Esalen Institute

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Esalen Institute

The Esalen Institute is a not-for-profit center for humanistic interdisciplinary studies and conventions in Big Sur , California, founded in 1962 . A large number of personalities of intellectual and cultural life in the United States have taught and participated in workshops and congresses in the United States, such as Joan Baez , Paul Tillich , Henry Miller , Fritz Perls , Carl Rogers , Timothy Leary , and others. a. m. It was founded by Michael Murphy and Dick Price. To date, around 500 workshops are held annually, as well as expanded student programs and conferences.

prehistory

The Esalen area has a long history of settlement, as evidenced by artifacts from around 4000 BC found in the surrounding soil . Prove. Due to the access to the sea, the available fresh water and the hot springs , it was regularly inhabited by an indigenous tribe called " Esselen " and was sometimes also used as a burial place. The area lies at the foot of the Santa Lucia Mountains and is divided by the Hot Springs Canyon . Due to illnesses and the Spanish proselytizing in the region from Carmel , the population of Esselen fell sharply. There are still residents of the area who can trace their origins back to the Esselen.

In the 1870s, Thomas Slate visited the Big Sur area to take advantage of the hot springs for relief from his severe arthritis . He built a property for himself in the early 1880s, which started tourism in Big Sur, mainly because of the hot springs. In 1910, Slater sold the land to the doctor Henry Murphy. This had the intention of building a health resort based on the European model.

During the construction of California State Route 1 , engineers and other workers came to the place. The road was opened in 1937, but closed to the public again with the outbreak of World War II. After the highway reopened, the Murphy family made various attempts to make the site commercially viable. A restaurant was opened and the hot springs were only accessible against admission. The official name was "Big Sur Hot Springs", but the name "Slate's Hot Springs" was more common. Some hotel units were built in the 1950s, but it wasn't what Murphy originally envisioned.

Foundation of the institute

In 1962 Michael Murphy and Dick Price founded the Esalen Institute. Murphy and Price were fellow students at Stanford University in the late 1940s / early 1950s , but lost sight of each other after graduation. Price was at Harvard University changed to where psychology study. He lived with Alan Watts for a while and had a psychotic life crisis. Murphy had gone to Sri Aurobindo's ashram in India . Both returned to San Francisco and met again with Frederic Spiegelberg , professor of comparative religion and Indian studies with whom they had studied.

As a result of this meeting, from 1961 onwards, they began to draft plans for a forum that would show ways of thinking beyond the limitations of the established scientific establishment, as would often be seen in groups that gathered around the individual idea of ​​a charismatic leader. They envisioned a laboratory for experimentation with a wide range of philosophies, religious disciplines, and psychological methods.

Murphy's family donated the property in Big Sur for free. Together with capital from Price's father, managing director at Sears , and the networked help of Spiegelberg, Watts, Laura and Aldous Huxley , Gerald Heard and Gregory Bateson , the project was launched on approximately 11 hectares of land, the former Esselen area. The area is approximately 72 km south of Monterey, California and Carmel.

“The Esalen Institute exists to promote the harmonious development of the whole person. It is a learning institution dedicated to the constant exploration of human potential and defies religious, scientific and other dogmas . It promotes theory, practice, research and organizational development to facilitate personal and social development and to this end it sponsors seminars for the general public; organizes meetings; Research programs; Residencies for artists, scholars, scientists and religious teachers; Work study programs and semi-autonomous projects. "

- Michael Murphy, Chairman of the Esalen Board of Trustees in a statement of purpose

Esalen soon became known for its marriage of Eastern and Western philosophies, its experimental and didactic workshops, and the steady influx of philosophers , psychologists , artists, and religious thinkers .

Early years

Regular visitors in the early years included Joan Baez , Hunter S. Thompson and Henry Miller . Alan Watts gave the first seminar in 1962. That summer, Abraham Maslow happened upon the area and soon became an important person at the institute. In 1964 Fritz Perls began a multi-year stay in Esalen and gained great and lasting influence. Perls conducted numerous Gestalt therapy seminars in Esalen, and with Jim Simkin he also gave training courses in Gestalt therapy. Dick Price became one of Perls' first students at Esalen; he practiced and taught Gestalt therapy in Esalen until his accidental death on a hike in 1985.

Esalen quickly grew in popularity and was soon publishing a program catalog. The facility was large enough to run several programs at the same time, and Esalen gradually established numerous permanent teaching positions. Those who wanted to turn the place into something like a junction of the counterculture gathered there . Some of the early leading figures were Arnold J. Toynbee , theologian Paul Tillich , two-time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling , Carl Rogers , B. F. Skinner , Virginia Satir , Ansel Adams , Michael Harner , Richard Alpert , Timothy Leary, and J. B. Rhine . Gia-Fu Feng and Chungliang Al Huang provided a strong Asian perspective (along with the influence of Watts).

Instead of speaking and listening, a number of teachers and participants began to experiment with what Aldous Huxley called "non-verbal humanity": the formation of the body, the senses , the emotions . The main concern was to bring about a new ethic : to fully and precisely express the “momentary experience”, to make this aware and to get feedback on it. The experiential workshops that built on these experiments were particularly well attended and contributed a lot to the future direction of Esalen.

Esalen was recognized as a non-profit institution in 1967 . Its popularity grew when the New York Times Magazine ran an article on Esalen on December 31, 1967, "The Prize is Joy: A Trip to the Esalen Institute by Leo E. Litwak ". The article has been reprinted several times in anthologies of excellent magazine articles over the years . For a short time, it brought Esalen the increased attention of other media, not exactly in the USA, but mainly overseas. Esalen responded by organizing major congresses in cities in the Midwest , on the East Coast and in Europe, and by opening an institute branch in San Francisco . Many programs were offered here, but the branch had to close in the mid-1970s.

Many of the offers appeared to be designed to challenge the status quo and the movement itself, of which Esalen was a part. Such offers were for example: the value of psychotic experiences or spiritual and therapeutic tyranny: the readiness for submission and theological reflections on the potential of the human being. There was also a series of mixed ethnic encounter groups.

Because of the remote location, the concept of the institute was geared from the start that the employees also lived there. This fact has decisively shaped the character of the institute. Esalen began one-year permanent education programs in 1966. Monthly work study programs as well as year-long extended student programs followed. Many of the permanent staff developed new practices and became well-known teachers. The Esalen pre-school (“The Gazebo”), which looks after the children of the employees, the local residents and the program participants, was founded by Janet Lederman in the mid-1970s and is still in existence today.

Activities in the 1960s to 1980s

Esalen has hosted research, education and meetings in Big Sur and elsewhere.

Summer universities

Summer schools were held in London , New York , Los Angeles , San Francisco and at various colleges and universities, including New York University, Stanford University, the University of Michigan , the University of California at Santa Cruz and Berkeley, and at from the University of Massachusetts .

Publishing project

Since the late 1960s, a series of seventeen books have been published in collaboration with Viking Press , closely related to the subjects dealt with in Esalen, such as Maslow's Farther Reaches of Human Nature, Roberto Assagiolis Psychosynthesis, Janet Ledermans Anger and the Rocking Chair and titles by Joe K. Adams , Claudio Naranjo , George I. Brown , Charlotte Selver, and Charles Brooks . Esalen later entered into a publishing agreement with Lindisfarne Press .

Big Sur Festival, art events

In 1965, Joan Baez conducted a workshop entitled “The New Folk Music” as a free event. It was the first of seven “Big Sur Festivals” in which many well-known musicians of the time took part. In 1969 artists appeared who had just come from the Woodstock Festival . It is featured in the 20th Century Fox film " Celebration at Big Sur " .

In Esalen, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan , Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young , Joni Mitchell , Blood, Sweat & Tears , Simon & Garfunkel , James Cotton , John Sebastian , Bruce Springsteen , Judy Collins , Taj Mahal , Creedence Clearwater Revival performed , The Chambers Brothers , Ravi Shankar , Ali Akbar Khan , George Harrison , Ringo Starr , Michael Hedges , Flora Purim , Airto Moreira , Donovan , John Trudell , Jackson Browne , Bonnie Raitt , Charlie Hunter , Michel Petrucciani , Three Fish , Bruce Langhorne , Roy Hargrove , Fred Frith , John Densmore , Paul Winter , Paul Horn , David Darling , Ysaye Maria Barnwell , Jim Messina , Kenny Loggins , Henry Kaiser , Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Babatunde Olatunji .

John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg worked together.

Robert Bly , Allen Ginsberg , Gary Snyder , Michael McClure , Lawrence Ferlinghetti , Kenneth Rexroth, and others have given poetry readings.

Schizophrenia research project

The so-called schizophrenia research project was carried out for three years with 127 young male schizophrenics at the Agnews Developmental Center in San José . It was investigated (in collaboration with the California Authority for Mental Hygiene and the National Institute for Mental Health ( NIMH )) whether the health of certain patients improves permanently if the course of the disease is not interrupted with antipsychotic chemotherapy. The results showed that in many cases patients with a positive “integrating” attitude towards their “illness”, if they were cared for in a supportive hospital setting in which they could freely express their “psychotic” behavior, were more likely to regain emotional equilibrium found as if they had been treated in a conventional manner with psychotropic substances.

Soviet-American exchange program

Esalen's Soviet-American exchange program was introduced in 1979 to provide alternatives to the hostile relations between nations. By promoting direct human relationships, a broader understanding of one another and of human potential in general should be created. At a conference in 1981, Joseph Montville developed the expression "double-track diplomacy": private initiatives between Soviet citizens and Americans should be seen as a supplement to the official diplomatic channels. In 1982, the first satellite radio bridge allowed Soviet and American citizens to speak directly to one another. This resulted in satellite conferences between Soviets and Americans, including the establishment of a permanent conference circuit between the two leaderships. In 1986, a satellite radio bridge between Chernobyl and the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant took place in cooperation with the American scientific association AAAS and the Soviet Academy of Sciences .

1985 founded astronaut Rusty Schweickart , with the support of Esalen, the Association of spacemen  were a platform on the American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts experience from space and share common perspectives for the future of the world - space travel should develop.

In 1989 Esalen arranged talks between Russian President Boris Yeltsin on his first trip to the United States and US President George Bush , former President Ronald Reagan and personalities from business and government. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union , the project was renamed the Russian-American Center in 1994 and recognized as an independent, non-profit organization. It continues to work closely with Esalen.

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today

Today around 500 workshops in the subjects of art, eco- psychology, health, integral thinking , peace research , massage, dance, myths , philosophical investigations, body therapy , spiritual studies , transpersonal psychology , wilderness, yoga and mindfulness take place in Esalen every year . There are also extended student programs and the possibility of longer study stays. The Center for Theory and Research offers conferences and other programs.

According to his own statement, the program in Esalen balances between individual and social issues, whereby more recently social aspects have come to the fore. The facility aims to regain a leadership role in social development in the United States. As part of the preparations for the 50th anniversary of the institute in 2012, the program was launched under the motto focus on healing, reporting of traditions and mantra of “spiritual but not religious” (for example: focus on healing, merging of traditions and the principle of "Spiritual but not religious") summarized.

Former teachers at the Esalen Institute

At the Esalen Institute, the following have taught or worked:

Body therapy, body psychotherapy and psychotherapy
Music, dance, dance therapy
Literature, philosophy, science
Photography, fine arts
  • Ansel Adams (1902–1984), photographer, author and teacher of fine art photography

Scholars residing in Esalen

Participants in programs and workshops at the Esalen Institute for a long time were: Gregory Bateson , Joseph Campbell, Virginia Satir , Alan Watts, Ida Rolf, Gia-Fu Feng , George Leonard, Fritz Perls, John C. Lilly, Will Schutz, Sam Keen, brother David Steindl-Rast , Babatunde Olatunji.

reception

"... a sacred place to which we come to explore an inner life, to respond to a calling, to find a profession."

- Joseph Campbell

literature

  • Anderson, Walter Truett: The Upstart Spring. Esalen and the Human Potential Movement: The First Twenty Years. 1983, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. ISBN 0-201-11034-2 ; 2004, Backinprint.com, ISBN 0-595-30735-3 .
  • Jeffrey Kripal , Glenn W. Shuck (Eds.): On The Edge Of The Future: Esalen And The Evolution Of American Culture. 2005, Indiana University Press, ISBN 0-253-21759-8 .
  • Jeffrey J. Kirpal: Esalen. America and the Religion of No Religion. University of Chicago Press, 2007.
  • Jeff Norman: "Big Sur." Images of America Series. 2004, Arcadia Publishing, ISBN 0-7385-2913-3 .
  • Edward St. Aubyn: On the Edge. London 2008, ISBN 978-0-330-45397-4 (satirical novel about different couples who meet in Esalen).

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anderson, Walter Truett: The Upstart Spring: Esalen and the Human Potential Movement: The First Twenty Years. ISBN 0-595-30735-3 . Pp. 217-219.
  2. ^ A b New York Times: Fabled Spiritual Retreat Debates Its Future. 19th August 2012.