Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion
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Jeffrey Kripal here recounts the spectacular history of Esalen, the institute that has long been a world leader in alternative and experiential education and stands today at the center of the human potential movement. Forged in the literary and mythical leanings of the Beat Generation, inspired in the lecture halls of Stanford by radical scholars of comparative religion, the institute was the remarkable brainchild of Michael Murphy and Richard Price. Set against the heady backdrop of California during the revolutionary 1960s, Esalen recounts in fascinating detail how these two maverick thinkers sought to fuse the spiritual revelations of the East with the scientific revolutions of the West, or to combine the very best elements of Zen Buddhism, Western psychology, and Indian yoga into a decidedly utopian vision that rejected the dogmas of conventional religion. In their religion of no religion, the natural world was just as crucial as the spiritual one, science and faith not only commingled but became staunch allies, and the enlightenment of the body could lead to the full realization of our development as human beings. “An impressive new book. . . . [Kripal] has written the definitive intellectual history of the ideas behind the institute.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Kripal examines Esalen’s extraordinary history and evocatively describes the breech birth of Murphy and Price’s brainchild. His real achievement, though, is effortlessly synthesizing a dizzying array of dissonant phenomena (Cold War espionage, ecstatic religiosity), incongruous pairings (Darwinism, Tantric sex), and otherwise schizy ephemera (psychedelic drugs, spaceflight) into a cogent, satisfyingly complete narrative.”—Atlantic Monthly “Kripal has produced the first all-encompassing history of Esalen: its intellectual, social, personal, literary and spiritual passages. Kripal brings us up-to-date and takes us deep beneath historical surfaces in this definitive, elegantly written book.”—Playboy Publishers Weekly Many readers will probably not have heard of Esalen but that doesn't mean they won't find its history fascinating. Esalen is a legendary sacred place, but legendary among the privileged few like Aldous Huxley, Henry Miller and Joseph Campbell, for whom Esalen was a spiritual playground. Kripal, a professor of religious studies at Rice University, tells the story of this beautiful retreat in California's Big Sur region its history at once sexy, salacious, intellectual and political with reverence and playfulness, alternating between the hushed tones of awe and the glee of partaking in Esalen's infamous sinful delights. The community itself, Kripal explains, is centered around the idea of a "religion of no religion," which provides "a kind of American Mystical Constitution" for its visitors and "a spiritual space where almost any religious form can flourish." Kripal jumps among a wide range of historical moments, from Esalen's alleged relationship to the collapse of the Soviet Union to the idea of the disembodied erotic. Readers shouldn't be scared off by the book's heft. Kripal is an engaging storyteller, Esalen a worthy subject (a kind of Us Weeklyfor the discerning intellectual), and it's as easy to jump from the introduction to chapter 14 as it is to continue in order. (Apr.)Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information
Illustrations ixAcknowledgments, Sins, and Delight xiOpeningsIntroduction: On Wild Facts and Altered Categories 3Geographic, Historical, and Literary Orientations (1882-1962)Slate's Hot Springs: Homestead, Family Spa, Literary Paradise 27The Empowerment of the Founders (1950-1960)The Professor and the Saint: The Early Inspirations of Michael Murphy 47Buddhism, Breakdown, Breakthrough: The Early Inspirations of Richard Price 69The Outlaw Era and the American Counterculture (1960-1970)"Totally on Fire": The Experience of Founding Esalen 85Mind Manifest: Psychedelia at Early Esalen and Beyond 112Mesmer to Maslow: Energy and the Freudian Left 135Perls to Price: Consciousness and the Gestalt Lineage 157Esalen Goes to the City: The San Francisco Center 181On Ecstasy, Education, and the End of Sex: George Leonard and the Human Potential 202The Serpent Spine of Spirit and Sex: Don Hanlon Johnson and the Somatics Movement 222The Occult Imaginal and Cold War Activism (1970-1985)The Cosmic Womb: Stanislav and Christina Grof and the Counsels of Spiritual Emergence 249Golf in the Kingdom: Plato and Ramakrishna for Republicans 270Jacob Atabet and the Tantra of Physics 291Superpowers: Cold War Psychics and Citizen Diplomats 315Sex with the Angels: Nonlocal Mind, UFOs, and An End to Ordinary History 339The Tao of Esalen: The Spiritual Art and Intuitive Business of Managing Emptiness 357Crisis and the Religion of No Religion (1985-1993)The Religion of No Religion: The Donovan Era 383Realizing Darwin's Dream: The Transformation Project and The Future of the Body 404Before and After the Storm (1993-2006)After the Storm: Reassessment, Disaster, and Renewal 429(IN)Conclusion: The Future of the Past and the Mystical Idea of "America" 449Abbreviations 469Notes 471On Rare Things: The Oral, Visual, and Written Sources 521Index 535
