WH: How would you describe your "mission" or "purpose" in writing?
GL: I still am corny and naïve enough to think somehow we can make a better world. That’s based a lot on the idea of human potential and our failure to develop not only that (human potential), but out failure to appreciate this incredible experience that we are having. We’ve got to realize that this thing we call consciousness is really connected everywhere. We are in the universe, but the universe is also in us. That was in my afterward to the Silent Pulse.
WH: Yes. The thought is simple and profound, yet it was complete.
GL: I was really ahead of everyone else at that time.
I just think it’s such a tragedy, this waste of potential. In chapter one of “The Life We Are Given”, the utter tragedy of people wasting their potential is the worst thing that can happen. I want to help people see the magnificence of this species. You know I did a little bit of research. I was one of the ones that helped dispel this whole idea that the human being was a terrible weakling in the wild, which was popular when I was a little kid going to science classes in junior high school.
In one of my speeches and in one of my books I set forth a challenge for an all-animal decathlon—ten events that I get to name—all legitimate sports. The animals would probably win most of the individual events, but in the overall score the human being would probably win. The human being is magnificent. We are magnificent. Consciousness is magnificent. Consciousness is somehow connected with language, and language is an amazing thing.
If we waste our damn lives out here just worrying about getting more money than somebody else or getting more territory and not appreciating the miracle that we’re here. That’s been the basic message of the human potential. Also the message we’re pissing it away if we don’t really appreciate the miracle of life. It sounds corny, I know it.
WH: Why do you feel the passion that you do around the topic? Why do you care so much about it?
GL: Somebody I cared for on her deathbed looked at me and said “I realize now that I’ve wasted my life”. How many people would say that? I don’t want to have to say that.
We are wasting our lives. And why do you think we have wars, neuroses, drug abuse, and illness? If we would only develop the human potential. It is a great tragedy (not to). It is a hard message to get across.
WH: How would you describe the common theme that runs through your books?
GL: Human potential.
WH: You define human potential in so many different ways. How do you define it?
GL: Mind, body, heart and soul—that’s from Mike (Michael Murphy) and I. It’s in “The Life We Are Given”.
WH: What type of person would benefit most from reading your books?
GL: I always thought everybody. I didn’t write for any particular constituency.
WH: What book (or themes from your books) are you most proud of and why?
GL: That’s a hard one. “The Transformation.” It’s the biggest and most ambitious book by far. Education has been a really high priority for me.
“The Transformation” is a tough book. My publisher, who’s going to publish some of my books with new editions, doesn’t want to publish “Transformation”. So I wondered why, and started reading it. And boy, in chapter two, I give a scenario of the average guy at a performance of Don Giovanni, which is one of my favorite operas, who has lots of money, sitting in box seats. I trace everything that’s going on within his body. He has a horrible life, these things that are going on within his body; the rich are the ones that eat the most. There’s some negative stuff in there. I realized that if you want to really get people, you start out pretty good.
That shows what kind of a horrible life we lead in what I call “Civilization”. I always use a capital C. Joyce Carroll Oates wrote a review; I never have to have another review. It appeared in “Book WoWHd,” which at that time was distributed in “The Chicago Tribune” and “The Washington Post”, plus a bunch of other top newspapers. She just really said some nice things.
WH: When you were researching and preparing your books, what sorts of things did you learn that surprised you?
GL: A lot of things. I was lucky to (write) just the right book at the right time. I got to meet a lot of extraordinary people.
WH: What is the most memorable thing a reader has told you about how your work affected him or her?
GL: Can I just talk about “Mastery”? I was giving a dinner workshop down in Phoenix. I did lots of speaking about “Mastery”. The guy who organized the whole thing drove me to the airport, which was the normal sort of thing. He was highly embarrassed. “I’ve got to tell you this,” he said, “but it’s the truth. Conservatively I’ve read Mastery 100 times.”
There’s the man who put his copy of “Mastery” into a safety deposit box so that he’ll be able to give it to his son to read when he is old enough. And then the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York that has only one textbook—“Mastery”.
WH: Did you have a turning point in your life?
GL: When I was washed out of the air corps. (In “The Ultimate Athlete”, George Leonard wrote how he flunked out of flying school on his very first day. But rather than giving up, he surreptitiously slept with his former classmates at night and studied flying during the day.) I literally hid from them for a month. There were big bays there. It was an amazing thing. I ended up graduating first in my class.
ABOUT THE GENRE
WH: In the realm of personal development or spirituality, are there any new ideas in personal development and spirituality that are evolving your views or that you especially like?
GL: Michael Murphy “The Future of the Body”. I read the 1,800 word version twice.
WH: What is your personal daily practice?
GL: My wife and I practice the kata of the ITP program. Since I’ve had that operation, there are some things I can’t do; but I can visualize them. I also play piano every day. I not only meditate during the kata, but I do it at other times.
