Embodiment · “Being Precedes Having”
Integral Transformative Practice (ITP)
To cultivate the whole person — body, mind, heart, and soul — as a single long-term discipline, combining a daily multi-modal ‘kata,’ focused affirmations, and standing commitments, on the premise that integrated practice unlocks latent human capacities.
ITP in 5 lines: Once a day, move through the ~40-min “kata”: loosen the joints, do gentle centring movements, breathe slowly and deeply, relax the body part by part, vividly image the capacities you’re growing, affirm a few clear intentions, and close in silent meditation. Around it, hold commitments in body, mind, heart, and soul. Measure progress in years, not days.
What it is
Integral Transformative Practice (ITP) is a long-term, whole-person discipline co-created by Michael Murphy (co-founder of the Esalen Institute) and George Leonard.
Its founding belief is that each person holds a “vast, untapped potential,” and that this potential is unlocked not by any single technique but by an integrated practice addressing body, mind, heart, and soul together, sustained over years.
The centrepiece is the ITP Kata — a roughly 40-minute daily sequence weaving movement, breathing, relaxation, imagery, affirmation, and meditation into one flowing form (the word “kata” borrowed from the martial-arts practice form).
Around it sit standing commitments (in diet, exercise, study, community, and meditation) and the use of affirmations to focus intention. It works by sustained, repeated, multi-modal attention (The Inner Creates the Outer), the patterning power of daily repetition (The Inner Creates the Outer), and felt engagement (The Inner Creates the Outer).
The Method
A — the ITP Kata (daily, ~40 min): a continuous sequence (faithfully summarised):
- Warm-up / loosening movements — gentle articulation of the major joints and muscle groups, head to feet, to release tension.
- Balancing and centring movements — drawn partly from George Leonard’s aikido-based Leonard Energy Training (LET), settling the body and attention.
- Deep, rhythmic breathing — slow conscious breaths to relax and energise.
- Progressive relaxation — lying down, releasing the body part by part into stillness.
- Transformational imaging — while deeply relaxed, vividly picture qualities or capacities you are developing (e.g. health, a skill, a state), engaging it as already real.
- Affirmations — silently affirm a small set of chosen intentions (see B) at this receptive point.
- Meditation — close in silent meditation, resting in open awareness for the final minutes. B — affirmations: choose a few specific, positively-worded affirmations of capacities you intend to cultivate (“My whole body is balanced, vital, and healthy”); ITP recommends keeping them few, felt, and revisited daily within the kata. C — the commitments / the long body: ITP asks for ongoing commitments across domains — body (conscious diet, regular exercise, the kata), mind (regular reading/study and discussion), heart (community, honest relationship), and soul (meditation and imaging). Originally practised in weekly groups for support and accountability, with the understanding that real transformation is measured in years, not sessions. (Sourcing note: “ITP,” “the Kata,” “Leonard Energy Training,” “transformational imaging,” and the four-domain commitments are Leonard & Murphy’s own terms, attributed. The kata is faithfully summarised from The Life We Are Given, not reproduced step-for-step.)
Source & Lineage
Michael Murphy (b. 1930), co-founder of Esalen, and George Leonard (1923–2010), aikido teacher and author of Mastery, met in 1965 and over decades developed ITP, first teaching it as an experimental class in 1992 and publishing The Life We Are Given in 1995.
It draws on Murphy’s study of the further reaches of human nature (his The Future of the Body), Leonard’s aikido and philosophy of mastery, and the broader human-potential / integral movement (with affinities to Aurobindo’s integral yoga and Ken Wilber’s integral theory). → (Murphy; cf. Leonard, Aurobindo).
Common refinements
Treating it as a quick fix. ITP is explicitly a long-term discipline; its logic is mastery over years, not a 30-day result.
- Vague or grandiose affirmations. Keep them few, specific, present-tense, and felt during the relaxed imaging phase — not rattled off.
- Doing only the kata. The kata is the core, but the commitments (body/mind/heart/soul) and ideally community are what make it “integral.”
- Forcing the movements. The kata should be gentle and adaptable; intensity isn’t the point.
- Refinement: if 40 minutes is too much to start, keep the sequence but shorten each phase, and protect the daily rhythm over the length.