Early life and education Houston was born in
New York City, United States, to Mary Todaro Houston who was of
Sicilian descent, and Jack Houston who was related to
Sam Houston of
Texas. Her father was a comedy writer who developed material for stage, television and the movies, including for comedians
Bob Hope and
George Burns. His work required him, and the family, to move frequently. After the breakup of her parents' marriage, she spent her teen years in New York City. Houston attended
Barnard College in New York City in the class of 1958. She subsequently earned a Ph.D. in psychology from
Union Graduate School and a Ph.D. in religion from the
Graduate Theological Foundation.
Career While participating in a US Government sanctioned research project on the effects of
LSD, Houston became acquainted with Robert Masters, a writer and researcher into the varieties of human behavior and potentials. They married in 1965 and soon became known for their work in the
human potential movement. Together they conducted research into the interdependence of body, mind, and spirit at the Foundation for Mind Research for 14 years. The
psychedelic experience research Houston and Masters conducted culminated in the 1966 publication of
The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience. The U.S. government banned
psychedelic research that same year. Their book on psychedelic studies detailed the expanded cognition and creativity participants experienced under the influence of LSD. After the research ban, Houston and Masters shifted their focus to exploring other ways of achieving
altered states of consciousness without the use of drugs. Houston and Masters' 1972 book
Mind Games detailed their findings that
guided imagery and specific programs of bodily movement could reprogram the brain toward more integrated ways of experiencing the world.
John Lennon called
Mind Games "one of the two most important books of our time". Houston taught at
Marymount College, Tarrytown, from 1965 to 1972. She was a lecturer at
Hunter College for less than a year in 1961. Houston explores the ancient idea of
entelechy and proposes that individuals possess an innate potentiality which motivates their experience and actions. A technique she advocates for acknowledging and developing this inner spiritual self involves imagining the realization of one's potential in full embodied form in order to integrate it with one's present physical self. ==Controversy==