN 91 which I had invited several guest lecturers. But then I changed my mind and decided to write the entire book myself with the help of a group of advisers who would write background papers for me in their fields of expertise, suggest the literature I should read, and help me when conceptual problems would arise dur
ing the writing of the book. I chose to concentrate on four dis ciplines-biology, medicine, psychology, and economics-and in early
1977
I began to look for advisers in those fields.At that time, my life and style of working were very much influenced by Taoist philosophy. I sought to heighten my intui tive awareness and to recognize "the patterns of the Tao"; I was practicing the art of
wu-wei,
that is, of not working "against the grain of things," of waiting for the right moment without forc ing anything unduly. Castaneda's metaphor of the cubic centi meter of chance that pops out from time to time and is picked up by the "warrior" who leads a disciplined life and has sharpened his intuition was ever present in my mind.
When I started to look for advisers I did not undertake a systematic search, or anything like it, but saw this task as being part of my Taoist practice. I knew that all I had to do was re main alert and focused on my purpose, and sooner or later the right people would cross my path. I knew whom I was looking for: people who had sound and comprehensive knowledge of their areas of expertise; who were deep thinkers and shared my holistic vision; who had made significant contributions to their fields of study but had broken out of the narrow confines of aca demic disciplines; people who, like myself, were rebels and in novators.
This Taoist way of choosing my advisers worked beauti fully. Over the next three years I met many outstanding men and women who made a deep impact on my thinking and helped me enormously in putting my book together, and four of them agreed to work with me as my special advisers in the way I had envisioned. As I explored the conceptual shifts in various fields and discovered fascinating connections and rela tionships between them, I did it much more through discussions with people than through reading books. In fact, I developed an acute intuitive sense for recognizing people who were exploring these new ways of thinking, sometimes merely from a casual comment or a question raised in a seminar. As I got to know them and engaged them in intensive discussions, I also devel-
92 UNCOMMON WISDOM
oped a knack for drawing them out and stimulating them to go further than they had before in their formulation of new ideas. Those years were extremely rich in intellectual adventures and expanded my knowledge tremendously. The greatest ex pansion, perhaps, occurred in my understanding of psychology, a discipline about which
I
knew very little and which became for me a fascinating field of learning, experience, and personal growth. During the sixties and early seventiesI
had been en gaged in prolonged explorations of multiple levels of conscious ness, but the framework for these explorations was that of East ern spiritual traditions.I
had learned from Alan Watts that these traditions, and especially Buddhism, could be seen as the Eastern equivalent to Western psychotherapy, andI
had also expressed this view inThe Tao of Physics.
However,I
had done so without really knowing psychotherapy.I
had read only one essay by Freud and, perhaps, two or three by lung, who ap pealed to me because he was very much in accord with the val ues of the counterculture. As far as the field of psychiatry was concerned, it was completely foreign to me.I
had only had some glimpses of psychotic states through discussions of psy chedelic drugs during the sixties and, in some way, through the intense performances of experimental theater thatI
attended with great enthusiasm during my four years in London.Paradoxically, psychologists and psychotherapists soon be came my keenest and most enthusiastic professional audiences when
I
traveled around the country lecturing aboutThe Tao of
Physics,
in spite of my ignorance of their fields. Naturally,I
had numerous discussions with them that went far beyond physics and Eastern philosophy, with lung's work very often being the point of departure, and thus my knowledge of psy chology increased and deepened gradually over the years. These discussions, however, were only the prelude to my exchanges with two extraordinary men who would continually challenge my mind and push my thinking to its limits; two men to whom l owe most of my insights into the multiple realms of human consciousness-Stanislav Grof and R. D. Laing.Grof and Laing are both psychiatrists, trained in the psy choanalytic tradition, and they are both brilliant and original thinkers who have far transcended the Freudian framework and have radically changed the conceptual boundaries of their dis cipline. Both share a deep interest in Eastern spirituality and a fascination with "transpersonal" levels of consciousness, and
SWIMMING IN THE SAME OCEAN 93
both have great respect for each other's work. Beyond these sim ilarities, however, they are totally different, even diametrically opposed, personalities.
Grof is a large, heavily built, serene person; Laing is small and gaunt, with a lively and expressive body language reflect ing a rich repertoire of changing moods. Grof's demeanor in spires confidence, Laing's often intimidates people. Grof tends to be diplomatic and engaging, Laing uninhibited and combat ive; Grof calm and serious, Laing capricious and full of sar castic humor. At our first meeting I felt immediately comfort able with Grof. By contrast, I had great difficulty, at first, in understanding Laing, who comes from Glasgow and has never lost his Scottish brogue, and although he fascinated me immedi
ately, it took me a long time to feel at ease with him.
Over the next four years, my intensive alternating interac tions with these two outstanding and dramatically differing per sonalities would broaden my entire conceptual framework and would deeply affect my consciousness.