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David Edward Shaner (born May 21, 1954) is an American ski racer, martial artist, philosopher, author, and performance development consultant.

The Seven Arts Change Process
Dr. Shaner is the originator of The Seven Arts Change Process that combines lessons learned from three distinct fields - - 1) world-class athletics (ski racing and martial arts), 2) cross-cultural approaches to performance improvement (comparative East/West philosophy) , and 3) cross-disciplinary approaches to performance improvement based upon understanding the biological basis of behavior (sociobiology).

Early Career
Shaner’s interest in peak performance experiences, as well as international business, began as a result of international travel and competition as a member of the Olympic Valley USA Ski Team based in Squaw Valley, California. He was coached by Jean-Pierre Pascal and Downhill World Champion Phillippe Mollard.

This experience of high speed racing in a competitive environment gave him an early understanding of the importance of focus, relaxation and managing stress when seeking to perform to the best of your ability.

Academic Career
Following undergraduate study at The College of Idaho, where he majored in Philosophy (1976), Shaner entered graduate school at The University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Comparative (East-West) Philosophy. He sought to understand more deeply the concept that he had experienced as a ski racer; namely, that “you are stronger and more agile when relaxed”. As this concept seemed counter-intuitive to most westerners’ understanding of strength, Shaner sought to discover how to best communicate and teach the true “power of relaxation”.

To this end, he received his M.A. degree (1977) focused upon Causation and Early Buddhism studying under the direction of Professor David Kalupahana, who was regarded as the world’s leading authority on earliest Buddhist texts; the Pali Nikayas and Chinese Agamas. In 1980 Shaner received his doctoral degree in Comparative Philosophy (Ph.D. also from the  University of Hawaii) where he specialized in Japanese Buddhist Philosophy. His doctoral thesis on Japanese Bodymind Development was written at Harvard University under the direction of Thomas Patrick Kasulis. Dr. Shaner's thesis culminated in his first book The Bodymind Experience in Japanese Buddhism: A Phenomenological Study of Kukai and Dogen.

Shaner taught Philosophy and Asian Studies at Furman University for thirty years and served as 1) Chair of the Department of Philosophy, 2) Gorden Poteat Professor of Philosophy and Asian Studies, and 3) currently serves as Herring Professor Emeritus having retired from Furman in 2012.

Selected Publications
Shaner is the author, co-author, or series editor of over 40 books, most of which are focused upon understanding performance development. His signature concept was building a model of intentional consciousness that could be used to teach people how to “change their perspective” such that they can reliably and predicatively perform to the best of their ability in any field, including academics, athletics, business, and musical performance.

His publications include:


 * The Bodymind Experience in Japanese Buddhism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985. ISBN 0-88706-062-5


 * Science and Comparative Philosophy (with Shigenori Nagatomo and Yuasa Yasuo). Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1989. ISBN 90-04-08953-5


 * The Seven Arts of Change: Leading Business Transformation That Lasts. New York: Union Square Press, Sterling Publishing, 2010. ISBN 978-1-4027-6784-5


 * Living with the Wind at Your Back: Seven Arts to Positively Transform Your Life. Greenville: Connect Publishing, 2014.ISBN 978-0-9960938-0-4


 * Editor, Biology and Philosophy Book Series, 37 Volumes: Albany: The State University of New York Press.


 * In 1986, Shaner founded his book series (serving as Editor) with the State University of New York Press focused upon understanding the biological basis of productive learning and behavior. Contributing authors are from all over the world including America, Austria, Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, People's Republic of China, and New Zealand.

Model of Consciousness: Three Orders of Bodymind Awareness
Shaner developed a model of consciousness based upon degrees of intentionality. By learning to understand how we construct our experiential life from the “inside” (our subjective self - noesis) directed toward the “outside” (perceived objective world - noema), people can learn to calm their mind even under the most stressful and/or competitive conditions.

The practitioner of these methods learns to move from what Shaner calls “Third Order Bodymind Awareness” (complex intentional constructions that we habituate in daily life), to “Second Order Bodymind Awareness” (singular, sustained intentional focus as in meditation), and then moving to “First Order Bodymind Awareness” associated with peak performance where there is no intentionality at all (presencing “things as they are”, not as we subjectively perceive them).

Martial Arts
A main source of inspiration for Shaner’s model and pedagogy is his relationship with Ki-Aikido Founder, Koichi Tohei Sensei (1920-2011). Shaner has been studying ki development principles since 1969 when he was first introduced to breathing, meditation, and the principles of mind and body unification. In these early days, while still in high school, Shaner sought out these lessons as a means of sport psychology. It turns out that Shaner’s ski racing hero was the 1968 Olympic Champion Jean-Claude Killy who declared (following his winning three gold medals at the Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France), that breathing and meditation were the key to his success.

When Shaner experienced for himself “the power of relaxation” as taught by Koichi Tohei, he began a life quest to understand these performance development principles more deeply and then share them with others. This is one of the reasons why Shaner attended the The University of Hawaii at Manoa graduate school where he could immerse himself in the study of the Asian philosophical worldview upon which Tohei Sensei based many of his “counter-intuitive” (from a western perspective) ideas and practices. Shaner realized that if you “changed your concept”   from viewing the world through the lens of western philosophy (characterized by dualism and separation), and instead replaced this worldview with one that embraced monism and connection, then one could experience for oneself the de-mystification of peak performance as well as Asian philosophy.

As a martial artist, Shaner is an 8th Degree Black Belt (Hachidan) having trained for 50 years in the Japanese arts of Ki Development and Ki-Aikido, Shinshin Toitsu Aikido (心身統一合氣道). Shaner is the Chief Instructor of the Eastern Ki Federation (Eastern United States)  and is the Japan Headquarters’ Advisor to the Eastern Europe/Russia Ki-Aikido Federation where he has taught each year since 1999. Shaner holds the rank of Okuden in the art of Shinshin Toitsudo (心身統一道, Ki development) and was an 'uchi deshi' (live-in student) at Ki Society HQ in Haramachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan under the direction of Founder, Koichi Tohei Sensei.

Applications of Bodymind Awareness
After completing his doctorate research living as an uchi deshi with Koichi Tohei Sensei and receiving his PhD (1980), Shaner immediately sought ways to put all he had learned to the test. He asked himself, “Would the principles of Bodymind unification really work in ALL the areas he had learned directly from Tohei Sensei?”. Over the next few years, Shaner eagerly immersed himself teaching peak performance in many different disciplines, including law enforcement applications, business development applications, athletic applications, music performance applications and applications in academia.

To this end, Shaner first returned to the mountains and served as a sworn Deputy Sheriff Law Enforcement Officer in  Pitkin County, Aspen, Colorado. Working under the direction of legendary Sheriff Richard “Dick” Kienast, Shaner developed the first Ki-Aikido based arrest control and quarterly qualification program in Colorado.

In 1981, Shaner founded The Far East Fact Sheet, a monthly newsletter based in Washington D.C., focused upon understanding the effectiveness Japanese “lean” business practices as evidenced in the Toyota Production System. At this time, he also served as a management consultant for the Alexander Proudfoot Consulting Company that specialized in improving manufacturing productivity and organizational efficiency.

In 1982, Shaner was a Fulbright Scholar in India studying the effects of indigenous village belief systems upon people's willingness (or lack thereof) to accept change and modernize various aspects of their lives, including contraception, hygiene, and modern agricultural techniques that, if adopted, would increase crop yield. Later that year he began teaching and writing at Furman University,  Greenville, SC.

In 1985 and 1986, Shaner took a leave from Furman University in order to accept a Harvard-Mellon Faculty Fellowship in the Humanities where he taught in the Department of Philosophy and the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at  Harvard University. This early period proved to be very influential in Shaner’s scholarly development. While teaching and conducting research at Harvard he befriended well known field biologists Edward O. Wilson and Stephen Jay Gould who served as mentors in the development of Shaner’s work in environmental ethics and evolutionary epistemology, as well as encouraging him to start the “Biology and Philosophy” book series with SUNY Press (37 Volumes).

Subsequently, in 1988, Shaner was honored with a personal audience with His Majesty, Emperor  Akihito  in  Akasaka Palace. The personal audience was made possible because in 1979 Shaner was granted the title “Crown Prince Akihito Scholar” (Crown Prince Akihito Foundation) while living with Koichi Tohei Sensei in Japan. In July 2009, Shaner once again participated in a celebration with His Majesty in Honolulu, HI commemorating his 50th wedding anniversary as well as the 50th anniversary of the Crown Prince Akihito Foundation.

Putting it All Together: Peak Performance for Individuals and Large Organizations
Shaner is the Principal of CONNECT LLC: Performance Development Consultants specializing in strategy, organizational development, business development, partnership development and management training.

The evidence for successfully applying peak performance/bodymind training to corporations for performance improvement is impressive. For over the three decades, Shaner has been behind cultural change and performance improvement at Champion Aviation, The Nationwide Insurance Corporation, Nissan/Autecs Automotive, Wonderware Software, Slazenger Sporting Goods, Umbro USA, Atlanta Dairies, Pet Foods, Ryobi Motor Products, Mitsubishi Chemical, Torrington/Ingersol-Rand, The Mirage Casino and Resorts Hotels, Caesar’s Palace, Milliken, Bic, Mita Copiers, Frito-Lay, Synthetic Industries, Duracell, Rayovac, Millennium Cell, Gillette, Owens Corning Composites, and JW Aluminum.

Shaner is a frequent speaker in the U.S., Japan, Europe, and Russia. He has appeared on National Public Television, CNN, and NBC as a commentator upon U.S./Japan cultural and business relations.

Hei-Sei-Ji: The Place of Peace
Shaner was instrumental in bringing the Buddhist temple Hei-Sei-Ji: The Place of Peace to Furman University. It is believed to be the first authentic Japanese temple ever to be dismantled and fully reconstructed in the United States. The Place of Peace was donated to Furman University by the Tsuzuki family.