I’m pleased to announce the release of a 2nd edition of the 1988 book, Biocircuits that I co-authored with Leslie Patten. The new edition includes the double-blind study that Julian Isaacs and I published thirty years ago, and it’s beautifully redesigned and laid out. It’s got a new subtitle: Biocircuits: The Natural Tool that Promotes Sleep, Boosts Energy, and Expands Awareness
It advanced public understanding of the nature and dynamics of the life energy in the human system, how it can flow, fail to flow, and be restored to its natural flow, how to correct hyperarousal, and how to stimulate healing parasympathetic relaxation. The first edition went into two or three printings and ultimately sold over 25,000 copies, but it’s been out of print for at least a decade.
This book emerged at a poignant and catalytic time in Leslie’s life and in mine. We were still in the ashram when we wrote most of it, but by the time it appeared in print, we had left the ashram, Leslie was pregnant with our son Michael, and we had decided to manufacture them and to found our company, Tools For Exploration.
For the next decade I worked to help Tools For Exploration thrive. It became “the” catalog of consciousness technologies and subtle energy tools, ultimately publishing a color catalog of over 100 pages, listing over 1000 separate products. In its day it defined consciousness technology as a new product category, foreshadowing the current burgeoning interest in “consciousness hacking.”
In the years since, Leslie and I have both seemingly moved on. Our marriage ended about ten years after we finished the book. But during our years together, Leslie and I shared many joys besides co-authoring this book and co-creating our company. Most of all, we raised a wonderful son. And we remain family and lifelong friends.
And in all these things, we delighted in the most universal expression of the flow of life energy — the natural world. We traveled to beautiful wild places and hiked most weekends in the beautiful nature of Marin County when we were together. Today, Leslie continues to express that essential goodness as a noted naturalist, blogger, and author of The Wild Excellence and Ghostwalker.
Considering Biocircuits thirty years later, one fact stands out: I still use them! From 1989-1998, when I was choosing the products we would feature in the Tools For Exploration catalog, I tried out literally hundreds of subtle energy tools and consciousness technologies. Of all those technologies, there are only two that I continue to use personally: sensory deprivation “float tanks” and biocircuits. Any time I need to restore my life energy in a time-efficient way, I lie down on a biocircuit. I feel an intensification of energy and tension, and then a release, and then another wave passes through, and then another. Ultimately there’s a great depth of relaxation, the “parasympathetic release” we documented years ago. About twenty minutes after I lie down on them, I get up off my biocircuits feeling restored and rebalanced. They have stood the test of time!
If you’re interested to read it, either on Kindle or paper, here’s a link.
Thanks so much, Leslie, for bringing out this 2nd edition. Good work!
—Terry Patten
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