Abraham Maslow

“One’s only rival is one’s own potentialities. One’s only failure is failing to live up to one’s own possibilities.” — Abraham Maslow

Abraham Maslow dining in the Lodge.

In the early 1960s Abraham Maslow was a rising voice in the unfolding, paradigm-shifting world of humanistic psychology. As an established psychology professor and researcher of human sexuality he had already published Motivation and Personality, and Hierarchy of Needs: A Theory of Human Motivation. He founded the Journal of Humanistic Psychology and established the American Association of Humanistic Psychology. Toward a Psychology of Being was just published and slowly making an impact.

“It was a dark and chilly night in 1962 when Abraham and Bertha Maslow turned off of Highway 1 and drove down the hill into our still-developing enterprise. Their arrival marked an incredibly synchronistic series of events. I had recently bought a dozen copies of his book, Toward a Psychology of Being. This was Maslow’s book discussing what motivates us humans and how we can achieve self-fulfillment. I had literally just passed his book around for our staff to read.

Michael Murphy met Aldous Huxley only once, in January of 1962 when the author visited Big Sur shortly before his death onNovember 22, 1963. His intellectual and personal influence on Esalen was immense.

“Aldous Huxley was writing essays in which his worldview was shifting away from a negative view of human nature, like in his novel, Brave New World, to an ecstatic one as featured in, Island. He was using the term human potentialities and discussing people we hadn’t heard of, such as Fritz Perls and Charlotte Selver. It was through Huxley that they would come to Esalen and form part of our programming. He framed these ideas to a worldwide audience in a broad, clear, non-dogmatic way. When we started publishing brochures, they were entitled “Human Potentialities.”

Aldous Huxley loved the Monarch butterflies at Esalen.

Cover of Aldous Huxleys book "The Doors of Perception"

Gia-Fu Feng was a translator of Taoist philosophical texts and led workshops in tai chi and Taoism along with other Asian contemplative and healing practices.

Gia-Fu Feng was our entire Guest Services department. He was the one greeting newcomers from behind the office desk. As he begins registering an Abraham Maslow he recognizes the name. He then reaches for his copy of Abe’s book and shows it to him. Maslow exclaims, ‘My God, you know my book!’ and Gia-Fu says, ‘Everyone here is reading it.’ It was a remarkable thing. I started to make a Journal of Coincidences after that one.

Following that chance visit, Abe and I became close. He told his daughters that I was the son he never had. He informed our thinking here at Esalen. Some of his terms, such as self-actualization and peak experience are melded into a lot of the language at the Institute.

In the early 1960s, Abe and another psychologist, Anthony Sutich, were forming the Association of Humanistic Psychology, which involved Carl Rogers, Rollo May and a number of other prominent psychologists. All of this was getting underway the very same year that we were starting Esalen. This was the “third force,” a way between the two dominant psychological paradigms: behavioral psychology and Freudian psychology.

Later on, when a second edition of Toward a Psychology of Being came out, when he listed organizations representing this new viewpoint, number one on the list was Esalen Institute.

— Esalen Co-Founder Michael Murphy in conversations between November 2022 and May 2024.

Early Maslow and Watts buildings, named after Abraham Maslow and Alan Watts. Today, these serve as guest accommodations.