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Esalen Institute

Big Sur, United States of America

Esalen Institute

The Esalen Institute, commonly called Esalen, is a non-profit American retreat center and intentional community in Big Sur, California, that focuses on humanistic alternative education. The institute played a key role in the Human Potential Movement beginning in the 1960s. Its innovative use of enco

unter groups, a focus on the mind-body connection, and their ongoing experimentation in personal awareness introduced many ideas that later became mainstream. Esalen was founded by Michael Murphy and Dick Price in 1962, both former students of Frederic Spiegelberg. Their intention was to support alternative methods for exploring human consciousness, what Aldous Huxley described as "human potentialities". Over the next few years, Esalen became the center of practices and beliefs that made up the New Age movement, from Eastern religions/philosophy, to alternative medicine and mind-body interventions, from transpersonal to Gestalt practice. 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 in areas including Gestalt practice...

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