Erotic Ecology and the Passion of Esalen

Psychologist Lindsay Branham on reclaiming a deep and connected relationship with the Earth, erotic ecology as a pathway to rediscovering our lifeforce, and discovering the magic of Esalen: “I was seduced.”

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For we are the Earth, and the Earth is our body.

Esalen is full of the erotic. Eros is necessary and beautiful wherever it lives; and this force should be adored and exalted. The word eros is the form of love that pumps through our veins, quickens the heart, and enlivens the soul. To quote Audre Lorde, Eros is equivalent to lifeforce. The erotic is not just sexual; it is the essence of your very aliveness. The erotic is the life spark that radiates through you. Yet our lifeforce is dimmed by the world, by pain, and by broken relationships. But aliveness can return and it must. Our lives depend on it.

Erotic ecology is a pathway to rediscover our lifeforce in partnership with the Earth. What if you could find out who you are, why you are here, and how you can radically love the world through these very trees, oceans, and lands? What if you could let yourself fall completely and madly in love? And imagine if this lover could lavish you, nourish you, and love you? But not with a person. With the Earth. 

It is my life’s work to teach about nature connection, including spiritual, erotic, and embodied ecology. I just finished my PhD on this topic, and am writing a book, Heartwood, which will come out in 2025. 

Even still, this land caught me by surprise. It swept me up into its embrace and took me to bed. Which is to say, the Earth filled me up with pleasure. 

Esalen is filled with passion, the divine energy within everything that is alive. People come from far and wide to connect with their deepest desires on these lands. From self-discovery to self-development, the pursuit of healing or to find a new life path. Life-affirming beauty is waiting here. The history of this community, seeded in the 1960s by esoteric thinkers pushing the political and societal norms of the day, asked, over and over again: Who are we? What are we here for? How can we radically love the world?

Terrence McKenna, the free thinker and ethnobotanist who gave dozens of talks at Esalen in the 80s, said, “Nature is ourselves, to be cherished and explored.” How right that these ideas would come from a place that has been beckoning humans to fall in love with it?  

As an environmental psychologist, I seek to understand the experience of how people form relationships with the more-than-human world, and what it does for their lives. Scientific studies indicate that the closer this emotional and embodied bond is with the earth, the better our mental, physical, and spiritual health can be. A relationship with nature improves literally every aspect of human health. I’ve facilitated psychedelic wellness retreats for years, and while these can provide people with beautiful breakthroughs and healing, I’ve yet to see the same degree of life transformation with any other modality than the simple and essential pathway of loving the Earth.

It’s as if there is a free, broad-band medicine available to every human being on the planet. And ironically, one of the biggest motivators for human sustainability behaviors is a relationship with nature. We have a tool that can heal humans and heal the earth. What are we waiting for? How do we turn ourselves on to the Earth?

Our bodies are vehicles of sensory perception — portals — to contact and caress the living world. My research has found that deepening our embodied awareness helps us become erotically connected to the Earth. As in a love affair, it starts with letting yourself be attracted.

The more we feel delight, the more delight there is to experience. My body was a delighted animal as I let the Earth touch my skin while at Esalen. I knew I couldn’t hold back from the urges that rose inside me. I laid myself down on the lime green grass and watched the purple lupines gracefully extend their faces to feel the salt on their lips.  A monarch landed on my arm as if to say, watch me; this is how you learn to fly. Then the butterfly folded up its paper-thin wings and fell backwards into the sky; I exhaled deeply. I was at peace. I knew who was doing the bewitching; the sacred lands and waters of Esalen.

A golden poppy bowed its luscious, lovely petals. A sea lion sang in the afternoon’s refracted sunlight. I was seduced.

I sat in meditation in the hut in the redwoods at the base of the river at Esalen, and my entire body relaxed. A pleasant sensation rippled through my nerves, cascading and pulsing from my fingertips to the top of my head. I could sense I was feeling the land’s specific exaltation and particular delights. I could intuit that the Earth was whispering to me, let me love you.

I came out of the hut and walked through the garden over the sea. Rows of fresh vegetables for future meals were plump and beautiful. A little round mirror swung from a branch on a tree. I looked at myself in the mirror. I could see my own blue eyes, the slate gray sea behind me, the yellow flowers next to me. My eyes filled with tears. Here we were together, human and Earth. This land was happy. I was happy. This is the right way to be with nature, I thought. This is what it is to love each other.

The changes we need in the world  happen through tending to our erotic ecologies. The magic of this land is enough to change a life. It is up to us to open to it.

My workshop, Wisdom and Medicine of the Earth: Healing The Planet And Ourselves, will be on August 2–4. I want to give you the tools and practices I have spent a decade developing that will help you find your own erotic connection with the Earth. What if the joy, connection, and healing you’ve been seeking could only happen with the Earth as your guide? 

The Earth will speak directly to you, and tell you what you need to know. I look forward to the messages, visions, transmissions, and guidance that will come to those who slow down enough to listen. I anticipate the romantic trysts that will occur in all the secret corners here. I can see tired bodies and over-anxious minds being held and loved. I can feel the exhale from the stress and intensity of our world.

Together, we will do practices grounded in science and inspired by contemplative and embodiment modalities. There will be guided meditations, earth connection rituals, the eight stages of body awareness, intuitive movement, and  some very special live music to open our senses and perceptual capacities so we can feel, touch, hear, and see the Earth. 

We will settle into silence and receive the healing nourishment of this land. With the hot springs overlooking the ocean below, the redwood trees whispering secrets through the morning fog, and the night flowers blasting their intoxicatingly beautiful fragrance in the evenings, this weekend is an opportunity to let your body be loved.