In the Zone: Transcendent Experience in Sports

by Michael Murphy, Rhea A. White

The authors of Golf in the Kingdom draw striking parallels between the remarkable and mystical events that sometimes occur during sports activites and the traditions of mystics and yogis, exploring how the religious heritages of both East and West provide a basis for understanding spiritual experiences arrived at through physical activity.

Genres: Sports, Science, Psychology

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1995

About the author

Bestselling author Michael Murphy has been called the father of the human potential movement, one of the most influential movements in twentieth-century American culture. His bestselling book Golf in the Kingdom (1972) inspired the creation of the Shivas Irons Society, a nonprofit group dedicated to finding beauty and discovery through the game of golf, and has recently been adapted into a movie starring Malcolm McDowell (2010). His other books include Jacob Atabet (1977), An End to Ordinary History (1982), In the Zone (1995), and The Kingdom of Shivas Irons (1997). He lives in California.

Reviews

[Emari Brazzell · Rating 4 out of 5]

“In The Zone” the name of the book is great for the type of book it is, Because this book does a great job of telling how the human body and brain react when there “In The Zone”. Michael Murphy and Rhea A. White truly show you sports in a different way and give you a different look or what the athletes are doing when that once in a life play or something is being made.

“In The Zone” is great book for those who are not only into sports but that are into learning what the body and brain react doing sports and not just sports also mixed marshell arts and things like that. Michael M. and Rhea W. use interviews in this book a lot from different type of athletes too show and prove there point.

This book gave me a different look on sports all together, because as a football player i don’t think I’ve experienced anything like this before and am kinda waiting on that day to come because I wonder how it will truly feel doing that moment. I also enjoyed some of the examples they gave like this baseball player who wasn’t that great of batter came up to bat in the ninth inning with two outs and the bases loaded and his team was only down one. He told them what type of emotions he was feeling and stuff. I thought its was really cool to now what he was thinking as he made that huge play for his team.


 
I would most defiantly recommend this book to other readers who interested in sports or even the human body. Only those who enjoy learning about how the brain and body are reacting when those once an a life time plays are happening.
 

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lovely book for athlete sorts of any stripe to take in. By chance, I read it in bits but it worked out well to consider the ideas that it presented. The last roughly 1/4 - 1/5 of the book is all of the references that the book is based on. So while it could come across as "woo woo", it is quite well researched "woo woo".