The Kingdom of Shivas Irons
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Shivas Irons gave credence to such reports. His armchair, he told me, was “meditating for him,” and Seamus MacDuff’s baffing spoon could “swing by itself.” The principle was certainly evident at MacDuff’s estate and the Links of Burningbush. Have you felt such a presence in golf—on a particular course or hole, in a treasured wedge or driver, or near a great champion?
• In virtually every culture it is held that psychic influence can be transfered telepathically from one person to another, for better or worse, through loving or hateful thoughts, prayer, or the “evil eye.” Breaking with many of his colleagues in 1925, Sigmund Freud concluded that telepathy is a fact, and suggested that it operates in largely unconscious ways, often in the service of destructive impulses, and that it is mediated by the same defense mechanisms that condition sensory cues.* Several researchers have tested extra-sensory influence, sometimes with startling results. I have been particularly impressed with a group of thirteen such experiments conducted by psychologist William Braud and anthropologist Marilyn Schlitz, in which different “influencers” were presented with polygraph records of their distant subjects’ electrical skin activity, which they tried to quiet or excite by mental imagery and intention alone. These experiments, conducted over a period of several years with 62 influencers and 271 subjects, yielded extraordinary evidence of telepathic influence, and have stood up to critical scrutiny.† Knowing and trusting the experimenters, and having acquainted myself with the results of related studies, I am convinced that any reasonable person must conclude, as Freud did, that we influence one another in extra-sensory ways, often at a distance. And it is then conceivable that if there is a spirit realm, we might be telepathically influenced by its members.
• Again and again, contemporary parapsychology confirms the discoveries of older cultures. This is evident in studies during which people subjected to sensory deprivation enjoy special success in telepathy experiments. Both contemplative teaching and modern research indicate that our attention can turn more easily to extra-sensory impressions when freed from sensory inputs. This is a primary reason perhaps why golf courses can, if we play as the Scots once did looking at no more ground in front of us “than will cover our grave,” become theaters of the uncanny and sublime.
* See Jule Eisenbud, The World of Ted Serios (New York: William Morrow, 1967), and Michael Murphy, The Future of the Body (New York: Tarcher-Putnam, 1992), Appendix A.8. According to Eisenbud, “… more than two dozen persons in a half-dozen countries have claimed to do spirit photography, including scotography (images caught directly on nonexposed film, without the mediation of a camera), and psychography (film messages allegedly in the handwriting of deceased persons).
“… Thirty-five references to spirit photography can be found in the British Journal of Photography, mostly in the 1870s. Numerous articles and notes [on the subject] appear in the journals and proceedings of the British and American Societies for Psychical Research.”
* See Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud (New York: Basic Books, 1957), Volume Three, Chapter Fourteen.
† William Braud and Marilyn Schlitz. 1989. A methodology for the objective study of transpersonal imagery. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 3:51.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Coover, John Edgar. Experiments in Psychical Research. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1917. With a foreword by David Starr Jordan, Chancellor Emeritus of the University. This volume contains reports of experiments conducted by the Division of Psychical Research of Stanford’s Psychology Department. See especially Appendix E, “Catalogue of Literature in the Library of Leland Stanford Junior University Relating Directly or Indirectly to Psychical Research.”
Corbin, Henry. Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.
Crail, Mortimer. Golf: Its Roots in God and Nature. Edinburgh: The Crail Press, 1893.
Darwin, Bernard. “The Links of Eiderdown.” In Mostly Golf, an anthology of Darwin pieces edited by Peter Ryde. London: A & C Black Ltd., 1976.
Dodson, James. Final Rounds. New York: Bantam Books, 1996.
Eisenbud, Jule. “Psychic Photography and Thoughtography.” In Parapsychology and the Unconscious. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1983.
Hogan, Ben, with Herbert Warren Wind. Five Lessons. The Modern Fundamentals of Golf. New York: Golf Digest Classics, 1985.
Jones, Robert T. Down the Fairway. Norwalk, Connecticut: Series of Golf Classics, 1984.
Leonard, George. Mastery. New York: Dutton, 1991.
Leonard, George and Michael Murphy. The Life We Are Given. New York: Tarcher-Putnam, 1995.
Moody, Raymond. Reunions. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993.
Murphy, Michael. The Future of the Body. New York: Tarcher-Putnam, 1992.
Saltmarsh, H. F. Evidence of Personal Survival from Cross Correspondences. New York: Arno Press, 1975.
Updike, John. “Farrell’s Caddie.” In Golf Dreams. New York: Knopf, 1996.
Von Schrenck Notzing, Albert. Phenomena of Materialization. New York: Arno Press, 1975.
Wilber, Ken. A Brief History of Everything. Boston: Shambhala, 1996.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My special thanks to George Leonard for constant guidance; to William Shinker for extraordinary support and making this project enormous fun; to Fred Hill for long-standing encouragement and for introducing me to Shinker; to Sylvia Timbers, Richard Baker-roshi, Steve Cohen, Andy Nusbaum, Michael Miller, Dulce Murphy, and Anya Kucharev for important suggestions; to Barbara Kasten for countless labors; and to Charles Conrad for these wonderful finishing touches.
THE SHIVAS IRONS SOCIETY
The SHIVAS IRONS SOCIETY is a non-profit corporation organized to further the pleasure of golf and explore its many mysteries. It is a network, open to all, of individuals who share a common love for the game and an admiration for those inseparable qualities of mind, body, and spirit exemplified by the character for which it is named.
Among the purposes of the SOCIETY are the fostering of education through golf and the furthering of the personal and social transformations the game can bring. We celebrate golf as a game of great beauty and virtue and we honor its history and Scottish roots.
By bringing together the many admirers of Shivas and promoting the values and principles he represents, the SOCIETY will create synergy leading to as yet unknown pleasures to be gained from this indecently alluring game.
For membership or other information:
The Shivas Irons Society
Post Office Box 222339
Carmel, CA 93922-2339
Internet: http://www.golfweb.com/shivaslives
Also available from Penguin Books:
Michael Murphy’s bestselling classic tale of golf and mysticism
Golf in the Kingdom
25th Anniversary Edition
With Further Reflections by the Author
by Michael Murphy
Since its first publication, Golf in the Kingdom has been recognized as a classic work on the mysteries of golf—a gospel of those who suspect, or know, that golf can be something more than a pastime.
When a young man en route to India stops in Scotland to play at the legendary Burningbush Golf Club, his life is transformed. Paired with a mysterious teacher named Shivas Irons, he is led through a round of phenomenal golf and is swept into a world where extraordinary powers are unleashed in a backswing governed by true gravity. A night of adventure and revelation follows and leads to a glimpse of Seamus MacDuff, the holy man who haunts a ravine off Burningbush’s thirteenth fairway—the one they call Lucifer’s Rug.
“A masterpiece on the mysticism of golf.”
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ISBN: 0-14-019549-1
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Michael Murphy, The Kingdom of Shivas Irons