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Esalen Massage DVD Esalen Massage DVD spabodyworkmarket.com | Esalen Massage Therapy Phoenix, Arizona AZ Esalen mymassagetherapy.com | Esalen - Esalen Massage Therapy - Esalen Massage - Well Kneaded Massage, wellkneadedmassage.com | Trauma Institute/Child Trauma Institute - About Trauma Institute & Child childtrauma.com |
 Esalen Institute is a retreat center in Big Sur, California, United States, for humanistic alternative education and a nonprofit organization devoted to multidisciplinary studies ordinarily neglected or unfavored by traditional academia "in subjects ranging from meditation to massage, Gestalt, yoga, psychology, ecology, spirituality, art, music, and much more."[1] Esalen offers more than 500 public workshops a year in addition to invitational conferences, residential work-study programs, research initiatives, and internships. Part think-tank for the emerging world culture, part college and lab for transformative practices, and part restorative retreat, Esalen is dedicated to exploring work in the humanities and sciences that furthers the full realization of what Aldous Huxley called the "Human Potential". Esalen Institute was founded by Michael Murphy and Dick Price in 1962, and soon became known for its blend of East/West philosophies, experiential/didactic workshops, and a steady influx of philosophers, psychologists, artists, and religious thinkers. Once home to a Native American tribe known as the Esselen (from which the institute gets its name[2]), Esalen is situated on 27 acres (10.9 ha) of the Big Sur region's coast with the Santa Lucia Mountains rising sharply above the Pacific Ocean. A key geological feature of the site are its cliff-side natural hot springs. The grounds are divided by the Hot Springs Canyon which also serves as a fresh water source along with underground springs. The location is also a Monarch butterfly overwintering site. It is located about 45 miles (72 km) south of the Monterey and Carmel area along scenic State Route 1 (about a three-hour drive south of San Francisco) and nine miles (14 km) north of Lucia.
[edit] History[edit] Pre-EsalenCarbon dating of artifacts found on the grounds indicates human presence as early as 4,000 BC. Given access to the ocean, fresh water, and the hot springs, the Esselen people used the grounds regularly, with certain areas reserved for burial grounds. The Esselen population was largely decimated by disease, especially in the Carmel Mission, where introduced diseases such as measles, smallpox, and syphilis wiped out 90 percent of the native population. Today, people in the area can still trace their ancestry to the Esselen. In the 1870s, Thomas Slate visited the site to use the hot springs as he suffered from severe arthritis. He homesteaded the property in the early 1880s, and a settlement began: Slates Hot Springs. The site became the first tourist-oriented business in Big Sur as others sought relief from similar afflictions. In 1910, Slate sold the land to Dr. Henry Murphy, a Salinas, California, physician (who, notably, delivered John Steinbeck). Murphy bought the property with the intention of opening a European-style health spa once the yet-to-be-built State Route 1 was completed which, once started, was an 18-year project. While the highway was being built, the site was used for engineers and others involved with the construction. (The highway was largely built with convict labor although they were housed elsewhere.) The highway was opened in 1937 and then closed to the public with the outbreak of World War II. After the highway reopened, the Murphy family had various property managers, a restaurant operated there, the hot springs were open to paid use, and some hotel units were built in the 1950s although it did not become what Dr. Murphy had originally intended. The official business name was “Big Sur Hot Springs” though it was more generally referred to as "Slate's Hot Springs". [edit] OriginsMurphy and Price were classmates at Stanford University in the late 1940s and early 1950s, although they did not meet until later at the suggestion of Frederic Spiegelberg, a Stanford professor of comparative religion and Indic studies, with whom they had both studied. In the time since leaving Stanford, Price had attended Harvard University to continue studying psychology, lived in San Francisco with Alan Watts and experienced a transformative psychotic break and institutionalization before returning to San Francisco. Murphy, meanwhile, had gone to Sri Aurobindo's ashram in India and was also back in San Francisco. After meeting, Murphy and Price found much in common and, in 1961, went to the Big Sur property. The two began drawing up plans for a forum that would be open to ways of thinking beyond the constraints of mainstream academia, while avoiding the dogmatism so often seen in groups organized around a single idea promoted by a charismatic leader. They envisioned a laboratory for experimentation with a wide range of philosophies, religious disciplines and psychological techniques. Dr. Murphy’s widow, and Michael’s grandmother, Vinnie, had refused to lease the property previously, including an earlier request from Michael, although she agreed to do so this time and granted free use of the property. This, combined with capital that Price had (his father being an executive vice-president at Sears, Roebuck) and the networking support and aid of Spiegelberg, Watts, Huxley and his wife Laura, Gerald Heard and Gregory Bateson, the experiment soon got off the ground. Esalen was somewhat patterned after a monastery founded by Heard in Trabuco Canyon in Southern California called The College of All Religions, which was later donated to the Vedanta Society of Southern California. Watts led the first seminar in 1962. In the summer of that same year Abraham Maslow happened to drive onto the grounds and was soon an important figure there. In 1964 Fritz Perls started a long-term residency at Esalen and became a major and lasting influence. Perls led numerous Gestalt Therapy seminars at Esalen, and he and Jim Simkin led Gestalt Therapy training courses there. Price became one of Perls's closest students during Perls's time at Esalen. Price continued practicing and teaching Gestalt at Esalen until his own death in a hiking accident in 1985. The method of Gestalt Practice that Dick Price developed[3] remains one of the most important products of the Esalen experiment. Esalen gained popularity quickly and was soon publishing a catalog of programs. The facility was large enough to run multiple programs simultaneously and Esalen started creating numerous resident teacher positions. All of this combined to make Esalen a nexus for the counterculture of the 1960s. Rather than lecturing and listening to lectures, a number of leaders and participants began experimenting with what Huxley called the non-verbal humanities: the education of the body, the senses, the emotions. The intention of much of the new work was to suggest a new ethic: to develop awareness to one’s present flow of experience, to express this fully and accurately, and to listen to the feedback. The "experiential" workshops that grew out of these experiments were particularly well attended and did much to shape Esalen’s future course. Early leaders included: Gia-Fu Feng provided a strong Asian perspective (along with Watts's influence). Esalen was incorporated as a non-profit institution in 1967. Increased attention came to the institute when The New York Times Magazine published an article "Joy is the Prize: A Trip to Esalen Institute" by Leo E. Litwak on December 31, 1967.[4][5] The article was reprinted numerous times over the years in anthologies of outstanding magazine articles. More immediately, the article brought Esalen to the attention of scores of other media, not just in the U.S. but also overseas. Esalen responded by holding large-scale conferences in Midwest, East Coast cities and Europe and opening a satellite center in San Francisco. This offered extensive programs but was closed in the mid-1970s. Many of the offerings seemed meant to challenge the status quo such as "The Value of Psychotic Experience" and even the movement of which Esalen was a part such as "Spiritual and Therapeutic Tyranny: The Willingness To Submit" and "Theological Reflection on The Human Potential". There was also a series of racial encounter groups. [edit] Initiatives and projects
Esalen has sponsored significant research and education projects and conferences in Big Sur and elsewhere. [edit] CriticismEsalen Institute has been described as a product of the Human Potential Movement which, in contrast to orthodox psychoanalysis, believed the inner-self should be freely expressed in order to reach one's true potential and improve society as a whole. This concept has, however, received varied criticism over the years. Examples of this have included the possibility that the relevant techniques might encourage narcissistic or self-obsessive thoughts and behavior to the detriment rather than good of society. How this manifests is as a general, and even acute, selfishness and inconsideration of others in the face of one's own experiences. Some long term staff even see this as valuable to the culture of Esalen if this stimulates others in their own process, be that anger, frustration, or self questioning. Documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis, in the BBC television series The Century of the Self (2002), has also demonstrated that certain activities of Esalen have failed in their goals and not necessarily met the ideals of the Institute, which should be critically viewed in their historical context (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6111922724894802811). [edit] Soviet-American Exchange ProgramThe Soviet-American Exchange Program was established in 1979 to create alternatives to adversarial relationships between the Soviet Union and the U.S. by encouraging a broader understanding of human relations and human potential. Some highlights of this project:
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the project name was changed to the Russian-American Center and in 1994 became a separate 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. It remains active and in close collaboration with Esalen. [edit] Schizophrenia Research ProjectThe Schizophrenia Research Project was conducted over a three-year period with 127 young males with schizophrenia at Agnews State Hospital in San Jose, California. This program, co-sponsored with the California Department of Mental Hygiene and the National Institute of Mental Health, explored the thesis that the health of certain patients will permanently improve if their disease is not interrupted with antipsychotic chemotherapy. [6] Julian Silverman was chief of research for the Project. He also served as Esalen's General Manager in the 1970s.[7] [edit] PublishingStarting in the late 1960s, in association with Viking Press, published a series of seventeen books related to topics explored at Esalen. Some of these books remain in print and Esalen later had a joint publishing arrangement with Lindisfarne Press. [edit] CommunityGiven Esalen’s isolated location, the operational staff has been residential from the beginning, and has done much to shape the character of the Institute. The community is steeped in a form of Gestalt that pervades all aspects of the community, including meeting structures, workplace practices, and individual language styles. Many staff members developed novel practices, and went on to become well known teachers. Esalen started year-long residential educational programs in 1966. This was subsequently replaced by month-long work-study programs and year-long work-oriented extended student programs. There was a preschool on site called the Gazebo, serving the children of staff, some program participants, and, until recently, local residents. But it has been downsized due to lack of support from the management. [edit] Past teachers[edit] Scholars in ResidenceEsalen has sponsored long-term residencies including and others who have lived and worked at Esalen as part of this program. [edit] Arts eventsIn 1965 Joan Baez led a workshop titled “The New Folk Music” which featured a free open performance. This grew into the first of seven “Big Sur Folk Festivals” featuring many of the music luminaries of the era. The 1969 concert included performers who had just come from the Woodstock Music & Arts Fair, and it is featured in the documentary film Celebration at Big Sur (1971). Those that have performed at Esalen include:
Robert Bly, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Kenneth Rexroth (Rexroth having led one of the very first workshops), Gary Snyder and others have held poetry readings and/or workshops. In 1994, President and CEO Sharon Thom created an Artist-in-Residence program to provide artists with a two-week retreat in which to focus on works in progress, interacting with the staff, offering informal gatherings and performances on the newly created dance platform surrounded by a Dionysian amphitheatre. Located next to the Art Barn, the dance platform has also been used by Esalen teachers in dance and the martial arts, as well as serving as the base of the 36-foot Chartres/Grace Cathedral labyrinth, provided by Lauren Artress, Ph.D. In 1995 and 1996, Esalen hosted two Art Festivals, which not only gathered together artists, poets, musicians, photographers, and performance artists, as well as New York artist Margot McLean, philosopher James Hillman, Michael Hedges and Baez, but also allowed all staff members to attend every class and performance that did not interfere with their schedule. This inclusive spirit was extended to most Invited Conferences for the first time in Esalen's history. [edit] Current statusEsalen has recently focused upon issues of ecological sustainability and sought to strengthen ties with surrounding communities and institutions, including the University of California at Santa Cruz, with which it has partnered to develop programs allowing students to test concepts of sustainable agriculture on the institute's agricultural lands. Staff members serve in the volunteer Big Sur Fire Department as well as search and rescue teams. They also volunteer at local public schools and fight forest fires in order to preserve the heritage of the Big Sur landscape. Esalen continues to offer workshops to its visitors each year, most of them focused on the integration of humanistic psychology, bodily wellness, and community-building. Workshops cover many subjects including: arts, Gestalt, ecopsychology, health, integral thought, martial arts, massage, dance, mythology, philosophical inquiry, somatics, spiritual and religious studies, wilderness, yoga, mindfulness, permaculture and sustainability. [edit] See also[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
[edit] External links
Coordinates: 36°07′37″N 121°38′30″W / 36.12701°N 121.64159°W |
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