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From
the Esalen website (www.esalen.org)
history page, Esalen is neither a school, nor a church, nor
a spa, nor an inn, nor a monastery ... and yet its utterly
unique mixture contains a bit of all of the above. Perched on 27
acres of
Big Sur coastline where the
mountains meet the sea, its magical beauty makes it feel a
little like the Garden of Eden. Esalen hosts 20,000 visitors a
year who come for a weekend or a week or a month or longer:
(1)
lto
learn, (2)
to
grow, (3)
to
explore, (4)
to
heal, or (5)
to carve the near edge of the future, the cutting edge of
humanity.
Founded in 1962 by
Michael Murphy and
Dick Price, Esalen is the birthplace of the
human potential movement. Time and again, Esalen has proven
the possibilities of reconciling intellectual and experiential;
mind and body; science and mysticism;
immanence and
transcendence; East and West; meditation and action;
youthful idealism and time-tested wisdom. Maintained by a living
community of teachers, body workers, work scholars and other
staff who walk the talk and welcome guests, Esalen is a social
invention new under the sun. Prior to 1962, there was nothing
like it. Since then there have been hundreds of imitators, but
none has survived and thrived as Esalen has. Proud of its past,
Esalen, on its 50th anniversary in 2012, is now poised toward a
future featuring a new commitment to sustainability, a stronger
role for its
Center
for Theory & Research, and an abiding passion for personal
and social transformation. There is an
excellent Wikipedia article on Esalen. |
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