This article is about the non-profit institute. For the historical location, see Slates Hot Springs.
Parts of this article (those related to reopening after the 2017 highway closure) need to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(November 2022)
The Esalen Institute, commonly called Esalen, is a non-profit American retreat center and intentional community in Big Sur, California, which focuses on humanistic alternative education.[2] The institute played a key role in the Human Potential Movement beginning in the 1960s. Its innovative use of encounter groups, a focus on the mind-body connection, and their ongoing experimentation in personal awareness introduced many ideas that later became mainstream.[3]
Esalen was founded by Michael Murphy and Dick Price in 1962. Their intention was to support alternative methods for exploring human consciousness, what Aldous Huxley described as "human potentialities".[4][5] Over the next few years, Esalen became the center of practices and beliefs that make up the New Age movement, from Eastern religions/philosophy, to alternative medicine and mind-body interventions, from transpersonal to Gestalt practice.[6]
Price ran the institute until he died in a hiking accident in 1985. In 2012, the board hired professional executives to help raise money and keep the institute profitable. Until 2016, Esalen offered over 500 workshops yearly[7] in areas including Gestalt practice, personal growth, meditation, massage, yoga, psychology, ecology, spirituality, and organic food.[8] In 2016, about 15,000 people attended its workshops.[9]
In February 2017, the institute was cut off when Highway 1 was closed by a mud slide on either side of the hot springs. It closed its doors, evacuated guests via helicopter, and was forced to lay off 90% of its staff through at least July, when they reopened with limited workshop offerings. It also decided to revamp its offerings to include topics more relevant to a younger generation.[9] As of July 2017, due to the limited access resulting from the road closures, the hot springs are only open to Esalen guests.[9]
^"How to Contact Us | Esalen". www.esalen.org.
^Goldman 2012, pp. 2–
^Misiroglu, Gina, ed. (2009). American Countercultures: An Encyclopedia of Nonconformists, Alternative Lifestyles, and Radical Ideas in U.S. History. Armonk, N.Y.: Sharpe Reference. pp. 238–239. ISBN 978-0765680600. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
^Kripal 2007, p. 66.
^Anderson 2004, p. 64
^Cite error: The named reference economist was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Esalen Institute Launches Campus Renewal with Special Gift for Most Significant Renovation in 52-year History" (Press release). May 15, 2015. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
^Kripal 2007
^ abcCite error: The named reference krieger was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
The EsalenInstitute, commonly called Esalen, is a non-profit American retreat center and intentional community in Big Sur, California, which focuses on...
25, 1985) was co-founder of the EsalenInstitute in 1962 and a veteran of the Beat Generation.: 139–40 He ran Esalen in Big Sur for many years, sometimes...
the EsalenInstitute in 1962, primarily as a center for the study and development of human potential, and some people continue to regard Esalen as the...
Zen Center. The EsalenInstitute would feature seminars by both Chaudhuri and Watts. And it was at CIF in 1960 that the future Esalen cofounders, Murphy...
Laura Perls, in the 1940s and 1950s. Perls became associated with the EsalenInstitute in 1964 and lived there until 1969. The core of the Gestalt therapy...
that draw visitors is the formerly counterculture but now upscale EsalenInstitute. Esalen hosted many figures of the nascent "New Age" and, in the 1960s...
Relationship in Your Life and she sits on the board of trustees of the EsalenInstitute. She is on the American board of the National Theatre for London and...
Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University. In 1973 he was invited to the EsalenInstitute in Big Sur, California, and lived there until 1987 as a Scholar-in-Residence...
personal exploration and integration developed by Dick Price at the EsalenInstitute. The objective of the practice is to become more fully aware of the...
International Party Michael Murphy, founder of EsalenInstitute George Leonard, leader, Encounter Group, EsalenInstitute, 1960s Dr William Coulson, leader, Nuns'...
groups at EsalenInstitute in Big Sur, California, where Perls eventually settled and built a home. Jim Simkin then purchased property next to Esalen and started...
psychologist. Schutz was born in Chicago, Illinois. He practiced at the EsalenInstitute in the 1960s. He later became the president of BConWSA International...
the United States. Nancy Jane Carlen (1941-2013) was working at the EsalenInstitute when Joan Baez was asked to lead workshops on music. Carlen was a good...
Hackett, and Joan Rivers, but changed direction after a retreat at the EsalenInstitute, an early center of the human potential movement located in Big Sur...
2012. Retrieved November 7, 2008. "SFAI History". San Francisco Art Institute. Retrieved March 5, 2019. Comer, Stephanie; Klochko, Deborah; Gunderson...
movement and in progressive settings for well-being, such as at the EsalenInstitute in California, and at the Elysium nudist colony in the Topanga Canyon...
grandmother, Vinnie McDonald Murphy. They incorporated the business as EsalenInstitute. The Esselen people resided along the upper Carmel and Arroyo Seco...
but rather Fritz Perls' personal attitude during the time at the EsalenInstitute. The statement "I am not in this world to live up to your expectations"...
"Human Potentialities" both at the UCSF Medical Center and at the EsalenInstitute. These lectures were fundamental to the beginning of the Human Potential...
up as "creative" and said that his family often made trips to the EsalenInstitute in Big Sur, California. Balfour appeared on the kids TV show Kids Incorporated...
the Asian Exclusion Act in 1965. In 1962 the EsalenInstitute was established in Big Sur, California. Esalen and similar personal growth centers had developed...
his wife, at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York for many summers during Family week. He also taught at the EsalenInstitute in California beginning...
Selver taught thousands of Americans her "sensory awareness" method at EsalenInstitute, including Peter Levine. Somatic Experiencing, like many of its sister...
of artifacts found near Slates Hot Springs, presently owned by the EsalenInstitute, indicate human presence as early as 3500 BC. With easy access to the...
New Age travellers Groups Association for Research and Enlightenment EsalenInstitute The Family New World Alliance Influences Hippie subculture Human Potential...
with starting the human potential movement (including forays to the EsalenInstitute) and in 1979 wrote a 125-page "operations manual" for a proposed "First...
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