Comments from ITP group participants
"ITP has provided a structure, set of instructions, and support system for me to really get my life going in a direction I want it to go. I feel that I have literally transformed my life to be positive, healthy, and joyful since I began participating in this group."
"I've never had so much energy... The daily practice and group meetings brought together three threads of my life—meditation, exercise, and focused goal setting that desperately needed to be tied together. I feel whole, maybe for the first time."
"The practices have allowed me to focus so much more clearly that I am achieving several of my aspirations. From that new focus and transformation has come an effortless energy that is working to achieve my goals."
The Practice
What is Integral Transformative Practice
(ITP)?
Integral Transformative Practice is a long-term program for realizing the potential of body, mind, heart and soul.
It is integral in that the various aspects of the self are seen as separate windows to an underlying wholeness. It is transformative in that it aims at significant positive change, the manifestation of unrealized potentialities. And it is a practice in that it involves long-term, positive activities which, above and beyond any specific external rewards, are of value in and of themselves.
Background
Integral Transformative Practice grew from a two-year experimental class in human transformation, beginning in 1992. The class involved 33 participants the first year and 30 the second. It was conceived and conducted by George Leonard and Michael Murphy, leading experts on the subject of human potential and how each of us can realize far more success and fulfillment in our lives.
The Saturday classes included group support, discussion of assigned readings, transformative work in Leonard Energy Training (LET), and a 40-minute body-mind-spirit series of exercises called the ITP Kata.
During the other days of the week, participants followed the ITP commitments, including such matters as the Kata, exercise, diet, relationships, and cognitive understanding.
Each member of the ITP class also made four affirmations of positive change. The fourth affirmation for everyone was “My entire being is balanced, vital, and healthy. These affirmations were thoughtfully considered over a period of weeks before being signed. Careful records were kept concerning the participants’ condition in regard to each affirmation at the time the affirmation was signed and again at the year’s end. (Instructions for making affirmations can be found in The Life We Are Given, Chapters Four and Five.)
