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Golf in the Kingdom (An Esalen Book) | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Murphy
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $12.94 (100%)
New (13) Used (288) Collectible (5) from $0.01
Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 260201
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.5
ISBN: 0140194509
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.35201
EAN: 9780140194500
ASIN: 0140194509
Publication Date: March 1, 1992
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Esalen Institute founder Michael Murphy's divine meditation on the royal and ancient game defied categorization when it was first published in 1972, and it still does. Instantly hailed as a classic, it is part novel, part philosophy, part myth, part mysticism, part enchantment, part golf instructional, and is altogether unique. This confluence of sports and the supernatural looks at both life and golf from the inside out. The book's central character is a wily Scotsman named Shivas Irons, a golf professional by vocation, and a shaman by design, who Murphy, as participant in his own novel, meets on the links of Burningbush, in 1956 Fife. The story of their round of golf together culminates in a wild night of whiskey and wisdom where their golf quite literally takes on a metaphysical glow as Shivas explains how the swing reflects the soul. It alters not only Murphy's game, it also radically alters his mind and inner vision--and it's truly unforgettable. For a golfer, Golf in the Kingdom is as essential as a set of clubs.
Product Description
/Murphy/Michael With wit and wisdom, the founder of the Esalen Institute explores the transcendental experience using the metaphor of golf. Originally published in 1973, this "masterpiece on the mysticism of golf" (San Francisco Chronicle) is now back in print f.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 35 more reviews...
 On the Fence July 14, 2008
True golfers will find passages here that resonate...even those of us who, to put it mildly, dispute the existence, let alone the presence, of the supernatural on, of all things, a golf course. But if you have persevered thru the hot/bugs/expense golf stage, you may just have experienced a brief period most of us call, shrugging it off, "The Zone."
Why else would anyone put up with all the, hot/bugs, etc., etc.?
Should we be shrugging it (The Zone) off? Michael Murphy would say, well, hell no.
Take your zone experience and multiply it by eight or nine...just within the believability range, mind you. What if Murphy really did spend that day at Burningbush [fictional name] in the Kingdom of Fife? Really. And what if he really did meet someone similar to Shivas Irons? It makes sense he would have played a round...and many, if not most of us, have met golf gurus who seemed at least a bit mysterious.
Indeed, if you have never considered golf at all mysterious, disregard this book! If you have, just a little, wondered...make the investment.
If it appeals, buy "The Kingdom of Shivas Irons" next.
Fore!
JMD
Golf in the Kingdom February 11, 2008
Book arrived on time in the condition as described the seller. Excellent book!! Great reading like Peter Jacobsen said in his book.
 A little too far "out there"! January 6, 2008
I made it through the first half of the book, which is a narrative of the golfing adventure of the author with Shivas Irons, a pro at the Burningbush golf course in Scotland. Even this part of the book is a fairly strange read, dealing with the ultimate meaning of life as it realtes to golf, but involving way too much mysticism.
The second half, which is supposed to be the author's notes about the golfing philosophy of Shivas Irons, was just not readable to me. I just had way too many other books on my reading list to spend any more time trying to fight my way through this stuff!
I loved this book October 11, 2007
This is a great book-- gotta have it
This is wonderful but I also loved A Golfers DreamA Golfer's Dream
Michael Murphy: Revolutionary Thinker September 26, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I met Michael Murphy in the late 1960's. The charismatic leader of the human potential movement captured my attention and admiration immediately. Mr. Murphy was one of those characters who sparkle with mystical magic. His life reads like a calendar of magical events. At every turn he seems to either run into or encounter the most provocative people one can imagine: Steinbeck, Spiegelberg, Brodie, Price, Aurobindo, Thompson, Maslow, and many, many more.
With the publication of Golf in the Kingdom (His first book), he managed to create a new movement, which came to be known as The Sport and Yoga Movement. The book is a delightful integration of sport, mysticism, and yoga, with a whole lot of magic sprinkled between the lines. I am amazed at its dissenters and critics. It is not "junk" as some need to say. For those of you who say it is "not for golfers", I think I can safely assume that you are regularly shooting twenty to thirty over par. There are some that say that this is just another worn-out philosophical rag, trying to integrate what's common, and I would think for them mundane, with the paranormal and mystical energies that hover all around us. To them, I would say that there is a shread of truth to their thoughts. I would like to ask those people to provide me with any literary references, expousing this thesis, that pre-date Mr. Murphy's book. For those that claim that this is just another clever contrivance for making a quick buck, I would say you are about as far off the mark as those that dismiss the book as "junk". Mr. Murphy was born wealthy. At some point in his life he inherited a large sum of money, most of which he either donated or spent in efforts to enhance the human condition. When I met the man, I believe that it was in 1969, he was driving an aged 1962, six cylinder, stick shift Cheverolet. He had bought the car new, and at that time felt that he could get at least another ten years out of it.
Bravo, Michael. Bravo for Golf in the Kingdom, and bravo for a life well lived.
Ronald James
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