The Esalen Journal

Esalen faculty Ann Randolph is an award-winning writer and performer with plenty of wit and verve. Her solo shows, 'Inappropriate in All the Right Ways', 'Loveland' and 'Squeeze Box' have been heralded and her workshops —at Esalen and beyond — aptly balance depth and humor. Ann shares her latest book pick with Esalen News.

Eldra Jackson III has harnessed the power of transformation and tapping into his human potential. As a 24-year inmate in the California prison system, he was given ample opportunity to turn inward, and when he discovered Inside Circle, his inner journey took a significant turn, which led to his release in 2014.

As Michael Murphy celebrates his 90th birthday, former Esalen Chairman of the Board Jeff Kripal, Esalen President Gordon Wheeler, and Michael's son Mac Murphy pay tribute to and share heartfelt reflections about Esalen's esteemed co-founder.

Ken Dychtwald has been involved with Esalen for more than 50 years. A former resident, group leader, donor and supporter, he is also a psychologist, gerontologist, best-selling author, and CEO of Age Wave, the nation's foremost thought leader on issues relating to an aging population.

In July, Esalen hosted faculty-singer-author Justin Michael Williams for a mini-residency. Justin’s presence on property was so nourishing that Esalen’s Community and Advancement team invited him to host a 90-minute online workshop as an opportunity to meet Justin, experience the work he is doing in the world and explore the topics of equality and race.

Since 1980, Track Two: An Institute for Citizen Diplomacy, formerly the Russian American Center, has provided new spheres of influence for Esalen. For Track Two, in partnership with Esalen's Center for Theory & Research, traveling to Russia, the Middle East and now the Far East, brings with it the culture and practices that Esalen embodies.

Susan Hess Logeais’s thought-provoking new documentary 'The Way of the Psychonaut' explores the life and work of longtime Esalen scholar-in-residence Stanislav Grof, a Czech-born psychiatrist and psychedelic psychotherapy pioneer.

We delve into books for so many different reasons: guidance, knowledge, curiosity and oftentimes to lose ourselves in a captivating tale that can take us to the farthest stretches of our imagination. Esalen faculty and author Steve Almond shares his insights on the book he found to be a true “page-turner.”

Expanding our potential often requires a certain amount of grace. Esalen faculty Tracee Stanley saw this fact clearly more than 20 years ago and embarked on a personal practice that eventually included Yoga Nidra, which transformed her entire life.

Gazpacho is a flavorful, chilled soup made primarily from ripe tomatoes that is perfect to enjoy on warm summer days. Though the recipe is simple, creating really good gazpacho requires getting a few details right.

Bedding, pillows, bath textiles, specially-designed furniture and eco-friendly cleaning supplies suddenly capture the spotlight at Esalen as it moves deeper into a commitment to expand diversity in the business as well as its eco-consciousness.

In June 2020, Esalen released a statement regarding the present racial crisis. This page provides additional clarity on how Esalen, as an organization, will work in very practical and substantive ways to be more inclusive. We value your feedback and insights as we collectively move forward to make these important changes.

When Esalen faculty Janis Nakano Spivack founded Brite Catalyst, her vision was clear: She wanted to create a company dedicated to teaching everyone to greet change and transition with more success. Janis shares her latest book picks with Esalen News.

Earlier this year, when Esalen temporarily closed its doors to the public during the pandemic, Esalen Farm & Garden stewards still working and living in the community asked the question: “How can we be of support to those close to us?” Their answer: a free, experimental Community Supported Agriculture program to share produce with local households.

Relish the power of film. The artform often goes beyond just “entertainment” to guide us through challenging times. As 2020 continues to offer its set of ongoing challenges, we turned to Esalen Inspirational Film Festival (EIFF) Co-founder Corinne Bourdeau who curated a stellar watch list to consider during this historic time. The following films make for great viewing—right now—and offer a powerful trifecta: they are uplifting, inspiring and educational.

For many people, 2020 has become a time of deep reflection, contemplation and oftentimes discomfort. “There are so many things that are currently out of our control,” notes Esalen faculty Ben Geilhufe. “People are fighting for their lives due to COVID-19 and other health issues. People are continually fighting for social justice, physical safety and emotional safety in the face of more than 400 years of systemic racism and white supremacy in this country. People are fighting to feed themselves and their families and to stay housed or locate housing. There are so many sources of overwhelm.”

As a longtime integrative doctor and author of four books, most recently BodyWise: Discovering Your Body Intelligence for Lifelong Health and Healing, Esalen faculty Rachel Carlton Abrams assists patients with anxiety and sleep and more during these turbulent times. Her upcoming workshop, September 25-27, at Esalen, explores how to access body wisdom to navigate life in the direction of vitality, joy and contribution.

To be sure, 2020 will go down as one of the most memorable times of our modern era. As COVID-19 and racial unrest affect us globally, we are receiving many opportunities to re-examine our lives—and life itself. As Esalen moves through these changes with you and beyond its temporary closure, its spirit remains intact: working with individuals and institutions to integrate heart, mind, body, spirit and community in a nurturing relationship with the environment.

The late Maya Angelou said: “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.” Those sentiments are particularly apt during the first half of 2020. As we experience waves of uncertainty—from the pandemic to social unrest—opportunities to turn inward abound. From this place, we can ask important questions, such as: “what really matters now?” and “what can I learn from this historic time?”

Esalen faculty and award-winning author of channeled texts Paul Selig has repeatedly been asked: “What comes next during these challenging times?”‍“I don't know what will come next during the pandemic, but I think what has begun will be going on for some time,” says Paul, who leads I Am the Word: The Energetics of Consciousness July 31 through August 2, and in a campus-wide workshop August 2-7 at Esalen.

For nearly 60 years, we at Esalen have committed ourselves to the exploration and actualization of human potential, a future humanity envisioned in ways at once deeply individual, radically interpersonal, politically active, plurally embodied and genuinely global. The recent national events and protests around the murder of George Floyd on May 25 and the still unrealized dream of a truly inclusive American society have shown us in too familiar and yet fundamentally new ways that we have not lived up to our own legacy.

As we gracefully attempt to ease our way back out into the world during uncertain times, several Esalen faculty and trusted partners continue to invite us online for connection as a new normal emerges. "I think this time is giving all of us an opportunity to value togetherness,” says Esalen faculty and singer/songwriter Glen Phillips. “Initially, I wanted to start doing online offerings during the pandemic to create a sense of purpose and what I’ve seen is how important a regular check-in like this with others actually is."

Esalen’s first online retreat was a free community offering entitled “Building Bridges of Belonging: The Inner Work of Healing from Racism and Moving Towards Positive Social Transformation.” More than 60 participants attended the online retreat in early June, which was facilitated by Jessica Hartzell and Lacy Shannon of Esalen's Community and Advancement team, and Programs Specialist Tanja Roos, and led by two Esalen faculty: University of San Francisco law professor Rhonda V. Magee, an expert on mindful teaching and learning, race and law; and Kamilah Majied, a social justice leader and mental health therapist.

“Consciousness is never static or complete but is an unending process of movement and unfoldment,” noted David Bohm, the late American scientist and theoretical physicist of the 20th century whose unorthodox ideas to quantum theory, neuropsychology and the philosophy of mind are given the spotlight in Infinite Potential: The Life and Ideas of David Bohm.Directed by Paul Howard, the compelling documentary was scheduled to be screened at the Esalen Inspirational Festival this year before the pandemic forced many events to be postponed. Now, the Fetzer Memorial Trust is offering a free online screening on June 20 to the Esalen community.

During the 1960s, Daria Halprin joined creative forces with many dynamic teachers who influenced the early years at Esalen. It was a powerful time and Daria, a dancer, teacher, therapist, author and co-founder and director of Tamalpa Institute, was among an intrepid group of change agents—from Fritz Perls to Joseph Campbell—who helped fuel the human potential movement.

Esalen faculty Judith Orloff wears many creative hats — psychiatrist, empath, and best-selling author. She is also on the UCLA psychiatric clinical faculty and her work has been featured on The Today Show, CNN and in the New York Times.

Esalen faculty, author and artist Day Schildkret believes connecting more with nature can be one of the most valuable opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Internationally known for his morning altars, a stunning array of sublime mandalas he creates daily from natural materials, as well as his of book, Morning Altars: A 7-Step Practice to Nourish Your Spirit through Nature, Art and Ritual, Day has inspired people across the globe to be awed with impermanent earth art.

“One of the teachings of Relational Mindfulness is turning towards rather than away,” says Esalen faculty, dharma teacher and author Deborah Eden Tull. “That principle really addresses the conditioned tendency in our world to turn away from all forms of difficulty, pain, discomfort and challenging emotion because we may not feel adequate to meet it. Instead, we can learn how to turn towards it, welcome it and everything that arises.”

“There is a great deal of talk about gardens right now and the importance of creating our own self-sufficient food source during these uncertain times,” says Esalen Farm Supervisor Chris Omer. “Gardens can be a cathartic place for healing and reflection. They can open up spaces for personal creativity, curiosity about the natural world around us, collaboration with others and play.”

One phrase emerged strongly this spring: “stay at home.” By now, many of us have had time to reflect on our lives, where we have been placing our attention and how we have been directing our life force. These insights are like jewels shining in the shadows of COVID-19.

We delve into books for so many different reasons: guidance, knowledge, curiosity and oftentimes to lose ourselves in a captivating tale that can take us to the farthest stretches of our imagination. Esalen News invites our faculty to share what’s on their nightstand and why.As lead singer/songwriter for Toad the Wet Sprocket, Glen Phillips appreciates the creative process and recognizes the passion that goes behind creating compelling works.

Spring is normally a time for optimism in the Esalen Farm & Garden, and despite the current uncertainty in our world, Farm & Garden Supervisor Chris Omer prepares soil beds with the trust that seeds will take root. “In farming, we’re always faced with uncertainty beyond our control based on weather, pests, access to water, disease and more,” Chris says. “But with COVID-19, we still are determined to grow as much food for our community as possible while adjusting our plans when needed according to this ever-changing world.”

The current pandemic has created a heightened awareness of the sacrifices made by nurses, doctors, first responders and other caregivers in the face of unprecedented circumstances. Apart from the threat of physical harm, many in the healthcare profession as well as social change professions such as activists and teachers face mental and emotional challenges as well.

Esalen faculty and author-musician-speaker Justin Michael Williams wants to help people wake up to their own brilliance. By working diligently at the intersections of social justice, mindfulness and personal growth, Justin’s passion to help others is undeniably strong. Especially now, when a global pandemic has allowed him to look more closely at how we can strengthen our connections with each other.

For more than 30 years Esalen faculty Lisa G. Littlebird has been on a mission to restore community singing and bring it back into the daily lives of others. Her passion has helped many people discover new pathways to what she calls, “communion and release” and to cultivate wellness, mindfulness, empathy and joy.

We delve into books for so many different reasons: guidance, knowledge, curiosity and oftentimes to lose ourselves in a captivating tale that can take us to the farthest stretches of our imagination. Esalen News invites our faculty to share what’s on their nightstand and why.

Russell Delman has dedicated his life to the study of human transformation and is deeply indebted to his more than 40 years of both Zen meditation and marriage. He has helped train more than 2,500 Feldenkrais® practitioners, founded The Embodied Life School and leads The Embodied Life™: Meditation, Guided Inquiry and the Teachings of Moshe Feldenkrais September 25-27 at Esalen with his wife, Linda.

"The most under-utilized technology out there today is the human body,” says Esalen faculty Susan Fisher. “I discovered this when I learned there are nine physiologically different kinds of people and each of them have what we call a ‘Natural Energy’ system. The amount of confusion that comes from not knowing about this is vast. If we don’t have the same natural energy as somebody else, then we each have no clue how the experiences life. It’s fundamentally important to know and so vital now when we’re all experiencing a global crisis because it helps us become more aware of ourselves and understanding of others.”

During challenging times, we can turn to the plant world to discover some of our greatest allies. Esalen faculty, herbalist and acupuncturist Darren Huckle knows this all too well and relishes the fact that herbal allies powerfully promote the health of our body, mind and physical energy.

This divinely sweet “grown-up” orange juice is packed with minerals, nutrients and enzymes to keep your immune system healthy.

Several Esalen faculty chart new territory during COVID-19 with free online offerings designed to strengthen community and stimulate the heart, mind, body and spirit. "Although we need to socially isolate right now, I felt called to offer opportunities to breathe and move together, and to make these opportunities as accessible as possible by offering them for free," says Esalen faculty and yoga instructor Noah Mazé.

This month marks what would have been Joseph Campbell’s 116th birthday. A revered mythologist who spent many of his birthdays teaching at Esalen, he once said, “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”

More than a year ago Esalen General Manager and CEO Terence Gilbey embarked on a listening tour to gain a deeper understanding of the unique needs and interests of Esalen seminarians, faculty and friends. “We received positive feedback and great ideas from our community,” says Terence, who also used the opportunity to share updates on Esalen’s progress since the 2017 closure.

“Dying is the most important thing you do in your life; it’s the great frontier and love is the art of living as a preparation for dying,” says Mirabai Bush, who was a frequent collaborator with the late Ram Dass and is founder and senior fellow at the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society. “Ram Dass taught me that allowing ourselves to dissolve into the ocean of love is not just about leaving this body, it is also the route to Oneness and unity with our own inner being while we are still here. If you know how to live and to love, you know how to die.”

Esalen faculty Peter Bregman got into leadership coaching in a serendipitous way. He attended a college camping trip “by mistake” and became so intrigued with the concept of outdoor leadership that he went on to form his own company. Culling from some of the wisdom he learned outdoors, Peter is now a coach, teacher and best-selling author, assisting successful people to become better leaders and build more effective teams.

The Seventh Annual Esalen Inspirational Film Festival (EIFF) comes to life May 3–8 at Esalen, attracting acclaimed filmmakers and film enthusiasts to explore thought-provoking cinema in an interactive environment. This year the festival also welcomes a new artistic director, Trina Wyatt, who was founding director of Tribeca Film Festival and currently serves as founder and CEO of Conscious Good, a community-driven media platform dedicated to raising consciousness.

Springtime arrived early this year in the Farm & Garden with warmer weather in February. And while staff hold out for March rains, the landscape offers a surprisingly colorful story to savor.

In 1962, Esalen Co-founders Michael Murphy and Dick Price planted the seeds for a remarkable new endeavor. The creation of Esalen Institute was a rare kind of kismet, one that attracted thinkers such as Alan Watts, Aldous Huxley, Abraham Maslow, Joseph Campbell and Paul Tillich as well as men and women from around the world who wanted to explore new worldviews and ways of growth. The human potential movement was born.

Longtime Esalen faculty Jean Houston, PhD, is a philosopher mentored by Margaret Mead and one of the principal founders of the human potential movement. She has written 26 books and is known for her human potential workshops. What inspiring read lies on Jean’s nightstand?

If mindfulness is being in love with the present moment, then play is the most fun access point to that state. In their upcoming workshop, The Power of Play and Human Connection in the Digital Age, Adam Smiley Poswolsky (pictured right) and Brady Gill (below) create a tech-free “playshop” designed to awaken our creative potential and illuminate the wisdom and grace available when we intentionally bring play and playfulness into our lives and our work. Adam, a millennial workplace expert and the best-selling author of The Quarter-Life Breakthrough and Brady, a writer/performer and camp director of Camp Anywhere, a summer camp for grown-ups, share more with Esalen News.

As a longtime Persian sacred dance artist and teacher who communicates the universal message of Sufi mysticism, Banafsheh Sayyad has witnessed first-hand the power and wisdom that emerge from having a body-based practice. She believes it nourishes our inner flame and creates coherence between our heart, mind and body, especially during chaotic times.

In conversation, Marianne Williamson sparks a mix of intrigue and inspiration, often honing in on such deeper questions as: how do we become our best selves? The longtime activist, former 2020 presidential hopeful and bestselling author of A Return To Love and A Politics of Love, joins leaders in business, mindfulness and social change at this year’s Wisdom 2.0.

“As a sculptor uses their hands to create out of clay, the masterful Esalen Massage® practitioner sculpts the human body and uses the long stroke for connection, integration, and making contact through the skin, the largest organ in the body,” says Ellen Watson, who has been practicing Esalen Massage for nearly 35 years. This May, Ellen along with other longstanding Esalen practitioners, will be training anew generation of Esalen teachers at the first Indo Asia Pacific Esalen Massage and Bodywork Teacher Training.

On average, human beings take 23,040 breaths a day. Esalen faculty Paul Denniston and Shiva Rea, who have devoted their lives to teaching yoga and helping others uncover deeper truths, see this fact as a golden opportunity to become more present to the inherent wisdom yoga offers and how it allows us to become more connected with ourselves and our community. Paul and Shiva plan to uncover these truths in their upcoming workshops at Esalen—Paul during Grief Yoga™ Teacher Training: Level One, March 1–6, and Shiva (along with Demetri Velisarius) in The Practical Art of Living Flow Spring Regeneration Retreat, April 5-10.

Ron Frederick and Timothy J. Beyer are on a mission to enhance the lives of gay men who find it challenging to feel present in their lives and closer to the people they love. In their upcoming workshop, Emotional Mindfulness, Connection and Healing for Gay Men, Ron (pictured right) and Timothy (below) explore the origins of certain fears inherent in gay men, how those fears create a sense of detachment from the wisdom and power within and present guideposts toward empowerment.

Throughout history, bridges have connected two points and often served as a symbolic marker. A journey from here to there; a time to reflect along the way. This month, as Esalen unveils a new bridge connecting the north and south side of campus, faculty and staff reflect upon what bridges mean to them, the transformational process of creating a new bridge and the positive ripple effects the new structure will create.

Former Esalen trustee and faculty member Chip Conley, whose moniker adorns the Conley Bookstore at Esalen, offers our first book recommendation. Chip is also a bestselling author and a hospitality entrepreneur who at 52 joined Airbnb, embracing the role of a new kind of elder.

Throughout the ages, wisdom teachers near and far have invited humanity to pay attention to thoughts and thought patterns that populate the mind. Buddha said, “When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow.” To help us find ways in which we can experience that “purity,” this month we turn to Esalen faculty Ramesh Srinivasan, Chris Murchison and Eve Ekman, all of whom have upcoming workshops at Esalen: Ramesh in Conversations on the Edge: Beyond the Valley – How Innovators Around the World Are Overcoming Inequality and Creating the Technologies of Tomorrow; and Chris and Eve in The Science and Practice of a Meaningful Life: Fostering Purpose through Connections and Dedication to the Greater Good.

When spinach, fennel, apple and cucumber cavort with mint, basil and culinary sage, the result is GayaTree Green, a new fresh juice offering recently introduced at the Esalen Espresso and Juice Bar.“This juice is very special to me and its creation is an intuitive and meditative practice,” says Yzzy Demmon, who has facilitated weekly art and yoga classes on the Experiential Program at Esalen and works in Guest Services.

A new month, a new year and a new decade all converge in January. Collectively, the human race enters brand new territory (a more soul-filled Roaring Twenties, perhaps?) and many people may be seeking ways to invigorate their spirit and experience their true human potential. Questions abound: What new practices can I implement? What new actions can I take? Culling from Esalen’s lineage of teachers, we reveal five ways to truly let the spirit shine even brighter.