Learning: School for the Senses

The instructor dangled a sheet of paper between his fingers, asked the student to imagine that he was that paper. The student, concentrating, felt thin, flexible, fragile. Crunch!A—the instructor crumpled the paper into a wad. The student winced. Then both smiled— the student had become "sensitized."

The curious lesson in feeling took place at California's Esalen Institute, 35 miles south of Carmel in the Big Sur country, where a staff of uninhibited social scientists are engaged in the new technique of "sensitivity training." Their aim is to make business executives, doctors, lawyers,...